Mobile app development has revolutionized the way we work and live. Now the very nature of the application is on the verge of a transformation through recent technological advancements.
The emergence of downloadable third-party applications, about a decade ago, opened up new frontiers as we once again set out to explore uncharted territories on behest of emerging technologies. Soon enough, apps began taking over various mundane tasks. Today, we turn to mobile applications for booking a cab to work or ordering food delivered right to your door. Such extensive reach into how we live, and work prompted a race to create the next big application that would change the dynamic of the mobile device.
Mobile app development gradually transformed into a necessity. The present-daymobile app development landscape is comparable to a living organism. It grows, falters, learns, and evolves at every step.
Now, with technology making rapid advances across industries, mobile application development has gained extreme levels of relevance in enterprise implementation. With businesses heavily investing in mobile application development to improve their service offerings and drive revenue growth, enterprise applications are quickly becoming the fulcrum of success.
Additionally, our Darwinian business ecosystem acts as a hotbed of mobile application growth. One of the most prominent exhibitions of this growth can be seen in the cloud computing sector. In a worldwide cloud services forecast, Gartner predicted an 18% CAGR, i.e., a US$ 383.4 billion market by 2020.
These definitely are exciting times when we look at the scope of possibilities that are bound to open up through technological innovations. And mobile application development is at the center of the ripple of execution. So, where do we see mobile app development heading in the near future? Let’s take a look at the domains where mobile app development is set to showcase innovative growth.
Mobile App Development: Where It’s Heading
The Internet of Things (IoT)
When we talk about the internet of things, we visualize a utopia of advanced connectivity among devices and people. In mobile application terms, this essentially translates to your phone being connected to everything from the humble air-conditioner in your home to your work system.
Moreover, the applications of the Internet of Things, by definition, is endless. From smart offices to smart homes, IoT is perfectly positioned to act as a key driver. Since apps are the primary enablers of theinternet of things, mobile application development is bound to come into the picture.
One of the most important factors that mobile application development services will have to keep in mind is the large volumes of data that will need to be processed. Data analytics will thus take aprime position to provide users and end-point devices with relevant information rather that jargonized data inputs. Implementing such a powerful technology can be expected to have asignificant impact on both the commercial and enterprise fields.
Mobile App Security
Leveraging technology like the Internet of Things and big data promise exciting possibilities. However, access to such massive amount of data — which in most cases are sensitive — also paves the way for the entry of threats. The future of mobile app development will, therefore, need to focus on this alongside innovative data sharing methods.
Moreover, in the wake of data breaches such as that of Equifax, cybersecurity regulations have become more stringent. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into effect in May 2018 will also play a critical role in shaping the mobile app security landscape. Mobile app developmentprograms will, in the future, need to maintain compliance with these regulations. Development of mobile app security models will assume the role of a steering wheel for major technology drivers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Henry Ford, on the customization of his T-model, famously quoted, “A customer can have a car painted any color car he wishes, so long as it is black”. That concisely summed up the degrees of personalization options of the customer. It held true until the advent of artificial intelligence.
The present-day customer wants a personalized experience rather than a plainly functional one. This is where AI is beginning to play an important role. By enabling machine learning through AI, mobile apps can provide the user with an improved personalized feed or location-based services.
Implementing powerful AI tools can also give the service provider better insight into customer preferences. However, applying AI to mobile app development is still in its nascent stage and devices also need to be made compatible with AI workloads.
DIY Development Tools
The term “Citizen Developer” has been around for quite some time. The Gartner IT Glossary defines “Citizen Developers” as a user who develops applications by implementing runtime environments approved by the company. To this end, DIY mobile app development tools are fast gaining popularity among citizen developers.
One of the most recent ventures into this area was the introduction of Google’s Flutter. Flutter was designed keeping in mind the native-like features of an app that make it a great user experience. The most prominent advantage of Flutter is that it lets you directly apply your UI design to screen without the need to map to iOS and Android’s native components.
It is often believed that an avid user is as aware of the application landscape as a mobile app developer. Placing the power of mobile app development in the hands of the user is clearly set to open new horizons. Whether the transformation of the mobile app development scenario will be for better or for worse is yet to be seen.
Rapid Application Development Platforms (RADP)
Perhaps one of the most powerful drivers in molding the future of mobile app development stage, Rapid Application Development Platforms are immensely affecting the way we view app development. The rise of Application Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS) has granted businesses the option of skipping the expensive step of setting up on-premise infrastructure to develop apps.
Rapid application platforms cater to a host of application types from business process management to database creation and mapping. These services are also attuned to system/data integration needs that are an absolute necessity for enterprise application.
Additionally, the rapid application methodology followed by these platforms also help cut down mobile app development costs and time. The highly iterative method allows developers to incorporate changes while reducing effort duplication by reusing code components.
New and improved technology is throwing light unto ways that businesses can transform, inside-out. And in these exciting times, businesses will be coerced into getting onto the digital platform because of its innumerable benefits that mobile app development offers.
