The mobile apps development industry has seen its sunrise phase and is moved over to a stage wherein opportunities abound on a global basis. Moving over from smartphones and wearable, a new trend is being witnessed, which is the Internet of Things (IoT). Let us examine what makes mobile application development tick and the number of opportunities for change that we will witness in 2015 and beyond.
#1. Rapid Application Development
Today, there is a wide scope for improving the period between the time the idea for a mobile app is created and the time that it is launched. This has become possible due to a lot of rapid app development tools that are now available on the market. This trend has gathered a lot of pace since the demand for mobile apps has increased by leaps and bounds. For example, the number of apps on the Android apps store was roughly 1.2 million in 2014, which was neck to neck in competition with the Apple store, which also is home to 1.2 million apps.
Additionally, customers and users expect the app to launch faster, and this has been taken as a challenge by the apps development industry. Hence, this term called ‘rapid mobile development’ has caught up and is being touted as a frontline mobile app development solution for 2015 and beyond.
#2. Cloud Technology
Cloud technology has rapidly moved in and is expected to play a key role in 2015 in the field of mobile application development. There is a significant upsurge in the use of multiple mobile devices as well as wearable technology. With cloud technology, it will be possible to enable the developers to build advanced devices that can also be accessed on multiple devices. The synergistic combination of the two technologies is significantly changing lives, especially the way business is done presently. This technology has created waves in the world and has caused a significant upsurge in the world IP data traffic.
With the upsurge in mobile computing, it is expected that many executives and business professionals will also utilize this technology to improve their productivity even while commuting due to the always on access of cloud technology.
#3. Mobile eCommerce
Mobile ecommerce is the phenomenon in which the users their mobile gadgets to access the internet and engage in conducting online commercial transactions. Mobile ecommerce is now shifting its focus to engagement rather than focusing just on the market share. Instead of spending millions of dollars in paid distribution so that they could secure market share in the mobile segment, there is a large trend in 2015 in this segment to move towards engagement campaigns with the help of strategies such as deep linking.
#4. Advanced Mobile Games
In simple words, a mobile game is a video game that is played on a smartphone, PDA, digital watch, or a mobile/portable gadget or device. In the history of downloadable games, the first downloadable games were available since 2000; it was not before 2008 that mobile games began to appear on the Apps Stores such as Apple, and significantly changed user behavior.
Although digital game development had its beginnings as an art, it has gradually evolved as a science. A few examples of digital games that have been very successful are Candy Crush as well as Clash of Clans, while a huge percentage of games on various app stores are simply a variation of these games. Most of the popular apps have been imitated and it seems that this imitation will continue at the expense of creativity.
#5. Utilities
At this time another market that has matured as of now is the utilities market that includes antivirus programs, multimedia players, and the like. As you will understand, computer (or alternatively mobile) utilities include a software utility that is usually an addition to the capabilities that are provided by the operating system.
It is not required to always run this utility, and it is always optional since it will be called up at your command. The business model followed by these players has now led to the maturity of this market. The right business model for this group of players is the utilization of ads instead of pushing premium services. Comparatively, it has been discovered, that mobile ads have evolved to be less disruptive to the user experience on the whole.
#6. Consumer and Enterprise Apps
The race between enterprise apps and consumer apps is still on. In 2015, it is expected that consumer apps will earn lesser than enterprise apps. According to reliable statistics, nearly 43% of developers had their crosshairs aimed at enterprise apps, while only 19% were consumer app developers. The hard fact is that not many consumers are willing to shell out real money for mobile apps. This includes digital apps as well. Hence, the scenario will see more enterprise apps being developed and rolled out than consumer apps, where the real dough lies.
#7. Large Screens
The large screen mania is still on. In fact it is kicking up more dust. Larger Screens are getting more and more popular and in 2015, their popularity will get all the more popular. According to recent market research reports, the sales of phones with screens that are taller than 5 inches will boom by 209%. This fact is reflected in the development that even the iphone has increased its screen size.
The larger screens phenomenon will change the way people interact with the gadgets themselves. Browsing on smaller screens will soon become passé and there will evolve a more universal mobile development rend that is similar for the Smartphone as well as tablet.
#8. IoT
2015 will see an even stronger move to the Internet of Things. Accordingly, the IoT is all about devices, gadgets and other ‘things’ being connected and controlled over the Internet. Today, around 4.9 billion devices make up the IoT and this number is expected to rise to around 25 billion by around 2020. Companies such as IBM see the IoT as a great opportunity and are investing significant amounts of money into a new division that will focus on developing IoT related products.
Images: “Smart phone with social media related icons glowing over screen/Shutterstock.com“
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