The steady march of mobile app development
As 2014 draws to a close, the technology landscape is changing once again and it’s becoming clear that more and more organisations are moving towards going mobile. These organisations are thinking carefully about how enterprise apps will work within their mobile strategy and how best to implement this. But, as ever in the world of technology, times are moving fast and IT teams are having to think on their feet.
To increase the productivity of their developers, these teams are aiming to build enterprise apps far faster than before and with cost effectiveness in mind. All this whilst ensuring they are built for mobile use and are multi-channel.
Agile development is becoming more and more commonplace as a concept and it is no longer the case that big projects come complete with long delivery times. The time isn’t there to have anymore and businesses are endlessly seeking a very rapid response to change. This is in part due to consumer demand and in part due to needing to work more quickly than their competitors in order to secure a bigger share of the market. Top brands have become more and more open about the rivalry which exists between them, and to a certain extent, this same rivalry exists on every level of the industry. So many organisations are now looking to go mobile that analysts are indicating that approximately 50% of enterprise apps can benefit from going mobile. Compared to the trends of recent years, this figure represents a huge increase.
Even on the consumer side, mobile apps are big business. The development of these has literally exploded over the last few years. 2015 is already looking huge, with more developers, better ideas, better tools and better technology all contributing to the rapid acceleration of growth in the industry. In 2015, more people than ever will own more mobile devices. In 2014, the average number of these devices was six per home. This was up from the average number of 5.7 in 2013. As well as sheer numbers, there is some intriguing technology that is emerging onto the market and is boosting mobile device purchases – and therefore app usage. Things like smartwatches and smart glasses have made an appearance and these kinds of innovative solutions are going to do nothing but promote interest in the mobile app industry.
As this industry continues to evolve, it’s becoming clear that mobile usage is increasing and mobile phones, in particular, are contributing to the demise of desktop and laptop computers. This is a sad fact, but an inescapable one. With each passing year there are more and more features being added to smartphones and tablets, and app capability, in particular, seems to have superseded even the wildest dreams of users. Using apps has just simplified the consumer world. From eating to shopping, from entertaining to learning, apps have become irreplaceable in how we look for our information. Of course, the apps have one big advantage in that they are not limited to time or place. You can just as easily use your device to access useful apps ten miles away as you can from your bed. This kind of limitless technology is revolutionary; hence its rapid growth and expansion.
Targetting groups of users
Developers in the industry have begun targeting their Mobile App Development in line with the ‘groups’ of users that have formed. Much like any other area of consumerism, users have naturally fallen into groups according to their app usage. One group will be fascinated by the gaming ideas, whilst another group may be looking to streamline their grocery shopping, or access online books. The ability of developers to both recognise and predict these clusters of users is a key factor in the success of app development.
Gaming and social apps are now top of the market with the ever-increasing demand for immediate access to social media. For example, it is now common for photographs to be shared around the world just seconds after they have been taken. This leads to the next point – there is a huge demand for content sharing in this industry. From facilitating the sharing of songs, videos and images, to the more sophisticated demands of mobile banking, there is an endless demand for effective, rapid and safe apps to perform these functions. Banks are responding to customers and this means providing their customers with access to their bank accounts on the platforms that they want and this is huge news for mobile app development. From shopping to planning to retail to banking – it really is all about the app these days.
