For everyone, a smartphone is a gadget that is more of a necessity than a convenience. This is especially true considering the fact that there are approximately 1 billion smartphone users across the world, with over 179 billion apps being downloaded every year. These range from simple gaming apps to those which help you choose a restaurant nearby, chat with friends, surf the internet and much more.
Now that every individual carries a smartphone, the regular apps that are being developed currently are soon going to reach a saturation point. Let us see where the next generation of mobile apps is going to go.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
According to Gartner, there will be 26 billion connected devices by the end of 2020. This includes several smart objects like controllable sockets, medical devices, LED bulbs, domestic appliances, toys etc. These IoT enabled objects will be a part of the Internet of Things and will communicate with us using an app on our smartphone or tablet.
The next wave of smartphone apps will be IoT enabled. As this technology improves and more and more companies adopt it, smartphone apps built around IoT will also increase exponentially. There will come a time when your smartphone will turn into a remote for almost any device at home.
Currently, we already have smartphone controlled lights, air conditioning systems, power outlets and various other electronics.
Cloud Technologies
Cloud computing is growing exponentially in the IT industry. The ease of use, automatic updates, growing storage requirements, and the need for boundless access ensures that Cloud Computing is one of the most sought after technologies in the IT field. Such is the demand for cloud computing that, it is estimated that its use will grow 6 times the rate for IT funding from 2015 till 2020.
Cloud based mobile apps aren’t that expensive for businesses. They are coded using standard languages like JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3 with server side languages like C++ or web application frameworks like PHP, Python and Rails.
Additionally these applications are operated using a cloud server which means that they can depend on the browser engine of any device. With the help of framework specific APIs, cloud mobile apps can be used with the mobile devices features like the location, camera, accelerometer and others.
Wearable Devices
Wearable devices have become one of the biggest technology disruptors in recent times. In 2017, there was a 10.7% increase in the number of shipments of wearable devices with 115.4 million devices shipped in total worldwide as against 104.6 million devices shipped in 2016. A wearable device opens up new frontiers for vendors, developers and accessory makers to develop apps. Apps made with wearable devices include on-body healthcare sensors, display devices, smart watches and much more. Many a times, these devices are an add on feature to the mobile phone. It is only a matter of time before such devices become as widespread as mobile phones have become.
With these developments, there is no doubt that Mobile Apps Development is going to be an exciting preposition for the future. The demand for IoT enabled devices, cloud computing apps and wearable devices is going to explode and mobile app developers will always have their hands full servicing all these demands.