5 Latest Trends in Mobile App Development

We are currently living in the era where artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise along with virtual, augmented reality (VR/AR) and the internet of things (IoT). Even though all kinds of inventions are popping up all over the place, one thing is certain: mobile app development will be in thick of it all. Big name brands such as Starbucks, Walmart, Volvo and many others are already using AR and the global market for AR mobile apps is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2020. With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at what mobile development has in store for us in the future.

1. The IoT is Booming

With deep learning, natural language processing, image recognition and neural network driving decision making, IoT technologies will help automakers, hotels and other companies create more integrated experiences and help them to better interact and understand their clients. Since we need to be able to control the IoT environment, mobile apps will be instrumental since we use smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets to control and integrate the tools at our disposal. IoT apps will begin to gain more and more popularity by the end of this year.

Therefore the market in need of companies who specialize in mobile app development and demand will be even greater for higher-level programming for sensors, web apps as well as apps for B2B and B2C mobile end users.

2. Cloud Apps Will Continue to Grow

Cloud computing has made a huge splash over the past couple of years and is expected to grow to $178 billion in 2018 and it will grow at a 22% compound annual growth rate. According to research by Forrester, more than 50% of all global enterprises will rely on at least one public cloud platform to drive digital transformation. More specifically, big name providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google will have a stranglehold over the cloud app market attracting 76% of the revenue by the end of this year and 80% by 2020.

What is all comes down to limiting the impact on your devices’ internal memory, which is why Dropbox, Google Drive are becoming widely popular. For many users, cloud apps equal saving money, better safety, and much more computing power compared to traditional solutions. Both cloud computing and cloud-based apps are closely connected to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) methodology which we will look at next.

3. BYOD is Easier than Ever

As already mentioned above, cloud computing is on the rise and because of this the security aspect of BYOD is not a big concern anymore. Previously, there was a big concern regarding the security of sensitive corporate data on employee devices, but now the security and safety of these devices is the responsibility of the cloud technology provider or another trustworthy third party. Since every employee should be able to work in a way that is comfortable and used to, BYOD is set for exponential growth in 2018.

4. Mobile Payments

At their CES event earlier this year in Las Vegas, Google unveiled simplifies mobile payments with its Pay service, which is an app that includes Android Pay and Google Wallet under one single roof. On the official Google blog, it states that, thanks to Google Pay, it will easier than ever to use the payment information stored on your Google Account, allowing you to speed through checkout, with peace of mind.

Google is not the only company cashing in on the mobile payments market. A few years ago, the BLIK payment system was introduced in Poland, which is a very convenient method of transferring money online and the introduction of Near Field Communication (NFC), which is a chip embedded inside a smartphone and when presented in front of a card terminal, it will subtract the amount of the purchase from the card tied to the smartphone.

Mobile payments will continue gaining popularity this year and 90% of smartphone users will have made at least one mobile payment by the end of 2020.

5. AI and Machine Learning

The mobile payments and banking sector apps are often supported by AI and machine learning. If we focus on the finance sector, we will see how AI can easily handle routine transactions. Thanks to vast improvements over the past couple of years, AI can be used to develop chatbots or virtual assistants that can be used with banking apps.

For example, if you transfer the same exact amount of money to the exact same bank account each month, the app’s AI can suggest creating a transfer order which you can accept or deny. AI can also follow verbal commands allowing you to transfer money without using the on-screen keyboard. If we transition to non-financial sector apps that support AI, they also try to achieve a more personal user experience. For example, Starbucks released an app called “My Starbucks Barista.” All you have to do is verbally tell the app the type of coffee you want and it places the order for you.

According to research by Gartner, by the end of 2018, the world’s largest 200 companies will rely on apps that take advantage of AI and machine learning. Since users expect a new level of personalization and user-friendliness, which means your mobile app development better keep up or risk fading away into obscurity. So be sure to take into account the latest trends in the app development industry to stay ahead of the competition.