MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT: TOP 7 PREDICTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT TRENDS FOR 2020
Today, for the first time ever, consumers are spending more than accessing the internet using their smartphone rather than desktop. And, as a result, mobile is increasingly becoming the channel where customers interact with companies, replacing the traditional channels of website or physical store.
If your organization still hasn’t considered custom mobile application development to interact and communicate with customers, now would be the time to do so.
Over the years, the mobile industry has evolved and advanced steadily with new trends and technologies come and go. Thus, when it comes to mobile application development, it’s important that businesses keep up-to-date with the new trends to stay relevant and competitive in the market, ensuring to leverage the new technology to gain an advantage and stay ahead as the industry leader.
In this article, we examine the top 10 trends in mobile app development that are expected to become the dominant force in 2020 and the years ahead.
#1 AI and ML
In 2019, it seems impossible to not hear about Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning technologies in the news, with new advanced use cases being introduced every day. AI and ML technologies allow mobile app developers to optimize their development process, ultimately enhance app user experience.
In terms of business, AI and Machine Learning solutions enable companies to process and analyze the vast amount of data, identifying hidden patterns in regards to consumers’ behavior, which in turn helps them to deliver a highly personalized experience to end-users, directly through the mobile app.
Today, AI-powered virtual assistants such as Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google Assistant are very much integrated into the mobile app ecosystem, letting users to carry out various trivial tasks through voice recognition – all thanks to AI and Machine Learning technology. And in 2020, we expect the applications of AI & Ml technologies in mobile to progress further - with better, more functionalities virtual assistants being introduced.
Additionally, in 2019, wearables and smart devices are also gaining adoption in the market, especially in the healthcare and fitness industry. This trend is projected to grow stronger in 2020 and the coming years, which in turn making app development for wearables devices a notable trend to emerge and mature in the coming years.
Read more: Machine Learning in Mobile app development
#2 Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) has evolved beyond the purpose of game and entertainment. Though still not reaching the maturity stage, these technologies have already been adopted by many businesses in a wide range of industries such as healthcare, logistics and supply chain, retail, manufacturing, and others. With AR, how a consumer vision an item will turn out in real-life can be augmented digitally via a mobile app.
AR apps are especially gaining traction and recognition by the fashion, real estate, and lifestyle companies; among the successful AR mobile apps are IKEA Place (how furniture fits “virtually” in your room), Google Lens, and Snapchat. This demonstrates the incredible potential of AR and how creatively and realistically Augmented Reality can be incorporated into mobile app development.
With the growing demand for AR apps development, mobile developers who are looking to jumping on the bad-wagon, building their very first AR apps can begin by getting their hands on Apple’s ARKit (for iOS) and Google’s ARCore. The two tech giants have been continuously striving to make it easier and introducing new features for AR app development. In 2020, we can expect AR will progress to the next level with new and incredible applications being unveiled.
#3 M-Commerce
According to a recent report by marketsearchengine.com, the global mobile apps market is projected to reach a CAGR of about 18%, throughout the period from 2019 to 2023. One key driver that significantly contributes to the growth rate of the mobile app market is the rising of e-commerce business.
In recent years, the m-commerce has seen considerable growth as a result of the increasing smartphone usage. Here, mobile applications provide the flexibility allowing users to browse and directly shop for products with just a few finger taps, in the comfort of their hand.
In 2020, we anticipate seeing more retailers and e-commerce companies adopt a mobile-based approach to expand their market and ultimately increasing sales. The potential for the growth of m-commerce app development is also rising as retailers will keep coming up with modern UI/UX for mobile, in order to showcase a large catalog of items in a beautiful design through mobile apps.
Furthermore, compounding with the advancement of AI/ML technologies enable companies to provide highly personalized, relevant marketing and promotion materials (for example, suggested items and discount) to consumers at the right time, along with secure integrated payment methods, m-commerce app development is projected to thrive and expand dramatically in the coming years. And, finally, geo-fencing technology makes it even easier for companies to provide personalization custom-tailored to consumers in real-time at the right place.
#4 Mobile e-payment app
With mobile payment, nowadays, consumers can easily carry out shopping transactions without having to take out their credit/debit card. In 2018, according to a report by Emarketer, the Starbucks app is actually the most popular mobile payment app in the US.
This shows a prime example of how a brick and mortar store can actually leverage mobile technologies to engage with their customers, also digitize their payment system that entice and attracts more customers through reward marketing.
And in 2019, Apple Pay has surpassed Starbucks to become the top mobile payment method for the first time, followed by Starbucks, and Google Pay. Many businesses are transitioning to adopt Apple pay and another mobile payment gateway as an official method of payment.
It’s hard to predict if the mobile payment app can replace the physical credit/debit card, but undoubtedly, the mobile payment app is gaining traction and gradually taking over. Business who sells products and services directly through their mobile app needs to seriously consider integrating mobile payment method into their app to stay relevant in the market.
Having said that, many businesses in particular industries such as retail, food and beverage, traveling and hospitality have successfully implemented mobile payment into their check-out system, providing their users with a better and more convenient payment experience. Besides, a good reward program through a mobile payment app will also help keep them coming back for more.
Yet, one critical thing when adopting mobile payment in compliance with all the security standards required to securely execute those mobile transactions.
#5 Blockchain
Together with AI and ML, Blockchain is an emerging technology and it is still somewhat in the infancy stage. However, beyond crypto-currency, blockchain has already evolved with many practical use cases being introduced and developed by companies in various industries, in particular finance, and supply chain, and logistics.
Read more about: Blockchain in digital transformation.
#6 Predictive analytics
Thanks to modern UI/UX development trends and cloud computing capacities, mobile applications can now accommodate a large amount of data to render dashboard and business reports. It’s no longer just desktop and web applications, a vast amount of data can now be leveraged, processed, and retrieved through mobile apps with visualizations and dashboard, allowing companies to optimize and enhance business process, as well as identifying business opportunities and risks (e.g. predicting churn rates), forecasting market conditions, and many other interactive functionalities including answering non-existent or improper questions.
With the vast amount of business data being generated every day, businesses will definitely looking for way to make sense out of those data via the various channels including mobile, not just in 2020 but also for the years ahead. The goal to support for better and informed decision making will lead the mobile industry to continuously look for innovative ways to leverage and make sense out of their data, and directly through the mobile device.
#7 Security
Among all the mobile app development trends that come and go every year, mobile app security very much will always remain relevant since hacking activities and malicious attacks simply will not go away anytime soon. With the increasing dependency on smartphone usage for daily activities, including shopping and banking activities, mobile apps are becoming prime targets for hackers to attack stealing data, including sensitive data such as personal and payment information.
Most of the time, users are unaware of app security vulnerabilities until it’s too late, where things already happen. App vulnerabilities could be due to many reasons, including negligence (human factors), weak passwords, insufficient authentication, lack of SSL/TLS implementation, inadequate security measures, improper coding methodology, and others.
In the year 2020, we expect more sophisticated methods of attack aiming at mobile applications that are harder to detect. To proactively prevent attacks before it happens, mobile app developers and users will both have to pay serious attention and apply necessary security measures and authentication methods to protect themselves from cyber threats.
Conclusion
Today, thanks to the advent of many advanced technologies, along with the growing presence of mobile devices in people’s lives, the mobile industry is expected to evolve with new trends being introduced in order to meet market demands and continue innovation. To develop a mobile app that stands out among the crowded app market place, it is not only necessary that businesses keep up-to-date with the latest mobile app development trends, but they also need to make sure to get their app developed by mobile experts who are highly-skilled and experienced in those technologies of the new trends.
Contact TP&P Technology today to talk to one of our dedicated specialists about your mobile requirements.
