When an enterprise prepares to create a mobile application, it must look into the future and consider what users will want. This can be difficult. If your organization already has a mobile application in place for business users or for consumers in the open market, it can also be difficult to predict what will change and how customer expectations and technology will evolve.
In this article, we discuss three things you should know about the future of mobile application development. For those beginning the journey, this information will be useful in planning application development, choosing tools and IT partners and making other decisions that will affect the success of the mobile app now and in the future. For those businesses managing a mobile application that has already been launched, these factors will help your business team plan for upgrades, changes and the evolution of the product, in a way that will assure success.
The Technology
When we consider the choices development teams and businesses are making today, it becomes clear that the technology underpinning is crucial to success. The business must choose a framework that allows for easy and swift development, enables developers to re-use code and to work with one code base to address the needs of both operating systems (iOS and Android). Hybrid mobile application development provides a cross-platform environment that incorporates multiple tools with combinations like MEAN Stack and MERN Stack and frameworks like Xamarin, React, Node and Angular that support existing developer skills and will make it easier to design, develop and implement mobile applications that are easy to deploy and easy to upgrade. While hybrid mobile application development may take a bit longer to accommodate testing in both environs etc., the long-term cost of development and upgrades can be as much as 75% lower than native application development. Today, more than 70% of all the mobile applications on the market are designed as hybrid mobile applications.
The Market
Whether your mobile application is designed for business users or for consumers, there is one important thing to consider: ALL users are more tech savvy today and all users leverage mobile apps in their daily life, whether at work or at home. The market has evolved to a point where users expect equal performance and capability across all kinds of devices. Users may have an Android device at home and an iPhone at work or they may choose to have an Android phone and an iPad that they use for travel. Whatever the combination or option choices, users do not want to be constrained by mobile applications that only work in one environment. If they love your game, your fitness app or your entertainment application, they want to use that app on all their devices and see the most recent data, choices and completed tasks on both. If your business users are leveraging an accounting or augmented analytics solution on the road, they want to be able to use that mobile app (no matter the operating system) without restriction. If there is one thing we know it is that the use of mobile devices and the expected flexibility of those devices is not going to decrease. The market is telling us that users will continue to demand more scalability, more features and more flexibility across all operating systems. So, it is important that you consider the cross-platform, hybrid mobile application approach and that you thoroughly test your app against all app stores requirements and ensure that the app is available for download in all application stores.
The Team
Plan for the future with a team that can design, develop, implement, upgrade, maintain and support your mobile application now and later. Develop a strategic plan for the product with a roadmap that articulates your plans for future features and functionality, etc. and review that plan often to add concepts and ideas that reflect the changes in the market, in the culture of the users that leverage the application and in the availability of new technology to support your new ideas and concepts. For many businesses, the internal IT team is not a viable solution to create the mobile app, but they may be able to provide maintenance and support (with the right training and skills). For other businesses, the idea of partnering with an IT consultant is attractive as they can then depend on the consultant to maintain a cutting-edge suite of skills and knowledge about the technology, the market and user experience.
Whether your organization plans to create a new mobile application or undertake a review of an existing product, it is wise to discuss business needs with an expert. Consider a cross-platform mobile application, hybrid mobile app approach to meet mobile app needs now and, in the future, and ensure that your product can be easily upgraded and maintained. For more information about mobile application development, visit our Blog.
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