4th November 2021
I know I say it all the time, but this industry I’m proud to be a part of is continuously evolving; at breakneck speed and constantly dictated by consumer demands and technological advancements.
As someone whose entire business rests on B2B app building, I’m constantly looking at patterns and research around tech trends and emergent technology.
I do this to better serve my clients, ensuring our products take your brand to the next level with the features we can provide through our mobile platforms.
So, what is appearing, what are the numbers saying? The below is just a personal opinion of what I believe will dominate the rest of 2021 (not much longer to go!) and into 2022.
This is what I posted last week:
“The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.” - TechCrunch
These statistics ultimately show the market is there for the taking. So where do I believe it will go in 2022?
1. Continued Development for Wearable Devices
By no means new, wearable technology has been trending upwards for years but, they are yet to reach their full potential. 2021 has seen more mobile apps made with wearables in mind but I believe we are only scratching the surface with wearables and mobile app integration - particularly in the fitness and health sector.
2. Beacon technology
This is right up my street – proximity marketing! Enabling the right message to be delivered contextually and in the moment. It's slick and it's easy to implement.
Beacons track user behaviour, making them a very valuable commodity in terms of data. In a nutshell, beacon technology grants enormous benefits to the end-user (if a little big brother in nature)
According to Statista, the beacon technology market is increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 59.8%. The estimated market value will reach $56.6 billion by 2026. That’s more than ten times higher than the $519.6 million worth from 2016.
3. Artificial intelligence and machine learning
These have been part of mobile app development for years, but like wearable, I believe this is just the beginning.
You may, when you think of AI immediately think of robotic assistance, or virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa come to mind. However, the use cases go far and beyond this for app development.
In 2020 Apple released Core ML 3. This latest version of the iOS machine learning framework was built to help developers embed AI technology into their apps and where Apple lead, the crowds will follow.
Examples of AI features that can be implemented into a mobile app include:
· Image recognition
· Face detection
· Text and image classification
· Speech recognition
Artificial intelligence can make apps smarter, and ultimately improve performance at every level. From the backend development process to the frontend user experience, AI will change the way apps are built forevermore! Article by Henry Dewing of DueTrade: https://www.duetrade.co.uk/
