Mobile app development trends 2021
The mobile app development industry is continuously evolving. Technology advancements, consumer demands, and a wide range of other factors have a direct impact on mobile app trends.
Staying up to date with the latest trends is arguably the most crucial aspect of success in this space. Mobile app resellers need to keep up with new trends to better serve their clients. The same goes for content creators and producers ready to take their brands to the next level with mobile development.
These trends will invite more users to jump on the bandwagon. Thereby businesses strengthen their user base.
1. Internet of Things (IoT) App Integration
The IoT describes the growing network of devices connected to the Internet, providing convenience and automated control to consumers. Smart home technology is a perfect example of the rise in IoT and mobile app development.
Mobile apps can be used to adjust the thermostat in a house from a remote location, lock or unlock a front door, and connect to home security systems. Refrigerators and other household appliances can also be connected to mobile apps.
It is also having significance in many different domains such as smart home security systems, autonomous farming equipment, wearable health monitors, smart factory equipment, wireless inventory trackers, biometric Cybersecurity scanners, etc.
The global Internet of Things market is expected to reach $222 billion in 2021. $161 billion of that estimate will come from software, like mobile apps.
Future Trends of Internet of Things (IoT):
- Smart Homes & Cities
- Smart & Self-Driving Cars and other vehicles
- AI-powered IoT Devices
- IoT in healthcare
2. 5G Mobile Internet Network
Do you know that by 2021 the number of 5G smartphones would be more than double to 600 million? And in 2022, nearly half of the mobile phones will have 5G. In the latest release of the iPhone 12 by Apple, the company made provisions for the 5G network adoption.
5G is the next-generation technology for mobile connections. It’s not currently available worldwide, but in a couple of years it will completely replace 4G and become a common way for mobile devices to access the internet.
The successor of 4G i.e. 5G can be 100-times faster than it. This high speed can bring revolutionary changes to the apps associated with video streaming especially in 4K video streaming, easy to handle VR & AR 3D objects, and better connectivity of IoT devices & services.
The main benefits of fifth-generation networks are:
- Significantly higher speeds of up to 3 Gbps — some estimates even predict that 5G bandwidth may reach 20 Gbps
- Extremely low latency at around just 1 millisecond
- The ability to connect lots of devices simultaneously, which will be especially useful for IoT systems.
All these features will result in these benefits:
- Ability to stream 4K content
- Support for higher resolution images and videos
- Ability to bring all networks onto one platform
- More effective use of smart sensors and IoT devices, especially in complex industrial systems
Impact of 5G in Future:
- Wireless healthcare services
- Cloud Computing
- Driverless vehicle technology
- Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality
- Video streaming
- Mobile games
- Internet of Things
3. Apps For Foldable Devices
Over the last couple of years, foldable devices have begun making a comeback. 2019 saw the release of foldable devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X, and the new Motorola Razr.
According to a recent survey, foldable smartphones are going to take away almost 5% of the share for the esteemed mobile smartphone organizations by the end of 2023. In addition to this, it is high time to get tech-savvy with the development of mobile applications for foldable screens that further offers a user-friendly experience.
These smartphones fold to compress or expand the screen size based on user preferences. For example, a user might make a call with the device closed, but watch a video on a larger screen by unfolding the device.
From an app development perspective, resellers and content creators need to account for these devices when building or updating an app. The idea is that an app should seamlessly adjust its display as the screen folds or unfolds.
4. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
According to Gartner's 2019 CIO Agenda survey, the percentage of organizations adopting AI jumped from four to 14% between 2018 and 2019. Given the benefits that AI/ML offers in business analysis, risk assessment, R&D, and resulting cost-savings, AI implementation will continue to rise in 2020 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning has already started taking place in mobile applications and devices. A few of these examples that we may have observed are Voice Search, Face Unlock, Chatbots, etc. The AI-powered photo filtering apps like Face App, Prisma, etc. have taken the usage of AI to the next level.
In 2021, AI will have more impact on our lives. Apart from the existing technology, AI trends like AI-based cameras, voice translations, user predictions, will find a new place in smartphones.
Future of AI:
- Static Image Recognition, Classification, & Tagging
- Algorithmic Trading Strategy performance improvement
- Efficient, scalable processing of patient data
- Predictive Maintenance
- Object Identification, Detection, Classification, Tracking
- Automated geophysical feature detection
- Content distribution on social media
- Combining artificial intelligence with machine learning will be highly useful in developing mobile apps. Whether it is android app development or iOS mobile app development, it can learn the development process from previous data, detect problems, and fix them in real-time.
5. Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Augmented reality technology has seen unprecedented growth in 2020. Commercial use of the technology has exploded due to use by market leaders like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. By the end of 2020, AR active devices were estimated to rise to 598 million units and are projected to grow to 1.73 billion by 2024.
AR & VR technology is used to impact mobile apps related to camera, video, and gaming as well. But now if we see Apple’s ARkit and Google’s ARcore, then it gives us the hint of mixed reality revolution. In 2021, we can see AR & VR coming up with features like motion tracking, people occlusion, etc. Many AR-based app ideas will also turn into fully functional mobile apps. Industries such as healthcare, tourism, education, e-commerce, etc. will get a lot of benefits from this.
Mixed reality smart glasses such as Hololens, Oculus Go, Magic Leap, etc. will be able to provide a better visual experience.
Future Trends of AR & VR:
- AR-based virtual user manual
- Virtual training simulations
- Exploration activities (VR-based)
- Live music festivals & concert (VR based)
- Destination navigator (AR-based)
- Visual Learning (VR & AR-based)
6. Enterprise Mobile Apps
Mobile apps become an integral part of the modern enterprise infrastructure leveraging all the benefits the mobile technology has to offer to optimize and control the business operations.
Enterprise Mobile apps are those mobile applications that are developed or brought by particular organizations for their employees to carry out activities & functions for running the organization. Developing enterprise mobile apps is becoming a huge trend worldwide. As per a few stats, the companies make more profits when the employees can access the enterprise mobile apps.
Enterprise mobile apps improve internal communication within the companies, improves employee satisfaction, as well as productivity. In 2021, we may observe a huge number of companies demanding for developing an enterprise mobile app for their organization.
7. Beacon Technology
Beacon technology has come a long way since its debut by Apple in 2013 and is expected to keep on growing. This year, Global Market Insights predicted that the beacon technology market is set to surpass $25 billion by 2024. It’s safe to say the technology has a lot of potential and is expected to contribute to the marketing landscape in the coming years.
Beacon technology has been embraced by a wide range of industries. From retail to healthcare and hospitality, beacons can add advanced functionality to nearly any mobile app.
The first mobile app beacons were developed back in 2013. But over the last few years, significant advancements have been made to this technology.
Beacons can also help track buyer behavior in stores. They can detect if a user is spending a significant amount of time in a particular aisle. The app can automatically trigger a push notification to entice a sale at a later date related to those products.
The main benefit of beacon technology is proximity marketing. It ultimately improves the customer experience within a mobile app.
Future Trends of Beacon Technology:
- Presence in Healthcare Industry
- Travels & Tourism
- Powered Mobile Payment
- Physical Games such as clue games, treasure hunt, etc.
8. Blockchain Technology
This technology records the information in such a way that it makes it highly difficult or impossible to change or hack that system. We have seen its offering in the form of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts.
If Bitcoin gave us the taste of Cryptocurrency, Ethereum showed us the true potential of Blockchain. Decentralized apps are another example of Blockchain. Dapps don’t require a mediator for managing their information. It can connect the users & providers directly. Thus, nobody else can penetrate the data.
Today, Dapps exist in many different industries such as healthcare, finance, trading, etc. In 2021, Dapps will explore other industries as well i.e. the blockchain technology revolution is right around the corner.
Future Trend of Blockchain Technology:
- In Anti-Piracy
- Securing public elections
- Transparent betting
- Robotics
- Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)
9. Geolocation Based Apps
Geolocation mobile app development is an already prominent trend and will continue to rise in the upcoming years. Geolocation lets the mobile apps deliver a highly personalized experience to the users.
By collecting the geolocation of the users, the apps can provide location-based services, better marketing campaigns, etc. It also helps in analyzing the usage patterns and get an insight into the user behavior & location.
Future Trends of Geolocation Based Apps:
- Better Suggestions
- Personalized Recommendations
- AR in geography or astronomy
10. Mobile Wallets
E-wallets have been on the rise even before the pandemic. By 2019, mobile wallets increased their customer base with an average of 140 million of new users globally, with researchers estimating that the digital payment method will account for 28% of all point of sale transactions by 2022.
As the economies of different countries are turning digital, users don’t prefer to pay in cash or type the account or card details frequently. They prefer to make the payment through the in-built mobile wallet for rapid transactions.
By integrating popular payment gateways with mobile wallets, the payment process becomes rapid and smoother.
Mobile wallets such as Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Boost, Touch&go, GrabWallet etc. have gained immense popularity. The industry hasn’t get saturated now so there is more potential in the future.
Future Trends for Mobile Wallets:
- Audio-based mobile wallets
- Near-field communication (NFC) based payments
- Radio-frequency identification payments
Conclusion
The chances for greater success is huge for mobile app based businesses, with 5G technology, we can see a huge audience turning to mobile apps in 2021 along with others trends that I outlined above.
Reference
https://www.businessofapps.com/insights/14-mobile-app-development-trends-to-focus-in-2021/
https://buildfire.com/mobile-app-development-trends/
https://www.businessofapps.com/insights/how-5g-will-affect-the-mobile-app-industry-in-2020-2021/
https://www.simplilearn.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-and-machine-learning-trends-article
https://mobidev.biz/blog/augmented-reality-future-trends-2018-2020
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