Mobile app development trends is one of the most rewarding and in demand of skills in the industry right now. The popularity of mobile apps is attributed to the amazing utility and entertainment they provide to millions of users around the world in the palm of their hand. As the numbers of these online users cross billions, with more than 50 percent of them being mobile-based, there is never a shortage for more interesting and innovative mobile apps.
In order to remain competitive, mobile apps are no longer used for a single purpose, instead they are used for a range of reasons, the most notable being customer engagement, branding, and increasing the overall reach to targeted markets and audiences. It’s important to align mobile app development strategies that reflect the latest trends and happenings in the industry.
Since mobile apps are driven by advancements in technology, it only makes sense to have development foresight for the next few years in mind. Hence, we have highlighted some of the trends gaining momentum in 2021.
What are Mobile Applications and Mobile App Development Services
Mobile application or mobile app or simply app, is a computer program or software application that provides a specific functionality or serves a certain utility to its user. These are meant to be used on mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices, etc.
Mobile app development trends refers to the systematic process of designing, developing, testing and deploying mobile applications into the market or app stores to be precise. Mobile applications are developed for two primary platforms – iOS and Android. Mobile app development trends can be performed in house depending on the resources available with a company or in many cases outsourced to mobile app development companies.
Statistics Surrounding Mobile Application Development
When you consider the global number of smartphone users crossing the 3 billion marks after 2020, the market for mobile app development trends is enormous. If you factor in all the other mobile devices, there is roughly a smart device for every person on the planet. Advanced economies and developing countries gaining greater accessibility to smart mobile devices and affordable mobile internet are fueling the need for newer mobile applications.
The average mobile user spends 90% of their time on mobile apps than they do on browser-based applications or other activities. From a growth aspect, mobile app development trends for both Android and iOS started off with less than a thousand apps on their app stores and now boast well over 2 and 4 million mobile apps on each platform.
Despite having the market share, Google Play stores sees less competition than their App store counter with nearly double the capacity of downloadable apps. According to Statistic, more than a 100,000 apps are launched on the google play store every month as opposed to 30,000 of iOS.
5 Key Mobile Development Trends to Look forward in 2021
- Innovative Mobile User Experience
Majority of the online user population is mobile-based traffic interacting through smartphones and other mobile devices. The effective display of content on the mobile interface is vital for a smooth user experience. Impractical UI/UX design and layouts lead to inconvenience faced by the online user, which result in session drop outs and even uninstalls.
In order to minimize such occurrences, businesses are moving towards innovative and intuitive design styles that not only optimize customer experience but also fulfill other business objectives through great UI/UX designs.
App designers and developers are making use of interactive content layers, cutting edge design patterns, content manipulation techniques, to increase customer engagement and improve design dynamics.
These elements provide a more immersive and 3-D app activity experience. The bar for user interface design is being set higher and higher as advancements are continued to be made.
Also Read: A Handbook To Launch An On-Demand App In The Market
As more businesses shift towards the digital space and provide services through web and mobile applications. The trend to make mobile purchases will continue to rise in the upcoming years as the ever-growing mobile traffic adopts to mobile commerce. With advancements in wallet-based technologies, users no longer need to carry cash, physical debit and credit cards to make purchases.
All of that can be done through wallet features being provided by the likes of Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
According to Gartner there are close to 26 billion connected devices across the world currently in use, which includes smart devices, appliances, medical devices and all other types of devices that can be used under IoT.
These devices are connected to the internet and transmit data with other connected devices or to a cloud-based mobile application. These mobile applications act as a ‘remote control’ to control the smart device as per the need and requirements of the user.
As a technology of the future, both Google and Apple are heavily investing and working on their offerings for IoT, same is the case with Amazon. As the numbers of smart devices across the globe increases and the adoption of it becomes more common in the global middle-class population, IoT based mobile app development trends will be very much a trending topic of 2021.
As technology advances, it has seeped into other industries and health care happens to be one of them. The use of wearables has skyrocketed in healthcare monitoring and as a form of accessory. Because of this, more people have begun to use smart devices over traditional watches.
This has opened up new opportunities for vendors, app developers and other accessory makers to start providing the corresponding services. The smartphone application has become the hub for all these smart devices to connect with and provide new forms of information to individuals that was previously unthinkable.
Opening up a new range of products, services in areas such sports, fitness, fashion, hobbies and healthcare. Hence wearable devices are fueling the next generation of mobile application development trends.
No matter how advanced mobile technology gets, there is one lingering issue that somehow makes it to the spotlight, and that is application security. Malware and Ransomware attacks have quadrupled in the last few years and small and major businesses are at risk with their existing and developing mobile application projects.
In order to stay ahead, continuous efforts are required to improve existing technologies and implement the latest coding practices to reduce vulnerabilities and enable additional safeguards. Developments in security technologies for mobile application development will always be a trending subject for years to come, especially when pursuing in house development and third-party mobile app development services.
