The Future of Mobile App Development: IoT and Chatbots

Technology is constantly changing and so are the ways we interact with it. As you’ll soon see, so are the ways technology interacts with itself. For instance, when we made the move from desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets, we gained a brand new way of interacting with it: through mobile apps that can do this, that, and pretty much anything you can think of. That was then. We’ve advanced A LOT since the first mobile app made its way into a mobile device; so much, in fact, that we are now seeing the emergence of new technologies that are impacting the future of mobile app development in a big way: IoT technology and chatbot technology.

The Future of Mobile App Development: IoT Technology

Let’s start with IoT, which is short for the Internet of Things. For those who are unfamiliar with it, IoT is basically a network of interconnected devices with humans thrown into the mix. It’s machine-to-machine communication in which devices connect with each other and the internet, which opens an avenue for A LOT. For example, pretty much every smart home device you can think of is possible because of IoT, and pretty much all of them can connect to a mobile device thanks to the internet.

In other words, whenever you turn on the air conditioner through an app, you’re using IoT. Whenever you ask Siri to turn the lights on or off, you’re using IoT. Whenever you’re checking up on your home security system while you’re on-the-go, you’re using IoT. In this way, every device in an IoT ecosystem is interconnected with each other through your mobile device and IoT integrated apps, allowing you to use it as a main interface to control all IoT apps.

Delving deeper into mobile apps for IoT, smart homes contain intelligent systems in areas like lighting, heating, air conditioning, security, cooking and even cleaning, and all can be programmed to receive instructions on how to behave from a smartphone or tablet. When you consider that the global smart home market is forecast to grow to $53.45 billion in size by 2022, up from $31.4 billion last year, you can see how popular these devices and apps are.

When it comes to IoT app development in the future, don’t be surprised to see brands make use of it even more so to improve their services and what they can offer their users. For example, imagine going shopping without actually “paying” for things, but rather simply putting things in a basket that’s connected to your phone, which automatically knows when products are taken or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in your virtual cart. Actually, that’s already a possibility thanks to Amazon Go! Now imagine all the possibilities of what the future can hold.

The Future of Mobile App Development: Chatbot Technology

Another big change to mobile app development we’ve been seeing recently and will continue to see more of it in the future is the use of chatbots to interact with users in real-time. Unlike human representatives, chatbots can connect with countless users at once and help them all out with a good attitude. This is because chatbots are essentially computer programs that can be programmed to talk and act like a real person, and can be used as one as well. For example, if you’ve ever landed on a site and were instantly greeted by  pop-up in the bottom inquiring if you would like some help, that right there is a chatbot.

Though they are used in many websites, chatbots are more widely used in mobile apps, especially messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and Kik Messenger, or brand-owned apps like eBay and Pizza Hut. Used in this way, they can be a great helper to eCommerce businesses, who need only deploy a chatbot and let it do all the work while users interact with it and convert. Even better, they can be further modified and optimized by leveraging chat histories and relevant analytics to see what’s working and what’s not, which can lead to even more conversions.

As you may be able to tell by browsing your favorite app store or doing a quick Google search, bots are already used in practically every industry for many purposes. As we move forward, don’t be surprised to see even more businesses developing a chatbot app to uphold their strategies and reach their goals.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to the future of mobile apps, it can be safely said that IoT and chatbots both will be a big part of it. On the former, IoT allows us to connect more aspects of our lives together to create a seamless way of life that champions the very best of what life has to offer in terms of the smart home. On the latter, chatbots are quickly claiming a spot in our hearts as they help us out right when we need it most. If you’ve been thinking of venturing into mobile app development, suffice to say that both of these areas are ones you should be looking into.

Smartphone Technology Trends to Look for in 2019

        Source: omaghenterprise.co.uk

With the proliferation of mobile devices around the world, namely smartphones that come with digital assistants like Siri and Alexa that streamline our lives and make practically everything easier, it’s hard to imagine how mobile technology can improve even further than it has already. Well, whether we can believe it or not, it’s happening. And no, I’m not referring to displays that are getting smaller or larger, or headphone jacks that are disappearing in favor of wireless audio; I’m talking about actual smartphone technological innovations we’ll soon see, i.e. upcoming smartphone technology in 2019.

Before we begin, keep in mind that many of the tech trends we’re going to cover today are based in speculation and scattered reports with enough validity that they’re likely true. With that in mind, many big brands have already confirmed upcoming smartphones in 2019 and other tech upgrades they’re trying out. Let’s get started!

Smartphone Technology in 2019

As we place 2018 firmly behind us and move into 2019, it’s time to talk about a very hot topic many tech-enthusiasts cover every year: upcoming smartphone technology trends and their potential impact. So, will we finally see foldable phones that are truly foldable? What about 5G phones that run faster and have better coverage than anything we have today? Keep on reading to find out.

Multi-Camera Phones

While we saw an influx of dual-camera phones in 2018—phones with dual lense setups in which one took the pictures and the other captured the depth of field—to allow for camera features like portrait mode, 2019 seems prime for an expansion and the inclusion of camera options like wide-angle, telephoto, depth sensing and monochrome.

In fact, almost 42% of smartphones sold globally in July 2018 sported two or more rear camera sensors (27% increase in market penetration), a charge that was led by brands like OnePlus, Huawei and Apple. As for 2019 and beyond, we already have the Huawei P20 Pro, the world’s first triple lense camera, a patent by LG hinting at a smartphone with 16 lenses, and we even have a leaked photo of a Nokia smartphone with five rear camera lenses.

Source: androidauthority.com

5G-Enabled Phones

With Qualcomm introducing the Snapdragon 855 processor late last year, which will power most Android smartphones and allow them and others to connect to 5G networks that enable faster speeds and better coverage, it’s clear that 5G is soon to be mainstream. Keep in mind that it’ll take a while for this to happen—probably 2019 and 2020—so for now we’ll cover what’s expected in 2019:

● Apple: Nope, Apple doesn’t seem too keen on putting forth a 5G smartphone.

● Samsung: Samsung announced last year that they were working with South Korean telecommunication companies to release its first 5G phone, which will likely be part of the Galaxy S10 family.

● Google: Nope, Google doesn’t seem too keen on putting forth a 5G smartphone, BUT Verizon, who it’s been using as it’s exclusive carrier partner for Pixel phones, said it’s planning to roll out its 5G network this year.

● LG: In August of last year, LG confirmed that its first 5G phone will debut on Sprint in the first half of 2019, just as Sprint launches its 5G network.

● Huawei: We already know that Huawei’s first 5G smartphone is coming this year, likely before the end of June 2019, but it’s unlikely that it will be available in the US.

Foldable Phones

Will 2019 finally be the year of the foldable phone that’s not a flip phone, but an actual foldable phone? That’s what we’re here to find out. Starting with the concept of the foldable phone, this would entail a phone that can be opened up and folded at will, which would need dual displays with dual batteries. With that in mind, we already have some contenders who appear to be throwing their hats in the ring. For example, Samsung revealed the Galaxy X (or will it be Galaxy F?) with an “Infinity Flex Display at a developer conference, Motorola is apparently working on revamping the Razr as a foldable phone and was awarded a patent on a folding smartphone design that featured a heated central hinge that would “heal” imperfections in the OLED screen caused by bending, and LG appears to be debating whether to go the foldable route or take a detour and venture into optional second screens.

                                                                                             Source: digitaltrends.com

Final Thoughts

Out of all of the technological innovations we have, it’s sometimes hard to stay up-to-date with everything that’s coming out. That’s why today, we focused on something that most of us can relate to: mobile technology. Here’s what we covered:

● Multi-camera phones that allow for much more options when you want to snap a picture

● 5G-enabled phones that work much faster than any phone today, even in low-coverage areas

● Foldable phones that truly fold and unfold without screen imperfections

Enjoy what’s to come!

How Smartphones are Revolutionizing Business Growth

100 years down the line, if you were to ask historian what the biggest advancements of the early 21st century were, chances are very good that the smartphone will make the cut.

With almost 4 billion unique worldwide users, uses that number the thousands, if not millions, and the fact that over half of all internet traffic today comes from the mobile web, it’s clear that smartphones are taking over the role of “man’s best friend.”

There’s just no escaping it…businesses included.

But for them, unlike seeing smartphones as friends, they see them as opportunities for growth.

How to Use Smartphones for Business Growth

Apart from the general usefulness that smartphones bring to business in terms of mobility and 24/7 connectivity, the smartphone’s impact on business—the biggest impact—can be seen when you consider what makes them different than their normal counterparts: the “smart” that precedes it.

With that moniker comes the ability to use a multitude of applications, which come in various shapes and sizes that vary by use.

For example, you can have an app that allows you to dabble in the stock market, and another that lets you play Scrabble with people around the world.

More on the business side, smartphone business apps usually fall into two categories:

● Internal applications that benefit a company by streamlining tasks and creating more efficient work environments
● External applications that benefit a company’s customers, thereby benefiting the company itself through branding and loyalty perks, data gathering and, if an eCommerce, extra sales

After all, with increased productivity from internal apps comes business growth, and as we all know, a happy customer is a loyal customer (also key for growth), which external apps are excellent at fostering.

Internal Smartphone Business Apps

Starting with internal smartphone business apps to showcase how to use a smartphone for business, the key here is focusing on increasing productivity.

The good thing is that because applications can be programmed to do pretty much anything—helping employees throughout their day included—they can be used as tools to fix anything that’s lagging or needs improvement.

In this way, business growth comes internally, as employees are able to work harder and smarter, resulting in overall better company productivity and a better return on the business’ investment.

For example, you can create the following types of applications among many to improve your business’ processes:

● Customer Relationship Management (CRM) apps that help you manage customer relations
● Lead generation apps that help you identify potential customers
● Inventory management apps that help you keep track of everything

As to where or who to go to for inspiration, because these apps will be the tools your employees use as they go about their workdays to streamline tasks, improve efficiency and help the company run more smoothly, they’re the ones to turn to.

External Smartphone Business Apps

Unlike internal applications, the idea with external, client-facing apps is to present your company to your audience in mobile form to maximize interactions with them and make the most of them.
After all, considering that 71% of total digital minutes are spent on mobile devices, it makes sense that you’ll use mobile, their apparent preferred mode of communication, to connect.

In doing so, you’ll be turning your app into a marketing channel that works at all times of the day, and may even bring its own revenue if you can sell products and/or services through it.

However you choose to make use of external apps, some of their benefits are that they:
● Improve communication between you and your audience
● Provide information to your audience at all times of the day (even better if a chatbot is used)
● Present your offerings in a visual and convenient way
● Ensure loyalty through rewards and promotions
● Gather customer data and insights through usage statistics

More on the last point, one of the biggest benefits of client-facing apps is that they’re a literal goldmine of user data, including their browsing and purchasing habits, which is a great help when creating and tailoring marketing strategies.

The Current Smartphone Landscape

When it comes to growth through smartphones, though internal applications will give you much-needed help running things within the business, external apps are where true growth will come from.
For example, think of the 125 Million U.S. consumers who own smartphones and that, as of December 2017, 82% of online users in the U.S. used a mobile device for online shopping, with 35% being mobile-only online shoppers.

Apart from eCommerce, think of one of the main uses for apps: entertainment.

As it happens to be, the mobile entertainment market—comprised of games, videos, and music—is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 15% during the period between 2018 and 2023, with games generating $40.6 billion in revenue in 2017.

With these stats, it’s clear that pairing an app with an eCommerce business is not only the logical thing to do, but what will open doors for more sales to come through, and that putting out an entertainment app that gives your users new ways of discovering and viewing your content is exactly what they want.

Final Thoughts

With the ability to do practically anything through an app, smartphones are absolutely wonderful for businesses and consumers alike.

For example, while consumers gain a new channel to browse and buy products, or learn more about a company, businesses also gain a new channel, this time to sell to and connect with their audience, and the ability to create apps that streamline various processes.

Putting it all together, smartphones are definitely a “win’ for business.

What to Expect for the Future of Smartphone Technology

Over three-quarter of U.S. adults (77%) say they own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, making the smartphone one of the most quickly adopted consumer technologies in recent history. Expanding borders, there were 1.57 billion worldwide smartphone users in 2014, a number that’s expected to nearly double (2.87B) by 2020.

In other words, a lot of people use smartphones.
Why? What about smartphones is so special that practically everyone either has one or wants to get one?

For starters, look at the name. Being smartphones means that their capabilities extend past that of normal mobile phones, as they have what we now consider essential functions, such as:
● Internet connectivity, whether through WiFi or mobile data
● High-quality cameras
● Biometric authentication
● And countless applications with functions that range games to increasing productivity

After all, likened to small computers that fit in your pocket, it’s clear that advancements in smartphone technology have taken them very far from their beginnings as solely two-way communication devices.

If we’ve come this far, what’s to come? What are some future smartphone features that we can expect in the years to come?

From alternate realities that can combine the real and the imaginary, to holograms that allow for real-life interactions with the virtual, here are three things to expect from future smartphones.

1. Blockchain

For those who have either heard of blockchain, but don’t really know what it is, or have never even heard of it, blockchain is essentially a type of ledger—a very secure ledger—that’s composed of cryptographically linked records.

Each record, called a block, is time-stamped and linked to the previous block to create a decentralized database of records, which functions as a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that’s extremely secure because, once a transaction takes place, the block created is unchangeable.

With that in mind, while blockchain is often reserved for finance discussions around cryptocurrency like bitcoin, its capabilities can actually extend to smartphones. After all, having a phone that runs on blockchain means that breaches or hacking are negligible.

For example, the upcoming Finney Blockchain Phone, announced last year by Sirin Labs, is an open-source smartphone that runs on the blockchain and is designed to support inherent blockchain applications like a cold storage crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications, and a P2P resource sharing ecosystem for payments.

With an extra layer of security provided by blockchain, future smartphones like the Finney can provide much-needed peace of mind that comes with owning a device that has practically all your information and can be hacked into in seconds.

2. Alternate Realities

Advancements in smartphone technology have made it so we can enter different realities at the touch of a button.

Case in point, virtual and augmented reality.

While virtual reality (VR) completely transports you to a virtual world, augmented reality (AR) combines the real and the imaginary by overlaying a digital layer over real-world elements.

Whatever reality you choose, the popularity of devices like the Samsung Gear VR and applications like Snapchat and Pokemon Go has opened the door for programmers and developers to dip their toes in these alternate realities.

Specific to AR, because smartphones are portable, they serve as the perfect platform for users to augment the world around them. For example, future smartphone features can include an augmented map that visually guides you where you need to go through arrows that only you see or an information hub that tells you more about what you’re looking at (e.g. looking at a restaurant presents its name, menu, ratings, and reviews, etc.).

3. Holograms

While Apple’s Retina Display that delivers resolutions so sharp that we can’t actually perceive them may be the peak for screens in terms of resolution, the addition of holograms can take the smartphone as a whole to a whole new level.

For instance, we already have 3D screens in phones like the IQH 3D, and by combining this features with projections, we can create holograms that jump from the screen.

In use, because we can ‘grab’ what’s being projected, we can digitally touch what’s on our phones. For example, we can do things like resize and rotate pictures by ‘physically’ pulling, compressing and rotating them, or create and edit 3D models as if they were physically in front of us.

Let’s Take a Second Look

With future smartphone technology looking so good, it makes sense to go over what we covered one more time:
1. Blockchain that will make future smartphones more secure than ever before.
2. Alternate Realities that combine the real and the imaginary.
3. Holograms as future smartphones features that allow us to ‘grab’ what’s being projected.
Enjoy what’s to come!

Here’s Why You Should Invest in a Mobile Website Before a Mobile Application

Mobile apps or websites: a question virtually all business today have to ask as they decide how to establish a mobile presence. After all, Google announced a while back they were enacting a mobile-first index in which they would start using a business’ mobile site for ranking purposes — a signal to turn mobile if any.

Both are great, but if you’re going to introduce yourself to your industry, you may have to choose one before you venture into the other.

Keep in mind that both are usually needed in the long-run. This, of course, depends on what exactly your business does, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a brand that won’t benefit from one or the other.

For one, a website is absolutely perfect for discovery and promoting brand awareness. Apps, on the other hand, excel in engagement and promoting brand loyalty.

But, and this is a big but, while both should ultimately be created, today we’re going to discuss why a mobile website takes precedence over their application counterparts.

In doing so, we’ll discuss the difference between mobile apps and websites, why a website should be your initial go-to, and finally, when it makes sense to opt for a mobile app first instead.

What are Some Differences Between Mobile Apps and Mobile Sites?

Starting with the differences between apps and sites, a mobile website is just like any other website consisting of browser-based HTML pages accessed over the internet, albeit made specifically for mobile devices.

Quick tip: Always choose a responsive website that resizes content for the screen it resides in over a mobile-specific site, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Like websites, applications pull content and data from the internet, but they go beyond by being able to download the content for offline usage.

Side note: You also have the option of getting a progressive web app that can be described as an amalgamation of a site and app.

Unlike websites, apps are downloaded from device-specific marketplaces like Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play and are installed on mobile devices. As such, they can be accessed even when there’s no internet connection, although actual functionality may be hindered if a connection is required for usage.

App vs. Website Usage: Why Websites Should Come First

Choosing to start with a website over an app (or vice versa) comes down to what your end goals are.
For example, if you want to introduce a game to the market, starting with an app is a good idea. If, on the other hand, you want to publish content to as wide an audience as possible, a website is a way to go.

But, seeing as how the vast majority of businesses fall on the latter category, today’s discussion centers on why a website should come first.

For starters, let’s talk about compatibility. Whereas mobile websites can be accessed by all devices, regardless of operating system (OS), applications are restricted to a single OS, meaning that multiple apps will need to be developed if you want to reach all users.

Then there’s findability and reach; you want as many people to find you as possible, and websites surpass apps in this capability because they’re there for all to see. This is because, as we just covered, apps are restricted to devices and their OS, and websites can be found with a simple Google search that encompasses the entire web.

Additionally, you have to think of your user’s commitment; websites come with less commitment because all you have to do is visit them to see their content. Apps are different because there’s an initial download required before you can see what they have to offer, leading to fewer downloads when compared to page visits.

Out of commitment comes immediacy, which is how available a website or app truly is. Because they can be accessed by pretty much all browsers on all devices, websites are readily available for all, unlike apps that, again, need to be installed first.

You also have to consider that nothing is static; things change and apps and sites both need to be upgraded and updated from time to time. In other words, upgradability.

Because website updates like layout or content changes can be published instantly for all users, any change only needs to be made once and everyone benefits. Apps, on the other hand, need to be updated user-by-user (if the app store accepts the update in the first place), and an updated created for each OS.

Finally, like most business endeavors, you need to consider your budget. While both sites and apps can be developed with templates that make the whole process cheaper and easier as a whole, mobile apps are generally more expensive to create and maintain.

Therefore, while you may need both at some point, it’s always best to start with a website, and once your budget allows it, extend to a mobile app.

Final Thoughts: When a Mobile App Comes out on Top

It’s not always the case that a website should be developed before a mobile app. For example, opting for an app first is best for those developing interactive content like games that are meant for mobile use.

In this case, a product—the app—should be developed and deployed first, followed by the website that points users toward the app.
Along with a similar vein, if you’re using native functionalities like a camera, gyroscopes or sensors, you’ll do best with an app that can access all of these and more, as websites will usually be unable to do so.

Finally, when an internet connection isn’t required for use, or when content can be downloaded and used offline, such as a dictionary with content that can be refreshed whenever there’s a connection, an app will generally serve you better.

But, like we briefly touched on earlier, because the points for website-first development relate to more brands than the ones for app-first, it’s recommended to invest in a mobile website before a mobile application.

Best of luck!