(M)Apping The Future: Next Generation Mobile Apps

Apps have always been at the heart of the smartphone’s success. And the kinds of apps we use are changing. New hardware capabilities and the falling costs of supporting ever-more process-intensive and memory-hogging services are one factor. But new technologies using artificial intelligence, for example, and backend platforms using microservices are also big elements of the change. Development is no longer just about native vs. hybrid. Instead there is a myriad of considerations including timing, cost and requirements. Speed is becoming critical as the time required to plan, design, develop and test new apps compresses from months to weeks. The combination of mobile app platform development technology, backend platforms and microservices, along with new hardware capabilities, will continue to push mobile apps’ evolution.

The majority of mobile apps today are still built natively for iOS or Android, or on a hybrid platform that supports multiple operating systems. But to meet market demand, there’s a growing movement to create simpler, faster and lower-cost apps, eg. micro apps. The user interface is also changing. We’re seeing the evolution away from complex, multidimensional apps, to single-use and voicedriven apps. Influenced by in-home devices like Alexa or Google Home or on-device AIs like Google Assistant and Siri, more apps will become hands-free and offer control through voice dialogs, even on the move.

 But many enterprises face challenges in adopting mobile as part of their digital journey:

• Platform challenges – enterprises haven’t settled on one mobile OS or hardware platform.
• Development and operating cost – it is expensive to develop apps and support more than one mobile OS.
• Resources and knowledge – many enterprises don’t have the mobile development or security expertise that runs across all platforms.
• Usefulness and business case –for some, it’s hard to identify and quantify real savings and value, especially for horizontal use.
• Line of business vs. IT – IT still faces challenges to support business needs in a timely manner.

Enterprise expectations continue to increase around mobility. It’s a cornerstone for many digital projects including AI, journey to cloud and even analytics and digital marketing. Customers’ mobile phones are a key data point for companies to track their interests, location, purchases etc, as well as offer users real-time interactions.

In the enterprise, the mobile is becoming the dominant computing device. Next-generation digital technologies like AI, sensors, machine learning, cognitive-aware and next-generation apps are being supported by the hardware’s growing capabilities. Multicore processors,advanced displays, intelligent sensors and powerfulcameras have all become standard on even entry-level (sub US$200) smartphones.

How enterprises build apps is also changing. Native platform development, especially for customers’ apps, still dominates, but hybrid and web-based apps for mobile are also gaining ground. As enterprises match their requirements to the best platform for app development, we see three key architectures emerging: Progressive Web apps, micro apps and instant apps.

 In the end, it’s all about the user experience. And next generation app technologies continue to create new possibilities, including apps that are:

• Immersive – as businesses learn to integrate digital information into the physical environment, immersive apps will be needed to manage this digital information. More brands will be rolling out AR apps in the near future.
• Voice-driven – voice commands, speech-to-text and conversations via our smartphones make our lives easier and faster. Speech as a feature of mobile apps enables us to carry out many tasks on the move.
• Self-learning – a system learns from experience, makes inferences from disparate signals, and then takes action in response to new or unforeseen events.
• AI-driven – smart interactions, recommendations, deep personalization, and strong context awareness are elevating user expectations.
• Context-aware – adapt their behaviors to changing environments, and are the most sought after applications in the mobile world.
• IoT ready – from smart connected homes to wearables to healthcare.

At Accenture, we are working with all of these technologies and building solutions for clients everyday. It's an exciting time in digital transformation. For more on this, click here or contact me.