We continue to cover key trends in the mobile development industry that will be relevant over the next few years at least. In the first part of this material, we already talked about blockchain, Internet of Things, 5G, instant applications and wearable devices. Today we’ll look at five more “hot” trends in mobile development.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
AI and machine learning have been a popular and trending topic for a couple of years now, which is influencing mobile development as well. Integrating these technologies into mobile applications makes them smarter and reduces the time and resources required for development. Artificial intelligence as a whole is growing at a rapid pace. According to a report by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), this year the size of the AI technology market will grow to $47 billion, while by 2024 it will increase to $191 billion. The size of the machine learning technology market is also increasing (42% per year ), and should reach $9 billion by 2022. AI and machine learning have been used in mobile applications for quite some time. For example, applications such as FaceApp, Replika, Cortana, Siri, Google Assistant and IRIS use them in one form or another. And Google recently introduced Duplex, an AI-based program that can call instead of the user to, for example, make an appointment with the dentist or arrange a time to visit the hairdresser.
Due to the fact that these technologies have already proven their effectiveness for business, companies from different sectors of the economy, not just IT, are now striving to integrate AI and machine learning into their applications. In particular, AI is enjoying great success in marketing, finance, healthcare, service industries, etc. However, these technologies also greatly influence mobile development itself. With their help, you can much more efficiently collect and analyze data in real time, detect problems and bugs in the code, and quickly eliminate them. Of course, the Java programming language is actively used in artificial intelligence. You can read about this in a separate article. Java and AI. Is it possible to write artificial intelligence in Java? Let's list a number of key trends in mobile development that are related to AI and machine learning technologies.
Integrating AI and IoT devices into mobile applications
Automation of DevOps functions, emergence of AIOps
AI is already being actively used to improve the efficiency of development, but it is expected that soon these technologies will develop so much that they will be able to perform all key DevOps functions.
Integration of AI technologies into chatbots and virtual assistants
We have already touched on the topic of the evolution of chatbots in mobile development in the first article. Thanks to the active use of AI technologies, modern chatbots are getting smarter by leaps and bounds. It is expected that chatbots and their analogues will be able to effectively perform the functions of virtual assistants.
Predicting app user behavior
AI smartphone battery management to optimize energy consumption
Cyber Threat Protection
“Smart” identification of the smartphone owner through the camera
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual and augmented reality are increasingly appearing in mobile applications, and in the coming years this trend will only gain popularity, especially with the spread of 5G networks around the world.
At the same time, the spread of VR and AR is by no means limited to mobile games and entertainment, despite the fact that these technologies are now most popular in this sector. A classic example of a successful application with augmented reality is the game Pokemon Go, which brought its developers more than $1.2 billion in revenue, was downloaded more than 753 million times, and the number of active users of Pokemon Go even now is more than 5 million. Other popular games with augmented reality reality are Incell, Dino Trek, etc. Experts predict that in 2020, VR and AR will become one of the key trends in the mobile development industry. According to Statista, the total global market for VR and AR technologies will grow from $16.8 billion in 2019 to more than $160 billion in 2023. IT companies have been striving to take advantage of the opportunities that VR and AR give them for several years now. Google has a number of VR applications - Google Cardboard, Tilt Brush, Daydream VR and others. Augmented reality is used by Snapchat and Instagram. But relatively recently, large players from other sectors of the economy began to actively join this trend. For example, well-known brands such as IKEA and Sephora are adding augmented reality to their apps to provide users with more options and increase sales. It is expected that in 2020, VR and AR will be actively implemented in the following industries: advertising and marketing, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, education, etc. Let's list a number of platforms and tools that you can start with if you want to delve deeper into mobile development in the field of augmented and virtual reality.
Apple's ARKit is a fairly powerful framework, including tools such as Reality Composer and RealityKit, which allow you to develop AR solutions for Apple products without knowledge of 3D modeling. In fact, ARKit consists of many tools needed to develop applications with AR capabilities. There are quite a few well-written tutorials on ARKit, and the official documentation is also extremely informative.
ARCore is Google's platform for building augmented reality applications, which includes a range of APIs for three key AR technologies, namely motion tracking, environmental understanding and light estimation. Some of these APIs also support game engines such as Unity and Unreal.
Vuforia is one of the most popular platforms for development in the field of augmented reality. It implements the following functionality: recognition of various types of visual objects, text and environment recognition, VuMark (a combination of an image and a QR code). In addition, Vuforia Object Scanner allows you to scan and create target objects. Recognition can be implemented using a database. Supports Android, iOS, UWP and Unity Editor.
Mobile wallets
The so-called mCommerce (that is, mobile payments and mobile commerce) is another supertrend of 2020 and, probably, the new decade as a whole. With the advent of powerful mobile payment platforms such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay, the popularity of this type of payment has begun to grow rapidly. And the emergence of new technologies, such as blockchain, has made mobile payments more secure.
That is why analysts expect a boom in mobile wallets, which will begin to displace plastic cards, just as they once replaced (albeit not everywhere) paper money. The Korean tech giant Samsung is currently actively working on its own platform for mobile payments. Apple is also not lagging behind, resorting to new technologies. For example, not long ago they launched the P2P payment system Apple Pay Cash. Here are two major trends in mobile payments and wallets that are hot today.
Increasing the number of mobile wallet users to 2 billion.
This means that the mobile wallet market is growing rapidly, and more and more players will enter it with their own applications (which will require qualified developers to create and maintain).
Strengthening the security of mobile wallets.
As a consequence of the growing popularity, the money of mobile wallet users will inevitably attract attackers, so platforms will have to invest more resources in strengthening the security of their solutions.
APM and EMM
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) are two important components of enterprise mobile app development. APM is a mobile metric that was introduced by Google in 2016 as a way to track factors slowing down application performance. APM helps improve the speed and quality of an application, making this metric an important tool for QA testers . EMM, in turn, is a set of technologies, processes and policies for managing and securing corporate and personal devices in an organization. The importance of APM and EMM in mobile development for enterprises is expected to only grow in the coming years, which means that the demand for specialists versed in these technologies will also increase.
Beacon technology
Beacon-enabled apps tell users when they are near products or services they might be interested in, immediately providing relevant information such as price and product specifications.
Beacon applications use BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) signals. When the device is within range of the signal, the application knows about it and sends an appropriate alert. Beacon technology is quickly gaining popularity and is considered an extremely promising mobile marketing tool, allowing you to promote products and services more effectively. After Apple introduced its iBeacon protocol and Google launched Eddystone , this technology is part of application development for iOS and Android. It is expected that in 2020 there will be many new applications with Beacon support. In particular, this technology will be actively used in games (especially those that use augmented reality), mobile payments, the tourism and travel industry, as well as in healthcare.
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