Four Breaking Trends Shaping with Mobile App Development in 2024

App development is morphing before our eyes, and not just mobile app development, but everywhere across the country. Every year, I like to take a few minutes to talk about mobile app trends for the coming year, and like previous years with mobile technology, 2023 will see some big changes. Let's begin.

#1 The Rise in Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

In case you were napping during 2020, the pandemic accelerated our shopping habits in ways that would have otherwise taken another decade. If you think mobile commerce was already experiencing explosive growth over the past decade, wait till you see this decade. It is going to be like the roaring '20s of the last century. According to Andrew Meola "Rise of M-commerce: Mobile Ecommerce Shopping Stats & Trends in 2021", at Business Insider Magazine, "Insider Intelligence predicts m-commerce volume to rise at a 25.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to hit $488.0 billion, or 44% of e-commerce, in 2024." Not only will we see a continued growth curve in-home delivery, but in other ways as well. Here are a few others to consider. Soon, you will be able to order your lunch while sitting at a stoplight at Hollywood and Vine, and a few minutes later receive a notification on your phone telling you to pull into a parking lot so a delivery drone can gently drop down and place your food order next to your car. Lunch is served! You will also see a sharp increase in the use of mobile beacons, allowing retailers to market directly to a consumer's phone when they pass by beacons at the mall, sporting events, or entertainment venues. 5G will also help accelerate this growing trend, and not just with smartphones, but tablets and other screens as well.

Top mobile app development technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and blockchain can assist developers in creating highly advanced features that provide users with a unique and pleasant experience.

#2 SmartWatch Technology

Dick Tracy never knew how close he was to hit the mark with his "Calling Dick Tracy" smartwatch cartoon from 1952. In a recent report published by Mordor Intelligence, "The smartwatch market is expected to grow at a Compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 14.5% during the forecast period (2020 - 2025). IoT-driven smartwatches are a key trend that will not only operate as a standalone technology but interact with other IoT devices to improve a user's quality of life vastly." Currently, most people associate smartwatch technology as being limited to tracking your steps, monitoring your heart rate, checking your email, and listening to Spotify, but there is more. Here are a few examples. Expect new software technology for smartwatches to track the elderly who might unknowingly wander off or become lost. Another is the ability to navigate the aisles of a grocery store by having your smartwatch ping you when you pass an item on the shelf that you have a digital coupon, or even a wearable 2.0 app that tracks the UV Index while you are catching a few rays of sunshine. These are just a few examples. If the UX/UI can be output to the 48mm display of the watch's interface, then mobile software can be developed.

#3 Foldable Smartphones

Everyone's in (well, except Apple). Google, Samsung, Motorola, and Lenovo, to name a few. Foldables will be the future of smartphones as Apple's first iteration phone was to open a brand new market. Apple is expected to enter the fray, but they are not expected to have an entry into the marketplace until late 2021 or Q1 2022. When they arrive, I am sure it will have been worth the wait. Foldables will see rapid growth in the market for two reasons. First is the obvious -- screen size. Because of its smaller form factor and larger display, you will have a lot more real estate to work with, and this will bode well for entertainment and multitasking. The second is the ability to put more horsepower under the hood. I often joke that if smartphones get much bigger, they will soon give us the same screen size as our laptops from twenty years ago. Lastly, foldable phones are just cool. They are a bit steep in price but like all technology, sell more units and the price will fall.

#4 Remote Workforce

While the debate continues whether employees will or will not return to the office, another transformation is taking place that not many people are talking about, and that is the transition of employees selling from their office chairs to their mobile chairs, all because of mobile software capabilities. For decades, most B2b companies have sales staff who do a wonderful job of selling and supporting their customers, VARs, vendors, and the like, but with the pandemic, small businesses are beginning to allow their sales teams to work remotely, from home, the car, or the kitchen table, because of smartphone technology. As the decade unfolds, expect to see tens of thousands of small businesses begin shifting their sales and customer service support teams to a remote workforce, and once the pandemic subsides and we get things back to the "new normal", expect even more software development in this space. Employees will not only be able to take remote orders, but they will be able to fill even very complex orders with lots of required field data entry. Sales staff love this new freedom. I have spoken to a number of salespeople who are excited about this tech. Not only will they be able to do something they love, and sell, but they will also be able to visit their local customers, shake hands, and develop much richer business relationships.

When you are searching for a mobile app development company, think SkyTech Mobile. We are here to help you grow your small business enterprise, find ways to help your teams and employees be more productive, and happier from the process, and help provide a competitive edge over the competition.

John Tomblin is a software, web application, and mobile app solutions architect. He has provided hundreds of technical presentations to companies and audiences from California to Texas. He is a twice-published technical author, and he is the founder and general manager of Sofvue, DataTitan, and Office Atlas, where he works with small business owners in need of custom software, web, mobile, and SaaS solutions.

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