Top Mobile App Development Trends For 2018

2017 has been phenomenal year for mobile applications. Industries started to believe in the power of mobile apps and understood that apps are no longer an optional investment. Apps are the best way to meet customer demands, keep them engaged and improve business processes.

Believing the report from Gartner, there are 268 billion mobile app downloads this year generating an income of $77 billion and the mobile app spending is expected to grow by 30% next year. Moreover, about 85% customers globally intends to use mobile apps. These stats speak volumes on how important mobile apps are going to be.

Within a month, we will be welcoming 2018 and believe me, mobile app industry is going to take a long step ahead and it is going to be a tough task for app developers to get the visibility on app store. But, before you jump into the war, it is important to know the top trends that will drive your mobile app success.

Top trends driving mobile app development

Internet of Things and wearables: From managing lights, monitoring health to Industrial IoT, the reach of this technology is growing. Analysts predict that IoT will grow from $157.05 billion in 2016 to $661.74 billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.3%. IoT is slowly becoming a mainstream technology for mobile apps and 2018 will see more IoT enabled applications. Wearables are just an expansion to IoT will keep growing in demand because of the ease of its ease of handling.

Artificial Intelligence and chatbots: Customized, conversational apps are in demand. The rise of driverless cars, robotic science, personal assistants like Siri and Google voice search are all evidences that AI has reached a new height. In the coming time, apps will keep being smarter and will start interacting as soon as it detects your voice or face.

Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality / Mixed reality: These technologies will go well beyond entertainment in the coming years. AR/VR/MR holds high potential to transform diverse range of industry sectors. While AR and MR will be more prevalent in sectors like healthcare, real estate, retail, etc., VR will be more into gaming and events.

Blockchain and the focus on app security: The security of an app is more important than ever because of the amount of user data it contains. Moreover, the increased use of cloud apps means more risk to the data. A Blockchain is a distributed, immutable, and cryptographically secured ledger that if used will act as a trust network for data security. The technology has been a buzzword and 2018 will be the year where mobile app developers would look forward to utilize the power of Blockchain.

Mobile app development trends keep changing year by year and we will witness some exciting improvements in this field in 2018. If you see, all these trends are circling around customer engagement and this will act as a prime focus area for app developers.

Hemang Rindani is an Inbound marketer at Cygnet Infotech who likes to write about Mobile Applications, Seo and Social Media.