The key IoT and mobile trends to watch for in 2018.

I love this season. At ArcTouch, we spent the last few months reviewing our own business strategy and relationship to the changing landscape of mobile devices and the IoT. We have used the year 2017 and hypothesized what will happen in the next 12 months and beyond. And we're building our plans for 2018 on how we can best serve our customers.

We learned a lot this year, from the work we've done developing app experiences, to what we've read online, and above all to talking to customers and partners about what they're doing the front lines of their business. And as one of the best app developers in the US, we share our predictions of the top trends that 2018 Mobile and IoT will define. 1. 2018 will be the year of the Voice User Interface (VUI)It's been three years since Alexa first appeared in our living rooms. When Amazon made the first echo, it seemed to many people to be a strange product ("So, is it a spokesman to talk to?"). But Amazon's Alexa-based product family sales growth was rapid last year. Not to mention that Google Home joined the party and will soon follow the Apple HomePod. But that's just the beginning.Amazon is now licensing Alexa (see "Alexa's Unleashed And It's Good News for Skills Developers"), and new devices - including thermostats, home lighting systems, remote controls, cars, and more - have now been added to the superklugen wizard. As a consumer, we are becoming more and more comfortable, relying on our phones (eg, Siri and Google Assistant), cars, and smart home accessories to make calls. While we do not want to say that the graphical user interface of the touch screen is dying, it is not questionable if the voice 2018 will become a primary interface to the digital world. And with that, professionals and companies will develop specialized language interface design and speech app development know-how, as the VUI co-exists with the GUI. 2. Microsoft will be the dominant mobile force - in the enterpriseI know what you're thinking: "Wait, are you saying Windows phones will make a comeback?" Nope. Also, Windows will not disappoint as the operating system iOS or Android for mobile business users. After all, as an employee, we increasingly use our own iPhones and Android phones as part of our company's BYOD (bring your own device) practices. But we believe that 2018 will be a year in which enterprise applications grow strongly for their employees and internal business processes. In our 2017 report, which offered plenty of room for growth, only 12% of office workers in the US used enterprise-supplied apps for their work.One of the reasons this will change in 2018 is the development of development platforms that make it easier for development teams to develop and deploy cross-platform applications. In particular, the recently released Microsoft Visual Studio App Center (formerly Mobile Center), which bundles all of Microsoft's mobile tools into a mobile developer team. A key to this solution is Xamarin, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 and Windows developers allows you to write once in C # and publish apps on iOS and Android at the same time. And with the leading enterprise mobile development platform, Microsoft should also see a boost for its Azure cloud services in the battle with Amazon's AWS for the superior cloud infrastructure. It gets so much easier because Microsoft has now bundled all of its mobile tools into the App Center so businesses can get everything they need to build, publish, manage and host great applications. 3. VR is starting to live up to the hype - but only in gaming Tech gurus have long prophesied virtual reality as the "next big thing". But in 2018, we will begin to develop a critical mass that comes from gaming. As with many new types of hardware technology, content is what drives mass adoption. The iPod was perfectly complemented by the iTunes Music Store. And early versions of Smart and Connected TVs without the rise of streaming content from Netflix, Hulu, Disney and others were, to put it mildly, not so useful. While the hype surrounding virtual reality has experienced many ups and downs, game developers and publishers are playing the (long) wait game - suffocated by the lack of players owning VR hardware. But Sony, a giant when it comes to gaming hardware and software, reportedly sold a million PlayStation VR units in the first few months of last year. And with the steady growth of Samsung's Gear VR, we believe that game developers will augment the app stores with meaningful VR content. And with even more compelling VR games, more players will buy the best hardware to enjoy the VR gaming experience. We also think that the upcoming Ready Player One based on Ernest Cline's bestseller will give the VR a boost. The History imagines a not-fetched virtual world fleeing a depressing future earth. Much of the story is based on games, including references to classic arcade games. There is nothing like a Steven Spielberg film about virtual reality to sharpen our collective awareness of the subject. Looking beyond gaming, however, VR is not ready for a mass audience just yet. We think the next big driver of adoption could be streaming live sports in VR. Real-time VR, but the technology stack (and associated broadcasting costs) is required. While the masses will wait, we do not expect more companies to explore VR for very specific applications. Just one example: Cisco recently built a VR environment that allows its workforce to collaborate on projects using a virtual whiteboard. 4. Mobile app ROI wants to come under increased scrutiny We've seen the term "app fatigue" used to describe the slowdown of app downloads in recent years. But we as consumers are not really tired of using apps. In fact, we are spending more time than ever using apps on our phones and other mobile devices. On the surface, these two data points seem to contradict one another - but they do not. As more experienced app consumers, we value specific applications and do not waste our time on others. From our discussions with our partners and clients, we believe the market has already been adjusted. No longer are they working because they're just trying to keep pace with the competition. Our clients are beginning to scrutiny on the business case for apps before a project begins.

Successful mobile projects start with a problem or problem solving that problem. In that way, apps are no different than any product that chooses to invest in building. ROI of an app before any lines of code are written. (We cover this subject in great detail in our ebook, "From Great Idea to Successful Mobile App"). As members of our industry discuss the success and failure of applications and experiences that we create, you will learn more about the value of these apps rather than about vanity metrics such as the number of downloads. 5. Augmented Reality, in contrast to VR, hits the mass markets While VR expects growth in games and some other niche applications, Augmented Reality (AR) will explode in 2018. As we wrote earlier this year, Apple's ARKit offers developers the ability to easily create augmented reality experiences. But it's not just that; AR can be experienced on most smartphones. Unlike virtual reality, the market for AR software is enormous, with millions of cell phones in our pockets and purses. It's a ready-made business case for all types of brands looking to build a new kind of experience for their clients. One indicator: Williams-Sonoma relied on augmented reality when it recently acquired a development studio specializing in AR. Another: While the hype behind Pokémon Go may be over, the developer of this game (Niantec) has announced that it has begun work on a Harry Potter AR game. With prominent players investing large and low entry hurdles, we're sure to see a lot of AR growth next year.

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