As mobile technologies begin to dominate over desktop digital media, it’s becoming clear that mobile will become the platform of the future. That’s why you should keep a close eye on trends and predictions to tap into the potential of mobile for your business. Here are 5 predictions from industry insiders about the near future of mobile.
1. MOBILE SECURITY
Today mobile devices store lots of personal information and hence they have become targets for criminals who are after personal data and identity.
“Solutions that offer the highest security require significant reductions in scope and flexibility that ultimately affect user experience”. Yiannis Giokas
Combined with a lack of end-to-end solutions for mobile, this threat will render mobile security a central focus of the industry in upcoming years.
2. PROBLEM OF AD BLOCKING SOLVED
The rise of ad blocking presents a serious challenge to publishers. The director of strategy at Isobar, Tim Dunn, believes that one of the four ways in which the industry will respond to this problem is by investing in mobile apps.
“Within apps the publisher can control the entire experience and display networks will still be able to work there.” Tim Dunn
3. VIRTUAL REALITY
2016 is the year of Virtual Reality (VR). If the hype around Pokémon Go taught us one thing, it’s this: augmented or virtual reality is going to affect the mobile market. Mobile phones can act as small windows into augmented reality but with computerized glasses the technology is bound to boom and become functional in ways which are very hard to predict at the moment.
In a recent feature for Mobiletoday.co.uk Zak Garner-Purkis noted that VR has closer ties to mobile devices than wearable technologies.
“For example, Samsung’s Gear VR allows the user to turn their phone into a virtual reality device. The only feature on its Gear S2 smartwatch that is not already present in the phone is the heart rate monitor.” Zac Garner-Purkis
4. RISE OF VOICE SEARCH
In short, more users than ever will utilize voice recognition technologies. Google’s Gary Illyes, recently revealed that the number of voice searches on the platform doubled between 2014 and 2015.
“We get, I think, 30 times as many actions queries by voice as by typing.”
Gary Illyes
This trend is confirmed by Amit Singhal who recently retired from his position as the Head of Search Quality at Google. In a recent interview he talked about how he spent a year living primarily on mobile phones. After his experiment swiping and voice-search dominated over letter-typing he noted:
“I realized… that on mobile devices, that I wanted to act more.”
Amit Singhal
5. GROWTH OF MOBILE APPS
Apps have been with us for a while now, but their significance on the mobile market is only predicted to grow. According to ComScore’s September 2015 Mobile App Report, in 2015 the mobile app market grew by 90% within two year’s time.
Companies are likely to focus on bringing users back to their apps, but also expand their overall mobile strategy. Andrew Lipman argued that mobile apps and mobile web share basic content and capabilities – and so should be viewed as complementary.
“Importantly, if we put the two pieces together, what we get is a combined mobile offering whose value proposition significantly exceeds either one on their own,” he said.
Andrew Lipman
Knowing what the future holds for the mobile segment is key to making the most from this incredibly dynamic cluster of technologies. If you’re considering to expand your business presence to mobile, it’s clear that you picked the best time.
Do you have your own app idea but don’t know where to start? Check how to build an app in a smooth and easy way.
