The Future of Mobile Applications: A quick chit-chat with Nikhil Verma, Head of Sales at OnGraph
The mobile app industry has completed a decade in the market with a strong foothold. Businesses and users have come far with mobile-based applications, but what can we look forward to in mobile apps and mobile application development?
Technology is constantly evolving in mobile application development, but how helpful can it be? Or will these new technologies help keep mobile apps at the forefront, as it is today?
To find answers to these questions, we approached with Nikhil, whose been in the tech industry for more than 10 years now, to gather valuable insights.
We discussed the latest trends in the mobile app: the current state of the mobile app, the changing trends in app development and the future of mobile apps.
Note: The blog is based on market insights about the future of mobile applications and changing development environment discussed with Nikhil Verma, Sales Head at OnGraph Technologies. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
So, here are his views on the future
Q1. Mobile Applications are about to complete a decade. It has expanded exponentially in the past. How important it is today for businesses and users?
Nikhil: There are over 1 billion mobile device users globally and more than 80% of people search for products and services online. Of this 80 percent, 27% search for mobile apps that are connected to a product or service they want to avail. So, it really becomes important for businesses to not lose out on these prospects.
Businesses want to reach users and, users in this hectic lifestyle want information, for anything, at a tap of the button, on the go and most prefer it to be through a mobile application. It’s a matter of convenience and saving time for users.
Today, users are on mobile applications thus, businesses must be there as well.
1.1 Compulsory Presence:
Nikhil: Industries are adopting mobile apps rapidly. Companies who work on a large scale are using dedicated applications. These dedicated apps enable companies to bring all the services and products on mobile devices with enhanced user experience and to conduct activities using smartphones.
Dedicated apps are highly convenient to users and help companies in various business perspectives such as build the loyal customer base, handle service requests in real-time, reach out to users with easy to let them opt-in FAQs and much more.
For example, banks have dedicated mobile applications that provide banking services like sending/receiving money immediately or applying for a loan using just the mobile app. It saves time, money and speeds up the process for both the users and the businesses
1.2 Innovative Start-Ups
Nikhil: Using mobile apps, innovative start-ups are emerging. There are start-ups that are leveraging first-mover advantage. With a unique business model, these companies enter with mobile apps into the market. With mobile apps, along with strategic marketing, these companies are reaching millions of users quickly.
For example, TikTok — video creation and streaming mobile app has overtaken the likes of Facebook, Instagram in popularity across the world. Whatsapp, Dropbox, and CamScanner are yet other examples which, when came first, were one-of-a-kind apps. They offered unique solutions and transformed their segments completely.
1.3 PWA [Progressive Web Apps]
Nikhil: There are companies that are trying to segment themselves. They are working on releasing apps using PWA. PWA allows them to be available for users, let them use offered products and services, and then it gets deleted by itself.
Companies are using PWA in two ways.
First, is to segment themselves. There are significant apps that a user uses but only a few times a year. For example, applying for a tax return, which is n yearly occurring activity. Therefore, companies are going PWA to make a presence among their users and deliver them convenience whenever they need it.
Second, PWA based projects are great to test new business ideas. Marketplace apps are highly investing in PWA to test whether emerging categories in the segment works or not. Game apps and Financial tools are other examples that are trying to collect user’s insight into their business models.
Q2. What Are The New Trends/Technologies In Mobile Application Development?
Nikhil: As I mentioned in my first answer, PWA is going to be one of the top trends in mobile application development. Companies are looking to develop the app as it is cost-effective. As we know, PWA is a web app with modified front-end wrapped for mobile devices, with less cost and time investment, companies are presenting a quick mobile app user experience for their users.
There was a time when cross-platform app development was considered a cheap option to build mobile apps. Performance and quality of cross-platform frameworks were not as good as native apps. However, with every passing day, cross-platform frameworks have evolved and thought of ‘cheap way to build an app’ vanished.
With every new update in the version of the cross-platform framework, we have found improved functions, features, libraries and processes that enabled developers to build amazing apps that look and perform like native apps in native platforms. React Native Version 0.60 and Native Script 0.60 are the current examples of it.
We have seen clients save up to 40% of overall cost on average if he decides to go with a cross-platform app than developing a native app for iOS and Android. Cost and convenience of developing cross-platform apps are way easier than native apps. It grabs the attention of developers as well as businesses. Technologies like Vue.js, react native and ionic are popular cross-platform app development frameworks that help develop efficient native mobile apps.
The marketplace is a rapidly growing industry. Though a number of on-demand services are provided using marketplace apps, the development of new categories is going to be interesting as we hope it to be.
Q3. Role Of New Technologies In The Growth Of Mobile Applications?
Nikhil: Of course, new technology in mobile application development has made the process faster, capable, and cost-effective. There are lots of powerful programming frameworks available like javascript based frameworks such as MEAN stack dedicated to javascript and many others. Libraries, on the other hand, are the backbone of app development. There are several independent, and within-framework libraries that are reducing the amount of coding developers have to do. Reusable components, import of a large number of already written code, third-party integrations allows developers to save their time and speed up the development process.
Because of these new technologies, the pace of innovations has increased. Innovations allow developers to build unique mobile apps and add functionalities not yet explored. Functionalities like Heart rate monitoring or forecasting based on historical data like what the weather will be like tomorrow or the best time to visit a place, and other analysis, apps can do effortlessly.
So new technologies are adding new capabilities in mobile apps and its development processes. Again, innovative libraries, third party integration, and emerging APIs are adding fuel to the app’s capabilities and performance.
Again cross-platform frameworks, libraries, and integrations of third party tools also allow cost-effective project development.
Q4. Where Do You See The Future Of Mobile Application Development?
Nikhil: Trends are that people are going for cross-platform and PWA. There’s a reason why I’m stressing on it, it’s because we have seen an increase in the adoption of cross-platform applications. PWA based pilot projects, on the other hand, are also being built in a significant number.
As I can see, cross-platform applications and PWA based projects can lead the ecosystem. The share of mobile apps in the development market increases due to innovations happening around cross-platforms and other trends. However, the share of new apps in native app development might see a fall. Overall though, the mobile application development market cap would definitely grow.
Aggregator businesses and marketplaces can have modern economics in mobile app development. Urban Clap and Swiggy are prominent examples and are a clear indication of the market shift.
Q5. Mobile Applications V/s Chatbots. Which One Would You Recommend To A Business For Future Terms?
Nikhil: Over the years we’ve seen what mobile app can do and how they’ve become an essential part of major businesses, but chatbots are still evolving while their adoption and usefulness is still something that needs to be proven.
Can a chatbot be a replacement for an application, say like, WhatsApp? Nope, it cannot happen. I essentially do not consider them overlapping. They both differ.
The mobile application industry has been in existence for over a decade now while Chatbots, on the other hand, have just been in the market for the last 3–4 years. The abilities and feasibilities of chatbots are yet to be ascertained.
What could be the future of chatbot? It is difficult to predict its path right now though we know what Chatbots are capable of. But in practical terms, we have not seen enough yet.
From a professional perspective, I think both are essential to the future of businesses for different purposes.
Q6. What Would A User Be Able To Do With Mobile Applications In The Upcoming Times?
Nikhil: Whatever we can think of and what a web app can do, it can be done on a mobile app.
Earlier, processors of mobile devices were not efficient enough in data crunching and related activities. But today, mobile processors are better than before. Likewise, as the power of mobile devices will increase, new and better integration and library will emerge. The likelihood of developing more functional mobile applications will increase in this way.
Wrapping Up
The future of mobile applications and development would work around innovations. Cross-platform and PWA would attract new projects, while large scale companies would rely on native apps development.
More capable mobile device hardware would also foster innovations in building more handy applications. The number of marketplace based apps would grow exponentially. On the other hand, innovative libraries and third-party integrations would simplify mobile application development for developers, and let them go out of the box.
In your perspective where would mobile application development shift?
Do let us know in the comment section below.
