Either make the best out of the time or lose 400 billion dollars
“In the software world, particularly for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. That is, Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win. It really is winner take all. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M.”
This is what Bill Gates had said a few years ago during an interview at Village Global. He confessed that his ‘greatest mistake’ was Microsoft losing the opportunity to Android which let Android OS thrive and defeat Windows Mobile OS.
Microsoft is among the world’s top tech-giant companies in the world; however, the company’s co-founder and one of the richest persons on this planet says that Microsoft had enough potential to become the main Apple’s competitor on the mobile OS market. But due to distractions caused by the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft and lost focus, the company had missed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
And as a result, Google became the main Apple’s rival, and Android outran Windows mobile OS move and causing Microsoft to lose hundreds of billions of dollars.
So what this story teaches business owners?
Even the leading or top-class companies are not always inspiring examples and the above story proves that. Sometimes they tell us about hidden pitfalls they accidentally got into; sometimes they share hints on how not to mess up. This story gives two extremely important factors to be successful in the mobile app industry.
1. Time: utilize the time and you will have all the best chances to win potential customers’ attention (just like Microsoft didn’t).
2. Trends: be the earliest one to provide effective solutions to customers they couldn’t imagine. Give an innovative approach, and become the new trendsetter and you will get the chance to join the battle of leaders and eventually win (again, just like Microsoft didn’t).
If you want to take the business to the top through a mobile app in the market and lose it, you need to keep in mind the high importance of Time and Trends.
Today, eSearch Logix is going to discuss the most powerful topics which can uplift your business to the desired position in the market. In this blog, we will highlight the hot mobile app trends 2021 that will rule the market and what key areas businesses should focus on.
Hot Mobile App Trends 2021:
Mobile App Trend #1: Flutter is the Game Changer
Flutter is a popular cross-platform framework and rapidly changing the games in Hybrid app development. It is a complete solution with a framework, widgets, and tools which enable building a mobile app for the two most famous mobile platforms of our times; Android and iOS.
In addition to this, Flutter is expected to become a key tool for app development for Fuchsia- a new OS announced by Google. Flutter uses one codebase that strongly supports hybrid mobile apps. These are the reasons that why Flutter is one of the hot mobile app trends.
Yes, React Native is a powerful competitor as of now, but Flutter is:
- Open-Source
- Free
- Built on the basis of quite an easy-to-learn language called Dart
And Flutter apps work and look just amazing.
“Flutter was the right choice for us,” – says Jorge Coca, software developer at BMW.
What features make Flutter a popular mobile app trend?
- The accelerated app development process
- Improved collaboration
- Minimized time-to-market
What this trend means for your business:
Flutter is undoubtedly a trending framework that will bring great advantages to your brand-new mobile app. No matter what industry you plan to break into, mobile app development trends will come in handy.
And in the current time, Flutter is able to provide you with all the cool features, make the development process easier, and allow developers to launch an MVP product to attract investment and start raising your business.
| Read also: How Flutter app development can benefit small businesses?
So do you want to miss the potential of the new Google framework? Start taking benefits of Flutter right away.
Mobile App Trend #2: Digital Wellbeing
The biggest players in the mobile app industry focus on helping the users to set boundaries between digital and real-time. They focus on paying attention to certain tasks instead of distracting users on apps and achieve well-being goals to improve people’s lives in general.
Digital wellbeing is a new way to capture users’ attention and make them believe in your brand. It’s not about consuming all users’ free time but giving them a chance to spend their time effectively.
We all know how you feel when you open your Facebook app just to check whether your friend having his birthday tomorrow and spend an hour later scrolling your news feed with no pre-determined intention. Mobile applications are greedy time eaters, and users devote huge amounts of time to their smartphones. At first glance, it seems like an advantage for your business, right?
But wait, this user’s tendency may lead to an opposite direction to your desired business results.
How?
It all began with Google Pixel’s users. They were first to try convenient functionality for digital habits observation. Later, all other smartphones with Android Q OS got Digital Wellbeing integrations.
Apple also used this Digital well-being through iOS 12 with features like App Limits, screen time dashboard, downtime, etc.
So what is it all about? It’s simple, users of the latest smartphones can:
- Find out how frequently they unlock their phones and open apps
- Get data about the number of notifications they receive
- Measure time they spend on every specific app and set time to limit their smartphone usage
And what about those users who aren’t using the fresher OS version?
It’s simple; they should have access to these features too. And this is exactly where you can show how much you care about your mobile app users
| Read also: Business owners! Do you know when users love to use your mobile app
What this trend means for your business:
Follow the app trends and expand your app’s functionality with screen time tracking, focus mode, customized notifications, etc. For now, digital wellbeing features are available on the latest Android and iOS versions only.
Therefore, you can upgrade your app by enabling users with previous OS versions installed to give them a new experience and organize their digital time in a better way:
- On a social media app: allow users to track the amount of time they spend on your app and turn on different notification regimes.
- On messengers: allow users to turn off notifications so they can work on important tasks.
- On mobile gaming apps: send users notifications regarding how much time they spend in a game and let them turn on the regime when games aren’t available.
Following this mobile app trend will give you a chance to gain customer’s trust towards your brand.
Mobile App Trend #3: Touchless Experience to Change Mobile UX
Mobile usage experience has been transformed enormously since users are empowered with their fingertips. The interaction between a smartphone and its user looks like hand movements on the touch screen (like a tap, double-tap, press, pinch, rotate, etc.) as well as shaking and titling.
But a time is arriving when there will be no need to touch the screen due to the emergence of this app trend.
Nowadays, innovative gesture controls technique is making mobile usage more intuitive and convenient. Modern smart devices are now empowered with radar-based motion control technology. For example, using Galaxy Note 10, you can perform various actions such as controlling the smartphone camera by just waving with a stylus.
On Google Pixel 4, the more advanced motion sensor technology called Soli is implemented. Users can turn on a Motion Sense mode and pick up or decline a call, snooze the alarm, switch to the Do Not Disturb mode, and many more by just waving to Soli.
This is what you should take into account if you have the vision to develop an innovative mobile app. Companies around the world are set to launch revolutionary motion gestures, recognition engines, and platforms, and implement the techniques in their mobile apps and appeal to customers’ wishes in a unique way. By using this trend, you can give your users a truly ‘Wow’ experience.
What this trend means for your business:
In 2021, improving your app’s user interface isn’t sufficient, you have to enhance with a touchless experience. No matter what type of mobile application you would like to produce, this technology can help you to become a leader in the market. Let your users perform different actions by just waving or snapping fingers in front of the screen by:
- Scrolling the news feed or sending friend requests on social media apps
- Turning pages on eReaders
- Trying different filters on photo editing apps
- Skipping to the next song or adjust the volume on music player applications, etc.
These top-notch app trends have the potential to change UX completely, and you can become one of the successful entrepreneurs in mobile app development.
Mobile App Trend #4 Face Recognition Trend
Face recognition is a trending feature in mobile app technology. iPhone X brought FaceID which was quite a massive success. Apple has gone beyond using technologies and started to analyze the human face 3D model with its contours and emotions. Android also followed this trend and Face Authentication now appears in beta.
Microsoft works on this technology too. They tried to build a camera that determines if it is a real person trying to use FaceID or it’s just an image in front of a camera. Face recognition is a much more trendy technology in mobile applications and gives various benefits to businesses like:
- Security
- Payments
- Speed convenience
What it means for your business:
Generation Z prefers and believes in biometric technology. Therefore, businesses can use facial recognition in their mobile applications and reach out to the most active users. Depending on your business requirements, you can integrate facial recognition techniques to:
- Allow users to log into an app (like task management, photo editor, social media, messengers, etc.)
- Checkout and verify identity (e-commerce apps, online marketplace, car or real estate rental apps, banking applications, etc.)
- Switch to special do-not-disturb modes (social networks, messengers, etc.) and use in other tasks.
Mobile App Trend #5: AI-Powered Virtual Assistants
Asking Siri or Google assistance about the weather has become a daily habit of users. These virtual assistants are quickly spreading all over the devices. A mobile virtual assistant provides its digital hand to users for a wide range of tasks:
- Reminding about tasks to do
- Controlling a smart home
- Booking a table at a local restaurant
- Reminding about tasks to do
- Finding information on the world web
Not only ordinary people enjoy the usage of virtual assistants in their daily life, but corporations and enterprises employ them effectively also. For example, HDFC bank launched EVA AI-based assistant in 2017. Since then, it has resolved over 3 million queries with a 0.4-sec average response time.
The assistant answers banking-related queries 24×7 explores bank products’ features and benefits to highlight them to customers, helps to pay bills, and even books tickets. That is a truly advantageous tool for a bank and its clients as it gives significant improvement contributes to reputation and income.
| Read also: How AI apps can change your business
What it means for your business:
In a world where AI-powered chatbots have a huge potential to make a difference in UX, you as an entrepreneur need to consider it for your mobile app. Give support or a piece of advice to solve certain tasks and simplify users’ lives. For example:
- Use a virtual assistant for your banking app that answers users’ questions, and helps them find information related to their credits, address their issues, etc.
- Extend your eCommerce app features with smart assistance. Let an AI-based helper meet customer complaints, discover products, provide needed information, and help to checkout seamlessly
- Implement an AI assistant in your educational app to let it browse the network and provide useful articles, courses, books related to the specified topic while the user is busy studying.
Mobile App Trend #6: IoT Apps
Internet of things (IoT) is a top emerging technology due to its unique ability to connect our devices, home appliances, vehicles, and other electronic devices to a single network. It means in near future, you will soon be able to control other devices from your smartphone.
Seems fascinating, isn’t it?
The number of IoT devices is growing rapidly and the scope of using IoT in mobile app development is huge. Amazon Go demonstrates how the adoption of IoT can change the shopping experience. Nest shows that smart devices, cameras, sensors, and high-quality software can help users manage their real estate objects remotely.
You as a business owner pay extra focus to this fact. Adopting IoT application development trends can bring new opportunities to reach your business goals such as providing instant response to queries, real-time video streaming for IoT world demands, self-driving cars or autonomous drones, real-time communication between vehicles, etc. All these amazing features need to be controlled by IoT apps to give convenience to users.
What this trend means for your business:
IoT is another revolution that can create suitable conditions for your prosperous business growth. 84% of enterprises plan to finish their IoT implementation within 2 years. And for your mobile app, it would be a great push towards success if you use IoT apps in your business for:
- Building a logistic mobile app. It will enhance performance once you will extend it with a sensor that monitors the vehicle’s location, measures external conditions like temperature or humidity, estimates loads, etc., and sends the essential data to the management system.
- Building a retail app to upgrade your brick and mortar store with beacons. These are small portable devices that enable smart devices nearby to execute certain actions. Using beacons, you can make your customer just come to a store, take products and leave without waiting at a cash desk. Beacons send the signal to the customer’s smartphone and charge the cost for the purchased products. This could be a great contribution to UX.
So if you are ready to integrate IoT in your mobile app, it may turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to add your name to the industry trendsetters list.
Mobile App Trend #7: Hyper-Personalization
Customers buy your product when they feel how much your care for them. We are living in the digital age where almost everything is available on either the Internet or mobile apps. That is why most companies try to provide all services, in the same manner, assuming “one-fits-for-all”, which sounds good. But for the 2021 business, it won’t work
- Modern consumers are more inclined to cooperate with brands that offer a personalized experience
- Most companies say their progress is better after they have implemented personalization
- Mobile app trends relevant to personalization will fuel your app’s success and take it to the top among your competitor’s apps
What this trend means for business:
You can appeal to your app’s users in a more interactive way by employing this cutting-edge app trend. Depending on your app’s type, these are the following scenarios you can take benefit from.
- eCommerce apps can analyze previously viewed items to come up with the best offers
- Social networks may take into account location, education, and other factors to create the list of people you may know it
- Design apps can analyze a user’s tastes or behavior patterns to offer the most suitable layouts.
The number of examples is unlimited but the idea remains the same. Just take the benefit from the app trend at the right time.
Mobile App Trend #8: Apps for Foldable Smartphones
A foldable phone is a hot trend in the mobile industry since 2020. As these devices are in the stage of evolution, it is giving you the perfect time to prepare yourself for the future demands for apps for Foldable smartphones.
According to Samsung, hundreds of popular Android apps have been optimized for the Galaxy Fold including Amazon Prime Video, VSCO Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, and Microsoft Office. In 2018, Google officially declared foldable support on Android with its ‘screen continuity’ API.
What this trend means for businesses:
Gaming and video streaming apps can take great advantage of the foldable device trend by merely increasing their screen size, or instead, utilizing the extra space to provide additional information and controls to their users.
Mobile App Trend #9: Integrating AI & ML in Mobile Apps
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (ML) are transforming the mobile app industry tremendously. However, AI & ML are not a new concept of 2021, this technology has been traveling a long way but took action in the past few years after its heavy utilization in various industry segments.
Companies are integrating AI in mobile apps to study consumer behavior and eventually improve their products & sales. A recent study proves that AI is the most trending technology used by mobile app development agencies, marketers, enterprises, and retailers.
What this trend means for business:
AI-powered apps are providing advanced features to users. FaceApp got viral instantly just because of its unique face editing feature that makes people crazy with their old-age photos. These AI apps can empower your business if you focus on using its functionality in your app that includes:
- Image recognition, classification, and tagging
- Object identification, detection, classification, and tracking
- Processing of patient data
- Predictive maintenance
- Automated geophysical feature detection
By integrating AI & ML in mobile apps, you can do marvelous things by getting information on what users think of your product or brand.
Mobile App Trend #10: Wearable Apps
Wearable technology has impacted app development by giving birth to wearable apps. These applications are designed to run on various wearable devices such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, mobile devices, smart clothes, and more.
Especially smartwatch is boosting the demand for wearable apps. Apple Watch is the most famous wearable device which changed the game in the market. Apple dominated the smartwatch market with features like ECG or blood oxygen levels measurements.
In 2017, there were around 453 million connected wearable devices and with the continuous advancement in this technology, the market is expecting a huge demand for wearable apps.
What this trend means for business:
It is expected to become an essential part of everyday life as more and more smartwatches, fitness trackers, start operating independently from smartphones. Thus, businesses need to focus on using wearable apps for:
- Providing information about user’s health (steps walked heart rate, calories burned, blood pressure, exercising time. etc.)
- Entertaining users through showing media content, creating it, and giving access to virtual reality games
- Upgrading fashion by providing wearable apps to support smart dresses and accessories
Mobile App Trend #11: Cloud Mobile Apps
Cloud computing is already a mature technology that is continuously evolving and providing advanced solutions. And cloud mobile app is the next addition to this growing technology. Could mobile apps are mobile applications that don’t require space on-device storage and run directly from the internet?
Cloud integration enables app developers to build instant apps, instead of creating native apps for iOS or Android. It allows users to take a quick tour of the app without the need for installing it. It is the cloud technology that makes it possible for Android instant app to exist.
As there is no need to install cloud mobile apps, it gives better chance for companies to let the user use their apps without installing them. Due to their unique feature, Android Instant apps will create many business opportunities in the future.
What this trend means for businesses:
- You can launch the startup faster as you don’t require spending much time and effort on native app development.
- Easy database integration to allow you to store data on a single server and easy to update your app using mobile cloud computing
- Cloud mobile app development cost is low. You need to create only one product instead of two native apps.
It provides secure and smooth cloud storage that eliminates data losses or manipulations. By using this technology, you protect your users’ data and privacy and eventually gain their trust.
The Final Words
The mobile app industry is changing so fast that it has compelled businesses to keep their eyes on all the cutting-edge app trends and join the innovations right on the time. Either you decide to use only one of them or bundle several of them, your business will be able to make the best out of mobile app trends when you:
- Embrace the trending technology at the right time
- Take care of your users
- Contribute to UX
- Prove that user’s security is your top priority
- Provide seamless assistance
- Don’t stay behind in adopting new innovations
- Build a trustworthy relationship with your customers
Each mobile app trend has the potential to change your business results if just know how and when to use it. Even top industry leaders sometimes lose great chances just because of not implementing the trend in their business strategy at the moment when it is required, which also has been admitted by Bill Gates in the above example.
Your customers need some solutions which can be only be developed by using modern technology. For this, you need an intelligent approach and the right decision-making.
And eSearch Logix, which is a premier mobile app development company in India, assist companies, enterprises, retailers, entrepreneurs, and business organizations in integrating the latest mobile app technology.
We empower businesses with our innovative app development solutions using mobile cloud computing, IoT, AI, Flutter, and other technology trends which can boost your business revenues.
Curious how we do it?
Let’s talk then. Write your thoughts in the below comment box and we will immediately get back to you.
