A few years back, Steve Jobs gave us a piece of advice, rather a good one: interpret people needs wisely, predict trends in your industry and apply knowledge in your product or strategy. So what have we learned so far? Let’s check what are the hottest mobile trends for 2017 in mobile & wearable business.
Invest properly
Before you make a decision look at numbers and facts. There is much valuable information, which you can already implement to your business ideas:
- according to the research, nearly 50% of small businesses will have a mobile app by 2017
- there are over 2 billion smartphone users connected globally and the number is increasing. In 2017 over 50% of the world’s population is predicted to have access to the Internet
- companies choose apps because they want to build loyalty programs and keep their customers well-informed
- haptic technology is expected to become even more advanced in the next two years
- m-commerce is growing faster than e-commerce
- wearables – total shipment volumes reached 19.7 million units in 1Q16, an increase of 67.2% from the 11.8 million units shipped in 1Q15
- 60% of businesses invested in mobile app development over the past 12-18 months
- 38.5 billion – predicted number of IoT-connected devices in 2020
- 228.3 million devices – expected number of connected wearables to be shipped in 2020
Design the interactions of today
More and more companies think about responsive web design and good looking mobile app. But it’s time for something more – advanced, intuitive UI, UX and designing the interactions. Mobile technology develops very fast, so there are various devices and screen sizes on the market, a few operating systems, and 3D-touch which have the ability to enrich user interactions by reducing steps number to complete a task. Pixel perfection and simplicity are the norms. Imagine, if your solution doesn’t work or it’s extremely difficult to use. Would your customers be patient enough? No doubt that they will check your competitors offer instantly. Focus on your service and provide to your clients the best experience possible adapted to a wide range of devices. It will pay you up to more money earned and less negative feedback received.
Mobile-oriented world
When the hottest European startups, let’s say unicorns and leading corporations invest in mobile, there must be a strong reason behind. Their R&D departments search unique and profitable solutions, which are tailored to today’s customers, yet sometimes even creates tomorrow’s needs.
Mobile is already a strong channel of strategic communication and sales not only on B2C market but B2B too. Some facts are crucial here: 67% of millennials and 56% of Gen X prefer to search and purchase on e-commerce sites rather than in-store; 41% of baby boomers and 28% of seniors prefer online to offline shopping. Moreover, millennials and Gen X spend 50% more time shopping online each week (six hours) than their older counterparts (four hours). This trend will continue, why? Because people don’t have time for waiting in queues or spending hours in a shopping center. Just look at Amazon or Zalando mobile apps to realize what is the success factor. Read „Mobile app development” tips & tricks to get more information.
Next two big shares of mobile market are wearables and smart home. Still quite new and fast-growing which is considering as a post-smartphone era. Main reasons why IoT is so successful are:
- we want to have control from anywhere we want
- we choose to use many devices even for simple activities
- we are forced to spend many hours at work every day, so IoT helps us to care for ourselves, our family, households, events etc.
Trends follow this needs. We can expect gadgets more personal than smartphones, decor-friendly devices which will take care of safety and will send us notifications – a live feedback when something important happens at home. Moreover, smart home solutions should integrate with an unlimited range of devices, including locks, fans, sensors, window shades, cameras, and thermostats. If you work on IoT solution read more in „How to build a successful smart home product and keep yourself calm?”.
But what about wearables? It is sure already, that they will gather more information about our health condition to prevent hospitalization or disease progression. Some startups like Vheda Health are going on this path. This is serious innovation if we consider an annual amount of money spent on treatments, doctor visits, and medicine.
Small gadgets like smartwatches, activity trackers or smart jewelry become more and more popular because they help us select only the most important information and support our healthy lifestyle. But it is just a beginning of the list of things we can connect with the Internet. What about a hoody which can order your meal when you are hungry or umbrella which tells you if it is going to rain?
But we can’t get infatuated by technology so easily. Keep that in mind, that security in IoT world is a big issue to solve. The more advanced gadgets, the more personal data to hack. From software house perspective we must pay a lot of attention on this matter because it will be one of the biggest challenges in upcoming years.
Sources:
Smallbiztrends, Blog usabilla, Mobileecosystemforum, IDC, Business Insider Report 2016, Expandedramblings, Bigcommerce.
