3.2 billion people worldwide used smartphones in 2019, and 3.5 billion in 2020. The move towards digital and mobile payment and commerce is so well document both by Payments Cards and Mobile and others that there is no need to delve further at this time, but the deepening of the consumer reliance on mobile does thrown up some interesting developments to be watched
Short-term mobile development trends
Mobile commerce
Top 10 mobile payment development trends to watch in 2021
This trend dates back to ten years or so and is still relevant today. More and more companies are using mobile apps to generate revenue.
According to research by Criteo, in 2021, users will make more purchases on mobile apps and omnichannel platforms. Every second person during the pandemic installed at least one online shopping app.
Now the availability of a mobile application is becoming a prerequisite for maintaining the competitiveness of companies in the market. Mobile traffic will grow.
However, before deciding to develop a new service, you need to analyse your business goals and requests. In this case, the starting point can be an audit of the IT architecture, which will help to identify areas of growth and draw up a road map for improvements.
Mobile wallets
According to the Electronic Transactions Association forecasts, in 2021, the global mobile payments market volume will amount to $1,326 billion (as opposed to $ 1,100 billion in 2020).
Its growth is due to the convenience and security of smartphone payments. Therefore, e-commerce website owners provide buyers with the option to use a mobile wallet. It increases the audience and makes shopping more comfortable.
s a result, the developers of mobile wallets are also doing everything possible to develop these technologies. Users will manage the business and personal finances, take loans and deal with transport and housing maintenance.
Mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are on the upward trend. The pandemic and the proliferation of NFC-enabled devices have spurred the rise in the popularity of contactless payments in brick-and-mortar stores. Wallet integration should become a standard feature for every application that processes transactions. The trend shows that the share of mobile wallets in applications should grow.
Chatbots
People are using instant messengers, and businesses are not opposed to saving money on call centres and automating their work. It is why chatbots have gained such popularity on both sides lately.
The use of bots for HR automation attracts special attention. First of all, chatbots are a convenient way for a client to communicate with a business, secondly, saving on ad mailings and call centres, and thirdly, a convenient way to collect feedback and work with loyalty. You can create and configure a bot both according to your scenario and using machine learning so that the bot selects the necessary script itself.
Internal mobile apps
Big and mid-size companies develop applications to optimise their business.
Internal mobile apps allow:
- Automate business (logistics processes, communication and informatization, document flow, personnel management, and work processes, communication with the client)
- To improve employees’ work quality, convenience, and speed (for example, creating file sharing, connecting instant messengers, social networks, and trackers for internal communication, project, and task management systems).
Mobile app development for internal use is needed by large and fast-growing companies that need to automate processes and increase productivity. If your business is not focused on scaling, the app will not provide you with significant value.
AR and VR
Augmented and virtual reality are infiltrating education, commerce, medicine, and entertainment. You can check how the table in your living room will look, the watch on your wrist, or the trainers on your feet.
If you have virtual reality glasses, then you can do even more: practice surgery or walk around the apartment with a new interior that you have not yet decided to bring to life. Already, everything that you see with AR and VR devices is very close to reality.
In 2021, both areas will develop even more actively — for example, smart glasses in forensics. The Chinese police are implementing this technology now. The facial recognition system determines the parameters of the appearance of people. It allows you to find a suspect in the crowd, which simplifies and speeds up the process of finding criminals.
Also, AR and VR can use in healthcare, security, and industry.
AR technology has a vast number of possibilities for application in various fields. It works great on the most mainstream wearable device — the smartphone. Also, you need to create good content (animation, realistic 3D and 2D models). So it is crucial to find experienced IT professionals who can offer a non-template solution.
Long-term mobile development trends
Voice search
Every smartphone is already equipped with a digital voice assistant (Siri for iPhone, Google Assistant for Android phones). Moreover, smart speakers with artificial intelligence are gaining popularity.
All millennials use voice search, so you will have to integrate the voice assistant into your application.
It is a long term trend. Now it is used by giants and online platforms with unusual traffic. However, you can think about using it in your business and attracting a new audience.
iBeacon service
iBeacon is a geolocation beacon device with Bluetooth Low Energy technology. Using beacons will help you implement contactless marketing. Beacons can also help track shopper behaviour in stores — the iBeacon tag constantly emits a Bluetooth radio signal, and smartphones pick it up to 50 meters away and locate it.
The app can automatically initiate a push notification to attract certain items to purchase. When a user walks past a lighthouse, they are notified of a sale or special offer in that store.
The development of iBeacon is speedy. In a short time, the technology has advanced and established itself in a large number of industries. However, this service is more suitable for large companies and brands that are recognisable to the consumer.
Blockchain for cybersecurity
Bitcoin and blockchain have been at the top of tech blogs and reports for several years. Many large companies and organisations are already actively using blockchain as a security tool.
Its technology allows you to create a decentralised database, which means that information will be stored in different places, complicating hackers’ tasks.
The use of blockchain is most relevant for financial and medical organisations’ web services, where the value of data is very high. However, the reliability of information storage must be kept in mind when developing any app.
The advantages of blockchain are decentralisation, ensuring data integrity, and transparency of transactions. Only large companies can afford this, so traditional means of protection are still an indispensable component of the information security infrastructure.
SuperApp
SuperApp is a mobile application that includes several services at once, such as ordering a taxi, delivering food, finding a hotel, and taking out insurance.
The trend towards developing such applications came to us from Asia, where the market was conquered by such giants as WeChat, Gojek, and GrabTaxi. Today, users are beginning to give supers preference because they can conveniently cover all their needs with the help of one application.
The trend of feature-rich applications is evolving. However, for now, SuperApps are available only to international companies and leading market players. When developing their strategy, average market players should consider how they can compete with SuperApp.
5G technology
5G mobile technology is a new standard that will replace the previous generation 4G / LTE. It provides the highest data transfer rate (up to 100 Gbps). Therefore, it will simplify the implementation of the Internet of Things. Developers of software for smartphones need to prepare to scale the released applications with this technology in mind. Experts predict that next year global 5G infrastructure costs will be $ 2.3 billion.
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