How ISMAC is shaping mobile apps in the digital world?

ISMAC - Internet of Things, Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud

        According to a recent research report from IDC, the number of endpoints for Internet of Things(IoT) is expected to reach 30 bn by 2020. This means the average number of devices that an individual will interact daily will increase to about 6 devices by the end of the decade. This would include wearables such as fitbits, nike fuel bands, etc. Mobility will no longer be confined to your smartphones and tablets but any intelligent device such as a pacemaker taking vital statistics of one’s heart and having that information transferred to a cloud for further processing. This along with other digital technologies will impact mobile apps

                                                                                                                                             1.      New form factor and Invisible Apps – IoT devices come in various sizes and form factors, designing apps on this limited screen real estate to create a compelling user experience would mean deep understanding of the new interactions points (gesture, voice, etc) and the end user environment to create a compelling user experience. Smartphone could serve as the hub for many applications on these wearables and the UI design on the mobile app will take a back seat as the user interactions move to wearables – apps running on the smartphone will become invisible.

2.      Contextual Apps (No Mobile First) – Earlier, Mobile Apps connected to Enterprise backend systems helped increase sales, reduce operation costs and improve customer engagements, the next generation of apps will be more contextual in nature and will connect to a myriad of digital technologies ; pull out data from 3rd party clouds and service providers, understand user behavior via in-app analytics and social listening and have multiple IoT Systems like the Connected Car to interact with the user. An omnichannel view enhanced by analytics, would enable a business develop a single view of a customer and support a consistent, cross-channel experience. This has also led to a No-Mobile-First but Cross-Channel Design philosophy.

3.      Microservices Architecture in a Micro-Moment World – In the digital era, with Brand loyalty at its lowest and a high customer propensity to switch, its important brands be there in the micro moments (critical touchpoints) in a customer journey. Today, foot traffic has declined in retail stores, yet customers are spending more when they do visit – because they’ve done their research and made decisions before walking in. A random ad or irrelevant message leave the customer annoyed, but he/she will be open to an information or message with the right context and intent. Providing this would  require inputs from multiple systems – Enterprise backend, IoT sensors, Analytics systems, etc, and a micro service architecture supported by the addition of a middleware service layer would support not just the creation of these services but also the dynamic configuration of these services based on the endpoints and inputs based on the use case.  This requires a more deeper analysis and will be covered in my next blog.

4.      Disposable Apps – Apps that are built for microevents like the coming US elections, or apps for voluntary services during a natural calamity are usually disposed (removed from Appstore or die naturally) once the event is over. Enterprises build such apps for Annual events using MBaaS solutions that provide the services and host backend data and use RMAD tools to quickly develop the apps. This also means developing apps with limited functionality (No need to Future-Proof) creating a WIN-WIN situation for enterprise and 3rd party developers with lower development cost and faster time to market. A complete backend approach using containerized apps can be used to create disposable enterprise apps by removing apps, adding features, etc.

5.      AR/VR Apps – Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality apps will become an important tool in the workplace, as it has matured as an internal tool to enhance enterprise processes and workflows. VR and AR capabilities will merge with the digital mesh to form a more seamless system of devices capable of orchestrating a flow of information (such as buying home, interacting with a doctor, watching football game) that comes to the user as hyper personalized and relevant apps. VR/AR will draw a greater appeal to smartphones users owing to the technology’s ability to offer controls though gestures and 3D interfaces on tablets with larger screens.

6.      Virtual Agents/ Chatbots – While there is an app for anything today, there could soon be a chatbot for anything. Please check my previous blog for chatbots.