The connected reality is no longer just a word on the paper but a massive reality now. The Internet of Things (IOT) ecosystem boasting of a whole array of connected devices and sensors across both home and workplace environments has already penetrated deeper into our sense of reality across all facets of life. Undoubtedly, mobile apps are playing a crucial role in helping people to take control of this connected reality of gadgets. Their connected mobile apps now control most IOT devices making our homes smarter. This helped to produce a category of app termed as IOT apps.
IOT apps replacing remote controls for devices do not represent the only way to impact mobile app development. IOT and the connected reality are also paving the way for a whole array of value additions with mobile apps. Here through the rest of this post, we are going to explain how IOT and the ensuing connected reality are transforming the mobile app development.
Enhanced security concerns
Just think of the vast security concerns when businesses started to adopt smartphones as part of the ecosystem of connected devices in the workplace. Obviously, there were huge concerns about data theft and security vulnerabilities. But over time, thanks to protocols such as “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) or similar protocols the integration of mobile devices into business environment became easier and now mobile devices and enterprise mobile apps together became one of the strengths of enterprises.
Similarly, the connected devices in the workplace environments are facilitating easier collaboration and communication among the workforce. Connected devices powered by cloud computing are helping organisations facilitating wider collaboration across different processes. But this like the earlier years of mobile integration is not happening without security concerns and vulnerabilities.
To address such concerns, we now have a whole array of security solutions based on latest technologies such as Blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. The decentralised database technology of Blockchain is helping the apps to prevent all kind of data tampering efforts while ruling the access to data with strict protocols and encryption technology. Similarly, in a connected ecosystem of multiple devices machine learning is helping the apps to learn about potential vulnerabilities in advance by analysing the user activities and behaviour.
IOT and Mobile Commerce Apps
Ecommerce websites are now increasingly preferring native mobile user experience offered through dedicated mobile commerce apps. As most ecommerce purchases now happen through mobile devices, mobile commerce apps have huge potential to boost user engagement and business conversion than the so-called mobile websites.
The connected ecosystem of in-store sensors such as iBeacons, location technologies and technologies like augmented reality is allowing mobile commerce apps to deliver a shopping experience that easily can overlap between the in-store and on-screen activities for browsing products and shopping. The connected ecosystem of devices in retail and ecommerce are helping app developers to deliver more sophisticated and user-friendly apps that can make shopping easier than ever before.
Industrial IOT and Enterprise Apps
IOT apps at first mainly penetrated into our homes and so the coinage of the term “Smart Home” became so popular in a quick time. But the IOT as technology continued to outlive its promises and became an integral part of modern workplaces and also sophisticated manufacturing units. Obviously, enterprise mobile apps played a crucial role in allowing these connected gadgets to penetrate into enterprises and industrial settings.
The connected devices equipped to track user activities and user inputs in real time can really inform the administrators of any industrial units about the productivity and employee engagement across processes. This obviously will positively have a huge impact on enhancing productivity and gaining competitive advantage. In manufacturing units, the connected devices and machines help the project controllers to detect irregularities in real time. With so much potential on offer, Industrial Internet of Things or IIOT is likely to play a more significant and era-defining role in the modern industries in the times to come.
Widening the Opportunities of Personalisation
One of the most significant impacts of connected reality on mobile apps is the widening scope for personalised user experience. We all know that personalisation of the user experience mainly depends upon gathering user data and drawing relevant user insights to serve them up to their preferences. A whole array of connected devices, sensors and touch points can actually produce more user data across different contexts that further can help analytics to produce most relevant user insights to be used to allow personalisation into the user interface and user experience. The connected ecosystem of devices only widens the scope of gathering more relevant user data and insights capable of guiding app developers to ensure personalisation.
AI and Automation
Finally, connected devices equipped with the latest technologies such as AI and machine learning are also able to perform a whole array of tasks without human intervention. This obviously will help enterprises facilitating automation in their business processes with ease.
The connected ecosystem coupled up with mobile apps can help business administrators track user activities in real time and help to facilitate a lot of tasks without human interventions. While AI is helping the enterprises in automating certain processes, enterprise mobile apps can really play a key role in integrating connected devices with an intelligent IT system.
Conclusion
Internet of Things (IOT) and mobility as the two obvious era-defining technologies are bound to converge and influence each other. In the context of modern enterprise apps and connected workplace reality their joint actually looks bigger thanks to a few other revolutionary technologies like artificial intelligence, big data analytics and machine learning.
