Update 8 App marketing trends to watch out in 2018

We are witnessing interesting trends in mobile app development and 2018 is expected to be no different. Keep watching this space for more on mobile app development, latest trends and much more.

In many ways, 2017 was an exciting year when it comes to mobile apps development and marketing. Mobile apps graduated from being an optional investment to a necessity and now companies cannot simply afford to lose on sizable revenue generated by them.

The number of free apps downloaded stands at mind-boggling 254 billion, which is enough to ring some bells. An important question to be asked here is that how is mobile app marketing shape up in the year 2018? Here is a detailed look at the trends to watch out for.

Internet of Things and Wearable Apps

Homes, automobiles, retail and much about everything else is going smart. Wonder how this is being made possible? Then simply look around you. Zillions of apps are promising home security, making our vehicles safer, revolutionizing retail in spectacular ways and making us healthier.

Internet of Things has arrived for sure and is here to stay. We will be hearing more about the same in the coming year when smarter apps will be made available.

An important point to note here is the introduction of Android Things by Google to capitalize on the rise of the Internet of Things. Smartphone app developers will be challenged in the coming year to keep up with the trends and keep innovating with respect to Internet of things.

It is estimated that IoT will grow up to $661.74 billion by 2021, up from $157.05 billion at a staggering Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.3%. What does that indicate? It simply points towards the fact that IoT based mobile apps will be most sought after in the coming times.

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages is another trend to watch out for. It leads to faster loading of web content on mobile devices thereby leading to better user experience (UX). In a way, this has essentially changed the way we access internet for the better.

Some of the benefits of Accelerated mobile pages:

• Higher click through rates
• Increased visitor count
• Mobile Search Index
• Easy content placement
• Easy visitors analysis
• Improvement in page ranking
• Increased Advertisement visibility

Mobile Payments

Long bank queues are a passe and mobile payment is in. Make payments for services, purchase products and do a lot more just with your smartphone. All you need to have is the right applications to do that.

Just fire the app and make payment for utility bills or to purchase any product under the sun from the likes of Amazon and others in a flash. M-commerce is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming days and better be prepared for the same.

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Apps

Are Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Apps only for entertainment or gaming purpose? Well, you need to think again as these apps are all set to cross the threshold and venture into our daily lives pretty soon.

The AR and VR apps have a stupendous potential to do much more than that and are capable of catering to many other industry sectors as well. In fact, health-care, engineering, retail, real estate and education sectors have already making use of such apps.

Benefits of Augmented Reality Apps

• The clients can view enhanced details of the product or service in question
• One can show the benefits of products or services to the viewers in real-time
• This technology can be used pretty well for providing requisite training to the employees with minimum fuss.

Benefits of Virtual Reality Apps

• Three dimensional showcasing of a product
• Excellent way of company branding
• Interactive process of promotion of products by the virtue of photography and technology

On Demand Apps

Then there is the hugely popular niche of on-demand apps that are expected to stay strong throughout 2018. Our lives are being made much more convenient with each passing day thanks to these apps which includes Taxi services, Food Ordering services, Cleaning and Laundry and associated Beauty services.

Enterprise applications

Big industries are not lagging behind in embracing high end technology by promoting enterprise applications. The culture of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ is being accepted the world over, thereby accelerating use of the same. While this approach helps in cost saving for the industries, it provides a big impetus to the app development process as well. Needless to say, this is a win-win situation for everyone involved in the process.

Cloud based storage

Why are cloud based storage apps such as Dropbox and Google Drive becoming increasingly popular these days? This is mainly because these let you enjoy storage benefits without having to actually store files on your device.

In addition, you can upload them from one device and access it on the other with ease. It is predicted that more and more apps will be cloud driven in the coming days.

Cloud based apps are expected to control more than 90% of mobile internet traffic in the near future, as per Cisco VNI Global Mobile Forecast (2015-2020). This sector is going to witness a mind-boggling compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60%.

Android Instant Apps

Google has further blurred the difference between a website and mobile app with the introduction of Android Instant Apps that are native apps but function like mobile websites. In this way, these combine the best features of both of the worlds.

These apps run without installation and run seamlessly without any issue. Here are some of the salient features of the same:

• These apps can be used without installation
• These apps are backward compatible and run pretty fine on Android Jelly Bean onwards
• These are easy to share and do not consume much space on your smartphone