We’re back to discussing Gartner’s predictions for mobile apps and development, where we examine each strategic planning assumption, and provide our perspective.
This next prediction relates to a topic we are very excited about…The Internet of Things (IoT) and the percentage of mobile apps talking directly to IoT devices increasing over the next several years.
Gartner Strategic Planning Assumption #4: By 2018, 25% of new mobile apps will talk to IoT devices.
AnyPresence Take: We think this assumption is too conservative, and the % of new mobile apps that talk to IoT devices will be closer to 50%. Just in the last year, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in customer interest around IoT device integration, and have focused our efforts on enhancing our platform to support IoT app development and supporting developer ecosystems around IoT devices. As Gartner predicts and we strongly concur, the number of web-connected devices will continue to grow across both industrial and consumer use cases, and the most successful organizations will be those who can empower strong developer ecosystems within this landscape.
The explosion of IoT continues at a stunning pace. There's no doubt that all those devices will produce a massive amount of data and present an entirely new set of challenges for both IoT vendors and enterprises looking to leverage IoT devices. In the traditional MBaaS scenario, the platform is used to build apps that run on mobile device endpoints and consume data from enterprise systems. In a world dominated by a lot more web connected sensors and non-traditional app channels, MBaaS platforms will be used to build apps that run on emerging devices such as wearables and automobiles, and consume data from a myriad of sensors and other data gathering devices.
In 2016 and beyond, we'll see more businesses across various industries trying to capitalize on the IoT opportunity by brining solutions to market. A wide range of new apps will emerge that communicate with IoT devices to deliver new interactions, product features and services. The growing commercial importance of this overlap between the IoT and apps is illustrated by the emerging battles in this space between vendors and APIs such as HomeKit, HealthKit, Nest and others.
A key will be providing IoT manufacturers with a holistic hardware and software platform for smart appliances, mobile apps, and developer ecosystem enablement. Which means exposing APIs to provide a path for third party developers to build solutions that leverage cross-manufacturer IoT devices in unique and innovative ways to help ensure an ecosystem built around the device as early as possible.
As IoT manufacturers seek to increase adoption and usage of smart appliances and devices, the AnyPresence platform can be used to engage a broader ecosystem of developers and partners with sample apps, SDKs, and APIs. We’re working with several enterprise customers to support this use case today.
Stay tuned for our next post in this series, where we provide our take on the final Gartner mobile app development strategic planning assumption:
By 2019, one out of three new business-to-employee (B2E) mobile apps will fail within six months of launch.