According to Gartner, by 2017, mobile applications will be downloaded over 268 billion times, generating revenue of over $77 billion and making applications one of the most popular computing tools for customers across the globe. As a result, Gartner predicts that mobile users will provide personalised data streams to more than 100 applications and services every day.
?Mobile applications have become the official channel to drive content and services to consumers. From entertainment content to productivity services, from quantified-self to home automation, there is an application for practically anything a connected consumer may want to achieve,? says, Brian Blau, research director, Gartner. Blau adds, ?This connection to consumer services means users are constantly funneling data through mobile applications. As users continue to adopt and interact with applications, it is their data ? what they say, what they do, where they go ? that is transforming the application interaction paradigm.?
Gartner states that currently, applications often provide an opportunity for brands to reach and engage with customers in a direct way, and therefore data coming from the user is often treated as a resource. This is particularly true of free applications, which in 2013 account for 92 per cent of application downloads. Application users are providing troves of data and often accept advertising or data connectivity in exchange for access to the applications.
Gartner points out that brands and businesses are already using mobile applications as a primary component of their user engagement strategies, and as the use of mobile devices, including wearable devices, expands into other areas of consumer and business activities, mobile applications will become even more significant.
Blau, says, ?In the next three to four years, applications will no longer be simply confined to smartphones and tablets, but will impact a wider set of devices, from home appliances to cars and wearable devices. By 2017, wearable devices will drive 50 per cent of total application interactions.?
Wearable devices will use mobile applications as their conduit for data exchange and user interface, because many of them will have few or no user interface capabilities. Offloading that responsibility to the mobile device means the wearable devices will depend on applications for all types of user input or output, configuration, content creation and consumption, and in some cases, basic connectivity.
According to Gartner, while wearable devices will not fully rely on mobile devices, it is a way for manufacturers to keep these devices small and efficient, therefore significantly reducing device costs in favor of using applications, which are more easily maintained and updated. Further, considering their underlying service, most wearable devices need some type of user interface. Taking the example of a fitness-tracking device, ultimately its onboard data will need to be uploaded into the cloud, processed, and then analysed in reporting back to the user. Applications are an obvious and convenient platform to enable great products and services to be developed.?
Mobile applications are often a vehicle for cognisant computing, in which the data gathered through the use of the applications and the analytics around it are becoming more important in both volume and value. In fact, it can be so sophisticated that through their solution providers, consumer brands know a lot about any individual consumer, such as the consumer’s demographic data, location, preferences, habits, etc. As a result, Gartner predicts that by 2015, cognisant computing will be a key enabler in smart home solutions.
Sandy Shen, research director, Gartner, says, ?Cognisant computing takes intelligent actions on behalf of users based on their historical data, preferences and rules. It can predict user needs and complete tasks without users initiating the action or interfering with the service. It can take the very simplistic format of completing a recurring event such as to turn on the water heater at a preset time, or the more sophisticated format of calling the rescue services and connecting with the doctor when an emergency occurs.?
Cognisant computing can play a meaningful role at home because home settings are stable with relatively fixed equipment, and the, in that each stays in its own boundaries with little user behavior there is routine and predictable. Tasks tend to be linear interactions among different disciplines. For example, the entertainment services are unlikely to need to interact with the healthcare or home management services. Also, the amount of equipment or service data to call upon is relatively small compared with an outdoor environment, where the surrounding conditions and user intentions are more diverse.
Gartner states that large service providers such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are likely to have a head start in this market due to the relationship they already have with consumers, which provides them with a large repository of user data that they can analyse and predict ? a key asset in cognisant computing. In addition, consumers also trust these brands to manage their personal data ? another key aspect in cognisant computing, whereas newcomers will have to build these relationships from scratch. Smart home solutions will likely span across various brands and platforms in order to become ?intelligent? and deliver good user experience. Those that are restricted to a single brand are likely to lose the competitive edge.
