Mediafly’s marketing staff recently attended a thought leadership panel discussion that featured experts from Bell Labs, US Cellular, Accenture and others. The objective of the discussion was to explore the future of mobility and determine whether the ‘mobile revolution’ is coming to an end. Everyone in the room was eager to understand if innovation in mobile technology has reached its peak.
It’s important to understand where mobile applications are currently, and where they appear to be going in terms of innovation. Both hardware developers and application engineers continue to ask themselves how to continue to innovate, prompting the question “is it time to draw a hard line between hardware and mobile app innovation”? One of the panelists used the analogy of camera phones when discussing the future of mobile innovation. “There is only so much engineers can do with physical attributes. Install a smaller camera? Make the hardware thinner and sleeker? These features are all bound to hit their pinnacle.” Outside of wearables, there is no clear path to the next big thing in mobile hardware. This argument hinged on the fact that mobile platforms are indeed approaching a cease in innovation. The panelist went on to say that mobile applications specific to businesses will be more important than ever, and will give increased opportunity to specialized B2B application providers.
Although developers may feel new pressures to drive innovation on the app front due to the expected “peak of mobile hardware”, it’s important to step back and realize that this situation is really nothing new. Ever since Apple first launched the iPad in 2010, business-focused application development has become popular. In terms of current tablet use in the workplace, a recent computing survey of over 300 IT-specific professionals showed that 36% of companies currently provide tablets to their employees, and that 21% intend to within the next few months. These numbers should encourage mobile enterprise app developers to continue to step up their game. The demand is undoubtedly increasing.
Whether you agree or disagree that we’ve reached the peak of mobile hardware innovation, one cannot argue that enterprise mobility applications for B2C users are in the best place they have ever been. More than ever, decision makers and drivers of enterprise mobile strategy are attempting to gain the highest ROI and large-scale organizational impact from their mobility efforts.
Where do you stand on the mobility innovation debate? Do you believe mobile apps will act as a transformational catalyst for enterprise mobile strategy?
Sources:
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2278228/the-nations-enterprise-mobility-plans-revealed
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