As 2015 draws to an end, it’s time to start thinking ahead to what’s in store for next year. Because the field of mobile technologies changes so rapidly, it’s important to know what particular directions it will move towards. What should be on your radar, and what can you safely ignore? Read on to learn what’s worth paying attention to in the coming 12 months.
HTML5
This programming platform has been gaining popularity since its introduction. It would appear that 2016 will be the year that HTLM5 becomes even more widespread.
Why is HTLM5 becoming developers’ top choice? It works well for building cross-platform apps. A survey carried out by Strategy Analytics and app development firm Sencha predict the use of HTML5 will grow by 20%.
The Impact of the Internet of Things
The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2020, 50 billion items will be connected to a network. From January 1st, 2016, that’s only four years away.
Between 2016 and 2020, adoption of networked objects (including wearable devices such as smart glasses and smart watches) will only grow. While networked objects will have a significant impact on consumer technology, they will not leave the realm of enterprise technology untouched. Businesses will need to decide what networked objects are useful as well as how to reduce their security risk.
M-commerce
M-commerce is short for “mobile commerce.” What’s the difference between m-commerce and e-commerce? M-commerce comprises shopping on mobile devices; it’s a subset of e-commerce.
The digital marketing solutions company Criteo forecasts that by the end of 2015, m-commerce will reach 33% in the US and 40% globally. Mobile app development firm Arkenea predicts that shopping mobile devices, especially on smartphones, will become more and more common in 2016.
Automation and Mobile Technology
Julie Ask of Forrester Research claims that 30 billion mobile moments take place each day in the US. Each one of those moments contains information about mobile device users. Even one billion mobile moments is an enormous amount of data to handle. How are businesses going to deal effectively with 30 times that number?
Ask believes automating the delivery of mobile services is the solution to coping with a massive influx of information. The ease and convenience of mobile devices means that people will only use them more, not less. For vendors of mobile services delivery automation, it represents an opportunity.
Security and Mobile Devices
In 2005, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reported 136 data breaches. A decade later, Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report covered 2,100 data breaches.
The rising rate of mobile devices in the workplace means that security risks will grow, too. What are the most likely threats to mobile devices? As it turns out, companies should be slightly less worried about malware or hacking than lost or stolen devices. A report published by Trend Micro in the fall of 2015 states that device loss accounts for 41% of breaches, while hacking and malware caused 25% of breaches.
The post What’s on the Horizon for Mobile Technology in 2016? appeared first on Merit Solutions.