Is it really possible to imagine that Big Data can improve mobile apps? How can they influence them?
With 4.77 billion users in possession of a smartphone, we certainly cannot deny that the mobile app market is one of the most promising sectors to invest in and focus on for the near future.
Each brand uses mobile apps to reach an ever wider audience, to meet customer needs and to benefit from a higher ROI.
However, it is not as easy as it may seem.
There are billions of mobile apps that require the need to stay constantly updated with current market trends in rapid evolution: in this way customer behavior and other factors can be constantly monitored by the companies themselves.
To stay up to date, it is necessary to know how to collect and manage the data available: this is a rather laborious and complicated process, for this reason Big Data plays a significant role in market strategy and in improving mobile apps.
The millions and millions of bytes of data that users produce on a daily basis can actually help developers build far better applications than they currently do.
In this article, we collect all the important information about how Big Data is laying the foundation for a revolution in the world of apps.
Table of Contents
Develop the best app for mobile devices: functional characteristics and purposes
In the current scenario, more and more users are using smartphones and tablets to surf the Internet in order to exploit the full potential of the Net to their advantage, using content quickly and easily to always be connected and in contact with the network.
The commitment of app developers must be aimed at offering solutions that are technologically effective and functional, for this reason they are always looking for new ways to interpret and predict the current and future needs of users. If one is looking forward to having a career in this field and having knowledge about how to associate with continuous delivery, continuous integration, and automation of development, one can go through the Intellipaat DevOps certification..
Here are the technical characteristics and purposes that mobile apps must have:
- Allow an analysis of the user experience as complete as possible,
- The development of apps in line with current needs allows to improve the User Experience (UX),
- Every app developed for mobile devices must be attractive, user friendly, fast, intuitive, easy to use, but above all it must best meet the latent needs of users,
- Big Data and mobile apps impact the UX, conceived as a primary source to identify the best and most creative ideas. Thanks to Big Data, developers can find solutions to improve existing apps, as well as find new customer / user oriented ideas. In addition, they can understand how users interact with an app and identify their specific behavior during use.
Big data and mobile apps: from personal use to business applications
The app market is an increasingly thriving and promising market, the data are clear:
- IOS applications (IPhone and IPad): these are applications that have an important development platform capable of expanding their visibility and making their content even more accessible.
- Android applications: Google’s mobile platform allows you to develop new applications and widgets in order to offer solutions that can adapt to various hardware configurations.
- Applications for companies and the business world that can be used on all different types of mobile devices and on different operating systems. These types of apps need access to the data contained in the management and IT systems of the various departments and company departments. Through the use of a Service-oriented architecture, the link between Big Data and mobile apps is increasingly inseparable. The applications developed for business purposes are able to respond in real time to the needs of the consumer, recovering data and functions directly from company databases, with data saved locally on the mobile device. Taking advantage of current technologies available on the market, it is possible to create mobile applications that use the HTTPS protocol so that the use of data takes place in total security, without cyber security problems.
The role of Big Data, mobile apps and the new “Era of Marketing”
The amount of data produced by users has far exceeded the petabyte level, the amount of data stored globally should register touch the yottabyte.
Data can help you get valuable information needed to develop new innovative apps and improve the use of existing ones.
Big data is the solid foundation for revolutionizing the development of apps for mobile devices and for influencing the marketing strategy of companies.
A complete analysis of user experiences is required for app development: Big Data outline all the details of consumer behavior and can provide relevant indications on the strategic points on which companies must focus more to implement strategic changes and to create value added.
Furthermore, it is necessary to “incorporate” UX into app development: already in a previous article ” Why Big Data and machine learning will be essential to stimulate the growth of app development ” we stressed that “One of the main objectives that should be set […] would certainly be the analysis of what users’ behaviors are when they deal with interacting with the app itself. Companies have only recently come to understand how important these preliminary analyzes (on data) are, and if you think that Google started to massively disseminate Analytics only in 2012, you can also understand why many other business realities still struggle to integrate this form of thought into its own development activity “.
Mobile app developers can use new ideas by analyzing the big data available to them: for example, they can analyze the top rated apps in the wellness and fitness sector if they want to create a similar app.
They could analyze apps like Argus, Runkeeper, Fitstar Personal Trainer and understand user behavior with the use of apps. Hence, they can include innovative features such as pedometer, calorie counter and so on, to make their app more usable and pleasant for users.
The business intelligence and Big Data are transforming the app path design for mobile devices, which is increasingly based on knowledge. Some well-known marketing tools that act on these aspects are: Salesforce, Epsilon Agility Harmony Digital Messaging Platform, Strong from Selligent and CheetahMail.
Mobile apps that take advantage of Big Data are vital for companies, especially for the Marketing and Sales Department: from company data analysis to operational intelligence, from assistance to “virtual” customers to marketing, the business world can achieve interesting ROI.
For example, Apple has adopted supply chain management functions to take advantage of the benefits that can be brought to the marketing strategy. But unfortunately, not all companies are like Apple, whose mobile app developers can take up to four days to assemble any product in the supply chain.
Other big brands that take advantage of Big Data to collect customer-focused data in real time and to develop apps for mobile devices are:
Amazon: Jeff Bezos’ company uses Big Data technology for predictive analysis through which it is possible to show products similar to those that users have researched on E-Commerce and many companies are working who offer amazon restricted products approval services.
Uber: Uber employs Big Data Analytics tools for different purposes. For example: when booking a taxi, the company analyzes the traffic conditions in real time, the availability of a driver in the immediate vicinity of the customer, estimates the travel time, etc. Using the data obtained, an estimate of the time to be waited and the price of the service is provided.
Big Data and App development: 5 tips
The link between Big Data and mobile App development is increasingly strategic for companies since:
- Helps to understand the public: to satisfy users, it is necessary to understand their needs. For this, it is necessary to examine the information collected from different sources, including social network channels. With the help of Big Data Analytics and other Machine Learning tools, it is easy to group the data into different categories and foresee the next strategic step to be taken through the analysis of constantly updated data;
- Business success and competitiveness on international markets increases: in order to operate in an international context, each multinational must be able to use Big Data which provide data filtered according to various factors: location, age, gender, etc.
- Helps improve performance: thanks to Big Data, developers can easily monitor the amount of traffic generated by their application. Furthermore, they can evaluate problems that hinder the performance of their application and, consequently, they can easily improve the performance of their app and inhibit the user from abandoning the use of the application;
- Offers data in real time: Big Data offers the possibility of having data updated in real time and marketers can adapt to contextual changes. In other words, Big Data Analytics provides organizations with relevant and useful information to make strategic decisions as quickly as possible to generate greater profits;
- The number of users involved increases: with a data pool concerning user behavior, it is easy to determine which type of push notifications must be sent to users in order to involve them. This increases the number of users involved and app revenues.
A mobile app must be at the center of each company’s digital strategy since Big Data offer valuable information, as personalized and updated in real time, in order to satisfy the needs of users in the most effective way possible.
Big Data and mobile applications: the future is digital
Currently, almost 73% of companies use Big Data to grow their business and this figure is expected to increase for the next few years. The Big Data market is expected to hit around $ 65.2 billion in 2021.
The mobile app market is also expected to break through the $ 100 billion mark and reach $ 189 billion by 2020. For this reason, developing better mobile apps is the key to the future and the digital transformation. The future of the world of mobile apps is closely linked to that of Big Data: developers will find new strategies to interpret the huge amounts of data to identify the key features of the apps of the future.
