A report by Statista revealed that mobile apps produce about $189 billion USD in profits. Several professionals believe mobile app development will continue to be a top growing industry for years to come.

New technological breakthroughs are happening all the time, especially where mobile apps and devices are concerned. In 2019, experts predict that there will be lots of new business opportunities for enterprises and entrepreneurs in the mobile app development market.

Our business team researched and analyzed the current trends in mobile app development right now. Below is a list of the trends which look to be the most promising. Also, you can check out App development trends 2018.

1. Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are currently popular for gaming applications. However, in 2019, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will have more use than just for playing games. The biggest tech companies are already experimenting with other users for these platforms. Apple and Google are even coming out with Augmented Reality demos which can be used on their mobile devices.

Social platforms may even integrate this technology for the purposes of branding and attracting prospective customers. This will be done with the “Beyond the Screens” apps available with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.

Instagram and Snapchat are two good examples of this. They’ve come out with Augmented Reality filters which can digitally transform a human face into all different kinds of humorous characters.

Some top trends in Augmented Reality are Mobile Disruption, Healthcare, Marketing, and Manufacturing.

2. Internet of things

You’ve probably heard of IoT technology. These are ordinary physical objects which have Wi-Fi compatibility, software, sensors, and other electronics built into them. All of these “smart objects” interconnect over a network which you can control right from your mobile device.

There are already big companies currently involved with the Internet of Things, such as Honeywell, Samsung, and Bosch. Some big trends in Internet of Things app development are Google Home, Nest Smart Home, and Kisi Smart Lock.

By 2020, the Internet of Things market throughout the world will accumulate $1.335 trillion USD in profits. We’ll see this progression for sure throughout 2019 as well.

Some future trend predictions of the Internet of Things involve healthcare, self-driving vehicles, smart homes, more secured routers, and smart areas.

3. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technology are entering the mobile app development market. The most popular example of artificial intelligence and machine learning is the Apple chatbot known as “Siri.” It seems like every iOS mobile app released by Apple has Siri involved somehow.

In 2019, Siri and chatbots won’t be the only things which use artificial intelligence and machine learning. A lot of companies are looking at both technologies seriously for their potential to grow revenue of their mobile application and lower operational costs.

Read More: “How Much Do Apps Make?”

The IDC states that over three-fourths of employees utilizing ERP solutions will look to make their work environment more proficient by taking advantage of artificial technology.

Therefore, artificial intelligence and machine learning will be involved in both current and future mobile app innovations.

Some future trends in artificial intelligence and machine learning that are predicted include chips with AI technology, automated DevOps with AI, automated machine learning, and neural network interoperability.

4. Beacons

Mobile apps with Beacons technology are now used in so many industries, such as healthcare, museums, and hotels. Many users understand Beacons technology now. Because of this, the capabilities of this technology will expand greatly upon in 2019.

Imagine Beacons and the Internet of Things combined in a retail setting. Users can use this technology to find important information about various sales and promotions nearby.

The Beacon technology trends to expect involve mobile payments, automated machine learning, Beacon treasure hunting, and chips with artificial intelligence.

5. Cloud

People still think of cloud as a fancy technology. This may change in 2019, though. Since there is more awareness toward the benefits of cloud, this will open up new possibilities for the technology in the coming year.

Cloud can lower hosting costs, increase business productivity, and boost loading capacity. Recently, companies are starting to use cloud to solve their security-related issues. With mobile app development, cloud can help make apps faster and more secure as well.

Cloud technology like SlideRocket, Dropbox, and AWS can provide the ability to develop cloud-operated mobile apps. This will be huge for the mobile development industry. Because it means that entrepreneurs can create more powerful apps without taking up much storage space on a user’s mobile device.

The biggest cloud computing trends of the year will be hybrid cloud solutions, quantum computing, and more cloud-based services.

6. Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets are in great demand. The only thing stopping them from going mainstream are security concerns. But as security technology gets better, mobile wallets may become more common in 2019.

More mobile apps will have mobile wallets and payment gateway integration in them. This technology will provide secured encryption for each transaction through a mobile app.

Mobile wallet trends will include more than two billion mobile wallet users worldwide, no-contact payment, and increased security of the mobile wallets.

7. Blockchain

When blockchain development was first introduced, it created a lot of interesting opportunities in the Information Technology industry.

In 2018, blockchains were mainly used to produce cryptocurrencies as well as smart contracts. But blockchains can do much more than this, such as creating decentralized mobile apps.

A decentralized mobile app does not have an owner, and no one can shut it down. This is like how blockchain decentralized bitcoin cryptocurrency and prevented that from shutting down. Now, this can happen for mobile apps too.

Blockchain technology trends to expect in the future include asset tokenization, crypto gaming, cryptocurrency exchanges for trading, and Blockchain-as-a-service.

8. Wearables

The Wearables industry continues to grow each year. Statista claims that Wearable devices will be worth more than $33 billion by the start of 2020.

For this reason, a lot of investments go toward the wearable market. People may very well talk about wearable devices in the future as often as they talk about their smartphones right now.

Current wearable devices require a smartphone to control them. They’re basically paired together wirelessly and must be in close range of each other.

Ryan Craycraft of UNA claims this will change. Smartphones won’t be used as the control panel of wearables in the future. Instead, wearable apps will connect directly to the internet on their own.

Wearable trends to expect include more wearable watches sold than traditional watches. Also, wearable technology being one of the top fitness trends of the year.

9. On-Demand Apps

On-demand is a successful business model in the mobile app development industry. This model is not going away anytime soon either. Virtually every industry is going to use on-demand apps as part of their business model.

Currently, about 42% of people over 18 are using a minimum of 1 on-demand service. Nothing shows the on-demand trend dying down either. So, if a business wants to stay competitive, they need to adapt to on-demand app development if they haven’t already. Otherwise, their competitors will destroy them.

On-demand trends to expect include an increased business-to-business focus and an increasing number of industries using on-demand apps.

Conclusion

It is important to keep track of the newest trends and technologies out right now because they will influence the future. This is how you can understand what your customers are demanding so that you can beat your competition.

Hopefully, this information and insight into this year’s mobile app development trends will get you thinking about your business more and what it can do to stay competitive.