Post by Stephen Zsolnai, Front End Developer at Aqueduct

On 9 February 2012 I attended the What's Appening Next conference hosted by Ciklum. There were a number of talks regarding the future of mobile and application development, current trends and statistics by a group of top individuals from the industry. I have grouped some of the points from the afternoon together in this article.

The Speakers

• Rashad Sharif - Senior Analyst, Google
• Naji El-Arifi - Product Manager, Somo
• Tim Closs - CTO, Marmalade

Rashad Sharif - Senior Analyst at Google

Some great statistics from Google's search analyst

• Google will be pushing their own voice integration technology in the coming months.
• 1.2 billion people currently use the mobile web.
• A quarter of all time spend online is via mobile.
• 10 - 20 times growth on mobile and tablet queries compared to desktop. 192% year on year growth for mobile queries via Google.
• Retail growth through mobile 8% up to 18% 2011.
• Ebay make a sale on mobile every second.
• The growth of Ebay mirrors that of mobile usage:
  • 2010 - $2 billion
  • 2010 - $5 billion
  • 2010 - $8 billion (projected)
• How many of you got a mobile or tablet for Christmas? In the week following Christmas in 2011 there were 11% more queries on mobile, 23% more on tab.
• Tesco engaged users in South Korea via mobile with a series of posters in subways detailing images of everyday items. The idea was for passengers to shop by scanning the imagery with their mobiles whilst waiting for their train. They would then recieve a delivery of the items at home.
• 40% of searches on mobile have a local intent.
• Over half of UK people use mobile while watching television

What can your business do to take advantage of these trends?

• Develop an integrated mobile strategy
• Build your mobile destinations to target your audience. Website? Native Application?
• Take advantage of the immediate nature of mobile users. Shorter path. They want it now.
• Connect and engage with mobile users (tescos example in South Korea)

Naji El-Arifi - Product Manager at Somo

Somo specialise in Augmented Reality applications and are at the cutting of their field with clients including Dominoes, Samsung and Audi

• Types of augmented reality? Reality browser (like an overlay on surroundings) and trigger based (3d object interaction)
• A good example of their work with Audi

Some other leading AR companies:

• Kudan - Image based recognition and now with 3d technology.
• Qualcomm - upload images to their site and they will tell you if it can be a trigger.
• Layar - They are now looking to keep all assets on their servers and not the device. This will make for lighter apps.
• String
• Obvious Engine

Examples:

• Hoops AR Basketball
• AC 130

What's coming up?

• Increase in rendering quality.
• Interactive brochures without triggers.

When to use AR?

• Drive user engagement. Have a reason for someone to use it.
• Inform the user.
• Rich interactivity. Make posters more interesting, video tracking.
• Brand differentiation. Be different from others.
• Drive core business metrics. Call to actions and requests.

Tim Closs - CTO Marmalade

Marmalade provide tools for cross platform mobile application development. They provide:

• Tools for apps, phones and smart tv.
• Marmalade SDK is a cross platform tool for apps.
• There are two ways to use it. Natively with c/++ or with web applications.
• They will be providing flash UI for mobile through third party platform integration.
• Web marmalade will be released at the end of march and will integrates phone gap into their current platform bridging gap between devices to bring more advanced JavaScript and 3d options to the table.
• Single code base for apps and games.
• They are working together with Ciklum and outsourcing to the Ukrain.
• They built a great app around the book Harold and the Purple Crayon which won the award for the best interactive iPad book.

Questions:

What differentiates apps? Is there now too much clutter with apps in stores?

• Apple have changed their application process. They have stopped accepting certain apps if there is saturation.
• Ensure you have good content, good strategy. People will find and share.
• Same as music and books. Quality will win through.

How do you advise brands? Pure reach? Branding? All platforms?

• Who do you want to reach? Target the correct devices.
• Web is to be discovered, apps are to nurture.
• What has the company done before? Build upon it. What do you want to achieve?
• It's more about the business and user needs rather than pushing a certain technology or specific device.

HTML5 or native?

• HTML5 may not catch up to the performance of native apps as there is so much competition between vendors.
• HTML5 has the advantage of good reach but has a way to go.

Paid vs free?

• It won't be the business model that makes you money. It will be the quality of the app.
• For free apps you can't always use just one provider and you need to employ mediation.
• The app is an extension of your business. If it improves your brand, you will make money.
• If it's something unique, then sell it.

Who is a challenge to Android or Apple?

• Windows should be successful due to their partnership with Nokia
• Windows 8 looks strong.
• Developers are excited about windows 8.
• There will always be new operating systems.
• Microsoft may not be as engaging as the top two for a while though.