We are in the fourth quarter of the year 2014 and within few days we will enter into the next year to witness some of the changes that will probably affect the mobile app development world in 2015. According to the findings of a recent study from Flurry Analytics, smartphone users spend about 2 hours and 42 minutes on their mobile devices, out of which they spend 2 hours and 19 minutes with app usage. In a fast changing world where mobile app developers are still trying their best to master application development and catch up with the market, the forthcoming year will bring more complexities and challenges for mobile application developers.

Let’s look at some of the probable mobile app development trends that can make a real difference to the mobile world. These include:

• Lower popularity of standalone apps.
• Emergence of new opportunities with hardware-driven innovation.
• Shifting of mobile competition to accessories and ecosystems.
• Front-end mobile experiences to dominate the market
• High definition mobile context.
• Increased utility of service virtualization and API design tools.
• Shifting of low-code platforms into the aggregation tier.

Micro-moments

As per the finding of the Internet Advertising Bureau, employees look at their smartphones an average of 34 times per day. In response to that employers are trying to make the most of the employees’ regular, unproductive habits with task-specific apps that enable them to work from anywhere. This new way of working is called “micro-moments of productivity”.

The rise of enterprise apps are going to change the lives of people in the modern world. IT firm IDC believes that in 2015 the number of mobile workers will reach up to 1.3 billion and will create a big market for the web development industry. That is why micro-moments within apps are being designed to enhance the user experience in order to manage everyday work issues. Task-specific apps help employees to make an instant decision and work from anywhere. Now, with the emergence of micro-moments, no zone is a “work free zone”.

To boost workers’ productivity, business users and mobile application developers need to put their focus on the following aspects:

• User experience to enhance the existing process.
• Highly productive and functional modern design.
• Short and snappy functions.

API ecosystem

Today, API has become the foundational architecture that manifests the vision of mobile application developers. API ecosystem is must for a flexible front-end experience that continuously adapts to changing customer demands. In the absence of this flexibility, businesses have to maintain separate back-end architectures for every front-end channel.

Leverage of APIs is necessary to cut down on distractions, acquire knowledge, create and test new offerings and tap a broader application ecosystem for value. To get the best output and overcome expectation of customers, web app developers need to focus the API ecosystem than building amazing apps and incredible customer experiences. As good developer, first think about the platform, then give preference to user experience and finally to the data storage.

In 2015, mobile application developers need to focus on API ecosystem and micro-moments to get an edge and give end users highly interactive mobile apps that help them manage time, cost and productivity.