Cloud-Driven Mobile Apps – What Lies Ahead?
Imagine you come across a great mobile app idea for your employees or to sell to customers from the different app stores. What would be the biggest challenges that you need to overcome with your mobile app development company?
You would definitely want your app to find a place on the mobile devices of your users. But, with millions of apps fighting it out on the app stores to get noticed, be installed and eventually survive on the smartphones or tablets that possess limited internal memory, it could be difficult for your app to survive. And, if your mobile app development company designed a highly creative app which unfortunately occupies a lot of space on the mobile devices, there is every chance that your app will be the one that gets deleted when the user finds a new app that he or she cannot do without.
It is here that cloud-driven mobile apps prove to be a boon as they can directly fetch data from the cloud and occupy minimal space on the mobile devices of the app users. The popular mobile apps for cloud storage and access are Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and so on. The number of cloud-driven mobile apps that serve different purposes are on the rise and it is estimated that cloud apps will manage to drive 90% of the overall mobile data traffic till 2019, according to a Cisco study.
The cloud mobile apps are trending and there are many reasons why different app development companies will want to develop them now as well as in the future.
Ideal Scenarios for the Use of Cloud Mobile Apps
No Installation Required
Unlike native apps that are directly installed on a mobile device and for which a separate version needs to be created for the different mobile devices, cloud mobile apps need not be downloaded and installed on a mobile device. So, how can users access cloud-driven mobile apps?
Well, they simply need to access the apps by viewing the app user interface on the browser of the concerned mobile device. Thus, mobile cloud apps are pretty identical to web-based apps. In fact, both web and cloud apps run on servers which are external to the mobile device.
Targeting Multiple Operating Systems and Bring Your Own Device
You can use the services of a third-party app development company to design a cloud-based mobile app targeted for multiple mobile devices and not restricted to a single operating system. So, you do not need to look out specifically for an iPhone app development company or an Android app development company.
You may often develop a native mobile app initially only for Android, only to realize later that the same app needs to be designed for iOSor Windows as well. If you go for a cloud-based mobile app from the start, you need not spend more time and money to make the app compatible with a different mobile operating system.
For example, if your enterprise has a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy implemented or plans to do so in the future, cross-platform compatibility can easily be achieved by using mobile cloud apps.
Less Security Risk
Any mobile device is portable which makes it prone to theft and accidental loss. But, with a mobile cloud app, no data is accessed or left on the device itself. So, even if the device is stolen or lost, there is no danger of data falling into the wrong hands as it is stored on the mobile cloud and accessed from there.
Data Integration for Business
Most mobile business apps access databases which require integration of the apps with the enterprise’s current system. This is where mobile apps running on the cloud will help in a big way as they do not lie on a remote device whose language is not supported on the cloud. Instead, these apps belong to the same cloud to which the rest of your existing system belongs.
Future Prospects
The good part about mobile cloud apps is that they can be native apps that are rebuilt to run on the mobile cloud or even third-party apps downloaded to the cloud from any external source. Similarly, these apps can be custom developed for any type of mobile device.
While you now know the benefits offered by mobile cloud apps, it would also be good to note that native apps help with direct access to on-device functionalities like GPS, camera, and sound against the usage of application program interfaces (APIs) for the same. Also, native apps remove any browser overhead as its interface runs on the mobile device itself. This has resulted in a trend where many enterprises go for native as well as cloud versions of their apps.
What do you make of the cloud-driven mobile apps?
- Cloud-Driven Mobile Apps – What Lies Ahead? - March 18, 2017
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About The Author
Shishir
Shishir is the founder of ChromeInfotech, India’s leading mobile application development company. With over 10 years of experience, he know the mobile industry inside out.