Smartphone acquisition keeps growing. It is estimated that this year the amount of devices reached 2.32 billion all over the world. Surveymonkey, GO-Globe and Gartner have reported that global revenues from mobile applications are expected to reach $77 billion by 2017.
Together, Apple and Google Play have hosted nearly 4.3 million applications and the techniques for developing iOS Apps and Android Apps continue evolving.
For some years from now, mobile usage has represented 65% of digital media time  and an estimated time spent per month of 35 hours from people between 18 to 44 years old. This is more than relevant data to keep in mind in order to determine app development trends in 2017.
Mobile app winning ideas for this year
Cloud support
Most smartphone users prefer to use applications with unfailing cloud support. Accessing apps on multiple devices without losing any data is the main reason for this demand. The cloud-based technology is expected to become a trend to favor multi-device synchronization of apps.
API´s demand will also increase in order to improve this integration.
Internet of things
The use of this technology is expected to grow as smart devices keep being launched to market. Companies in the field of health, education or security have started to experiment with IoT. Google is making an effort for this to happen since they recently launched Android Things, a kit to build connected devices for a wide variety of applications using the Android framework and tools.
Mobile Apps Security
Developers will also have to secure the exchange of personal information over wi-fi networks. The growth of mobile app industry has also brought inevitable information threats and  attacks. It is expected that App developers implement a stronger encryption of data and constant security updates to preserve privacy in mobile apps.
Location-based Services
A great amount of apps are interested in the use of this functionality to enhance users experience as they expect real time information. In the game industry Pokémon Go showed the power and attraction of this technology to engage gamers. Besides games, Location-based services allows business to offer deals to their customers.
Augmented Reality
Last year we witnessed the power of reality apps and this is expected to be on the rise for 2017. This trend is expected to keep transforming the way we interact with software systems and with each other. Also, AR seems to be strongly moving into industries like retail, manufacturing and life sciences.
Improving User Experience (UX)
The design of applications is something that has evolved over the years and it will continue this year since designers need to achieve visually appealing and user-friendly apps as technology advances. This will continue to be paramount in order to avoid users to quit an app and to give them a pleasant and innovative experience.
Android Instant Apps
Google has been experimenting with ways people can access an application without downloading it and Android Instant Apps is a step further into that direction. This is a way to bring an immersive experience for users since it enables Android Apps to run instantly, with just a few taps on the screen after we open a link or search in the web.
This is a concept that could change the dynamics of the app development industry and a trend to watch out this year. Here is a video that explains how it works:
Applications today are not build to be used in smartphones only. We have wearables such as watches or clothes, smart tv’s, smart houses and smart cars. Some others even predict a growth in ambient intelligence and artificial intelligence in 2017 as mobile app development gets smarter.
These are some trends that started or stood out in the past months and, therefore, they should be considered as winning ideas when building apps in 2017.
