Mobile application development is a hotter industry than ever. According to Google, Play has 1.5 billion downloads a month from its application store for the popular Android platform.
To succeed businesses need to be more in tune with their customers than ever. One way to miss the mark with your customers is to develop one-size-fits-all applications and not considering the differences of each platform. Savvy companies will adapt their application offerings to the particularities of each platform. When it comes to Google’s Android the Android application development trends will be driven in great part by the arrival of Android 5.0 (Lollipop).
Companies looking to build an Android application in 2015 should examine these trends and features and make sure to discuss them with their Android application developer.
Notifications
Notifications have been improved allowing users with the ability to see and interact with some notifications without having to unlock their Android device. A sound notification strategy should include this new functionality to separate your Android application from your competitor’s.
Material Design
With Android 5 Google introduces Material Design. Google has upgraded many their popular applications such as G Mail to this new design style. Android users will expect other applications to be designed in line with Material Design standards.
Wearables
This year sales of wearables such as smart watches and personal fitness devices are going to explode. The release of Apple Watch April will increase interest in all smart watch offerings including Android devices. Android Wear was recently updated and has improved usability. If you are planning on building and Android application you should consider including Android Wear support.
Keep in mind that with Android Wear your applications can do more than just show notifications. Over the course of the year we are sure to see several innovations as developers work to make their apps integrate with wearable devices.
Connectivity
Android 5 features are enhanced with Bluetooth Low Energy device support, this includes allowing an Android device to act as a beacon for other devices. Retailers should pay special note to the connectivity features when planning apps and should evaluate ways to utilize this improved sharing capability.
According to the 3rd Annual US Mobile Path to Purchase Study, mobile is pushing purchase decisions. Often the actual purchasing of those products is happening in physical stores but consumers are researching their decision on mobile devices beforehand, which creates an excellent opportunity for businesses that are prepared with a solid mobile strategy covering mobile applications and mobile friendly web sites.
“Mobile is becoming a increasingly more important way to drive in-store activity for businesses,” say Kimber Johnson, Managing Director of Vanity Point. “Consumers are looking to make decisions quickly and often with a local focus, so we are seeing businesses that are prepared are benefiting.”
Points of interest from the study include:
1) Over a third of mobile shoppers say that they use mobile exclusively or that mobile is their most important research tool.
2) 64 percent of mobile shoppers say they finish purchases in-store rather than on their mobile devices.
3) 53 percent of mobile shoppers call local businesses from mobile search results.
Ability to access an audience that is looking to buy on their preferred device is essential. The study also states that product research typically happens at the beginning of the purchase funnel and that 65 percent of shoppers said they complete the purchase that day.
“Designing and developing mobile applications for both the iOS and Android platforms and mobile web sites to support the consumers in store experience is helping push purchase decisions,” continues Mr. Johnson, “putting the tools consumers want in their hands is essential in the modern market.”
Recently, Rumble released a mobile user engagement study that some key data when it comes to the behaviors of consumer mobile engagement. A key point of their data is that there are big differences in how consumers share mobile content depending on the content and the type of device they use.
Interestingly, Android users were shown to be 2 – 3 times more likely to share articles than iOS users. According to Rumble, “Although building a high-performing Android mobile app can be time intensive and expensive the Android market is continuing to grow and now represents more than half of the U.S. smartphone market”. Therefore, those publishers who want to grow their audience and reach will benefit from having an Android presence.
Additionally, if you thought the most used way users share mobile news articles was via Facebook or Twitter, you would be surprised to learn that according to Rumble, email is the top sharing method (76 percent) versus 12% who use Twitter and another 12% who use Facebook. Clearly it is important that marketers support email sharing in their mobile apps.
It was also shown that iPhone users display 3X more likely to share an article than iPad users. Clearly if your mobile model has sharing as fundamental point, your mobile application development plans should start with an Android application and follow with an iPhone application.
Rumble’s findings also show that push notification is a key engagement tool with rates as high as 70 percent of an app’s user base opening the app with just a single push. Clearly this is an excellent tool for continued engagement with your application.