Opportunities in Mobile Platforms
Ten years ago, mobile phones began as a new technology trend with fifty million users globally but today there are 5.6 billion mobile phone users. This rate of technology adoption is unprecedented in human history and it is expected that the number of mobile phone users will continue to rise. According to the telecommunication industry report, there are 4.2 billion mobile phones in use in developing countries, most of them are basic, and some can access to the Internet but cannot download apps. However as the price of smartphone is decreasing, this mobile market will exploded all over the world. I have seen the price of android smartphone selling in Africa and India for about $30 dollars and I think in the near future, all mobile phones will be “smartphone”.
With more people using smartphone, this market will completely disrupt the personal computer (PC) and the need for more mobile apps will increase in every country. However, there is a critical shortage of mobile apps developers because universities have not adopted mobile platform into their curriculum. Few years ago, when people mentioned mobile applications, most people thought of mobile games which sold in mobile app stores for few dollars but it had changed quickly. Today with better smartphones, the market of mobile apps has evolved into a much more sophisticated sector with many types of application: Mobile health is probably the fastest growing; mobile banking is also grow fast; mobile payment is another sector that has value over billion dollars; mobile commerce is replacing the e-commerce as more people buy things using their smartphone than their personal computer. If mobile developers do not catch this trend quickly, they will miss a good opportunity.
As the mobile device market is still evolving, there will be many new products coming that change the definition of mobile devices. Few years ago laptops replaced desktops; then notebook replaced laptops; then tablets is replacing netbooks and soon there will be new hybrid devices between tablets and netbooks with touch screen such as the Asus’s Taichi and Microsoft’s Surface etc. Smartphones are also evolving quickly. As they become more powerful, they begin to be used as netbooks because more people like the portability and multifunctional. One thing is for certain: mobility is important as people want to be able to access applications and data anytime and anywhere. This is why some tablets continues to grow fast as some new models can be used as a phone, a camera, a videogame players, and a computer. The convenience of these new devices will change the way people are using mobile devices and create more opportunities for companies specialize in mobile applications and developers with mobile application skills.
Today China has over 800 million smartphone users, almost double the number of smartphones of the U.S. and most of them are Androids platform. This trend is not unique as more than two third of the smartphones sold worldwide were Androids. As the number of users switching to smartphone in developing countries, Androids will probably become the standard soon. Why Android is so popular? It is simple because Google make its operating system open for all developers and phone manufacturers so any one can build and sell android smartphone. Apple does not allow such thing as everything, from iPhone to IOS operating system are done and controlled by Apple. As the price of Android smartphone is decreasing to less than $30 dollars where many people can afford to buy, it is obvious that most people would buy Android phone rather than the expensive iPhone.
The huge number of smartphone users has also created a great opportunities for mobile application companies and developers. As more people are using smartphone, software companies around the world will have excellent access to billion of customers. Mobile application is now a lucrative market open to many companies and developers to build apps for local use, in local language and as smartphones bring the internet access to almost everybody. The questions are: “Is your company ready to support the next billion customers coming on line? Do you have the knowledge and skills to grab this opportunity? If not, when will you?
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
