The increasing rise of mobile Apps as replacement or compliments to traditional Internet use cases is just going to see ascension as the Internet is optimized into mobile Apps and Connected devices. In May 2014, IDC published this insight that 61% of Fortune 1000 companies have built 3 or fewer mobile applications. Gartner forecasts that by 2018 20 million enterprise mobile apps will be built by 2018. At the end of 2014 1.2 billion smartphones would have been shipped, representing 19.3 percent growth over 2013 as per IDC, and the mobile application platform market is growing at 38.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 1.4 billion in 2013 to $4.8 billion by 2017 (IDC). The growth is raising a new dimension to mobile connectivity, the sense of optimizing use of connectivity.
Feeling the Pinch of Always-ON Mobile
The market potential for Mobile Apps with offline Capability is a rising phenomenon with increasing positive ramifications for the world of Internet resources. But adding such capability for offline use can be a complex and costly event, according to Wired Magazine (June 2014). With consumer reliance on Apps on an uphill trend, there is a new desire to manage connectivity costs which is now ushering in a new realization where users of mobile Apps are sensitive to using specific Apps on Carrier Mobile networks (e.g. I refrain from using Google Maps in online mode with in 3G/LTE mode). We see concepts of some limited offline capability rearing head in some essential day-to-day Apps like Google Maps (with offline Maps caching), Nokia Here Maps that gives you total offline capability, Google Translator, now providing language packs for offline use and others, but it’s not enough. The trend for offline Apps is just beginning, and increasingly users will demand more offline experience. Why must a video on YouTube that I’ve already seen today, or partially played within a certain time frame need me to incur network charges to play or see again?
The “ethical” case for App’s having offline capability is that it’s good for all and empowers Enterprise to fully utilize mobile in their environment. Firstly Internet resources aren’t exactly infinite, persistent Connectivity everywhere is still a serious challenge, Carrier data capacities are neither infinite or having uniform experience (up/down link bandwidth) across sites, and what’s more important is that consumers and enterprise users are feeling the pinch with data charges having to remain online. Offline capability will increasingly become a sensitive requirement that users will demand, including application to digital wears like Smart watches that need Smartphone’s to deliver simple services. As Enterprise Apps become mainstream with the transformation or transmutation of the Internet / Intranet services into Apps, the need to po for Apps to possess offline capability will become a make or break for digital strategies.
A way Out
In a research by VDC, 89% of Enterprises regarded offline support to be extremely or somewhat critical to facilitate usability, security and productivity.
I came across a solution to the complexity of building offline Apps, and it’s called Alpha Anywhere. Alpha Anywhere is not the only platform out there, but it is essential the one which boasts robust transactional offline support directly within its engineering shell. The apps you build in Alpha Anywhere can be built to work smoothly offline with no incremental cost or time by developers.
Alpha Anywhere is an extension of the Alpha Software development platform that focuses on enterprise mobile application development. Alpha Software, based in Burlington, Mass., is designed to be a low-cost way to build functional applications for business purposes.
While most solutions address either the front-end OR the back end, Alpha Anywhere™ is a single environment that combines all required client and server development features – allowing you to solve sophisticated app challenges, including offline support with a few clicks. It features scalable, secure deployment, and connections to a wide range of SQL databases, NoSQL Databases, and web services.
Sources & Credits: IDC, Gartner, VDC, #Alphasoftware.com
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