According to Forrester’s recent predictions,[i] “2021 will be the year that every company – not just the 15% of firms that were already digitally savvy – doubles down on technology-fueled experiences, operations, products, and ecosystems.”
During 2020 many firms reacted to new ways of working due to the COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating their use of technology and in many cases, by developing business apps.
Many businesses have developed apps for the first time in recent months and increasingly, they are using low code app development tools to support them.
This trend looks set to grow. Gartner predicts that more than 65% of app development will be done via low code application platforms by 2024[ii]. Platforms like our Evoke are transforming the app development process.
What is driving this desire for apps?
Many companies are seeing apps as a solution to respond to some of the challenges caused by the pandemic and to changing consumer and business behaviour brought about by lockdown restrictions globally.
According to mobile analytics firm App Annie,[iii] the pandemic “has changed consumer behaviour on mobile forever”. It says mobile adoption boomed in 2020, advancing in one year, what would have traditionally taken two to three years.
Last year, consumers spent $143 billion on mobile apps, up 20% from 2019; with the top markets driving this spend being China, the USA, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
App Annie also reveals that the average time spent on a mobile device surpassed four hours and 10 minutes during the pandemic – up 20% from 2019.
It also wasn’t just the younger generations embracing mobile apps. In 2020 it was the Millennials (25–40-year-olds) and Gen X / Baby Boomers (41–75-year-olds) who increased the time they spent in their apps the most, up 18% and 30% respectively in the USA, and the figures were similar in the UK (17% and 27%). Whereas previously some businesses thought their customers do not use apps, the pandemic has changed this and now most of the population now regularly uses apps.
There has also been phenomenal growth in mobile commerce, and now more than two thirds of online sales occur on mobile devices[iv] – suggesting that businesses which ignore mobile customers or fail to optimise apps for mobile devices will be losing potential sales.
As a result of these trends, we expect to see many more businesses creating apps this year to streamline internal processes, automate different functions and to improve how they trade and interact with their customers.
Using a low code development tools like Evoke, can simplify the app development process considerably and enable companies to develop sophisticated apps in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional app development methods.
One major benefit is that companies can use their existing staff to develop apps rather than external software developers. This is because a platform like Evoke does not require people to have any coding skills. It makes extensive use of ‘drag and drop’ and ‘point and click’ development techniques so it is simple and intuitive to use.
It also allows companies to develop an app once and deploy it across multiple mobile and desktop devices, multiple operating systems and integrate with any database.
Another key benefit is that Evoke gives companies plenty of flexibility to customize their app and evolve it over time and add further custom code – there are simply no limitations on future customization and endless development possibilities, which is what every business needs.
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[i] https://go.forrester.com/predictions-2021/?utm_source=forbes&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=predictions_2021
[ii] https://www.alphasoftware.com/blog/low-code-trends-for-2021
[iii] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-08-17-covid-19-drives-first-half-mobile-app-spending-to-usd50b-app-annie
[iv] https://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/exciting-trends-in-mobile-app-development-for-2021-02370730