From a time when we used to get information by processing data, we have reached a stage where the output is still information that is desired by the user but the input has grown very large in scale – from data to BIG DATA. Data is now fast becoming another sort of raw materials be it any kind of industry, mobile app development being no exception to this point. For example, mobile app development companies in Singapore analyze various patterns of massive size that are provided by the users of their mobile apps. Big data helps in the development of secure mobile app development also.
In another 2 to 3 years, we can expect that the number of mobile apps being downloaded to grow to 258 billion. It is quite an amazing and astonishing figure. With the kind of user base (that grows every moment) the data that these apps, be they Android-based or targeted towards iPhone, will be producing is bound to be enormous. In the future, the word Gigabyte might fade into history like Kilobytes of yesteryears. We shall be dealing with yottabytes (280 bytes) of data. Though we might be staring into a bright future, yet there is a problem that is visibly clear – this raw BIG DATA is in an unstructured form. This data can contain audio-video samples, chat, or semi-structured data such as json or xml files. To analyze and develop this unstructured or semi-structured data is the need of the hour. Big Data has various tools that can be used for collecting, organizing, and evaluating diverse data sets. As such they will be able to identify market trends and customer preferences for building better futuristic mobile apps. These tools can also be used for enhancing the existing apps. The tools include Spark, MongoDB, Tableau, Hadoop, Cloudera, Hive, etc.
Exploiting Big Data in Mobile Application Development
Having understood the significance of big data while developing mobile apps let’s see how big data can be exploited for developing these futuristic apps.
1) User Experience Analytics: Big Data can help provide the developers with insights regarding the behavioral patterns of the app’s users. This is beneficial as the developers can plug-in the loopholes in their apps regarding user experience. Big Data can also provide information analysis on a specific requirement of the user. For improving upon their apps, they can analyze their own apps data with that of the other apps’ data in the same category. As an example, iPhone app developers can compare their Camera related data with that of Android to further better their user’s experience. While building a new but a similar product as an existing one, the customer’s usage of these apps can be analyzed, and the changes made to and incorporated in the new apps.
2) Enables the Development of Tailored Mobile Apps as per User Needs: Today, there is an app available for almost everything in the market. However, to satisfy the user so that he/she remain hooked to your app certain features that are unique to your app need to be provided. With Big Data tools, an analysis of the user’s requirements and needs can be provided to the developers for adding such options or features to the mobile apps. Big Data can also be used by developers to identify those features that will make their app more productive for the users.
3) Increase the Performance of the Apps: Performance is a big issue when it comes to selecting an app. If the app is able to have a good performance despite the huge amount of user traffic, it is considered to be a good app. However, developers need to know which are the areas where they can improve upon in their apps so that the user traffic does not affect the performance of the app. Whether it is peek time or any other, the performance of the app need remains the same.
4) Global App Development: The idea of going global and international has always fascinated everyone. To go global, and have the app reach an international customer base, the developers need to know the tastes, and the ways the users abroad use their apps. Big Data helps the developers by providing them data collected from throughout the world based on their geographic location, age, demography, gender etc. This enables the developers to target a particular community or society for a specific app. They might be developing apps targeted to business houses, kids, girls, men, housewives, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews or any other religion to name of. They have to analyze all the data before incorporating any of the features into their app.
5) Real-Time Data: The mobile apps these days are constantly coming up with new trends. So, to stay ahead of others, you need to have the latest data with you. The real-time data provided by BIG DATA technologies helps the developers in doing so. Decisions based on real-time data provide more accurate and useful results than the offline data. Real-time data also enable an app to collect relevant data and bigger profits.
6) Increased User Engagement & App revenue: Using Big Data, developers can obtain a lot of information on the way the users use a specific app. The developers can pinpoint the needs, and the improvement areas in the application, to decide upon a strategy that they should follow to come up with a better app. When the user is just a prospective one, the data about the said user is collected and kept in a CRM which is later analyzed for the sake of increasing customers. You can send notifications to the users interested (or not interested) in your app and get feedback from them.
Why Big Data and iOS?
A big question but one that needs to be answered no doubt. Today, iOS is one of the most popular mobile operating systems. It is more secure as compared to others. Also, iOS is having a wider range than any of the other mobile OS. Various devices such as iPhone, iPad, and others support iOS. Unquestionably, if an app supporting Big Data is developed for iOS, it would be meant for all those apps and also cover a wide range of customers, globally.
What makes these mobiles apps user-friendly?
- Multiple Devices operating the same app
- Investment in Cloud Storage
- Analyzing Big Data at Collection Points
- Exploiting Productivity by Staying Updated
- Clear Purpose of Data
- Best Battery Health Controls while dealing with Big Data
- Intellectual Technologies
- Internet of Things
- Enhanced Cybersecurity
- Mobile Apps that can be used for Big Data Visualization
1) Tableau: This app is a market leader when it comes to Big Data Visualization. Easy to use, it has a drag and drop interface making it almost 100 times faster than its competitors. The option of multiple views being combined together offers the user better insight into the data. The Tableau dashboard-established a user can also be shared with a few clicks here and there
2) SAP Business Objects: The SAP Business Objects app provides the user with real-time analysis of the digital economy. It easily helps to take decisions on the real-time data provided. Useful for providing support to the HR, Sales, Finance, and Marketing teams.
3) Google Chart: If you are having huge amounts of data sets, you should probably be knowing where to take help from. Google, obviously. Google is a leader in the Big Data market and when it comes to visualization of your data, you can always depend upon Google Charts. Google Charts have a very easy to understand that acts very quickly on the real-time data providing you with accurate results. As the charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG, there is no problem of Cross Browser or device compatibility.
4) High Charts: Developed completely in JavaScript, it renders the charts in HTML5, SVG, and VML across various browsers. As it is capable of processing real-time data in JSON format, it is unique from all the other such tools.
5) Qlik: Using Qlik, you can perform data visualization easily. It offers the use of dashboards and interactive reports. What makes this app unique is its SmartSearch option. This feature allows users to find relationships that may exist within the data.
6) Salesforce Einstein Analytics: Originally designed for mobiles, it also works on smartwatches. Among its offerings are mobile collaborations and dashboards. It creates data charts from files. Users can easily understand the important parts of their business.
Conclusion
A Big Data in Mobile App Development these days is the center of a business strategy. A new form of data, Big Data, now collaborates with the mobile apps to offer the best services to its users. With real-time and personalized data in the offering, the business does get a better yield and profit than earlier. With 73% of companies already using the technologies, better growth is promised. This number is still on the rise.