I get it: predictions are fun to make.
We see a lot of mobility predictions. Many of them, we support and agree with. Many more even support what we do here at App47. But before we get too carried away, I think it’s important to take a step back and remember that even the best predictions sometimes need a touch of reality.
Case in point: other companies’ recent predictions that phablets are the enterprise technology of the future, or that the Internet of Things will provide a “killer app” for mobile development. These predictions are fun! That much is for sure. Unfortunately, however, they’re not exactly great targets for us to set our sights on.
At the risk of being the downer at the party, new phablets are not going to drive enterprise mobile app growth, if for no other reason than that there are more smartphones than there are phablets and tablets. New devices and technology trends like the IoT may bring quick spikes in growth, but to achieve truly sustainable, widespread adoption, there must be a clearly defined business model at play behind the scenes.
In very simple terms, that business model needs to be centered on ROI. We’re seeing more and more companies building a mobility center of excellence, and spending money on enterprise apps, infrastructure, and the other usual suspects. These companies expect a return. If you’re not measuring that ROI with analytics, you’re missing a key component to any viable enterprise mobile app strategy. It’s that simple.
Here at App47, we provide enterprises with an enterprise-grade, data private hosted solution to easily deploy, configure, secure, and most importantly, measure their app deployment and usage. Devices may change, and trends may come and go, but the need to measure usage and track progress with hard data will never go away. That’s been our focus at App47 since the beginning, even as tangential distractions have come and gone.
Predictions are fun to read, but don’t get off track by spending too much energy chasing shiny objects. An ROI-centric mobility strategy will drive success within your enterprise. Everything else? It’s nice to have—but probably not what you need to succeed.
