Perfecto Mobile Predicts Sensors, Wearables will Rewrite Mobile Application Engagement

2014 will change everything we know about mobile interactions with extensive use of sensors and wearable devices, extending beyond today’s touch-centric interaction

Perfecto Mobile, provider of the MobileCloud™ Platform and integrated mobile application quality suite, today unveiled its predictions for 2014, the year of the Mobile Engagement.

“This is an exciting time for the mobile industry. We are closer than ever to seeing the explosion of a sensor-centric applications and wearables market, which will completely redesign how businesses and consumers engage,” said Eran Yaniv, CEO of Perfecto Mobile. “While voice recognition and touch screen interaction are currently the leading edge mobile application technologies, sensors measuring motion and environmental factors are the next wave of application innovation. Sensors, like we see in Google Glass or Beddit, combined with new human interaction models will rewrite the next phase of Mobile and force brands to focus on mobile first strategies in 2014.”

Over 1,000 customers rely on Perfecto Mobile’s MobileCloud™ platform for testing and monitoring mobile apps and websites on real devices worldwide, providing unique and critical insights into key enterprise challenges. Based on these insights Perfecto Mobile expects the following emerging mobile application engagement trends in 2014:

Interaction methods continue to evolve. In 2014, interaction with end users will evolve with a new class of applications that support sensor-driven models.  The addition of these sensors that detect motions, such as eyeball movement and heartbeat, are considered as “new” engagement methods that will grow from “wow” features to standard features over the course of the coming year. Market segments will discover new use cases through this innovation - mobile health and fitness are only just beginning to explore sensor-based interaction and will deliver huge advancements to mobile in 2014. For example, the addition of sensors in today’s fitness applications offers visibility into activity and exercise, allowing end users to train, track and measure results while the application provides the analytics of a finess centric population.

However, with evolving interaction methods comes a new set of implications and challenges to quality. Applications must work while consumers are walking or sleeping and anytime in between, as users expect flawless performance and this performance becomes critical. In order for high ratings and adoption to grow, the quality and performance of these evolving apps is deemed critical.

We’ll all wear wearables. Wearables and implantables will burst on to the scene in 2014. We’ve only seen the beginning of a wearable market, with Google Glass, Galaxy Gear and Nike FuelBand. In 2014 wearables will begin to penetrate our lives and augment our reality just as mobile has done. With wearables users will be able to increasingly connect themselves to devices that will extend beyond watches and glasses.

But, wearable devices add a new third dimension of fragmentation to mobile. Beyond today’s fragmented operating systems and form factors, wearables portend a huge challenge to developers and testers to maintain application quality. Ignoring the fragmentation matrix and therefore not ensuring optimal quality of wearable’s applications will greatly prohibit adoption rates.

Traditional products play catch up. Traditional segments such as retail and consumer products will begin large-scale mobile application initiatives this year. Geo-sensing will become an important tool to deliver personalized just-in-time data whether in an airport or a big-box store. These new innovations will allow traditional organizations to continue evolving consumer experience. For example, retailers will offer loyal customers a more personalized shopping experience that will motivate consumer behavior.

With a year that redefines mobile engagement ahead of us, the most successful organizations, in terms of applications, will be the ones who are able to meet end user requirements well and quickly. Organizations should look to invest in automated testing for emerging engagement methods in order to increase application release speed. Development teams should plan to test earlier and often, and on real devices in the cloud or in hand with tethered accessories that address new use cases. Finally, as development velocity increases, organizations need to select the right tool for such a fast-paced environment, a tool that supports agile methods and offers maximum flexibility.