Enterprise mobile apps are unstoppable

Gartner’s survey titled “Demand for enterprise mobile apps will outstrip available development capacity five to one” (www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3076817), is extremely interesting in regard to the demand for mobile apps. In particular, it is stipulated that, by the end of 2017, the market demand for mobile app development services will be at least 5 times higher than the capacity of IT departments. According to Gartner, mobile device sales will reach 2.1 billion units by 2019. As a result, there will be a significant increase in the demand for enterprise apps that will meet the high performance and usability standards of consumer apps.

Adrian Leow, Gartner’s primary analyst, claims that businesses will have to face the challenge of developing and deploying mobile apps to meet this exponentially growing demand, since it is quite difficult and expensive to hire developers with the necessary skills. Actually, apart from that, it will prove difficult for businesses to proactively respond to competition pressure and, as a result, they will be forced to tactical reactions, rather than following a specific strategy, as they should.

Another interesting finding, based on Gartner’s survey, is that mobile apps will exceed the available development capacity, which means that the development of new apps will turn into a complicated and costly process. Apparently, there is a need for more mobile strategists, who will use the tools and techniques corresponding to the increased need for mobile apps in businesses.

Some additional important facts from Gartner’s survey are the following:

• People employed in the modern, digital market are using 3 different devices, on average, to handle their daily activities.
• This number is expected to increase to 5 or 6 devices, due to the development of new technologies, such as wearables and IoT, which are expected to gain more ground.
• Employees will enjoy greater freedom in choosing devices, applications or even the processes that will help them complete their tasks.
• IT departments are under bigger pressure to develop different mobile apps in a short period of time.

Despite this, a Gartner survey (conducted in 2014) regarding mobile apps development, concluded that the majority of businesses has developed and launched less than 10 apps, while a significant percentage of the participants has never launched a mobile app!