The Next Big Phase of Mobile Apps
Challenge: Mobile isn’t a portal to the Internet we know today, but a gateway to build world-changing companies that will upend entrenched incumbents and exponentially recast even the most bullish of mobile expectations.
That’s the closing line of a piece written by Edward Aten for GigaOM. Aten contends that 2013 will be the year mobile becomes more than just portable Internet access. This will be the year people start turning to their mobile devices to solve real-world problems as they happen—problems the traditional Internet, tethered to computers, cannot solve.
Aten points out that we’ve already seen the beginning of this movement in apps like Uber, HotelTonight, Highlights, and others. These apps aren’t mobile versions of online entities, and they’re more than “mobile-first” companies. They’re companies that meet a real-world need and can only exist in a mobile context.
The key is to identify a common problem people have when they’re out. For example, in the case of Uber, the pain point is getting a ride. Standing outside and hailing a cab can be difficult and downright uncomfortable if it’s cold, raining, or your feet hurt. You can try calling a cab company, but good luck getting through on a Friday or Saturday night. This isn’t a problem that can be solved with a traditional website.
“Unlike any technology we have ever seen, mobile has the opportunity to improve our minute-by-minute lives, wherever we are,” Aten writes. Solving these problems calls for an approach that surpasses the concepts of “mobile-first,” “mobile, too” and even “mobile-only.” It’s not mobile-anything. It’s just mobile. It’s not the active exclusion of another medium or a company’s choice of mobile over web. These apps can only be mobile—it just doesn’t work any other way.
With this mobile revolution will come a revolution in software testing. Testing will need to change to accommodate these new apps. Beyond the traditional challenges, this new breed of apps simply cannot be tested solely in a lab.
If an app is meant to be used on the go and help “improve our minute-by-minute lives, wherever we are,” the testing scope needs to be widened considerably. Testing needs to reflect the world in which these apps will live and function—they need to be tested in the wild.
Read more about this topic on the uTest Software Testing Blog .
