Mobile Is Only Getting Bigger, Thanks to the Internet of Things
In the fast and ever-changing world of technology, the age-old mantra “out with the old, in with the new” often reigns supreme. Once DVDs became popular and affordable, tapes faded into the background. Blu-ray discs ousted DVDs, flip phones overtook smartphones, HD TVs replaced CRTs—it’s just the circle of (hardware) life.
However, the emergence and eventual explosion of the Internet of Things doesn’t mean we’ll be moving on from our latest and greatest technological fling. Mobile devices and applications have never been hotter, with businesses of all shapes and sizes taking note of our tendencies and dependencies and capitalizing by investing heavily in mobile.
We live and die by our phones, but the future of IoT devices isn’t going to replace that big mobile spot in our hearts with a door knob that can connect to the Internet. If you ask Steven Winter, the president of Guerilla QA, mobile apps and devices will actually increase in relevance as IoT continues to project upward.
“Every company needs to be mobile-first. No matter what your industry is, you have to have some shard of mobile, because as we look at all the stats, and all the trends, mobile is the primary way to get to the Internet by and large,” Winter explains to StickyMinds. “When you look at the sheer number, just look at the sheer volume, mobile is not getting smaller.”
As Winter points out, it’s mobile devices—and not standard PCs—that are becoming the entry point for the Internet. In a sense, you can look at your mobile phone as a remote, but instead of controlling your TV, this universal device will be able to communicate with your fridge, oven, bed, and windows. Everyone has a phone, and thus, everyone has an access point to the Internet.
“There's no reason to think that mobile apps are not going to still be the main access point to those devices, to control those devices, to get data from those devices, to make your life better through looking at that app, and you learn the new things, and you make better decisions, and your life is easier,” Winter continues. “It's going to be through the computer that you hold in your hand.”
IoT is a revolution, but not one that’s ousting what’s come before it. The beauty of all the new connected devices that we can expect to become normalized in the years to come is that they play nice with what we’re used to. Mobile is here to stay, and it’s only going to become more deeply etched into our culture as we become further connected.
