Has Mobile App Quality Caught Up with the Rest of the Industry?
We tend to forget just how new the entire mobile industry is. It wasn’t that long ago that just the concept of using a single device to make calls, browse the Internet, stream videos, take pictures, and play games with top-notch graphics seemed like a fantasy.
Now, though, almost every single person you know has the latest and greatest mobile device, and software companies around the world are putting a significant portion of their resources into mobile application development. And even though we’ve made great strides in terms of speed and security, can mobile app quality hold a candle to more traditional applications?
In some ways, mobile still lags far behind traditional software apps, but when you look at the ability to adapt quickly, it’s actually ahead of the pack. Speaking with StickyMinds in a recent interview, Alan Crouch, a director of mobile testing with Coveros, gave a succinct summary on the state of mobile quality.
“I think there's always room to grow. However, the ability to be agile and develop small changes fairly quickly allows mobile apps to adapt to user needs and fix issues much more rapidly than the traditional app,” Crouch detailed. “Comparing it to traditional software applications, it's a little like comparing an apple and an orange because in many ways mobile has exceeded the rest of the software industry in things like usability. At the same time, they've failed to come close to the industry in things like security.”
That agile point is key. Mobile is all about instant gratification, and because users will just dump your app if it’s slow to load or missing certain small features, you need to be able to update and improve your offerings in the blink of an eye. In that way, mobile has the edge—mainly because quick adaptation is necessary.
But with it being so new, many mobile developers are blazing trails and thus testing out new things that might open users up to security risks. With things like credit card info or email addresses being involved with apps that might not be as buttoned up as you would hope, the state of quality in the mobile world still lags behind the rest of the industry.
Thankfully, mobile isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Developers and testers will only grow more comfortable within the medium, and we’re already to a point where mobile is above and beyond its competition. With the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and automation taking over the software industry, look for mobile to reign supreme in terms of quality in the near future.
