Technology Trends of 2017

Latest developments in the tech landscape and current growth of disruptive technologies have created quite a buzz. It’s highly surprising and amazing to find such innovative technologies and tech integrations around us. With a little device in your handbags or pocket, you gain the opportunity to communicate and retrieve crucial information in a hundred different ways.

Every year, there’s something new and innovative round the corner which leaves you amazed. You might wonder what’s coming next and marvel at the way how tech advancements can make your life easier than ever!

As we head towards the end of 2016 and look forward to the arrival of 2017, it’s high time to catch a glimpse of the latest technology trends of 2017.

Here is what the entire world is expecting!

1. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

With the discovery of Oculus Rift and numerous VR apps, VR and AR technologies have become highly popular in the business arena. Pokemon Go recorded a whopping 100 million downloads thus reflecting the unmatched popularity of AR technologies. If 2016 marked the emergence of VR and AR, the following year would witness its growth and development. 2017 is expected to bring some great news for both Virtual and Augmented Reality.

2. Machine Learning

When it boils down to tracking the growth of Machine learning, you will come across numerous instances. From enhancing Google’s search algorithm to ensuring successful customer retention, machine learning has delivered impactful performances. In 2017, potential users might witness the widespread use of this technology in consumer application development.

3. IoT and smart homes

With market giants like Amazon, Google, and Apple trying their best to create uniform user experiences, the amalgamation of Internet-of-Things and smart home technology is inevitable. The time isn’t far when you will be living in a connected world. Innumerable products, millions of devices, and thousands of appliances will come together to offer seamless experiences to users. IoT has been one of the top tech trends in 2016, and the following year seems to ensure a bright future for it!

4. Big data analytics

Large volumes of unused business data can turn out to be highly crucial resources for your dream venture. Big data analytics emerges as the key to understanding consumer behaviors and better business planning. From business marketing campaigns to medical treatments, big data analytics will ensure effective execution of business processes.

Big data and Business Intelligence have been there for a long time. In the following year, you will witness the use of big data analytics in the qualitative growth of business.

5. Business automation

By 2017, business process automation will turn into the biggest mainstay. From product development stages to consumer interactions, business automation will revolutionize various processes across diverse business environments.

Looks like 2017 is going to be a great year in terms of technology trends! But the list of innovations don’t stop with just these. We are hopeful and excited to see new technologies unfold as the new year sets in!

Content Creation for Virtual Reality

If you take a look at current trends in the tech arena, VR or Virtual Reality is perhaps the ‘man of the moment.’ There has been a lot of furore and buzz around the VR technology and virtual experiences. If statistical reports are anything to go by, almost 28% of users cited high-quality content as a crucial factor for the success of VR.

That reveals the current scenario quite clearly. Although VR has achieved unsurpassed popularity amongst users, it is yet to take off in the way it should.

So, what is stunting the growth and development of the VR technology?

Content is truly the king

Whether you develop business websites or create videos, high-quality content will always remain the priority. Accessible and engaging content will take the technology towards further development. It’s here that we come across an important question.

How does top-quality content catapult the VR industry to unmatched heights of success?

Let us delve deep into the discussion for an effective answer.

1) Exceptional User Experiences

The creation of realistic VR environments isn’t an easy affair. The graphic generation process should be executed perfectly thus creating realistic experiences for VR users. One of the major improvements in the VR landscape is content generation.

Quite interestingly, individual users are taking the initiative to create highly engaging content in place of reputed game development companies. With well-known companies such as Sharp developing 4K LCD screens for mobile devices, the importance of engaging content is quite clear.

2) Importance of cross-platform development

Although most of the developers consider cross-platform development to be a distant dream, that’s not what’s happening in reality. Development engines such as Unity and Unreal help you create high-quality content capable of encompassing crucial aspects in the development process. It will include aspects such as game-play, narrative, and assets, which makes game deployment easier than ever.

3) Unique gameplay navigation

HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are designed according to market trends. While designing these head-mounted displays, developers had large and spacious environments in mind. These aspects will play a highly crucial role while developing content for Virtual Reality experiences. The game-play, navigation, interaction and control are some of the significant factors.

These are some of the reasons that reflect the importance of high-quality content in the growth of the Virtual Reality industry.

On that note, let’s see what the future has in store for VR.

The future of Virtual Reality with Content

The ever-increasing accessibility of game engines will lead to the increased content creation. Individual developers and small-scale development ventures will take up content creation, thus creating unique VR experiences.

With successful content creation, production, and distribution, VR companies will have the golden opportunity to reach out to numerous clients. On the other end, developers can leverage the VR platform for monetizing app development costs.

Content creation and distribution are highly crucial aspects determining the future of the VR technology and industry.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best in future!

Chat Bots – the next big thing?

With the dramatic surge in the number of apps and ever-decreasing screen sizes, users have arrived at a crucial point of technology evolution. It’s the age of ‘OS + Apps’ paradigm, where downloading, installing, and managing applications have become tougher than ever.

In such a challenging situation, what other forms of customer interaction can replace your traditional mobile app based support system? With the saturation reached by mobile apps, which other form of communication can keep the engagement alive and yet be a cost effective solution for your company?

The answer is – Chat Bots residing within messaging applications

Messaging apps and chat bots are substituting the mobile OS big time, thus bringing a new change in the app development arena.

Chat Bots are the latest technology trend

Chat bots replacing mobile-app technologies isn’t a new affair. The tech arena has always undergone crucial transformations, and this happens to be one of them. Trends began right from the 90’s when browsers came as alternatives to desktop OS. Websites substituted client applications, and today we come across bots replacing mobile app OS.

It’s here that users witness the emergence of innumerable applications such as Line, WeChat, Telegram, Slack, and Facebook. You can interact with 3rd party services from within the application interface.

Developers have the opportunity to create messaging bots, which lay the foundation for a new and innovative trend.

How Chat Bots are like Humans:

With the ever-increasing popularity of messaging bots, users have quite a few crucial questions popping up in their minds.

What makes Chat bots so important? Let’s take a look!

• Bots can replicate human actions while writing, reading, and receiving messages
• Users can program a bot to perform automated functions
• From initiating actions to sending responses, bots can execute critical functions
• From automating functions and workflows to operations, bots can perform numerous functions.

Messaging bots have revolutionized various sectors. While e-commerce bots help you make purchases, food bots help you order food, you will also receive relevant content pieces from content bots. In a nutshell, chat bots bring us to a new age of integrated and automated operations.

They replicate human actions, and that’s what makes them special.

Chat Bots lead to effective messaging architecture:

Bots are finding applications in diverse operations. Quite naturally, this diversity in use cases leads to effective messaging architecture. Depending on the situations and requirements, messages should be re-structured. The NLP feature or Natural-Language-Processing capability of bots ensures successful human interactions.

Benefits offered by chat bots:

With the exceptional, innovative, and highly functional features of messaging bots, customer support mobile apps seem to be heading towards a farewell. Users will now have functional and interactive bots enabling effective communications and interactions.

Bots also have the opportunity to track user responses by creating customized messages. Whether it’s a simple workflow or critical transactions, bots can ensure successful mapping of these operations onto the framework.

Our final verdict!

There’s no denying the benefits offered by messaging bots. Apart from ensuring integrated operations, these Chat Bots de-clutter and revolutionize mobile experiences. Whether it’s knowing information or responding to something, bots will prove to be the best alternative to mobile app OS!

In a world where cut-throat market competition seems to be the natural trend, successful marketing endeavors are your road to success. When it comes to assessing the innate skills of entrepreneurs, you will come across numerous qualities. While some of them are efficient product developers, there are others with exceptional marketing skills.

When it comes to projects like mobile app development, both successful product creation, and effective marketing will emerge as the prime requisites. While developing your mobile application, you will have to identify innovative ways to advertise it. Here are some tips to walk you through the process.

A comprehensive guide to mobile app marketing

Mobile applications should offer optimum functionality and easy operations, as that happens to be the most important aspect. Make sure it offers unsurpassed functionality, or else, your marketing efforts will go in vain.

Once you have a dynamic and interactive app, here’s what you need to do!

1.      Offering free versions

If running a ‘freemium’ version isn’t what you wish to do, try to bring ‘Free Versions’ on the market. Make sure your customers know about the functionality of the application along with its exclusive features. That will drive them towards purchasing the complete versions.

2.      Captivating and attractive descriptions

While deploying your app in app stores, you should have the market competition in mind. Creating captivating, interesting, and engaging app descriptions will take your app to unmatched heights of popularity. The description should attract potential customers thus helping you reach the optimum sales point.

3.      Social media marketing

With the emergence of popular social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you will have the best opportunity to market your apps. Social media is one of the most effective channels for app promotion. By promoting your apps in these channels, you can generate high revenues.

4.      User reviews

Offering free versions to potential users is half the battle won. Make it a point to get their reviews. User reviews are the best ways to market your applications. The potential app purchasers will get to know the features and performances of your app.

5.      Creating app videos

Video creation is another significant way of promoting your app amongst a potential audience. Creating highly engaging and exciting app videos will attract numerous users to your application, To create high-quality app videos, using a video editor tool is essential. This tool enables customization with transitions, effects, filters, and text boxes, enhancing engagement and appeal, thus driving users towards taking action., thus driving them towards taking actions.

With these marketing tips, you will surely achieve successful app promotion, marketing, and advertising.

Promotion is important

Irrespective of your app designs and functions, targeted promotion, seems to be a highly crucial necessity. No matter what kind of application you create, successful marketing will always be the priority. While developing interactive and intuitive apps, developers should also ensure effective marketing.

Targeted marketing will help your app get discovered in the app stores. As the developer, you will have the opportunity to earn high revenues and take your apps to numerous customers. Build associations with leading app marketers capable of devising the best app marketing strategies for your mobile applications.

Tech innovations have completely revolutionized shopping practices and purchase behaviors. The widespread popularity of online shopping leads to a dramatic surge in demand for ecommerce. From daily essentials to luxury goods, there’s nothing that you can’t get online. Some of the leading ecommerce ventures also offer a host of crucial products including life-saving drugs.

The unique possibilities and profitability of the ecommerce arena have been the prime reason for its popularity. Take a look around, and you will find numerous individuals venturing into the ecommerce arena.

It’s here that ecommerce owners need to take the initiative. Every potential buyer would wish for an exceptional and unsurpassed shopping experience and commerce owners should strive hard towards offering that. Here’s what you need to know in this context.

Following the best practices

Following and adopting the best approaches will help you attract huge traffic to your site. As an ingenious ecommerce owner, you should know the best UX practices thus captivating your potential audience. Catch a glimpse of these innovative UX practices for an exceptional User Experience.

1.      Responsive designs

Whether they browse sites from their mobiles or plan to use their tablets while shopping, responsive websites will ensure the best shopping experiences. If reliable market stats are anything to go by, a whopping 50% of ecommerce traffic comes from mobiles. That clearly reflects the paramount significance of mobile-friendly sites and mobile conversions.

If you are still without a responsive website, it’s high time to do something about it. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly lose out on innumerable customers.

2.      Clean, clutter-free, and flat designs

Customers today are increasingly opting for simple, honest, and hassle-free browsing experiences. With some of the leading tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft minimizing the look and appearance of their Operating Systems, clutter-free and clean designs have become the need of the hour.

While clean designs offer ample space to the crucial elements of your website, focused site designs will help you present your products in the most efficient manner.

3.      Simple and easy navigation

Customers are likely to abandon a site that offers complex navigation. Quite naturally, ecommerce owners should ensure easy, simple, and uncomplicated navigation for users. Try including diverse shopping options thus making navigation easier than ever!

4.      Unmatched product photography and presentation

When you purchase products from a traditional brick-and-mortar store, you get clear and close views of your chosen products. Your ecommerce store should offer similar experiences. No matter what kind of product you sell, it is imperative to offer crystal clear views to your target buyers.

Unique presentation and product photography is something you should achieve. Offer multiple-angle views along with product presentation videos.

5.      Product details and Add-to-Cart buttons

Make sure the product details and add-to-cart buttons are designed in a unique manner. That will play a crucial role in captivating your potential buyers and offering them unmatched shopping experiences.

With these UX practices in mind, you will surely ensure unparalleled shopping experiences for your potential customers and enthusiastic buyers.

The government’s decision to ban the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes have sent shockwaves across the country. While this initiative is to curb the increasing menace of black money in India, the country is experiencing a major shift in purchase and investment behavior. Demonetization has led to the increased usage of  and electronic payment modes. With lower denominations such as Rs. 100, Rs. 50, and others being accepted, the entire country is finding it difficult to handle expenses.

Such situations have created the demand for an effective alternative, and it is here that mobile wallets and e-payments have come into the picture. From occasional purchases to daily expenses, people are resorting to electronic payments for all of them. Let’s take a look at the real scenario.

Gauging the situation

Electronic payments and online transactions are highly popular amongst the urban population. With the increasing dependence on app-based purchases, urban India opts for the digital way when it comes to making payments.

Demonetization has also resulted in the dramatic surge of mobile wallet usage. Digital media consumption has shot up by quite a few notches, as individuals are making most of their payments via online channels. A quick look at stats will help you understand the situation in a better way.

Statistics speak

According to reliable market stats, digital wallet usage will increase by a whopping 140% by the end of 2018. On the other end, the global markets for mobile wallets will register a growth rate of 34% by the year 2020.

These insights clearly explain the major shift in India’s economy. Mobile wallets bring significant changes in purchase behaviors and spending habits, thus preparing the grounds for ‘cashless India. ‘

Demonetization and digital India

Cashless payments and digital wallets have been a part of the global economy for a long time. However, the business landscape of our country and the economy hadn’t been quite warm to the concept of digital payments.

The recent demonetization plays a vital role in this context. With two of the highest currency denominations being banned, consumers don’t have a choice other than resorting to mobile payments.

Mobile wallet companies and online-transaction service providers are coming up with brand new ways of attracting customers. The increased usage of plastic money plays the key role in the growth of companies such as Paytm, Ola Money, and others. While the first company experienced a whopping 200% increase in app downloads, the latter witnessed an upsurge 1500%.

Hard-hitting consequences

With these mobile wallets, you can make all kinds of crucial payments such as utility bills, mobile recharge, ticketing charges, shopping, and more. Quite naturally, the shift towards digital India is quite visible and apparent. However, some of the major roadblocks can wreck havoc on this vision of the Indian government.

Eliminating the ‘great divide’ between rural and urban India will be the first thing to do. That will take the country towards digitization and fulfill our Prime Minister’s vision of a digital, fast-paced, and smart India.