2020 has shaped what many are predicting to be to the most popular mobile technology trends for 2021. Some are the results of natural evolution – others are more of a revolution.
Let’s drill down into 15 mobile technology trends we can expect in 2021.
5G Connectivity
One of the ongoing trends of mobile technologies has always been faster connectivity – and 5G will redefine what is possible.
Just as 4G delivered a world of streaming content, we can expect 5G to facilitate a range of other mobile technology trends such as cloud-based gaming and business automation.
Apple has announced 5G compatibility for its latest flagship iPhone 12, and certainly, with much of the world relying on fast, remote connectivity due to COVID-19, 5G has arrived at the perfect time.
Geotargeting
A mobile technology trend that is easily taken for granted, location-based technology is set to increase through 2021 and beyond. Businesses will seek to do everything in their power to lure users towards their products and services at a time when footfall is quieter across our towns and cities.
Geotargeting focuses on a pre-defined demographic and a pre-defined area, often delivering local offers and promotions that might be of interest to passing individuals of a certain gender, age, or other demographic.
Geofencing
The majority of our apps already have permission to use our real-time locations – valuable data shared often with third parties. That means more targeted notifications from businesses and services who know exactly when we are nearby.
Compared to geotargeting, geofencing aims promotions at a much broader portion of individuals within a given area, delivering marketing and advertising content to any who venture into it.
Augmented Reality
Games such as Pokémon Go have popularized augmented reality (AR) mobile technology, which, as the name suggests, augments the real world seen through a mobile phone screen (using the device’s in-built camera) by superimposing computer-generated animations and other content onto it.
Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook have further popularized AR with filters to change the way users look in the images and videos they post and share.
Expect businesses to jostle for a slice of the revenue that augmented reality has the potential to generate by incorporating it into the latest mobile technologies. Retail in particular has already started to lead the way in allowing customers to try before they buy using AR mobile technology – something that can be applied to many different consumer products, from kitchens to home décor to fashion. AR makes it easy to see what a product looks like on a wearer or in the home.
Paint manufacturer, Dulux, for example, has launched its Visualizer app, allowing customers to see what any given color from their range might look like on the walls of their home.
Similarly, IKEA have developed their own AR app, allowing potential buyers to place almost any item of furniture anywhere in their homes, while a wide range of clothing brands have given customers the chance to turn their phones into dressing rooms.
Expect more brands to join the AR party in 2021.
Wearable Technology
2020 has seen an exponential rise in the number of people looking to stay fit and take care of their health.
This has made smartwatches, health monitors and fitness bracelets a trend that will continue into 2021. Syncing with our mobile devices, wearable technology can even monitor our sleep patterns, heart rates and oxygen levels.
They can also track how physically active we are, adding an engaging social element to our fitness regimes when synced with the apps available on the latest cell phone technology.
Home Connectivity
Anyone asking what are the latest mobile technologies need only look at the home in which they live. Smart speakers such as those offered by Amazon and Google are now part of the fixtures and fittings of many – and they all rely on a connection to a mobile application. The expectation is that this trend will expand into 2021.
Smart plugs are becoming commonplace in more homes as people grow more accustomed to home connectivity and the convenience it can offer. They also deliver the possibility of connectedness to existing appliances such as lights, coffee machines and TVs.
Greater home connectivity is allowing people to live safer at home too with affordable outdoor camera systems with motion and sound detection and the ability to see and communicate with callers before answering the door.
The Internet of Even More Things
The consumer experience in the home using the latest mobile technology now empowers users to control air conditioning, lighting and home security. Connected refrigerators enable us to see their contents from the grocery store.
Home connectivity is expanding, based on one important factor – those who try it rarely go back to the way things were.
The impact on businesses is just as significant with more and more of the systems they use becoming connected. Autonomous equipment for agriculture and farming, smart factories and wireless inventory tracking are just some examples of trends that look set to become normal ways of working in 2021.
Boosting Smaller Businesses
In days gone by, mobile applications embracing the latest cell phone technology were solely the domain of big business. In 2021, this will continue to change.
With many more developers and ever more adaptable mobile applications, the potential benefits for smaller businesses to engage users and increase revenue has never been greater.
Applications such as cloud-based telephone systems built specifically around business services, cloud-based accounting systems and marketing hubs – providing a complete wraparound service for content management, sales and advertising – are all playing a key role in empowering smaller businesses with the tools to work smarter.
More Bespoke Apps
In a world where every industry is changing, many smaller businesses feel if they aren’t moving forwards then they risk falling behind.
Staying up to date with mobile technology trends means staying competitive with bespoke mobile applications – and 2021 will be the year when app development is more widely available than ever.
This is particularly true of hybrid apps which allow a business to launch on both Android and Apple platforms at a fraction of the costs involved in developing a native app for one platform or the other.
Contactless Payments and mCommerce
Two (for the price of one) mobile technology trends that saw a steady rise up until spring 2020 experienced monumental leaps in popularity during the Coronavirus pandemic – contactless mobile payments and mCommerce.
As people sought to avoid visiting shops and keep physical contact to a minimum, many used their mobiles to browse and purchase consumer goods and have them delivered to their front door. In doing so, they also discovered the sheer convenience of simply using payment applications such as Apply Pay, Google Pay and Venmo to pay for goods.
For those who did visit physical stores to make purchases, contactless payments became important, not just convenient. Carrying money was something many were advised against. This forced many retailers to adopt mobile contactless payment technology at their checkouts – a trend that will undoubtedly follow into 2021.
Edge Computing
Many people spent large parts of 2020 working from home and the trend is likely to continue into 2021 even after lockdown restrictions are eased. However, for those who relied on highly centralized cloud-based technology, it often proved to be a way of working with limitations.
Combined with 5G, edge computing will bring WFH drawbacks such as latency issues to a welcome end.
Edge computing delivers the ability to process tasks locally by working on the very edge of the cloud wherever the user is geographically – the device being used effectively becoming a part of the cloud itself.
Edge computing and its innate ability to process and store data super-fast can have a real impact for businesses and the efficiency of their critical real-time applications.
On-Demand Service Applications
On-demand service apps are everywhere, connecting consumers to service providers and vice versa without an administrator or some sort of support staff fulfilling the request manually. They allow, for example, users to book the rooms they need when travelling – and the means to travel to them – order groceries, takeouts, cabs, and more.
With the latest cell phone technology combined with 5G connectivity, these on-demand services are expected to expand into other areas of society such as humanitarian aid and services in remote locations, thanks to satellite-based 5G networks.
Chatbots
Automation is transforming routine tasks for businesses and with new levels of development expected in 2021, it is expected to save them even more financially.
Chatbots are one case in point, continuing to revolutionize the way businesses engage with their customers via the latest mobile technology. Chatbots can respond quickly to routine customer queries in practically any industry, including travel, hospitality and online retail – or automatically route the query to an appropriate human agent if the bot can’t handle the query. As such, they will continue to automate customer service, cutting down on the number of human staff businesses need to keep on the payroll.
A Greater Choice of Apps
Whatever the niche, there is likely to be an app for it. Yet launching them across different platforms has proved costly in the past.
Now there are mobile app development tools built specifically for cross platform purposes, making it easier and more realistic to develop apps. This will encourage innovation into 2021 in an increasingly competitive and profitable marketplace.
More companies will have the means to develop apps to provide better levels of service for their users in 2021, making mobile technology even more versatile than in previous years.
Personalization
With a greater choice of apps, combined with geofencing and ever-improving location-based services, the long-standing mobile technology trend of personalization will become more prevalent as we move into 2021.
The natural evolution of this will be more personalized and hyper-targeted mobile marketing and advertising content as a result of more personal information being stored on our profiles and devices in 2021 than ever before.