Mobile Apps for Smartphones

Smartphones are mobile phones that offer more computing prowess than a typical feature-based phone. They run complete operating systems - iPhone, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Symbian and Palm being amongst the many popular platforms. The growing demand for business and entertainment on the move has led to huge boost to the smart phone industry. Mobile apps for smartphones can be typically downloaded from the App Store of the company. Using a smartphone to access e-mail, watch movies, play games, and to work on productivity apps is something most people would identify with.

What kind of applications can you have on Smart Phones?

Smartphones have larger screens and to a large extent, they can function as hand-held computers. Consequently, you can have rich and interactive applications for smartphones.

Smartphones can offer various apps for business, entertainment or education.

Business Applications for Smart Phones

These are mobile applications for business users - for convenience and improving productivity. Most mobile users would typically have access to e-mail on the smartphone, besides a variety of apps necessary for business purposes.

• Communication applications: E-mail, Social networking clients, Instant Messengers
• Office Productivity apps: Calendars, Schedulers, Time and Expense Trackers
• Travel apps: Travel Related Services, Location Based Services (GPS)
• Enterprise-Specific Apps: Approvals, Sales force automation, Business Intelligence and Dashboards
• Business Tools and Utilities: Security tools, Mobile fax and scanners, Currency and Time Converters

Entertainment and Multi-media Applications for Smart Phones

The higher memory capacity as well as processing capability combined with higher speed networks, has led to a flood of multimedia applications for smartphones.

• Music and Video Apps: Audio and video players, Song composers and recorders, Personalized Radio, Streaming apps for live scores and so on.
• News and Weather Apps: Latest news and weather updates from different channels.
• Audio and e-Book Readers: To read books on your phone, the latest e-book reader apps are increasingly gaining popularity with the appearance of larger screens and tablet phones.
• M-Learning Apps: Mobile learning apps for learning-on-the-go include Tutorials, Mini Encyclopaedias, Quiz-based applications, etc.
• Social Media Apps: These are increasingly gaining popularity and many mobile users access social media applications via their smartphones.

Gaming Applications for Smart Phones

Mobile Gaming Apps are a dynamic market. Combined with larger screens and processing/memory capabilities, smartphones also often have gaming features. Gaming phones have the ability to act as a gaming controller, or controller features directly embedded on the phone.

The latest trends in gaming apps include:

• Location-Based games: Games like treasure hunts, street adventures and others that take advantage of GPS and location-based services.
• Cross-Platform games: These allow the game to be played across multiple platforms - as a console game, mobile game or on the web. Parts of the game could also be played on different devices, depending on the functionality required.
• Connected and Community games: Games that allow multiple players to communicate and play using the mobile service are increasingly popular.
• Learning-based games: Education-based games for both early learners and school-going children which motivate and create interest fall in this category.

Recent trends and Future Mobile Apps for Smartphones

With changing technology, there are constant innovations in the mobile applications space for smartphones.

• Custom Apps: Smartphones Apps may impact the way enterprise software functions. Custom mobile apps may be more targeted and user-focused. Location-based services could impact how an app functions. For example, a traveller may use an app for hotel or airline reservation, and the same app could be used to locate the hotel when the user lands at the airport.
• Mobile phone to TV: Recently launched smartphones can connect to a high-definition television, enabling the user to connect the phone to the television to view pictures, videos and play games.
• Vehicle-based Apps: Mobile phone manufacturers are getting together with car and consumer electronics firms to provide mobile phones which will tightly integrate with vehicle systems to provide smart displays, wireless/broadband in-the-car, and automated systems for adjusting mirrors and seats, electronic keys and so on. This in turn will lead to a slew of apps for this market.
• Business Intelligence (BI) and Dashboard Apps: BI and dashboards which offer dynamic views are increasingly popular amongst business users. Typically, these will tightly integrate with other backend enterprise software.
• Mobile learning Apps: Entertaining learning-based games for early learners and school-going children are growing in popularity across the globe. Such games could also potentially integrate with the school curriculum and learning management systems.

Find out how Outsource2india can help with Mobile Applications development for your organization. We have experience in mobile applications development for smart phones on various platforms. Contact us with your requirements and the Customer Engagement Team will get back to you within 24 hours.