Why Leverage IoT in Your Next Mobile App

What is IoT and why is it making such waves? The term “the Internet of Things” was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, however the actual technology didn’t start gaining in popularity until 2011, when it was added to Gartner’s list of emerging technologies. Despite the prevalence and the widespread usage of the term, though, few people actually understand the true meaning of IoT tech.

IoT in a Nutshell

In its broadest sense, the term IoT covers everything connected to the internet. More specifically, though, it refers to devices, everything from simple sensors to smart watches that are connected together through the internet. Add to that automated systems that gather and analyze data collected from those devices, and it is now possible to make valuable inferences and make better business decisions thanks to that data.

Enter Industry 4.0 – the impending 4th industrial revolution, as it is known in Germany. In an effort to maintain the sustainability of its success, the German manufacturing industry is going to great lengths to make its factories “less stupid” by harnessing the power of IoT. The movement has gone on to spread beyond manufacturing, and other industries, of course, are following suit.

With 127 new IoT devices being connected to the web every second, experts estimate the number of connected devices to reach 31 billion in 2020 and surpass 75 billion by 2025. Needless to say, the implications of IoT are going to be tremendous, regardless of the industry vertical.

Why You Should Leverage Mobile Apps for Your IoT Solutions

IoT development in mobile apps enables the remote setup and control of the increasingly prevalent smart gadgets like wearables (wristwatches, eyeglasses), medical devices, asset trackers, and smart home devices.

1. Wearables
   With the steady rise of IoT, wearables have come to permeate our lives and every aspect of technology. They are small, seamless, connected to the Internet, and always with you when needed. By and large, they perform the same function as phones, only they are smaller and more even more portable. Wearable technology continues to evolve as does its usage. In fact, it is predicted that within this year, there will be 441.5 million wearable users.

The popularity of wearables is inevitably tied to the quality of the apps behind them that are running on the users’ smartphones. As a result, there is a surge of demand by companies to create state-of-the-art mobile apps for managing wearables and keeping their customers happy.

Developing apps for wearables comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities and has deeply affected the entire mobile development process: from ideation to performance. Developers have to take into account to issues like integration, authorization, personalization, connectivity, and UX design, just to name a few.

2. Healthcare
   Healthcare is one of the industries that has been most active in implementing IoT with the aim of improving quality of service. IoT healthcare solutions elevate the efficacy of patient monitoring and healthcare provisioning, in a continuous quest to advance the industry and make it smarter. With the help of IoT, companies are developing solutions like

Voice-controlled patient assistants that continue to transform the way patients receive care, communicate with their doctors or caregivers, and collaborate on their treatment plans all with the help of a mobile application.
Wearable devices that send vital health information to the patients’ mobile apps, further facilitating doctor-patient communication and better equipping healthcare professionals to make vital decisions.
Remote patient monitoring enables the sharing of real time patient’s data to its treating professionals.

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