The mobile cloud app movement  is growing rapidly (at some 30% per year).  In some ways it simply reflects the overall move to cloud services (more than 94% of businesses now use the cloud).

This trend opens up a whole new world of  potential to organisations large and small.  It is not yet a threat to the ‘traditional’ native app (you download to your phone) but it is already changing how our team now approach app projects. 

Before
The client mindset was: we redevelop a website first. We wish to have apps but they are expensive to develop and the iterations inevitably lag (requiring investing in different versions of the same app to run to requirement on iOS and Android devices). 

There are now tools we can use to converge and accelerate development for these native platforms , but these ‘download and instal’  routes are being challenged by the mobile cloud. 

The basic premise of cloud-based mobile apps is the same as using cloud computing in an office setting. The app lives on virtual servers and the data is stored in the cloud. Any user can access the app in the cloud via a browser and an internet connection.

The benefits are obvious. They are compatible with multiple platforms, generating savings in cost and time. They can be instantly updated and scaled.  Users never have to bother with updates because it’s in the cloud. The organisation  rolls out an update to the app and users simply see it the next time they log on.

Now

We recommend approaching a project more holistically, mapping the whole digital comms as one eco-system.  I

In a  sense, we are simplifying an ever more complex level of interconnectivity and opportunity across user devices by distilling the journey to a universal path and journey, feeding left and right into these new opportunities, from a cloud core.