Forty-three percent of companies say mobile-friendly website or mobile version of business software is their top application development priority this year, according to The State of Application Development Report from OutSystems. The company surveyed about 200 decision makers at organizations around the world as part of its research.
- More than half of surveyed organizations said they plan to build 51-100 percent of their applications with a mobile component.
- Hybrid web/mobile architectures were the leading choice of development approach at 65 percent, followed by mobile web at 60 percent and native apps at 26 percent.
- The top enterprise app category was processing automation (for forms and routing, for example) at 53 percent.
- E-Commerce apps ranked surprisingly low at 12 percent.
- Of the IT decision makers surveyed who prefer a RAD platform over traditional application development methods, 77 percent cited time savings as a benefit.
"While mobility is a strong focus for 2015, IT organizations are far from adopting a mobile-first mindset. It may be that IT organizations don't yet feel like they have a solid grasp on mobility and, until they do, it will remain a small proportion of their overall projects" the report said. "Rather than spend the time to customize a solution that still doesn't meet business needs, IT organizations find it easier and sometimes faster to build a custom application. This also enables enterprises to keep data in house and therefore more readily addresses governance and security concerns."
OutSystems makes a RAD product, so this research is obviously intended to validate those who are considering such tools in application development work. That said, the report offers an interesting look at where businesses are hoping to invest time and dollars in apps over the next year. Consumer and mobile game developers who want a piece of the enterprise app pie may find the transition difficult if they can't demonstrate a willingness to support hybrid approaches, and a willingness to focus on projects that may sound less than exciting, like processing form data. Still, the survey shows that firms aren't able to get what they want just buy buying pre-existing apps, so the need for developers to lend a hand will likely increase over 2015 and beyond.
For more:
- get the full report here
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