The mobile obsession: An opportunity for application developers

There simply no doubt anymore: Today's mobile users are leveraging their devices for nearly everything. Any activity from emailing a co-worker, checking social media, paying bills or just playing games now takes place on the mobile platform. While this has had quite the impact on the corporate world - coming in the form of BYOD programs and other mobility initiatives - it has also affected application developers.

Smartphones: More important than transportation or hygiene
A recent survey from Bank of America illustrates just how connected the average American is with their smartphone. According to Forbes, adult survey respondents placed a higher importance on their smartphones than their favorite caffeinated beverage or that addictive show they watch each week - 60 percent of U.S. adults said their smartphone was more critical to their lives than coffee, and 76 percent noted the same for the their T.V.

But the surprises don't end there.

"The survey revealed that smartphones fall just below the Internet and hygiene based on level of importance for people's daily lives," wrote Forbes contributor Amit Chowdhry. "The survey also reported that 91 percent of consumers believe their phone is as important as a car or deodorant."

The trend continues for younger users as well. In fact, 93 percent of young adults said their smartphones were more important to them than their toothbrush. In this way, today's Americans would rather ignore their daily hygiene routines than go a single day without being connected via their handheld device.

While Chowdhry noted that these results are "very disturbing," this obsession with mobile endpoints does present a valuable opportunity for app developers.

Why application developers stand to benefit
Although the study refers to the smartphones themselves, chances are it's the actual apps that these users are addicted to, and not the hardware on which they reside. After all, without mobile applications, what good is a smartphone, anyway?

In this way, the rising use of mobile devices translates into growing demands for program creators. As individuals look to leverage their smartphones not only at home and on the go, but in the office as well, it's causing increased reliance on the app development sector to establish the programs that will support these activities.

Recently industry statistics support this, as Good Technology's Mobile Index report found that users are not leveraging customized apps more than they were before. In fact, activation of these programs increased by 77 percent from late 2013 to early 2014, according to Channel Insider.

"That means demand from solution providers to build and ultimately manage those applications is increasing at a rapid rate," wrote Channel Insider contributor Michael Vizard.

As developers deal with boosted client needs to support mobile activities, there are several aspects to consider, namely the component suites they have available. While some prefer native coding language, utilizing this approach could cause headaches as app creators work to create separate versions of their programs for each operating system.

Instead, HTML5 might be the best way to go. This language features cross-platform functionality, meaning developers only have to establish a single version of the program, but it will operate on any device.