Application Development
What Is Application Development?
Technology is a thing that has evolved at its full throttle in the last 5years than it has developed in the 3 decades. We have moved away from keypad mobile phones to android or IOS ones, from big, fatty monitors of PCs to personalized sleek designed laptops. We have got a lot evolved in our tech conversations from buying the smartphone by seeing its megapixels of the camera to asking about its memory cloud storage and RAM. Smartphones are simply the new age of technology with which spent more time in our day than we spend with our family and friends. But, apart from it, we must agree smartphones have really changed our lives and that is the cause of the variety of applications which we can access in it whether we want to buy a car or a nice outfit for a cousin’s wedding these applications get you all covered up.
In the last 5 years, we have had a big boom in the industry of application development as new apps which are backed by start-ups have got a lot of financial backing from angel investors, and big software companies mostly from developed countries.
Application development is a process of gathering business requirements, designing, prototyping, coding, testing, ongoing improvement, and debugging software.
History Of Applications
In today’s world, it seems to be impossible to think of a life without the use of computers and technology. Computers or smartphones get their lives from the software used in them or from the applications -installed in them. Let’s go to about 7-8 decades back from where we can find the origin of this application development.
The world’s first piece of application was developed by tom Kilburn in 1948. Kilburn had made Manchester’s small-scale experimental machine for executing small mathematical calculations. After this first cry in the technology programming languages came into play after a long time. BASIC, C, and FOLTRON are considered one of the earliest languages for programming.
With these building blocks being laid for computing there was a very drastic change in the personal computer in the 70s and 80s with the introduction of the Apple II system by apple technologies and at the same time rival company VisiCalc bring in spreadsheet software and the market of application started building up with other companies also. During this time of the 80s, we have seen many big tech giants like IBM and Microsoft coming up in the field of application development. Although the computer was called a “personal computer” still most of the applications at that time were work-related. One of the largest spreads of applications was seen for Microsoft word and Microsoft excel which are still used and Microsoft is still having a number 1 position in terms of tech firms.
Till the year 2005-06, the computer or technology was only stuck to geeky coders, big businessmen and used for work purpose only but when mobile application development started it just gave a huge boom in the spreading of technology to every man or woman roaming in streets and digitalization of every aspect of our lives.
Types Of Application Development
There are 3 major types of application development:-
- Desktop application development
- Web application development
- Mobile application development
1. Desktop Application Development:-
Desktop application development that runs stands alone on the desktop or a laptop computer. these are binary executable files that run stand-alone on a PC. It has a graphical user interface means it interacts with the computer’s operating system using icons and menus which are now used by most modern operating systems.
Desktop applications can be developed by using various programming languages like C, C++, JAVA, python, PHP, pearl, etc. there can be numerous uses of desktop applications as they can be of great use in photoshop, editing, managing data of employees of the company, managing the expenditures of a firm and a lot more. When the application development got started desktop development was the first mode of development. In today’s world it might seem like it is a bit old- fashioned but it is actually more beneficial than any other type of application development as:–
- Improves financial gains
- Increase engagement with customers
- Increases the visibility of a domain in search engines
- Cost of development is lower than compared other types
- These type of apps gives us more security from malware, hacking, and virus attack.
2. Web Application Development:-
- Web application development, as the name suggests is used to develop applications through the internet via a web browser. It is more convenient to develop on the web as in these types of applications the files got saved on a remote server and not on your personal computer. a browser helps us to access the application and all the scripts responsible for its features. They often allow us to create, edit, and manage the content. The web applications we are using today are numerous web-based applications for email services and text editors like google docs, messenger, etc. these applications are now becoming more complex on the end of programming but more sophisticated and easier to use on the user end. In today’s time, we can see that graphic designing tools and video editors work at the same level as compared the professional applications for project management, customer relation management (CRM), enterprise resource planning, and whatnot.
3. Mobile Application Development:-
- Mobile application development is a process or a method that is used to develop applications we use on mobile phones. Application development of this kind of app is now at its new high level because nowadays everyone is having a smartphone or a tablet in their hand. Main applications are given pre-installed by the mobile companies and for the installation of other apps, stores are given in both android and IOS systems where we can install or buy applications of our choice. these applications use server-side working and client-side working to provide an application-like experience within a browser. In today’s world of cutthroat competition between development firms, it becomes very important that you deliver something new with every app.
Benefits Of Web Application Development Over Mobile Application Development
1. Installation is not required:-
- As we are developing on a web browser so downloading or installing the application is not required to it becomes easier and lighter on the PC of the developer. also, cloud services are integrated with such solutions which save the space for the storage of clients by storing them in a secure environment. In addition, a web-based application has utilized a level less than expected but still, it is the more preferred choice for both front and back-end users and for organizations.
2. Cross-platform compatibility:-
What is cross-platform compatibility?
If we start talking in the terms of computing, cross-platform software has a different build for different platforms like Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Here what the platform implies is the type of processor (CPU) or the operating system (OS) or a combination of which is used.
As in a desktop developed an application that is stored in a particular type of operating system so it is built only for that type, but a web-based application will be able to work or will be compatible with all types of operating systems.
For example- a person opens a mail and downloads the attached file, saves it in a drive, and closes the laptop. Then, after some time he can open the same file on a mobile phone and edit it from there.
3. Self-updating features:-
As a working developer, who always works for long hours and always wants a smooth working and sometimes updating of application becomes a time-consuming process which can take a toll on work.
For this reason, web development becomes more beneficial as it gets updated from the back end automatically .as a result, it makes sure that a developer uses the latest and stable version.
As we have talked about the merits of web development but we should always consider some of its demerits of it.
Demerits Of Web Application Development-
1. Internet is required
As we will be developing in a web browser so availability of the internet is necessary for working which means we can not work if we are offline, or we do not have good connectivity to the internet.
2. Low performance
If we compare the speed and productivity level of a desktop-developed app and a web-based app then, desktop apps are a step higher than them.
3. Privacy
As we start working on a particular browser or a website more frequently and storing our data on it then we give it a space to access our location, files, and much other information that should not be shared. So, if we consider this point also then desktop applications are safer and more secure.
Fun Facts On Application Development
A 2013 analyst report estimates there are 529,000 direct app economy jobs within the EU’s 28 members (in the UK), 60 percent of which are mobile app developers.
As part of the developing process of any mobile application user interface (UI) becomes a very crucial part so that it can attract the audience to the app. It includes design, context, app size, and input that are being designed to interact with the user.
How do free applications earn without taking money from users?
- Most of the applications we use daily on our mobile are free and they never charge us for using their services they earn profit from various methods like-
- Collecting and selling data
- In-app purchases
- Subscriptions
- Email marketing
- Advertising
Future Scope Of Application Development?
Now, the application development is getting emerged globally and growing in the terms of the trends that are going on right or will probably go to develop on the terms with the necessity of the market. For example- in India, we saw a huge market garnered by an Indian start-up developed for booking cabs and after its huge success, many multinational American apps came in-country cutting their market. We can also take examples of many shopping apps or food ordering apps that were developed after considering the nature of the market and understanding what is the thing really needed by customers to make applications that originated in the American environment to adapt it for the Indian customers.
1. Artificial intelligence/machine learning:-
As we are growing on a large scale and machine learning and artificial intelligence have now become the main field for student as it has a huge scope in developing robots.
2. Reactive programming:-
Reactive programming is all about streams, which are time-ordered sequences of related event messages. A given stream will generally start with an observer, which can be either a segment of code inside an application that watches for some condition related to the application, or a device like an IoT sensor that generates an event.
3. Hardware will become smaller:-
Hardware or the devices we are using are getting smaller as in 2008-09 we only imagine a thing called palm-top computers and now we are actually using it in form of smartphones. Now we are emerging in a new field called METAVERSE where we will get directly connected to the internet and there will be no use of any device or hardware, at this, it might look to you as a fantasy but it will soon be going to be real.
4. Quantum computing:-
Quantum computing is a phenomenon on which every developed as well as a developing nation is trying to work which become a game-changer in terms of computing and the type of application we will be developing with it. From the nation’s perspective, we know that India has set up various teams to understand how will quantum computing will be working and how we can adjust and make changes in the current systems so that they can work efficiently with it.
5. Cloud computing and robotics:-
We have to talk about that for the last 2 decades that machines are taking place of the human in almost every industry and it going to increase in the next 5 to 6 years but it is not right. This can be said of the real digital revolution and to overcome the increase in the unemployment generated due to this problem can be overcome by taking skills to control these machines and their maintenance which by default will generate job opportunities.
How To Become An Application Developer?
As of now, all the opportunities are open for everyone, also for those who do not have a degree. Application development is also like that you do not need any degree or no professional course is required to become an app developer. You must need a good knowledge of programming languages like C, JAVA, and PYTHON and also know about the algorithms that are required to make a successful application. These two things can be easily learned from various skill learning platforms and also from YouTube which can make us learn aal skills for free.
As the world of jobs and employment is changing drastically after a few years degree will just become a piece of paper. A person will get the job only if he/she has the required skills.
Top 13 Facts About Application Development
Users are spending 90 percent of their time on various applications and not on browsing the internet.
Almost every android user has 80-90 applications on their mobile phones but, they use only 10 of them very frequently.
Mobile games applications have seen a huge boom in the pandemic period as their downloading audience have been increased to 40 percent
The Android store has 1.5 million more apps as compared to the apple / IOS store.
60 percent of the applications available on the app store have never been downloaded because there is a wide variety to choose and people mostly choose applications that take less storage and work efficiently.
Android has become the most popular operating system in the world as 74 percent of the users are using it since 2014.
As the boom in the application development industry is real, it can be seen when almost 100 to 125 applications are launched worldwide on a daily basis.
The advertising industry on applications is also a big chunk of revenue for these applications. The ad revenue industry is about 935 billion USD.
As digitalization has grown a lot in the last 5 years, we have seen that almost 50 percent of the buyers prefer to buy anything they want from online apps which have been the main cause of a boost in a dozen of shopping apps in the market.
Social networking applications are apps that are used for almost 2-3 hours a day by a teen of 16-19 years of age.
Last year has recorded a download of almost 218 million which means approximately 28 applications per person.
70 percent of users delete the installed app after 72 hours of its installation.
79 percent of users who reached any informative website just copy the content and only 16 percent of viewers read the content word by word.
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