App Development Industry in India & its Dynamics

The Progressive Policy Institute, a non-profit organization serving as a public policy think tank in the United States states that India’s app economy grew by an astounding 39% between 2016 & 2019 from 1.2 to 1.6 million which going forward will give India the world’s largest pool of app makers by 2024.

Adding to this is a statement from NASSCOM according to which revenues from apps in India is set to grow by 87% by 2020. Yes, in just a few months’ time from now.

That, pretty much sums up what India is in the world of apps and app development. As for the current scenario in India which has the population bigger than Africa (India 135 crores v Africa 129 crores) with possibly the biggest demographic advantage (mean age just 28 years! Against China’s 37, US’s 45 & Europe’s 48, which constitutes the majority population). We are speeding away on the way to becoming the App Heaven of the world.

As for what is causing these trends in favour of India:

1. Roll-out of 5G network by mid to end of 2020! 5G is THE holy grail which shall allow the high-speed zero-latency playing of the biggest of apps be it concerning movies, videos, animation, games or any other format. With this falling in place and a possibility of snagging close to 800 million (80 crores) subscribers by 2025. Apps of every description doing every conceivable service including games, e-com, banking etc. would go through the roof. Newer data-heavy applications which till now were kept aside would pop-up like mushrooms after a heavy downpour.
2. Wearable apps & others for the medical industry. No-one denies the fact that India needs everything in large numbers from roads to water supply to electricity to education and so on. The one thing which needs precedence over all these is healthcare which today gets concentrated around large centres leaving other regions far open and sparse as far as services go. A Chinese medical company in Fuhan in China has recently done the “unthinkable”. It has, using a 5G assisted robot done remote surgeries successfully. This is one extreme. At the other are wearable apps which shall take reading of one’s vitals and through the mobile network, report to the cloud. Most useful for crowded countries like India where one does not need main facilities just to show vital readings. Running, jumping, walking or even sleeping, these apps shall henceforth report to the Doctor miles away. In days to come such apps would report one’s health 24 x 7 and keep it from going downhill.
3. e-commerce shall go m-commerce with payment through apps. This, in a way, is already a reality as of now. Flipkart and Amazon have their own apps which remain connected to their respective servers on the cloud facilitate buying right there from the app. Payment is routed through either UPIs or the paying bank’s own app. In future, with 5G in place, this activity shall only get faster and more pronounced with even better and lighter apps which open fast and operate faster!
4. IoT through smartphone apps

IoT means different things to different folks. If taken through the app mode, in the present context it means home-automation related communication be it to switch on and read security cameras, switch on air-conditioners, heaters, home robots and the likes. Going forward, an app with the right features could well be controlling and communicating with connected equipment be it in factors, offices or even on the road (like key-less entry & driver-less vehicles). This is no fad! The most populous country needs more than its share of IoT-connected smart apps.

5. Beacon-based services through dedicated apps

Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft to name some, have reached every household if not every individual on the planet in some form or the other. Of these Google has instituted the Google Beacon project, called Eddystone wherein small, wireless transmitters using Bluetooth Low-Energy technology (which truly consume very, very less energy) helps with proximity marketing with the help of location tracking. What it does is advertise content relevant to a particular geography wirelessly to those wanting to receive the same. Where it differs from others is that it sends signals to smart devices through dedicated apps within a location with high accuracy and is best to start meaningful interactions. It is not very prevalent in India though there are others which do similar things though with varied functionalities and lesser finesse.

6. On-cloud apps 

Till now, apps had been using a smart-phone’s resources and dedicated serves to give a seamless service to its clients. But with increasingly bigger applications coming about which demand ever increasing phone capacities, the next and biggest development would be on-cloud app which in the Indian context would be a reality only with 5G coming about. It’s biggest USP would be ease of use across platforms, security of data at all times, and storage and processing of large quantities of data. One of its biggest uses, (no prizes for guessing.  Would be gamers who could play anything that their heart desires in almost-real time with no lag or latency.