The software development market grows at an impressive pace, as more and more new technologies emerge on a daily basis. Overall, this market is expected to reach around USD 1,789.14 billion by 2032. To stay on top of the software development market, you need to understand all the primary market trends. Embrace them and invent something new on top of these technologies in order to create innovative software solutions. Here is the ultimate guide for 2024 that will help you understand the main market trends, their promises, and the value of all such innovations.
The list of software development trends can be truly vast. However, here we have collected the ones that are especially popular among IT customers. All these trends are frequently discussed at various leading industry conferences. Here is an overview of promises, challenges, and implementation opportunities for the most interesting software development market trends. Each of these innovations brings particular businesses solid benefits and innovation opportunities.
Let’s start with the main buzzword in the current domain of software solutions. Artificial intelligence is on the rise, and we are still far from reaching its full potential. The current promises of AI software development reshape various industries.
As for now, the main advantages of this trend are process automation, user experience personalization, and continuous innovation. Various AI-driven tools, like chatbots, analytical scripts, and smart search engines help companies handle repetitive tasks. This allows businesses to free up human workers to focus on more strategic endeavors. As for now, AI software is completely revolutionizing customer services and various analytical domains. Many companies employ LLMs (large language models) to create AI employees capable of handling various repetitive assignments. The key point is that these models can be trained. This means improving their efficiency and capacities over time.
Another domain that is strongly affected by AI is healthcare. Such software is revolutionizing diagnostics and treatment plans through predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms. Such tools can analyze vast amounts of medical data to identify patterns and suggest personalized treatment options.
The promise of AI extends to finance, where it supports fraud detection, trading algorithms, and personalized banking experiences. Even creative domains, such as art, music, and writing enable the generation of original content.
AI software development is also pivotal in advancing logistics. For example, self-driving cars and drones promise safer and more efficient transportation and logistics.
In education, AI-powered platforms offer personalized learning experiences. They can adapt to individual students’ needs and pacing, thereby enhancing learning outcomes.
Discover how we helped Helliwood Media & Education boost media literacy by creating a slick multimedia e-reader app for school books.
This is another buzzword in the modern IT market. Many scientists and business executives see systems of perfectly interconnected smart devices as the future of software development.
IoT promises to revolutionize smart homes, enabling seamless integration and control of appliances, lighting, heating, and security systems. All these advantages can be achieved through intuitive interfaces and voice commands. This, in turn, enhances convenience, energy efficiency, and security.
IoT also affects the industrial sector. In particular, such technologies are broadly used for the development of smart factories with interconnected machinery and devices communicating in real time. Such innovations help manufacturing plants optimize production processes, reduce downtime through predictive maintenance, and improve overall operational efficiency.
In healthcare, IoT devices and software are enabling remote monitoring of patients’ vital signs. This ensures more proactive and personalized care. IoT devices are also essential for remote patient care and health tracking.
In highly digitized countries, IoT also enhances the agricultural sector. Such tools support smart farming techniques, as sensors and connected devices are used to monitor soil health.
Smart cities represent another significant promise of IoT. Interconnected infrastructures lead to improved urban management, reduced traffic congestion, and enhanced public safety.
Alongside these promises, there are significant challenges and concerns that need addressing. In particular, businesses that embrace IoT software development should pay much attention to data security and privacy. Another challenge is managing the massive amounts of data generated by IoT devices. It is also important to ensure interoperability among diverse IoT systems. If you focus on dealing with such issues, you can get an immediate advantage over the competitors embracing IoT technologies. Collaboration among technology developers, policymakers, and stakeholders is essential to navigating these challenges. In this case, the potential of this technology can be fully implemented. The main aim of this course is to create a more connected, efficient, and intelligent world. And, surely, such software development innovations can boost the efficiency of many businesses dramatically.
Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are also bringing a number of significant promises. First of all, such innovations revolutionize the way users experience digital content. It goes about providing immersive and interactive experiences that transcend traditional media.
VR plays a pivotal role in numerous industries, including the realm of entertainment. This technology brings new levels of immersion when it comes to virtual concerts, theater performances, and other live events.
VR also changes the educational domain with its great opportunities. It can be used for simulating real-world scenarios. In addition, it can be used by teachers for recreating historical events or researching human bodies. As a result, learning becomes much more engaging and interesting to students.
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VR software also creates great opportunities in the medical field. For example, surgeons can use virtual scenarios to rehearse complex procedures. This reduces the risk of errors during actual surgeries. Virtual reality software is also making strides in mental health treatment. VR apps support immersive therapies for conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, and phobias.
Real estate is another industry ripe for VR transformation. Potential buyers can take virtual tours of properties, experiencing the layout and ambiance.
VR also helps engineers prototype divides and items before manufacturing them. Such tools help engineers to visualize and test products in a virtual space before committing to physical production. This feature reduces the risks of manufacturing unfitting objects dramatically.
Just like in case with any other market trend, there are some challenges you should consider while opting for VR software development. It is important to address potential health concerns related to prolonged VR use and develop content that fits the medium’s capabilities. There is also the need to create standards and best practices for VR development. This will help you ensure an excellent user experience. The future of VR promises a transformative impact on how we live, learn, work, and play. For sure, it is not a trend to be ignored in the software development domain.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) bring much innovation to the domains of web and mobile application development. They offer a blend of the best features of traditional web and native apps. PWAs promise to deliver fast, reliable, and engaging user experiences directly through web browsers without requiring downloads from app stores. In addition, PWAs can work offline or in low network conditions. The point is in service workers that cache essential resources and enable background synchronization. PWAs also promise seamless and instant updates. Once the developers release any update, it immediately becomes available to a user through a web browser. This feature brings great agility to the development process. PWAs are also highly responsive and adaptive, designed to work on any device with a single codebase. This makes them a popular alternative to apps built with cross-platform frameworks, like Flutter and .NET MAUI.
From a business perspective, PWAs offer cost-efficiency and a broader reach. Instead of building several apps with native approaches, the team can build a single PWA. A PWA will be available across various devices through browsers. This approach also allows businesses to reach a wider audience, including users who might be hesitant to download native apps due to limited storage space or concerns about data usage. Moreover, PWAs can be indexed by search engines, improving discoverability and driving organic traffic much better than native apps.
However, despite these promises, the adoption of PWAs does face challenges. For example, such apps offer limited support for certain native device features on some browsers and platforms. In addition, in some cases, PWAs are not the best options in terms of performance and app flexibility. Nonetheless, ongoing advancements in web technologies and increasing browser support are steadily closing these gaps. As an emerging alternative to cross-platform solutions, PWAs certainly hold many promises. Such apps might be less user-centric and performing than solutions built with Flutter. However, the affordable costs and great accessibility of progressive web apps are important factors making them a hot trend in software development.
No-code and low-code development technologies are also often mentioned when it comes to trends in software development. Those are the platforms allowing specialists to build apps with simple drag-and-drop capabilities. This significantly reduces the time and cost associated with traditional development methods. Both approaches also decrease the entry level of software development dramatically. No-code development platforms allow employees without any coding expertise to create web applications. In low-code development, some coding is required, but its amount is minimized. As a result, both no-code and low-code development technologies make software development accessible to non-technical specialists.
Meanwhile, such technologies still have significant limitations. In particular, no-code and low-code frameworks have predefined templates and components. These templates can limit the ability to fully customize the application according to specific needs. Complex or highly unique functionality might not be achievable within the constraints of the platform. In addition, such apps are limited in terms of performance and have very basic architectural patterns that may not fit specific needs. Therefore, no-code and low-code development solutions are not a universal panacea to all software development challenges. However, such platforms are still very popular among businesses that want to build basic and simple web platforms in the short term and with significant budget limitations.
There are many software development trends and technologies that are worth mentioning. This article provides some insights into the hottest trends in software development in 2024. Artificial intelligence, IoT, virtual reality, progressive web apps, and no-code/low-code development technologies are on the rise. And these solutions offer you many opportunities that deserve your attention. If you want to stay on top of the innovation, rely on industry experts.
Contact us at nCube to find out how our professional teams of software development specialists will help you leverage next-generation technologies. With a solid portfolio of unique and innovative projects, we will help you master the hottest IT innovations.
The end of this unprecedented year is around the corner, so the time is right to try and predict what lies ahead in the foreseeable future in the realm of software development. As 2020 has shown us, no one can see how the future will unfold, but it’s best to be prepared. In this article, we will discuss technologies and software development trends that are likely to gain momentum in the upcoming year. Let’s dive in!
Online meetings have become the necessary evil during the pandemic. Meetings come in all shapes and forms (standups, brainstorm sessions, water-coolers, one-on-ones), and understandably, this sphere has become extremely lucrative for startups. Entrepreneurs now come up with different ways to optimize meetings. Some offer automated scheduling, slide share tools, and interactive backgrounds. Others provide a way to gauge the participants’ morale using facial recognition techniques. As virtual work keeps its expansion, we will probably see the rise in software that boosts our meeting experience.
Progressive web applications (PWA) is a popular approach to app development where applications can work across all platforms. Hybrid applications are usually handled by one team of developers, while for native apps, you typically need two separate teams, iOS and Android.
Today’s popularity of React Native (42% of developers use it for their mobile apps, according to JetBrains’ The State of Developer Ecosystem 2020) can underpin the fact that hybrid development isn’t likely to lose momentum next year.
Our developers from NCube work with React Native to create a real-time data analytics product, such as the case of FRST.
The most significant benefit of a hybrid approach is that the products turn out to be lightweight, adaptable to any screens, and are on the major search engines’ radar. It’s advocated by big names like Pinterest, Twitter, Forbes, among others.
ALIBABA, the world’s leading online trading B2B platform, is making an excellent use case of PWA. After a futile attempt to divert users to the app, they decided to go with a browser experience, which many of their users preferred. It resulted in:
On the other hand, native app development isn’t going anywhere. According to Forbes, the financial and banking industry will continue to rely on native development since it offers top-notch mobile experience, the highest security levels, and flawless performance. These parameters are critical for this industry.
IoT has permeated our lives, and it continues to ingrain in it deeper and deeper. The world of connected cars, smart homes and cities, and industrial IoT will continue its global expansion in 2021. There is a handful of cases for IoT implementation that will be trendy, including the next:
Connected cars – we can hardly call this year a successful year for this industry, but it’s expected that the revenue will break from its flat state in late 2021.
Virtual healthcare – The new demands imposed by the pandemic fueled finding the solutions to regulatory and infrastructure challenges that had previously been insurmountable. That will remove all the barriers to telemedicine that, at its heart, relies on IoT. As such, we can expect a rise in IoT-powered devices that track patients’ healthcare.
Virtual education – In times of pandemic, IoT can add value to the academic process with a wide range of connected devices that help bring teachers and students closer.
IoT and AI convergence – the duo of AI and IoT (AIoT) refers to making the Internet of Things perform intelligence tasks by integrating Artificial Intelligence. The Artificial Internet of Things helps connect IoT devices with sensors that are integrated with AI capabilities, all without bringing a human into the loop.
Human Augmentation embraces technologies that help people replicate, supplement, or exceed their natural abilities. These technologies are a set of devices and implants built into the body. Some of them can replicate an amputated limb, translate sign language into speech, restore sight or hearing, create organic tissues. Others enable us to do things beyond human ability, like exoskeletons providing artificial strength and endurance or earbuds that translate from foreign languages. New human augmentation technologies are underway.
Processing and analyzing sizable datasets is still a challenge for many organizations. However, a set of tools appeared that allow for immediate data processing, taking out the problem of storing data after calculating. Thus, data processing framework skills will be in high demand. Big Data is also a cornerstone in discovering new medicines, combating climate change, and NLP (Natural Language Processing).
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies are firmly established on the market, and it has been so even in pre-pandemic times. But during this unprecedented year, when the amenities of the physical works became unavailable, the immersive tech came to the rescue, helping simulate the real world and let customers shop the way they used to.
Accenture reports that immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality and 3D content can enhance consumer purchasing confidence and increase online sales. In fact, 64% of leading consumer brands are starting to invest in immersive experiences.
Virtual reality technologies have been on the rise during the lockdown, especially in tourism. Many tourists have gotten an alternative with AR/VR’s help – immersing themselves in locations they couldn’t visit otherwise, such as museums, thematic parks, landmarks. We can say that the global lockdown drives virtual reality adoption, and it looks like this business will be on the rise next year.
AI will continue permeating all aspects of our lives, and we will see its capabilities implemented across healthcare, education, finance, and entertainment. AI is the force that helps businesses automate their mundane tasks and workflows, provide personalized experiences, and optimize the budget. As a matter of fact, the AI market promises to reach $156.5 B in revenue by the end of this year. Thus, it looks like there is going to be considerable demand for AI software development skills in the next few years.
There is an increasing need to double down on cybersecurity. As technology advances, the number of cyberattacks proliferates. This year, businesses suffered data breach losses worth of $3.86M, according to IBM. The number will inevitably go up in 2021, given that more and more companies are joining the virtual work movement. That puts cybercriminals in a good position to attack using malware, phishing, and other means. Companies can safeguard their data by eliminating vulnerabilities in their firewalls (and outside it) and implementing machine learning algorithms for fraud detection. A good solution to ward off cybercriminals is to use Blockchain capabilities.
Building a software solution requires a large team of software developers, which poses challenges for smaller companies. Low code development platforms significantly cut investments into software development and let businesses quickly build a good solution.
Hence, the global low code development platform market size is anticipated to reach USD 83.5 billion by 2028 with over 36% CAGR.
Low-code platforms are the driving force that can transform the software market by providing simple interfaces to help people build apps quickly and with minimum investment.
2020 has shaken up our lifestyle, prompted new buying behavior, and fueled new software development trends. Businesses that compete in the saturated market must embrace the challenges and adjust to the continually evolving IT industry. Trends are always hard to adopt, and starting with novel technologies can be a challenge. If you want to make the most of them in the upcoming year, building a skillful software development team is necessary. Contact us to talk about your development needs.
