14 DAY TRIAL // Web-based applications are becoming increasingly used and popular and, with web browsers constantly growing faster, are starting to rival native applications in both functionality but even in performance.
Desktop users are regularly turning to online options already but the mobile segment could see a much bigger benefit from using cloud-based applications especially for mobile phones with limited resources. A new forecast by ABI Research shows that indeed, cloud-apps will see a huge uptake in usage in mobile phones to reach 19 percent of all mobile subscribers by 2014.
“From 2008 through 2010, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications. A total of 60% of the mobile Cloud application subscribers worldwide will use an application enabled by location during these years,” Mark Beccue, senior analyst for ABI Research, wrote. “By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, displacing today’s native and downloadable mobile applications.”
The research firm believes that the number of cloud-based applications subscribers will skyrocket over the next five years growing from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008, a respectable number on its own but only 1.1 percent of the total number of mobile subscribers, to just shy of one billion (998 million) subscribers by 2014 or 19 percent of all mobile phone users, the number also being expected to grow tremendously.
The appeal of web-based applications for mobile phones is obvious and already a greater number of users and manufacturers are relying on the cloud to do the heavy lifting. One has just to look at the huge success of the iPhone app market to see this. By moving the data and the processing away from the terminal, users can get a much better experience and responsive than would be possible relying only on the available hardware capabilities.