10 Key Mobile Technology Trends for 2020

Technology is rapidly advancing.

Things that were considered pure science fiction are now entering our everyday lives. We can see the developments across various industries. Companies are sending rockets to space, robots are becoming more sophisticated, and software is assisting us in so many aspects of life. All of this innovation inspires further innovation. As one industry advances, others rise to the occasion to keep technology as a whole moving forward towards the future. One specific area that is experiencing massive technological advances is the mobile industry. There are some key ways that the mobile industry is growing and evolving. By 2020 the standard for the mobile industry will be significantly higher as the surrounding technology advances. Here are just a few of the technological ends that we will see in the mobile industry for 2020.

5G Network

5G was at the center of talks at the Consumer Electronic Show this past year. The idea of a faster and more stable network is not so far fetched. In fact, a strong 5G network is the base of almost all mobile industry advances. Not only will your phone get faster, but everything will get faster. As the Internet is already a key factor of life, a better network will only further imbed the Internet in our society. It is expected that major telecom companies will roll out 5G capable phones as their network infrastructure improves. This better network capability will allow for greater levels of automation and technological proliferation. For example, the higher data transfer speeds can be used in self driving cars as they could download information about the entire city.

WIFI 6

While both WIFI 6 and 5G deal with the Internet, they are two different technologies. Both technologies bring us faster processing and network connection speeds, but they are not the same thing. With WIFI 6, it is expected that download speeds will be 3 times faster than WIFI 5, but that isn’t the true measure of WIFI 6’s value. WIFI 6 will be able to extend faster data speeds to more devices at once than WIFI 5. WIFI 5 can currently connect around 10 devices, while WIFI 6 is expected to be able to connect 50. So, not only will individual devices be performing faster, but more devices will be faster as well. The amount of data being pushed through WIFI is exceeding the capabilities of WIFI 5, and WIFI 6 is expected to solve that issue in addition to the other improvements mentioned.

Voice Commands

Voice control is not a new technology. We have been able to talk to Siri for a few years, but it is far from a perfect system. It is not possible to have a true conversation with Siri and other virtual assistants, as they will frequently misunderstand what users are trying to say. How many times have you asked Siri to search for something only for her to return with something entirely unrelated? This could be changing in 2020. As machine learning and AI become more advanced, so too will voice commands. In fact, the cutting edge of voice technology is Neuro Linguistic Programming. This area of programing would enabled computers to better understand human voices. NLP has the potential to allow machines to comprehend tone, sarcasm, puns, and double meanings. This programming has the potential to bring virtual assistants out of the uncanny valley as they come closer to true human speech.

Focus on Optimizing for Mobile

Mobile is quickly becoming the preferred browsing platform. For years, the desktop has been where the majority of users do their Internet browsing, but mobile is poised to overtake that title. However, browsing on mobile is very different than on desktop. Most websites are built on desktop with desktops in mind and those websites then have to be optimized for mobile consumption. Google has been working on mobile first indexing to make websites more mobile friendly for a while. This means that Google will index your website to determine what rank it is assigned. Click a Tell explains “quick page loading, easy-to-use buttons, no need to zoom or side scroll, and the right photo and text appearance” are a few of the features that will affect a mobile website’s ranking. In order to improve your ranking your mobile site will need to be properly optimized.

Mobile Wallets

How we pay for things has changed throughout the years, from cash to debit/credit cards and now mobile wallets or digital currencies. Mobile wallet apps are where users can store their banking information to make paying for things online as simple as a few taps. Frictionless payment methods like this are becoming the industry standard as customers demand easy and painless payment methods. More and more apps are integrating payment gateways and mobile wallets like Amazon pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal as they offer a secure encrypted way of paying for things online.

Chatbots

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, chatbots are becoming more prolific. Chatbots are easy to add to any app and go a long way in making your customers happy. Customers want their questions answered quickly and it is not always feasible to have a human there to handle every query; this is where chatbots come in. A chatbot can answer questions and act as virtual assistants within apps. Amar InfoTech found that “as many as 50% of B2B consumers like self-service CRM.” Chatbots have become a new way of extending customer relationship management without needing to hire more employees.
The mobile industry will see continued massive technological growth in 2020. As the world of technology advances, so too will the mobile industry. Chatbots, mobile wallets, voice commands, and the best Internet yet will combine to create a great era of mobile experience that businesses and customers alike will benefit from. 2020 will be an exciting year as we bring science fiction to life and put the new technology to good use.