Internet of Things (IoT) today has brought a significant change in our day-to-day lives. And, with connectivity improving in the last few years it has become more widespread with the passing time. This technology has gained a lot of traction with the help of growing mobile technology. It is expected to witness a surge in the number of IoT applications that are expected in the coming years. 

So, it wouldn’t come as no surprise that companies are now starting to consider the integration of this nifty technology with iOS app development. This is because of the benefits such as ease of data collection, employee mobility, process automation, etc.

The integration of IoT into iPhone app development is one of the hottest technologies. It is making the rounds these days. Interestingly, this helps create numerous business opportunities for many enterprises across various sectors as more and more people find their way into the connected world of devices with data.

Before we move on to discussing how one can pick the right IoT development provider, allow us to also quickly list some of the main challenges you are likely to face during this process.

The development of IoT-driven iOS apps is also subject to a plethora of challenges and concerns as is any other digital product. Nonetheless, in the specific context of IoT apps, some of the key issues that are likely to emerge during the development process are connectivity, compatibility, privacy, and security. We mention these challenges to help you ensure that these challenges are properly addressed during the development process.

Now, some tips to help you find the right service provider for developing iPhone apps fortified with IoT.

1. Before you set off to find a development partner for your IoT-fortified iOS development project, it is highly advisable that you first take the time to understand precisely why you want to develop such an app. Take the time to elucidate the goal of developing such an app, what you expect to achieve with it, who is your target audience, etc. All these factors will, then, help you understand what your app should look like, the features it must have, the challenges you will face, and the kind of skills and experience you will need to help you get through this process with a robust product on the other end.

2. The next factor you must keep in mind while looking for a development partner is that the company you choose must be able to help you build a top-quality IoT-driven iOS app and that too without burning a hole in your pockets. What that means is to find a service provider who can deliver the required product without needing massive investments.

3. Now that IoT has firmly established itself as a force to be reckoned with, plenty of development service providers are looking to cash in on the popularity of this new technology. However, that does not necessarily mean they have the skill or experience one needs to develop high-quality iPhone apps. This is why experts recommend opting for a reputed company, even if engaging their services is comparatively more expensive. This will help ensure the timely development of a robust app.

It is clear as day to see that IoT brings a whole lot of value to the table, more so when it comes to iOS apps and their development. We understand trying to embrace new technology in your business and apps can be an intimidating endeavor, but hopefully, the above discussion can help allay some of the concerns you may have had about the process. For the rest, it is advisable to find an expert development company that has the relevant skills for developing iPhone apps for your business and the industry in which you operate. Once you find a trusted development partner, the rest of the process will be rather simple to navigate through.

The world has seen the emergence of countless advanced technologies over the past few decades and among them, one of the most notable and impactful has been the Internet of Things. Often described as a critical part of the foundation of our technology-driven future, IoT has shaken up pretty much every industry on the face of Earth. For the better, of course. Anyway, this transformation brought on by IoT has made its way into the world of web and mobile apps development too, and understandably so. After all, today apps are not only the most omnipresent modern tools but are relied upon by millions and millions of people every single day. Suffice it to say that app development is vital to the cause of keeping the world running and IoT has only entered the scene to further improve things. But the question remains: How?

The Internet of Things is a dynamic technology that has, for starters, completely changed how users in the digital realm interact and engage with web applications as well as mobile applications. It not only enables companies to effortlessly deal with humongous volumes of data, but also ensures top-notch security, seamless communications, and so much more. After all, the Internet of Things market is not projected to touch $11 trillion in economic value by 2025 without reason. Studies have also found that the global investment in IoT could touch $15 trillion by 2025. Now, let’s explore some of its other contributions to app development in detail.

1. Smarter UIs: While it can be quite challenging to put together UIs that integrate modern technologies and still successfully tend to users’ expectations, IoT can help considerably in this regard. It is highly conducive to the development of effective UI and integrates relevant latest trends to further enhance users’ experiences while engaging with the app. Oh, and let’s not forget that it also enables A/B split tests to help developers identify which iteration of the app is best suited for success.
2. Cybersecurity: Of course, ensuring high levels of security with your apps is a top priority for everyone. IoT helps ameliorate this process by helping programmers to integrate the latest security measures and strategies. This includes modern identification and authorization methods to monitor the continued safety of all the data stored within the app.
3. Chatbots: Now, artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven chatbots can be further integrated with the Internet of Things to empower them with access to even more sources of data. This, then, allows them to answer customers' queries and issues in a much more proficient manner, which is critical to ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction in an increasingly competitive market.
4. Data collection and processing: Data collection and its processing are critical to the success of any app in the world today. With the Internet of Things, that ability is fortified since one now gains access to a wider set of sources for data. Furthermore, IoT also helps avoid any lags in the relay of this information, thus enabling it to be used in real-time.

There is not even a shred of doubt that avant-garde technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. have completely transformed the web and mobile app development process and for good! So, if you want to take advantage of IoT and other such technologies to build modern apps that are more secure, highly customer experience-focused, and enable the seamless collection of data among other things, all you have to do is find a qualified service provider for their development. Their expertise and knowledge will further fortify your product and thus, your customers’ experiences.

Technologists and analysts are on a path to discovery, obtaining answers on how technology and the data collected can make our cities more efficient and cost effective. 

While IoT may be seen as another buzzword at the moment, companies like SAP, Cloud Sigma, Net Atlantic and Amazon Web Services are working to make sure that for businesses, IoT is a reality. It’s companies with this willingness to change, adopt and invent that will win the new economy. Mobile phones, online shopping, social networks, electronic communication, GPS and instrumented machinery all produce torrents of data as a by-product of their ordinary operations. Most companies want their platform to be the foundation of everything it does, whether it is with big data, data analytics, IoT or app development. The same  rub off phenomenon was emulated in Latin American countries  like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and European countries like Brussels, Italy,  Germany, Denmark , Poland and Prague in recent times.

It is important to realize that technology is exploding before our very eyes, generating unprecedented opportunities. With easy access to cheap cloud services, smarter people came up with these platforms, and it has fundamentally changed businesses and created new ways of working. Mobile cannot be an afterthought. It needs to be integrated in everything you do and positioned at the forefront of your strategy. You have no valid reason to avoid migrating to the cloud. Cloud provides a ubiquitous, on-demand, broad network with elastic resource pooling. It’s a self-configurable, cost-effective computing and measured service. On the application side, cloud computing helps in adopting new capabilities, meeting the costs to deploy, employing viable software, and maintaining and training people on enterprise software. If enterprises want to keep pace, they need to emulate the architectures, processes and practices of these exemplary cloud providers.

One of the main factors of contributing value additions is the concept of a Smart City which is described as one that uses digital technologies or information and communication technologies to enhance the quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. We will interact and get information from these smart systems using our smartphones, watches and other wearables, and crucially, the machines will also speak to each other.The idea is to embed the advances in technology and data collection which are making the Internet of Things (IoT) a reality into the infrastructures of the environments where we live. We will interact and get information from these smart systems using our smartphones, watches and other wearables, and crucially, the machines will also speak to each other. Technologists and analysts are on a path to discovery, obtaining answers on how technology and the data collected can make our cities more efficient and cost effective. The current model adopted for IoT is to attract businesses to develop software and hardware applications in this domain. The model also encourages businesses to put their creativity to use for the greater good, making cities safer, smarter and more sustainable.

A few years ago like many others  I predicted  that Business models will be shaped by analytics, data and the cloud. Moreover, the IoT is deeply tied in with data, analytics and cloud to enable them and to improve solutions. The key goal is to ensure there is value to both customers and businesses. You can effectively put this strategy into action and build a modern data ecosystem that will transform your data into actionable insights.  

Till we meet next time...

Best,

Raj Kosaraju

CIO 

Mobile app technology is brimming with new innovations and has been the center of attention for many years. The apps have made a great contribution to help the mobile industry and facilitate the business world. The ever-growing marketing and modern tech makes it difficult to shine among your competitors.

2017 turned out to be a phenomenal year with great advancements for the app company. Mobile apps effectively create brand identity, increase brand awareness, generate leads, and increase sales for marketing. The professionals from the leading Mobile app development company in Virginia realized that mobile apps are becoming more of a necessity rather than an optional investment. Small businesses are gearing up to adopt this marketing strategy to flourish in the market. If you want to step up your mobile app marketing game then you need to take out time to get your busy routine to get familiar with.

Top trends you should follow in 2018

1.   Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Apps
Technology is all set to make smartphone devices even smarter in 2018. We saw augmented reality apps in the previous year, for example, Pokémon Go. This was a valuable addition to the AR world which gained a lot of recognition. A lot more is expected to come this year and it’s expected that the AR and VR trends will transform in 2018 and dominate many more sectors. The app world will witness the AR/VR tech to expand and excel in numerous sectors other than games and fun. The Augmented Reality is expected to evolve in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare, engineering, and many other industries.

2.   Cloud based App Development
With the increased usage of cloud technology, mobile developers are aiming to design cloud driven apps. This is a simple and easy way to take out data from the mobile without affecting the internal memory of the phone. There are many other benefits too such as increased productivity and collaboration, better-streamlined operations, reduced hosting and equipment cost etc. if you’re looking ways to enhance your mobile app visibility then you should integrate cloud based technology in your development strategy.

3.   Wearables
Wearables and smart watches have introduced new technology in the market. Wearables are expected to be the next best thing in the year 2018. Wearables consist of both features, being necessary and being stylish at the same time. The adoption of wearables will emerge in the manufacturing and healthcare industry. With Apple, Google, and Samsung watches already existing it’s expected that their demand will grow rapidly in 2018.

4.   Internet of thing (IoT)
The Internet of things technology is a new trending technology in both mobile and web development field. In the previous year we noticed the idea of IoT emerging in the home, healthcare, education industry. It will continue to evolve in this year and we’ll get to see some advanced tech in business domain, day to day lifestyle, and many other domains.

5.   Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is modifying the way we look at technology. It has enabled some exciting features in healthcare apps, behavioral targeting etc. In addition, it has enabled the use of Chatbots in mobile apps. Chatbots are tools that can encourage human conversation. There are very few apps that have integrated this tech in their mobile apps, we will definitely get to see this in the coming year.

6.   Blockchain
Blockchain has received a lot of recognition than any other tech. this year we will witness apps with built-in security features. A blockchain is a digitized, share, irreversible ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. It allows the market participants to keep a record of all the transactions in blocks, none of which can be changed without changing the blocks. A lot of apps will implement security features within to secure the participant’s transactions.

7.   Accelerated Mobile Pages
Accelerated mobile pages is yet another trend that is going to have a great impact on the mobile app development industry. The pages are a great way to improve the loading time of the web page in mobile devices. This will reduce the bounce rate and increase the visitors on the site.

8.   Improved security

Mobile security is one of the primary concern of the mobile app developers. Apps build with built-in security make a huge difference, many people don’t know the real importance until they face any incident. Since smartphones have all the confidential data stored, the developers are paying heed in implementing security in the apps. More and more apps will get secured with secret features.

Conclusion

The year 2018 will be filled with advanced tech and new innovations. The year will grow economically in every business sector. On an ending note, these are the key tips to get successful in this year and in the future. Make sure you stay updated with all the latest trends and implement them according to shine out among the competitors.

With the Internet of Things (IoT) connecting more and more devices with each passing day, it is expected that by the year 2025, the number of IoT devices will reach around 24 billion out there in the world.

Now, this growth is certainly going to benefit the people in more than many ways and will hugely transform how people execute day-to-day tasks & a lot of other activities. As we live in the times when “impressions” are crucial for a person’s status, hence it will be cool to have a smart-home that will draw the attention of your visitors & guests and certainly make you the talk of the town. Meanwhile, among its significant benefits, one is the smart lighting that will actually be able to largely reduce the energy consumption, thus resulting in lowering down the electricity bill.

With this new technology, linking up connected cars with smart city infrastructure is possible, thus establishing a totally different ecosystem for the car drivers, who until now are accustomed to the conventional way of covering the distance from Area A to Area B. Also, there are connected healthcare devices at the disposal giving people a fuller and deeper look at their own health.  So, what more can we ask for?

But these tons of benefits certainly invite some sort of risks and security issues and this is what we will be discussing here today.

Do you know that increased numbers of connected devices are giving cybercriminals and hackers more entry points? And why just security issues, as average customers, are genuinely sharing their concerns over their privacy, with so much of consumer life being connected.

IoT – What makes it vulnerable to security aspect?

IoT is a growth sector, and besides that, it is also a market for buyers and investors, and where consumers are willing to grab the best-possible benefit at a little amount. Quite certainly, this kind of environment encourages vendors & manufactures to economize on money, effort, time and material, hence they enroll into the cheapest ways, hastening to put their services and products out there into the money stream.

This sends a direct invitation to practices, like usage of software code and generic components, access codes, default passwords, vendor-specific PIN numbers. All of this opens a path for an ecosystem that has weak security and exploitable vulnerabilities.

A study carried on by Ponemon Institute and IBM security suggest that around 80% enterprises usually do not test their IoT apps, hence making them vulnerable from a security perspective.

Here, we have categorized various areas of IoT security vulnerability that are the most common

Vulnerable to Hacking

According to the researchers, hackers were successful in hacking these real IoT devices with enough energy and time, within a limited time. Like, a research team at Michigan University and Microsoft discovered a lot of gaps in the security of Samsung’s Smart Things smart-home platform. Unfortunately, the methods didn’t appear complex at all.

Poor On-board Web Interface

There is an onboard web server for most of the IoT devices and it does the job of hosting a web app used in device management. Now, in case, any loopholes found in the underlying code of the web apps and web servers, then that certainly makes the device vulnerable to get attacked – maybe in a remote manner owing to its connectivity to the internet.

Weak mobile security

Weak security on mobile app development often makes the IoT devices vulnerable from a security point of view. The biggest problem lies in the fact that data is being stored on mobile applications. Even though the data that is saved on iOS is less risky as compared to iOS app development, still to storage of sensitive data and information on a mobile device is never considered ideal. Like, what if a worker ends up losing a smartphone which contained valuable data in it, that too with no backup.

Vulnerable Cloud & Mobile Management Platforms

As there are a huge number of IoT devices that connect to wireless and cloud mobile networks, hence the poor security and exploitable code in the software & infrastructure, which manages these platforms, has also become a major concern. To address these issues there are management platforms embedded on these devices, but that works only to a certain extent, with there being a risk, these interfaces are not being patched or updated on a regular note. 

Concerns regarding Privacy & Data Transfer

Since IoT device comes with a constant flow of information regarding the device and its environment, it is not obvious that it will be delivered to the users. Like, depending on the device and its application, there could be financial, geographic and personal information. In case, there is poor or say no encryption at all on these data streams, then this kind of information becomes vulnerable to be used by third parties, hackers, or maybe eavesdroppers.

Often the companies are not prepared

As per AT&T’s Cybersecurity Insights Report, around 5,000 companies were surveyed across the world and it was found that 85% of them are about to or are planning on a deployment of IoT devices. Still, there are just 10% of companies, which as per the survey, are confident about security infrastructure attuned to devices against hackers.

Weak Authentication protocols

Often it happens that in the manner devices speak to their controllers and each other links them to an open channel. The reason could be the mechanisms used for authorization or authentications of legitimate communications. Perhaps insecure default device settings are deployed automatically, about which users are unaware, or maybe not given the opportunity to reconfigure weak security settings for themselves.

To stay realistic about IoT security risks is the key to combat this problem

Today more and more security researchers are focusing on the IoT, with few of their researchers posing kind of a theoretical risk instead of an actual one – at least for now. Like, one researcher came across this concept where smart lighting was used to filtrate data by compromising an internal network. Now is it possible getting a light in a room fluctuate enough such that it is able to transmit data? It is very doable in the test environment, whereas in the real world it is yet to be proven.

Even though more and more security researchers today are focusing on uncovering a range of IoT security concerns, but Deral Heiland, a veteran penetration tester, stresses the significance of having a realistic perspective. Sharing his experience, he said people keep asking him what to do with all these vulnerabilities that are coming out. His answer to them is quite logical. He states these vulnerabilities are being uncovered and the researchers and testers are making efforts to find a solution in order to combat such situations.  This says it all, doesn’t it?