Fast forward one year. We’re just in 2013. The following are the highlights of 2012:

  • the app was established as a business critical channel for client interaction
  • business apps were used primarily for transactions, selling products and services, and strengthening brand
  • from company internal perspectives, social collaboration and business intelligence initiatives leveraged the new channel established by app phones and tablets
  • in the second half of 2012, HTML5 became a mainstream option in app projects enabling not only a higher rate of reuse between app phone platforms but also new responsive and adaptive web implementations
  • Microsoft, IBM and Adobe are now at the forefront in cross platform HTML5 developer tools, closing the opportunities for niche vendors
  • new iPhone and iPad models were released and kept Apple’s market share on steady levels in competition primarily with Android, although the Apple app market and ecosystem proved to still be stronger and vibrant than its competitors’
  • Android became the largest app phone platform, but its tablet siblings continued to struggle below ten percent of the market
  • Windows Phone established itself as a strong third platform and managed to grab twenty percent of Q4 sales
  • Microsoft made a strong come back with a bold new Windows 8, that will have components spaning across server, desktop, the new Xbox and the coming Windows Phone
  • NFC (Near Field Communication) continued to be mostly a hype, since it takes time to change methods of payments given the vast hardware infrastructure investments required across all channels