The rise of mobile has helped the growth of digital data beyond imagination. Within just a span of few years, mobile devices through its broad spectrum of diverse apps became the largest contributor to the fast accumulating volume of digital data. On the other hand, insights derived from data analytics continued to help mobile apps address and engage users better and garner better business. Thus both big data and mobile apps came as two inseparable facets of digital reality that has huge potential for creating value for end users and businesses.
Big data is much bigger than common conception can hold it. Practically, in every second huge volumes of digital data is piling up and this accumulation is getting faster and faster. This data is not just quantity-wise huge in volume but represents a huge variety of data representing every niche and usage. This huge volume of digital data representing a horizon of data is accumulating at a skyrocketing speed and is grossly called as digital data. From this definition we can easily sum up three major elements of Big Data, respectively as volume, variety and velocity.
As utilizing this huge pool of data for analytical advantages is becoming a value proposition for businesses, the fourth element corresponding to Big Data can easily be summed up as value. However big or diverse the data is, what is the use of talking about it if it does not offer any value? How big is it really for the mobile reality, or so to speak, for the users? In this blog we would try to answer to these questions.
Big Data and New Business Reality
Businesses are now becoming more data-driven and naturally integrating data analytics is increasingly becoming part of their app development strategy. Scalability is rapidly becoming a concern for many businesses as user base and user generated data is increasing at a rapid speed. Companies experiencing growth must address the corresponding data influxes. Present focus on data analytics and user insights resulted from this new data driven business reality.
Cloud solutions in the recent times have come as a big solution to the overwhelming challenge of managing huge volumes of data. Data storage in the cloud can easily allow access and availability without any device and location specific constraints. At the same time, that can help getting hold of the valuable insights hidden in the stored sets of data.
With cloud storage, companies could address an array of issues previously related to large data infrastructure. Cloud storage could help companies address issues like investment, capacity and scalability, all at the same time. Today most businesses understand how important it is to know the buying habit of consumers and related behavioral insights. Big Data analytics naturally have phenomenal importance to them.
Knowing Your Customers Location
Decades ago marketers sole focus was on what and how to deliver. No one really gave a damn about where and when to deliver. But with the mobile reality making people interconnected irrespective of location and time, knowing these two aspects became extremely important. Mobile devices, with their advanced level location technology and sensors, helped businesses to address their customers more contextually. Now, large sets of data concerning location of customers and their preference help companies accurately target customers with any specific offer, deal or piece of information.
Creating Contextually Relevant Offers
Location is just one important part of the latest maneuver to address customers contextually. Obviously, knowing that a customer is located very close to your store so you can send him an offer and thus enjoy a better chance of converting business is great. But simply location information alone may not give the required results.
A variety of information about the customers corresponding to their buying habit, preference of services and products, demographic data, etc. can garner more useful insights. Among two customers located nearby your store you will obviously give preference to one who has a positive buying habit. That is where Big Data with its variety of information can play a huge role.
You can address your customers according to insights generated by a variety of data from various sources corresponding to their specific buying habit, taste, preference, etc. Thus Big Data coupled up with location information can actually help you address users in a more contextual and relevant manner.
App Analytics and Big Data
As device sensors are getting more powerful, collecting diverse user data through mobile devices is becoming easier and in turn this is helping app analytics to come up with more accurate results. This new focus on user data made app analytics and Big Data inseparable from mobile app development process.
Big Data and app analytics add immense value to the decision making process in any business, by offering instant insights into real time data. This new focus on data analytics for addressing customers in customized and contextual way helps engaging employees more and eventually makes decision making a more collaborative process. This results in more efficiency and performance in business process and on the other hand helps improving the user experience to a significant level.
Visual analytics like touch heatmaps represent a great example of how latest user analytics tools can offer useful insights about users. Basically heatmaps are tools to aggregate the user gestures like taps, swipes, pinches, etc. By analyzing these gesture inputs they provide useful information about the app areas where your users are engaging with the app more and the reasons and possible motivations behind their actions.
The Emergence of Mobile Web
Finally, it is the emergence of mobile web as a renewed force that is likely to contribute to the growth of Big Data analytics for mobile. Mobile devices are no longer just made for using diverse native apps for different purposes. Thanks to advanced mobile browsers and most websites going responsive or offering mobile versions, the mobile web is increasingly becoming preferred over native apps for an array of purposes. Mobile web crossed all bounds and restraints and steadily taking over native apps. This emergence of mobile web naturally helps users affront the huge pool of data from World Wide Web and more useful user specific insights.
