[Huawei Developers] Martin Bieber:
Author: Martin Alvarez，Web Standards Expert at EU.SID (Standards and Industry Development) Huawei Consumer Business Group，shares his thoughts on the compatibility between Quick Apps and digital lifestyles in the 5G era.​

5G is envisioned as the ultimate solution to cellular connectivity – promising multi-Gbps peak data speeds with ultra-low latency of just 1 millisecond, alongside a wealth of other improvements. As users get accustomed to these changes, it induces further changes in user expectations – such as for greater efficiency and performance in mobile apps.

However, the technology is still in infancy and imperfect – IDC warns in a whitepaper that enterprises should not fall into the trap of viewing 5G as a simple “plug and play” technology that will deliver increased mobile connectivity. Developers should leverage this transition period to explore how different technologies – such as Quick Apps – can best take advantage of what 5G can offer and adapt accordingly.

In this article, Martin Alvarez shares his thoughts on the compatibility between Quick Apps and digital lifestyles in the 5G era.

What are the major disruptions that developers will experience with 5G technology?

• As users' needs evolve to reflect the faster-paced 5G lifestyle, traditional apps will likely lose favour among mobile users due to the inherent friction in the user journey, including tedious installation and registration processes.

• Quick apps are the perfect complement in the new era due to their easy discoverability, direct access, immediate response, as well as growing capabilities that are on par with traditional native apps.

• This transition between traditional to Quick Apps is likely to meet attraction from both users and developers. Users only pay attention to the appealing and efficient product/service, rather than the underlying technology. Additionally, quick apps are based on frameworks and standards that are popular with developers.

RESILIENCE and AGILITY

As competition within the app industry intensifies, developers looking to stay competitive must be of a certain calibre. This includes being resilient as well as capable of adapting quickly to societal changes and disruptions.

More importantly, businesses and developers must possess the agility to cater to the rapidly-changing users’ demands. As a result, developers will need the support of toolkits and frameworks that are easy to maintain and help them build products swiftly. These tools will have to involve less coding, less complexity in the framework, reusable components, pluggable third-party services.

FRICTIONLESS APPS

As online services’ capabilities continue to improve and expand exponentially, it encourages consumers’ reliance on them for daily tasks. This explains why smartphone usage is at an all-time high at the moment – the devices are needed to even perform the most common day-to-day tasks, such as accessing virtual loyalty cards or viewing a restaurant’s digital menu.

In addition, mobile users only interact with a significantly small number of apps installed on their devices on a regular basis. The fact that the app discovery journey is fraught with friction and pain points further hurts traditional apps’ standing in mobile users’ eyes. On the other hand, Quick Apps are the perfect replacement in the new era due to their easy discoverability, instant access, and growing capabilities on par with traditional native apps.

QUICK RESPONSE

Each individual Quick App is designed to perform one task – this specialization allows the developers to home in on the necessary processes and guarantees maximum efficiency.

Along the same vein, consumers’ expectations will be conditioned to match that high level of speed and efficiency for all other aspects of their interaction with the apps. Thus, it is crucial for Quick App developers to ensure that users can access their services in the timeliest fashion, which will be where 5G comes in. The new generation of network technology would guarantee the provision of the service with the lowest latency while preserving the quality, privacy and security of the service.

BETTER TOOLS

This transition between traditional to Quick Apps is unlikely to meet resistance from both users and developers. Users historically only pay attention to the end product/service, rather than the underlying technology.

Additionally, Quick Apps are based on frameworks and standards – such as HTML-like components, CSS, and JavaScript – that are popular with the developer communities, encouraging a smoother adoption of the more efficient Quick Apps.