Unless you have been living under a rock, you will agree our world is highly data-driven.
Our custom app development industries are thriving! Look around yourself – systems, sensors, gadgets, and processes continue to generate data by the second.
These large volumes of data – both structured and unstructured – are collectively called Big Data. The term relates to how we analyze and process data sets too heavy to handle any traditional data processing tool. Governments and private businesses are spending millions implementing advanced data strategies to derive real-time insights from Big Data. No wonder the global Big Data analytics market could value at $103 billion by 2023!
On the other hand, IoT refers to the millions of physical devices across the globe which are connected to the internet, all collecting and exchanging data. According to Statista, the global IoT market is estimated to grow to $1,567 billion by 2025. The large amount of unstructured data generated by IoT devices such as wireless sensors, actuators, and wearables are collected in the Big Data system. In a nutshell, Big Data powers IoT. Let us understand their interrelation in detail:
When Big Data meets IoT: the interrelation impact
The digital world is growing at a phenomenal rate. An increasing number of gadgets and applications are getting invented. The total count of mobile apps globally has reached 8.9 million. Plus, people’s social media usage is at an all-time high.
All of that has resulted in the influx of data, which has increased the demand for robust hardware and software infrastructure. That is because businesses have a huge task in their hands – to examine the data flowing in real-time. Perhaps, that is where the combined efforts of Big Data and IoT can make a difference.
Big Data and IoT provide valuable insights for starters, such as mobile app users’ behavioral patterns. For instance, smart devices help businesses gather intel on how customers navigate through their stores using push notification on mobile phones.
That can enable them to identify loopholes in the user experience and take necessary steps to fill those gaps. In this case, the technologies help identify patterns to make changes that enable customers to discover least-visited web pages on the store through the mobile app.

Secondly, the two technologies boost employee productivity. By installing smart devices and sensors throughout their offices, businesses can collect employee engagement data, performance ratings, and other work-related metrics. The data collected can improve daily business operations and help employees utilize their time more efficiently.
But that is not; the two buzzwords also have a huge part to play in developing mobile apps.
Role of Big Data and IoT in mobile app development
With 5.2 billion global mobile phone users and 20.4 billion IoT devices online right now, it is not surprising to observe that the technologies have a ripple effect on the mobile app development market.
By exploiting the omnipresent IoT and the power of Big Data, mobile application makers are well on their way to uncover an exciting way to find new customers.
There is a pressing need to outperform competitors and achieve success by letting data drive the decisions. Here is the role Big Data and IoT play in mobile app development:
Ensure custom app development to beat the competition
Competition in the mobile app development market is rife, making it even more challenging for developers to create something that stands out. With Big Data and IoT, they can create intuitive mobile apps.
The technologies can offer developers valuable insights on how customers interact with mobile apps and what they are trying to achieve when they use them. Besides, developers can identify advanced features that make a mobile app more productive.
With real-time and constructive information at hand, it is much for developers to create bespoke mobile apps.
Enhance the mobile app performance
With Big Data and IoT, developers can gain insights into the website traffic generated by mobile apps. That makes it easier for them to analyze individual segments to track engagement and spot glitches hampering mobile app performance. Consumers also don’t abandon using those mobile apps that operate smoothly.
Encourage efficient app interactions from users across the globe
Every business wants their mobile app to cater to a global audience eventually. But that is challenging as customers from different countries interact differently with a mobile app.
That is where the technologies can help categorize the data fetched from app interactions into age, gender, location, most-visited mobile pages, usage times, and so on.
The real-time information can help developers modify the mobile app as per behaviours in different countries.
Offer real-time data for facilitating instant decision-making
The mobile app development market is dynamic, and businesses need to stay ahead of the curve with real-time data.
Big Data and IoT can ensure that they always have up-to-date information at their fingertips to tweak their mobile apps according to the changing market scenarios. This would make the mobile app more capable of gathering higher profits for the business in the future.
Scale-up app revenue and app engagement
As mentioned above, Big Data and IoT give insightful information on the way consumers interact with a specific mobile app. By evaluating their needs and patterns, businesses can decide on a strategy for maximizing conversions.
For instance, when the sales manager engages with prospects while they pass through various pipeline stages in the sales CRM, businesses can learn a more generous deal about their potential customers and use that information to create marketing campaigns and appropriate sales literature.
Changes in the mobile app development process due to Big Data and IoT
Change in infrastructure
The increased use of mobile and IoT apps and data consumption has raised the need for greater cellular capacity and wi-fi. That means IoT product development services should be robust enough to satisfy the demand of the network.
Clean and minimal mobile app designs
The modern custom app development process must ensure the mobile apps are not bulky and should easily fit in the smartphone’s memory and not hamper the devices’ screen size.
Increased demand for security
IoT app development has facilitated us all to store our information on that cloud. Although convenient, cloud storage has led to an increase in cyber-crimes. Therefore, IoT development services must ensure that the app is strong enough to protect the users’ information.
Enhanced need for innovative hardware
IoT app development requires that hardware comprise rich features to simplify the work processes by interconnecting electronic devices. That will make it easy for consumers to use gadgets and enable developers to extract data from them in real-time.
Four brands leveraging Big Data and IoT in mobile app development
It is no secret that an increasing number of businesses now harness Big Data and IoT’s combined power. Here are four use cases:
Uber
Uber’s custom app development process uses Big Data analytics solutions to analyze real-time weather status and traffic conditions, estimate time for the journey, and find available drivers in nearby locations to provide a consumer with details such as the amount to be paid and expected waiting time on the mobile app.
I-TAP R2
I-TAP R2 has taken the traditional manual beer taps and converted them into wireless smart taps that glean data about usage, track operations in real-time, and transmit the data through their I-TAP network proprietary mobile app. The perfect combination of Big Data and IoT app development provides a transparent overview of the beer inventory, including how much beer has been consumed at a certain point and when the business must reorder the stock.
SignalFrame
Based in Dever, Colorado, SingleFrame harnesses millions of detectable Bluetooth, WiFi, and BLE signals enabling a modern and smart generation of proximity services to cover security IoT and wearables for homes and transportation. Through the SignalGraph platform, the company also prevents fraud and offers passive authentication to eliminate cyberattacks.
Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital
The France-based hospital has deployed Big Data and IoT solutions after partnering with Capsule Technologies and Microsoft. They developed a proprietary system that enables them to collate and categorize compliant and secure data and connect medical devices to transmit more data to the system. After the nurses complete the mobile app’s authentication process, they can directly send patient data from the medical tools and devices. That way, the hospital has updated and clear data sets, making the nurses’ jobs easier.
Wrapping it up
Obviously, in this day and age, mobile apps have become the centerpiece of all business communication strategies. Research states the mobile app market is expected to generate $189 billion in revenue by the end of the year.
Speaking of IoT, the said sector is on its way to generating $1.6 trillion by
Amazingly, Big Data and IoT together have the potential to boost app-performance and fuel consumer engagement like never before. While IoT app development generates data, Big Data puts that data to fair use by extracting valuable information to enable businesses to modify, tweak, or amend their mobile apps.
If your business has been ignoring the two technologies, it is time to leverage both in the mobile app development process.
About the Author

Pratik Rupareliya is co-founder at Intuz. Intuz is an industry leading technology solutions provider, established in 2008. With the world-class technical supervision, robust infrastructure and growing team of experts in prominent tech, strategic and operations management, we are serving the clients across the globe with mobile app development, enterprise mobility, cloud & app marketing services.
Featured image: ©nd3000
