Generation Touch - there's an app for that!

It’s ‘Generation Touch’ which has led to the rise in app culture. Smartphones, tablets, and mobile technology have led to the development of an “apps culture.” As the mobile phone has morphed from a voice device to a multi-channel device to an internet-accessing mini-computer, a large market of mobile software applications, or “apps,” has arisen.

With the advent of the smart phone, the term “app” has become popular urban jargon for software applications designed to run on operating systems. We’ve got an app for that!

Outside of the world of consumer electronics, and moving into automotive, communications, industrial, medical, security, traditional and non-traditional electronics manufacturing, the need to have an ‘app for that’, is a growing trend. And behind the app is the software engineer.

Usually, the actual app development is the competence of our customers, who own the Intellectual Property behind its functionality, form, and performance. However, our customers do ask for our expert advice to ensure that their app will run smoothly when integrated into hardware (HW) plus the Operating System (OS) platform. Understanding and respecting one another’s area of expertise is one of the reasons that we form such strong partnerships with our customers. For example, at Anders we understand the set-up, the system, and the need for it to be fit for function, which is why we can discuss our customer’s app integration, as well as what will work, and what may not.

On the flip side though, sometimes our customers may also prefer to define the UI requirements and have the full platform and application developed by our team at Anders, in collaboration with our Software Design Partners, which will of course reduce the design contribution and efforts from their business. This often results in speed being injected into the development cycle, and our customers are happy, as they can invest their time into their own core competencies.

Our customers come in all different forms:

• Those that have concept but need us to realise. Therefore, they can harness our hardware and software engineering skills
• Those that lack the internal resources. Therefore, they utilise ours as if we are an embedded and extended part of their engineering team e.g., firmware, hardware, mechanical, optical, software
• Those that require transition support. Therefore, they are working to a mechanical method and need to go digital

The digital world is an interesting one. Consumer trends filter down into all other industries. We expect what we see in our latest Netflix box set to be the reality of our world. These factors are the driving forces for a number of emerging trends:

• End user interface simplicity
• A sleek and seamless look and feel
• Touch should be smooth
• The screen quality should be high resolution
• Low CPU and RAM footprint consumption
• Low power consumption
• HW portability

What do these trends mean for Anders?

As always, we will not simply react to industry insight, but aim to be in front. We will continue to expand our range of expert engineering services and continue to integrate ourselves into our customer’s business, whilst emerging ourselves in the display and embedded industry. Hardware and software go hand-in-hand. People don’t invest in really good frames for their glasses, without investing in the right lens for their eyesight requirements. Which is why our customers perform better when they invest equally in the right hardware and the right software to enhance the user experience.

Previous blogs in our software series:

Platform Development Support: From Linux to QNX

Software is Everywhere, so it must be right

If you would like to discuss your software application requirements, why not contact us to see if we can help.