The demand for enterprise mobile apps is booming, with some estimates saying the number of mobile apps in enterprises will soon quadruple. That puts tremendous pressure on developers to deliver mobile applications fast, at a low cost, and with as many features as possible. But given all the features and capabilities a mobile app can have, which are becoming the most critical in enterprise apps? Alpha Software commissioned Bock & Company to survey 1,950 developers to find out which features they consider critical to their success in writing widely adopted enterprise mobile applications. The survey, "Enterprise Developers Rank Critical Requirements for Success in the Coming Mobile App Explosion," is a must-read for any developer looking to build enterprise apps. In this blog, first in a series of three about the survey, we'll look at what developers say are the top 5 critical capabilities enterprise mobile apps must have. What Features Are Most Important for Mobile Enterprise Apps? The survey asked developers to identify and rank the critical requirements for the enterprise apps they're building. One requirement stands above the others, and was cited by 96% of respondents as being vital: Easy integration with backend database. That's no surprise, because successful enterprise mobile applications must leverage a business's existing data. 
Four other capabilities were cited by 75% or more of developers as being important: the app must work offline (79%), it must need to be only developed once, and then deployed to multiple platforms (78%), must easily use a keyboard (77%), and must capture photos (75%). One thing unites all these features: They enhance mobile experiences and move beyond the capabilities that traditional desktop applications deliver. Next in importance are capabilities that exploit a device's full processing power and intelligence: the ability to annotate photos (48%), and the capture sensor data (46%). Developers place far less importance on advanced capabilities that aren't yet being used to any great extent: support for the Internet of Things (31%), support for speech-to-text inputs (19%), and support for text-to-speech outputs (11%). In the next blog, we'll look at what developers say are the essential business requirements for mobile app development platforms. View the full results of the survey. Read the second article in the series, "Survey Results: The 10 Most Important End-User Features in Enterprise Mobile Apps."
Four other capabilities were cited by 75% or more of developers as being important: the app must work offline (79%), it must need to be only developed once, and then deployed to multiple platforms (78%), must easily use a keyboard (77%), and must capture photos (75%). One thing unites all these features: They enhance mobile experiences and move beyond the capabilities that traditional desktop applications deliver. Next in importance are capabilities that exploit a device's full processing power and intelligence: the ability to annotate photos (48%), and the capture sensor data (46%). Developers place far less importance on advanced capabilities that aren't yet being used to any great extent: support for the Internet of Things (31%), support for speech-to-text inputs (19%), and support for text-to-speech outputs (11%). In the next blog, we'll look at what developers say are the essential business requirements for mobile app development platforms. View the full results of the survey. Read the second article in the series, "Survey Results: The 10 Most Important End-User Features in Enterprise Mobile Apps."
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