Perfecto Mobile, provider of the MobileCloud TM Platform and integrated mobile application quality suite, today unveiled its predictions for 2014, the year of Mobile Engagement.

"This is an exciting time for the mobile industry. We are closer than ever to seeing the explosion of sensor-centric applications and the wearables market, which will completely redesign how businesses and consumers engage," said Eran Yaniv, CEO of Perfecto Mobile. "While voice recognition and touch screen interaction are currently the leading mobile application technologies, sensors measuring motion and environmental factors are the next wave of application innovation. Sensors, like we see in Google Glass or Beddit, combined with new human interaction models will rewrite the next phase of Mobile and force brands to focus on mobile first strategies in 2014."

More than 1,000 customers rely on Perfecto Mobile's MobileCloud TM platform for testing and monitoring mobile apps and websites on real devices worldwide, providing unique and critical insights into key enterprise challenges. Based on these insights Perfecto Mobile expects the following emerging mobile application engagement trends in 2014:

Interaction methods continue to evolve. In 2014, interaction with end users will evolve with a new class of applications that support sensor-driven models. The addition of these sensors that detect motions, such as eyeball movement and heartbeat, are considered as "new" engagement methods that will grow from "wow" features to standard features over the course of the coming year. Market segments will discover new use cases through this innovation - mobile health and fitness are only just beginning to explore sensor-based interaction and will deliver huge advancements to mobile in 2014. For example, the addition of sensors in today's fitness applications offers visibility into activity and exercise, allowing end users to train, track and measure results while the application provides the analytics of a fitness-centric population.

However, with evolving interaction methods comes a new set of implications and challenges to quality. Applications must work while consumers are walking or sleeping - and anytime in between - as users expect flawless performance. In order for high ratings and adoption to grow, the quality and performance of these evolving apps is deemed critical.

We will all wear wearables. Wearables and implantables will burst on to the scene in 2014. We've only seen the beginning of a wearable market, with Google Glass, Galaxy Gear and the Nike FuelBand. In 2014, wearables will begin to penetrate our lives and augment our reality just as mobile has done. With wearables, users will be able to increasingly connect themselves to devices that will extend beyond watches and glasses.

But, wearable devices add a new third dimension of fragmentation to mobile. Beyond today's fragmented operating systems and form factors, wearables present a huge challenge to developers and testers to maintain application quality. Ignoring the fragmentation matrix - and therefore not ensuring optimal quality of wearable's applications - will greatly prohibit adoption rates.

Traditional products play catch up. Traditional segments such as retail and consumer products will begin large-scale mobile application initiatives this year. Geo-sensing will become an important tool to deliver personalized just-in-time data whether in an airport or a big-box store. These new innovations will allow traditional organizations to continue evolving consumer experience. For example, retailers will offer loyal customers a more personalized shopping experience that will motivate consumer behavior.

With a year that redefines mobile engagement ahead of us, the most successful organizations, in terms of applications, will be the ones who are able to meet end user requirements well and quickly. Organizations should look to invest in automated testing for emerging engagement methods in order to increase application release speed. Development teams should plan to test earlier and often, and on real devices in the cloud or in hand with tethered accessories that address new use cases. Finally, as development velocity increases, organizations need to select the right tool for such a fast-paced environment, a tool that supports agile methods and offers maximum flexibility.

To learn more about these trends, join Perfecto Mobile on February 19 at 11:00 AM EDT for a webinar aboutNew Mobile Market Trends and Forecasts and Their Impact on Your Mobile Testing Strategy and for more information on Perfecto Mobile, visit www.perfectomobile.com.

About Perfecto Mobile

Perfecto Mobile is transforming the way enterprise organizations go mobile, enabling them to develop, test, deploy and monitor their mobile applications and services and go-to-market with confidence. Perfecto Mobile's cloud-based MobileCloud TM Platform and end-to-end mobile quality product suite enables users to remotely access a large selection of real mobile devices connected to local cellular networks around the world and leverage them throughout the mobile application delivery lifecycle - from development, functional and performance testing to monitoring and support. The MobileCloud TM is available either in an enterprise private cloud or a sharable public cloud environment.

More than 900 customers, including the top Fortune 100/500 across the banking, insurance, retail, telecommunications and media industries rely on Perfecto Mobile to optimize mobile time-to-market, customer engagement, risk mitigation and costs and continuously serve their mobile users with confidence.

For more information on how Perfecto Mobile can help you confidently test, deploy and monitor your mobile applications, visit www.perfectomobile.com and follow us on Twitter: @PerfectoMobile.

Perfecto Mobile
Kristine Englert, 1-339-927-7435
Marketing Communications
kristinee@perfectomobile.com
@perfectomobile
or
PAN Communications
Nikki Festa, 617-502-4300
perfectomobile@pancomm.com