Internal app development has traditionally been a costly and time consuming process, requiring an organization to invest in skilled workers and resources to make it a reality. This is no longer the case, however, as the rise of low-code app development is providing a much simpler and cheaper option for those organizations that wish to develop their own apps.
Although the term was officially coined by Forrester in 2014, the roots of low-code development stretch back to 2011, when the early stages of the technique were birthed from fourth-generation programming languages and rapid app development tools of the 1990s.
Low-code app development is on the rise
The rise of low-code is now in full effect, with Forbes predicting that 65 per cent of all app development in 2024 will be conducted on low-code platforms. With so many brands seeking to implement low-code initiatives, market growth has been drastic, with researchers expecting market value to rise to $187bn by 2030 following a 2019 valuation of $10.3bn.
The practice is being widely adopted across industries, sectors and geographical region as organizations across the globe become aware of the power of low-code app development. North America has led the way in the implementation of low-code initiatives, due to early adoption of technologies and an existing, technologically active workforce. Research and Markets has predicted that low-code demand will increase significantly in the Asia-Pacific region in the coming years due to accelerating regional smart phone usage and increasing internet penetration.
Low-code offers organizations significant resource savings
For those who are already familiar with the benefits of low-code app development, the drastic global adoption of the technology will come as no surprise. The process uses drag-and-drop features to allow those with minimal coding experience to try their hand at app development, essentially reducing the barrier to entry and saving organizations significant amounts of resources that would otherwise be spent locating or training individuals for this purpose.
Due to the simplistic nature of low-code app development, the technique reduces the cost of app maintenance and accelerates innovation, as developers are able to complete tasks much more quickly and focus on areas where innovation is really driven.
Low-code has the power to enhance organizational agility
Another critical advantage of the implementation of the low-code technique is the level of agility it affords organizations who have successfully adopted it. Forbes describes organizational agility as the first pillar of low-code development, as it is much quicker and easier to reorient and redesign applications to suit current purposes using the pre-built modules and visual environment that low-code offers. This allows organizations to shift and change app development priorities based on current events.
If an organization is hearing from its customer base that an application for customer service is more critical than one for quick purchasing, for example, the business can change direction at far greater speed than with traditional methods.
Final remarks
As these benefits, along with many other offered by low-code, become increasingly apparent to organizations across the globe the adoption of the technology will only increase. Those who fail to adopt early and learn quickly, may find themselves left behind as the world moves into a new era of app development.