Mobile applications and wireless technologies are changing at a very drastic rate such that organizations should plan and adopt them well ahead of time. Its up to the architects and planners to keep abreast of the latest developments in this field and define mobile strategies. These technologies will have a larger impact on customers as well as their own employees.

Gartner, an Information Technology research and advisory company has predicted a list of technologies that is going to influence mobile technologies for 2013 and years to come. This article identifies key mobile technologies that will impact every organization in 2013 and beyond. It's intended for the architects and planners defining mobile strategies. Planners need to identify the mobile technologies that will be highly influential to the organization in the next two years, and plan for their deployment and exploitation. Key people should identify ways to exploit the potential of these mobile technologies in employee­ and customer­ facing mobile applications.

1. HTML5

HTML5 is expected to displace proprietary technologies such as Flash and Silverlight, causing a shift in architecture from native to hybrid or web approaches

2. NFC

By 2015, more than 30% mobile handsets will include Near Field Communication. Mobiles then could be used for authentication, discount tokens, check-in, etc. 

3. Platform Independent Application Development (AD) Tools

More application development tools featuring “write once run anywhere” expected where a single code can be transported to iOS, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile etc with very less rewriting

4. Location and context

Context based mobile applications will evolve in combining location and contextual services like individual needs, social networking, sensor information and many other clues to suggest appropriate offers and services

5. Bluetooth 4

Within the next 2-3 years more number of handsets will adopt Bluetooth 4 which offers Low Energy operations and multiple device communication

6. 802.11ac

802.11ac is likely to be officially approved around 2013, which will take Wi-Fi performance to 1 GBPS levels

7. Machine to Machine (M2M) and Smart products

Machine to Machine (M2M) will enable a wide range of wireless smart networked products and business opportunities

8. Augmented Reality (AR)

Over the years AR will evolve and consumer grade AR is likely to be most useful for marketing and gaming purposes

9. Multiplatform MDM

Enterprises will cater to the needs of Multiplatform Mobile Device Management tools, which will evolve to manage and secure a wide range of devices

10. LTE

Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G LTE will be a widely adopted network in years to come