Software Development for Mobile Computing, the Internet of Things and Wearable Devices: Inspecting the Past to Understand the Future

Abstract

Currently a convergence in software development for mobile computing (including mobile devices and special technology such as wearables) and the Internet of Things (IoT) can be observed. Devices from the fields are becoming part of a joint ecosystem and share the same infrastructure. Moreover, development processes have changed and user requirements have become very heterogeneous. We have been studying this development for a while, also by offering the fitting HICSS minitrack. In this article, we look into the past of software development for mobile devices, in the context of IoT, and for wearables. We analyse joint characteristics and show differences. Then we invite to a discussion that leads to a research outlook. While neither for industry nor for academia the journey is over, the convergence of fields should offer many new possibilities, prevent problems we faced in the past, but also introduce novel challenges.