In the early days of mobile app development, creating an app usually meant creating one specifically for a mobile phone and it's built-in capabilities. Not anymore.
First there was a wave of remote control apps for things like smart TV or connected streaming appliances like Sonos.
More recently, however, a new wave of apps have started to spring forth to leverage the tsunami of connected devices for the consumer Internet of Things.
Just look around and you'll see. There are apps for wearables like smartwatches, robotic toys, connected refrigerators and other white goods, and of course all the various smart home sensors and hubs from the likes of Smart Things.
But one of the most exciting of all the categories in connected device app development may just be the same area that's been one of the most popular categories in consumer apps all along: imaging. And while one area that's certainly interesting is that of apps for devices for the home such as Dropcam, perhaps the most interesting of the new connected camera opportunities is the action camera GoPro.
And as if often the case, the innovation isn't only coming the creator of the device itself, but from app developers who see a growing opportunity in a hot new hardware platform.
Take the new app 10 from BrightSky Labs, which is currently the second most popular GoPro app in the iOS app store. While the folks at BrightSky know many GoPro owners were happy to use the native GoPro app to create videos, they saw an opportunity to create a better app that takes the best parts of a GoPro video and seamlessly shares a highlight video with a number of popular social networks such as Instagram, Vine, Facebook.
But Brightsky isn't the only company who sees an exciting new app platform in GoPro. Today,
While I have no doubts that other new categories of apps that leverage the growing world of connected devices will explode in the coming years, perhaps the one to watch right now may be those that helps us watch the world around us.
Michael Wolf is an Internet of Things analyst for NextMarket. Subscribe to his Smart Home newsletter and join him to hear about the consumer IoT in a webinar on scalable IoT services on October 30th.
