About two weeks ago, Tech Crunch ran an article on a new app development project that had been undertaken by ABC News. Naturally, when one hears the phrase “app development,” one thinks of mobile app development. But in this case the story actually revolves around Amazon Fire TV, which is going a long way toward extending the field of app development beyond smartphones and into the American living room.

This expansion in the range of platforms is one trend for web marketing companies and their client firms to pay attention to in the months and years ahead. But the Tech Crunch story also highlights another trend that those same companies can reasonably expect to apply to mobile app development as well as app development for more anchored platforms.

ABC is planning to use the Fire TV to reach out to people who own and use televisions but have nonetheless cut the cord on cable and broadcast. The prevalence of streaming services has prompted many of these people to abandon the longstanding institutions of local news media, or to seek them through entirely other means. The ABC project provides one of those means by way of locally-focused app development.

The new releases bring local ABC affiliates back to viewers who had abandoned them, and they apparently strive to give those viewers an interactive and personalized experience befitting 21st century communications technology. The need for this innovation shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who is reading this blog, but you can certainly be forgiven for regarding ABC’s local angle as a novelty.

It seems clear that for the time being, the field of app development is mainly focused on improving customer outreach among very large companies, or on casting a wide net to gain exposure for a certain content creator or national brand. By now, everyone should be familiar with the personalized shopping experiences that mobile app development has brought to corporate retail stores. Many of us utilize such apps in between bouts of checking news apps for a feed that reflects our personal interests.

Geographic specificity is obviously an aspect of those apps, as well, since your device almost always knows where you are. But ABC News project is a rather rare instance of app development that focuses specifically on the creation and dissemination of local content. This is a trend that we can expect to see more of in the days ahead, as national brands make tech-integration an increasingly commonplace aspect of people’s local consumer experiences.

If you represent a company or retail establishment that is sufficiently large-scale but still focused on one geographic market, the time may be ripe for you to consider whether your customer relations can be improved through an app for iOS, Android, or any of the other platforms that might be in demand among your target demographics. If this seems at all like a possibility, it is advisable to look for a mobile app development company that is willing and able to work on a local scale, as well as a web marketing company that can present that app to your unique customer base.