If you’ve been observing the market lately, you must have noticed a growing trend towards mobile. Mobile app development, to be specific.
Most companies are indeed moving towards mobile solutions to improve their business. And the shift is justified by the revenue the mobile industry is projected to generate, which according to current estimates, falls around 935 Billion US dollars by 2023 just by advertisements and paid downloads alone.
Observing such massive revenue potential and shifting trends in the market, it might be worth asking: Can your business benefit from having a mobile app?
In most cases, the answer is yes.
Smartphones and the apps they host have taken over the world in recent decades. Today there seems to be an app for everything, and yet new ones continue to pop up almost consistently. Mobile phones have steadily digitized our daily activities as well as paved the way for many new and exciting technologies like IoT.
With its far-reaching and broad applications, mobile technology can be designed to benefit almost any business. From education to transportation, almost every industry has been revolutionized by mobile apps, and your business can be too.
But oftentimes, when traditional businesses try expanding in the digital arena with a mobile application, they suffer given their lack of relevant experience and expertise. I mean, it’s not enough to hire any developer and have them build your app these days. There are entire teams of analysts, designers, developers, and marketers responsible for some of the chart-breaking apps we see featured in the app stores.
When starting on their app development journey, most businesses have no clue what they are heading into. And that’s okay. However, in order to find the success you are looking for, it is critical to avoid certain mistakes and pitfalls that most inexperienced businesses make. Below is a list of some of the most common mistakes companies make while developing their mobile apps. Hopefully, this post can help you avoid them and inspire you to create a profitable mobile application.
Major app development mistakes to avoid
Lack of market research
Market Research is arguably the very first step of developing a mobile application, but it is surprising how often companies underestimate its importance. More often than not, companies are in a rush to turn their ideas into reality, and in trying to do so, often overlook vital aspects of the development process. The temptation to beat the competition to the market can be hard to resist, but businesses need to realize the risk involved in investing in ideas that aren’t backed by solid market research.
Take for example, a US-based real estate firm wanting to develop an app for its customers. The market research for such a project can include figuring out the target demographics, gauging competitions, understanding customer expectations, etc. In this case, the general demographic would be young and middle-aged adults living in the US, competition would be other apps and websites like Zillow, and customer expectations would be the common features and function most of the popular apps in the niche offer. As obvious as it might sound, this information is vital to our app’s success and very easy to overlook.
Such market research is likely to inform every single development decision that follows it, including choosing whom to hire to build the app. In this particular example, our real-estate firm would be better of hiring an app development company involved with mobile app development USA, given their relevant expertise in the region.
Bias towards a single platform
The current mobile app market is largely divided between two players: Android and iOS. Android holds the majority of the market (with a rough share of 87%), while iOS apps generate significantly more revenue.
When trying to develop a mobile app, companies might want to favor a single platform over the other. This happens because brands fail to see the different opportunities both platforms provide and because the cost of developing an app for two separate platforms is significantly higher.
Regardless of how enticing a single platform might seem over the other, in most cases, you don’t want to miss either. A well-planned budget and steady incremental development can help manage the cost of developing apps for multiple platforms. Or one can always consider adopting a hybrid approach, building two apps for the price of one. The bottom line is that companies are better off trying to target both platforms rather than trying to specialize in one since both Android and iOS represent significant market shares and opportunities that no brand would like to miss out on.
Overlooking minor details
A lot goes into building a mobile app, and thus, it can be tough to ensure a strict quality standard across the board. Tiny UX and UI elements like on-screen written and visual content, loading speeds, simple and straightforward registrations; all go a long way in creating a smooth and immersive experience.
Users surveys suggest that poor UX and UI design are among the biggest reasons mobile apps are uninstalled. On top of that, many other design flaws like large app size, requesting personal data, spammy notifications and ads, high battery consumption all lead to an almost instant uninstall from most users.
You don’t want to spend your time and resources building and promoting an app that users can uninstall at the slightest of discomfort, so make sure you don’t cut corners when it comes to app design. Build an app that justifies its file size, delivers what it promises, and avoids collecting unnecessary data and spamming annoying ads and notifications.
Lack of testing and bug fixes
Another major mistake companies can make when developing mobile apps is the failure to incorporate customer feedback. Remember that ultimately the app is in the market for the users, but if they don’t get what they want, your chances of succeeding can quickly reduce to zero.
Luckily, most users are very vocal about their experience with a given app, and this can be a huge opportunity for improvement that companies shouldn’t ignore. Brands must utilize every channel from online surveys to in-app forms to derive more feedback. Being open to customer feedback, improving on resolving customer pain points, and building on your app’s strengths incrementally via updates is a sure way to success.
Conclusion
Building a mobile app is an incredibly exciting venture that can turn out to be a highly profitable investment for your business. However, in order to make the most out of your app-building efforts, it is important to avoid the major app development mistakes most companies make.
One good way of doing this is outsourcing your development project to experts rather than trying to crack it yourself. For businesses seeking to hire an experienced development team, Goodfirms has curated a list of some of the best mobile app development companies available in the market. If you are looking for a reliable but slightly cheaper option, you can always consider hiring mobile app development companies India to build your next mobile app.
Regardless of how you develop your app, it is important to get it right, given how demanding and resource-intensive app development can be. Remember to start with solid market research and build functional apps that can resolve customer pain points while respecting their privacy and space. Avoid building for a single platform and ensure regular and consistent updates. Once you know what common mobile app development mistakes you should be avoiding, building a successful mobile app becomes significantly easier. Knowing the above, are you ready to invest in a mobile app to take your business to the next level?
