Mobile Apps can make or break a product

With the burgeoning technology, the whole world has turned around the magical

swiftness of mobile apps. They are better said as a secret weapon to success nowadays because they interact with a vast number of users. Many times it leads to mouth to mouth marketing, which may help businesses to do wonders. Therefore, it is well that said efficiently developed application helps in promoting businesses products and services. Though plenty already exist, their universal creation and adoption are going to be key in 2016. That is, if companies are not investing in mobile applications, they are going to fall behind or become obsolete sooner or later.

In a survey, 50% of enterprises said that if all enterprise apps were to go mobile, productivity would rise by 40%. Because of this belief, 20% plan to develop business intelligence or dashboard applications that can be leveraged by sales teams.

178 million people in the US owned smartphones, 73.6% mobile market penetration. Smartphones are a mature market in the US.

Mobile app store revenues worldwide are projected to grow $76.5 billion in US in 2017.

This data points to a move from the mobile web to mobile apps. To put mobile app usage in perspective, Target’s mobile usage shows customers go directly to their app. Specifically,32% of Target customers access the company via the mobile web and 68% access the company via their mobile app.

What are the reasons for this optimistic view?

Better visibility: Although there is an uproar about the discoverability of apps, especially in the Apple App Store, standing out among 1,40,000 apps is much easier than being found amongst millions of websites. Also, these distribution platforms are stores, and unlike the web or its search engines, they are designed to sell and present products. Cross-selling and promotions are components of their core features.

Proximity to customers: Mobile devices, especially Smartphones, are much more personal and intimate devices than a laptop or desktop device. For most users their phones are never further than 1 meter away 24/7.

Manifoldness of possibilities: Smartphones are small computers which are becoming more and more dominant. They will be suitable for an increasing number of tasks which have previously been restricted to laptops or desktops. Today smartphone apps are used by companies to promote their brand or product, or to provide access to their existing products.

The Benefits to Your Business:

- It saves the costs by leveraging your current website investment through increased visits by app holders.

- Maximise of your social media investment with automatic linking to your Facebook and Twitter accounts

- Enhances database collection and Generate leads

- Ability to send push notifications through the app

- Many applications have GPS capabilities, QR code options, podcasts, Youtube channel and voice message recording capabilities

So, before diving into the exciting world of mobile application development, you should ask yourself a few set of questions.

- What is the purpose of building your mobile application? Is it for money and fame or you have a vision for developing an app?

- Does your idea create a buzz? If you can't sell your idea and excite the people, it will be hard to sell in future. So don't jeopardize before investing in the application.

- How will you get the funds? You'll need to find investors if you want money. So tone up your presentation skills and be ready to showcase your ideas to the investors.

- What will be the USP of your application? There will be firing questions like what's new in it? There are some applications available in the Play store or App store. You should have the courage to justify the questions.

- How will you develop an application? Will you hire a team to develop the applications or outsource it?

Answers your questions and make a plan out of it. It will surely help you to clarify your vision and keep you on track during the development process.