The average amount consumers spend on mobile apps increased to a whopping $36.2 billion in Q2 of 2024. To give you a perspective, it is a 12% increase from the corresponding quarter in 2023. Thus, it explains the potential of mobile apps for businesses! In accordance with that, the need for technology-backed and high-performance mobile application development is also at its peak.
The digital revolution isn’t slowing down anytime soon, and mobile application development has been helping businesses adhere to the rising competition. How?
Well, there are billions of users around the world with access to smartphones, making mobile applications the finest digital product for reaching out to your target audience. If you are just starting with a new business and want to scale your outreach beyond internet browsers, seeking custom mobile app development can be an ideal consideration.
To help you start on the right foot, this article will help you learn about the core functionalities that mobile apps can add to your business. Read along till the end to learn everything about mobile app development and how it can benefit your gradual brand growth.
Understanding the Importance of Mobile App Development for Businesses
In simple words, mobile apps are now among the indispensable entities for new or established businesses. If you are a business owner who is yet to leverage the potential of mobile application development, there are a lot of engagement & growth opportunities you are passing on.
Below are a few ways in which mobile app development for businesses can turn out to be productive. Pay attention to them, and you will eventually agree to the importance of it!
1. Give Better Value to Your Customers
As businesses and customers now rely heavily on technology for initial interactions and final transactions, mobile app development is an integral consideration. Today, consumers want products or services to be more accessible from the comfort of their homes.
Therefore, bringing your brand offerings online on a mobile application will turn out to be a good marketing move and can result in better sales than your website does. Upon getting your mobile app developed by professionals, you can personalize product or service offerings for respective customers.
This way, your customers will find your brand offerings to be better and more relevant than what your competitors have to offer. Eventually, you will bag more sales and generate a higher revenue.
2. Build Yourself a Stronger Brand Presence
When you are capable of offering more value to your customers, you are boosting their interest quotient towards your brand. However, it is quite essential for you to achieve a strong brand presence, which isn’t possible without the right efforts. Therefore, seeking branded mobile application development solutions is the key!
Adding enough branding elements to the mobile apps can help you create a strong impact on the marketing outcomes. Mobile applications today are an inherent part of every individual, and you can use that fact to your business’s benefit.
You can prefer collecting data from your mobile app to better understand your target audience. In the end, you will grow better at your brand marketing strategies, which will entice more users to download your app and avail of your products or services.
3. Boosts Customer Engagement
Increasing the engagement quotient of your customers is the key to scaling your brand awareness and generating more revenue. When seeking mobile application development, you can consider including innovative features such as personalized recommendations, user segmentation, loyalty programs, and more.
Such features will help users stay engaged on your brand mobile app, and there’s a higher chance they will make the purchase. Apart from having noteworthy features, mobile apps built by professionals also offer appealing UI/UX, which contributes to the customers’ engagement levels.
4. Gain a Competitive Edge
No matter what industry your business belongs to, there is big-scale competition in almost all of them. You ought to keep up with the competition, and mobile application development can give you that edge over the rivals.
When compared to websites, mobile apps are better in terms of providing a better user experience and faster brand communication. Mobile apps can be used to strategize your marketing campaigns in a way that draws the attention of more users and eventually gives you better revenue.
Different Types of Mobile App Development You Can Count On
There are basically three types of mobile app development preferences you can consider for your project, which include:
Native App Development
Native app development practice enables you to build a mobile app specifically for either Android or iOS devices, with independent source code.
If you believe your target audience prefers to use iOS devices such as iPhones or iPads, you might want to stick to iOS app development solutions. For such projects, developers prefer using Objective-C or Swift coding languages for curating high-end iOS apps. As Apple’s App Store has some strict guidelines on which apps it lists, developers prioritize security and quality with every iOS app they build.
Android apps hold the majority of the global market share, making it one of the lucrative options that businesses can’t afford to pass. Developers make use of Kotlin or Java coding languages for Android mobile app development, enabling vast scale customization possibilities.
Cross-Platform App Development
If you are someone willing to target both Android as well as iOS users, it is better to choose cross-platform development over a native approach. Under this service solution, developers will create a single source code that will make your app accessible across both iOS and Android devices. Frameworks such as Flutter and React Native are used for creating cross-platform mobile applications, which reduces the overall development cost and time.
Low-Code Mobile App Development
If you are just starting with your new business and are willing to go low-key on investment for your mobile app development needs, this is what you can consider. With low-code development, professionals you hire will be using dedicated tools such as AppBuilder, FlutterFlow, Buildfire, and others for creating a basic mobile application for you. Such apps will have limited scope, simple design, and minimal customizations.
PWA Development
PWAs or Progressive Web Applications are dedicated apps that are built using the popular web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, or CSS. The catch is that PWAs are simple to build, but can ensure the features and functionalities of a native app. It means your PWAs can be built with features like offline accessibility, push notifications, and more. Modern APIs can also be used for improving the capabilities of PWAs, followed by the reliability that such apps can be installed on almost any device.
Critical Stages of Mobile App Development
Your mobile application development project goes through four critical stages, which include:
1. Discovery Phase
The first thing that experts prioritize with mobile app development is requirement gathering through client consultation. In this stage, experts will take note of your brand preferences, feature requirements, design ideas, and other such attributes into consideration. A blueprint will be created for efficient planning. Furthermore, professionals will also conduct market research and competitor analysis to give you a leading mobile app product to scale your business.
2. Mobile App Design:
The next thing that goes in developing a mobile application is designing. Experts will create a wireframe, implement UI/UX design, and build a prototype of your mobile app. The idea is to create an engaging and intuitive interface for your app, ensuring it aligns with your branding needs. Some of the noteworthy tools used by experts for your mobile app designing aspects are:
- AdobeXD
- Figma
- InVision
- Flutter
- Android Studio
3. Custom Development:
Moving on, the next stage in mobile app development, expert programmers will write code, build functionalities, and integrate APIs, depending on your business requirements. Your custom mobile app will be tailored to offer unique features and operational proficiency. A backend will also be curated for your mobile app that will enable it to interact with servers, external services, and databases. This is also the stage where you will be choosing to either go with native, cross-platform, or low-code app development process.
4. Testing:
After the development attributes are adhered to, your mobile app will then undergo the testing stage. Here, the potential bugs or errors in the app code will be identified, assessed, and fixed before deployment. It is a crucial stage as it helps improve the app’s performance and optimizes the security aspects. Some of the test cases that are popularly executed in this stage are:
- Manual Testing
- Automation Testing
- Security Testing
- Functionality Testing
- Load Testing
- UI/UX Testing
- Performance Testing
5. Deployment:
After the test cases pass, the mobile app will be ready for deployment across platforms like Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. In this phase, experts will make sure to meet all the platform-specific deployment guidelines, which include:
- Create Apple Developer, Google Play, or both accounts.
- Meet the compliance and regulatory requirements for both platforms
- Submit the mobile app for review.
- Provide information about the app, such as name, screenshots, pricing, description, etc.
- Ensure your mobile app adheres to the policies set by Google Play, covering user experience, functionality, and content.
- Upload the app bundle to Google Play Console.
6 Trusted Mobile App Development Lifecycle Models
Experts offering mobile app development solutions often follow lifecycle models. The purpose of such models is to provide developers with a structured framework for ideation, planning, building, and deploying the application. Each model works on a unique approach and offers distinct benefits. Some of such mobile app development lifecycle models are:
1. Waterfall Model:
It is one of the most common lifecycle models where a linear approach is prioritized! In this approach, every stage of mobile app development must be finished before developers can move on to the next. The waterfall model ensures the entire process stays well-documented, but at the same time, it also lacks flexibility once the project begins.
2. Agile Methodology Model:
The agile mobile app development lifecycle model is adaptable and iterative for developers to implement functional increments by adhering to client feedback. Such models prioritize better collaboration, rapid optimization, and enhanced flexibility. Thus, an agile model is ideal for mobile app projects that require continuous updates or have evolving requirements.
3. V-Shaped Model:
This model adapts a structured approach where every development phase undergoes a testing phase. Due to such an initiative, any early defects in the app code can be detected and fixed. It is now a reliable choice for most mobile app development projects, especially the ones that require minimal risks and high quality.
4. Iterative Model:
Under the iterative model for mobile app development, software is created in repeated cycles. In simple words, the product gets optimized after every iteration. The team adopting this lifecycle model will work towards deploying an early working version of the app, instead of waiting for the complete product. The approach is to refine the app based on user feedback.
5. DevOps Model:
With the DevOps mobile app development lifecycle model, companies bring together both development as well as operations teams. The idea is to improve the cooperation, continuous delivery, and automation aspects of mobile app development. This model mainly relies on strong collaboration and automation to streamline the release cycle of your mobile app. Not just that, but acquiring reliable and timely updates is also easier with the DevOps model.
6. Spiral Model:
A perfect combination of iterative mobile app development with prioritization and risk assessment at every stage. It is an ideal approach for complex or high-risk projects where early assessments are crucial. Even though it is a flexible app development model, it still demands a lot of expertise and resources.
Things to Consider While Seeking Mobile App Development
If you have made up your mind to take your business offerings online and on a smaller screen through mobile apps, you ought to know a few things before getting started:
1. Be Clear About Your Goals
You must define your goals associated with mobile app development. For instance, make a note of what you expect out of your mobile app and what the milestones are that you intend to achieve. Deciding on the goals will help determine the entire process of mobile app development.
2. Do a Thorough Market Research
Conduct your bit of research to know about your target market and the audience you are catering to. It will help you gain insights into how consumers interact with brand apps like yours. Beyond that, you can also make note of the leading industry players, current market dynamics, and other such factors, which will eventually help you build a better brand app.
3. Pick Your Brand-Centric Features
If you want your mobile app to stand out from the crowd of competitors, you must plan on having unique features in it. Identify the functionalities that you think are necessary for serving your target audience. Remember, trending features might entice users to engage with your app, whereas unnecessary ones might divert them from it. So, be more mindful about the features you pick!
4. Have Plans on UI/UX
You ought to have a vision about what the UI/UX of your mobile app should be. The first thing that any user would notice about your app is how it looks or feels. Apart from making the mobile application appealing, you must also think of making it user-friendly and easy to navigate. Too many UI elements with low responsiveness might be a bad decision for your mobile app development project.
5. Hire a Mobile App Development Company
Now, some of the things specified above are under your control and are based on your preferences. However, if you want a thorough market analysis, astounding design, top-notch features, and more, you can definitely rely on a mobile application development company. Experts can help you master all stages of the mobile app development lifecycle, using modern-day technologies, advanced security measures, and robust testing protocols.
6. Build Your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Once you have experts onboard for tailoring your mobile app development project, they will help you create an MVP. It will be a demo version of your app with only the core features. The purpose of creating it is to give users an idea about the app’s primary purpose, without any access to the advanced functionalities. You can then collect user feedback and let experts make amendments or optimizations to the mobile app, before final deployment.
7. Test the Mobile App
You cannot get your mobile app and make it live without running appropriate tests on it. Now, you might not have access to all the mobile app testing tools, but the experts you hire do! So, let professionals run performance, functionality, security, UI, regression, compatibility, and other such tests to ensure your app is ready for deployment.
Why Should You Hire a Mobile Application Development Company?
A study reveals that more than 50% of users uninstall the mobile apps within just seven days of installing them. Do you know why?
Well, there are several reasons for it, some of which include:
- Slow loading speed
- Consuming too much space on the phone
- Feeding on excessive data
- Frequent lagging issues
- Unappealing UI/UX
Now, these are some serious issues that can fail your objective of seeking mobile app development. These are some issues that will not just slow down your business progress, but will also ruin your brand reputation. So, if that’s something you don’t want to roll your dice on, you ought to hire a professional mobile application development company for the job.
Here are some reasons to make you feel more enticed and convinced about hiring professionals from one of the top mobile app development companies to work on your project:
1. Access to Leading Technologies
A proficient mobile app development company works with a skilled team of experts who have access to cutting-edge tools and technologies. Experienced mobile app developers know their way around with Angular, Java, ReactJS, Python, and other such technologies. Not just that, but they can also help you attain a cross-platform app, built using Flutter, Xamarin, Ionic, or React Native.
2. Streamlined Workflow
From ideation to deployment, hiring a professional mobile application development company will ensure your project is executed on a streamlined workflow. Simpalm, being one of the top mobile app development agencies, assigns you a project manager to ensure all your requirements are met by our development team.
3. Cost & Time Effectiveness
Upon hiring a dedicated team for mobile app development, you can get your project prioritized over others. Experts will devote their time and effort towards successfully building your mobile app, while ensuring no functionality compromises. Not just that, but your strict deadlines will also be respected alongside your request for a quality mobile app.
4. Custom Development
Now, there are pre-developed templates available for you to quickly deploy your mobile application with minor tweaks. However, that would make your brand look somewhat similar to some or most of your competitors. Therefore, professional mobile app developers offer 100% customization provision for addressing your project needs. Skilled developers can build apps from scratch and add unique features tailored to your brand.
5. Compliance with Platform Guidelines
App Store and Play Store have their respective guidelines when it comes to launching brand apps on their platforms. With a mobile app development company like Simpalm, you needn’t worry about those guidelines or strict policies. Developers here are proficient with those policies and will tailor your mobile app accordingly.
6. Post-Launch Support
Unlike freelancers who seldom take responsibility for app maintenance post-deployment, reputed mobile app development agencies understand the importance of it. Hiring a company for your mobile application development will give you the chance to opt for post-launch maintenance. It means, even when in production, if your app experiences any glitches or bugs, our developers will get them fixed.
7. Timely Updates
One crucial thing about brand mobile apps is, they need timely updates in order to integrate new features, change design elements, improve functionalities, and more. So, Simpal, being one of the best mobile app development companies, will be offering you timely updates. This way, you can ensure that your brand app always stays ahead in the competition.
8. Assured Security
Professionals working with the top mobile app development companies will also look after ensuring any potential data security and user privacy concerns. Beyond that, experts will also make sure that your mobile app is compliant with all the international and local data security regulations or guidelines. Beyond that, key compliances like PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and others are also taken into account for mobile app development.
Simpalm – Your One-Stop Hub for Technology-Backed and Cutting-Edge Mobile App Development Solutions
It is evident that mobile application development is an ever-evolving domain, which will continue to shape itself depending on how businesses intend to interact with their audience. If you are one of the budding entrepreneurs planning on leveraging the opportunity of this digital revolution, it’s time you sought a brand app to scale your business.
In this quest, Simpalm, one of the top mobile application development companies, will be at your disposal! We have proficient developers, quality analysts, UI/UX designers, and a big team of skilled professionals to look after your custom mobile app projects.
From ideation and prototyping to deployment and post-launch maintenance, Simpalm can ensure absolute professionalism and productive work execution. To learn more about what we have to offer with our mobile app development solutions, feel free to reach out!
