Mobile App Development: Great Prospect for Budding Entrepreneurs

Introduction

What makes smartphones so indispensable to us? One main reason for the smartphone dependency is the “Mobile Apps’ and the comfort of staying connected with the outside world from anywhere, anytime. According to statistics, smartphone users spend about 80 percent of mobile time inside apps and up to 72 percent of tablet users make online purchases using apps.

Today, handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets come with built-in applications and offer support to plenty more apps from external apps providers. Mobile apps are developed to enable users to conduct all tasks that originally require a laptop or a Desktop PC. Mobile application development is fast emerging as a key component of modern technology.

Mobile App – Meaning and Significance

In simpler terms, mobile application or app refers to a compact software programme designed to deliver a pre-defined function and to work on handheld computing devices such as tablets and smartphones. Mobile application development comprises native mobile applications as well as web applications.

Mobile apps can be categorized into three forms – apps for entertainment, apps that simplify tasks and apps that meet a requirement. Key attractions of mobile apps are rich user experience and simpler navigation. For businesses, mobile apps play a major role in attracting and retaining customers as well as engaging them in a novel style.

Mobile App Development Market – Overview

Mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily life. The apps find significant usage for various tasks such as banking, ticket reservation, shopping, locating a restaurant or any service station, commutation services, entertainment and gaming among others.

The Mobile App Development market is likely to generate about US$ 77 billion through the year 2017. Enterprises continue to invest heavily in app development. Consequently, the mobile application development emerged as an alluring business opportunity for fledgling entrepreneurs seeking to tap into the multi-billion dollar industry.

The Mobile App Development market boasts of about 2.3 million app developers and app downloads are likely to be 200 billion by the year 2017. The most lucrative segments include social networks, advertising, utility and productivity.

Mobile App Development – Attracting Vast Entrepreneurial Talent

Mobile App Development continues to be the ideal platform with promising return on investment for both debutante and existing entrepreneurs. The market is relatively young and mostly fragmented in nature.

Primary modes of revenue generation includes, in-app purchases, big data accumulation and in-app ads. So far, only very few prominent players have experienced success while developers face extreme competition for ad dollars and downloads.

Developing a mobile app requires software development expertise and coding knowledge. However, not all entrepreneurs might possess that kind of expertise, hence majority of app creators seek external professional service, which could be either a major firm or an individual freelancer.

Dynamic entrepreneurs can target a niche for which no app exists and proceed with a good concept. Alternatively, entrepreneurs can choose to build an already existing app but with a better performance than its competitor.

Some useful tips for Mobile App Development Entrepreneurs

Individuals aspiring to become Mobile App Development entrepreneurs should possess relevant expertise and training or hire one with the needed qualifications.

Mobile app developers need to adhere to a process-oriented approach, as this allows easy reference and rectification of errors, if any.

App Developers should collect all the relevant information either through user-surveys or research programs.

Developers need to be acquainted with certified tools for app development.

Once the development stage is done, the apps must be thoroughly tested for performance and security criteria. The testing is a crucial stage as the success or failure of an app depends largely on the outcomes.

Developers should integrate user-feedback during subsequent app development to ensure sustained usage.

Developers should also try to keep the registration process simple and time-efficient for users.

App Stores

The mobile app market is visibly dominated by two giants including, Apple iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. The leaders boast of over 1.4 million apps, jointly. Entrepreneurs seeking to foray into the fiercely competitive Mobile App Development face major challenge in making their app discoverable.

Mobile App Development entrepreneurs seeking to create apps for iPad or iPhone should register with Apple for a yearly fee. Entrepreneur and the Apple would then share profits, mostly 70% and 30% respectively. All Apple apps are sold through iTunes.

Aspirants seeking to develop apps for Google Play or Android Apps need to register with Google Play Developer for a yearly fee and gain access to all the developer tools and resources for app development. Entrepreneur gets to share app profits with Google Play at some specific percent.

Conclusion

Similar to other business ventures, entrepreneurs seeking to venture into Mobile App Development should start with considerable research, efficient design, PR strategy, marketing and advertising budget as well as strategies and app awareness. Financial success largely depends on the type of app, uniqueness and usability of the idea, user reviews and the presence of competing products.

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