Glance quickly at the phone in your pocket… Go on, don’t be shy… See those applications you’ve downloaded? They’re a very rare breed because so, so many apps burn into oblivion once they reach the marketplace. Building an app as an extension to your business is extremely tough. And if you’re betting everything on an app idea, Gartner has predicted that merely 0.01% of the brands out there are big money-makers.
While app development can be impossibly lucrative, here are five reasons why most flop before they can fly:
1. Ill-thought out functionality
At the core of every app is one simple word: ‘convenience’. Touchscreens cannot suffer a clunky, unattractive display, or click icons that are smaller than a pinky finger. Some ideas are really complex when they don’t need to be. Having one incredible concept, and pouring all your talent into it, associates the app with a very specific scenario. This should be mirrored in a clear, simple user framework.
2. Not staying up to speed
Sluggish loading times are kryptonite to mobile browsers. Apps start to really infuriate people when they crash at every turn, or when one functional element doesn’t do what it’s meant to. Often, blame can be pinned on bugs, defects and outdated operating software, meaning that developers have to maintain the app’s quality as the technological world shifts around it.
3. Breaking far beyond the budget ceiling
Mobile apps are a high risk, high reward venture. If they hit the market at the right time, with a prescient solution at their heels, then brands have a chance to net significant returns. Yet many companies throw an extortionate amount of money into the development cycle, only to find that their problems lie with the quality of the idea, which you can’t place a value on. Soon enough, they realise they’re broke, with nowhere to go but down.
4. A lack of location engagement
GPS is surely one of the most wonderful additions to our mobile lives. We love seeing where we are, where we might go, and who else we can interact with. Some of the biggest names in the app business understand that connection, at the litmus of our digital appetite, is going to encourage a cult-like following. Those that miss this trick sacrifice a key selling point: the ability to link with friends and strangers in a pocketable, communal environment.
5. Poor marketing
There are tens of thousands of apps jostling for supremacy on Android and iOS. People won’t know about them unless a company thinks, with due creativity, how best to market that concept to the world. There’s no set rule for doing this, but a score of brands fall down on the promotional front every day; it’s a minefield, yet one that can be navigated with an off-the-wall strategy.
Now you have a sense of why first-rate apps are the be-all, end-all of their industry, don’t fall into these pejorative patterns – your idea might be too good to waste! Come to The Code Guy for a smart development project, fashioned by experts who know appware inside-out. Contact us, and together we’ll work on your next tech masterpiece…