Check-list: Mobile Application Development, Do You Need It And Who Can Do It?
According to StatCounter Global Stats in October 2013 80.33% people worldwide were browsing Internet via desktop computer, while mobile users composed only 19.67%.
In one year the situation looks a bit different – 68.5% of desktop users versus 31.5% of mobile ones worldwide. Are we going into mobile world?
We are already there. And the statistics proves that we will stay there for a while.
However, it doesn’t mean that you need to immediately order your own mobile application. Check it out below, maybe you simply don’t need it? And if you need it, then who can develop it and how it can be done?
- Why do you need a mobile application?
- What is the aim of your mobile app?
- Who will be the target audience of your app?
- Who are the competitors?
- What your mobile app is going to do?
- Which services/products is it going to offer?
- What is the functionality you want to have?
- Hybrid or native application?
- Who will make your mobile application?
- Freelancer or company?
- What is the cost of mobile application development?
- How long it will take?
Answering these questions will help you to understand if you need a mobile app or you simply need a mobile version of your website or web-application. The answer determines everything – budget, terms, and executor.
Mobile version or adaptive design will display your website or web-app correctly on various devices and adapt it to browser’s window size.
This is recommended for everyone having own web-page. Mobile version or adaptive design will be few times cheaper than own mobile app development. Typically, this option is suitable for basic mobile version of the website without complicated functional part.
Any analytical tool provides you the analysis of browsers and devices where your web-site or web-app is opened and helps to decide if you need a mobile version of your web-app.
Why target audience is important to know? Half of the mobile internet users in Europe belong to 18-34 years age group. If your products or services are not aimed at this age group, you have to consider that the return of investments in your mobile app will be slow. If it ever may happen.
As for the competitors – check out who are your competitors in mobile world before developing the app. Perhaps, the mobile market is already taken by your competitors, and it will be better to invest into better quality of customer support and thus differentiate from your competitors.
You answered first questions and you are still sure that you need your own mobile app. Now it’s time to think of functionality. You will inform the user about products/services and then push him to contact you, or do certain action – order, buy, play, search etc.
On this answer depends if you need any back-end development, which will make work more expensive and longer. If no complex actions are needed, see Point 1 about mobile version.
Hybrid or native application is another point determining budget and time.
Native application is what you download from AppStore and Google Play on your smartphone. It is more expensive and complicated because it is done for certain platform (iOS, Android etc.) and you need a mobile developer for this purpose. Cheap mobile developers? No, never heard about them.
A hybrid application is a combination of native and web-application. Hybrid will always be cheaper than native and faster to develop, because you need only a web developer to make a web application in JavaScript, which is then turned into native mobile application using specific frameworks (for example, PhoneGap).
The first question may be answered easily – portfolio and references are the key decision factor, in our opinion. Ask your friends and partners for references on good mobile development teams or companies, check their portfolio of projects, check yourself the apps they developed if they are public, request references from their customers if the apps are under NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
Select two or three freelance teams or companies and only then use the price factor for final selection.
The cost of mobile application is a topic for another big article. The price depends on everything – time, number of developers involved, functionality etc. The only thing we may say for sure – the request like “I want a functional and nice mobile application for iOS, Android and any other mobile platform. I will pay 1000 USD and give you one week for the development. Well, ok, considering weekend give you 2 weeks to work on this“ will most possibly get a negative answer from any good developer, even a freelancer.
The time for development starts from few weeks if it is a web application’s adaptation for mobile device. It will take few months of work for complex business application, which includes system development and work with hardware, which supports 100-1000 users and at the same time is fault tolerant.
After answering all these questions and having a contractor chosen, you shall appear in the hands of software development professionals who will have to further implement your business dream into reality.
Source: Softengi
