3 Ways To Validate A Mobile App Idea

3 Ways To Validate A Mobile App Idea 

The rapid advance of mobile apps is showing no sign of stopping. From a luxury for few elites in the beginning and to a necessity for many now, mobile devices are the chief driver of this technological revolution. As business learn more about the addictive behavior of smartphone users, who on average spend 90 minutes daily staring down the screen, there’s enough reason to build more apps, create engaging content and bring that to the target audience’s attention to increase sales. That seems to be the trend across all industries where mobile apps have made their mark. 

But simply making mobile apps and hoping they’ll drive sales on their own is a bit of a pipe dream. Success calls for flawless mobile app development backed by thoroughgoing research. In other words, idea validation to find out if your app concept is viable and potentially game-changing. So what does idea-validation involve and how to do it the right way? You’ll find all the answers through the course of this blog. 

1. Perform a market research

Entrepreneurs are always excited about their ideas but it’s always worth getting a reality check. This is just as much true in the case of mobile app development. You can kick off idea validation by doing market research. Try to understand the risks and opportunities in the market you’re trying to penetrate. Very quickly you’ll come to learn about the solutions that already exist in that market. Find out how similar or different those solutions are to your app idea. If the competition is stiff, it gives you an opportunity to build something new and edgy and gain an advantage in the market. If nothing like your solution exists in the market so far, you can act as a trailer-blazer and gain the first mover advantage. 

2. Build an MVP 

If you’re not sure if your app solution will be received well in the market, then MVP is the way to go. An MVP is a Minimum Viable Product with only the most basic features and functionaries. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and can be put together in very little time compared to a fully fledged product. An MVP allows you to gain valuable feedback from your target audience, industry experts as well as early adopters. With any product/service knowing the end user’s demands is crucial after all they are the people who will make or break the reputation of your solution. An MVP bridges that gap between a product-maker and product user’s mentality and if you have the slightest doubt in your product’s utility, don’t hesitate to opt for an MVP. 

3. Analyze the App Store Charts 

Finally, the App Store Charts are your fount of information for anything you may want to know about the app trends. This is where you’ll find the big players, with 4.5 or higher ratings at the top of the listings and the voice of the app community. Take the time to find out the way the top apps are made, their design, app flow, functionalities and the key features. While you’re at it, make a list of keywords that people commonly use to search for such apps. Find out how your app idea stacks up against the existing apps. App reviews can offer a great insight into what’s popular, sought after and what’s disliked the most in apps by the users. Make sure you work on these points in your app idea.

Final Thoughts 

Idea Validation is a very important step in the process of mobile app development. It’s no wonder that Improper research and homework proves to be the demise of many mobile apps. By following the points mentioned in this blog, you’ll surely increase your chances of attaining maximum app-success. That said, the insight and careful planning of an expert mobile application development company should never be underestimated. Reach out for experts help when things aren’t making any sense to you.

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How To Effectively Increase In-App Purchase

How To Effectively Increase In-App Purchase

If you’re reading this blog, very likely you already own a mobile app. If you’re a newcomer, then no doubt, you’d be quite focused on acquiring a strong user-base for now. But somewhere down the line, you will have to consider possible avenues for app-monetization because let’s face it, no one likes to be the owner of an app that doesn’t make a mint. 

It all starts with offering value. People don’t always know what they want to purchase before opening an app. Many times, it’s simply an exploration process. What they end up buying or not buying depends on their overall user experience with the app. But the longer you’re able to keep a user engaged the more chances of getting some favorable response from them. Read on to learn some powerful tricks to boost your in-app purchase. 

1. Get users glued to the app 

For how long a user stays on your app has a huge bearing on the overall app conversion. What your app is about and what all it has to offer should be evident from the main screen. There should be little or no guess work and the whole user-experience should be pleasing and satisfactory in every sense. While some of user-engagement has to do with the nature of your service or the problem you’re trying to solve, there a variety of ways in which that experience can be elevated for eg. through the use of creative call to actions, smooth navigation and compelling designs. 

2. Employ the Old Predictably Irrational’ Pricing Strategy 

You must have come across ads where a service-providers offers a few subscription plans to choose from

Bronze Plan - $60

Platinum - $70(Bronze + Additional Privileges)

Gold - $75(Platinum+Premium Benefits)

Now someone who sees his/her needs fulfilled in the Bronze plan won’t ponder too long and opt into that plan. But for someone who’s looking at the advantages of the Platinum plan, things get a little interesting. Right after the Platinum, there’s the gold plan at a relatively similar price but supposedly maximum benefits. Maximum number of people would no doubt go for the gold plan given and that’s a clever marketing trick many news publications have been employing for a very long time. See if you can come up with a similar business model in your mobile app. 

3. Keep Freemium To Drive Premium Sales 

Offering users a taste of what your full-suit of services are about is a great way to increase conversions. A great example is the Meditation app. It offers the users a free 7 days Meditation guide. Each lesson teaches a different aspect of meditation every day in a very intuitive way. By the end of the 7th day, the voice-instructor describes more ways of meditation and how users can further enhance their concentration lever, get better sleep and attain mental peace through them. The fact that the Freemium model offers as good an experience as a user might expect from the Premium becomes a strong selling point. The user can trust the app, its owner, and consider purchasing the Premium model.

Conclusion 

App monetization planning should begin as early as possible. However, some people go overboard and set big plans of monetization right from the idea-conceptualization stage. That is a mistake as you don’t yet know what your target audience is like, their shopping behavior, taste, and preferences. An app’s Freemium model allows you to understand that. An expert mobile application development company can help you devise a powerful in-app purchase model that will drastically improve your overall sales.

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Top 5 Reasons Behind Low Mobile App Retention Rate

Top 5 Reasons Behind Low Mobile App Retention Rate

A report by Statista shows that only “38% of users returned to an application 11 times and more.” The rest 62% switch to other apps or abandon the reason behind using the app, rendering the app useless, leading to its removal from the smartphone.

Knowing why mobile apps have such small retention rate is crucial, as this information will help you know how to fix this issue.

So, let’s take a look at reasons why a mobile app doesn’t stick with the audience for long…

Lengthy or Complex Signup

Signing up on a downloaded app, also called onboarding, should be easy and quick. The faster your app users are able to create an account on your app, the better. Long onboarding process drives app users away from the apps.

This is because they develop a notion that an app with difficult onboarding will also be difficult to use.

Fix: Create a short and crisp login page. If you are going to include social media login, make sure the integration works well.

Haphazard or Slow Navigation

Bad navigation design and apps that scroll like a snail are doomed to get uninstalled. As a matter of fact, this bad app design and development practice should be stopped right now.

Bad navigation hurts the most in the case of customer’s buying journey or coupon redemption. If you have launched a gaming app, the longer it takes to play the game, the harder your app’s retention rate will fall.

Fix: Focus on creating a short and easy user journey. Going from point A to point B should feel like a breeze and well-laid design.

Information Overload

Some app owners don’t know when to stop when it comes to providing useful information to the users. Endlessly long drop down menus, overlapping content categories can overwhelm an app user quite easily. And this is exactly what happens when an app user downloads an information nerdy app. Almost every mobile app development company hence likes to keep a minimalistic approach, unless told to do otherwise.

Fix: There’s only one way out; go easy on information and categories. Personalization is good, but remember that excess of everything is bad.

Bad Development

App developers may need to take this with a pinch of salt, but this happens more often than they want to accept. Bad apps that tend to crash every now and then. Only 16% of users would like to give them a second try. The rest move on to a competitor.

Fix: Ensure a robust app structure by testing it again and again. Regular updates also help in keeping the app sturdy.

No Guest Login

App owners who are hellbent on acquiring customer database make it hard for app users to try the app. Not everybody likes logging into an app without seeing the value it offers. Just the way businesses are worried about improving ROI, users want to see what can the app do for them.

Fix: If you are planning to launch an app that needs a login and in-app purchases, taking the premium approach will be a good idea.

Conclusion

It’s not hard to make your app users want to keep coming back. The key lies in keeping the app light and fast. The points we mentioned above will definitely help you create an app that sticks. Good luck.

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Going Agile In Mobile App Development

Going Agile In Mobile App Development

There are trending mobile apps and there are mobile app trends. Knowing the difference between the two makes all the difference. While the former is all about what kind of apps are popular, it’s the latter that helps businesses stay in business.

While trends keep evolving, changing and making a comeback, there’s one thing that every mobile app owner and mobile app development company must keep in mind. And that’s how a mobile app is developed, in other words, the mobile app development lifecycle.

If we were to define mobile app development lifecycle in a nutshell, it’s a stepwise segregation of the complete development process to ensure optimum results are achieved. A mobile app development lifecycle can be executed by following various methodologies such as:

• Waterfall
• Spiral
• Iterative
• Lean
• Agile

Of all the work models mentioned above, almost every mobile app development company prefers to use the Agile methodology.

What Does Going Agile Mean?

It’s a development model that dwells on continuous development and testing of the system, here, a mobile application. The complete development process is segregated into small blocks, called sprints. Agile methodology is all about incremental and iterative approach to create a mobile app.

Advantages of Agile Methodology

Better project control is the greatest advantage of Agile methodology. The control is achieved via complete transparency and thorough discussions on all sprints.

Other advantages include, but not limited to:

• Dividing process flow into small sprints makes room for prompt problem solving through efficient foresight.
• Better understanding of client requirement.
• Quicker implementation of client ideas.
• Better bug addressal through automated testing.
• Better and more thorough documentation of the development process.
• Better product quality.
• Organizations with budget constraints can commence development with minimum upfront expenses.
• Low cost of implementing changes through systematically segregated sprints.
• You will have a working product right from the first sprint. 
• Quick testing and bug elimination.
• Gives the mobile app owner a “first mover advantage”.
• Early revenue generation.
• Better client engagement and involvement in every phase and stage.
• Better customer satisfaction.

Disadvantages of Agile Methodology

Sadly, Agile methodology is not perfect. Despite all its advantages, there are some scenarios where Agile methodology is not the right fit:

• If client is not clear about app’s goal, objective and requirements. In this case, proceeding from ideation and analysis stage is next to impossible. Agile methodology won’t be useful here.
• When design and documentation is not up to the mark. Such a situation will lead to confusion, rendering developers unable to figure out the next plan of action.
• Agile methodology is not meant for inexperienced developers. These are the deep and gushing waters that only a seasoned developer can tread and tame.

Who Should Go For Agile Methodology

Companies and app owners who have a clear idea of what their mobile app requirements can benefit a lot from agile methodology. As a matter of fact, every mobile app development company loves clients who are crystal clear with their requirements. This gives them the power to proceed in the right direction without wasting any time.

Conclusion

Agile methodology facilitates quick implementation and faster app launch. We are sure the points mentioned above will help you make a more informed decision. Talk to a mobile app development company today to know what works best for you.

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Mobile App Designing Tips To Increase Customer Retention

Mobile App Designing Tips To Increase Customer Retention

The flowering of the Smartphone age has seen us using mobile apps for work ranging from the simplest to the most complex. An average user spends 5-6 hours on their smartphone daily. While it’s true that half of that time is spent on Social Networking apps viz. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter etc. Service apps also get a fair amount of usage to help accomplish day-to-day tasks. For businesses, this means a brilliant opportunity to stay connected with their customer 24/7. 

In the beginning, all mobile app are mere ideas in someone’s mind. Then the process of transmuting those ideas into mobile apps begins. Once an app is built, its success, in the short term, is determined first by its utility and secondly by its user-experience. Mostly, the high-end apps carry both of these traits. However, in the long run, it’s the user experience of an app that carries more weight and determines its ultimate success.

You can’t build an app and expect it to work wonders right off the bat. If the app’s user-experience is disappointing, it’ll be uninstalled by the users in a really quick time. So, how can one design app in such a way so as to increase customer retention rate? Read this blog to find out the answers:

Behavioural Driven 

When it comes to designing an app’s UI, simple works the best. You don’t want users to do the guesswork; navigation and all the actions should be user-centric and behavioral driven. Attempting anything new and unconventional in design is going to confuse and then frustrate the user. Look to improve and not change the universally acceptable visual metaphors and interface. 

User-Centric Design

Before even getting down to the designing, you have to know who you’re creating the app for. Conduct proper user research through surveys or personal interviews to create buyer personas. After that, you can set specific goals and design the app’s user-flow to best suit their needs. 

Easier Onboarding

Onboarding is an effective way to help users get acquainted with the app. Try to keep the whole experience quick and hassle-free. Bad Onboarding is the number one reason for quick app abandonment. Nobody likes to create accounts in every new app and that’s why Social Media signup has become the most preferable mode of Onboarding. If your app lacks the Sign In using Facebook or Google functionality, it may be turning away users who like to start using the app in a hurry. 

Conclusion 

All your design thinking should be dictated by proper research and an understanding of the tastes and preferences of the target audience. Doing so will enable you to create a truly enriching UI/UX design for your app. At last, it’s always best to seek the guidance of an expert mobile app development company with proven industry experience to help you plant your best foot forward.

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Why You Should Be Part Of The Mobile App Revolution?

Why You Should Be Part Of The Mobile App Revolution? 

Think of what the world was like only a couple of decades ago, and then compare it with how things have changed today. Technology, in particular, mobile technology has absolutely changed the way we approach most things in life. From workout, buying/selling, reading, bills payment, and many other common chores can be performed using the mobile apps. For businesses, apps present an even better opportunity to stay in touch with their customers and also get the most out of their workforce. Mobility, in short, has changed how businesses operate. So if you’re an entrepreneur without a mobile app, then you’re doing a great disservice to your business. Read on to learn why it makes sense to jump on the mobile app bandwagon: 

Front-End Simplicity 

A mobile app is very much a doorway into business. It offers an easy access to customers to stay connected with you at all times and from anywhere in the world. Customers are always looking for more information to make a buying decision. An app’s front-end is a perfect place to advertise your business. All in all mobile apps bring a breath of freshness to business services, and that’s something no entrepreneur wants to miss out on. 

User-Engagement 

Keeping users hooked to a business is no easy cookie. There should always be some lure for the customer to keep coming back to your business. Mobile apps prove to be a potent enough lure. The additive attribute of smartphone apps is well and truly documented. Apps have become very much a part of people’s lives and that’s an area where businesses can capitalize on massively. By building a mobile app, you can cultivate user-engagement at an all new level. Look to offer personalized information and messages that will increase your conversion rate. 

Penetrate An Identified Market Base 

Your business can get too far ahead without having a sizeable market base. There are many ways to go about establishing a market base, but the more modern one is through mobile apps. That’s right, apps on the AppStore and PlayStore are accessible to a global audience. By building a mobile app and performing App Store Optimization, you’ll be in a good stead to reach the maximum number of target audience. As highlighted earlier, apps can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. All one needs is a smartphone and an active internet connection.

Conclusion 

In the end we can safely assert that mobile apps are integral to the success of modern businesses and enterprises. Ease of use, effective communication, and simplification of complex business operation are some of the key benefits of mobile apps. So as an entrepreneur you have to factor in all these benefits and look to make the most out of mobile apps. Having said all that, it must be stated that not all mobile apps succeed in making that impact to propel business growth. Countless apps have to face the misfortune of rejected by users for their poorly executed features. Therefore, it’s recommended to seek the advise of an expert mobile app development company to build your mobile app. They’ll perform through SWOT analysis of your business and then come up with the ideal approach to build a mobile app.

In the end, we can safely assert that mobile apps are integral to the success of modern businesses and enterprises. Ease of use, effective communication, and simplification of complex business operation are some of the key benefits of mobile apps. It would be

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Why Small Businesses Need A Mobile App?

Why Small Businesses Need A Mobile App?

In this growing smartphone world if you have a business and don’t have a mobile app, then you’re doing your business a disservice. You may think that you have a responsive website and a strong social media presence and that is enough to engage traffic from smartphone users. But that’s not right in this case. To grow your business consistently you must have a mobile app. 

So, a business owner may think that developing an app will be time-consuming and quite expensive an this is the only reason for not having a mobile app. But what a business owner doesn’t know is that having a mobile app will help drive customers, boost sales and improve their reputation in the market. 

According to a survey, about 42% of small business already own a mobile app, whereas, nearly 30% are planning to invest in building one.

So here are some of the reasons why small businesses should invest in a mobile app. 

Allows Customers To Give Feedback

Through a mobile app, you can better interact with your users as they can share their valuable feedback with you, which will play a major in helping you offer your services in a better way to them. For a business to run smoothly, the customer needs to be given a chance to say what he/she wants.

It Helps You To Sell Faster

Suppose you want to sell a product for a limited period of time then you can simply notify your customers or can send some promotional coupon via your app. Such promotions can increase sales and also can attract new customers.

Simplifies The Entire Payment Process

Small businesses often struggle to keep tabs on their payment process given the vast number of transactions taking place on day to day basis. In 2018 there is hardly any customer who will pay through cash, so a business needs to ensure all the payment methods are available to the customer. 

Having a payment gateway in your mobile app is a relief for you as users can pay you online. So, you don’t need to maintain a separate registry or book for recording the transactions as everything will be available in the mobile app.

Mobile Apps Are Great Marketing Assets

Ever since the concept of digital marketing has evolved in the field of business promotion, we saw how big a role website played. But now that place is taken over by mobile apps. The modern apps offer an array of marketing tools for businesses to promote their products/services. 

Now, this has joined hands with beacons and geolocation technology. Through this feature now business owners can track their customers in real time and can communicate with them. So, this will help to decrease marketing cost. The business can focus on their customers instead of marketing expenses.

Wrap Up

In the end, what I’d like to conclude by saying that businesses with mobile apps make a better impression than those don’t have one. A big entrepreneur or a small business owner can look forward to investing in a mobile app for their business. You can fix a budget for the app and find the right mobile app development company that caters services at reasonable price. 

Also what you can do is consult an expert who has the knowledge of the business side as well as the technical side of app development.

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How is Mobile App Development Cost Calculated?

How is Mobile App Development Cost Calculated?

How much does a mobile app cost is perhaps the most popular question everyone is preoccupied with in the tech world. As you are reading this maybe you are a businessman or an entrepreneur and thinking of developing a mobile app for your business. Well, that’s a good decision you have taken. As per research by Stone Temple, the percentage of visits from mobile devices grew from 57% to 63% in 2017.

After going through all of this, the big question remains what is the actual cost of developing an app? You won't get a direct answer until and unless you are having all the details of your app with you. To get a budget from a developer or a mobile app development company there are a lot of things you need to understand. We are going to discuss some of those details through the course of this blog. 

App Development Cost Based on Platforms

The cost may vary according to the country and platform where the app is being developed.

The cost is further dictated by the functionality and feature set of an app. For eg. an app with no back-end database or API functionality would cost much less than ones without them. 

• The average cost of developing an iOS app average cost is – about $28k
• The average cost of developing an Android app average cost is – about $23k
• For developing a Windows Phone app average cost is – about $18k
• For developing in react native average cost is – about $5k – $25k

It also varies from company to company around the globe

• Apps Developed by Large App Development Companies – $450,000 to $1,500,000
• Apps Developed by Mid Cap App Development Companies – $150,000 to $450,000
• Apps Developed by Small Cap App Development Companies – $27,000 to $150,000
• Apps Developed by Freelancers– $2000 to $25,000

Breakdown of Cost Through App Development Stages 

If you want to hire some freelancer to build your mobile app then you need to understand the given things down below:

App Complexity

The main cost of app development depends upon the platform you are choosing to build it. Because every platform has a specialized developer and they all have a different hourly rate as per country. So first you’re going to figure out it on which platform you need to build your mobile app.

Features

This will decide the cost of your app after choosing a platform. How much functionality do you need in your app? If you only want a handful of basic features, your costs will remain relatively low but if you want advanced features, you need to accommodate your budget according to that.

Before consulting someone you need to make a list of all the features you need in your app.

Design Stage

App designing is another key phase of mobile app development. So that the developer has a better understanding of the app he/she is working on. As per the survey of 2017 by Hackernoon, the cost of hiring UI/UX designer across the globe is.

• $10–20/hour — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
• $25–45/hour — Eastern Europe
• $40–60/hour — Western Europe
• $65–130/hour and up — United Kingdom
• $150–200/hour and up — United States 

Developing Stage

Developer comes in the role once he/she has got the designs given by the UI/UX designer. As the UI/UX designer, the developer's and a mobile app development companies cost varies from country to country. Here is the cost of mobile app development across the globe

Freelancer: $200 – $1000 ($20-$100/hour)

Expert Consultant: $500 – $2000 ($50-$200/hour)

Company: $700 – $2500 ($70-$250/hour)

Testing/QA 

App testing is essential throughout the development process, you can not launch an app without a tester because first, you need to check all the bugs, eliminate them and only then you can launch it. Otherwise, you may get a bad rating from the users. The hourly rate of tester also varies from country to country.

App Maintenance 

Even after developing your app in the marketplace your work is not over. You need to make a contract with a developer or a mobile app development company for some amount of time to fix the issues that the app may face in future. The industry average accepted cost to maintain an app is roughly 15-20% of its original development cost.

Final Thoughts:

According to me, you need to contact a mobile app development company as it can be hectic for you to find all the developers for different stages separately. Having said that freelance developers will cost much cheaper than that of a mobile app development company.

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