6 Steps to Create a Successful Mobile Application

How to make a successful Mobile Application?

The answer may at first seem simple: just have a good idea, develop the application and Bingo!

Unfortunately, it is not so simple, it is on the contrary very difficult to make a Mobile App a success …

It is already necessary to have a good idea (taking into account a globalized competition, or a local variation of a global idea), that it be monetizable, that you build an application that responds effectively to this need, that you will be able to promote it.

For example, one of the trainees with whom I worked in one of my previous work experiences, had developed a mobile order-taking application for cafes and restaurants over the evenings and weekends with friends (1 year of work). So instead of hiring the fresher or trainee you better hire the best mobile application development company in Dubai to provide you better results.

The app was pretty well done (offline mode, command shortcuts, sober but effective design), and so the success seemed close as the application was finalized.

EXCEPT that they have forgotten 2 crucial things:

The business model: they aimed at a volume market (quickly get hundreds of customers), by financing the App by the brands (advertising funding application). But to succeed this business model must be able to have quickly and cheaply a substantial base of users which was not possible without a maximum viral effect (or the solution required on the one hand a minimum of settings, and then the virality potential was not simple).

Distribution(access to the market): it is easy to release an application on an App Store, as they did not have easy access to bars and restaurants, which is also very difficult to convince by email or phone, and overall little connected to the internet.

In the end, after 1 year of sacrifices, the 95% operational application was abandoned.

All this to tell you that for an App, as for any product, you need before a marketing plan (download this guide to make a marketing plan), a business model (see this series of articles on business models ) and to verify that it corresponds well to urgent and important need (see this article on the 13 methods to test a market).

But why still develop a mobile application?

Simply because the future of the Web is mobility.

• All that is “fixed” is disappearing
• The Fixed PC will disappear in the short term in favor of smartphones, laptops, even “mixed” tools like Microsoft’s Surface
• The fixed telephone line at the office, which is replaced by the laptop and chat & messaging tools
• The fixed office for all, replaced by telecommuting, flying offices as is the case for more and more for nomadic or semi-nomadic populations (commercial, pre-sale.

The rate of equipment in smartphones and tablets has already exceeded the number of PC users in the world, there are more people with smartphones than PCs, and the smartphone becomes the No.1 terminal to check emails, share social media:

The software installed on PC is becoming “obsolete”, on the one hand replaced by the Cloud solution, and even more with the emergence of multi-devices (we want to find on a smartphone, laptop, and even on his personal PC or his home tablet, his pros software).

And this phenomenon will continue to grow in the future with the development of personal assistants working with voice (the future evolutions of Cortona, Google Now, Siri…), the development of phablets.

How to revolutionize current business models with a Mobile App?

The hot topic is to uberize current business models, especially thanks to mobility.

But what does that mean?

It’s using new technologies to bring a radically new value proposition to the market.

The goal is not to do just “a little better” (simpler, more design), but to propose a new value proposition, via the Blue Ocean or Judo Marketing strategies .

The principle is to take back the initial need of the customer, but to use the new advantages of mobility to create a radically different new offer:

• Have more responsiveness and use the real time (ex: Very Last Room with the booking at the last minute of the hotel in low cost)
• Exploit geolocation to generate more business (eg Uber and its algorithm for predicting demand and yield management).
• The democratization of technologies (ex: Viber & WhatsApp for exchanges on IP & messages)
• Propose alerts (ex: Slack on smartphone to keep in touch with colleagues, activity management applications)
• Share user data (eg True Caller who shares your calendar to tell you who is calling)
• Capitalize on a greater number of users to make Freemium (ex: Clash of Clans with a “free” game financed by paid options, Waze and its free GPS financed by advertising)
• Have fun during timeouts (eg Candy Crush which has become one of the most used games in the world, Audible which allows you to listen to podcast books in transport)
• Basing on community and gamification (ex: Signal Pilot and the connected toothbrush)
• Use sensors, medical and IOT (ex: Fitbit & Nike Plus for sports performances).
• The simplicity of entering and using a smartphone in a mobility situation (eg Weyou with its application for scanning and entering contacts on its shows, 100% mobile CRM)
• The intrinsic capabilities of mobile and miniaturization such as touch screens, centralization of photos, the gyroscope, virtual reality (eg Shazam to recognize music).

Here is the theory, but as noted above, in fact there are many applications that are created every day, but very few applications that really succeed in being used by users.

The wave of the app all is now over.

On average one person uses less than a dozen applications a day, and there are few applications that have really succeeded in bringing something different.

If 5 years ago, there was a real curiosity and dozens of applications installed, but most users have less than 10 active applications used every day:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Whatsapp
• Instagram
• Uber
• …

The fact is that we must bring a real added value, either generic (eg Facebook to keep abreast of the news of its network), or business (eg a customer experience management application such as the Cockpit of Eloquant ).

It is, therefore, crucial to bring real value, as well as real utility in mobility.

If you want to make an Android mobile application that is just a variation of a website or existing software, it is not much use, you will not manage to make a breakthrough innovation.

Indeed the users will not see the interest, and they will not make the effort to use it if you do not bring a more via the application.

For example, what is the benefit of offering someone who is a commercial nomadic to have a “classic” expense report application like on his PC?

We must think differently, and for example, allow the user to take a picture of his expense report, then offer to enter it from models through a dedicated OCR to no longer let the data input as on a PC software.

It must be said that your application must answer the questions:

• Why will I use this app and change my habits?
• What does it bring more?

To learn more about the importance of mobile application you can mobile development companies in Dubai and we, at RichestSoft has the team of expert iOS and Android developer to create the best app for your business.