A Comprehensive Mobile App Development Guide: From Idea to Launch

Mobile App Development: An All-in-One Guide for Startups

Guide to mobile app development

Today, businesses without mobile applications are lame and hemiplegic to compete with their peers and competitors. So, if you are an entrepreneur and thinking to expand your business or start from scratch, it is suggested to write a detailed mobile app startup business plan which will help you plan your approach for funding and to develop a customized mobile app for your venture as well.

There are enough figures and statistics to support that mobile app development, for any startup or MNC (multi-national company), is beneficial to achieve their sales targets. Here are a few highlights from the research giant Statista.

Figures and Statistics of Mobile App Market

What is mobile app development?

As Amazon quotes, mobile app development is a process of building a software application that runs on handheld devices. A typical mobile app would utilize a network connection to function with remote computing sources. All in all, app development includes the entire lifecycle of software development and ends in deploying it on a particular platform or network.

Every mobile app is a solution that solves some problems or makes it easier for your business to function. As a decision-maker for your business or startup, you need to have a brief idea about the mobile app you need to build for your business. To make sure your business grows exponentially you need to hire the best company for mobile app development services.

How developing mobile apps benefit a business?

Business Benefits of Mobile Apps

According to DataReportal, a total of more than 5 billion people in the world use the Internet and more than 60% of the world’s web traffic comes through mobile phones. That said, if you run any business or have intriguing app ideas, you need customized app development to reach and convey every single user (who is actually a potential customer) with your products and services digitally. Here are the top business benefits of mobile app development –

Quick response: quick response to customers’ queries is one of the crucial factors to lead the market. With the help of a mobile app, you can respond to customers’ queries and concerns just in time.

Wide customer base: as billions of people use mobile phones with an Internet connection, it is easier to reach every potential client sitting anywhere in the globe. A customized mobile app development shall help you craft your business message and send them to hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.

Built-in analytics: for steady business growth, you need to retrospect what comes through deep insights and analytics of business data. Mobile applications can have an in-built analytical tool to help you build a foolproof business strategy to grow your business.

Automated process: human workforces are prone to make mistakes and they have physical limitations. With a mobile application at the helm, you can automate external and internal business operations and processes automated. With the least help of humans, you are assured of a streamlined, error-free, and untiring system.

Effective marketing: Developing an app can have in-built tools and APIs to make digital marketing easier and more effective for you. Such tools can improve customer experience by offering them what they want. Marketing benefits for business are many and you can see tangible growth through it.

Best user experience: experienced mobile app developers are quite aware of users’ choices especially when you hire them from a renowned mobile app development company. With mobile app designers, they can build astounding apps to only improve user experience.

Want to unlock the potential of mobile apps for your business?

Types of mobile apps or alternatives for mobile apps

Types of Mobile Apps

Broadly, as the AWS Amazon website suggests, there are four major mobile app development types most software companies follow. To decide which one is for you, you may discuss the type with either your tech provider or a consultant you hire for your project.

Each of such alternatives for application development has its own benefits. To decide which one is suitable for your app development project, experts consider several factors such as development time, mobile app development cost, the complexity of the project, computing resources, user experience, deadlines and deliverables, and app maintenance.

Native app development

Native mobile app development is done with the programming language and frameworks provided by the platform owner. It runs directly on the OS of the devices: for example, iOS app development and Android app development. You would require to hire iOS developers and Android developers to develop native iOS and Android apps.

Cross-platform app development

Cross-platform apps are written in a variety of programming languages and platforms; nevertheless, they are compiled into a native app that runs directly on the OS of the device. Popular cross-platform development frameworks include Flutter, React Native, Ionic, Kotlin, Xamarin, and NativeScript.

Hybrid app development

Hybrid mobile apps are developed with standard web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5. Such apps are bundled as an app installation package. Unlike native apps, hybrid apps run on ‘web containers’ that provide browser runtime and serve as a bridge for native device APIs.

Progressive web app development

Widely known as PWAs, it is an alternative approach to traditional application development that does not require any app store to launch and download. Such apps use a set of browser functionalities to provide an app-like experience.

You may go with the latest mobile app development trends to understand the current market and user demands. This all shall be convinced your tech partner to choose the right platform and the right customization of your product.

Homework before you search for a mobile app development company

Mobile apps help your business grow in multi-dimensional ways as mentioned earlier with graphics and stats. What’s next after having an app idea? Well, it is the homework you need to perform before you search for the top mobile app developers to hire.

As an entrepreneur or a decision-maker for a business you need what is the best for your business. So one might also ask why outsourcing mobile app development is the right decision to make. Well there are many reasons but the most important ones’ are the efficiency with respect to resources, cost and time.

Search for a Mobile App Development Company

Broadly, the steps before you meet your tech partner can be classified into four stages.

Business idea: literally, most businesses would work with mobile application development. In other words, you need to decide and develop a business idea according to your expertise, market demand, user’s expectations, and your experience in the domain. Whether you want to build a business from the beginning as a startup or you want to expand it, getting a mobile app developed would be a great helping hand.

Research: research includes several studies namely – market trends, customer behavior and choices, competitors’ and peers’ pros and cons, and most importantly how other applications are working in your domain. You may learn from others’ stories of successes and failures. Alternatively, you can hire a market research firm to ease your task.

Platform: several technologies are available for mobile application development and which one suits your business goals and objectives depends on the type, complexity, and size of your software tool. Again, you may discuss the same with your tech experts or study the market.

Timeline and budget: the gap between your business idea and product execution is significant. This is because your idea then surely depended on the current market trends and consumer demands/choices. And when you get your product in hand, there are fair chances that those trends and demands have changed due to their volatile nature. Similarly, the budget then and now also makes a big impact on your project. All this should be discussed with your business and marketing experts or alternatively, you can discuss this with your tech partner once hired.

Industries that have benefited with Mobile App Development

As stated earlier, developing a mobile application can work for almost all business verticals; nevertheless, depending on your business goals and objectives, your software product can be further customized. For instance, healthcare mobile apps should comply with certain standards such as HIPAA, HL7, DICOM, and the like.

Here are the industries or sectors in which you can develop a customized mobile app–

  • Healthcare and fitness
  • Retail and eCommerce
  • Finance and banking
  • Logistics and transport
  • Tours, hotel, and travel booking
  • Entertainment and music
  • Super apps (that include more than one service)
  • Food and grocery delivery
  • Clothing and garment
  • Accessories such as shoes and jewelry
  • Ticket booking
  • Crypto or digital currency exchange
  • Education and eLearning
  • Games
  • Furniture and home décor
  • Plants and gardening
  • Lifestyle
  • Horoscope
  • Daily tasks and handymen
  • Real estate and rentals

These are a few to list; nevertheless, you can build an app for almost everything you can think of.

Empower your customer relationships with a tailored mobile app solution

How to choose a mobile app development platform and tech stack?

It is important to decide the technology you want your product to build on. Should you go for Android app development or iOS app development or cross-platform app development? The answer lies in considering several factors out of which here are a few to mention –

Target audience

Which devices do your customers or users own? The answer to this question has a big impact on deciding on mobile app development technology or platform. For instance, in the UK and Germany, Android is more popular whereas Apple products win the Japanese and American markets. Also, it is observed that iPhone users tend to spare more money on buying applications as compared to their counterpart Android users who prefer not to spend on purchasing apps.

Hardware support

Android supports more than 100 devices and dozens of brands worldwide, and iOS with its iPhones, iPads, and Apple wearables comes to hardly under 10. Hence, the app development technology you prefer also depends on hardware compatibility and thus reaches users worldwide.

Features and functionalities

Out of native, hybrid, and cross-platform you may need to choose the tech platform as per the features and functionalities you expect from your mobile app. While most cross-platform or hybrid apps run ‘okay’ on several devices, native applications are way smoother on their respective hardware. For instance, apps built on Swift are smoother, better, and more user-appealing-cum-friendly on Apple devices.

The mobile app development tech stack includes several free and licensed tools (platforms and frameworks). Here is the list of the main tech stack for the mainstream operating systems iOS and Android –

For Android App Development

  • Java and Kotlin
  • Android Studio and Android Developer Tools (ADT)
  • Android Software Development Kit (SDK)

For iOS App Development

  • Objective C or Swift
  • Apple Xcode
  • iOS Software Development Kit (SDK)

For Cross-platform App Development

  • React Native and JavaScript/TypeScript
  • Flutter

Technology evolves every day, every hour. While there is a significance of market research before a mobile app is developed, you should also have a keen eye on the latest trends and happenings in the global market and consumers’ choices. Here we list some of the latest stuff grabbing everybody’s eyeballs –

5G and more

The trend of ‘g’ continues and will continue so. The entry of 5G is likely to engage more than 660 million mobile phones accounting for nearly half of the total handheld devices. This means apps will have a chance to work faster with high resolution and mind-blowing user experience.

Foldable devices

Large screens are what most mobile manufacturing companies are aiming for. More and more foldable devices are likely to hit the market with bigger and better screens to provide the best experience. A challenging mobile app development trend in 2023 shall be apps for foldable devices that run and look smooth when the screen is stretched to the fullest.

AR & VR

The success of Pokémon Go could have been short-lived, but it triggered AR and VR technologies to its core. Developing apps to integrate augmented reality and virtual reality could lead the market in the coming months and years. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Meta are putting millions of dollars into it.

Apps for wearables

As the screens are getting larger, there is a separate demand for smaller and wearable screens to do trivial routine tasks. That said, apps for wearable devices will be on the rage in the coming years. Smartwatches, hand bands, and even wearable accessories shall have technology-enabled functions in the very near future.

Special niches

Application development for fast grocery and food deliveries, gaming, and eCommerce will be in enormous demand along with apps for eLearning and ticket booking. Entertainment and utility apps are in trend and shall remain for a longer time. Also, super app development is also seeing a remarkable upward trend.

Ride the wave of mobile app innovation and transform your business.

How to generate revenue from your Mobile app?

According to a standard guide to app monetization strategies, there are direct and indirect ways to make money through your mobile app. Nevertheless, the complete list includes 9 supermodels to monetize your app –

  • Advertising
  • Email lists
  • Partnership and sponsorship
  • Strong code and white labeling
  • In-app purchases
  • SMS marketing and newsletters
  • Data licensing
  • eCommerce apps
  • Subscription models (Premium and Freemium models)

How much does it cost to develop mobile app?

For any business and its digital product, you must have a comprehensive approach to the app development budget before you go for a full-fledged project. The mobile app development cost range may vary from USD 10000 to USD 500000 depending on several factors – here are some of the main ones that impact your budget.

Factors Affecting App Development Cost

Each factor mentioned in the graphic has its own reason to add up their costs in your overall mobile app development budget. You may also check a guide to reduce the app development cost such as opting for MVP and choosing a preferred outsourcing destination (such as India) that has lower costs to build software without compromising on the quality.

How to choose the best mobile app development company?

On the internet you may find top mobile app development companies from various parts of the world; however, which one is the right choice depends on several factors. You may need to cross-check the company’s credibility and efficacy through several tricks and techniques. Ultimately, here are some surefire ways to select the top tech partner for your project –

Select Best Mobile App Development Company

The mobile app development firm you hire should come clear in these four litmus tests wherein they should have domain expertise in the field you work in (for instance, healthcare mobile app developers having great experience in the healthcare domain). Moreover, their reputation can be judged by their portfolio and online reviews/feedback by customers. Other factors such as hiring models (budget-friendly company without compromising on the quality of the product) are also crucial to fix the deal.

What features you should have in your mobile application?

Any app’s success depends on the user-friendliness it offers and that is done through the seamless user interface with astounding facilities that users are looking forward to. You can refer to a guide on the best mobile app features in detail; meanwhile, we can broadly classify features into two types –

General features – This refers to the features most applications have for their users. These are the basic features with no ‘wow’ factors. In fact, these are the minimum facilities required by users. In fact, if you buy a readymade solution for any business (say, a readymade software tool for restaurant management or grocery delivery app), the app shall come with these common features.

Special, unique, or advanced features – Opposite to general features are advanced or unique/special features. These features are tailored or customized as per your choice or business objectives. When you want more features than what is included as general features for a better user experience, you need to instruct developers for the same. Special features add great value to your app.

Elevate your business revenue with a feature-packed mobile app.

Mobile app development process: The core

This is the heart of the entire process of having an idea to executing a fully developed product for your business. The core of app development is the development life cycle. There are many crucial steps to building an app and as an owner of the app, you may have a glance at the entire process along with a detailed guide on API development because the basic functionalities of your customized product along with API development or integration for your app shall make it a holistic business process automated and flawless.

Key Takeaways on Hiring developers

A lot depends on hiring developers from a renowned mobile app development company. Though the company could have a great experience, you should check out the developers’ experiences and expertise because they are the ones who will work on your product. Most offshore IT service companies shall have experienced developers for several technologies. Depending on your project, industry, and type of app, you may hire one or more sources. Popular technologies for hiring experts include –

And so on…

Looking to take your business to the next level with a mobile app?

Mobile app maintenance is crucial for business success

Often ignored by businesspersons, app maintenance is a crucial factor in keeping your product alive and kicking. There is much to learn about mobile app maintenance such as why should you go for it; the benefits of having a maintenance plan; types of mobile app maintenance; best app maintenance practices; and how much it costs to maintain your software product.

Mobile App Development: A Journey Worth Taking

Developing a mobile app can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but it also requires a great deal of planning, research, and execution. It is not unknown that from idea to execution, you need all steps in the right place at the right time. From defining your app’s purpose and target audience to selecting the right development approach and platform, every step in the process is critical to the success of your app.

Though choosing a top mobile app development company is crucial, every aspect right from developing a wireframe to building a prototype and carrying out the entire SDLC till deployment and maintenance of your mobile app solution shall require patience and professional dealing as it all combined will decide the fate of your product. This end-to-end mobile app development guide is intended to make clients learn the crucial factors. So, don’t be afraid to dive into the world of app development and take your business to new heights!

Looking for an expert app development team to build your custom mobile app?

FAQs on Mobile App Development Guide

What are the benefits of a mobile app for my business?

Mobile apps can facilitate your customers or users with what exactly they want. Along with that they improve user experience with enhanced features hence contributing to your sales growth and company expansion.

How do I create mobile app for my business?

Mobile app development is a lengthy process. You need to follow several steps from developing a business idea to making it a digital product with cent percent feasibility and usability to your end customers. This guide shall help you execute your product.

What are the steps of mobile app development?

App development process begins with jotting down your business ideas. The tech experts shall then work on their technical knowhow and feasibilities. Once you hire mobile app development company, they shall begin the SDLC that ends in deployment of a customized product and then marketing and maintaining it. Read the guide to learn more about it.

Our Recent Blog

Know what’s new in Technology and Development

Have a question or need a custom quote

Our in-depth understanding in technology and innovation can turn your aspiration into a business reality.

14+Years’ Experience in IT Prismetric  Success Stories
0+ Happy Clients
0+ Solutions Developed
0+ Countries
0+ Developers

      Contact Us

      Connect With US

      x