There has been an increase in the number of mobile users worldwide. Naturally, with the growth of mobile users, the demand for mobile apps has risen dramatically, over the years, too. Start-ups, established companies, brands, and businesses are heavily investing in mobile app development.
Despite maturing rapidly, the mobile app development sector is brimming with myths, misconceptions and pre-conceived notions that are leading to huge blunders when it comes to the development of a new mobile app. One of the biggest notions entrepreneurs have developed is related to the budging of the mobile app development process.
Today, we come with some blunders entrepreneurs make during the process of mobile app budgeting. Learn from these and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes when you plan to budget for mobile app development.
Finding Mobile App Development Process Similar to Website Development Process
Mobile app and websites are two different properties, meant to appease different kinds of target audiences. The technology, platform, framework and goals of both these entities are completely different. Most companies and entrepreneurs gauge the mobile app development process akin to the web development process. When they are faced with complicated development challenges, they have to shell out more money to overcome the same.
Mobile app development is more complex as it involves frontend, CMS, third-party services and backend infrastructure. All these components should work in sync to give the end-user the most intuitive experience. Websites are not so complex. That is why both should not be weighed in the same bucket.
The cost of developing a mobile app is proportional to the complexity, efforts, technology used, platform and the time invested in developing a mobile app. So make sure to never see both the processes from the same lens.
Not Paying Heed to Cross-platform Compatibility
Many companies limit the app to a single platform initially in a bid to cut down costs. But if someone’s target audience is dispersed across multiple platforms, this can end up being a huge mistake for future growth.
Surely, cross-platform development is costly, but it gives access to a larger audience and ultimately boosts revenues. So, it is essential to understand where your potential customers are. Make sure to account for expenses associated with developing a mobile app for multiple platforms. This will enhance the scope of revenue growth and would bring more customers to your mobile app in the long run.
Ignoring Backend and Third-party Integration Costs
As mentioned above, the mobile app is a blend of frontend (interface), backend infrastructure, CMS and third-party integrations. Together, these make a mobile app useful for the end-user. More than an interactive interface, a user seeks the utility of a mobile app.
Backend infrastructure, content and third-party integrations are the areas that make an app more useful. From authorization to notifications and updates, these above areas make an app better than a mobile website. What most entrepreneurs forget is that they need to account for costs associated with these aspects, too.
As these are not visible immediately while planning a budget, failing to account for them can lead to a financial mess at a future stage. It is better to deviate from your obsession with frontend alone and disperse your budget over all these aspects.
Failing to account for routine app updates
Mobile app development isn’t just about developing and launching the app. To make it more useful, engaging and valuable for users, it is essential to keep updating it from time to time. This involves understanding and meeting user expectations and keeping up with industry standards for providing the best app performance and experience.
After you launch the app, it is essential to monitor its performance and keep investing to update the app from time to time. When you regularly update your app, users are reminded to use the app and your product is better equipped to deliver the best experience. App updates are done to introduce better features, fix bugs and enforce security standards. Hence, it is important to account for regular app updates while defining your app development budget.
Solely focusing on the User Interface
Many entrepreneurs and companies feel they should just focus on designing an eye-catchy UI. That would keep users hooked and take their attention off other things. But that’s not the case. Surely, the UI needs to be intuitive, but solely focusing on the UI and neglecting other aspects such as backend infrastructure, functionalities, etc. will lead to failure.
While planning the budget for app development, it is important to distribute finance between user experience and the backend. This will create an ideal balance between performance and presentation, resulting in enhanced user delight. Balancing the features and UI will lead to a successful mobile app.
Ignoring App Marketing
Marketing is as essential as development when it comes to a mobile app. Think about it, what’s the use of a mobile app that isn’t discovered by the target audience.
Marketing ensures that every action is focused on enhancing the brand identity and brand value. According to an industry survey, more than 31% of the app development budget is allocated to app marketing, alone.
The goal of developing a mobile app is to attract more potential customers to a business. And how’s that possible without a structured Mobile app marketing plan? Hence, you need to account for app marketing while budgeting for mobile application development.
You need to inform your customers about the benefits of using a mobile app in a competitive ecosystem. Positioning is crucial for expanding your mobile app’s user base and retaining customers. Make sure to plan for marketing during the initial budgeting and align it with your core development objectives.
Mobile app development planning can be a tiring ordeal, even for the most passionate and learned entrepreneurs. When there is a lot to take care of, on the budgeting front alone, you might need an experienced partner to augment your mobile app development ambitions. If you really want the success of your mobile app, you can hire an experienced mobile app development company such as Intuz.
With years of experience under its belt and demonstrated expertise to spearhead the end-to-end mobile app development process, Intuz is the perfect partner for mobile app development. Consult the experts at Intuz, today.
Give your enterprise the tech support it deserves.
Ensure that you don’t make mistakes when you plan to budget for mobile app development.