It is a transformational time for the mobile app development industry. Microprocessors are becoming more powerful, which will enable mobile apps to run on a variety of platforms. In the coming years, applications designed for mobile devices will run seamlessly on desktops. Additionally, applications built with Flutter or React Native will run on Android phones, iPhones, Macs, and PCs. Firstly, let's look at how mobile apps are being used in the real world to understand how people use their phones and what opportunities there are when building your mobile application.
Development Lifecycle for Mobile Apps
The smartphone market is booming and healthy, with more than 3.5 billion users worldwide. The growth in statistics is steady, and there are no signs that it will slow down. Research shows that Americans check their phones about every four minutes on average, and over 10% of this group check their phones about once every twelve minutes. Here are some other statistics to consider.
- Almost half of the time people spend with digital media is spent on their mobile devices.
- Mobile applications account for 90% of people's screen time on smartphones.
- Mobile cross-sites are preferred by more than 85% of consumers.
- Mobile app revenue is expected to reach $693 billion by 2021.
- Approximately 30 apps are installed on the average consumer's device.
- About 35 hours are spent using mobile apps per month on average.
These statistics will inspire you if you wish to build or develop a mobile application. To understand how mobile app development is performed, let's complete a quick review of the process. The idea of developing a mobile app to get a piece of the billion-dollar pie sounds very lucrative, but it requires thought and forethought. Also, as disclosed in the facts, your app will face competition from more than 1.5 million other apps on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store.
What is Mobile App Development?
The process of developing mobile applications for mobile devices is known as mobile app development. Users have the option of pre-installing these applications or downloading and installing them later. Users can access computing resources remotely through the network capabilities of the device. This means that in developing a mobile app, you need to create software that can be installed and enabled through APIs, and you need to test your application on the target gadgets.
Additionally, you should consider screen sizes, hardware requirements, and several other factors when developing scalable mobile apps. There are increasing jobs in the mobile app development industry, so entrepreneurs, startups, and developers must be aware of the process and understand it well.
Let us understand the process of Mobile App Development:
- Strategy
Defining the strategy for making your idea into a successful app is the first step in the mobile app development process. As part of your overall enterprise mobility strategy, you might want to include more of this. Even though the objectives of one app may differ from those of another during the development process, the mobility strategy still needs to take into account the app's specifics.
In this phase, you must:
- Determine which app users there are
- Competitor Research is mandate
- Setting the app's goals and objectives
- Decide which mobile platform to use
- Analysis and Planning
You have started developing your app idea and turning it into a real product during this stage. The analysis and planning process must begin to define use cases and capture detailed functional requirements.
As soon as you have identified the requirements for the application, you need to develop a product roadmap. As part of the process, we prioritize the requirements for the mobile app and group them into milestones for delivery. You must define the minimum viable product (MVP) and choose this as the priority for your launch if time, resources, or cost are concerned.
During the planning phase, you should identify the skills needed for your app development initiative. Different technology stacks are used for app development for iOS and Android. You should have both iOS and Android developers on your mobile development team if your goal is to create a mobile app that works on both iOS and Android platforms. There are some digital marketing strategies that need to be followed to promote mobile apps.
Have you yet chosen a name for your app? The name of a mobile app has to be unique within each app store, much like a domain name. Make sure the app name you're considering does not already exist in an app store!
- UI / UX Design
App design aims to deliver seamless and effortless user experiences while maintaining a polished appearance.
How well users adopt and utilize the features of a mobile app determines how successful the app will be. Designing UI / UX for mobile apps creates an excellent user experience by making the app interactive, intuitive, and easy to use.
To keep users engaged, your app must have intuitive user experiences. Polished UI designs may facilitate app adoption, yet intuitive user experiences will keep them engaged.
- App Development
Planned events remain an integral part of this stage of the app development process. To begin actual development and programming, you will need to:
- The technical architecture should be defined,
- the technology stack should be chosen, and
- a milestone schedule should be established.
There are three integral components to a typical mobile app project: back-end/server technology, API(s), and the front-end user interface.
- Testing
Stable, usable, and secure mobile applications are achieved by thoroughly testing quality assurance (QA) during the mobile app development process. Preparing test cases that address all aspects of your app's testing is the first step in comprehensive QA testing.
In the same way that use cases drive the design of mobile apps, test cases drive the testing of mobile apps.
To perform test steps, record results for software quality evaluations, and track changes for retesting, test cases are required. An ideal way to integrate your QA team into the Analysis and Design phase is to involve them early in the process. It will be easier to develop accurate test cases if you are familiar with the app's functional requirements and objectives.
- Deployment & Support
A native mobile app needs to be submitted to the app store in iOS and Android editions, namely Apple's App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. A developer account with Google Play Store and Apple App Store will be necessary before publishing your app.
For an app to be released in the app store, metadata must include:
- The name of your app
- Detailing
- Categories
- Keywords
- The launch icon
- App Store screenshots
The reviews processes for iOS apps after they are submitted to the Apple App Store range from minutes to some weeks, depending on the quality of the app and how closely it follows the Apple guidelines for iOS creation. As part of the release process, you must provide Apple with a test user account if your app requires users to log in.
Android apps do not go through a review process, and they can be downloaded from the app store within hours of submission.
You should monitor the success of your app once it is available in the app store. This can be done with mobile analytics platforms and tracking Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, to determine your app's success. Ensure to keep an eye on crash reports and other issues reported by your users.
Inspire your users to provide feedback and suggestions for your app by encouraging them to do so. It is of utmost importance that end-users are provided with prompt support and that the app is frequently patched with improvements so that users stay engaged. The process of submitting a mobile app update will work the same as the one for submitting a web app update since users of web apps can get patches instantly. However, the mobile app updates have to go through the same process as initial submissions. You must also regularly update native mobile apps for new mobile devices and OS platforms with native apps because technology advances rapidly.
Clients Have Different Requirements
- Full-Stack
A majority of our clients ask for full-stack app development services. In general, businesses are looking for brands that can offer a team specialized in handling all the stages of mobile application development, starting with the creativity and developing the application up to app launch and maintenance.
- A-la-carte stages
There are times when we need to help clients with a specific part of their project. We also get clients asking for a-la-carte services, even though they are much less frequent than full-stack development requirements.
- Seeking resources
The other query we receive is for our mobile app development agency to provide dedicated resources for our clients. With over 1000 staff members and a team of mobile app developers who can help them expand into new technology, the majority of businesses reach out to us looking for mobile app developers to help them expand.
Conclusion
App development continues beyond the initial launch as you get feedback from users and add additional functionality to your application. We have built apps across all industries with experience in developing mobile apps for companies in the financial sector, healthcare, construction, retail, consumer products, logistics, industrial engineering, and entertainment.
All of the apps we design are developed using this process. You will launch your enterprise app successfully if you follow these steps.
