Before proceeding to the developing of applications, preliminary considerations are to be made. They are as follows:
- Reasons to build a mobile app
- Cost of development
- Importance of developing a strategy
- Difficulties in app development.
As a developer in this competitive market, the following scenarios or aspects plays the idea.
- Competitors' applications
- Business forecast of mobile application intended to develop
- Service support value to the user whether to use app of mobile version of the website
- Mobile App or Mobile website?
Competition
Do our competitors offer products or services that you do not? Is that why they have an app? Is that a market we would want to expand? Differentiate yourself by leveraging the technology your customers have available without making it a gimmick. For instance, we could offer location-based incentives: when a customer enters your premises you can have your application display a coupon, discount, or any current promotions. This leverages the device GPS, which is not something you can get with just a mobile website. Alternatively, you could offer an augmented reality experience: process the camera input, coupled with GPS, for a layer of information overlaying your products. Taking advantage of all device features requires a mobile application.
Quality vs. Time to Market
Sometimes, a bad mobile application or website could be worse than no mobile app or website. Often cookie-cutter apps lose all branding of a given company, and such applications can negatively impact our app reach. Things to consider when looking at developing an app is that in the Android Market, users are given a grace period during which they can request a refund for the full purchase amount. We need to know what we want to deliver, and understand that the way we deliver it makes your customers — and potential customers — know that we are serious.
