Mobile App Development Guide 2021- All You Need To Know

I am sure that you have observed the fact that the number of smartphone users and its popularity has exploded in recent years. Besides, more than half of the time spent with digital media comprises mobile apps. Moreover, each smartphone has 30 applications on average! All these make the mobile application development industry popular among various types of software development. Let us take a detailed look at mobile application development.

What is mobile application development?

Mobile applications development is rooted in traditional software development. Mobile application development is a process of developing software applications that run on smartphones. These applications make use of the network and connect with remote computing resources. Mobile app development is inclusive of codes, binaries, and other software bundles. Besides, it includes backend services and testing as well.

Why is mobile app development important?

Along with the increased sales of smartphones and tablets, the amount of app installations too has increased drastically. Mobile applications have become a part and parcel of most businesses. It attracts consumers from every corner and widens your marketplace. However free apps not only dominate the market but also have a popularity. Above all, market experts expect mobile app revenue to hit $1 trillion by 2023! (Statista)
Mobile application development is important as it ensures the following benefits.

Customer Loyalty: Create a direct channel between a business and its customers. Thereby, widen your customer loyalty with mobile apps through effective communication.
Branding: Mobile apps ensure brand reinforcement. It makes it easier to build awareness as well as recognition for your brand.
Increased visibility and accessibility: Easy visibility and functional access to products and services. Notify your customers with recent updates, rewards, and special offers too.
Increase sales: Users spend more time when provoked with push notifications. Integrated payment options further help you drive your sales.

Hence, it is important to fit into the world of millions of apps in Google Play and App Store. Besides, it should meet your marketing niche and goals with mobile development.

Industry-specific Mobile Apps: Which one are you looking for?

Health-care apps:

Did you know that healthcare and fitness apps amount to more than one hundred thousand? Wellness apps track the overall health conditions of the user. Applications are used also to monitor treatments such as drug administration, recording health status, etc. Some popular healthcare apps are telehealth, disease check, hospital management, lifestyle, mental health, dieting, fitness, women’s health, etc.

Manufacturing apps:

Manufacturing apps help the manufacturer to streamline processes. It ensures enhanced productivity with digitized business processes. Increase your worker-force efficiency and lower the flaws. Get uniformity in your products with manufacturing apps. Gain insights into your processes with integrated data and analytics.

Transport and logistics:

Manage your transportation and logistics at your fingertips with mobile apps. Keep your customers updated with the location and ETA of their consignments. Monitor your fleet in real-time, manage warehouses, along with tracking and monitoring activities with a single customized mobile app development service.

Retail apps:

Retail apps do not merely display the products for sale. It improves in-store experiences, the process of purchasing, and interaction with customers. It helps provide better service to customers, scan codes, locate stores and items, etc. App development also helps in engaging customers with exciting deals, coupons, and rewards.

E-learning apps:

Provide an online platform for learning new stuff that hones one’s skills. Enhance the productivity of the learners with virtual classrooms. Provide an engaging and interactive learning experience with tutorials. Educational apps have a global market and reach out to a greater customer base. Provide your students with extra-resources thereby.

Financial apps:

Provide your customers with financial mobile apps. Make it easy for your customers to manage expenditures easily. Financial apps look into matters like tracking and controlling finances, bank accounts, debts, investments, as well as funds. The mobile app ensures the financial wellness of your clients by providing them one place for all the financial activities.

Entertainment and media apps:

Provide interactive activities for leisure and communication with loved ones. Entertainment and media apps are inclusive of apps such as music, games, social media, streaming, messaging, and much more. Deliver popular collections of shows, series, movies, originals, audiobooks, music, etc. Provide high-performance and creative entertainment and media apps.

Food and Hospitality apps:

Give the best services to your guests. Hospitality apps not only help you promote deals and discounts, but also provision reservations and packages. Gain customers with events, banners, reviews, etc. Highlight local attractions and drive your sales. Food Apps are hunger saviors that deliver food crossing geographical boundaries. Besides, meet your customer’s tastes by delivering the best.

These mobile app development platforms have some similarities in application building. However, both are built using different SDKs (Software Development Kits). iOS uses Xcode and Objective-C for development. On the other hand, Google uses Eclipse and Java for Android.

Development approaches for building Mobile Apps

Native Mobile Applications:

Native mobile applications are developed for specific platforms such as Android and iOS. For native mobile applications, language and frameworks are provided by the owner of the platform. Native apps employ the device’s potential at its best. It provides the best performance having direct access to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). However, the cost of development and maintenance proves costlier. Also, native apps need multiple codes for respective platforms.

Cross-Platform Applications:

Cross-Platform native mobile applications are written with different programming languages and frameworks. However, they are compiled into a native application. Thus, the app runs smoothly with the operating system of the device. It has a single code-base and hence is easier to build and maintain. However, it needs efficient bridges. Also, the performance is limited by the bridges when compared to native apps.

Hybrid Applications:

Hybrid mobile applications are built using standard web technologies. These include technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5. These are bundled into installation packages. They run on a web container. Further, this enables the apps to make use of elements of the given native system. Thus, the hybrid mobile application holds a shared code-base between the web and mobile applications. However, when compared to native apps, it has a lower performance as the support is limited for native device features.

Progressive Web Applications:

Progressive web applications are web applications that make use of browser capabilities. It provides an app-like user experience without installations. One can add the links to the home screen and run the application in the background. Thus, the same app works for both mobile and web. However, the capabilities of the progressive web app depend on the browser.

Technologies used in mobile application development

React Native-

React Native framework employed to build cross-platform applications. Being a part of the Javascript library, it has a single code base. Besides, these reusable codes suit different operating systems by comparison. React Native technology suits best for end-to-end product development as it needs the least effort.

Flutter-

Flutter is Google’s UI toolkit. Natively combined applications can be built using flutter with a single codebase across mobile, web, and desktop. The technology provisions to make layers in the architecture. Thus mobile application development is easily customizable. Flutter provision expressive and flexible UI/UX designs. Altogether, it ensures faster and incredible results.

Ionic-

Ionic, a library of UI components, gestures, as well as tools, is used in building mobile apps. The mobile app development process is faster with the ready-made and reusable UI components, themes, and typography of the framework. Ionic ensures the application is interactive with adaptive styles. As a result, you get a mobile app that not only looks but also feels like home across different platforms.

How is a mobile app developed?

Several mobile app development companies provide app development services. However, it is necessary to hire skilled mobile app developers from the top app development agency. One has to make a wise design based on the market demand when it comes to mobile app development. Besides, meet your marketing goals by hiring app developers. A mobile app development company that you approach, frames the app development lifecycle with a close understanding of the client’s requirements.

The intent of mobile app:

Having good ideas for mobile app development is not sufficient. In-depth research of your business and your target market is crucial. Do not miss out on competitors. Jot down your mobile marketing plans and the goals you want to achieve. Besides, mark the problems you want to address with mobile app development.

Planning of development:

Make a note of the features you want in your mobile app. Decide on the application’s core appeal. Choose the platform, programming language, and frameworks to be employed by discussing with your development partner. Further, pool in the app development team with marketing and product development teams.

Choose a timeline for your customized mobile app development. Besides, consider the cost of the entire project. App development budgets come in different models. Choose the one that suits you among hourly, monthly, and fixed-bid rates.

Cost and timeline of App development:

Along with the design and development plans, the cost is what matters a lot. The cost should not only be in your budget but also should have a profit margin. However, just because you want it to be cost-efficient, does not mean that you have to compromise on the quality.

It is difficult to determine the exact cost of mobile app development. It depends on various factors such as the nature and the complexity of the apps. Higher the specifications, the greater the price. Furthermore, the geographical location also matters. First-world countries charge higher prices when compared to developing countries for the services.

Mobile app development generally needs three to nine months on average. It varies according to the structure and complexity of the project. Each stage of the process, from writing the project brief to deployment consumes a particular time. Talk to your developers and chalk down the timeline. Besides, make sure to have enough time for iterations, testing, and improvements.

MVP:

MVPs are very important for the rapid development of start-ups. Through MVPs, the company can pool in the maximum knowledge. Besides, the feedback gained through interactions helps to make necessary changes when needed.

The MVP process begins with ideation and prototyping. The agile methodology helps to plan, execute, and evaluate every development stage. Thus the development cycle is flexible.

Furthermore, lean development helps to deliver projects in the stipulated time frame. This in turn helps you to launch your product in the minimum period. Also, MVPs are open for constant improvisations.

UI/UX Design

UI/UX Design is often used interchangeably. But, they are two different things. User experience is all about end-user interaction with the software application. It covers all the aspects that can be experienced. The design along with other aspects shape the experience. It should improve the quality of interaction.

The user interface is the interaction point between the user and the digital product. It is the interaction with the touchscreen, be it of a smartphone or kiosk. Furthermore, UI takes aspects like the look, feel, icons, typography, spacing, and others into consideration.

The Front-End of a Mobile Application:

The visual, as well as the interactive part of an application, forms the mobile front-end. It is crucial for the user experience. Designers and developers are involved in the front-end development of an application. Icons, backgrounds, layouts, colors, themes, motion graphics, and others are front-end components. The interaction between the components and with the user together form user experience. In short, these form the skin of the app- the actual screen.

The Back-End of a Mobile Application:

Back-end services make the application succeed. The high-quality is ensured through the architecture of the application. It is inclusive of third-party services. Mobile app programmers build and maintain backend infrastructure using cloud-based services. Various APIs are available for the back-end of an application. Besides, SDKs contribute to the development of mobile apps.

The front-end is integrated with the backend. From storage to databases everything is integrated with the UI of the application. Further, it retrieves data from it and updates the information on the application.

Integrations:

Integration is a challenging task. A clear roadmap is necessary for architectural integration. You can opt-out any of the below integrations:

The point-to-point approach connects the business applications with a link. Though it is easy to build, the scalability is limited.
The multipoint approach connects databases and apps via separate engines. Several channels play a role in this.
ESB solutions provide a multilayer solution. It makes use of complex business apps and distributes the data processing operations.

Testing and Deployment:

Test your app to determine its quality. Fix the malfunctions. Also, look out for improvements. Besides, test and retest your application to make sure it is capable to meet the real-world requirements. Move away from assumptions and analyze the app with a hawk’s eye.

Once you are confident, deploy and launch your application. Release your bug-free app in marketplaces. Employ all your marketing strategies and increase your sales.

Maintenance:

Ensure proper maintenance with the successful launch of your app. In the fast-pacing world, requirements change frequently. Also, update yourself with the latest technological advancement. Provide regular updates for your applications keeping all these criteria in mind. Besides, gain customer analytics and feedback to gain insights for areas of improvement too.

Let’s wrap it up!

The mobile application development lifecycle has gone through many changes. Moreover, the evolution of the applications with improved connectivity and networking has made applications dynamic. With the increasing mobile internet usage and the fall of desktop usage, make a space for your business in the digital world.

Hire developers or a development team from a Mobile App Development Company to ensure security. Furthermore, bank on the app development agencies by analyzing the portfolio, client testimonials, business engagement models, and their experience. Opt-out your development partner right away!