While mobile app development is the most talked topic these days, there are a number of developers who hold a view that mobile application development is at its saturation point. A number of companies are switching to their website which was ignored for quite a number of months.
Have you ever thought? – Why is it that the mobile app world reaching saturation point. However, web is still popular in IT world.
Current scenario of Mobile App Ecosystem
If we see at the figure of App store, we would get to know that approximately 40k to 50k apps are submitted to iOS App Store alone. The biggest hurdle is until and unless, a mobile app is able to manage itself in the top 1000 category of App stores, the chances of success are almost 0% for the business. According to a study done by Activate, the top 20 app publishers at the app store earn 60% of total app store revenue.
But have you ever thought? – Why mobile app development’s success rate is declining so fast? Here’re a few points that will help you understand that:
Discovery of the app
To make an app successful, user needs to discover the potential of new app. Now let’s look at how an app comes to the notice of users. An app is always made popular with the help of two strategies – a perfect marketing strategy and uniqueness of an app. A well- versed mobile app marketing strategy sometimes requires paid promotion, which is obviously very expensive. Hence, the cost of customer acquisition has increased substantially since the past few months. A well- versed mobile app marketing strategy also involves marketing of app store I.e. ASP, which have two pathways – featured apps and popular apps category. But these two pathways are generally reserved for selected brands and thus new brands struggle really hard to get themselves noticed.
Few of the mobile marketers follow the ‘charting’ approach where they buy thousands of fake overseas installs in a small window of time in an attempt to push the app above the fold in the category chart. It is a sickening practice, but depicts the mechanics of app discovery work today.
So, what are the pain areas?
A) Review and Ratings of an app
Once your app gets discovered, there are other litmus tests waiting for it. The biggest litmus test is to get good ratings and reviews from the users. There are very few users who give 5 stars to your app even if it fulfills the entire purpose. Therefore you have to actively manage your review page because low rated apps are not preferred by anyone and further it makes things worse for you.
B) Limited space
Mobile devices of people are generally stuffed either with images or with other mobile applications. In this scenario, downloading a new app is even more painful as the space is always limited with the users. Phone manufacturers like Apple have begun to charge extra for the increased disk space. As an example, to upgrade your iPhone’s space to 64 gigabytes, you will pay $2 per gigabyte. Because of the limited space, users always tend to compare their personal collection to the utility of your mobile app thus making things worse for you.
How to meet these challenges?
In my opinion, a simple methodology could be adopted by the app stores. App stores can adopt an algorithm that would rank the apps according to their age and performance. As soon as an app is updated, its age would be refreshed. The performance of app would then determine its ranking. The app would be dropped off from the chats as soon as its performance turns southward. The vacant place would be filled with new apps thus giving opportunity to new apps to show their mettle.
By following this simple method, new entrants could be largely benefitted and users would be able to witness something unique.
Appinventiv Technologies is the most sought after mobile app development service company in India providing top grade iPhone and Android application development services across the globe. Appinventiv has been ranked No. 1 in Appfutura which is the most revered community for app developers. It has the best iPhone app developers and Android developers and designers who have a great expertise in the domain of app development. If you have any app query, contact us right now.