When creating a mobile app, it’s easy to get excited about its newness, the cool logo, and so forth. However, many things go into making an app successful. Many of these are worth considering before the first version is created and some even before starting to work on that.
Here are five things to consider when creating an app.
1. Is There a Market for the App?
It is a simple matter to create an app that no one wants. It happens every day.
By failing to check whether there’s a ready market for what the app will provide, many developers waste their time.
It’s important to look at the app market and elsewhere to research what’s available. Are there other successful apps offering some aspect of what you’ll do but not everything? Or do they do it, but the app is poorly designed, confusing to use, and crashes regularly?
Know that there is a valid place for your app within a valuable niche. Don’t create the app and hope to find a market for it later. You might just get lucky, but the odds are against you.
2. Is the Market Overly Saturated?
Are there thousands of apps offering the same functionality as you’ll provide in yours?
Is it yet another calculator app or something else that is ten a penny?
When the market is overly saturated with apps in that niche, it’ll be especially difficult to stand apart from the competitors. It may still be possible, but you’ll need deeper pockets, to be a dab hand at marketing, or have greater persistence to win out.
Set any ego aside. What will it take to be successful within your chosen niche? Research competitors and any interviews they’ve given about the early days for clues on how tough it was. Was their growth strategy something that will still work today? How can you replicate their success?
3. Is it Too Competitive?
Are there fewer competitors but their apps have high adoption rates? Are they so deeply entrenched as household names now that getting your app into the mix will be an uphill battle all the way?
While doing battle is fine if you’re certain this app is the one you wish to create, sometimes it’s best to choose another less competitive idea. Building some smaller apps initially, getting more experience, and launching a major app later into a competitive app landscape might be a better plan.
4. Know Your App Store Strategy
The Apple and Android app stores work differently. Similarly, the way that apps gain more attention varies too.
The percentage of paid traffic versus organic search traffic to the product page within each app store differs between platforms and app niches.
It’s fair to say that you need a strategy to gain prominence and succeed. Without a solid strategy, your app will likely become one of thousands and go largely unnoticed.
5. Study the Users
Use the different apps in your niche. Determine their positives and negatives. Then read the reviews on the app pages and elsewhere. See what users’ complaints are.
Do you consider them reasonable ones or not? Are they likely to complain about your app for the same reasons? If not, why not?
If you’re aiming to fill a gap in the market by providing a better app than the current ones available, meeting the needs of the users is paramount.
With apps, researching before getting seriously into developer mode is necessary. Otherwise, there’s a serious risk of creating an app that has little chance of finding a solid base of active users.
