Do you know how many new apps are developed per day on an average?
Well, in the first five months of 2020, there have been over 530,000 new app uploads to Google Play Store. It roughly translates to about 3,500 apps per day.
Your app – assuming that you are going to make one soon – needs to be really great to stand apart in this ever-increasing crowd. It is easier said than done. An average person tends to hear about less than 50 new apps in a whole year – that is, just about four apps per month.
Don’t back out. It can be done. If you are dreaming of making the next best thing in the app world, here are five tips on how to make an app that you might find handy.
1. Know Your Market
Does the world really need the app that you have in mind? Even if there is a need for this app, there could be other apps that are offering the same service in different routes. Or some already big name must logically be moving to offer the same service.
Understanding the market is perhaps the most fundamental thing here. Ideally, your app must be offering something that people really need now and will need later in the near future. It should ideally fill a technology gap.
The app should also be able to make money under the prevailing market conditions. There are just about five ways an app can make money:
Paid apps: This is the surefire method. But it is likely to succeed only if you are making an awesome game, or something like that. It is very difficult for a newbie to succeed by this route.
Freemium apps: This is the next best method. You offer a basic version for free. But the full version will be available only for a fee (i.e. Spotify).
In-app purchases: The app should be constructed in such a way that the app offers involve some kind of margin or commission receivable from the user. It works with different services and functions.
In-app ads: This is perhaps the most common method for new users. The app will show ads to users. Warning: this can irritate them.
Sponsorships: If your app is likely to get a large user base, this model should work. You get exclusive sponsorship from an established brand whose consumers form a large chunk of your user base.
So that’s it. Most app ideas won’t travel to the next stage if market research is done thoroughly and mercilessly.
2. Build a Communicable Idea
Once your initial app idea passes the previous stage, it’s time to build a communicable idea. It is important to develop a robust and impressive business idea for attracting funding. The communicable idea must comprise the following points:
• The key functionalities of the app
• Value additions the app brings
• Monetization options
• Details of potential audience
• Marketing strategy
You may have read what Elon Musk said about choosing new ideas. He says he considers just two things when deciding on an innovation:
1. Whether it brings good to humanity
2. Whether it obeys the laws of physics
If your app brings good to the society, state it clearly and confidently in your marketing pitch.
3. Choose Your Platform
While choosing a platform, you need to think about the following aspects:
What are the programming languages you are going to use?
What are the security measures that you are going to embed?
What are the CRM tools that are required?
What are the APIs the app needs to facilitate?
What are the third party services planned for marketing and monetization?
Where to host the app and how to distribute it?
Based on the above questions, you need to choose a platform to build the app. Basically, there are three platforms:
Native mobile apps: Such apps can use almost all the native functionalities of the mobile devices, so the programming is more effective. The whole development process is also relatively easy. Native languages in the Android world include Kotlin and Java. Swift and Objective-C are used for iOS apps. They all have their pros and cons, so it’s extremely important to choose the technology according to your usability objectives and business goals.
Hybrid apps: These are mobile cross-platform apps. They offer an optimum performance with the best options from different worlds. Such solutions are getting more and more popular because of their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. An example of a cross-platform that allows this kind of development is Flutter along with React Native and Angular (Ionic).
Web apps: These are apps that can be used via web browsers. They offer different sets of functionalities and, for some projects, they can be used on top of native mobile apps. Web apps might include additional features, such as reports, graphics, analytics, layouts, etc. That’s why they’re perfect for solutions that require bigger desktop screens.
4. Understand Your Resources
This stage involves the answers to following questions:
How many programmers do you need?
How many project managers are working on this?
How many designers are required?
How many marketing personnel or people hours are required?
The answers obviously depend on the very nature of your product or service. As programmers often say “9 women cannot give birth in one month”, so it’s not only about your budget. It’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the resources, because you can get the required funds once you have a clear idea of the person-hour requirements – not the other way around.
5. Focus on the Making
This is perhaps the most vital stage. You have done every preliminary work well. Now focus fully on the development. It is better to integrate the marketing and design plan while developing the app. It will save a lot of delays and headaches later.
Organizing the tasks is a huge task itself. Just like developers specialize in a particular language, we at Bunch specialize in conducting the whole process. If you choose to work with us, all communications (developers, designers, marketing, etc.) are streamlined into one point of contact – a project manager, who’s always there for you.
Bunch of things on how to make an app
As you can see, there are many, many different factors that you need to take into consideration while working on creating an app. It’s not only the business model behind, but also IT technicalities and project management challenges.
You might have heard that an idea is not enough. Well, with us it is! If you’re at the “idea” stage, we can help you evaluate it and build an MVP or prototype.
If you feel like you’d like to focus on the business side only and leave the rest to the pros – contact us! We will prepare an estimate, a clear vision of schedule and roadmap, resources needed and timeline. Check an example of such a document here.
We’ve brought many apps to life – check some of them in our portfolio.
