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Mobile apps can turn into massive successes or unmitigated failures, and the difference often comes down to the amount of hard work and care that went into development.
If youâre creating an app, itâs essential to do your research, choose the best development approach, & make sure you have the right tools in place before you start building your first feature.
Here are 15 major causes of mobile app failure youâll want to consider before releasing your first product to the public.
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The concept sounds great, but is it solving a real-world problem? If not, then no one will want to use your app. It doesnât matter how stunning it is or how much funding you have raised â if no one wants to use it, there wonât be much point in launching.
When figuring out whether or not youâre trying to solve a real-world problem, make sure that your solution adds value over what people are already doing with their time & money.
An app has to have some professional utility to appeal to anyone other than you or your family. Having a passion for an idea is great, but itâs not enough.
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To avoid having an app nobody wants, research before starting development to ensure youâre making something people want. For example, if your idea is for a new video streaming app, it might be better off as a web application rather than a native mobile one.
By reading through mobile user research data collected from the mobile analytics software, mobile UX experts know exactly how users behave in their mobile environment, which metrics affect engagement rates, conversion rates, and retention rates.
Using this info, they can develop solutions that truly solve problems for users.
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It would help if you had an easy-to-use user interface that allows people to get straight into your application and get value from it. Otherwise, you risk losing customers before they ever use your product. Try and keep things simple; if you make it hard for people to figure out how to use your app, they wonât stick around for long.
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Your first stop should be identifying which mobile platformâiOS or Androidâ and ecosystem best fits your product and customers. Each app platform has its benefits. For example, Android offers a plethora of audience and hardware options, but iOS users tend to spend more on apps.
After choosing a platform, you need to make sure youâre developing for it properly. Not all developers are created equal, so make sure you hire app programmer with years of experience. They must have a proven track record in building apps for that specific mobile operating system.
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Mobile apps require a fair amount of testing. Theyâre so complex that only about 4% get released without any bugs at all, as per Failory. Even after apps have been tested, there is no shortage of updates and improvements based on user feedback.
If you do not put in enough time in testing your app or use adequate testing tools, it can fail to get your app into peopleâs hands. It takes more than one iteration for an app to become famous; it takes time and iteration after iteration until it does!
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Most people think their job is done by simply having a presence on Google Play or Appleâs App Store. However, getting an app into those stores isnât nearly enough to drive significant growth and achieve success.
The placement of your app among search results is primarily based on metadata that you provide to each store upon launchâbut itâs not a one-and-done deal.
To reach consumers who will download and use your app regularly, you need to consider how your marketing efforts relate to those already in place from platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
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Itâs hard to get sufficient data on how often companies run out of money before finding enough users to generate revenue. Still, it happens often enough that several firms have started developing new app financing strategies designed to fill in these funding gaps.
⢠What are your risks for running out of money?
⢠Are you sure you have enough?
⢠Have you tested your assumptions about how much it will cost to launch your product?
⢠What are your options if things donât go as planned?
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The best way to avoid app failure is by creating a solid marketing strategy for your product before building it. You should know who you want to reach and what youâre going to say before making an app or mobile site.
Donât let lack of planning ruin everything! With several affordable marketing services available, thereâs no excuse to start promoting your idea early on. It could save you time, funds, & heartache in the long run.
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Slow response times, miscommunication, and inadequate training can derail any mobile app. With nearly 30% of app users abandoning an app after one use due to insufficient customer support (KISSmetrics), optimizing your customer experience strategy is essential for preventing mobile app failure.
However, many businesses neglect to invest in their Customer Success/Support team; according to The Balance, Small Business Support workers need yearsâ worth of specialized trainingâand an array of technical knowledgeâto be effective.
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In todayâs world, clients have more power than ever. If you ignore what they say about your mobile app, it could spell disaster for your company. Without user feedback, you canât grow sustainably.
Customers may love a particular feature when it first launches, but chances are their feelings will change over time. For example, that catchy intro animation at launch might get annoying if left unchanged in an update that comes out three months later.
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If thereâs one thing we shouldâve learned over the past decade, itâs that internet security is paramount. Yet, even with apps earning more access to our phones, which essentially hold all our essential information, companies still fail to see mobile app security as a priority.
To keep your business information safe & secure from hackers, consider investing in mobile app security software or services
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It might appear evident while reading, but you have to make sure your mobile app has been built well from a technical standpoint. If it doesnât work when it launches or contains bugs that make it difficult for users to navigate, you could be in trouble.
Flurry data shows there are more than 400 million instances of bad apps per month. In other words, if your app is faulty when launched, youâre going to have a lot of angry customers who wonât want to do business with you again in the future.
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User experience is a huge factor in determining whether a mobile app succeeds or fails. Itâs easy to write an app that seems intuitive and fun to use, but if it takes too long to analyze how to use, offers preliminary design, or misses vital features, users will quickly lose interest.
It will help if you put as much time into making sure your UX is as good as possible with development. That way, users wonât have any trouble using your product from day one.
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Too many developers, designers, and project managers view prototypes as something to do only when necessaryâsuch as after youâve done all your research and know what needs to get built.
However, great prototyping can save you time and money by helping you visualize your ideas early on and answer questions before they become issues. Even if you think you know everything about what you want to build in advance, it doesnât hurt to prototype quickly to see how things will lookâand if there are problems or missing elements that need fixing or improving.
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Itâs no surprise that an appâs time to market matters. From a startupâs perspective, users are more likely to download your app if itâs available on their mobile device right when they need it. So why wait?
Depending on your appâs complexity, take advantage of prototyping software and tools to create, test and deploy your mobile app in just days. If you opt for custom development instead of rapid prototyping, you should expect an average nine-month lead time before you can deliver your first mobile app.
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