subject: How You Can Increase Market Share With Iphone Application Development. [print this page] There are many aspects to developing an iPhone app or any type of smart phone app, for that matter. You'll have to do lots of planning to make sure your app is functional, fullfills a need for your clients and potential customers, as well as having great marketing for your app.
Even if you just produce a very simple app, with limited functionality, it will still need to be marketed properly to let everybody know you are providing a fantastic app for everyone. Below are some tips that you may want to consider before, during and after the app development process.
- You need to know what your customer base want from your app. Don't just dive in and develop an app with what you think people need. Ask your existing customers what they would like to see in a smart phone application. Give them some possible ideas of what you think may work and see if they agree. Come up with a list of criteria that you can ask potential customers. This can be on functionality, design or the marketing cycle. Sometimes, just a general chat with existing customers may give you ideas for what to put into your app.
- After doing your market research, you may have loads of ideas that can possibly be used. This doesn't mean you need to use all of them in your application build. You may be considering alternative versions of your app, backup micro-sites or HTML 5 sites. These can all add to promoting your app, but you have to focus on the most important things first and what you can build within your budget.
- A lot of business apps are built to port existing functionality they have into the form of a smart phone app. If you are following this path, you need to thoroughly outline what is the most important points of your existing technology and would this be of benefit to have this as an iPhone app. Unless you're app makes people's lives easier or it solves a problem, then it may end up being just a periphery thing for customers and not a real solution.
- It is the usual the advised to integrate the latest features of the smart phone within your application if possible. Each new release of the smart phone usually has upgraded hardware features such as accelerometers, a better camera and so forth. If you are thinking of integrating the latest features of the phone into your own app, then you need to know that they are going to be useful to your customers. This you can find out from initial discussions of the user group. But make sure this is worthwhile feedback and not just, 'yeah that's new, i'll use it.'
- A good path to follow if you are going to use the latest hardware within the smart phone, is to see what unique ideas can be put to this new hardware. Is there a new way you can use an updated camera phone to get more detailed pictures which can be sent to head office to analyse. You could possibly monitor and capture certain data with the latest hardware. It is really down to your own creativity, for which solutions you come up with.
- A major thing to consider with any type of technology, is what is useful today, will your app work on past devices and will it work on future devices. Like desktop programs, an app usually needs regular software updates, to deal with future upgrades of the phone. The app also needs to be backwards compatible, so you should factor in these aspects from the start.
- You will find that the most successful apps fulfil a specific need or purpose. The functionality is limited, to not only make the apps simple to use, but also quick to learn. Don't mix up desktop software with smartphone apps. People expect a big learning curve with desktop applications, but not with apps, so keep the functionality very focused.
- Deciding if you're app will be free or paid for is usually a big consideration. Free apps usually come with in app advertising, paid apps, usually do not. The advertising could be from third-party companies or your own advertising to push people to online offerings. Try and push people anyway to something you have online, even if it's backup information for your app. As long as you are providing quality information and services for your customers, most don't mind small advertising as long as it is done discreetly.
- If your app is intended for business use, then it is advisable to go to an app development agency, as they will have the planning and development experience to take your idea to market.
You will have to do at least some basic planning and customer feedback to make a worthwhile smartphone application. With enough careful planning, you should be able to make a worthwhile application.
