Businesses nowadays heavily rely on the advent of mobile apps and their impact not just in the IT market but also in all kinds of fields. Mobile apps have brought an uprising of innovation for businesses all around the world. However, with such a massive impact some rumors have been transformed into myths around the industry about applications. It is important for people in the industry regardless of their status, to be aware of such myths and the truths behind them.
If you are someone who has a superficial understanding of custom mobile application development, you have arrived at the perfect place. This article will help you unravel them and also focus on the truths about custom mobile apps. With some clear insights and guidance about custom mobile apps you will have no issues discerning the truth about them so stay with us until the end to figure it all out.
However, before we start debunking app development myths, it is important to understand what a custom app is and the purpose it serves to businesses and organizations. Below is a brief overview of custom apps and the features they offer to their users.
What are Custom Apps and their benefits?
Custom apps are designed to serve a business’s specific needs and requirements. They are tailor-made with exciting features and elements that are solution-oriented and work seamlessly for business owners to fulfill their demands. Developing a custom app requires specific software to build ad hoc features unlike making an app with standard features catering to a general audience.
Some of the benefits of having a custom app are listed below:
- Business strategies do not undergo last-minute changes due to such an app that functions on predetermined software. As a result, there is not much change to the app development approach.
- Eliminates the requirement for the development of multiple apps catering to specific purposes.
- Limits external dangers such as cyber threats and hacking.
- Organizations can have the rights to their property to improve the custom apps as required.
- Cuts back costs on hardware since the custom app is already integrated with your infrastructure
- Issues are resolved swiftly as your development team has complete access to the custom app.
Custom Mobile App Development Myths
Now that you understand a custom mobile app’s semantics, it is time to dig deeper. Below are a few concerning myths you should be aware of that are widespread in the mobile app development industry.
Only Large Enterprises can afford Custom Apps
Nothing can be further from the truth than this. However, many businesses believe this to be true, especially budding startups and SMEs. Tech giants with massive budgets are not the only ones privileged to enjoy this resource. Custom mobile app development is a scalable solution that allows companies to develop apps tailor-made for their needs. Custom apps are developed considering the financial constraints and business requirements of a company, regardless of its impact on the market. As a result, any business can utilize such apps to a great extent.
As important as this myth might be, it is equally important to understand the benefits of small and medium-sized businesses.
Benefits of a Small or Medium-Sized Business
- Flexibility- These businesses often deal with targets by being flexible. Their size allows them to streamline their communication process and decision-making. This implies that a business of this size can adapt to change quickly and effectively.
- Economy- SMEs allow the possibility of developing and designing products with high efficiency and low prices which creates much competition in the market as it is the best way to start a business from scratch. As a consequence of such competition, the economy of a country rises and evolves.
- Assists Big Enterprises- SMEs act as ancillaries for some big enterprises which is why they get dissolved quickly. However, certain tasks such as delivering products and distributing the finished goods are specific towards SMEs.
Successful Custom Apps for SMEs
- Slack- Slack is one of the best custom apps available for managing SMEs. It allows company employees to communicate effectively. It also dissociates the issue of long informational meetings and constant emailing. You can assign different message channels to specific employees, events, topics, or projects and further designate the required employee for each task.
- Asana- Offers a platform for team members to collaborate, interact, and deliver projects. You can create tasks, upload files, share notes, and communicate with your team members and employees. You can also sync this with Google Drive and Dropbox to share files and allow updates to your Slack channels.
- ProjectManager- Another successful business project management app and a to-do list tool, ProjectManager has won multiple awards in the business industry. Manage your due dates, assign priority levels, and much more. You can stay on track as this app allows you to filter projects by due date, project, owner, and other significant criteria.
B.) Custom App Development is too expensive
Cost is an imperative factor when it comes to mobile app development. Although, the belief that it is exorbitant to afford is purely a myth. There are flexible pricing models that can suit all kinds of budgets offered by multiple mobile app development companies. Additionally, there are multiple long-term benefits that a custom app brings to the table that outnumber the initial investment. Some of these benefits include enhanced operational efficiency, increased customer engagement, and a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Strategies to Optimize Custom Mobile App Development Costs
- Picking a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a good strategy to cut back on expenses. This is a prototype of your product that is built with all the core features and is released in the market for further insights and feedback. Such a feature will not just reduce your expenses but also give a solid insight into how the market reacts to your product.
- Utilize Open Source app development frameworks. An open-source development framework allows room for more content development and less OS development. Since it can be costly to build a custom mobile app, make sure to decide carefully which framework to pick based on your business requirements.
- Use pre-built Templates. Another incredible way to save your expenses is by utilizing pre-built templates. Multiple free online templates can help in custom app development since building everything from scratch can get a bit expensive. These templates save you both time and money on your app development project.
C.) Generic/Pre-Built Apps Are Sufficient For All
Many businesses believe the fallacy that off-the-shelf apps are enough to fulfill their business requirements. Even though these apps can do right by your business, they cannot go all the way. They need more personalized elements, features, and capabilities that only a custom app can provide. Custom app development services offer these businesses tailor-made solutions that meet their objectives and requirements. This difference in customization goes a long way when it comes to customer satisfaction as well as business growth.
Drawbacks of Generic Mobile Apps
- Generic apps do not suffice your specific business requirements.
- There is no seamless integration of generic apps with the already existing software. There are specific cases and situations where businesses have to pay extra to their employees for training. This practice allows them to leverage certain features and functions to suit a situation.
- Developing mobile apps can be accomplished through minimal pricing however, regularly updating it and offering premium features to selected users can cost a lot.
- With the evolution of a company, the features and functions of a generic software might become insufficient over time and only custom app features can satisfy the specific needs of the company.
D.) Custom Mobile App Development is Highly Time-Consuming
It is a rather popular myth that custom mobile app development is highly time-consuming. Truth be told, it is correct that developing a complex mobile app requires time and money, however, the duration is not nearly as long as people picture it to be. Mobile app development companies hire professional developers with high experience who are time-savvy and know how to streamline the development process. They understand how quickly you require the product with the specified features and functionalities. As a result, they offer a quick turnaround time without jeopardizing the quality of the product.
Rapid Mobile App Development
Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD) leverages low-code platforms to improve the speed of the application development process for mobile apps. RMAD is the mobile version of RAD (Rapid Application Development). This type of development offers high-quality products through methods such as early prototyping, informal team meetings, and reusable software components among other swift methodologies.
Some of the benefits of RMAD include:
- Due to low-code/no-code platforms, development time is curtailed since there are fewer lines of code to be executed and the drag-and-drop method is utilized instead of traditional development methods.
- Organizations with low-code/no-code methodology can recruit developers with less coding experience.
- An RMAD platform can be reused over and over to build apps.
- Complicated services such as onboarding, data synchronization, and networking are abstracted through RMAD. Famous industry technologies such as JavaScript, NativeScript, and JSON are also abstracted.
Importance of defining a project scope in short timelines
The purpose of the project scope is to not only provide the direction of the project but also cater to cost-control management in mobile app development. There are times when during the app development process the scope of the project is altered. This becomes detrimental to the timeline of the project since it can lead to high-resource usability and elevate project costs. Such a thing is termed ‘scope creep’.
To keep the app development process cost and time-efficient, it is necessary to prevent scope creep. When it comes to expedient timelines for your app development project, dynamic changes in the process can alter the scope of it too. Some of the ways in which you can reduce the app development duration are:
- Build MVP for your app- Picking an MVP is a good strategy to reduce the development time since it is a prototype of your app that is released into the market to gain insights and feedback on the core functionalities and how the app would do in the market. Such a strategy aids in narrowing down the areas you need to focus on while developing the app.
- Wireframe Blueprint- A Wireframe blueprint is a design layout of the mobile app’s architecture that provides an accurate idea of the functionalities of the app. The information viewed in the blueprint is simple and easy to understand for mobile app developers.
- Automated testing- Providing app security to the user’s information is the bare minimum an app can offer to its client. As a result, the app needs to be tested quite a few times before it can be delivered to the market. Automation has little impact on the timeline of app development, however, testing does the job with flying colors. It aids in managing the total amount of time spent on app development.
E.) Custom Apps Are Only Used For E-Commerce
Another popular myth that goes around in the app industry is that custom apps are e-commerce-specific. Although the majority of them are utilized in the e-commerce industry, there are so many more specifically designed for other industries as well. These wide varieties of industries range from healthcare to manufacturing, entertainment, and everything in between. These apps enhance the efficiency, overall business performance, and customer engagement in the business. Nowadays, custom apps have taken over almost every industry, including e-commerce.
Industries thriving under custom mobile app implementation
Since custom mobile apps go beyond just catering to the e-commerce industry, it is necessary to be aware of the other industries these apps provide their services to. Some of them are:
Healthcare
Offering more customized and efficient attention to patient care, telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and appointment scheduling have seen incredible enhancements.
Education
There has been a significant transformation in the education industry since the advent of custom mobile apps. They offer innovative solutions that aid in streamlining the teaching process and enhance the learning experience. The education centers are now collaborating with reputable mobile app development companies to invent a tailor-made solution for their audience. Some of the areas where these apps help out are e-learning platforms, assessment and feedback, and classroom management.
Finance
Even the finance industry has undergone much transformation with the introduction of custom mobile apps in its market. These apps guarantee secure and advanced financial services to their customers in this industry. Some of the areas where custom mobile apps have left their mark in the financial sector are mobile banking, financial planning, and investment management.
Conclusion
Now that you understand the myths and the truths behind them, if you are an app developer, make sure to be reasonable and not believe such myths in the app development industry. If you come across any such rumors, make sure to do a thorough analysis of the information and get to the bottom of it.
Now after clarifying app development misconceptions, it is safe to assume that app development is by no means an easy task. Building one depends on many factors and needs to be promoted through effective marketing channels. Also, developing a custom mobile app is not an expensive proposition. It depends on the kind of app you want to build as there is a range to its development cost and multiple pricing options are available.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Are custom apps more challenging to maintain and update than pre-built apps?
With a well-structured foundation of custom mobile apps, the maintenance and regular updates of the app cannot be more challenging than pre-built apps. Pre-built apps can have adaptability issues, however, custom apps are built for your business’s specific needs.
2. Are there industries where custom mobile apps might not be suitable?
Majority of the industries around the world have adopted custom mobile apps as an integral part of their business. However, there are still some industries where this service has not entered. Some of these industries are:
- Commodity Retail
- Simple Informational Websites
- Limited Budget Startups
- Short-Term Projects
- Non-Digital or Niche Markets
- How to ensure the security of customer data in a custom mobile app?
There are multiple ways to safeguard and bolster user data from any external threats or hacks. Some of these approaches include:
- Data encryption
- Secure authentication
- Regular Security Audits
4. Can custom mobile apps aid in internal business processes and not just customer-facing issues?
Yes, custom mobile apps are tailor-made to not just enhance the user experience but also cater to the specific needs and requirements of the business. Regardless of whether these issues are regarding internal processes or something else, custom mobile apps can guarantee to simplify and facilitate such issues.
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