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Companies of all sizes and industries must therefore invest in app development for their products to stand out and attract customers. How can you create successful custom software? This article will discuss the peculiarities and costs of developing custom applications, from types of apps to stages of development. Learn why customized software is better than ready-made ones.
Why Should You Develop A Custom App?
The research shows that the market for application development software is projected to grow to $1039.89 Billion by 2027. The statistics below will help you decide whether or not custom enterprise mobility development is right for your business. Statista's research indicates that:
- More than 5,13 billion people use mobile phones worldwide.
- In 2023, the number of app downloads is expected to be 15,2 billion.
- By 2023, mobile apps will generate revenue of $935 billion.
- Apps account for 90% of the time spent using mobile devices.
- The average smartphone user installs 11-20 applications.
- Around 60,000 mobile apps are added to the Google Play Store every month.
This data encourages brands to develop mobile apps. Adopting customized software will allow companies to meet their unique needs and solve specific business problems. It can also make workflows faster by offering a unique experience for customers.
Let's now look at some of the dominant trends that influence the creation of an app for mobile:
- Apps That Run on Multiple Platforms: The industry is moving towards cross-platform technologies. Alibaba, Facebook, and Pinterest are just a few of the tech giants that have experienced cross-platform benefits like high performance, rapid development, and speed.
- Apps on Demand: Services apps for On-demand are used all over the world. This trend is a great experience for all parties, whether it's a laundry or taxi app. This trend is pushing businesses to take a dominant position in the market.
- Enterprise Mobile Apps: These apps have become increasingly popular as they offer robust mobile solutions for enterprise-level businesses. These apps help companies optimize their complex business processes and move them toward digital transformation. They aim to improve the communication between business units, boost employee productivity and increase ROI by delivering user-friendly software.
The mobile app industry has a lot to offer. With over 285 billion app downloads in 2018 and an estimated $187 billion in spending on app stores by 2023, there's little surprise. Businesses enter this sphere also for other reasons.
- Accessibility: Brands communicate directly with customers through mobile apps. This is particularly important for the younger, tech-savvy generations.
- Mobile Apps: Added Value: Mobile applications are complementary platforms that allow companies to showcase products, make recommendations, or interact with the audience through loyalty programs.
- Automation: apps allow businesses to automate repetitive processes, making them more efficient.
Customized Application Types
Entrepreneurs consider many factors when creating a cost-effective and powerful enterprise mobility solution provider. Many business owners are curious about the most effective development methods. Let's find out.
Native Application
Native development is when an app has been designed specifically for iOS or Android. Your target audience will often influence your choice of platform.
Native mobile platforms tend to be fast and easy to use, with a streamlined user experience. The clear design helps users to get the best out of their app experience. At the same time, sustainable architecture allows them to benefit from its features fully. Native development offers a complete range of built-in native features. These include GPS, access to a camera, and movement detection.
When creating custom mobile apps, the main challenge is to adapt app designs for different devices. Building and maintaining two apps requires extra time and energy.
Tech Stack For Native App Development:
Android
- Java and Kotlin are two programming languages.
- Toolkit: Android Studio, Android SDK
iOS
- Swift and Objective-C are two programming languages.
- Toolkit: IntelliJ AppCode, Apple Xcode, iOS SDK.
Hybrid Application
These hybrid apps are created using a mix of different web technologies, such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. Hybrid apps, therefore, are technically a mix of native solutions and websites. The hybrid apps are similar to websites, but they run within the native app with its embedded web browser. Hybrid apps, unlike native solutions, use cross-platform features and are created on a single code base. Flutter apps are different from hybrids because of the frameworks used.
Technology Stack For Hybrid Applications:
- Programming languages: HTML, CSS, and Java
- Frameworks: Apache Cordova, Ionic
Cross-Platform Solutions
Cross-platform apps can be developed for multiple platforms. This is a great approach for companies that want to create custom applications without heavily relying on native functionality. This not only reduces the time to launch and the cost of development, but it also simplifies the maintenance and upgrading process.
Cross-platform mobile solutions can reduce costs by as much as 30 percent and accelerate the development of custom apps. Native app development times are indeed estimated for iOS and Android. Still, the Flutter Framework allows software developers to use a single codebase across both platforms.
Cross-Platform Application Development Tech Stack:
- The React and Dart programming languages
- JavaScript Framework
You can get high-performance, scalable solutions for mobile devices within your budget with Flutter's app development services.
Progressive Web App
A Progressive Web App can be created that provides a browsing experience similar to mobile native applications. This is more friendly for users. PWAs use modern web APIs to deliver a native experience. These apps have features like push notifications, offline accessibility, hardware access, and custom splash screens. They are also an excellent choice for users who have older devices or unstable internet connections.
Tech Stack For Building A PWA:
- Angular React Polymer
Most often, creating an app for mobile devices using progressive web technology takes 4x as long. Custom mobile app development can be used in a variety of different industries. The following are some of the industries that have greatly benefited from the use of digital solutions.
- Telemedicine software development aims to provide seamless healthcare services to users worldwide. They allow users to schedule appointments or obtain drug prescriptions, for example.
- Social networks businesses should be on social media to reach out and increase their brand awareness. Creating a social network can be profitable, given the increasing number of social media users.
- The E-learning platform is superior to traditional methods of learning. Students can take classes independently according to what they like and are interested in.
- Travel apps that help travelers plan trips. The apps allow users to reserve hotels, book flights, create routes, and find restaurants and famous spots, among other things.
- In retail, most people prefer purchasing online. Retailers can promote their products and brands globally using e-commerce platforms. It is not necessary to worry about manufacturing and delivery.
- Mobile solutions are used in many different ways by logistics. With the aid of freight management software for transportation and freight companies, they can automate their document workflow and improve cargo planning.
- FinTech, due to the ease of use, customers are moving away from cards and cash to mobile payment apps. Modern financial software allows for the automation of invoices, cash flow management, online payment processing, generation of reports, and visualization of financial information.
Custom App Development Vs. Ready-Made Solutions
Custom mobile app development is the process of building a custom application based on specific business requirements. App builders and ready-to-purchase flexible platforms offer ready-made mobile solutions.
Custom applications often have more design and functionality options than ready-made products. The end product, therefore, is often mediocre. It fails to differentiate itself from its competitors.
There is one positive aspect to pre-made solutions. Off-the-shelf products are not only cheaper but also quicker and easier to use.
- This is a good choice if you are looking for a simple app.
- This is a good option for small businesses. These ready-made apps are great when budgets are limited, but the business needs an app. When the company grows and money becomes less of an issue, it can develop a bespoke app.
Why do companies spend so much more money on custom-made mobile applications when a pre-made app is cheaper? The benefits are what make the difference.
Custom Mobile App Development: 10 Benefits for Business
Custom business applications are used by businesses today of all kinds to stay competitive and boost productivity. Custom mobile apps for businesses can offer many benefits.
1. Custom App Development Enhances Efficiency
Business applications can be built to meet your specific business needs. They are a single application that performs multiple functions. These apps improve employee productivity and ROI, as they are tailored to your working style.
2. High Scalability
Applications are usually designed for a small number of processes and resources. These apps might need help to handle your growing business. Custom applications, on the other hand, are designed with these parameters and can easily be expanded at any time.
3. Protect your Application Data
Some business software may have security features that are not specialized, which could put your data at risk. A custom-made application developed exclusively for your company can help you strengthen the security of your data since security measures are taken according to business requirements during development. You should only choose the top Android development companies for your app if data is important.
4. Integration with Existing Software
Business applications are designed to work with existing software. The custom applications that are created with the current software of your business in mind are guaranteed to work well.
5. Maintainable
You take a risk by using a common application for day-to-day operations. The developer can discontinue an application at any time for whatever reason. He will then have to find a replacement application or stop his operations. You can take full control of your business by creating a custom application.
6. Enhance Customer Relationships
You can send real-time updates to existing clients about your services and products using custom business applications. It also allows you to receive customer feedback and access their details, which will help improve your long-term relationships with customers.
7. Data Retrieval From Customers Is Made Easier
Simple forms and questionnaires can be added to the mobile app idea for customization to get the information required from your customers. It is a discrete way of collecting information, and it saves time for both customers and staff, as there's no need to present physical documents. A good iOS App Development Company will, first and foremost, strive to protect your data.
8. Real-Time Access To Project Information
Having easy access to your documents while traveling is a great convenience. You can sync up your smartphone with your computer and access all of your documents, tasks, schedules, etc., by using a customized application. Custom deal applications make it easy to retrieve brochures and contract documents that you can share with clients.
9. Easy Project Management
Installing custom applications allows you to track the timeline and progress of your project. After completing each phase of the project and keeping up with billing cycles for each phase, updates can be sent.
10. Register Digital Files For Accountability
You can easily record ideas or thoughts about your clients on the phone. The recordings are stored in safe locations that can only be accessed and viewed by authorized personnel. It can improve your accountability, and you will also be able to better serve your clients. Hire app developers to implement this.
Read More: How to Create an Excellent Mobile App Development Team?
What To Consider When Developing A Custom Mobile Application
Custom application solutions must be carefully considered before deployment due to the rapidly changing market, mobile platforms, and demand for quick response. Before developing a mobile app for your business, you should consider the following:
- Quicker Time to Market - Profitable Business applications must be built quickly and in a short turnaround time.
- Increased Efficiency - It is important to adjust and correct custom applications for greater efficiency. This will ensure the end solution works and that it results in an improvement.
- Multi-Network compatibility - It is important to test the developed application on multiple networks and countries.
- Data Security - Most applications were designed to be used by multiple users, and therefore they need strong authentication.
- Battery life - Users don't like app ideas that use up the battery fast.
- User Interface/Experience - A custom application must have a user interface that is attractive and provides a good user experience for customers.
- Effective data synchronization - The application should synchronize the data regularly with the server at an appropriate rate.
- Optimized Communication Channel - A communication channel appropriate for the application must be determined, such as SMS, WAP, etc.
Trends in Custom Mobile App Development
Build Your App (BYOA) is an extension of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) concept due to the increasing consumerization of information technology. BYOA allows employees to choose better applications for their work. However, this can also be perceived as an important security risk. The employees will be unable to control how their data is stored and accessed.
BYOA has many benefits, including lowering the costs of buying licensed tools. It also empowers users. The main challenges in customizing mobile apps are technical support, integration of current network services, and compatibility across a variety of mobile platforms. Also, the user interface design as well as project cost estimation.
Custom mobile app development is booming as more people are turning to smartphones. The latest mobile apps include the following:
- Responsive Layouts: These are the new trends for mobile applications. They are well-received by users.
- Cloud Applications: Should be preferred, as they require fewer data to be locally stored on the device
- Integration of Social Media: This has become a necessity for many apps.
- Internet of Things: The latest technology that allows you to use a mobile app to manage different home appliances and devices.
- Wearable Technology: This has rapidly caught up to today's increasing awareness about health and fitness.
- Beacon Technology: It is one of the fastest-growing technologies, and it's increasingly used in custom applications.
- Near Field Communication: This has become more popular in recent years, particularly for mobile payments.
- Payment Gateways: Allow people to pay online and in-store without cash.
- Application analytics and Big Data: It is an industry that has been growing rapidly in data analytics. It helps to enhance the user's experience.
A Step-By-Step Custom App Development Process
Custom enterprise mobility management software development involves a large number of variables, and you will need to invest a great deal of time and energy into creating a digital application. You will discover the conventional route to a customized mobile app below:
Step 1: Analyze your App Idea
Start the process of development by defining your vision for the business. Are you looking for an app to support a specific business? Who is your audience? And who are the direct competitors of that audience? What features is your app?
Your product will be released faster if you have a more clearly defined business concept. You should decide the platform on which your application will be based. You have three choices:
- Native Development: You can only develop software for one platform, Android or iOS.
- Apps that Cover Multiple Platforms: Can be written in one codebase to support both.
- Hybrid Solutions: These are web apps put into a native application shell.
The fundamental decision you make will depend on your unique project requirements, such as your budget, timeframe, the application's lifespan, and your business idea maturity. You can ask an app developer to help you strategize.
Step 2: Find A Trusted App Development Team
If you don't have an in-house full-cycle team, then you need to find a mobile app developer who can take on your project. Choose a partner with at least 5 years of experience in the field and is part of a multi-functional team.
Clutch, Designrush, and other industry rating sites are the best places to start looking for a technology partner. They rank companies based on a variety of quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as client reviews, experience with the company, portfolio, and other factors.
These platforms also provide a breakdown by domains and service lines of the providers, allowing you to choose a company that specializes in mobile app development.
When you contact an app agency, they will analyze your requirements and then set up the best app development team.
Step 3: Ideation and Discovery
Your collaboration with an agency for development will start well if you brainstorm. In the discovery stage, the development team, including the business analyst, will do extensive research into your project, analyze the market, identify competitors, create user personas, and determine the must-have product features.
Insights from the stage of business analysis are transformed into a product architecture, a functional requirements document, and a roadmap for the project. The design team will also provide you with a clickable version of the application so that you can test the look and feel of the digital product.
Step 4: Design & Development
The UX/UI design team will create a full-fledged mobile app after the prototype and documentation have been approved. Final layouts for your custom app are then handed to the developers.
The development team will then turn your requirements into features and set up both the front end (front end) and the back end (back end) of your solution. They'll also integrate your solution with any necessary business or service applications.
We recommend that you build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to reduce development costs. It is a very early version that only includes the most important features. Your MVP must still offer sufficient functionality to allow the user to fully explore your product. Once your MVP has received enough feedback from users, you can upgrade your app and include other features.
Step 5: Test Your App
In most cases, testing and development are done in the same sprint. This ensures high-quality deliverables and an accelerated release. Test engineers and your quality assurance team will validate code quality and check performance. They'll also test the application on mobile devices to ensure it runs as expected across different screens.
Step 6: Submit Your App To The Stores
It's now time to launch your app. Remember that Android and iOS apps must adhere to the platform's guidelines. Your submission will not be accepted if it does not meet the guidelines. When you publish your application, make sure your store listing contains all of the necessary information that will help to improve your ranking.
Step 7: Upgrades, Maintenance, And Improvements
The development of mobile apps doesn't end with the launch. Next, you'll need to gather user feedback and prioritize new features. Then, repeat the steps above. Regular maintenance should include security patches, updates to versions, bug fixes, and other routine tasks.
Cyber Infrastructure Inc. Custom App Development Process
Cyber Infrastructure Inc. We have delivered custom-made, high-quality mobile and web apps to startups, SMEs, and enterprise application development clients across many business sectors since early 2011. Our developers dive into each business's unique challenges, whether it is in healthcare, finance, or e-commerce. They then develop a solution that adds value to the company.
Cyber Infrastructure Inc., based on its vast experience and expertise, offers our clients a range of benefits that are game-changing:
- Native mobile application development is a full-cycle process.
- Teams with cross-functional autonomy and every required skill for the successful delivery of projects (iOS/Android developers, DevOps engineers, Business Analysts, Designers, QA Engineers, and other specialists).
- Flexible hiring models (time & materials, dedicated teams, fixed-price, mixed collaboration models, etc.)
- Workflow is transparent and client-first (working builds every 2 weeks, daily reporting, etc.).
We follow a time-tested and calibrated software development lifecycle to take your project from conception to completion on budget and within the deadline. Cyber Infrastructure Inc. typically follows the SDLC, which includes these milestones.
- Our team will analyze your project and business needs. They'll elicit functional requirements and map out the process of development. Wireframes are created (design blueprints).
- UX/UI Design, The design team creates clickable prototyping based on approved wireframes.
- The development team will transform your design into an application that is fully functional and integrates all the processes and integrations needed for you to run it.
- Our QA engineers will thoroughly test your app to ensure it is bug-free and works well on all devices.
- Our team of developers will transfer the product from the developer to the customer and help submit it to app stores if necessary.
- Our support team offers L1, L2, L3, and other support levels to meet your requirements after the project has been released.
The Wrap-Up
In the end, building an app according to your specific needs will result in a higher-quality product in both the short and longer term. Custom iOS app development, for example, means your application is aligned 100% with the AppStore and its rules, offering flawless performance and a high-quality brand design. It increases your chances of having a good experience. This can lead to 73% of consumers choosing your brand.
While building your custom app might sound like an arduous and lengthy process, a partner with the expertise of Cyber Infrastructure Inc. will help you create that next great mobile application. Cyber Infrastructure Inc. has many years of experience building custom applications and the necessary skills. We'll work together to find the best solution. Contact us now.
