Problems or Challenges

The technological age is well and truly upon us; now more than ever, technology oriented start-
ups are popping up all over the world. Now that smartphones are so widely used, more and more
development companies are investing money into mobile app development to take advantage of
surging demand.

With the success of any number of mobile apps whether they be social media related, games or
lifestyle apps, more innovators and new companies are emerging to try to get a piece of the pie,
many of who may consider being successful in this industry to be straightforward. In reality
however this is not the case, as mobile app developers face any number of challenges from
developing and designing the app itself, to getting it released and marketing it effectively.

Here we’ve listed some major challenges faced by app developers while planning, developing
and marketing mobile apps.

1. Choosing The Right App to Develop

One of the initial biggest challenges is deciding which direction to take and to figure out exactly
what to develop. There is a great deal of competition in the already very crowded mobile app
industry and it is getting tougher for an app to stand out and get noticed.

Determining the quality of an idea means asking some of the following questions –

 What purpose does the app serve and what is its function?
 Is the idea original and will it stand out?
 Is the app easy for other developers to emulate?
 What is the target market or market size for the app?
 What is the price of the app?

Coming up with an idea that is simple, productive and in demand can sound easy, but this is
rarely the case.

2. A Competitive, Overcrowded Market

As mentioned earlier, competition is fierce, with hundreds of thousands of mobile apps trying to
stand out from the crowd. Catering to users that have shorter attention spans than ever before
only makes things more tricky. You need to figure out what are the triggers for your target
market and what they want. You must understand what appeals their highest lifetime value
(CLV) users – that is, those who are more likely to spend and spread the word about your
product with their friends and family. You need to delve deeper to figure out how they can keep
users more engaged for longer. You have to undertake the challenging task of keeping the app’s
innovation quotient high, which will eventually ensure a higher number of users remain engaged,
and as will help to build a loyal customer base.
3. Clearly Defining The Target Market

From the business or monetization perspective of mobile app development, it is imperative to

outline a definitive target market. But it is easier said than done as only defining the target
market will not suffice; making sure that market is large enough to provide a revenue stream is a
significant prerequisite as well.

To do so, the company should monitor metrics such as installs and downloads, costs to acquire
customers (CAC), average session lengths, average revenue per user (ARPU), etc. It means
finding a pure analytics solution, and effectively managing this can be a real challenge!

4. Managing Finances and Adequate Funds

You may have a killer app idea, but to turn that idea into something real and marketable,
significant capital is required. Developing an app is an expensive affair as the cost of
development can be anywhere, depending on the nature of the app. How to get the money and
manage the finances can be a problem for some developers.

If one cannot find the right investors to invest in an app idea, there are several other ways to raise
funds. Some of these include taking out a loan, angel investors from family or friends, and joint
venture companies, all of which can be effective.

5. Development Technology

The obvious and core technical challenge of developing an app is choosing the best suitable
development technology for the app and deciding on whether to make a Native, Hybrid or Cross
platform mobile application.

A bit of research reveals that there are hundreds of articles online that compare the three mobile
app development technologies by pitting them against each other. One can easily gain a good
understanding of the respective advantages and disadvantages offered by each of the platforms
But choosing the one that make the most sense for a given project can be difficult, as app
developers often look for a one-size-fits-all solution.

An uninformed decision in choosing the development technology can result in over-expenditure,

poor app performance, and lackluster user experience. So building the app on a platform that is
flexible enough to be adaptable and best suits the client’s target functionality is recommended.

6. Different Devices & Screen Sizes compatibility

Another challenge for app developers is to deal with all the different screen sizes and devices
that the app will need to fit. Designing and developing an app for only a select few devices and
screen sizes is simply not an option. The principal challenge is to develop an app that can run
fluidly across as many devices with as many screen sizes as possible. The solution here is
Responsive Design for apps. Responsive App Design gives screens more flexibility and thus can
be adjusted to suit different screen sizes and various formats.
8. Mobile App Promotion and Marketing

One thing is to design and develop an app, and another is the promotion of that app. This is
challenging and testing for many mobile developers on a totally different level and usually
requires some business and market savvy to be successful. App developers define the following
as the top challenges and goals for app marketing:

 Organic App Discovery – How to make the app discoverable in app store
 User Acquisition – How to make users install the app
 Retention – How to keep users engaged in the app
 Monetization – Whether to implement purchase-app-once or fermium model or in-app
purchase or in-app advertising

Someone may develop a quality app with great UI, graphics and functionality, but if they can’t
get the right users to find the app, they aren’t going to get the returns.

9. Security
Security issues can be a nagging concern for mobile developers. Malware problems may arise
and software/hardware fragmentation only adds to the list of woes. There is a lot of work
required to address such app security issues, which consumes a great deal of time and money.