How to Choose the Right Platform for Mobile App Development

Choosing the right platform is as important as developing the codes for your mobile applications. The market today is littered with various platforms and designing your own mobile app development platform to suit iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile will be unrealistic, especially if the release date of the app is knocking at the door and you are still tweaking the kinks and glitches in the code. However, the question here is how do you choose a single platform to launch your product? Let us try and find the answer!

Do conduct market research

If you are an app developer and just looking to reach a lot of people at the one time, choose a platform that is most popular in your area. Wondering how you would go about the process? It would actually be easy to study the figures of what percentage of the population is using what platform. For example, is Android the most preferred mobile device in Australia, or is it iPhone? How many of the users are actually downloading apps from the app stores? What about their revenues resulting from downloads? However, if your mobile app development services are business-specific, you have to study your own market segment and also find out what type of mobile devices they are actually using.

What features should it have

The road map to your mobile application development will finally determine what type of features your product will have. If you are going for the most basic of features, then it can probably be optimized to ensure smooth user experience.  

Android apps development is in great demand. Presently, more and more people are buying Android phones and downloading apps from Google Play. Android apps are quite popular with the smartphone users nowadays and almost 700,000 applications available on Google Play. These figures show the growing popularity of the Android apps. According to recent studies, around 71% of smartphone users prefer Android apps when compared to other platforms, like, the iOS.

Which Platform Generates Better Revenue

To choose the right mobile app development platform, it is vital to find out which app offers more revenue and visibility. If you go by the surveys, Apple’s daily sales for apps are higher than Google’s Android. On the other hand, Android offers better visibility. Finally, it is upon you to choose the most suitable platform.

Take Account of Customer Usage

If you are racking your brain on which app you should develop first, it depends on your customers. Find out whether your customers prefer Google services, like, Google Maps, Calendar, etc. Also consider the popularity of the categories among iOS and Android users. For instance some of the reputed categories for Android users are reference and entertainment. iPad and iPhone users are mostly interested in music, fitness, media, shopping, sports, etc.

Which platform is simpler to develop

If you compare iOS and Android, the former is easier to develop as it only has four types of iPhones and iPads. Android, however, is more complex for programming as it has over 400 types of handsets.

While the comparison between iOS and Android is never-ending, as an aspiring mobile app entrepreneur you should know that both these platforms, when combined, own over 90% of the market. So consider the above factors before you choose a particular platform.  

iOS development – A Growing Phenomena

The number of mobile apps is exploding with each passing day, primarily driven by a tremendous uptick in the number of mobile devices. With this rise in the use of mobile devices, the development of mobile application, which had to be downloaded or pre-installed in mobile devices for professional or personal work, has also increased. Most companies have introduced the BYOD (bring your own device) strategy nowadays. This has furthered the growth of the mobile application industry even more.

Growth of iOS in the last few years

According to a survey in 2012, there has been a rise of 63% in the number of business houses deploying mobile apps in the last one year. As per these results, around 50% of these business units had to deploy mobile app usage owing to the industry demands. Clearly, mobile app industry has become the largest revenue source for the IT segment today.

In 2012, during the release of iPhone 5, Apple declared that there were 700,000 apps in the iTunes App Store. For a gentle reminder, both Google and Apple launched their mobile app stores in 2008. Despite having almost similar birthdays, iTunes App Store took the lead in terms of mobile app availability. It took Apple 11 months to touch the 50,000 app threshold in the iTunes App Store which Google Play had hit on April 2010, a full year and a half later than Apple.

In 2009, Apple announced the availability of 100,000 mobile apps in the iTunes App Store. Google had hit the mark in 2010, almost a year after Apple. The difference in growth rates between Google Play and iTunes App Store remained moderately steady in both 2010 and 2011, with Apple creating a milestone with 250,000 apps in the iTunes App Store in April 2010 and Google reaching it 15 months later in July 2011.

iOS 7 – A game changer in the world of mobile operating system

Today, iOS 7 is one of the most important changes for Apple's mobile operating system. During the first three hours of its release, iOS 7 had already achieved an adoption rate of more than 10%. Some of the positive changes in iOS 7 are:

1. It allows users to tuck the Newsstand app away into a folder
2. The new flattened candy coloured icons are extremely attractive
3. Altered animations for unlocking devices made things prettier plus the control panel finally lets iOS users adjust bluetooth, airplane mode and brightness.

Few of the most appreciated and lauded features of iOS which makes people prefer them over other smartphones are:

iOS apps have much more polish and development. Arguably, people choose iPhone because of the quality of the apps. To add to that, iPhone has a very simple interface. There are fewer ways to mess up with an iPhone. Additionally, a great feature which all Apple products is that they share their integration with other Apple products. Some of these examples are:

1. Find my Friends can show you where your family and friends are.
2. Find my iPhone allows you to locate your lost phone and lock it remotely.
3. Photo Stream allows you to sync pictures with other iOS devices and Mac computers.
4. iMessage enables group chats across all Apple devices and computers.

iOS development will continue to rule the mobile app industry in future

Owing to such large number of reasons, iOS development has undergone a phenomenal growth in the mobile app development industry. Owing to its great selection of apps and smooth interface, iOS mobile application development will continue to grow in the years to come.  

What iPhone App Developers Can Do To Make User Friendly Apps

iPhone, the smartphone by Apple, has made new records in the mobile industry. Besides being useful at work, these are also excellent sources of fun and entertainment. iPhones are almost like pocket laptops loaded with impressive features for users to enjoy, which make it one of the best smartphones available in the market today. iPhones are packed with numerous applications for their users which they can download from the Apple app store. These applications are developed patiently by iPhone app developers as they need to clear the stringent test of Apple Inc. before being approved for public use. 

Hence, expertise and patience are the two pre-requisites of iPhone app developers. Numerous apps have been developed for reading, surfing, gaming, news, music, etc. that are readily available on Apple app store. However, before you deal with the variety or the features of the iPhone apps, it is necessary to comprehend how this can prove fruitful for your business.

• Firstly, if you create an app especially for a business, then the basic thing that you need to keep in mind is that it should be user friendly. Customers prefer such an app where all they have to do is click on a single button rather than browsing through a bunch of links to land on a single page.

• Secondly, it is easier to attract new customers with apps that are directly linked to your website. This ensures more traffic and, in turn, in more profits.

• Thirdly, when customers are satisfied with your user friendly apps, they will always stick to your services. This aids in building long term relationships with your clients.

Since the iPhone is providing a Software Development Kit (SDK) for developing the apps, more businesses are opting for them. Besides the SDK, iPhones also provide easy uploading system for the newly created apps. These benefits help businesses greatly to earn profit. They can either upload their apps to the Apple store or distribute them independently.

However, it is vital that the iPhone app developers deliver their best so that their apps get selected by Apple. While creating an application for iPhone keep in mind that it should exploit all the features found in smartphones like touchscreen, camera, excellent user interface and others. Needless to say, the developer company should ensure that the app has a positive impact on the user. Thus, a deft iPhone app developer will be able to translate the requirement of the customers into practical solutions. For this, a developer must study the SDK thoroughly, understand the application he is about to develop and identify the loopholes in the development.

Hence, iPhone application development can be easily handled when the fundamental approach is right. To save time and money there are several companies who outsource this work. In case you are outsourcing, ensure that the company you have chosen is perfect. It will be able to deliver you an effective solution adhering to the latest trends in technology.