To get started – define your goals

Before starting to develop an application, the owner of an Internet business should decide on the goals. It is important for business owners to answer themselves questions about what tasks the application will perform. This can be an increase in the average check, customer activation, an increase in loyalty, obtaining additional data (online and offline), a decrease in the number of abandoned carts, etc.

The next important step is to develop a strategy – how exactly you will achieve your goals, taking into account the target audience. You need to clearly understand what place the mobile product will take in your strategy and interact with the audience correctly, choosing the optimal communication format.

Well, it’s still better to contact the app development company to be sure of the final product. The choice of service must be approached with great responsibility, look at past work, read reviews, etc.

A mobile application is a component installed on a mobile device (phone, communicator, smartphone, etc.) for a specific mobile platform (Android, iOS, BlackBerry, HP webOS, Symbian OS, Bada from Samsung and Windows Mobile), connecting to a mobile server and manages the user interface and business logic of the device.

Typically, a component (application) is developed in a high-level language and compiled into the native code of a mobile platform (operating system), which gives maximum performance.

The very first mobile applications can be considered a list of contacts in the phone and a service for sending / receiving SMS. Now, due to the development of cellular communications and wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G, 4G), mobile applications have gone far ahead.

Advantages:

• no restrictions on SMS-mailings in terms of length, graphic and video information;
• ease of application promotion;
• the ability to collect additional data (location, language, etc.);
• endless possibilities for interactivity.

Disadvantages:

• lack of widespread use of phones that support mobile applications;
• the user opens the application only when he wants it, and not when, for example, an SMS arrives;
• not a very wide audience (mostly young people);
• relative complexity of promotion (special competencies are required to make the application popular).
• Applications may be pre-installed on the device during production, downloaded by the user using various software distribution platforms, or exist as web applications.

Distribution channels:

1. specialized portal – AppStore, Android Market;
2. via SMS from the portals of mobile operators;
3. independent search and downloading on the Internet.

Of course, the decision on whether to create an application or not should be carefully considered and weighed against all the pros and cons. Knowing the nuances described above, it will be easier for you to decide on the mobile strategy of your business and control the set of tools in the application if you decide to outsource this task to specialists.