Mobile Apps help bottom-line growth for businesses

While it is still correct to say and feel that the whole world is going mobile, it is perhaps more appropriate to understand the fact that the world is already addicted to it. The fascination of having all information at fingertips, on the move, is what makes the world so dearly cling to mobile and the world of mobile apps.

In most cases, our mobile devices are the first things we reach for when we need information. Whether we are waiting at a bus stop, waiting to pick our kids from school or soccer practice, at the grocery store in the queue or wherever we go, we are completely hooked to our mobiles devices. So appreciating the amount of time every one of us spends on the device, it becomes imperative for businesses to focus on delivering increasingly more and more information via this medium.

In this day and age, it’s more convenient and easy to own a mobile device that can connect you with anyone, anywhere and at any time. For some, mostly youngsters and senior executives with various firms (who you aspire to reach out to!), mobile devices are the most preferred medium to access the web.

According to a recent AC Nielsen study, 37% of all US mobile consumers now own smart phones with app-based, web-enabled operating systems and that average data consumption for smartphone users grew by 89% in the last 12 months. It is said that mobile will be the primary way people access Google in 2013. Mobile searches have increased 200% to-date in 2012. On YouTube: 25% of traffic and 40% of views on now come from mobile devices, a 300% increase in 2012. Total mobile traffic to YouTube may soon surpass 50%, as it has already in Korea. Mobile is another Internet channel, so not being a part of it, puts you noticeably absent from the commerce sphere.

The challenge for a lot of companies is that on average there are about 75 apps on people’s phones and they use about 11 of them. When a company is designing an app they need to figure out their business strategy -what will drive people to use the app and what will they do on it. Dunkin Donuts’ mobile app makes a lot of sense because they maintain both a brand and retail presence. However, a company like Kraft could design a mobile app, but would face a big challenge defining the app’s consumer need.

For many large enterprises and big consumer brands, launching a successful mobile app can directly impact growth. For others, “success” can be a bit more indirect. The advantages of having mobile apps for your business is speed, volume of information and advertising. Hence mobile app development will continue to grow, at a pace much faster than it has been. These mobile apps are fast becoming functional and popular among consumers, a Forrester Research report (FORR) predicted that by 2015, nearly half of all corporate-issued devices will be mobile.

A major player like Google, considers itself “mobile first”. Then every business large and small needs to examine what they are doing to thrive in a mobile world. When the web was first introduced, companies scrambled to launch a web application.

The rush to get into the game produced some very poor quality web sites and web tools. History is repeating itself as companies are rushing their mobile strategies and mobile executions. While forming a mobile strategy is critical for most businesses, businesses should take care to engage developers and testers that are focused on quality.

More and more of our interaction online, occurs on mobile devices. Over five billion mobile subscribers – about 77% of the world’s population – are online. We must understand the importance of Mobile apps usage which will take our business to greater heights.

Steve is a computer programmer and blogger with avid interest in Social Media. Love working at Mindfire. To know more about iPhone App development services at Mindfire, or to know what makes us Expert Mobile app developers, please visit Mindfire Solutions.