The market of mobile applications is continuously growing, and during the last years, mobile apps have been becoming an integral part of everyday life. Almost everyone has a mobile phone that is filled with applications, which make our daily life more convenient. In order to succeed, it’s crucial to be in the trend of modern technologies. On the one hand, it could be tempting to dive into development, but another hand you might be confused and worried about how to start an app? What should be the first step? What does important to consider at the initial stages of mobile application development?

Our Appus Studio Team knows answers and have the list of some important steps, that help you to start an app development way.

 

Starting an app Step 1: Research competitors

 

Application development is part of a very competitive industry. Hence it’s crucial to investigate your competitors and highline what their applications offer, and what you are up against. Carefully analyze their applications and profiles in the Internet sources. Reviews and app complaints, that were made by the users, are the greatest index of how successful an app is. There are tools for analyzing competitors that help you make traffic comparison, analyze visitor behavior, referrals, keywords, search rankings, and provides an overview of similar sites, audience, and apps. The most famous you can find here:

 

 

Remember, that careful analysis of competitors is an important step in order to start an app development successfully.

 

Starting an app Step 2. Goals and features of the app

 

Starting your own app ask yourself, how and when your application be used? What will make your project unique and differentiate it from already excited? The main mistakes of the majority of people, who face the app development for the first time, are trying to make multifunctional application without focusing on the base feature. Focus on the main goal of the app and add secondary features, which will reveal and emphasize the main purpose of the application.

 

Starting an app Step 3. Start Sketching

 

We strongly recommend you to start an app with creating a sketch on your own. Take a pen with paper and illustrate how screens of your future app might look. It takes efforts, but believe it worths it. It definitely will help you put all your thoughts together and have a better vision of application functionality. Also, it is going to lay to the base of the app interface and helps developers have a more clear vision of the main features. Do not try to create this overly detailed, depict the main functions and buttons. 

 

Starting an app Step 4. Monetization

 

It's important to decide how your application will make a profit before starting your own app development. There are different ways to monetize your future application. Before determining the strategy of app monetization ask yourself several questions. Who is the target audience of app users? What should they pay for?  I would like to pay your attention to the most popular and commonly used monetization methods.

 

Monetization methods used by popular apps

 

Starting an app Step 5. Platform selection

 

Before starting your own app, you need to decide, which platform your application should support? Should it be the native or cross-platform application? It might be the confusive choice if you dive into the development process the first time.

Making a choice between native development and cross-platforms, think about application goals and functionality. We will describe to you the main differences that allow you to decide which platforms will suit your app better. Native applications development allows creating apps with complex functionality, includes unique UI elements and the possibility to work in the offline mode. If you are thinking to create a complex product such as a social application or an e-commerce app, chose native development and you will hit the nail on the head! Meanwhile, cross-platform applications are cheaper and the development process goes faster. If you are planning to create, for example, a content distribution application, cross-platform development must be the best choice.

According to the statistics made in 2017, android applications are used by 3.2 million people and 1.6 million users prefer iOS system. Cross-platform apps are used by about 450 000 mobile users. However, it is destined to become worthy opponents of native application due to significant increasing software development specialists in this field, the development and emergence of new technologies. If you don’t know which platform you should choose, your development partner might give you a piece of advice that helps you make the right decision. It will forward us to the next step.

 

Cross-platform apps, Androids apps and iOS apps

 

Starting an app Step 6. Searching for the right vendor

 

Do you prefer to hire a company or a freelancer? Recommendations and more detailed information about it you can find here. Choosing a supplier, pay attention to customer reviews and feedbacks. Thoroughly read the information, which is specified on the development company website, but make an accent on independence reliable and top-ranked Internet sources such as Сlutch or Goodfirms. Check some listings with featured vendors such as The Best Enterprise Software Development Companies Of 2019. Ask your developers to show you their portfolio and which benefits they can treat you. 

 

Starting an app Step 7. Ongoing Support?

 

Be sure to choose a partner that will remain committed from the first design drafts to the app store launch, and beyond. When the app is registered, your developers should handle the remaining technical process aspects and will upload the app to your iTunes or Google account. Chose vendor, who provides with the warranty on services, and make sure that it’s outlined in the services agreement.

 

Conclusions

 

Now you became much closer to creating your unique product and the question “How to start an app?” will not confuse you anymore. Note, that proper actions at the initial phases of the mobile app development are the key to successful project realization.


If you still have any questions regarding starting your own app, feel free to contact us and our specialists will be happy to consult you!