The increasing presence of smartphones and the rapid popularity of mobile applications that cater to consumers and businesses has meant that today there is a mobile app for virtually everything.
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Does this mean that your enterprise needs to be developing its own mobile app? (Nobody wants to get left out.)
Before architecting mobile solutions for your enterprise, you need to evaluate what exactly you aim to achieve and what existing tools and technologies can be used at the most effective ROI.
Here are a few points to consider when it comes to deciding on a mobile solution for your enterprise:
Mobile app vs. mobile site: For some businesses, a mobile version of the company’s website might be sufficient to meet the needs of its customers. If a mobile version does not exist, then that should get priority over the mobile app. The mobile version should also be optimized for different mobile browsers.
Why is it so important to have a mobile version of your website?
The fact is that there are many mobile apps competing for space and processor capacity on your consumer’s smartphone. The average consumer or business associate is more likely to first check out your website’s mobile version.
Cost analysis of developing a mobile app vs. a mobile site
A mobile site is more of a spinoff of an existing desktop website. But developing a mobile app is going to be more expensive since it requires creating an application that is going to run on a completely different operating system. The device fragmentation of the mobile market means increased costs for multiple versions of the same app.
This means that if you are on a limited budget, you will need to choose between iPhone and Android (Windows and Blackberry are pretty much out of the picture when it comes to choosing just one platform).
This requires knowledge of your industry’s mobile usage habits. You need to know which mobile platform has the most widespread acceptance and penetration rate in your industry. For instance, for many years, Blackberry was the mobile of choice for lawyers. It was the standard issue mobile from law firms to their lawyers. But today, many law firms are switching over to iPhone.
Understanding differences between mobile apps and a mobile friendly website
Creating a mobile version of your website is cheaper, but the reason that many enterprises still create their mobile apps is because they do have their own strengths.
Mobile apps are “native applications”. They are installed and accessible without an Internet connection and can access other applications and hardware installed on the mobile. This allows them to be much more interactive and user-friendly in several ways that cannot be matched by a mobile website.
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Which pay model, if any, are you going to adopt for the mobile app?
A quick competitor analysis will show you what most other businesses in your industry are doing with their mobile apps when it comes to pricing.
The next step is to factor in your own business needs, based upon which you can decide between the three pricing options – free, paid or have a freemium model (basic features are provided free of cost and advanced features require a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription).
Contact us today and talk to our experts who can help you decide which mobile solution is right for your enterprise.
