Why do some mobile apps hit while others fail? This issue did not generate so many concerns before now but the number of failed apps has exploded with the app developers being unable to figure out why their mobile apps failed. Although there is so much competition in the app development world, that can’t be the reason for the failure of so many mobile apps.
It can be demoralizing to mobile app developers that despite the amount of financial and non-financial resources dissipated into the development of some apps, these apps fail to yield the expected returns. The rate of mobile apps failure has led to the investigation of the likely causes of app failure. Some of the common causes have been outlined below.
Unsubstantiated assumption
Some developers assume that their app ideas are unique and outstanding and people will love it. Any thought that has not been proved is nothing but a mere assumption. A lot of developers do not go into proper feasibility study before getting straight to work. They don’t find out how much people need it. They don’t find out how many close substitutes the proposed app already has.
When they finally develop the app, it will be a failure from the beginning. Find out people’s opinions about your proposed app. Maybe this will wake you up to the harsh reality on the ground. Well, it is better to be stung by people’s opinion at the proposal stage than to spend days of hard work developing what won’t just work.
You need to be clear about your main objective of developing the app and work towards it. After conducting a thorough market research, now ask yourself if the result of the research shows that the app will be embraced. If not, you have to go back to the drawing board and come up with another idea. The most surefire way to start is to look for a need gap that can be bridged with a mobile app. Simply develop an app that will bridge the gap.
Wrong timing
Another major reason for the failure of apps is wrong timing. Some people actually did a market research and found out that the app will be a huge success but for some reasons, they could not develop and launch the app until about a year after. They forgot to consider the fact that technology advances at a breakneck speed. No market research report is 100 percent reliable after three months, let alone 1 year.
Maybe within the 1 year period, a lot of similar apps have been developed to fulfill the needs they wanted to fulfill with their app. The point here is clear. Every market research report should not be used after 3 months. Instead, another research should be conducted.
Lack of collaboration
Nobody knows it all. You can’t possibly be astonishing with every aspect of app development. It is better to synergize with someone else and share the proceeds. People that are great with coding are not usually half that good with design. So, why not seek the service of a very good designer. It can be disastrous to ruin hours of coding efforts with a terrible design. Thereafter, do not forget to give credit to whoever is due when it is due.
Poor marketing strategy
When developing an app, most developers have the following steps in mind:
Design and develop the app
Launch the app
Market the app
Attract regulars visitors
Get customers
Make a fortune
While a lot of developers succeeded, many more do not get beyond step 3. This is because they never realized that steps 4 and 5 are more important and more challenging than step 1. You need to come up with several strategies to continuously attract visitors. Apart from that, you also need to bear in mind that it is one thing to attract visitors, it is another to make them download your app.
These are the things app developers need to get right before developing their app. But most of them usually play down the importance of these two steps to the detriment of their app. It is very disturbing that a recent study revealed that only 0.01 percent of mobile apps have the chances of being financially successful. Could the mobile app world be saturated already?
Poor monetization strategy
Some apps are great but they have poor monetization strategy. They only get to make a fraction of their financial potentials. Take a game app, for instance, a game has to be very challenging, engaging and immersive to make players buy resources with their hard earned money. If not, they will only make do with the free resources given by the game.
Too many ads
Some developers prefer to make money from ads. And they sometimes succeed to that point. However, they fail to limit the number of ads they accept. When there are too many ads appearing on any app, it gets frustrating and annoying and users will begin to delete the app. That definitely marks the beginning of failure for the app.
No app optimization effort
With the number of apps that are being launched on a daily basis, a very effective app optimization technique is required to get seen in the crowd. It is no longer only a website that should be optimized. A lot of your target audience are not even aware of the existence of your mobile app. Without any app optimization effort, you are only winking in the dark and you expect a response. Remember there are over 2 million apps available right now and the figure keeps increasing by the day.
Consumption of large memory space
An ideal app should consume very little storage and memory spaces. Users do not like apps that consume a lot of spaces. So, if they even download such apps, they will delete them not too long after. In your own interest, you should ensure your app consumes as little space as possible.
Lack of simplicity of use
It is quite difficult to use some apps. There are too many apps for someone to take lectures on how to use any app. Your app should have a simple interface and should be very easy to use. Make it as intuitive as possible. A 10-year-old should be your target. Make it in such a way that a 10-year-old kid can navigate his way without any assistance.
This is why it is advisable to only include necessary features. If your app becomes congested with unnecessary features just to impress users, you will get opposite of what you intend to achieve – It will turn them off. While uniqueness is great, it should have a limit. Make use of universally accepted icons for some functions. For instance, if in your bid to create uniqueness, you use any other icon for search function apart from the popular magnifying glass, it will be counter-productive as it will make your app more difficult to use.
