CHAPTER 1
Let's get started by understanding the basics of the mobile application.
In this chapter, we will cover the basics of the mobile application.
This chapter will provide answers to questions like "What is a mobile application?" and you will get to know Why is the mobile app important for business?
You will get to know, "How does a mobile application work?" and "What are the advantages and disadvantages of mobile apps?"
If you are a business owner and want to know "How apps benefit businesses?" and "What are the types of mobile applications?" then this chapter is for you.
In the end, we will also discuss, "What is a mobile enterprise application platform?"
Mobile applications are the future of how businesses will work. Today most of the big players in the market are having mobile apps either on Play Store or on their website.
What is a mobile application?
A mobile application is a portable version of applications or software accessed on laptops or PCs with the help of internet connectivity. These mobile applications provide you with similar functions that you access on PCs.
Mobile Application Definition (Technical): A mobile application or mobile app is the term used to describe a software application that works on a mobile device.
Mobile applications take full advantage of the hardware and software of mobile devices. For instance, a gaming application can take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer.
Mobile applications are developed to help users perform the activities that they perform on desktops or laptops.
Generally, mobile apps are categorized into three categories:
- A native app is developed for any specific operating system like iOS or Android.
- Web App is the responsive version of websites that run on multi-platform (iOS & Android both).
- Hybrid App is developed by combining the aspects of both native applications and web applications.
Did you know that there are more than 2.2 million applications on the App Store, and 2.6 million applications are placed on the Play Store?
In the year 2020, mobile apps (iOS and Android) revenue is expected around $581 billion.
Image source - (Worldwide mobile app revenues from 2014 to 2023. Source: Statista)
Today, there are more than 3.8 billion smartphone users in the whole world, and each of them is using applications installed on their devices.
Image source - (Worldwide smartphone users from 2016-2021. Source: Statista)
After having a look at these statistics, you can quickly figure out how mobile applications are beneficial for business. Now let's discuss how mobile apps work.
How does a mobile application work?
Technically, a mobile application is a software that is designed to perform any particular task on mobile, either online or offline. But do you know how mobile apps work?
Mobile devices have limited hardware resources; thus, multiple tasks are avoided by an application.
To make it simple, mobile applications enable users to choose the particular activity that they can accomplish with their devices.
A basic mobile application is based on a software architecture that runs on a PC or laptop and gets carefully migrated to work on smartphones. But this technique will not be useful when the mobile application is more sophisticated or complex.
The working of a mobile application depends on its type and functions. For example, there are three types of mobile apps where the working process of one app is entirely different from web apps and hybrid apps.
The above image is the technical working of a mobile application. To understand the functional operation of a mobile app in detail, you can check this article of Codeproject.
After having an in-depth overview of the working of a basic mobile application, it's time to move forward to understand how different types of applications work and interact with the users.
Types of mobile applications and how they work.
Native App
A native app is specially designed for particular operating systems or platforms like iOS or Android. It is the reason that a native app can take full advantage of the device hardware and software.
These applications work with the operating system of mobile devices that enables the applications to perform more flexibly and quickly than alternative application types.
Native mobile applications synchronize the information directly from mobile devices to apps and vice-versa. It is the reason native applications are fast.
If the application needs to be published to users of different device types and OS, the developers create a separate native app version to accomplish the needs in a fast and effective manner.
Some of the examples of native applications are Mail, Contact, Store, Photos, Music, and many more. These apps are preinstalled on Android or iOS devices since a native application is designed to work with the device OS.
Native iOS and Android applications are mostly built on Swift and Java. These days, developers also use Xamarin to develop cross-platform native apps.
Web App
Web Application is the responsive version of a website that seamlessly runs on multi-platform (iOS & Android both).
These applications work by syncing the information from the webserver and database. This information or data is transferred with the help of the internet through the browser interface.
The working speed of a web app depends upon the speed of the internet because, in web applications, the information is synchronized from mobile devices to servers and vice-versa.
An organization can make a web application for any purpose. Generally, this includes online calculators, webmail, online stores, and more.
You don't need to download the web applications as these are easily accessed through a network. Web browsers like Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, etc. play a significant role in easy access to these types of applications.
The best thing is, you can develop a web application with a small team of developers since web applications have a short development cycle.
Another reason for the fast development of web applications is that these are built using HTML5, JavaScript CSS and other programming languages as per requirement.
Hybrid App
Hybrid App is made with the qualities of both native application and web application.
A hybrid app is a web application that is embedded in a native shell application.
The hybrid application works the same way as the web application. The only difference is, it can easily be accessed and downloaded natively on different platforms.
The hybrid app is made using Javascript, CSS, and HTML5, where the entire code runs inside the container.
Why is the mobile app important for business?
According to a survey in the United States, 68% of the population use smartphones. It means that people are now increasingly using post-PC products and services.
"Did you know that 81% of smartphone users search for services and products online out of which 26% search for that product using mobile apps".
After realizing the importance of mobile business, most of the large and small-medium companies have built their mobile applications.
Companies that have developed apps for their businesses are at leading positions in their sectors and taking their marketing strategy to the next level.
There are a lot of benefits to mobile applications for your business. We will discuss five significant benefits that will provide a better overview.
But before starting with the discussion, let get started with this infographics:
Now we will discuss all the 5 five benefits of mobile application development.
Better Visibility
On average, a smartphone owner spends at least 162 minutes on his mobile every day. This also includes the time he/she spent on scrolling through the application.
According to a fact of science, our brain continuously records every image, text, or any type of visual item we go through. This means that if a smartphone is having your application installed, it will increase your brand or product's visibility.
You can also send promotional offers to your customer on an app; this will keep your customers engaged.
Increases Customer Loyalty
When a smartphone user has applications installed on his device, businesses can connect with the customers directly through a mobile app.
This is one of the essential reasons for designing mobile apps, which provides customer loyalty.
In comparison with social media ads, banners and email marketing, in-app ads, and promotions have more significant impacts on your customer.
If a customer has a positive impact on your services or products, this will result in increased brand loyalty.
Better Brand Recognition
Mobile applications help create brand awareness among your customers.
The more you engage with customers on your mobile application, the more brand recognition you will receive. Consequently, customers will buy more products/services from you.
All you have to do is to create an app with features that are beautifully integrated and well-branded so that your app users will like it.
Direct platform for marketing
A mobile application provides functions like information about you and your products/services, booking forms, prices, user accounts, search features, feeds, and many more.
Mobile App provides to send your promotions and sales to your targeted customer only. You can also send them to push notifications that will provide even more direct communication with the reminders and promotions.
Increase in profit
When a customer is satisfied, it directly results in sales. An increase in customer satisfaction always results in more sales and profit.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of mobile apps?
Mobile applications have changed the way of doing business. Customers find it easy to get information about their favorite brand or product on their fingertips within seconds.
There are a lot of companies that are planning to create mobile apps. But not everyone is aware of the advantages and disadvantages of mobile apps. Some of them are also confused with the type of app that is the best for their business.
NMG Technologies decided to emphasize both advantages of mobile apps and disadvantages a variety of mobile applications that include: Native App, Web App, and Hybrid App.
Native App
Native app is a platform-specific app which is designed on platform-specific software. An android app is built on the Java platform, and an iOS app is built on Swift or Objective C.
With this infographic, you will understand the advantages and disadvantages of Native Application:
However, native applications are quick, smooth, have complete access to the device, and can work without the internet, but still, these become challenging to develop.
These challenges include the time-consuming development process and higher development costs. These make it hard for those businesses that have less spending plans and additional time.
Web Applications
A web app is designed for mobile devices. It uses web technologies and web browsers to perform the task.
Web Applications are built on HTML5 and Javascript.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Web Apps
A web application may not be able to perform tasks for every organization.
Hybrid Apps
The hybrid app is made up of the properties of both native applications and web applications. A hybrid app is a web application embedded in a native shell application.
The hybrid application works similar to a web application and effectively runs as a native application. These are available in downloadable formats. The hybrid app is built on JavaScript, CSS or HTML5. In a hybrid application, the code runs inside the container.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Hybrid Apps:
Considering the advantages and disadvantages of web applications, we can conclude that web applications are a preferable choice for small and medium businesses with low cost and less development time.
How apps benefit businesses?
What are entrepreneurs searching for every day? They are looking for solutions for the questions like "How would I improve proficiency, manufacture a dedicated client-base and get increased sales?"
In today's scenario, when most of the customers around the world are using smartphones, a mobile application is the solution to all the questions.
A mobile application is an approach to accommodate a variety of tasks. So, no matter whether you want to do your banking, access information, monitor your home, play games, communicate and interact with local businesses, you can do it all by only having the corresponding mobile app.
Top benefits of mobile apps for businesses looking for an increase in sales:
Geo-targeting and direct communication marketing
It is one of the significant benefits of mobile apps. Through this, marketers can directly send the promotions and sales deals to the targeted customers.
You can also send them push notifications with the reminders and promotions that will provide even more direct communication.
Direct communication helps in bringing important information like geographical locations, demographics, and customer's buying behavior related to your services and products. This helps you in making strategies according to the customer actions.
Increases brand recognition
Mobile applications help create brand awareness among the customers.
You'll see an increase in brand awareness when you engage with customers via mobile application. Consequently, customers will buy more products/services from you.
All you need to do is to create a feature-rich app that is beautifully composed and well-branded to cater to your business needs.
Increases customer loyalty
With mobile applications, businesses can incorporate various types of loyalty programs. Generally, the loyalty programs are designed to bring clients back by giving them some discounts or personal gift vouchers and also to make them aware of your recently launched product/service.
Prizes can be utilized in various manners, including levels of tier. It urges your clients to seek after different levels with additional perk to the one at the top.
In comparison with social media ads, banners, and email marketing, in-app ads, and promotions have more significant impacts on your customer, which results in increased customer loyalty.
Boost brand visibility and awareness
A smartphone user keeps scrolling through the device most of the time in a day. It will make your brand visible through your app, and this helps in increasing the sales and revenue.
Better customer engagement
Communication is critical in any business, whether it's business to customer or customer to business.
Every customer wants their complaint and concerns to be heard and solved in a short time. If you do so, it will result in better customer engagement and an increase in brand loyalty.
All these benefits of mobile apps will push you toward mobile application development. Make sure you choose the best mobile application idea that caters to your business objectives, requirements, and budget.
What are the types of mobile applications
There are three types of mobile applications:
Native App
A native app is a platform-specific app designed on platform-specific software. An Android app is built on the Java platform, and an iOS app is built on Swift or Objective C.
Web App
A web app is an application designed for mobile devices and uses web technologies and web browsers to perform tasks. Web applications are built on HTML5 and JavaScript.
Hybrid App
The hybrid app is made up of the properties of both native applications and web applications. A hybrid app is a web application embedded in a native shell application.
What is a mobile enterprise application platform?
MEAP (mobile enterprise application platforms) is a development suite that provides middleware and tools to design, test, install, and manage enterprise applications on mobile devices.
Mobile enterprise application platform works as both mobile development platform as well as mobile application management platform for enterprise mobility apps. It ultimately lets the app developers build applications for different platforms.
Rule of Three
According to Gartner, organizations consider the MEAP approach when they want :
- More than three mobile apps
- More than three OS (operating system) for mobile
- Integration with minimum three back-end data sources
Features of MEAP
There are two crucial MEAP:
- A back-end web service and mobile app development environment to deal with the mobile applications and link them to databases and enterprise apps.
- A centralized management segment, which empowers admin to control the client who can access an app and the databases. It also controls where the app can fetch information.
Now, as we have enough knowledge about mobile apps, so in the next chapter, we will discuss how mobile apps are made by using the proven process of Mobile App Development.
