Tag Archives: customers

Why Create Mobile Apps

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More and more companies are relying on the internet to engage customers and expand their businesses beyond just their physical locations and stores. Mobile apps are a great way to allow your customers to stay in touch, buy your products easily, and so on. This is why it’s so important for businesses (and even individuals) to consider mobile apps because not only are there millions of smart phones being used every day but people accessing the internet with their smart phones is quickly becoming more than those on desktop or laptop computers.

There are a number of different types of mobile apps:

Native apps the ones that are created for use on a specific platform. For example, If you would like your app to be used by iPhone users, you might be working in Objective-C, and your app would be sold in Apple’s App Store. Users of Android devices will not be able to use your app. Alternatively, if you are programming for Android users, you will be programming in Java – iPhone users cannot use apps designed and built for Android. The “native” name comes from the fact that the app is “native” to only one type of mobile operating system. This is generally the kind of app people picture when you say “mobile apps”.

Web apps are not apps as such, but websites intended to look and feel like apps. Web apps are usually written in HTML5 and run in the user’s mobile browser. To install a web app, users navigate to a specific URL, agree to “install” the app, and can then access the app using an icon located on the home screen. As web technologies improve, the line between a web app and a well-design mobile site becomes harder and harder to discern.

Hybrid apps, as the name suggests, are a mix of native and web apps. The specific mix of features varies – some hybrid apps rely more on web-based technologies, while others rely more on native features. Generally speaking, you’ll see hybrid apps built using web technologies (such as HTML5 and JavaScript) and then wrapped in a “container” of sorts that allows the app to access the device’s features the way a native app could.

After you have decided on the type of mobile app you’d like to create, it’s time to think about the platform, or platforms, that your app will work best on. The 2 main platforms are iPhone and Android. iPhone apps are very popular but Android apps are a close second. Of course, those aren’t the only 2 mobile phone OS’s as you also have Symbian, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Windows.

Because there are a few platforms out there, it’s vital you do your research to try and determine which platforms your customers use. The more prepared you are as far as demographics, platforms, app processes, etc. the better chance of creating a successful business app.

While mobile app development does require an startup investment, depending on how well you’ve done your research and made your app worthy of downloading on your customers’ phones, the initial investment can repay itself many times over for many years!

Using Mobile Apps To Improve Your Business

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When it comes to businesses using technology to target and facilitate more customers, it all begins (after the brick and mortar location) with the internet. First, there were websites. Then, optimized websites…although many businesses have yet to adopt mobile-friendly website designs. Now, there are apps. Mobile apps together with smart phones has created yet another unique opportunity for businesses to interact with customers literally at the click of a button.

Because so many people, from developers to businesses themselves, have seen the potential of mobile apps, the industry has exploded at a very fast pace. As a matter of fact, some folks have set out to learn how to develop apps themselves rather than simply hiring companies to do the work.

Apps can take on many forms, from the simple such as collecting email addresses to the more complicated such as booking a hotel room. You can create free apps that include advertising of either your own product or affiliate products. Conversely, you can create apps that directly communicate with your business so your customers can buy your product or service within seconds.

Mobile apps are still relatively new to most folks but businesses are quickly catching on to how effective and inexpensive they can be to create, compared to the pay off of customer satisfaction and acquisition.

Building Mobile Apps For Business

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Just ow much does it cost to develop an app? It’s important before you even begin to build a mobile app, or hire a company to build one, that you consider how it will benefit your end user or customer. It’s always best to consider designing an app that will make your customers’ lives better.

It can take a lot of time to develop a mobile app for your business. Also, costs can vary depending on how complicated your mobile app may be. You need to consider your budget but more importantly, consider how much your business app will help your customers. One of the beautiful aspects of mobile apps is they don’t rely on your website being mobile optimized. Of course, it’s highly recommended to have a responsive website but mobile apps can provide a quick way for your customers to engage your business.

Let’s take a food delivery company as an example. Instead of focusing on a mobile optimized website for the food delivery company (whether it’s your own company or one of your client’s) wouldn’t it make more sense to create a mobile app where once downloaded, your customers can click the icon on their mobile phone and immediately initiate a call to your business? Of course it would.

That is the power of mobile apps. They don’t have to be fancy, they don’t have to be complicated. But, they should help make your customer’s life easier while more efficiently engaging your customers with your business.