Developing a Mobile App for iOS and Android – What is the Real Cost?

In this digital world, the dependency on mobile technology has grown rapidly; therefore, you should consider having a customized mobile app for your business. A high-end mobile application can impact your business in a positive manner, delivering enormous benefits to your customers.

As per one study, more than 60% of online traffic came from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets in the year 2017 and last year 2018, that figure had reached 65%. So, you can imagine how quickly people are adopting smartphones and tablets. With the increasing popularity of the smartphone, the demand for mobile apps has been lead to high.

Last year, the mobile app industry has generated approximately $44.8 billion, and market analysts have estimated that the global mobile app market could hit $100 billion by 2020. So, if you have decided to adopt a mobile application for your business, you should first consider the development costs.

Reasons Why Your Business Need a Mobile App

Do you know that you are already ahead of 91% of everyone else if you have a mobile-responsive site for your business? However, adding a mobile application is like a cherry on the cake, it will boost your business worldwide. Below, you can find some of the reasons why your business needs a mobile application:

• Improves Customer Engagement

For making sure customer experience, convenience and ease of use are the most important qualities. Using mobile apps, your customers can get in touch with you and engage with you in real time that helps foster trust and stronger relationships.

• Enhances Accessibility

Talking about the today’s mobile market, it spends approximately 200 minutes in the application. Today, the mobile application has made it easy for them to access your business without needing to switch devices.

• Increase Brand Recognition

By having your brand situated on the interface of a smartphone or tablet, you can increase brand recognition, considering how much time people spend on their mobile devices. In addition to this, it has been predicted that there will be 268 billion app downloads in 2018 and 68% of consumers’ report using the apps they download.

• Boost Value Proposition

Make use of a mobile application so that you can give your customers discounts, support, and usable information for which they are looking.

Different Types of Mobile Applications to Consider

Today, businesses are opting for all those applications that suffice their needs. There are various types of applications that you can consider, depending on your type of business:

• Basic Functionality: It enhances the usability of mobile devices.
• Database-driven Functionality: It enables you to organize files and programs.
• Games: It comprising some of the most difficult processes in mobile app development.
• Improvement or Changes: It is designed to boost the specific functions of your mobile device.
• Fully Dynamic: It is data-driven; however, it is completely dependent on external information.
• Custom Utilities: Enables you to format content in a way.

Make sure that you have a complete idea of the type of an application you wanted to develop. It will be helpful for you in the process to move faster and lower the risks of making mistakes or redesigns.

Estimated Value of Developing a Mobile Application

Once you decided the type of application you want for your business and identified your targeted audience, it’s time to select your platform.

Mainly, there are two different platforms that you can consider in mind – Android and iOS. There is some difference between in developing an app for Android vs. iOS that you can find below:

• When it comes to talking about the iOS apps, they are affordable and can be developed easily.
• While android applications take two or three times longer to develop than iOS applications.
• iOS users prefer to spend money more freely and this is the main reason why developers launch iOS-only apps before developing for android. It gives them an instant idea of whether the app will be successful or not.

The choice of the platform depends on the market that you are targeting whereas iOS is more popular in the U.S. and Android is gradually gaining the popularity and it leads in Asia, Africa, and South America.

The cost ranges as below for Android Apps:

• High-tech applications – $75,000 to $150,000
• Complex Apps: $55,000 to $100,000
• Standard Apps: $45,000 to $55,000
• Elementary Apps: $25,000 to $35,000

Predicted Costs for iOS Applications are as follows:

• Simple and Table-based Apps – $1,000 to $4,000
• Database Apps – $8,000 to $50,000
• Games – $10,000 to $250,000

Below are some of the other costs that you should consider while developing your app:

• Web services: It takes the content to a remote access point, so you can update your app with XML files rather than changes to the raw code. It costs $1,000 to $5,000.
• In-app purchase capability: It enables users of the app to purchase new content or full versions of the application. It costs $1000 to $3000.
• Game Center: Apple’s way of integrating your app with SDK. It costs $1000.
• SDKs: It will you to track your app and search ways to monetize. Some of the best examples comprise Google Analytics, Tapjoy, and Chartboost.
• Share Capabilities: Enables content sharing through social media and email and it costs $500 to $1500.

Ultimately, a mobile application is the best way to help your business expand and grow more traction and better brand recognition. If you have a mobile app idea in your mind, you can get in touch with a leading mobile app development company and discuss your requirements.