How to develop a profitable mobile app in 2022

7 min readJun 28, 2020

This article was originally published on Addevice Mobile Development Blog. Read the full article here >

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Want to know how to develop a mobile that is worth your investment? This guide has been prepared for those ambitious minds who want to develop a mobile app and make a digital business flourish in 2022

How to develop a profitable mobile app in 2022

Develop a Mobile App that Solves a Problem

Market Research for a Mobile App Development
How to Develop the Mobile App that Adds Value
Plan your Strategy for Mobile Application Development

Find & Hire a Right Vendor to Develop a Mobile App
Create a Mobile App Prototype and UX/UI Design
Mobile App Development: Choose the right tech Stack Options
Launch Your App in the App Store
Start with App Promotion in Advance
Mobile App Metrics & Ongoing Project Support
Final Ideas to Develop a Mobile App

“Users are time-poor. They want speed and convenience, but they have limited storage on their smartphones. Your app must deliver real customer value at every step to encourage loyalty”. Gerry Hooper, Chief Executive, Zapper UK

To mention, statistically, 25% of new apps were used only once and then abandoned in 2019. This is sad news to hear. On the contrary, the market is huge and expected to reach 935B by 2023.

Characteristics of the great mobile application

For starters, let’s clarify what actually makes a good app. What are those aspects and metrics you should pay attention to the most? Definitely, a good app is the one that solves some pain points as well as provides flawless user experience and top performance.

Thus, take a quick glance at the next points that most of the top-performing digital products have in common. All of them:

provide a specific solution
does one thing but really, really well
deliver real value for its target user
are simple in their functioning
maintain high performance and security
have regular updates and bug-fixing
offer a personalized experience
some even provide offline functionality
many are offered for free, at least on the early stages

Develop an application which solves a problem

Many beginning entrepreneurs, including those who are creating mobile apps, underestimate the necessity of the research. They truly believe in their idea. However, without any feedback from the market, selection of the niche, and concrete app idea, this is similar to the bullet shot in the void.

The next three steps can be united into well-thought-out research that is necessary to complete to develop a mobile app that will bring you profit.

Market research for a mobile app development

Exclusion of market demand is the number one reason why startups fail, which makes up 42% of cases. Thus, the initial objective is to understand the need and fulfill it with your offering as well as choose the right market and target audience.

2. Develop an application which adds a value

For starters, concentrate on bringing the value, not money. Most of the app projects that have reached tremendous success were developed to solve an issue, which got traction from the audience, and only then the app received a million earnings.

3. Plan your strategy for mobile app development

Once you have defined the major problem your app will solve, the next thing to do is to summarize your digital business strategy.

Plan your app earnings

Also, it is necessary to define your monetization strategy. In the beginning, it is wise to offer your product for free, at least partly to gain the initial base of users. Then, you can decide how to earn revenue by selecting one or a few options.

Find and hire a right vendor to develop a mobile applications

The selection of the mobile app development agency is another important decision to make. It is possible to search for a local provider, outsource your mobile app development activities, or hire a freelancer.

Generally speaking, IT outsourcing is the most cost-efficient way to develop a mobile app since it has minimum risks of delivering a bad-quality app and it helps you save up to 50% of your budget. It is only necessary to find a reliable and capable vendor.

Creating a mobile app prototype and UI/UX design

The first real phase to develop a mobile app is the app prototyping or UX/UI design.

It should be simple, intuitive, and appealing to your target audience. The app design creation may also consist of the following sub-stages:

app prototype — represents a high-level form of the product, can have a few variants to conduct beta testings on the end-user and define the best one
app wireframes — defines the user experience that forms the app’s skeleton, maps out its functionality and includes a specific number of screens, position of elements, buttons, and defines the navigation through the app
app interface — represents the chosen stylistics, color patterns, visual elements of an app
branding — dedicates to the app logo creation and supplementary material like a brand book

The UX/UI design process may take a considerable amount of time, but this helps figure out the best app layout and navigation that showcases the solution provided by the app from the first use. The wise approach is to test the app’s usability and interface among the defined target audience. For instance, if the app is planned to be used among the older generation in clinics, its design (clickable prototype) should be examined for its clearness, user-friendliness, appearance by these users precisely.

Besides, a well-defined and created app design saves thousands of dollars during the development phase later on. The cost of a mistake is far less during this mobile app development phase.

Once the app UX/UI design is approved, the actual app coding phase starts. There are multiple ways to develop a mobile app including native or cross-platform approach.

Here we list the pros and cons of each of the named options:

Native app development

If utilizing this approach, an app is fully compliant with an operating system it is developed for (iOS or Android). This way apps are created for each OS separately and use corresponding programming languages (Objective-C or Swift for iOS, Java or Kotlin for Android).

Hybrid app development

If you decide to develop a hybrid app, it means that it has a cross-platform functioning and works across different operating systems. Basically, it is a website at its core with an app shield coverage on top. Many technologies are used to develop a hybrid app such as JavaScript, React, PhoneGap, Ionic, Flutter, Xamarin, etc.

More about Native & Hybrid app development
Our authors designed a detailed review about Native and Hybrid app development trends of the future. Read the article here >

To sum things up, it highly depends on the app concept and planned functionality what approach to use. In general, it is recommended to develop a mobile app natively since it grants more benefits. However, in some cases, hybrid app development could be a great way to proceed with, especially when testing your app idea.

Launch your app in the app store

The app launch is a big step into the real world and you need to make sure that every single detail is in accordance with your plan. Here is a checklist of the things you should pay your attention:

Evaluate whether an app has well-tested and is bug-free
Double-check the app security for good server protection and data storage
Check app compliance with the Apple Store and/or Google Play guidelines
Control if your app follows privacy policies, terms of use, and other market regulations (e.g. GDPR in case of the European market)

Start with app promotion in advance

The second you launch your app to the store, the moment your marketing efforts take the leading role. Along with creating a mobile app during a period of 3–6 months, it is necessary to plan and schedule its promotion. If you are not well-prepared, your app gets lost among hundreds of applications within the app store.

Mobile app metrics and ongoing project support

You have launched your app and market your app successfully. What’s next? It is vital to progress and advance with your mobile application. That’s why, it was so necessary to integrate analytics during mobile app development. Making updates, innovating with features, and personalizing the app experience will keep the user retention and increase app loyalty.

The Key Performance Indicators (KIPs) You should track

Mobile downloads & installations — a general indicator of the app’s popularity
Retention rate — one of the key metrics that shows the number of users that return to the app after the first use
Daily active users — showcase the number of app users daily; the same parameter can be checked on a monthly basis
Churn rate — opposite metric to retention that tracks how many users abandoned the app once used
Average revenue per user — measure the app earnings from each user
User lifetime value (LTV) — tracks the revenue per user including the future earnings
Cost per acquisition (CPA) — shows what is the cost to get one new app user

Final ideas to develop a mobile application

All in all, a successful app provides a single service, yet it is unique, well-designed, and has great performance.

To wrap things up here is a list of key ideas covered:

Identify your strengths and expertise to base your app idea
Evaluate the market and TA (models like SWOT, Porter’s 5 Forces, PEST can help)
Set your digital business direction and strategy clearly (utilize Business Model Canvas)
And more..

Thus, to create a mobile app that wins the hearts of the users, it is necessary to understand the issues they encounter each day and seamlessly solve them. Aside, the continuous app improvement and innovation will make users stay loyal to your digital product.