In the mobile app usage, we have noticed a huge surge with a global total of more than 100 billion app downloads in 2016, and it is expected that there will be 270 billion app downloads in 2017.

Today, mobile is considered as the new digital benchmark and modernizer for varied brands across the world. Corporations and small to mid-sized businesses are also incorporating mobile apps into their business strategy. Before you dive into a mobile app development project, you should ask yourself these important questions:

Five Essential Questions That You Should Ask Yourself Before Diving into Development:

Is My Application Provide a Solution to my Targeted Audience?

There are lots of businessmen, who think that simply developing an innovative application can help them in drawing the attention of customers and improve sales. But do you know it only happens when the application is giving a solution to the problem, which targets audience is facing?

If you have decided to develop an application for your business, you should ensure that your application provides a solution to users. If your application is not providing any solution, users will not use it and uninstall it after some time. Let’s have a look at one example of a good application, which provides solution:

Charmin’s SitOrSquat application is one such application that meets a need of their target audience by developing an application, which helps women search clean public restrooms. Like this application, you also need to think about your target audience, which needs the most in relation to your business. You can make use of that information so that you can go in the direction of your application.

What are my Competitors Doing?

We know that there are not lots of creative ideas anymore and unfortunately, you are bound to look for someone, who is doing something similar. It is completely right to study your competitor’s’ application, their marketing strategies, market presence, features of the app and what uniqueness they are doing.

By this, you can also find some of the mistakes that they have made and make yourself ready to face challenges and avoid such mistakes.

If you have decided to give your users something out-of-the-box to experience, it is important to comprehend the existing options that will help you to come up with a different option, which doesn’t exist in the market. By checking a similar flow of the app, you can give designers as well as developers a clear understanding what you are looking for.

Do I Need to Outsource or Not?

At the time of developing an application, in-house or outsourcing are important and it can result in a wonderful end-product. However, the strategic benefit of every single rest with the shades of a business and the special goals for a product.

If you are going with an in-house team, developing applications give great control and direction over a project. Augmented collaboration inescapably results from a team that working in closeness. Moreover, in-house mobile development teams are quite expensive than outsourced equivalent.

All those businesses that are outsourcing their project are getting in enormous benefits from economical resources, the luxury of retaining management focus, less overhead and more.

However, the outsourcing project certainly results in less control over the project compare to the in-house team. But do you know that biggest software like Skype and websites like Fab.com were outsourced in their early days?

Which Platform to Develop For?

When it comes to talking about the numbers and app purchases, iOS, and Android applications are leading the charge; however, several applications are considered as better off on BlackBerry or Windows depending on the target users.

So, this is the reason why you should choose the platform very carefully. If you have the enough budget, you can go with a cross-platform application; however, if you choose to develop with just one platform, you need to ensure that you target audience uses that platform. However, it is also essential to find out any needs, which exist for publishing on that platform.

Once, if you decided the platform that you are targeting your app towards, it would also make it simpler for you to prepare your marketing plan. Moreover, every single platform has its own features and benefits.

Do I Need to Make My App Available for Free?

Many of you all may think that charging money for your application is a no-brainer. However, charging for an application is not easy. If you are offering your application for free of cost, more and more people will download it. From there, you can offer your users in-app purchases to help them drive revenue. Applications that include in-app purchases makes more amount of revenue than paid.

Moreover, if your application is engaging and delivers numerous options that will surely entice your target audience, you will likely to see financial benefits from releasing it for free of cost. There is no need to spend huge time to convince people to download your app as you can provide a free app and let it speak to about you and your app. Your customers will happily pay for in-app purchases.

While talking about the paid apps, they upfront cost and result in lesser downloads. But if you are confident enough on your audience’s willingness to purchase if you are going to release a paid application.

Above mentioned are the essential questions that you need to ask yourself before you dive into a mobile application development project. Once you got answers of these questions, you should choose a trusted mobile app development company that comprehends your business and its requirements and develop a feature-rich mobile application.