Is it difficult to create an app?

With over 2.7 billion smartphone users worldwide, it's no surprise that the mobile app industry is booming. Let's look at the download and use statistics of mobile applications. We will realize that the amount of application usage and penetration of smartphones is still growing rapidly, and there is no sign of this growth slowing down in the foreseeable future. There are now 1.35 billion tablet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past six years. If you look away from your mobile for a second during the day, you will notice that everyone has a mobile phone or a tablet in their hands and is looking at its screen. Studies show that Americans check their phones every 12 minutes. And also, 10% of people check their mobile phones every four minutes.

We use our mobile phones at work, at home, on the street, while eating, in bed, and even in our cars. You may be reading this article on your mobile right now.

What is everyone doing on their phone? Well, 90% of mobile time is spent on apps. This is encouraging news for mobile application developers or application owners. But to be successful in this space, two things must happen.

1. Users must download your app.

2. Users must use your app.

If you want to compete and get your share of this multi-billion dollar industry, you need to understand how people download and use mobile apps.

Key mobile application statistics

-  Mobile applications are expected to earn $189 billion by 2020.

- There are 2.2 million apps available for download in the Apple Store.

- There are 2.8 million apps to download in Google Play Store.

- 21% of every thousand applications open 50+ times a day.

- 49% of people open apps 11+ times every day.

- 57% of the total use of digital media is done using mobile applications.

- On average, mobile phone owners use 30 applications every month.

The usage of mobile applications

The average mobile user spends 2 hours and 15 minutes daily using apps. Research shows that, on average, between 60 and 90 apps are installed on mobile phones. Most of the mobile time is spent using three applications. Even though the statistics show that a person's average app number is 25 apps per month, 96% of that time is split between just ten apps. If a person has an average of 60-90 apps on their phone, more than two-thirds of them are not used monthly. 75% of apps are used once after downloading and never get used again.

Keeping the mobile application and not using it

71% of app users give up within the first 90 days of downloading an app. What does this mean for you and your program? Essentially, you should find the reasons. Give users a reason to come back and use your app. You will never have 100% usage, so you should always find ways to get new downloads. But that doesn't mean you should ignore existing users. If your app doesn't perform well and has bugs or UX flaws, people are likely to delete the app. No app is perfect; even the best apps have bugs now and will in the future. But it is up to you to detect these bugs. To improve performance and user experience, fix these bugs with updates and new app versions.

Basic applications

Just because apps are available doesn't mean they're used. In fact, just because you download them doesn't mean you can use them. Now I want to show you the app users say they can't live without. All the top apps are used for different purposes and can be used daily.

- Amazon app for shopping

- Gmail application for email communication

-  Facebook app for Facebook social network

- YouTube app for video content

- Maps application for navigation

Cost statistics of Apple and Android users

As we know, there are differences in download and usage between Apple and Android devices. In 2017, 85% of global mobile sales were for Android devices. Apple accounted for only 14% of these sales. However, Apple users still spend more money even with the lower market share. While your app should appeal to all users, you'll have a better chance of iOS users buying paid versions of your app or making in-app purchases.

The amount of mobile application usage based on age

Technology usage varies by generation. Using the mobile app is no exception to this rule. You probably assumed that younger generations spend more time using mobile apps than older people. If so, this assumption was correct. However, that doesn't mean you can't target other age groups. People between the ages of 45 and 54 spend two hours daily using mobile applications. That's just 36 minutes less than people in the 25-34 age range. Even users over 65 use mobile applications for 1 hour and 36 minutes daily.

How hard is it to develop an app?

The application is one of the most important and widely used programs today. With the expansion of the use of smartphones and the introduction of Android and IOS operating systems, the production of applications became popular. These programs were initially made for games and entertainment, but over time, programmers and designers thought of more practical use and started designing mobile applications for various purposes.

- Android application

An Android application is a software program that runs on the Android operating system. Because the Android platform is built for mobile devices, a typical Android app is designed for a smartphone or tablet that runs the Android operating system.

An Android application is available to people in different ways. Some of these programs are made available through developers and published on their websites. But most Android apps are uploaded and published in Android markets. Android Market is an online store dedicated to these applications, where both free and paid applications are published for users.

- Types of Android applications

There are different types of Android applications, and their programming methods are different from each other. One of the most important factors that affect the cost of mobile application design is the type of application and how to program it. In the following, we will categorize the types of applications and the cost of each.

- Native applications

Such applications are developed exclusively for a single mobile operating system, so they are "native" to a particular operating system or device. The application made for systems such as iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, and Blackberry cannot be used in another operating system instead of its operating system. In other words, you can't use an app made for Android on an iPhone.

The main advantage of native applications is high performance and ensuring a good user experience. There is also access to a wide range of APIs that do not limit the use of the program. One of the disadvantages of these native applications compared to other applications is their very high application design cost. The type of design and coding of these programs is very professional and high level.

- Combined or hybrid programs

These applications are built using cross-platform web technologies such as HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. So-called hybrid applications are mainly web applications packaged in a native package. These applications are relatively quick and easy to build and can be implemented on different operating systems and platforms. The popularity of these applications is less than the native type, and less cost is required for their design and production. These applications are web type, but they use native type features to access mobile phone hardware features such as camera, calendar, etc. On the other hand, hybrid programs have a lower level of performance, speed, and overall optimization compared to native programs. The cost of designing a hybrid application is lower than native models but higher than web applications.

- Web applications

Web applications are software programs that behave similarly to native applications. Web applications use a browser to run and are usually written in HTML5, JavaScript, or CSS. Installing these programs is done simply through the browser.

Usually, web applications require low memory capacity. Since all personal databases are stored on the same server, users can access them from any device with an Internet connection. For this reason, using web applications with a poor connection will lead to a bad experience for the user. The drawback of these types of applications is that there is no access to many APIs for developers. The cost of designing and developing these applications is very low, but their performance is also very low compared to the other two examples. These types of applications have very low popularity and are rarely used.