Published on October 26th, 2017 | by James D. Burbank
0Why some Apps Make it while others don’t
The statistics for app developers are quite disheartening. Only a very small fraction of apps survive more than a few months and even less become a money-maker for the developers .Considering that so many people are launching apps, one would assume that people generally know what determines the success of an individual app. In reality, however, many app developers are still scratching their heads.
So, what are the factors that determine the chances of success for an app?
Early Traction
You would think that the most important thing for an app is that it serves a purpose and that it helps people with a certain problem that they have, even if that problem is something like being bored. As it turns out, the biggest indication of how well the app will do is the attention it gets early on. By far the biggest reason for apps failing is that they do not get noticed at the start and they just sort of fizzle out without users.
Early traction means that not only do you have people who use it early on, but you also have people talking about it and covering in it in different types of media and social channels. This kind of attention and user adoption will breed additional user adoption and you soon have an app that has its own user base which is the ultimate goal, really.
The Idea
While early traction really is the primary factor that will decide how successful an app is, the actual idea behind it also plays a massive role. The reason why this needs to be even mentioned is that it can sometimes be difficult to work out whether an idea is truly a good one, or just one that sounds good. This has to do with the fact that thousands upon thousands of apps are launched every day and the majority of ideas have already been done.
Evaluating your app idea often takes a lot of time and research, especially if you really want to be professional about it. If this is your first go and you are not that ambitious with your app, you can always do some opinion polling with your friends and social media followers. The important thing is to talk to people with whom you are not in contact every day.
Of course, if you discover that there are already a dozen well-known apps that do roughly the same thing your one does, your idea may be good but a bit too late.
The Performance
A good idea and a decent number of people downloading and running your app are crucial, there is no doubt about that. But if this idea has been put to action in a haphazard way and if your early users cannot get anything done on your app, it will fail nonetheless.
In other words, your app needs to work well.
The development of your app will depend on the people you have working on it, their expertise and experience, but also the time they have to get the job done. Rushed apps are almost always broken and it takes a lot of subsequent patching to get them to work even half-decently. In short, never rush app development.
Of course, you will also want to test your app and make sure it works before you put it in front of regular users. Services like Crowdsprint testing are envisioned to provide you with all the expert tester help without having to break the bank. In the end, a test run might actually make a difference between an app that makes it and the one that doesn’t.