Cost of Developing a Fitness App

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A fitness app is a mobile, desktop, or web application that lets users track their health and fitness activities or workouts.

A fitness app meets your health and fitness activities. Fitness apps mainly consist of features for tracking workouts, monitoring physiological body rates, and logging exercises.

Fitness apps share one or more features with health and wellness apps. Some popular fitness apps include Fooducate, MyFitnessPal, Glo, Zones for Training, and Sworkit.

What’s the Typical Cost of Building a Fitness App?

The cost of a fitness app will vary depending on depth, scope, and target users. In addition, app development costs will vary from one app development partner to another.

However, although there are variations in the cost of fitness apps, most vendors or designers will charge an average of $15,000 to develop a solid fitness app. However, this cost is variable. A fitness app can range from as high as $30,000 to as low as $5,000.

In addition, an app with a limited number of features, also called a minimum viable product MVP, will be more affordable and easy to test than an app with extended functionality.

So, it’s advisable to weigh your options before settling for a fitness app.

Factors Affecting the Cost of a Fitness App

Many factors affect the cost of a fitness app. It’s crucial to understand the average hours and total costs (or individual costs) incurred in developing a fitness app to account for the total costs.

Building an efficient and fully scalable fitness app demands an end-to-end understanding of individual material costs as well as the hours of labor. Here are additional factors that will ultimately affect your fitness app development cost.

1. Platform choice

The platform where you’ll launch your app – whether Android or Ios is a defining factor in estimating the cost of your fitness app. Android and IOS are two leading platforms dominating the mobile app marketplace.

Creating an app for each version will take double the time and cost. That’s because you need specific programming languages for the web, mobile, and desktop computers. It’s advisable to choose cross-platform development solutions unless your project is large-scale or whether it targets specific Android and IOS users.

Fitness App Development Costs – Cross-Platform vs. Native
Platform Cross Platform Native
Development Hours Development Costs Development Hours Development Costs
Android + IOS + Web 600 – 800 $150,000 – $250,000 750 – 1000 $200,000 to $300,000 (and $20,000 extra for additional platforms).

 

2. Type of fitness app

You can also calculate the cost of your fitness app based on fitness category levels. Knowing the fitness app type you want to develop can substantially improve your expenditure throughout the project.

Here are some popular fitness app categories and their average costs.

Fitness app category Fitness app sub-category Average cost
Wearable apps Heart monitoring $15,000 – $50,000
Oxygen monitoring
Pulse monitoring
Fitness activity tracking apps Run tracking apps $30,000 – $125,000
Cycling tracking apps
Gym tracking apps
Workout and fitness apps Personal training apps $50,000 – $100,000
Exercise apps
Gym workout apps
Nutrition and diet apps Diet apps $15,000 – $90,000
Food intake app
Nutrition app
Yoga apps Mixed yoga apps $10,000 – $25,000
Yoga workouts
Yoga for beginners
Meditation apps For breathing $20,000 – $100,000
For sleep
For mindfulness

 

3. Location of the developer

Finally, the location of your fitness app developer will affect your app development costs. Developers from different regions tend to have different hourly rates.

Generally, countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia tend to charge on the higher end, while developers from India and Ukraine charge relatively lower.

Always work with trusted experts for the best possible solution for your fitness app.

Launching a New Product? 11 Reasons to Have a Mobile App

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The product life cycle stages provide a benchmark for understanding the product development process. The product life cycle stages include a market introduction, market growth, market maturity, and market decline.

The different stages of a product’s lifecycle pose discrete challenges. The commonly cited challenges with launching a new product include ideation, product roadmap problems, market viability, workflow management, product engineering issues, and the pace of innovation.

So, when launching a new product, you want to be careful not to miss out on any vital points that may affect its adoption. A mobile app is critical for launching a new product, be it software, hardware, consumer electronics, or merchandise.

Mobile apps allow brands and business leaders to actively connect and engage with their target audiences, building the base for future business. Mobile apps provide an interaction platform, connecting prospective customers (and markets) with brand owners.

So, here are eleven reasons to have a mobile app when launching a new product:

1. Customer loyalty

Enterprises operating in competitive market landscapes must go an extra mile to remain visible and competitively positioned. For brands starting in fresh markets, it’s important to think of something to stand out: a gem that distinguishes you from the rest.

Mobile apps can offer start-ups and brands leverage when launching a new product. For instance, apps can lead to repeat business and bolster referrals. In addition, apps can foster new product and service adoption, especially when users share promotions, new products, and new deals.

There’s no doubt that your brand can accurately forecast long-term business outcomes when it has a loyal customer base. So, aim for a well-designed and customized app for your target customers. When launching products, this app may make a difference between a successful product launch and a failure!

2. Improved communication

Mobile apps act as crucial avenues for marketing communication. With mobile apps, you don’t have to overburden your email support because you have an extra communication channel.

In essence, mobile apps can communicate to a wide range of stakeholders, internal and external. With tailored communication and strategic response forums, mobile apps provide the convenience and flexibility of responding on the go. So, regardless of whether you’re catching a flight or traveling by train, you can always follow up on crucial office proceedings with a mobile app.

3. Marketing outreach

Mobile apps are indisputably the best single source of marketing truth. With mobile apps, you don’t have to worry about reaching hundreds, maybe thousands of potential customers, brands, partners, and suppliers. You can do that at a go.

Mobile apps afford enterprises and brands the flexibility, convenience, and agility of connecting with markets and other brands. It’s through mobile apps that you can foster your marketing outreach. Today, most consumers are connected to digital mobile platforms, making mobile a frontier in marketing communications.

4. Online shopping

When launching a new product, brands specify authorized suppliers, including stores, malls, shops, and hypermarkets that stock these specific products. Unfortunately, traditional product launches relied on complex supply chain lines.

The unpredictability and uncertainty of global supply chains continue to impede successful product marketing and distribution. Mobile apps are bridging this gap by offering online shopping options. So, when launching a new product (or service), your mobile app can be utilized as a distribution frontier.

The digitization of supply chain downstream activities has made it easier for brands to connect with customers. Digitizing distribution, sourcing, and supply continue to close gaps between production and consumption, making production and manufacturing seamless and surprisingly rewarding.

5. Brand image

Mobile apps improve brand image by offering interactive and intuitive interfaces to display products. In addition, mobile apps encompass diverse audiences and outreach, enabling emerging brands to reach a diverse audience. Product launches that use mobile apps experience better brand images because of accessibility, outreach, and product scope.

6. Customer visibility

Mobile apps are critical tools for obtaining insightful and actionable feedback, including customer behavioral patterns. Evaluating customer feedback and use patterns is a primary part of launching a new product. However, few brands and enterprises can successfully collect, collate, and report customer behavior to improve product launches and adoption levels.

Mobile apps allow you to collect insightful metrics: customer use patterns, pricing options, user behavior, market adoption, and competition levels. With mobile apps, you can gather and record customer responses, and obtain nifty product usage metrics, including product defects, failures, and inefficiencies.

7. Employee loyalty

There’s no doubt that workplaces are evolving with new technologies – blockchain, virtualization, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics. The desire for employees to learn, adapt and evolve with time is propelled by new technologies that help organizations automate their workplaces.

Unfortunately, not all organizations are undertaking improvements in technology adoption. Published research shows that employees exposed to new, exciting technologies are more loyal and committed. In addition, the study shows that workplaces that adopt modern equipment, technology, and processes enjoy better employee loyalty.

8. Omnichannel shopping approach

Brands and enterprises are using the omnichannel shopping approach to give customers a seamless shopping experience across all their devices – smartphones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and smart TVs.

Omnichannel access lets customers shop remotely. This is because customers can access products on-the-go through smartphone devices. With omnichannel access, customers can shop for products online using their mobile phones. Mobile apps reinforce omnichannel shopping, helping customers access products without visiting stores.

9. Customer relationship management

The customer relationship management domain is forever changing. The emergence of technical support software and remote helpdesk support has changed the face of traditional CRM.

However, the most disruptive technology in the customer relationship management domain is the mobile app. The mobile app connects people, places, and platforms. Its interoperability with other channels, including digital social channels, volatility, and versatility make mobile apps critical for connecting customers with technical support teams.

So, when launching a new product, you must view an app as a strategic tool for managing your customer relationships. Brands and organizations are leveraging mobile apps to foster their approach to customer relations. Mobile apps help CRM personnel handle inquiries, process complaints, report issues, and provide timely resolutions.

10. Employee training

Human resources face the challenge of providing upgraded training and learning materials to employees, especially when introducing them to new products, technology, or markets.

However, you can eliminate these challenges by using e-learning apps that allow employees to learn about new products, new work models, and methodologies.

E-learning mobile apps like Udemy, Skill Pill, and BoostHQ ensure that employees have access to similar learning materials, regardless of where they’re. So, when launching a new product, a mobile app can streamline the process of educating your workforce on the ins and outs of the product.

11. Fostering employee commitment

The Technology Acceptance Model TAM terms usefulness and ease of use as the two most important factors for successful tech adoption. Your employees or customers will uptake your new product if it’s easy to use and functional or practical to them.

When launching a new product, foster your workforce’s commitment with a mobile app. By deploying a mobile app, you show your employees that you care about modernizing your workplace.

Improving your employee commitment will go a long way in accelerating the adoption and use of a new product. As a result, it’s advisable not to decouple employee engagement from the product initiation and adoption processes.

NS804 – Transforming Enterprises with Mobile Apps

NS804 provides custom-built mobile apps. NS804 designs and deploys functional, easy-to-use mobile apps that answer the trickiest question your business has to ask.

So, if you’re looking to create your first mobile app, don’t hesitate.

Contact NS804 for quotations and inquiries about your next project.

Transitioning to Apps? Tips for Training Employees

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The Technology Adoption Model TAM answers perhaps the trickiest question about tech adoption: why are employees reluctant to adopt technology or unwilling to partake in new technologies?

Based on documented research and empirical evidence, two factors propel people to adopt new technology: perceived usefulness and ease of use. People adopt technologies if they perceive them as handy and easy to use. Your employees are likely to adopt mobile apps if they perceive them as useful or easy-to-use.

So, when deploying a new technology that’s complex or sophisticated, you’ll find that your employees are somewhat reluctant to adapt or learn. While the ever-evolving and improving access to new technology, including mobile apps, is critical for businesses, it’s frustrating for employees.

The key is knowing how to train and equip your employees with the right skills. So, if you’re transitioning to mobile apps, here are some tips for training your employees.

Tips for training employees:

1. Trainers need to know the mobile apps themselves

A vital part of successful change management training is equipping trainers with the relevant skills, knowledge, and proficiency. Your employees cannot excel in mobile app training if the trainers are not competent in handling this transition.

So, in conducting an organizational-wide overhaul of mobile app training, ensure that your trainers are competent professionals proficient in high-end software and best-in-class hardware.

2. Make training a priority

A majority of organizations assume that by asking their employees to reserve time off and learn new software, the employees will automatically alter their schedule in favor of education or learning.

The truth is that employees will forgo learning in favor of their daily work. To succeed in a solid change management training plan, you must allocate the resources and time required for employees to learn.

Make learning a priority by ensuring that the training program is carefully packaged, well-designed and comprehensive in its reach and scope. In addition, offer incentives for the training by conducting tests and rewarding the winners. Incentives will encourage active learning and training.

3. Set realistic deadlines and roll-outs

It’s crucial to set clear and realistic deadlines on project deliverables. Ensure that your employees understand the training aims and goals and meet the underlying course objectives.

For instance, if you’re training them on mobile app security, ensure they can spell out mobile security measures and implement security practices around mobile app use.

Engaging your employees to gauge their understanding of mobile apps is crucial in evaluating the impact of the training. In addition, when rolling out a new mobile app, ask your employees to download it and interact with it days before launching it.

4. Improve learner engagement

Last but not least, improve your learner engagement. That will help your employees appreciate your mobile app transition. Your employees don’t want to be stuck for hours learning how to download, deploy, or manage mobile apps.

Instead, they’re interested in what the mobile app can do in real-time. So, request your employees under training to order product(s) from the app directly and schedule deliveries. You can use these deliveries as incentives to reinforce the learning and training. You can introduce creative and exciting ways to learn, including active demonstrations.

NS804 – Transforming Your Mobile App Experience

NS804 offers custom-built mobile apps for businesses of all sizes and sophistication. Inquire from NS804 the solutions and offers they provide if you’re embarking on your next mobile app design project.

NS804 guides clients, organizations, institutions, governments, and businesses on mobile app design and development. We help clients curate the best-of-breed apps for their establishments, regardless of purpose, sector, or size.

And if you’re transitioning to mobile apps, we advise that you equip your workforce with the relevant mobile app training and education. The forever-changing mobile landscape demands that employees remain proactive to new solutions.

Contact NS804 for inquiries and solutions on mobile app design and development.

Engagement and Apps: 5 Reasons Why You Need One

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The mobile app creation journey is a challenging but exciting exercise. Creating a successful mobile app needs talent: it needs you to examine and solve a market need. Successful mobile apps satisfy a specific need; they also have simplicity and customization. Social integration, superior performance, and security are other high-ranking features of a successful mobile app.

It’s important to ask ourselves what makes an app successful. What features, attributes or functions substantiate an app as successful? Well, to answer this question, we must first ask ourselves why apps are designed and why organizations invest thousands (if not millions) in app design, deployments, marketing, and maintenance.

The purpose of any app is customer engagement. All apps aim to connect the target audience to a specific brand, be it the app itself, an organization, a product, or a service – all apps aim at creating reputation and hype around a brand. So, the primary purpose of a mobile app is customer engagement.

So, if you’re one of those people who’re running a start-up, you know just how vital engagement can be, especially when starting. Having a customized mobile for your business helps you reignite touches with clients. A custom-built mobile app lets you access remote markets digitally, connect with customers on social platforms, and build trust with stakeholders.

Here are five reasons you need engagement and apps:

1. Customer visibility

You cannot access customers without mobile apps. That is why top boy retail outlets like Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and Target are utilizing mobile apps to keep up with new customer demands. With mobile apps, your business can access online customers, reignite touches with social media users, and ultimately strengthen its brand through new outreach.

2. Remote accessibility

Mobile apps can be accessed remotely with the help of an internet connection. Easy accessibility to your business merchandise, products, or services via an app is what makes mobile apps a prime highlight of the modern-age business landscape.

Imagine having a catalog of products or services that can be accessed remotely via a mobile phone or a tablet? Your customers, suppliers, employees, and partners can order or receive anything regardless of where they’re.

3. Innovation culture

Engagement apps can positively impact your company’s culture. Employees see it as modernizing the workplace and they will be readily willing to undertake new technologies in the future. The technology acceptance model TAM states that two factors drive people to adapt to new technology: ease of use and perceived usefulness.

So, by introducing engagement apps, you’re essentially setting your employees up for success as far as future technology adoption is concerned. You’re building a culture of innovation and adaptability.

4. Remote metric measurement

Today, most decisions are data-driven. Organizations are relying on readily available data to make marketing, procurement, and hiring decisions. Data runs strategic business functions: marketing, sales, research, operations, and human resources.

An engagement app allows you to collect, collate, analyze, and report critical metrics, including user patterns, product adoption trends, price changes, and customer feedback. Apps provide you access to actionable metrics that you can use to bolster business performance and productivity.

5. Streamlining communication

Mobile apps are robust platforms to support both internal and external communications. Mobile apps can offload the work done by internal email support, including giving feedback, sending guidelines, sharing projects, and clarifying issues.

Mobile apps provide an additional communication channel to organizations struggling with few communication layers. Start-ups especially can use mobile apps to bolster their communication with customers.

Mobile apps are evolving as robust and efficient customer relationship solutions, strengthening bonds between brands and their most valued customers.

NS804 – Leading Mobile App Solution Providers

NS804 is a leading provider of custom-built mobile apps. With years of experience designing, curating, and reviewing mobile apps for individuals and businesses, NS804 is a renowned and reputable service provider.

Contact NS804 to know how to get started with engagement and apps.

How Today’s Manufacturers Are Leveraging Mobile Apps

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The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 has transformed the otherwise legacy, archaic manufacturing environment. Today, mobile app development in manufacturing is making things easier, especially with the uptake of mobile technologies and faster internet infiltration rates.

The fact that consumers, markets, and supply chains are all connected using digital networks means that mobile apps will continue to be a priority in the manufacturing sector. Today, more than ever, the manufacturing sector is experiencing the benefits of mobile apps in driving productivity and optimization. In addition, mobile apps have reduced operating costs, improved efficiency, and enabled better field service.

Indeed, compared to other sectors, enterprise mobility is gradually becoming a top priority for manufacturing leaders. Regardless of the huge potential of Industry 4.0 to transform the traditional manufacturing set-up, few organizations are upscaling their efforts towards tech adoption.

Below we discuss how today’s manufacturing leaders are using mobile apps:

1. Integration with CRM software

Integrating your customer relationship management software with a mobile app helps you mobilize your interaction and communication with clients. This integration makes it possible to communicate with customers on the go. Communication is a major advantage since many manufacturing facilities and shop floors are large, and they require bikes and golf carts to navigate. Mobile apps promise new solutions and fresh capabilities in integrating with CRM software for streamlined communication.

2. Order fulfillment through real-time inventory

For time immemorial, manufacturers and shop floor workers have used hand-held devices to manage inventory. But today, tablet and smartphone technology let users, especially manufacturing leaders, use a single device to manage inventory, perform order fulfillment, send emails and attend virtual meetings.

The use of a single device for multiple tasks helps save on hardware and software costs. The real-time inventory and order fulfillment mobile app lets your procurement teams perform their tasks while automatically updating the database. In addition, it allows for order tracking capabilities and website updates.

3. Energy efficiency

One of the uses for low-code manufacturing is monitoring. In manufacturing, energy usage is a critical expenditure that affects time, resources, and throughput. Leveraging mobile apps is mostly used by manufacturers who are concerned with their energy consumption. These companies use these apps for the following purposes:

  • Monitoring regular energy consumption
  • Monitoring energy utilization
  • Plant, asset, and line analysis
  • Data collection and meter inspection

So, mobile apps are helping manufacturing leaders monitor their utilities.

4. Quality management

Industry 4.0 has ushered in exciting developments in manufacturing and beyond. For instance, low-code QMS apps manage quality in production floors. Low-code platforms and applications have unique flexibility. Low-code platforms help to incorporate tasks that are required to remain compliant with the changing laws.

In addition, QMS low-code applications can be integrated into content management systems. This integration helps track workflows and find documents for internal inspections and external audits. Thus, mobile apps are changing the face of manufacturing by helping manufacturing leaders track down their workflows and identify documentation for internal audits.

5. Production monitoring and management

Imagine you can program your manufacturing line or plant using a remotely located tablet or computer. With Industry 4.0, that’s possible. Manufacturing leaders must work with trusted partners to design automated workflows. New developments in machine metrics have shaped production shop floors, helping organizations leverage programmed instructions to control complex machine parts.

For instance, in computer numerical control CNC, programmed instructions run machine parts using the MTConnect language protocol. On the same note, mobile apps are being used to monitor manufacturing shop floors.

Indeed, if you’re meeting with a client to review and approve a manufacturing project, you can enter your product(s) specs and print-ready documentation and files on your device. Once you key in, the system beams the entered data to your IoT-enabled manufacturing equipment. By keying in this data, the manufacturing project can even be completed before you arrive at the manufacturing headquarters.

6. Real-time machine monitoring

Your manufacturing facility performance and productivity can be affected by a slight downtime. Therefore, your technicians must be quickly alerted when a piece of machinery or equipment goes down. In addition, mobile apps give you the ability to optimize the sensors you’ve installed as part of your IoT interface. By installing sensors and collecting insight and feedback using mobile apps, you can identify machines that require maintenance and repairs.

7. Increasing visibility

One way to increase the productivity of your shop floor workers is to obtain accurate information about their day-to-day activities. GPS technology enables manufacturing leaders to find employees and workers wherever they’re on the shop floor. Most importantly, you can ensure whether safety personnel are available in the manufacturing environment. The GPS technology further provides a detailed and accurate account of your inventory, enabling you to track product usage.

8. Equipment inspection

Ensuring that all your machines are inspected and checked is a sure-fire way of avoiding costly repairs and damages. It has become an issue that most manufacturers are investing in predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance essentially uses condition-monitoring tools and sensors to observe and report on the nature and structure of a piece of equipment during its operation. Equipment inspection is becoming a reality with advanced monitoring tools that provide real-time reporting.

9. Employee productivity

Mobile apps make it easier for manufacturing shop floor leaders to monitor employee behavior and make modifications as needed. By using an app, you can track all employee movements and behavior and evaluate whether the employee’s conduct conforms to the company’s policy. Managers have remote, real-time access to everything, which is beneficial for occupational safety during plant emergencies. These statistics provide insight into how much time was spent on a single task and how many jobs were closed.

10. Resource utilization

By using mobile apps, managers can see everything going in and around the plant. Manufacturers have real-time access to sitting and moving inventory. This means that they can evaluate resource utilization and therefore make informed ordering decisions. In addition, better insight improves resource utilization. Managers can reconcile product orders and supplies and resource consumption or utilization.

11. Decision-making

Mobile apps offer faster, real-time access to accurate and reliable data. Faster access to verified information means that decisions can be made faster to improve the overall manufacturing process. And because mobile apps are easy and faster to use, they can improve the decision-making process. It’s important to note that utilizing customized mobile apps for manufacturing requires an initial investment. However, you must look at the long-term return on investment. Mobile apps foster efficiency and productivity, leading to creativity, innovation, and faster turnovers.

12. Automation

Automation streamlines workflows, especially in contemporary manufacturing environments. Automation software provides time and cost savings, eliminating human errors and improving overall productivity. Automation is becoming a critical element of the modern supply chain. Indeed, manufacturers are using low-code technology to automate process workflows and improve overall productivity gains.

The growth of modern manufacturing platforms has been facilitated by the rise of IoT technology like smart devices and interconnected networks. This automatically means more data streams in contemporary workplaces courtesy of interconnected IoTs. And to effectively tap into this data, low-code is being used to channel data and automate workflows to a central data repository. The repository is an enterprise resource planning system to perform data analysis and obtain actionable insights.

NS808 – Propelling Manufacturing Towards Digital Transformation

Manufacturers are endorsing digital transformation. For instance, 80% of manufacturers said they were ready to invest in new technology to improve their productivity gains. In addition, 91% of manufacturing leaders believe that data from people and machines will reduce costs and improve decision-making. And finally, 20% of manufacturers don’t share data either internally or externally, creating siloed manufacturing floors. Manufacturers must optimize mobile apps to streamline workflows and improve efficiency and productivity.

Contact NS804 to leverage mobile apps on your manufacturing shop floor.

Mobile App Upgrade: 5 Signs That Your App Needs Improvements

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A mobile app upgrade may either excite or scare you. It may excite you if you’re eager to introduce new features and enhancements. And scare you if you’re anticipating many issues and roadblocks when upgrading your app.

Now, unless you’re not planning on sunsetting your app, it’s best to forego the fear and forge ahead with the upgrade process. And that’s because you want to keep your app relevant to retain existing users and attract new users.

1. A New Design Requires A Mobile App Upgrade

If you haven’t updated your mobile app in a while, it probably has an outdated user interface (UI). And that’s no good, as users may equate an outdated UI with a low-quality app. Furthermore, users accustomed to modern design conventions may have difficulty navigating your app in its current state. 

So you must have a proficient designer on your team or work with an established studio such as NS804 to refresh your app’s design. And then create an easy-to-navigate and modern UI that even non-tech savvy users can comprehend at a glance.

2. Performance Issues 

Most users won’t put up with a poor-performing app and will eventually uninstall it from their devices if performance issues persist. But how do you determine if your app’s performing poorly?

Firstly, you should be asking users for feedback and collecting and diagnosing your app’s crash logs. And secondly, you should be looking out for the following issues: app runs slower than intended, audio and screen glitches, device overheats when the app runs, memory leaks, ongoing crashes, and storage errors, to name a few.

3. The Codebase Is Outdated And Difficult To Maintain

You should move ahead with a mobile app upgrade if you have an outdated codebase. And the reason for this is that it’s a maintenance nightmare to keep code that’s old. Moreover, you may have difficulty scaling your app and introducing new features with an older codebase.

And then, you should also consider migrating to more modern programming languages. For example, an Android app programmed in Java can become more readable and quicker to type if rewritten in Kotlin, a modern counterpart of Java. The same applies to an iOS app if you plan to migrate from Objective-C to Swift.

4. Support For Additional Platforms And Devices

Perhaps your mobile app only supports Android smartphones and tablets. But recently, some users have requested that you target Android TVs and even the latest generation of flip phones. Furthermore, iOS users have heard of your app and have requested a port for their platform. Under such circumstances, it’s a good idea to move ahead with a mobile app upgrade that properly utilizes this wide range of form factors and screen sizes. 

5. Introduce New Features And Tighten Up Security

Every OS update of Android and iOS presents yet another opportunity to move ahead with a mobile app upgrade. And that’s because newer versions of Android and iOS boast new features and enhanced security. So, users will often upgrade to these versions, especially when they purchase newer devices.

Furthermore, users will expect your app to take advantage of the latest OS features and enhancements. And you’d definitely want to do that, especially if you have a premium or paid app and a user base that quickly migrates to the latest OS.

In Conclusion

It may be time to forge ahead with that all-important mobile app upgrade if you’ve noticed any of the five signs mentioned earlier. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you handle this challenging but incredibly rewarding part of a mobile app’s lifecycle.

5 Myths About Mobile Apps for Business, Debunked

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Mobile apps are marking a new frontier in the digital mobile revolution. The penetration of smartphone devices alongside internet infiltration extends limitless opportunities for mobile users.

Already, the mobile app uptake is on the rise accounting for over six billion mobile app users globally. Because of the rising popularity of mobile apps, organizations are gradually upscaling their uptake and streamlining their operations through mobile apps.

Below we debunk five myths surrounding mobile apps for business:

1. Mobile apps fall way cheaper than web

There’s a popular myth that mobile apps are cheaper to develop and maintain than web applications. This myth is because mobile phones are physically smaller devices and have less computing power than computers. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that mobile app development is as complex as software development. Indeed, software developers collaborate with many professionals – designers, analysts, programmers, and data architects – to develop mobile apps.

2. Cross-platform app conversion is faster and nominal

Most clients assume that converting an app from iOS to Android and vice versa is a simple process. Unfortunately, they fail to understand that cross-platform app conversion is a complex, time-consuming, and strenuous process involving code rewrites and re-programming. Cross-platform app conversion is not an automated process; the programmer has to code from scratch.

3. I don’t need an app

Most users presume that their phones contain all information and applications they need. Unfortunately, this is not true. Today, we live in a world that’s interconnected and where everything is digital. For instance, things like communication, shopping, social interactions, entertainment, news, and education are being conveyed via the web. That automatically means that users must adopt applications that support these diverse functions.

4. Apps crash or slow down your device

Software crashes are caused by many things, including bugs, hardware issues, and viruses. However, things like outdated codes, malicious attacks, and hardware failures can cause delays and crash your device. . Regardless of the cause, poor app performance isn’t always a result of a poorly-designed app. Sometimes, crashes and slowdowns can happen because you installed a malicious app. It’s advisable to be vigilant for malicious apps disguised as add-ons.

5. Mobile apps don’t need promotion

Individuals and organizations do the hard work of investing in a mobile app but fail to promote it. Like any other product – a shoe, an electronic, a commercial building, an entertainment hotspot, or a new brand – an app needs to be marketed and promoted vigorously.

Proper planning and promotion are a must-have because of the stiff competition. It’s not enough to invest in your app and post it on a platform like AppStore or PlayStore. It takes an intensive investment to promote your app to the relevant markets.

For instance, an app like TikTok leveraged digital marketing strategies and worked with brand activation agencies to promote itself. Influencer marketing and public campaigns like FightTheDarkness, GarBaithoIndia, and Chipotle: Boorito Challenge are some of the earlier promotion campaigns by TikTok. Your app also needs rigorous campaigns and promotion to reach the right audience.

You can contact NS804 for mobile app development and promotion solutions.

Ecommerce and Apps: Should You Consider It?

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A critical facet for any e-commerce business is a well-designed and optimized online store. Nevertheless, despite the emergence of mobile applications in modern-day digital retail, most retailers still wonder whether they need to adopt a mobile app to accompany their online stores.

Google published research showing that 56% of smartphone users were highly involved in online retail. According to Google, 58% of smartphone users check prices, monitor trends, view customer responses, and evaluate client feedback. Most smartphone users were also involved in product and review comparisons and even buying products.

Further statistics revealed that 66% of smartphone users made online purchases once a week. For most smartphone users, online purchases were made by phone as opposed to desktop devices. The prevalence of mobile apps is driven by the accelerated adoption of smartphone devices, alongside higher internet penetration rates.

Therefore, although retailers are wondering whether to uptake mobile apps to complement their digital retail efforts, it’s important to remember that users first view products on their smartphone devices before making purchases on desktop PCs. Most importantly, with the emergence of highly optimized apps, making online purchases via apps is becoming more streamlined, making mobile apps the go-to option in the e-commerce marketplace.

So, here are the top reasons you should consider e-commerce and mobile apps.

1. Loyal audiences

One of the greatest benefits of an app is the ability to build loyalty with the targeted audience. 67% of online buyers prefer apps offered by their brands and companies according to data by Adobe. These statistics clearly show the impact of digital platforms in reinforcing customer and brand relationships. But how do you encourage your targeted audience to download and install your app? Well, focus more on the user interface and user experience and offer better discounts and more attractive deals.

2. Faster buying process

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have longer queues that point to a slow check-out process. Traditional check-out processes in brick-and-mortar stores are responsible for higher customer service costs, delayed check-out processes, and may inhibit customer retention. Luckily, the emergence of mobile apps has simplified the purchase and check-out process. Ecommerce mobile apps come with a payment gateway functionality that allows app users to purchase products and services from authorized vendors. That ultimately facilitates a faster buying and a timely check-out process.

3. Product listing

Product listing is a critical aspect of any e-commerce process. A product listing is what the customer sees when they search for a product online. For sellers, product categorization is one of the greatest benefits of e-commerce. Sellers can use categories to streamline the ordering and purchase process, allowing fewer errors in procurement and supply chain processes. One advantage of e-commerce is that customers can add products, product categories, product descriptions, images, pricing, and delivery date. Product categorization allows vendors to inform customers more about the product, allowing buyers to know what retailers have.

Product listing best practices:

The following are the tips and tricks of product listing and categorization:

  • Maintain image dimensions
  • Use a high-quality image resolution
  • Provide multiple viewing angles for your products
  • Use lipsticks when displaying or showing multiple product views
  • Consider UX-design and UI-design that facilitate a 360-degree product view.

Customizing your product listings makes them appealing and attractive, enhancing your chances of online retail success.

4. Improved marketing communication

Marketing is principally about communicating and educating prospective clients. Marketing outreach targets educating users and prospective customers about the benefits and drawbacks of products or services, including the drawbacks of competitor products. Mobile apps and eCommerce platforms act as central communication platforms, providing insight and knowledge to customer and client groups.

An e-commerce mobile application provides a communication channel for different stakeholders, including clients, prospective customers, and brands. This communication acts as an avenue for brand positioning and marketing excellence. So, complementing a mobile app with an intuitive online store helps deliver superior marking and outreach.

5. Efficiency

The intuitiveness, user-friendliness, and accessibility of mobile apps render them ideal for many customers. Today, online shoppers are leveraging mobile apps to streamline their purchase and procurement processes. And even though you might incur a substantial sum developing a solid app, be assured that it will generate incomparable value within a short period. A well-designed app with superior functionality has unmatched potential for long-term value. Apps’ overall functionality delivers superior performance, enabling businesses to be more agile and efficient in their routine business processes.

6. Reduced response time

Vendors and customers want a rapid, time-to-value service. A mobile app is smooth and streamlines the purchase process, saving time and money in routine check-out processes. The response time for mobile apps is considerably less than for web platforms or websites that retrieve data quickly. So, e-commerce stores with mobile apps are well-positioned to serve customers faster than online stores without complementary apps.

7. Personalization

E-commerce platforms and mobile apps have many opportunities for personalization. That’s because retailers can understand and use customer shopping patterns to build more personalized retail experiences. If personalization is well-planned and combined with push notifications, it can deliver superior marketing campaigns that touch the hearts of shoppers. E-commerce platforms and mobile apps provide retailers with countless opportunities for shoppers to connect with brands. Customer connection is reinforced through a solid personalization approach, providing retailers with fresh opportunities to revamp their revenues.

8. Multiple payment options

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution has transformed the online shopping experience. The emergence of IoT, artificial intelligence, data analytics, big data, and blockchain has helped transform the digital marketplace. Nowadays, with digitally secured cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, Binance, or XRP coin, you can access limitless retailers. Cryptocurrency provides shoppers with numerous payment getaways, streamlining the online shopping experiences for millions, if not billions of online customers.

9. Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is an evolving field of marketing. Customer relationship management is concerned primarily with building lasting relationships with customers by understanding their changing needs and responding accordingly to these shifting priorities. Long ago, brands and organizations approached customer relationship management by obtaining written feedback and evaluating based on demand shifts.

However, nowadays, mobile apps have overhauled the entire CRM practice, with advances in chatbots and online communication portals that collect information and feedback at-a-go. E-commerce platforms first ushered in a new, innovative way for customers and brands to interact and share problems. Mobile apps reinforce this relationship, allowing brands to mine insightful, statistical shopping trends. Consumer insight drives better customer relationships, especially regarding customer inquiries, refunds, and payment errors.

10. Competitive positioning

The Covid-19 pandemic signaled the start of a new dawn. The announcement of the Covid-19 outbreak was accompanied by stringent social distancing measures, an effort to prevent the spread of a global virus. Unfortunately, new social distancing measures discouraged conventional physical meet-ups as shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and public transport systems set measures to curtail physical contact.

These developments affected traditional shopping avenues and disrupted the office workplace. Businesses suffered blows due to shrinking purchases, and supply chains sustained bruises due to the collapse of the global market. Luckily, mobile apps defied the anecdotal narrative of an economic decline and beat the odds to become an alternative solution for retailers. Adopting mobile apps and e-commerce solutions provides a competitive advantage, allowing enterprises to respond to changing customer preferences.

Reach Us Today!

Therefore, as enterprises wade off this pandemic, it’s only wise to adopt with time by accelerating app adoption. For enterprises recovering from the pandemic, mobile apps offer an innovative way to ignite touches with prospective customers. There’s no doubt that mobile apps give a competitive positioning to enterprises adjusting to the post-covid digital marketplace.

Contact NS804 to optimize mobile apps and e-commerce solutions.

How To Grow Brand Awareness with An App

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Business leaders often want to find effective ways to increase brand awareness. You’re likely one of those business leaders looking at how technology can positively impact your brand. And since we live in an era with so many options, technology-wise, it may seem incredibly daunting to make the right choice. 

Now, you may be wondering if apps can help grow brand awareness. And the short answer is a resounding yes, especially if you’re thinking of mobile apps instead of desktop or web apps. However, haphazardly releasing a mobile app for your brand will likely yield negative results. Instead, it’s best to follow these handy tips to make your app development endeavors worthwhile.

1. Increase Brand Awareness With A Quality Native App

Sadly, the mobile app stores have too many cheaply done, low-effort, and redundant apps. Users will often download apps that pique their interests, try them out, and eventually delete them. And what’s worse, most of these apps won’t get downloaded again in the future.

Obviously, as someone that wants to grow brand awareness, you don’t want such an outcome. So, how do you go about developing a mobile app that will do your brand justice?

Start by creating a native app that will run smoothly on Android and iOS. And while it costs more to develop a native app versus a hybrid app, your users will appreciate the better performance your app will deliver. Another benefit of releasing a native app is it will have a native UI that corresponds with the target platform’s guidelines and specifications.

2. Focus On UI Design And Usability

Your app must have an attractive and easy-to-navigate UI, as you want it to appeal to users while not frustrating them. After all, an ugly and unintuitive UI makes it harder for users to navigate the app. And this is usually a tell-tale sign of a low-quality app, which will reflect poorly on your brand.

Then, ensure that the design language of your app is on-brand. So use color schemes, graphic design, images, fonts, logos, and patterns associated with your brand for your UI. Ultimately, you want users already familiar with your brand to ‘feel right at home’ once they run your app.

Also, you want users to quickly associate your app with your brand by having a cohesive design language. The cohesion must be so strong that when you release other apps, users will instantly make the connection by simply looking at a screenshot of your app on social media or in the app store.

3. Grow Brand Awareness And Increase Retention With Push Notifications

Push notifications are a powerful tool that every savvy brand should utilize. Users love having announcements and content delivered that’s tailor-made for them.

For example, you’ve created a food delivery app meant to serve customers of your pizza brand. But to engage these customers, you offer them discounts on pizzas they’ve bought before based on their prior purchase history. And to keep them hooked, you provide them with pizza eating and making tips and run contests at a regular cadence. 

The beauty of push notifications is that they’re relatively easy, cheap, and quick to set up. And if users know that they’ll be receiving discounts and handy tips via upcoming push notifications, they’re more likely to engage with your app and keep it installed on their smartphones.

In Conclusion

Increasing brand awareness can and should go hand-in-hand with creating quality native apps, implementing UI design with usability in mind, and using push notifications. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you develop phenomenal apps that will help grow your brand!

The 5 Features a Business Needs in App

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All businesses will need apps in the near future, whether you’re a fast-food vendor or a fast fashion store. Small businesses are already using apps to communicate to customers. Big boy brands are leveraging mobile apps for brand positioning purposes.

So, mobile apps are adopted differently by businesses depending on the scope and the size of their business operations.

The adoption of mobile phones alongside high internet penetration rates dictates new developments in smartphone usage. Already, mobile apps are ushering new frontiers in web experiences by offering chatting, browsing, and payment services.

Mobile apps are transforming legacy communication patterns by providing digital avenues for communication. A classic example is the chat apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, Line, Skype, and WeChat.

Research shows that mobile applications could generate up to $930 billion in revenues in 2023 alone. Already, shocking estimates show the power of mobile apps, reinforcing the talk of why it’s critical to get started with mobile apps. For instance, users spent over 3 trillion hours on mobile apps in 2021 alone.

The ever-changing face of mobile applications and the desirability of mobile apps to young demographics make it a target for tech-savvy enterprises. Most importantly, young developers are embracing application programming as a new frontier of mobile usability.

While apps are crucial in transforming legacy enterprises and shaping customer experiences, it’s critical to identify particular features that make apps desirable.

Important features a business needs in an app:

1. Usability

Usability is a critical consideration in any app development exercise. That means that developers must approach any mobile app development process with usability in mind. The app must be creative, simple, and easy to navigate. Most importantly, the app must focus on robustness and intuitiveness by incorporating the things people see in apps.

2. User-friendliness

Always aim for a user-friendly app design that’s simple to navigate and highly responsive. Navigation and responsiveness are the cornerstones of any successful app design work. Therefore, ensure that your business app is user-friendly and responds well to the evolving user needs.

Some tricks to make your app user-friendly include:

  • Focus on your target audience
  • Offer superior design
  • Prioritize user security
  • Optimize graphic and font size
  • Make wise use of push notification
  • Aim for intuitiveness

A user-friendly app is highly adopted and has higher retention rates.

3. Chat and call-back

Your business app must incorporate chat and call-back options. Business communication is forever changing, making mobile apps the go-to platform for business communications. Alongside emails, chatbots, and web portals, mobile apps offer a unique avenue for users, mostly clientele groups, to communicate and interact with brands.

4. Intuitive user interface

All apps must incorporate an intuitive interface, and proprietary, discretionary privacy. Users must own their information and privacy for apps to make meaningful sense to prospective users. The fact that enterprises are accelerating their app adoption efforts means that enterprises must find new ways to retain customers. One of these ways is by offering discretionary privacy solutions, including the possibility for privacy notifications in mobile apps.

5. Payment gateway

Payment gateway integration is a no-brainer for any business app. As a business owner, you are involved in the “money” business. That means that your services and products are sold or leased out to customers, making payment gateway integration altogether important. Therefore, a payment gateway is a critical feature of your business app.

NS804 – Aiming for Excellence!

Other vital tips for business apps include:

  • User experience is your ultimate objective
  • Always aim to deliver a superior typography
  • Aim for smooth edges, soft app elements, and creative color
  • The logo is the centerpiece of your brand positioning. Keep it first.
  • Remember to keep users updated. Users must not feel lost.
  • Be accommodative in scope. Let your app encompass many features and functionalities.
  • Aim for an interactive design. You can do this by testing, fixing, and testing once again.

At NS804, we guide businesses in mobile app development.

Contact NS804 to get started on your business app development journey.