How to define app development roadmap: a comprehensive guide for starting cutting edge mobile app development

Several startups and SMEs are struggling with mobile app development roadmap due to a significant lack of expertise in software development sectors.

The rapid development in the digitalization process forces businesses to speed up the mobile application implementation plan since smartphones have surpassed computers to be the most popular devices. Indeed, having a custom mobile app, your business will get an absolute advantage in the market with the possibility to access billions of mobile users worldwide.

Undoubtedly, different mobile development roadmap comes up with a different approach that business owners and software development company should consider before officially create an app. This article will tell you what corners you should focus on

Challenges of the mobile app roadmap implementation plan

Everyone knows the advantages of having a custom mobile app. But the technology gap creates challenges for those who do not have expertise in the IT sector. Therein, they will underestimate the difficulty throughout the development process that the obscured future might steal your money. 

Related article: 8 common pitfalls when building a mobile app

1. Wrong in calculating a proper budget: obviously, with a lack of information regarding how much IT product worth, you might get struggling with deciding the investment amount to outsource mobile app development. Instead, mobile app development is definitely not a short-term project that you can save money and effort. Mass benefits come at a high cost. You would not only need a budget to build the app but to promote it after launching. So, be careful in deciding your budget limit.
2. Shorten the development phase: For those apps serving immediate needs in the market, almost owners are looking for cutting development time. For example, when COVID-19 forced people to stay in their house, on-demand food delivery apps were rising as a significant trend that many businesses want it as soon as possible. Therefore, several app development projects ended with white label solution instead of adopting their own custom app. It leads to overwhelming junk apps in app stores. Those low quality of mobile apps does not create any benefit to companies but a heavy burden that it kills the business reputation.
3. Miscalculate the market research: In most cases, startups are enclosed with a lack of personnel that they cannot appropriately research the market. Therefore, the potentials and challenges of implementing a mobile app development plan are hidden behind the owners’ feelings and emotions.
4. Unproductive app promotion idea: according to the low budget, your business might suffer lousy promotion plans to your mobile app due to pursuing efforts of expenditure saving plan. Undoubtedly, the mobile app sector is the market of massive players with their qualified products that you need to advertise your option to users before they found another one. Then, in case of a limited budget, you have to find a prominent and unique promotion plan ever to give your app a life. 

Related article: 10 Marketing strategies for mobile app developers expanding the apps’ audience network

App development roadmap

To overcome these challenges, you should initially understand your products and your customers. Here are some starting points you should know.

Commonly, there are three pathways you should consider before starting any apps development business plan. In case you focus on users in a particular operating system, a single platform mobile app refers to an appropriate pathway for the upcoming project. In which you need app development in native technologies.

On the other hand, those businesses expecting to approach a broader group of users would end up with cross-platform mobile apps. In this area, we have two common types, which are hybrid application and native application.

How to make a single platform mobile app roadmap

In practice, mobile software solutions build to the single platform commonly are commonly required powerful hardware facilities to access. In other words, the app focusing on collaborating with a typical type of hardware would be developed in single platform tools.

In the market, iOS, Android, Samsung, and Window phone refers to the three popular mobile platforms which dominate the mobile devices. Each OS platform has its own native tools as follow: 

Related article: How to develop a successful enterprise mobile app?

1. How to create an app for android  

According to Start Counter, roundly 74.1% mobile devices globally operation in the Android system, while iOS took 25.26% the market share by 2020. It means that the OS by Google is seemingly attracting the most developed contributed to it. Accordingly, the number of apps developed only in the Android system significantly surpasses the rest.

According to most mobile app development companies, the majority of single platform Android apps developed in Java via Android Studio IDE to code. Alternatively, Eclipse IDE is also the popular chosen. However, the current trend when developing an Android app refers to user Kotlin, which is statically-type programming. In comparison with Java, Kotlin providing power tools for fast coding.

2. How to create an app for iOS  

Although losing the most market share to Android OS, iOS also takes its position for well functional and stability across the time since it is a closed source operations system. To serving the mobile development process, Apple offers a Software development kit of iOS.

For programming native applications in iOS, developers commonly prefer Object-C or Swift. In which, Swift developed by Apple, specializing in mobile app development. Besides, since iOS tends to be a closed operating system, you need Apple devices for programming an iOS native app.  

Cross platform mobile app development roadmap plan

For single app runs in multiple operating systems, mobile app developers need cross-platform tools to compile. Each tool requires a specific software development kit that is suitable for the platform.

1. Hybrid Application  

In principle, web developers and Hybrid application development are the best couples to deploy a web app to mobile platforms. In which HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript are the heart of Hybrid languages.

Businesses and enterprises looking for both mobile apps and web applications are commonly end with hybrid software development, which help save time and resource. Since the hybrid app is designed to suitable for several platforms, it cannot access many features of device hardware.

Apache Cordova is renowned as the essential tool of a hybrid application, which is a free source for cross platforms. Across time, it became the best choice from the majority of Hybrid developers that the numbers of plugins and extensions are added to support the community.

2. Native Application  

Native Application development is commonly divided by three corners, including React Native, Xamarin, and Native Script.

React Native developed by Facebook has currently known as the most popular application development framework, which allows developers to use the only JavaScript in building the app. With React Native, the user interface (UI) design should be put in the central role that developers pay attention to create a rich UI component. In which the same UI blocks would be used for both mobile operation.

Xamarin allows mobile developers to use a single codebase for all mobile platforms. With strong support from Microsoft, Xamarin is a favorite framework for those who prefer using C#. Pinterest and Slack are two typical examples of mobile apps using Xamarin.

NativeScript refers to an alternative framework allowing developers to build native apps with Javascript. Compare to React Native and Xamarin, NativeScript is less prevalent. However, it is a powerful tool for Angular.js developers.

Related article: custom app builder for startups – 8 common states should be focused on

Final thought, outsourcing mobile app development would be a popular software solution for several startups and enterprises when implementing a mobile app development plan. However, if you try to invest in in-house developers, you should consider time, resources, and technology before making any decision.