
The mobile app development industry is going through a transformative phase. With the advancement in micro-processing technologies, you will be able to run mobile applications on multiple platforms. For example, apps built for mobiles will run seamlessly on desktops in the coming years. Moreover, mobile apps built with Flutter or React Native will work on Android Phones, iPhones, Macs, as well as PCs. But before we get more in-depth, let’s dig into the mobile app usage statistics to understand how users are spending their time using mobile phones, and what are the opportunities in building your own mobile application.



Mobile App Development Lifecycle 2021
There are over 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, so there is no doubt that the industry is healthy and thriving. Stats are growing steadily, without any indications of slowing down. And studies show that an average American checks their phone at least once every twelve minutes, and over 10% of these people check their phone about every four minutes. There are some more statistics to keep in mind.
- People spend over half of the time they spend with digital media on mobile.
- Smartphone users spend 90% of their screen-on time using mobile apps.
- Over 85% of consumers prefer native apps over mobile cross websites.
- Revenue from mobile apps is set to cross $693 billion in 2021.
- The average consumer has over 30 apps installed on their device.
- An average user spends about 35 hours per month using mobile apps.
The statistics are motivating for anyone who wishes to build or develop a mobile app. But before we jump to any conclusions, let’s understand the exact process for mobile app development. Although it sounds very lucrative to build a mobile app to get a piece of the billion-dollar pie, the decision needs thought strategy and planning. The fact also states that your app will be competing with over 1.5 million applications on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store.
What is Mobile App Development?
Mobile app development is a process for building mobile applications that run on mobile devices. These applications can either be pre-installed or downloaded and installed by the user later. They use the network capabilities of the device to work computing resources remotely. Hence, the mobile app development process requires creating software that can be installed on the device, and enabling backend services for data access through APIs, and testing the application on target devices.
To develop scalable mobile apps, you also need to consider screen sizes, hardware requirements, and many other aspects of the app development process. With an increasing number of jobs in the mobile app development industry, it is essential that the process is well defined and understood by entrepreneurs, startups, and especially developers.






Mobile App Development Platforms
The two most important mobile app platforms are iOS from Apple Inc. and Android from Google. iOS is Apple’s proprietary mobile operating system built specifically for iPhones. Android, however, runs on mobile devices manufactured by various OEMs, including Google.
While there are many similarities between the two, however different software development kits (SDKs) are used for different platforms. Apple uses iOS exclusively for their own devices, while Google has made Android available for other companies that meet specific requirements. Developers have built over 1.5 million applications for both platforms to date.
Alternatives for Developing Mobile Apps
You can approach mobile app development in four different ways:
- Build Native Mobile Applications
- Build Cross-Platform Native Mobile Applications
- Build Hybrid Mobile Applications
- Build Progressive Web Applications
There are advantages and disadvantages to building an application, no matter which approach you choose. By choosing an approach that matches your strategy, you can achieve the desired user experience, avail computing resources, and build native features required for your application.



Comparison of App Development Alternatives
Native Apps | Cross-Platform Apps | Hybrid Apps | Progressive web Apps |
Native applications are built using the tools and SDKs offered by platform owners like Apple and Google. These apps run natively on the platform of your choice. | Cross-platform mobile applications can be written on various programming languages and then compiled for each platform separately. | Hybrid Applications are built using the latest web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and then bundled as mobile applications for the required platforms. Hybrid Apps are different from Cross-Platform Apps in the sense that they work using web containers using browser runtime. | Progressive Web Apps don’t require native or cross-platform development. They skip the app store installations and also traditional app delivery channels. They work inside the browser, whether it be mobile or desktop. A link is added to the mobile in the form of an app icon. These are basically web applications that also run on mobile. |
Native apps offer the best runtime performance. | Single code base for multiple platforms. | Codebase is shared between web and mobile apps. | Apps run on the web, as well as mobile. |
Directly use the platform’s data through platform-specific SDKs. | A unified user experience can be offered even for different platforms. | Web development tools can be used to build mobile applications. | No need to install the app. Runs through a browser on URL using the network connection. |
The cost of building and maintaining different codes for each platform is high. | Since native libraries are not available, the dependency is on third-party open-source libraries. | The performance is not native, as essentially, they are built using technologies for web development. | Little or no support for native devices. Runs using browser’s capabilities. |
Features have to be implemented differently based on the platform’s SDK tools. | The code is not written natively. Thus, it has to be complied with and bridged. Which can be bugging. | Little or no support for native devices. | If the network connection is not available, interactivity is lost to a great extent. |
Why Choose Native App Development?
Choosing native app development helps when you want to use native capabilities offered by the platform. Native apps can access the hardware capabilities of the devices like GPS, camera, microphone, which helps in quicker execution of features making it easier to build a rich user experience.
Push notifications are much easier to implement on native development. For example, push notifications to go through iOS Server (APNS) and Google’s Cloud Messaging Platform. Native apps have fewer bugs, as the code is compiled in the native language.






Why Choose Cross-Platform App Development?
The market is divided about 50-50 between iOS and Android. Your potential customer could be on any of the platforms, and sometimes on both. Building separate apps for both platforms requires an adequate budget, and not all companies have that. Moreover, developing native platforms can make it harder to offer the same amount of speed and functionality required by your app.
Choose cross-platform development if you wish to align the user experience across all the platforms; you wish to have one development team publishing for both the platforms; and you don’t have the budget and time to build and maintain two different apps separately.
Why Choose Progressive Web App Development?
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are written in traditional web languages like Javascript, HTML5, CSS, and such. These apps are only accessible through the browser of your device. So, choose to develop a PWA if your user will have uninterrupted access to network connectivity, and they can solve their issues through the browser itself, without requiring any native capabilities of the device like camera, machine learning module, GPS, gyroscope, and such.
With that in mind, let’s understand the mobile app development process step by step and get to know everything you need to follow a systematic mobile app development process to build your next great app.






Mobile App Development Process
To build an application, you need a step-by-step process that can help you build mobile apps quickly. There are three important steps:
- Understand the requirement
- Develop the Product
- Test the product.
Build an App Development Strategy
The first step in the mobile app development process is to create a strategy by defining why? What is the objective of your app? How will your mobile app solve an industry problem? What is your business model? How much are you ready to invest in building this app? What is your revenue model? How will you market your app, and to who? Answering these questions will give you a fair idea of how you can move forward with your mobile app development process.
You can start by defining the user persona. For example, suppose you are planning to build an eCommerce app. In that case, you will define your user persona by understanding your user’s age, their mobile usage habits, their preference, and specifically answering why and how they will find your mobile app users. Based on this, you can create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).


