This survey presents some major mobile app platform developer’s concerns and provides a meta-picture of what the mobile app development ecosystem consists of nowadays.
Total number of participants – 3237. Total number of companies whose top management personnel who took part in this survey – 85. Total number of companies whose middle management personnel who took part in this survey – 82. Total number of app developers who took part in this survey – 3070
1.Which markets does your company/organization operate in?
Android – 39%
iOS – 36%
BlackBerry – 7%
Symbian – 4%
Phone7 – 5%
Mac OS – 9%
The large majority of today’s app developers’ operations center on the iOS and Android platforms.
2. What is your primary motivation for app development?
Profit – 60%
Extension of Company portfolio to attract more external clients / requests – 14%
Brand recognition – 12%
Other – 14%
The rapid explosion of mobile devices brings high demand for mobile apps, and as a consequence, app development has become a new viable profit generator rather than simply a new media avenue by which companies could hope only to raise their product and brand awareness.
3. Which of the following promotional methods/ techniques have you found to be most effective in publicizing your products/ applications?
Banner ads on third party websites – 7%
Banner ads inside applications/games – 10%
Promotion via Social Networking channels – 22%
Media Public Relations/ Connections with major resources – 7%
TV, Radio advertisement – 2%
Articles by/on Review Sites – 18%
Local Promo Campaigns – 5%
Direct promotion via friends and app fans – 23%
Other – 6%
Banner ad cross promotion is an effective and affordable tool for marketing a majority of apps and games. Likewise, Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube also represent highly effective marketing tools, being able to reach a broad audience without employing a big budget
4. Which of the following promotional methods/techniques have you found to be most effective in publicizing your products/ applications?
Providing an automatic discount to an already existing client that bought my other product/application – 22%
Setting a different price for different regions, geographic locations – 19%
Setting a price outside of $1.00 increments – 12%
Having the ability to offer the product/application as a trial/free version for a certain limited period of time – 21%
Having the ability to build your own payment system inside the product/application – 19%
Other – 7%
Building customer loyalty and trust is something that works in the mobile app development industry just as well as it works in other market sectors.
5. Is it profitable for you to place ad banners within your applications?
Yes, this is my primary business model – 13%
A small portion of my applications bring in profits through this business model – 27%
I have abandoned this business model due to low profits after unsuccessful attempts – 14%
I have not attempted to utilize this business model – 42%
Other – 4%
The majority of app developers either don’t use the banner ad revenue model or see a very limited outcome from this model.
6. What is most challenging in the Mobile Application process?
Development – 13%
Design – 11%
Testing / QA – 9%
Distribution to multiple platforms – 25%
Marketing – 36%
Distribution / Launch – 2%
Support – 4%
The app development process itself does not present a major. On the other hand, app marketing is seen as a source of serious concern.
