Having already observed a few trends and knowing that investing in Android App is rather a smart move, you must have started brainstorming about your app ideas seriously. That’s great! The best time to put your thoughts into actions is now. An Android app is your opportunity to make the lives of billions of people better thorough your creation.
But before you jump into Android app development bandwagon, there are a few things that you cannot afford to miss. This post is immensely helpful for the first-time Android app developers.
1. One Mobile Platform, Hundreds of form factors
Android mobile OS is open-source, and hence, anyone can customize it. It comes as no surprise that smartphone manufacturers have utilized the features of open-source to design a user interface that is unique to their brand. Xiaomi has Mi UI, Samsung has TouchWiz,and HTC boasts of Sense. This is the reason why Android OS feels so different on different smartphones.
When so many hardware with different forms and sizes run the same OS, responsiveness may take a beat. Your application may look great on 5-inch screen but appear out of tune on a 8-inch tablet. As if it wasn’t enough, there is a factor of aspect ratio as well.
Your application should ideally be great on every Android device, be it a phablet or tablet. Don’t just keep the screen size in mind, take care of the aspect ratio as well. The more the number of hardware supported, the better the discoverablity and app-downloads.
2. What it takes to develop an app
If you are a programming rockstar you hardly need to read this, but if you’re not sure what skills you need in your arsenal to develop an absolutely brilliant application, go ahead.
The native language of the Android mobile OS platform is Java, so you must be pretty good at it. Additionally, you must be adept at using Android Development Tools and XML. However, knowledge of Android development can easily be attained through video lectures, Android tutorial (building your first “Hello World” app), and books. Building a native app is time-consuming. You have to dedicate the required resources and set your expectations right. Rome and good apps cannot be built in a day.
3. The Discoverability and Intellectual Rights Issues
There are more than 1.6 million apps on Google Play Store. This figure could be frightening for even a seasoned developer, but consider this – there are more than 1.4 billion 30-day active users of Android OS. And if we safely assume that every user on an average downloads 5 apps per month (just an assumption), there will be more than 7 billion downloads every month.
Naturally, there is a demand but the problem is – most of the app downloads are enjoyed by top developers and new apps, more often than not, get pushed to oblivion (80/20 rule at work – 80% of app downloads are for top 20% apps). Hence, it is important to put your efforts in marketing as well.
There is another problem. If your app is good, it could be copied… by many developers lurking in app stores, searching ideas. Hence, it is extremely important to build a respectable user-base in the first few days after launch. It would be hard for you to accept that a rip-off is getting more followers than your original idea.
Marketing costs a lot. Get the business side of the things in place.
4. Is Your Idea Worth Its Salt?
I don’t know why I kept the most important thing at last position. I somehow believe that you must have taken care of this point.
There are no incentives for developing ‘just another app’. Your application must be meaningful. It should add some value because after spending time and money, you may not like people calling your app “useless” in reviews.
I think Apple has put its thoughts in right words when they said that they had more than a million iOS apps and they didn’t need fart apps any more.
Conclusion
If you want to develop an android app, do research, work on developing an idea, put your best foot forward and code with the best of your abilities. Ensure a good launching pad through free and paid marketing mediums (organic traffic is very unpredictable, even after you optimize descriptions, videos, screenshots etc.).
Ready to roll?
The next blog will be: Android App Stats That You Must Check. It will be published next week. Stay tuned to this space.
