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mobile app maintenance

The Importance of Mobile App Maintenance

There is one common myth regarding the mobile applications that once an app is created and launched on the app store, the job of the app developer and owner is completed. Of course, you want audience to come back and engage more on the platform. And just think over it; what if the two most popular Mobile Operating Systems- Android and iOS release an updated version? Will you not offer an upgraded version of the app? So, then you need to maintain the mobile app. Well, talking of maintenance, you already know how important it is. Maintenance is a broad term and not just restricted to the upkeep of your vehicles, electronic devices, your home or the machineries. It is equivalently vital to maintain the mobile application that you have developed for a seamless and trouble-free operation. Moreover, you also don’t want to come across performance based issues and put in the best effort to provide an improved user experience. In addition to that, the maintenance of the app at regular interval also keeps it up to date. It’s time to focus on a few stats, which will reveal the importance of maintaining the mobile apps. According to an article published in the Business Insider, nearly 52% of the apps are uninstalled by the users, only after a period of three months because of its poor upkeep. In yet another survey it was found that about 30% of the app developers update their apps every month, which indeed is a good practice. And to tell you the truth, the cost of mobile app maintenance isn’t that high. According to Fierce Wireless, the app maintaining cost is somewhat around $10000 to $20,000. Getting the Latest Versions of the Operating Systems Android and Apple, both keep on updating their Operating Systems at regular basis whenever there is an advancement in the technology. You are well aware of that fact that there are a number of apps which stop operating on new versions that does not support them. For instance, Apple recently launched the iOS 11 version and as much many apps working with iOS 10 did not operate in the new version. Even Android has launched the Android 8. The operating systems gets updated once in a year. You should try to provide the proactive audit to the users when the beta version is made available. The development team will have a discussion as to what changes are to be made in the app. And it’s a wise decision to maintain the app than to lose the users, who get annoyed when the app does not support. Can Provide Financial Benefits in the Long Run When a company develops an app, it tries its level best to offer the optimum finished product into the market. However, creating a perfect and flawless app is considered something not possible. So, if you are willing to save the initial expenditure cost, then implementing the maintenance plan becomes necessary. This means you are updating the app timely and not incorporating the unnecessary features that aren’t required. A survey showed that at least 21% of firms have performed unsatisfactorily as far as Return on Investment (ROI) from its mobile app is concerned. Apart from initial savings, businesses can also save money for the long run if they properly implement the maintenance plan. You can monitor the apps in proactive manner rather than reactive way. This will bring in less technical issues and improve the robustness of app. The Improvement in Software Libraries Well, if you are in app development business, you must be well acquainted regarding the importance of software library in app creation. To start with, a software library is prewritten codes, configurations, and routines and the developers update or improve it. But all apps do not have software libraries and the ones which have must be completely up to date. Offers an Updated User Interface (UI) The User Interface of the mobile app should always be updated and advanced. Of course, what looked chic a couple of years back, won’t have the same influence in the present time. It should have a more sophisticated look. Now you can get all these pros if you are maintaining your app. Another vital point to note here is whenever the mobile phone manufacturers bring in a new model, they aren’t always of the same size. So, UI must be designed in accordance with the size of the phone. Getting a Better User Experience (UX) A study informing that app maintenance has played a crucial role in generating more traffic and higher ratings from the users. This statement is adequately enough to tell you the importance of app maintenance and the success of your mobile application. So, if you want to get more audience and be on the top, then user experience becomes more than important. It is that deciding factor which informs whether people will download your app or not. Incorporating Technical Enhancements The mobile based technology keeps on changing and after every month or two we perceive a new set of technical environment for the mobile apps. It may include the programming languages, new platforms, technology and much more. If you are going in for the app maintenance, then you will not only offer the latest version, but also make the changes very aptly as per the demand. When you are maintaining the app, you are also providing it a stable and secure platform. Today app security is becoming an essential aspect, keeping in view the increasing number of cyber threats. It will remain error free from technical point of view as well. Allows Regular App Monitoring Today app market has become stringently competitive and so in order to cope up with the high level of competition, personalized app monitoring is very important. It becomes all the more vital in cases where the companies do not have sufficient resources to undertake the maintenance work. Thus, they need the support of an external mobile app partner that

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How Much Does it Cost to Maintain An App?

Seeing an application go live after several months of effort you have put on its software development and design work gives you a mind-blowing feeling. However, if you think your all work has been completed with app development, publishing in the app store or play store, and marketing it amazingly for alluring clients, you are wrong. After building a mobile app successfully, you must maintain it. And app maintenance draws some extra costs. Moreover, inadequate app maintenance can be a reason behind an app failure. Why Is App Maintenance Necessitous? Focusing on app maintenance will remunerate in the long run. It has proven that increasing the app retention rates by only 5% increases the profits of an organization by anywhere between 25% and 95%. Maintaining an app is necessitous as each app on the store requires it for surviving. Things like performance requirements, changes in design popularity, new device launches, new operating system launches are some purposes for having an app maintenance strategy before starting the development process. So, no matter how properly you developed an app, you always need to maintain it. Factors to Consider For Calculating Mobile App Maintenance Many examples of app development cost analysis are available online, but you can get puzzled instead of being guided if you check them. Some areas can highly impact your app development cost. It can be said that yearly average app maintenance expenses can be calculated at 15 to 20% of the total development expenses invested in launching the MVP model of your app. Here are the top 3 factors that you must ponder for estimating mobile app maintenance cost: Development Team Spot Costs of app development are different across the globe. The USA has the highest rates. The highest rates can be expected in Switzerland in Europe, whereas Eastern and Central Europe have one of the lowest rates. Moreover, developers in some nations outperform others. Software Complication Your app maintenance costs will increase if your app gets more screens and features. The app-building technology you select also plays a pivotal role. If you built 2 separate native apps for Android and iOS, your maintenance could be costlier than using a cross-platform solution like React Native. The number of third-party integrations is another factor to ponder. If your application is highly connected with external services like accounting systems, social media, or payment platforms, you can anticipate more maintenance costs. Design of the App To keep affordable maintenance costs, you must hire experienced software designers in the first phases of the app-building. If your app design is not good, it can cost you more maintenance expenses in the long run. So, employ experienced developers who know the ways of managing legacy code and design so that they can boost your product gradually at the time of app maintenance. How Much Does It Cost For App Maintenance? It’s not only an app development expense but the maintenance cost also. You should be ready before going for building an app. The app maintenance cost varies from app to app. On average, it can cost you nearly 20% of your actual expenses of mobile app development. Things to Remember While Considering App Maintenance Costs Here are some factors that you should remember while pondering the expenses of maintaining an application: Analytics Tools like Google Analytics offer lots of data to help you make the right decisions for tracking users’ usage and get reports that give your answers. Free tools are available but advanced tools give more info. It’s also the expense in time as you will require somebody for spending time applying this and checking everything. Analytics is also essential for performance problems like glitches, crashes, and other bugs. You will need to troubleshoot these as they come up for different purposes beyond only the launches of new OS versions. Hosting You require paying the database and backend of your app hosted for your app to perform well. Many hosting options are there like a cloud-based environment. AWS (Amazon Web Services) is one of the cloud services that will be less costly as you just pay for your usage and there will be less set up and maintenance expense of the server. Third-party When you use something in your app that is coming from somebody else, you will need to pay for it monthly. For instance, you will need to pay for a licensed technology that you utilize. Bugs and Updates Updates are important with every technology. Every app gets updated versions. Simply open the store and check the description, you will find the required updates there. These updates’ costs rely on many factors. In case you just have a bug that should be solved in the line of code, it can cost you nearly $50. If you want to update the whole performance aspect that could take many weeks for troubleshooting, the updates can take almost $1000 to $2000. Also, it relies on the app size and how properly it functions. Marketing You need user engagement and marketing functions to get and retain users. Many free things are there to do, but paying a bit can get your name out there. You can invest from $100 to $250000 in marketing based on your budget and activities you require. A good marketing team can customize a marketing plan as per your application and budget. Client Support Listen to your users to be successful truly. Address every user complaint. Hire a dedicated employee for responding to users and get good reviews. This will continuously cost you also but not a lot. App Security Ensuring your app security is another essential maintenance cost you must budget for. You need to ponder 2 areas – legally-imposed changes and ongoing security optimization. To ensure you won’t put sensitive user data in danger, developers will require tracking all privacy updates or changes of the third-party integrations. Leaving an update unidentified could bring a security violation. Hence, you will require remembering legal changes like GDPR that shake-up always the

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