Sunday, December 9, 2012

Building & Monetizing your Mobile app


Some enthusiasts build mobile apps as a pastime. But a lot of them also build them for a living, and there is no doubt about its huge earning potential in the app market.  Savvy businesses are developing apps to take advantage of the explosion of smartphones and tablets. Did you know that Mobile app downloads will surpass 45.6 billion this year.

Developers should be able to create a compelling app, which will have the quality to price itself. We all intend to make money, and when monetization happens, value in apps are unlocked. Once the value is unlocked, people make the effort to take advantage by paying for the app.

Businesses start developing internal apps, then might bring in consultants for apps designed for customers. But businesses can bypass developers and develop their own customer apps using pre-defined app templates, Remember the right monetization strategy depends on the type of app.

A free model, with advertising, is the best model. Launching paid applications is a bit difficult, and people are not inclined to paid apps. Most people are okay with advertising in apps, but they become disinterested when they see a charge in front of the app. Android is a better platform in terms of earning because of the huge number of users.

The best monetization strategy would be through in-app purchases, selling items in the app itself. This is preferable to display advertising, as mobile screen space is limited, and part of it is used up by ads, making it irritating for users. By providing in-app purchases, the app becomes a better experience for the user and monetization occurs.

if you price-tag an app from launch, you will never be able to reach people. The best monetization strategy is to make it free initially, but offer premium or advanced services as paid services. While 60% of users may stop using after a while because of this, 30-40% of people will purchase the premium services if it's a quality app. When I published a book online and put a price tag on it, I provided a free sample of 10 pages. Most of my friends read the free 10 pages, and decided it was enough! This shows that people will only consume what is free, and this same mentality applies to the app world as well!

People use Mobile devices that are popular in the market. For example, Android has better earning potential because even low-end devices like Karbonn phones have Android on them. Hence, a freemium model on Android would be the best monetization strategy for a new developer. While iOS users do have a high tendency to pay for apps, the smartphone market is dominated by Android. Hence, selling ad space or providing in-app purchases could provide the best route for aspiring developers to earn a living. The mobile app space is ever-evolving and intensely competitive, so apps need to be top-notch to be noticed.

For e-commerce apps, free apps work best because additional revenue is earned from purchases. While ad-based models work best for Android, the paid model works well on iOS. I would not recommend Android from a monetization standpoint. But for Apple's App Store, users are standing with wallets open! If it has a value proposition, any app can sell. There's no reason to restrict your market as developers can publish it in any market, and if it is a quality app, people will pay money to buy it!



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