Mobile application development is not a new thing, but all of sudden growth and the advent of new technologies have worked as a constant confusion creator.

All these different experiences have resulted in building different ideologies or conventions. Some of them are true and some of them are born out of sheer misconception and confusion.

In this blog we will discuss the most prevalent misconceptions or myths in the mobile application development world.

1. Considering Revenue as the Prime Parameter for Measuring Lifetime Value (LTV)

The most prevalent myth among the developers is that they Revenue as their prime parameter for measuring their apps Lifetime Value. Your mobile app does not need to include in-app purchasing to include a quantifiable value in order to measure your ROI.

• Social media shares
• Number of Articles read
• Screens viewed
• Friends or followers
• Time visitors were on your screen etc.

One can use the above methods to measure the LTV of your app. Further, it also depends on the type of your app to include parameters like time consumed in REM sleep or concepts mastered, or pounds lost.

All you need to remember that different business are ought to have different parameters to measure their life time value and the value must fit into the target which you have for your business goal.

It is extremely evident that an online blogging site won’t have the same goals as the eCommerce site.

2. Downloads Define the Success of Your App

This is another most prevalent myth in the development world, as yes the downloads do matters, but what matters the most are the active user base which is using your app. This is surely necessary success parameter, but not a sufficient one. This is because there are apps which users download and do not open it again whatsoever might be the reason they do not use them. This is why app downloads are considered as an empty parameter for downloading apps. Brand identity, good promotional tactics and other factors might affect the downloads, but all these can’t help to retain the user base.

Downloads do not depict that they are active users. Further, they are also not a long term metric to gauge the success of your app and you need to incorporate additional analytical parameters for getting acquainted with the engagement factor of your app, such as:

1. MAUs
2. Session length
3. Sessions
4. Retention

3. Stand-alone Strategy is a Must for Mobile

Mobile app users are looking for an extremely efficient and smooth work flow and the other myth which exists here is that you need to build your mobile app or website as a stand-alone channel. Mobile apps are an integral part of your business plan. If any user visits your website and downloads the mobile app from your store and let us suppose that he enters your store in the real world, thus your app must enliven the one arbitrary one. You need to make sure that your users are satisfied with what you are serving them via your mobile app. This is where you need to care for your users’ expectations. You need to optimize your app to meet with your brands goal and use your mobile app to enlarge your business dream.

4. Apps are not as Good as Mobile Websites

One of the most prevalent myths is that Mobile apps are not as extensively used as compared to mobile websites is a sheer myth and is based on the assumption that all the mobile apps offer similar functionalities. Wherein, when it comes to usage, people look forward to rely more on mobile apps rather than websites as they are easy to use. Moreover, as app tends to serve different functions than websites. People will certainly not use your app if it just provides you information about something as an app is here to serve functionalities. As the name itself suggest application you can certainly avoid the main application of the app. People invest 80% of their time in mobile apps and thus it opens up good opportunities for your for business.

5. It’s the Poor UI of Android Which Makes the App Look Bad Too

There are a lot of bogus statements and fuss which companies create for their rivals. Another myth is platform related. As per this myth the app designed for Android is of poor design qualities and functionalities. This is because the platform itself does not offer competitive functionalities. However, I do agree that there are a lot of disruptions which occur due to the numerous third party vendors of the platform, but with time the platform has evolved a lot and no longer is crude and has emerged as one of the most qualitative platforms. Though the growth is quite intermittent due to numerous frameworks and is not as evident as iOS due to market fragmentation. We can see the graphic quality offered by leading Android powered devices like the Sony Xperia do not match with the other vendors.

However, when it comes to Android, it offers incredible visuals on all its versions be it Ginger Bread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat or the latest Lollypop. All these development environments offer great and impressive visuals. Further, to refute this fact, we have some stunning applications which can be built on Android which stunning for Android apps. Moreover, if you have built a nice iOS app and then porting it on Android you can make the platform responsible for designing a poor app if porting is not done in a proper way.

6. Paid Apps is the Strongest and Surest Way to Get Good Returns

With the plethora of mobile applications launched every day, people have several options for apps of all kinds. Wherefore, this has paid off as the most fortified monetization strategy is your biggest mistake as nowadays people won’t pay for apps unless they are from a renowned enterprise or is a healthcare/banking app which deals with highly sensitive data.

Though you might be delivering some stupendous features which might not be offered by your free counterpart, but then also the users will certainly prefer going with the free apps.

Further, we have also seen a considerable downfall in the paid-apps model and there is a surge in other monetization policies such as mCommerce, in-app purchasing and proximity payments. It was seen that there was a considerable shift in 2013, when the revenue model was composed of 71 % of the in-app purchases and payments was worth $160 billion. This was a drastic U-turn in mobile app monetization model and still these changes hold good. So, rethink about your monetization plans if you are still stuck on the old records.

7. Considering Monthly Active Users as a Trivial Characteristic

There are numerous users which have identical needs, but no two users can have the same usage pattern and that too a recurring one. This is why you need to deeply analyze your users pattern and behavior in order to improve the productivity of your app. For this you need to have the perfect measurement of MAUs, which is inevitable to check the growth of your app and to know whether your users are returning to your app even after months or not. A perfectly planned metric which duly notes the amount of active users of your app which can significantly mark the growth of your mobile app.

8. Android Applications Reap Low Monetary Benefits

Another most prevalent myth in the app development world is that Android is a poor app store, wherein iOS app store or iTunes can help you earn good returns. Thoughtful, well the logic behind this one was beyond my level of understanding. Let us suppose that you are a caterer who serves Chinese cuisine across Asia, and as per facts and survey it is noted that iOS holds very less share of devices and most of the users are use Android mobile devices. So, how come this rule that iOS can only help you earn good returns and Android cannot where it holds the majority of market share of devices. Further, it is not good to form conventions from some failed case studies.

If your app is not yielding good results, then you cannot certainly make the app store responsible for it.

Moreover, there are apps failing to attract users because they do not have much to offer. Why will someone spend money on something which do not offer them any exciting feature or functionality. This myth is also prevalent because people think that it is easy to publish apps on Google Play store and design apps for the heck of it without thinking of the business aftermaths.

There must be something valuable which an app should offer in order to remain active on a users smartphone, rest it is not dependent on the platform or there is no categorization of users on the terms of mobile operating systems. Moreover, developers cannot ignore the fact that the Android is still the most used operating system around the world and moreover when it comes to iOS you can see that there is only a limited market area where it used.

Final Thoughts!

With so many options and platforms for development there are numerous experiences and thus numerous myth about it. But for a fortified development you need to stay clear of all the myths in order deliver the best.