This is part 1 of our 7 part series where we look at most common myths about mobile app development and try to address them.

Myth #1: Mobile Apps will make us lots of money

Reality: Most apps fail to bring enough revenue and user base in the initial launch

Many startups come to us with a notion that they have the idea of the century and once they launch an app, they will start seeing a lot of money from app purchase itself. We hear numbers like 1 million downloads in 3 months, 10 million downloads in 6 months or so.

In reality getting an app to be popular and getting users to download and like the app is a daunting task. Mobile app development isn’t centered on making apps that sell per se, it’s more about developing mobile apps that have high utility and appeal!

There are several factors that influence how a mobile app will be perceived in the market.

Is your mobile app:

• Attractive and has a good pleasing UI?
• Intuitive and easy to use and navigate?
• Useful? Why would someone want to keep that on their phone? Why would they want to open it?
• Encourages users to tell others that they should also use your app?
• Leverages social media properly?
• Priced right. Does it offer value for the time or money invested in the app?
• Does it exist to fulfill a need or simply a figment of your imagination?
• Improves the way people consume a service or facilitates a transaction?

If your mobile app does not do these properly, what makes you think it will succeed?

A good mobile app needs to have all these features and any decent strategy for mobile app development is built around these important considerations.

Marketing of your app and user acquisition costs are also going to be huge in most cases. You need to have realistic targets and a solid plan for marketing your mobile app and targeting your potential customer base.

Remember mobile app development is just the beginning to get that killer app. You have to top it off with a brilliant strategy for mobile app marketing as NO product, no matter how mind blowing will ever sell if people don’t know it’s out there!

Getting your app noticed in the mainstream media itself can take 3-5 months. So when planning for your aggressive estimates, plan carefully as you may run out of cash sooner than you think.