Mobile App Development Services

Did you know that in 2023, there were 257 billion app downloads globally? This is according to Statista, which also predicts exponential growth of the mobile app market by the end of 2027. This means that more consumers prefer to do their business, read news, and get their services done remotely by phone from their mobile apps.

This is due to many reasons. First of all, mobile devices are inseparable from our daily lives, and secondly, mobile apps have this smooth, seamless feel to them that customers sometimes prefer over in-person meetings and desktop versions.

You might have already noticed how companies started investing in teams for mobile development and mobile app development services. Not everyone employs custom native mobile app development. They often go with off-the-shelf solutions to save time and resources. However, ready-made applications cannot match the level of customization and specific solutions that can be provided by custom mobile applications.

Starbucks would never have been able to provide comfortable and customer-oriented remote services without a custom-made mobile app. What about Domino’s Pizza Application? They practically transformed the food delivery industry with the tracking service that was introduced in the application.

Off-the-shelf solutions would never be able to implement such elements or be flexible enough for upgrades and adjustments. That’s why it’s essential to collaborate with experienced mobile app developers to create custom mobile apps.

What’s the Difference Between Custom and Off-the-Shelf Mobile Apps?

Now, we understand that we can’t just scratch off ready-made applications from the list and forget that they ever existed. These apps are valuable and do their job for suitable companies. However, they have limited features, flexibility, and other characteristics that push us to recommend custom-made apps for our clients with an interesting mobile app development project.

Off-the-shelf apps are great starter apps for small companies or those who follow industry standards.

Let’s explore the most common audiences for off-the-shelf mobile apps:

• Small businesses that often have limited budget
• Companies that follow industry-standard practices and aren’t in need of feature customization
• Companies that want to experiment with new ideas and products
• Businesses that don’t have extra services or features to offer
• Companies with time limitations

Sure, off-the-shelf apps do their job, but custom mobile app development allows companies to add specialized features, customize apps to their business needs, and more.

Let’s explore the most common audiences for custom mobile apps:

• Large companies that have complex operations and can’t offer their clients simple apps
• Medium-sized company experiencing growth and need for support
• Tech-focused companies that need advanced tools to align with their innovative approaches
• Businesses that prioritize user experience and their customer satisfaction
• Businesses focusing on long-term ROI

Custom mobile applications are developed to meet the specific requirements of a company, its operations, and its brand.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have packaged software (off-the-shelf apps) that are developed en masse to suit the general market and are not necessarily custom-made for a certain business.

The key differences between custom mobile development and off-the-shelf mobile app employment are within customization abilities, scalability, integration possibilities, and more:

Overall, pre-developed applications are good for organizations that are just starting up or those that have little capital and simple requirements. They offer instant Solutions and might be cheap at first.

However, when the business starts to expand and the needs of the organization become more sophisticated, ready-made applications turn out to be inefficient or limit the development and scalability of the company.

Custom mobile applications are vital for organizations that want to implement special features, interface with other systems, or offer a specific experience that is in line with the company’s brand.

Business applications that are custom-built provide more flexibility and are easily scalable and manageable as compared to the other applications.

They enable organizations to come up with new products that can allow them to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Furthermore, customized applications can be made in a way that they perform better and are more secure than the general ones for the betterment of the user experience and to protect valuable information.

Industries that Successfully Use Mobile App Development Services

As a mobile app development company, we have experience working with various clients from different industries, and we’ve noticed how unique and exceptional each industry’s needs are, whether it’s an Android app development, iOS app development, or cross-platform development project.

Each industry has its’ own quirks and standards. For example, healthcare industry representatives can’t just contact any mobile app development services provider; they need to seek out a mobile app development company with experience complying with healthcare industry standards.

Finance industry representatives also need professionals who understand the market and the audience’s demands. Similarly to these industries, others have their own needs and exceptional functionalities for mobile apps.

Healthcare industry

Healthcare industry mobile apps have three types of clients: providers, company owners, and patients. This means that the mobile apps we develop will either serve doctors, companies, or patients. And each type of audience requires specific attention and features.

Mobile applications in healthcare have the uses of managing patients, telemedicine, scheduling of appointments, reminding the patients to take their medicine, and health monitoring. It increases patients’ and consumers’ participation, expands the reach of care services, and optimizes back-office functions.

For example:

• MyChart: This mobile application is a multi-functioning software that patients can use to track their medicine, manage schedule appointments, and chat with doctors
• Doctor on Demand: The name is quite explanatory. This mobile application is a telemedicine solution for both doctors and patients, allowing them to conduct virtual consultations

Finance industry

Mobile apps in finance offer customers mobile banking, investment, expense tracking, and planning for the future. These apps provide real-time information on the user’s financial status, thereby increasing the user’s convenience and level of security.

For example:

• Mint: Mint is a popular mobile application that clients use to track their finances and do simple budgeting
• Robinhood: This is an investment app for traders

Retail

Retail is one of the industries that almost always require customized mobile apps. The sector itself is so complex that companies operating there always have complex and unique services and features, like online shopping, personalized recommendations, loyalty programs and gifts, mobile payments, wishlists, and so on.

Such features greatly improve customer engagement and satisfaction. Retail companies will often employ customized mobile app development services to match their customer needs precisely.

For example:

• Amazon: We all know what Amazon does. It’s an online shopping solution that allows users to track their orders and manage their accounts as they please
• Starbucks: We already mentioned this custom-made app that enables users to order ahead, pay for their order from the app, and earn rewards, which they can exchange for gifts and other products

Besides healthcare, finance, and retail industries, real estate, transportation, edTech, and similar complex sectors invest in mobile app development services for better quality applications and enhanced customer satisfaction.

6 Key Benefits of Custom Mobile App Development

As you can already guess, mobile app development can bring various benefits to your company, allowing you to grow your business and maintain flexibility.

Such a mobile app isn’t just a program; it’s a unique tool that addresses your audience’s needs, solves their challenges, and paints you as a business that knows their pain points and can aid them.

In this section of our article, we want to explore some of the key benefits customized mobile app development can offer you:

• Customized and improved user experience
• Improved efficiency and productivity
• Seamless integration of a mobile app with existing systems
• Scalability and flexibility alongside your business growth
• Better data and security management
• Unique features and functionality that give you a competitive advantage

Customized mobile app development can improve your user experience

If you’re thinking about employing mobile app development services, consider the improved user experience as one of the most critical benefits. Customers love mobile applications that have attractive interfaces, are intuitive, and, most of all, do exactly what they want.

Custom development can help you give your users better app performance, cross-platform solutions for better accessibility, and overall improve their experience when interacting with your product.

Custom mobile apps enable you to include an interface that will meet the company’s goals and customers’ expectations. Thus, the user can easily and quickly find the necessary functions and options in the app, which results in increased engagement and satisfaction.

Through user feedback and consumption pattern data, custom apps can be fine-tuned to suit the user’s needs at any given time.

This level of customization is extremely hard to achieve with most of the market-available products, which is one of the main reasons why custom apps play a crucial role in building a long-term user base.

Customized mobile app development boosts your company’s efficiency and productivity

As a business owner or a company representative, your main goal (we assume) is to promote your company’s productivity and improve efficiency. Of course, productivity and efficiency are what drive the workflows and deliver the final products.

We recommend collaborating with professionals who provide mobile application development services in your industry to achieve maximum effects. A professional mobile app developer can help you create a mobile app to support certain functions of your business and eliminate unnecessary paperwork and manual work.

This optimization is very useful and can greatly increase the efficiency and productivity in various departments of an organization.

For instance, the sales team of a company could have a custom app that links with the organization’s CRM application and gives the sales team access to real-time customer data, order entry, and other communication tools. Thus, such enhancements can lead to shorter turnaround times when closing deals and higher revenue.

Customized mobile app development allows you seamless integration with existing systems

Sometimes, when companies decide to buy a mobile app or invest in mobile app development, they forget that integration with existing systems is essential.

It’s awfully tempting to go for a cheaper option that’s ready-made and waiting for you just to change colors and rename headline slots. Still, since mobile and web apps improve workflows and efficiency only if the integration with the existing systems is correct, we recommend custom solutions.

Custom mobile apps are easily compatible with other applications and software that your company is already using. This integration helps in the seamless transfer of data between various platforms, and there is no need to transfer data manually, which can be exhausting and time-consuming.

Through integration with an app developed specifically for the business, it is possible to link multiple systems to create a single environment that will enable organizations to ensure proper and correct data, minimize errors, and gain an overall perspective of the business processes. The extent of integration is usually difficult or unattainable with commercial products or packages.

Customized mobile app development future-proofs your business

Of course, you shouldn’t forget about your company’s future development, so consider working with professionals who can offer cross-platform app development, android app development, iOS app development, and a customized approach to all services.

Sometimes, people neglect to forecast future growth and have to change their software to align with the existing progress of the business.

The custom mobile applications are developed with this in mind; your business is likely to grow in the future. With a custom app, it is easy to scale up or change as your business grows or changes in direction without having to build the whole application from scratch.

This scalability means that your mobile application is an asset to your business and will not become a liability in the future. It is also easier to update the custom apps in a shorter time frame and as a result, it is possible to be more responsive to the market shifts or new possibilities.

Customized mobile app development gives better data management and stronger security

We can’t rank the benefits from 1 to 6 since they are all essential, but if there’s one thing to consider for your future mobile app development, it is to take care of data protection and enhance security.

One of the most critical aspects that can affect the success of a business is security, particularly when handling clients’ data or company information. With custom mobile applications, it becomes easier to put in place strong security features that are suitable for your organization and sector’s legal requirements.

Thus, being the owner of the app’s architecture and code, you can guarantee that all the security measures will be applied at every level. Some of the features are end-to-end encryption, strong authentication mechanisms, and security checks, thus guaranteeing the safety of your business and your clients.

It doesn’t matter what kind of mobile devices you’re using or if your new solution is an Android app or falls into the category of iOS app development; if you want to create mobile apps, you should ensure their security and protect your users’ data.

Customized mobile app development gives you a competitive edge

Finally, we come to the last benefit of this article, although custom applications have more than six benefits. Competitive advantage is something every company owner wants to have.

A custom mobile application should be a tool that helps the client stand out from the competition and provide a different set of functions and services. Such differentiation can be very effective in winning and sustaining customers’ patronage in a highly competitive market.

Since custom apps are not pre-developed, you are able to adapt to market shifts or customers’ desires and create new functionalities or adjustments more effectively than those using ready-made products.

This agility can be a big advantage in keeping your company at the front of the market and pushing the envelope in your business sector.

Should You Develop a Mobile App In-House or Hire a Professional Agency?

When planning to create a custom mobile application, companies have a choice of whether to create mobile apps on their own or with the help of an experienced development agency. Each of the approaches has its strengths and drawbacks, and the decision on which one to use depends on several factors linked to the particular company.

Creating an application in-house is helpful for companies because they can control the process and ensure smooth cooperation with the teams and systems.

However, it also poses certain problems, such as the need for highly skilled personnel, possible lags associated with skill deficiencies, and the question of resource usage over time.

On the other hand, the professional agency will have experienced developers, set processes, and a pool of skills on its team.

You might fear the possible expenses, misunderstandings, and the need to maintain communication between the agency and your company, but professional mobile app development service providers have dedicated professionals and project managers who ensure a smooth development process.

How to Choose the Right Mobile App Development Partner?

If you have decided to hire mobile app development service providers, congratulations – you’re saving time and resources you would otherwise spend on the hiring process and other nuances.

Choosing the right company for the development of your mobile application can be one of the most important decisions that you make.

Choosing a good partner for your mobile app development can be a great advantage to your project because it will provide you with the necessary experience, creative thinking, and efficient implementation of your project.

On the other hand, the wrong partner in this process can result in a delay, more money spent than necessary, and a poor-quality product.

During the partner selection process, it is crucial to look at the partner’s industry specialization, technical proficiency, project management methods, and history of released apps. Further, cultural match and communication are some of the critical factors that may greatly affect the efficiency of your project.

Here’s what you should consider when choosing a mobile app development company:

Relevant experience: It’s always smart to choose a mobile app services with experience developing apps for a similar company or understanding your industry specifics. For example, you can’t risk hiring mobile developers who have years of expertise in the finance industry for your healthcare company. Choose someone who has an extensive portfolio and knows how to handle mobile app projects for your company.

Technical expertise: Make sure your preferred partner has a technology stack for your project. Developing an Android app requires knowledge of Kotlin, Android Studio, Android SDK, Jetpack Compose, Firebase, and other technologies. For a native iOS app, you’ll need mobile developers who know how to use Swift, Xcode, iOS SDK, SwiftUI, Cloudkit, and more. For progressive web apps, you’ll need JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.

Transparent communication and project management tools: Mobile app development isn’t just a technical process. It requires constant communication and task tracking. Make sure the development team of your chosen partner has project managers, professional mobile app developers, UI/UX designers, QA professionals, and project management tools.

Post-launch support and maintenance: Whether you’re developing custom Android apps or hybrid applications, you’ll need post-launch support from your service provider. Ensure your partner offers you such services.

How Can Glorium Technologies Help

Glorium Technologies is a mobile app development service provider with 14+ years of experience working with various clients and creating mobile solutions. We’re talking about our experienced development team, experts who guide you through the first steps of the collaboration, and our user-centric approach.

We can help you develop your mobile app, whether it is cross-platform, strictly native to iOS or Android, or a hybrid model. Join the list of our clients who have benefited from our user-centric approach.

Explore our case studies that tell the stories of startups such as BodyO, a health-tracking solution with experience in developing custom apps without success. We created a cross-platform app for the client to help them offer their users convenient 3D navigation, synchronization with wearables, and an interactive interface.

Explore how we created a native mobile app for our client, Liberkeys, in the real estate industry. We completely redesigned the front end and offered seamless, comfortable user experience.

Custom mobile applications are essential for businesses looking for upscaling, flexibility, and improved performance. Although the decision to create a custom app is a strategic one that takes into account the current resources, objectives, and plans, the advantages that come with it usually make it worth the time and money.

Contact us today to schedule your free consultation with our expert to assess your business state, analyze your mobile app idea, and offer you an approximate scope of your project.