In spite of months of development and grand launches, many apps may fail. Even those that last the first month on users’ phones end up being uninstalled shortly after. As a result, the effort and money appreneurs invest in such apps go to waste.

The main reason for this failure burns down to ineffective app development, an issue this whitepaper aims to resolve to ensure the creation of profitable apps.

According to numerous studies, investing in mobile app development should be on the to-do list of both new and existing appreneurs for 2025 and consecutive years.

Analyzing the patterns of 2020-2023, the number of mobile app downloads has been steadily growing. Whereas it was at 218 billion downloads in 2020, it reached 257 billion in 2023.[1] The pandemic was one of the main reasons for this growth as it increased the use of apps for work, entertainment, and social interaction.

As for the upcoming years, experts are quite optimistic:

Therefore, mobile apps can be a lucrative investment – if developed effectively.

Current numbers indicate that there are 8.93 million apps. These have been downloaded 255 billion times by 2024.[5] Of these, however, only 0.5% of consumer apps tend to be successful [6]. While B2B apps fare a little better, only 13% succeed.[7]

Most experts highlight a variety of issues for such low numbers, including but not limited to –

• Designing apps without proper user research, therefore reducing their appeal to users

[1] Statista. “Number of Mobile App Downloads Worldwide from 2016 to 2023”. April 5, 2024. Laura Ceci.
[2] Statista. “Number of Smartphone Users Worldwide from 2014 to 2029”. August 20, 2024. J. Degenhard.
[3] Mejores Apuestas. “Global Mobile App Revenues to Jump by 55% and Hit $613B by 2025”. October, 20, 2021. Jastra Kran.
[4] Grand View Research. “Mobile Application Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Store (Google Store, Apple Store, Others), By Application (Gaming, Music & Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Social Networking), And Region, Segment Forecasts, 2024 – 2030”. July 8, 2024.
[5] BankMyCell. “How Many Apps are There in the World (2024)”. April 8, 2024. Ash Turner.
[6] Zippia. “What Percentage of Apps are Successful?”. June 29, 2022.
[7] Medium. “What Percentage of Mobile Apps are Successful?”. May 29, 2024. Mark Wood.

• Choosing the wrong platform for the app
• Ignoring the rapidly changing mobile application sector, resulting in apps that are not technologically relevant
• Delivering apps with poor user experience (e.g. poor navigation flow, illegible typography, and unresponsive gestures)

However, all of these are just different aspects that point toward poor app development.

Most appreneurs may make mistakes that lower their apps’ popularity and eat away at their potential profits. Especially if they blindly follow the recommendations of developers without doing their due diligence first.

There are thousands of online guides detailing steps such as understanding the target audience’s needs and planning monetization options. Majority of these, however, may miss out on vital aspects that make apps truly profitable.

There are four in particular appreneurs need to focus on if they wish to get the most value from their app development initiatives:

1. Understand the Development Process
2. Decide on the Right Technology Stack
3. Future-proof Apps with Technologies that Give Them an Edge
4. Determine the Best Engagement Model

In addition to understanding business goals and customers’ needs, appreneurs need to understand the actual app development process.

This is usually an afterthought as most entrust skilled developers with this task. However, this means business people miss out of numerous advantages, including:

• Better planning and scheduling
• Improved progress tracking
• Higher visibility into activities and deliverables
• Lower risks, especially those that impact costs and development speed

The above four benefits alone can add an edge to apps as they improve time-to-market while preventing additional costs. Moreover, if there are multiple stakeholders involved, added visibility and tracking will provide ample assurance to them.

So, what does the app development process entail? Each organization has its own set of steps that it follows. However, Agile organizations follow the approach depicted below.

Requirements gathering an iterative process where the development team and stakeholders define the needs, features, etc. of a mobile app.

Unlike traditional development approaches, the Agile methodology does not gather requirements from the start. Instead, this step is divided into multiple phases to allow continuous feedback and adjustments based on stakeholder input and evolving user needs.

This, in turn, ensures that apps align with the evolving needs of users and stakeholders, and ultimately enhance their success.

The next steps builds on requirements gathering to develop market-driven mobile apps that win over users: setting up design workshops, conducting market research, and developing usable products via product design.

Each of these terms plays a crucial role in the mobile app development process, helping to shape the app’s features, aesthetics, user experience, and overall fit in the market. Here’s a breakdown of each:

Design Workshops bring together the product team, designers, developers, and stakeholders to brainstorm, align on goals, and generate ideas for the app's design.

While a design workshop is usually conducted in the early stages of the project, it may also take place at different points where significant design decisions need to be made.

In addition to setting goals and prioritizing features, two main activities are carried out in a design workshop:

1. Persona and Scenario Development, which entails building user personas (fictional users) and scenarios to explore how an app will solve specific user problems
2. Sketching and Wireframing, which is where designers come up with quick, rough drawings or wireframes for visualizing the app’s structure and flow

As for Market Research, this process entails analyzing the competitive landscape, target audience, and trends to validate the app concept and inform design and development. It also helps determine whether there is demand for the app, who the competitors are, and how the app can differentiate itself.

As part of this research, the development team may conduct:

• Competitor Analysis to pinpoint competitors, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and find opportunities for differentiation
• Audience Analysis to understand different aspects related to target users such as their behaviors and pain points
• Studies on Trends and Insights for added clarity on trends related to appreneurs’ industry as well as tech and design
• Surveys and Focus Groups for collecting feedback that validates assumptions made during requirements gathering

Finally, Product Design is when the app’s actual design starts. This is when the ideas developed during the design workshop and market research are translated into tangible design assets that offer an intuitive, visually appealing, and functional user experience.
As part of this process, the following are created:

• User Experience (UX) Design, which usually covers the app’s layout, flow, and interactions to deliver an app that is easy to navigate and meets user needs effectively
• User Interface (UI) Design, which encompasses the app’s visual elements such as color schemes, typography, icons, and buttons
• Prototyping, which is the process of creating an interactive model that allows stakeholders to visualize and test design concepts

User experience (UX) focus groups refer to sessions where 5-10 individuals representing the app’s target users assess the UX, design, and features. A trained moderator uses structured questions and activities to reveal user sentiments and pain points that quantitative data (i.e. analytics) might miss.

With their feedback, the development team along with appreneurs gain a better understanding of users' perceptions, needs, behaviors, and preferences. Moreover, they can identify areas for improvement, usability issues, and any gaps between the intended use of an app and how users actually experience it.

Creating the product backlog is the step where a list of all features, enhancements, bug fixes, and technical work is created. In an Agile environment, the product owner maintains and prioritizes the backlog, ensuring the most valuable items are addressed first.

As new requirements emerge, the backlog undergoes changes. Existing items are refined, and priorities shift based on user feedback and project goals.

Each item within the product backlog is referred to as a "backlog item" or "user story”. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of functionality or tasks to guide the development team’s efforts in each sprint or iteration.

After defining the product backlog and user stories, it is time to start developing the app in sprints.

Part of Agile development, sprints are the time-boxed periods during which a development team works to complete a set of prioritized tasks from the product backlog. They are typically one to four weeks long, and aim to deliver a potentially shippable increment of the product with new features or improvements.

Sprints tend to have the following structure –

• Sprint Planning – At the start of each sprint, the team meets to select tasks from the product backlog. It then sets goals and creates a plan for achieving sprint objectives.
• Sprint Backlog – This is a prioritized list of tasks and user stories that are selected for a sprint.
• Development – This is the active phase where the team works on sprint backlog tasks, coding, testing, and refining to build a functional, potentially shippable increment.
• Sprint Review – The sprint review is scheduled at the end of the sprint so that the team can demonstrate completed work, collect stakeholders’ feedback, and discuss potential improvements for future sprints.

The user acceptance testing (UAT) demo presents the app’s features to end users or stakeholders to ensure it meets their requirements and expectations.

During this demo, users test the product in real-world scenarios to provide their feedback on functionality, usability, and any issues they encounter. As one of the final steps before launching the app, it further verifies that the product aligns with user needs and business goals.

To build a profitable mobile app, appreneurs need to carefully select the best technology stack for their needs.

A tech stack is the combination of technologies, programming languages, frameworks, and tools used to build and run a software application. It includes both front-end (client-side) and back-end (server-side) components, as well as any databases, APIs, and hosting services. A tech stack typically comprises:

The tech stack defines how a product is built, performs, and scales. In addition to the development process and product capabilities, it can influence its success.

Many successful apps have been developed using the tech stacks listed in the table below. Their growing popularity, along with their benefits, further ensures their use in many profitable apps in the future.

The successful creation and implementation of an app requires clear communication between decision makers and the technical team. That said, the former should understand what factors come to play in this decision.

In most cases, the budget is the foremost factor for making this decision. The following six factors, however, are just as important if not more so.

1. App’s Purpose – There needs to be a clear definition of the ‘problem’ this app is going to solve. While appreneurs can make changes to the features list later, they should determine the main purpose of the app. Based on this, they can identify the target audience, competition, list of features, and the ideal tech stack.
2. Performance – As performance is vital for user acceptance, it plays an essential role in choosing a tech stack. This element further influences other aspects of the app, such as its size and how fast the system reacts.
3. Security Features – Safety is one of the aspects that should not be compromised. Therefore, it needs to be addressed early on. Robust safety measures and data privacy features should be well defined to prevent information theft and, ultimately, preserve the reputation of the business. With more emphasis on safety, certain tech stacks may be eliminated from the decision pool.
4. App’s Complexity – Appreneurs should be able to communicate the level of complexity of their apps and plan accordingly. Complex apps tend to cache a huge amount of data, making tech stacks such as native mobile stacks a better choice.
5. Time to Market – The speed to launch an app can determine which tech stack to choose. For apps that need to reach the market quickly, a well-tested and flexible tech stack is ideal. For instance, Swift may be a better option than Objective-C in such cases.
6. Scalability – How an app will scale will determine the right choice for a tech stack. Decision makers should be able to identify if their apps need to scale vertically (i.e. require additional hardware), horizontally (need additional resources such as memory), or both. This is important as there is a tradeoff between modular-based development and the ability to scale or modify modules later on.

With a clear understanding of these six elements, it will be easier to make a decision on which tech stack to use. However, it is important to maintain full transparency during the discussion so that the technical team can provide effective input.

Some groundbreaking ideas may seem too precious to share fully. Yet withholding any details can backfire, impacting the future of the app during the initial development. Therefore, decision makers can protect their ideas with NDAs, iron-clad contracts, and the like, but maintain clear communication throughout.

For an app to be truly successful, it should remain installed on a user’s device. This can be a challenge considering the number of apps released to app stores daily. Therefore, it is important to consider implementing new technologies that offer apps an edge.

While there are many that appreneurs can add, the following are expected to make the largest impact on app development:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Internet of Things
• Cloud Computing
• Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality (VR)

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence by machines, especially computer systems. It enables the creation of systems capable that can handle tasks that typically need human intelligence such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and making decisions.

Despite initial fears of AI replacing the human workforce, its growth shows no indication of slowing down. In fact, the market for AI exceeded $184 in 2024 from $50 billion in 2023.[8] The technology has even established strong roots in different industries, including healthcare, finance, real estate, and retail.

As part of mobile app development, AI has a lot to offer, such as:

• Improving and personalizing user experience through streamlined interactions and intelligent algorithms
• Automating operations and manual work that is part of business processes
• Adding efficiency to mundane tasks such as managing workflows or answering queries

[8] Statista. “AI Market Size Worldwide from 2020-2030 (in Billion U.S. Dollars)”. June 20, 2024. Bergur Thormundsson.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is far from being a new technology. However, its applications have grown quite popular with the growing number of mobile devices, wearables, and the like. To be more precise, in 2024, the number of connected IoT devices increased by 13% to 18.8 billion.[9] Experts predict the number of devices to reach 40 billion by 2030.

By definition, IoT is a network of interconnected physical devices embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to collect and exchange data over the internet. The technology supports real-time monitoring, automation, and enhanced decision-making to enhance efficiency and convenience.

Currently, IoT combines with mobile app development to –

• Connect multiple smart devices and facilitate communication between them
• Carry out tasks based on input from mobile users
• Collect and manage the storage of data

This provides more control over IoT devices while adding to overall convenience. This can be seen in the following examples of IoT apps.

[9] IoT Business News. “State of IoT 2024: Number of connected IoT devices growing 13% to 18.8 billion globally”. September 4, 2024.

Another technology that mobile app innovators are relying on is cloud computing. This term covers a wide range of services that are delivered over the internet, or "the cloud." It enables users to access and manage resources on-demand without owning physical hardware.

By 2024, integrating cloud services in mobile applications became a strong trend. Especially considering benefits, which include:

• Eliminating storage restrictions caused by the physical capabilities of devices
• Adding flexibility and scalability to apps
• Ensuring the high availability of app assets
• Optimizing the overall performance of apps by avoiding slow loading times, lags, and unresponsive features

While it may seem as if cloud computing apps are limited to email and data storage apps, there are actually several types of mobile apps that can benefit from this technology. Here are a few examples.

Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) are effective technologies for delivering real-world experiences to mobile applications.

AR overlays digital information, such as images, text, or animations, onto the real world. That way, it enhances the physical environment without replacing it. On the other hand, VR creates a fully immersive environment, isolating users from the real world.

Both AR and VR technologies are expected to gain momentum in the upcoming years. Not only is the field expected to grow by CAGR of 8.97% in 2024-2029, but also the number of users will reach 3.7 billion users in 2029. [10]

With their widespread adoption, these technologies can enhance mobile apps through advantages such as:

• Creating immersive and personalized experiences that make interactions enjoyable
• Increasing user engagement rates
• Delivering seamless performance

Though gaming apps have benefited the most from VR and AR, they are not the sole use cases for these technologies. Here are some use cases to showcase their true potential in mobile apps.

[10] Statista. “AR & VR – Worldwide”. March 2024. Meredith Alda.

Engagement models play a vital role in an app’s success. By definition, these are structured frameworks defining how a client collaborates with an IT service provider to deliver a project or service. They outline responsibilities, timelines, pricing, communication, and resource allocation.

By choosing the right engagement model, appreneurs reap several advantages, including:

• Enhanced alignment of goals around the end results
• Improved collaboration with the different roles involved in creating the app
• Reduced risks through optimized resource usage
• Higher transparency
• Quicker time to market due to above benefits

Popular Types of Engagement Models

There are many types of engagement models available for app innovators to choose from. Some providers even have different names for their services. However, the most popular four models to pick from are:

1. Fixed Cost Projects
2. IT Staff Augmentation
3. Offshore Development
4. Service Level Agreement (SLA)/Milestone-Based Model

Fixed cost projects are those with a predetermined total price for delivering a specific scope of work. Both the client and the service provider agree on a fixed budget, timeline, and deliverables before the project begins.

The IT staff augmentation model allows companies to temporarily hire IT professionals to supplement their existing teams. Instead of outsourcing an entire project, the client borrows resources such as developers, testers, or other experts for a specific duration or to meet short-term project needs.

As for offshore development, this model entails outsourcing IT services to a company located in a different country. This model allows access to global talent, often at lower labor costs, and is used for software development, maintenance, or business process outsourcing.

Finally, the SLA/milestone-based model is a framework that divides projects into measurable milestones or stages, each with a specific deliverable and timeline. The SLA outlines the standards for performance, quality, and response times, ensuring that both parties are aligned on expectations. Payments or progress are tied to meeting milestones or SLAs, promoting accountability and transparency.

Here is a quick comparison of these engagement models to further highlight their strengths.

With many options available, choosing the best one for a project may seem like a challenge. This, however, can be countered by taking the following factors into consideration while making a decision:

• Project Scope and Complexity – Depending on a project’s scope and flexibility, appreneurs can choose the best model for their upcoming project. For instance, the fixed-cost model is best suited for projects with a clearly defined scope, fixed deliverables, and well-understood requirements. Meanwhile, offshore development is a better option for large, complex projects.
 

• Budget Constraints – Funding plays a vital role as it determines the budget, project’s parameters,and other important aspects of app development. IT staff augmentation can be a suitable option for clients with a flexible budget and uncertain requirements or timelines. Meanwhile, the SLA/milestone model promises better financial control by offering flexibility while ensuring payments are made for achieving set milestones.
• Project Timeline – The strictness of deadlines and the overall duration of a project matter. If a project has tight deadlines and well-defined deliverables, fixed cost can provide better time management. On the other hand, offshore models demand realistic timelines due to geographical and time zone differences.
• Control and Involvement – The time an appreneur can spare for the project needs to be taken into consideration. In a fixed cost project, the client typically has less day-to-day control but can rely on the service provider to manage the project. Alternatively, they can retain control over project management and day-to-day decision-making with IT staff augmentation and offshore development.
• Risk Tolerance – Who shoulders the most risk can vary between engagement models. For instance, the fixed cost model transfers most of the risk to the service provider, especially if the scope changes or unexpected issues arise. Meanwhile, the SLA/milestone-based model balances risk and reward. Both the client and development team share the risk as the project is broken into smaller tasks with measurable outcomes.

Creating profitable mobile applications can be within the reach of appreneurs, that too easily.

With a clear understanding of the development process, they gain insight into the journey head and get to plan accordingly. Choosing the ideal tech stack for their projects further help, along with selecting technologies that wow users.

With the planning done and the project taking a more defined form, bringing on a development team comes next. For that, knowing and selecting the right engagement model are imperative.

The right tech partner can further ensure the success of an app, especially if they are open to sharing their experience and expertise to help appreneurs achieve their goals. This may be as important as the four aspects detailed in this whitepaper. Therefore, appreneurs should not neglect this aspect as well.