Mobile app development

Outsource mobile application development is a complicated and time-consuming process that includes the following stages:

• projecting and design;
• development;
• testing;
• publication;
• support.

Development is the longest and most important of these stages. It is at this stage that an idea becomes a functioning product. But in order to get a reliable, scalable app, one needs an experienced team of specialists.

Team of outsource developers

Depending on the project requirements, a basic or extended team of experts is required. The core team typically includes a project manager, UI / UX designer, several programmers and a quality assurance engineer. If an application requires development of a server part and integration with external systems, the team is joined by a backend developer and a web developer.

Mobile application development methodology

The process of app development is similar to the process of website creation. Depending on peculiarities of the project and the customer needs, different methods and approaches to development are applied, such as AGILE MODEL (SCRUM) or WATERFALL CASCADE MODEL.

Technical complexity

A variety of reasons can increase the technical complexity of the project:

• integration with third-party libraries and services for example, to implement payment functions or chat rooms);
• backend development and configuration of the server part;
• realization of purchases through the app;
• development of an administrative panel for content management and statistics collection;
• availability of components such as GPS, heart rate sensors, accelerometers, etc. in the app;

Any additional function increases the technical complexity and requires testing of various components with the software. This increases the time for development and, accordingly, affects the price.

Customer side development

The interface is what the users will eventually interact with. In order for the functions stated in the specification document to work smoothly and meet the user expectations, it is necessary to take into account a large number of different factors and implement all this with the help of the code.

Number of devices and OS

Modern smartphones have different characteristics and parameters. Customizing the app for different screen sizes, resolutions and specifications takes a significant amount of time. This problem is particularly urgent when it comes to developing an application for the Android platform. The market of Android smartphones is represented by numerous manufacturers. Development of an app that will work equally well on most Android devices is a complex and expensive task. There are fewer devices running on iOS, so often the price of creating the apps for iOS is lower.

You can optimize your expenses if you create a product that will be compatible with the most popular smartphone models and OS versions from the beginning.

Application development cost

The main factor that affects the final price of an app is the amount of time spent on the development. The more hours the experts spend on the work, the more expensive the final product will be. To understand how much time it will take to develop an app, you need to analyze three key factors:
How to reduce your development budget

• Establish your minimum viable product (MVP) aspects. It is not necessary to do something big; unexpected turns usually happen after the start. The fewer functions you have, the easier it is to adjust.
• Focus on the target. Spend a week to describe all possible functions. After that, spend the same amount of time, one more week, on removing superfluous things. If the question “Will the application achieve its goal without it?” has the positive answer, don't hesitate to drop it.
• Consider the possibility of implementing a cross-platform application. Sometimes it makes sense for the MVP and almost halves the budget when implementing the product on two platforms at once, such as iOS and Android.
• Perhaps, a mobile website version is enough to achieve your goal. Sometimes it is enough to start and confirm the market hypothesis.