Why Mobile App Maintenance Matters
It can take a tremendous amount of time, money, and effort to create a mobile app, and there is no guarantee that your app will succeed. It’s hard to imagine that there was a point in time where there were only 500 apps on the Apple App Store (this was the case in 2008). A decade later, there were 20 million registered iOs developers attempting to create mobile apps of all kinds, to cater to the massive demand created by over 5 billion mobile users in the world. It’s easy to see why many businesses began to pivot and realize that a mobile app might be vital to their long-term success.
Unfortunately, many businesses seem to believe that all of the work is done once the app is live. Anyone who truly understands mobile apps would recognize that this is a fatal mistake, and that mobile app maintenance is required for those who truly hope for their apps to remain relevant. Here are the reasons why long-term mobile app maintenance matters, no matter what kind of app you are creating and launching.
Cater To The User
You might think that your work is done once the app is launched, but that certainly isn’t the case for many apps. In fact, are you aware that over 70% of apps are uninstalled within 90 days? Just because a user downloads your app, it doesn’t mean that they will remain satisfied with it. This is one of the reasons why prioritizing the user experience can help you achieve some long-term results with your mobile app.
There’s a good chance that you’ve been frustrated with bugs and crashes in a particular app, and decided that it may no longer be worth your time. You should address any issues within your app to make sure that it keeps working smoothly. If you fail to do so, this will undoubtedly affect your mobile app retention rate.
Stay Ahead Of The Competition
Your app might be absolutely incredible, but there’s a good chance that you will have competition of some kind. If your competition is consistently addressing the user experience, and also adding incredible new features - you might find that you begin losing market share quickly. If you are serious about staying ahead of the competition, mobile app maintenance is a must.
This is one of the reasons that app store optimization has become an important trend. It’s important to be constantly making sure that your app works well on various platforms and operating systems, and that you have some kind of way to offer customer support. Let’s say that you spend thousands of dollars on an incredible marketing campaign, only to find that your app isn’t properly working. Your competition may take advantage of this blunder, and it can end up doing long-term damage to your brand
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the mobile app industry isn’t just about creating mobile apps - it’s about working to constantly improve them. This is the reason why some of the most successful apps in the world update 1-4 times a month, and include bug fixes and new features to make sure that user feedback is incorporated and implemented. You may think that app maintenance is too costly, but you might end up finding that refusing to acknowledge app maintenance is a fatal mistake.
If you want long-term success with a mobile app, it means tracking its success over time, and identifying where and why users might be using it less or uninstalling the app. Many compare building an app to building a house - it might cost a lot in terms of initial investment, but you will have to spend more money every year for overall maintenance and upkeep. An incredible mobile app can do wonders for revenue, and mobile app maintenance should not be taken lightly whatsoever.