Five Reasons to Future-Proof Your Mobile App… and How to Do It

Don't assume your app will still be relevant in six months. Instead, take steps to protect your app's future with a mobile app management process.

It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of mobile apps don’t get upgraded enough. Unless we’re talking about Angry Birds or Weather Bug, most apps are out of date and out of favor within months of their launch date. And that’s a serious waste of developers’ time and money.

Don’t assume that today’s app will still be relevant in six months. Organizations should take steps to ensure that regular updates are part of an ongoing mobile app management process.

Here’s why it makes sense to focus on mobile app management:

1. Retention, Retention, Retention
   Consumers lose interest in mobile apps very quickly. As an example, mobile veteran Christina Cordova points out that the popular social gaming app Draw Something had 36.5 million active monthly users connected to Facebook in April of 2012. Nine months later it has less than six million. In order to hold consumers’ attention, developers have to update apps regularly to keep them from going stale.
2. New Priorities
   Priorities change. Consider a financial services app. A banking institution may want to promote IRA services in advance of the spring tax season, but then highlight mobile check cashing as a priority feature in the summer months. Apps need to be flexible in order to reflect evolving business goals.
3. New Features
   Even when an organization’s priorities stay the same, there’s always an opportunity to introduce new mobile features and functions. Sometimes it’s appropriate to launch an entirely new mobile app, but most of the time it makes more sense to update an existing one. By updating an app, developers can introduce new mobile options while still taking advantage of an already-established user base.
4. New Time of Year
   There’s nothing worse than being confronted with reminders of summer when you’re stuck in the throes of a very cold winter. Angry Birds pushes out updates according to the season, and most other apps could benefit from the same approach, even if the updates are only cosmetic. Apps that change with the times stay relevant to mobile users.
5. New Transactions
   Mobile apps are an excellent vehicle for transactions. If an organization’s goal is to drive greater transaction volume, then keeping users engaged with a mobile app is a good way to do it. Transactions depend on engagement, which in turn often depends on keeping an app fresh and interesting.

Using a mobile experience management platform, organizations can now push out updates in real time without worrying about additional coding or needing to resubmit to an app store. Instead of publishing apps that quickly lose consumer interest, companies should use a mobile app management process to focus on maintaining quality and continuing to deliver more value over time. It’s a feasible goal with new technology tools available now. The result means more value for the consumer, and more value for your business.

Author

Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she led a variety of marketing and communications projects at San Francisco startups. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After living nearly a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned to her home of Charleston, SC, where you can find her enjoying the sun and salt water with her family.