As A Business Owner, How Likely are you to get a Mobile App?

I just want to gauge the interest that business owners may have regarding a mobile application. Also if you guys want to add to this questions, let me know how much you would actually pay for one!

Thanks!

 

As of two weeks ago, I worked for one of the largest (if not the largest) media companies in Chicago (advertising). Now, I work for another one of the largest digital/online advertising companies in the United States. What I find interesting is that they both said that at least 50% of their business come from mobile apps/tablets.

With that said, I am starting a second website and the first thing I said is: I've got to get a mobile app for the site... Or, make it dynamic enough that the site is responsive.

This is very important because the digital medium is moving to the forefront. I used to work for newspapers and print media. The future is in digital medium, at least in the United States.

 

Well, I hope it's not too expensive, 'cause I'm gonna need one of these! I haven't even started to shop around yet.

 

I've thought about looking into this but gave up the idea fairly quickly. Personally I think smartphones are fairly well adapted by now and you can view almost any site as its designed just using the browser, so for our site itself I let it go. What we may end up doing though is an app for our users to monitor/control their VPS/dedi/colo servers using it. Whether I would actually pay for it or try to develop it in-house, I likely would try the latter option to save costs and gauge customer interest in the app.

 

I'd say 1500-2000 USD for a suitable mobile application to enable your customers to manage their services, support tickets and what not directly with your company can indeed be a great feature to users especially that now days the majority of people depend solely on their mobile apps since they are almost hands free from their mobiles and tablets, I myself manage most of the network work on my smartphone, its just very handy, so I'm sure that can kick some good sales in.

 

Thanks, I am trying to start a company with some great support, communications, but best of all, an affordable price that each and every person/business can afford. All with a great support plan.

Anyways, thanks for the great answer!

 

http://www.como.com/

You should take a look at their service. They allow business owners to create apps without prior programming experience. This a great move.

But as a builder of technology you have to start thinking of where the USERS are going instead of where the companies are going, because after all, the companies are going to follow the users anyway!

for instance.

your question: does a company want a mobile app?
a better question: if every company had a mobile app, would a user download them all?

you have to think better in terms of where the users are going, what their pain points are, and how to fix them at scale.

you have to start thinking in terms of niches and platforms.

Like this:

does a doctor want an app, if so why? (niche)
possible answer: yes, because I could send push notifications on them and send private messages to my clients.

if one doctor wants this, could I build one app that allows any doctor to manage his clients in this way? (platform)
possible answer: yes, and i could charge for this service.

you are asking good questions, but you have to ask better questions. and you must think in terms of niches and platforms.

good luck

-twothirdsreturn

 

Great points to put up, and something that I will for sure look into. This is a field that is still new, and although large companies may have apps, I envision that one day, every business is able to put out apps. Either way, thank you so much for good tips and insight!