Why So Many Apps Fail To Succeed On The App Store?

These thorough guidelines can help you build an app that meets the benchmarks set by Apple, ranging from the user interface, Apple wallet guidelines, marketing, and promotional artwork to comprehensive app review guidelines that ensure your mobile application gets approved and published at the earliest.

If you are not technically sound enough to understand these resources, you can always hire an iPhone app development company with professionals and experts to guide you from idea conceptualization to launching and managing a successful app on the App Store.

Weak Market and Audience Research

Wouldn't we all like to believe that the users will absolutely love our app? Harboring this assumption without having solid data to validate your argument can end up costing you a tremendous amount of money lost in a failed business initiative.

Long before you start the development process, it's necessary to have a deep understanding of who your target audience is and what they are looking for in an app like yours. This initial research will help you improvise and improve efficiency at every stage, from designing the user interface to planning a marketing strategy.

An app can have a diversified group of users. The better you are at identifying your primary demographics and build up user personas, the more you will be able to study their behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. This insight will help you design the user journey and experience based on facts and research.

An excellent way to cover your bases is to go for a minimum viable product development approach. It gives you a second chance at making changes until you modify your app to such an extent that users actually want to use it.

Wrong Choice of Platform

The two major app stores for iOS and Android have very explicit and intuitive interface guidelines. They both function in different ways and cater to distinguishable user demographics.   

You already understand your users a little better by looking at the smartphone they use.

Just the statistical data, for example, iOS users, are generally known to have higher income and are more educated than Android users, which will help you make more informed decisions.

This information may influence major decisions like planning your monetization strategy. If your app offers an in-app purchases option, iOS might be a more suitable platform for you.

Don't forget, the main aim of any app is to deliver a solution to a particular problem. And to provide an effective solution for a specific group of people, you need to understand how their behavior and motivators change with operating systems.

Lacking in Originality

We cannot ignore the fact that all major app stores are overflowing with vaguely similar apps while on the other hand, most of the highly successful apps have a compelling value proposition backing them up.

Hence, building an app that provides precisely the same features, in the same way, as many other apps do, makes no sense whatsoever.

Therefore, to increase your chance of success, find out the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and then come up with your own competitive advantage. A unique value proposition will help you carve your niche and gain user loyalty.

An excellent way to create your UVP is to opt for mobile app prototyping. It enables you to keep on try and testing new features and techniques to make your app a hit within the target market. Remember, iOS users already have millions of options, originality of idea will make them seek you, instead of the other way around.

Unpleasant User Experience

Building an app with unique features and functions is not enough. Great user experience has a bigger impact on the success of an app than one would think. At its core, your app should be intuitive. If performing basic functions is a struggle for users, it means your apps offers poor usability. Some other aspects of poor user experience, include:

• Long sign-up/ registration process
• Long loading time
• App performance problems
• Need for unnecessary user input to use a feature
• App features that are difficult to navigate

All successful apps have one common factor that they are designed to facilitate users. Make sure the features and user experience of your app are designed based on extensive understating of your audience and providing value to them. Hence, make sure your UX incorporates your business model and how your users engage and interact with the operating system and apps.

Insufficient Investment in Marketing

There is no doubt the App Store is a highly competitive market for new apps, and you cannot be expecting overnight success. Hence, before publishing the app, you need to have a launch strategy and advertising budget in place.

The more extensive research you do and translate it into creative marketing efforts, the better it will impact on acquiring and retaining new app users.

You need an inclusive marketing plan that includes a pre-launch, launch, and post-launch strategy.

Even before you launch the app, you need to work on creating anticipation and buzz within the target audience. It is critical to highlight the unique value the app offers. You have a small bracket of time to make an impression. Otherwise, you may lose out on gaining traction for your app altogether.

All these efforts go to waste if the launch strategy can't live up to the anticipation that was created at the pre-launch stage. Launching a mobile app isn't a one-time event. But, it's an ongoing process that requires improvements and regular efforts to ensure it continues to excite users.

Below Par Testing

It sure is rare to launch an app without any minor bugs. However, if you invest enough resources in QA before publishing the app, it will definitely ensure there are no major issues in the app.

At times a single crash is enough to make users never go back to using the app ever again. This also damages the reputation of your app as people go online and review it in a negative light.

To prevent such negative publicity and ensure your product lives up to the high expectation in terms of app functionality, quality, experience, and performance, make sure your app is tested on all important parameters.

Moreover, with the right tech firm backing you up, you can make sure a thorough and documented process is adopted to test your app for any technical or performance-based lacking. They will make sure your app is ready for the market because you might not get another chance. As for most smartphone users, if an app fails to impress them the first time, they are probably going to settle for one of the competitors.

The solution: A Right Partnership

Building an app requires an investment of thousands of dollars. Stepping into this extremely competitive landscape without a team of experts, who have done this before, backing you up, is not a good idea. The best option you have got to make your app successful on the App Store is to collaborate with an experienced and competent iPhone app development company.

From the idea conceptualization stage to designing, developing, testing, and launching, they will be able to use a user-centric approach and add more value to your vision using their diversified experience and industry knowledge.