Along with the development of the world, the Information technology industry plays a particularly important role, especially when all economic, political, social activities … are gradually digitized, the development of Mobile applications to serve the very large number of mobile users today are essential. According to a statistic from Statista on August 20, 2020, the number of smartphone users always increases year on year. By 2020, the number of smartphone users is estimated at 3.5 billion, an increase of more than 9% compared to 2019 and it is expected to reach 3.8 billion users by 2021. 

To reach such a huge number of online customers requires enterprises to build their own application through which they can market, sell, and care for customers in parallel with traditional sales activities. So what is a mobile application? What are the benefits of owning a mobile app on the market? Which mobile application development company has reputation and quality in the market? Through this article, we will briefly outline the most basic concepts so that you can understand more about mobile applications and the benefits that come with them, as well as top mobile application development in Vietnam – a prominent new destination in software outsourcing in Asia.

What is mobile app development?

Nowadays, many small and medium enterprises also invest in developing mobile applications to advertise and sell on online channels. In fact through the statistics show staggering numbers on the use of mobile applications:

- Mobile apps are expected to generate $581 billion in revenue by 2020 and are expected to reach $935 billion by 2023.

- There are more than 2.87 million applications on the Google Play store and 1.96 million applications on the Apple Store ready to serve the maximum needs of customers.

- Most users have more than 10 apps installed on their phones.

- Smartphone users spend 50% of their mobile app time in social and communications apps.

- 21% of millennials say they open their apps more than 50 times per day.

- Consumers spend the most on video apps.

- Nearly 90% of mobile internet time is spent in apps.

All statistics partly reflect that developing a mobile application is absolutely helpful for business growth. To program a mobile application you need to prepare carefully from the very beginning of your project idea until it is published on the store. Based on the cycle of a mobile application can be roughly divided into 8 main phases as follows:

Conceptualizing: This stage determines the effectiveness of the project and target group of customers through market survey.

Defining the goal: at this stage should define how your application will solve the problem? What features does the application have? Will the application run on Android or iOS platforms? Which are backend and frontend languages? 

Designing: this is the stage when the ideas are executed in design and coding. The wireframes and storyboards will be constructed in detail to best simulate the intended product.

Testing: after preliminary completion, this is the test operation phase and detect errors if any, this stage repeats until the application can operate in the most smooth way.

Pre-launching: select a group of target customers and let them experience the application, monitor and record the comments from the end users' perspective to complete the application before the official launch.

Official release: launch app on the store, by signing an agreement with the store you will be allowed to update your app on the market.

Maintenance and upgrade: after a market launch, the most important thing is to see customer feedback, keep working on the app and patch, update regularly.

Why You Should Invest in Mobile App Development?

Nowadays, mobile apps developed for popular operating systems help your business generate brand awareness and loyalty to a huge number of potential customers around the world. This is not only a trend but also a tool to help you increase your ability to compete with your competitors. Here are the top reasons why enterprise needs to invest in mobile application development.

Build brand awareness and recognition: what any enterprise wants is their brand awareness as much as possible. By posting their app to the store and with a high frequency of traffic a lot of visitors come through and they are attracted to the business application. This is considered the effective frequency in advertising.

Building customer loyalty and trust: with the development of technology, customers can be influenced by many different advertising sources from outside such as Facebook, advertising on Youtube, Google ads, ... the fact that enterprise have 1 channel of direct interaction with their customers through mobile applications is essential, so that enterprise will take care of their customers more carefully, giving customers a feeling of being favored, thereby building strong trust.

Unique experience: Traditional retail industry is too familiar to customers, but through mobile applications, today's retail industry is perceived in a completely new way, anticipating the trend, helping enterprises to minimize many costs incurred such as renting a showroom, building a store, hiring staff, ... Mobile applications that drive processes and digital modeling help cut costs and increase profits.

Convenient communication and payment methods: through mobile apps, enterprises can send push notifications to customers about promotions, offers, schedule appointments, remind appointments and update information. In addition, enterprises also integrate mobile payment methods into the application to make transactions more friendly, secure and flexible.

There are many other benefits that a mobile application can bring to enterprises as well as their users. With such practical benefits, it is a shortcoming if enterprises do not have an application for themselves to participate in the online market of the technology era.