However, the mobile realm is not just a land of milk and honey. It presents a series of conceptual, design, and production challenges that need to be faced before you can talk about any success. According to a report by CIO, nearly 80% of apps are abandoned after the first use, and 90% of users uninstall them within 15 days of downloading. So, how can you smoothly and painlessly enter the world of mobile apps? What should you watch out for when making such a significant investment? And finally, what changes will the year 2023 bring in this regard? If you want to be among the 20% of lucky ones whose products still thrive on smartphones, don’t create a mobile strategy haphazardly. Instead, follow trends and rely on the knowledge and experience of specialists.

The costs of creating a mobile app largely depend on its functionality and complexity level. To build a solution that is fast, responsive, and in line with the best UX practices, developers opt for native products, which means creating two separate apps for iOS and Android platforms. However, doubling the work also means doubling the cost for the company responsible for executing the project and a longer implementation time, which may not always be cost-effective.

Before deciding on the right platform, analyze the market your app is targeting, consider the preferences of your chosen target audience, and think about the monetization method. According to Statista, iOS users are more willing to spend money within apps. It is also the dominant system among customers in the USA. On the other hand, Android captures 70% of the market share in mobile operating systems, indicating that it’s used by the majority of smartphone owners worldwide.

Lack of a precise decision in this matter can be solved by a third available option – a hybrid app built with the Flutter technology, which allows deploying the product on both platforms with the help of a single team, project, and codebase.

We suggested this solution to our client IPH from the Eurocash Group, understanding their needs during product workshops. The company aimed to create a universal, innovative app with the ability to adapt uniquely to different store networks, ultimately saving them time and money.

Although it may seem that the mobile gaming market is constantly growing, statistics show that in 2022 its users spent $167 billion – still a significant amount, but 5% less than in 2021. Interestingly, gaming apps were downloaded a whopping 255 billion times, representing an 11% increase compared to the previous year.

How did other mobile solutions fare during the same period? It turns out that spendings in other types of apps, particularly messaging ones, streaming services, and dating platforms, increased by 6%.

This data shows that the market is dynamically changing, and along with it, there’s also a twist in users’ needs. Today’s mobile product recipients are accustomed to increasingly convenient and efficient solutions, rejecting those that don’t meet their requirements. Therefore, before giving life to a new app, consider whether your target user really needs it and what can be done to make it as useful as possible. Will it fill a specific gap in the industry? Or perhaps existing competitive products are not sufficiently refined, and you can come up with a better solution?

Our client, InPost, seized the right moment in the logistics services market, introducing an app that millions of users enjoy today. It seamlessly connects with Paczkomat® lockers and allows for contactless parcel pickup. The results of their actions were not a stroke of luck but rather the outcome of meticulous business analysis, which enabled us to guide InPost through the various steps of digitization, considering market needs and end-user requirements.

Today, the InPost Mobile app has over 10 million downloads, a 5.0 rating in the App Store by 600k users, 1st place in the App Store and Google Play in the Shopping category, and over 50 different awards, including the Mobile Trends Awards for the best mobile app in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The company shows no signs of slowing down and, with the help of the iteo design team, continually improves its product, actively responding to feedback and the wishes of its users.

According to Gartner’s research, within the next 4 years, Total Experience (TX) will become the business model for approximately 60% of large enterprises. The company predicts that by 2024, businesses that excel in implementing TX strategies will outperform the competition in terms of customer satisfaction by 25%. However, to explain what exactly this enigmatic strategy is and how it can serve us in creating a digital product, it’s worth breaking it down into its fundamental components.

A crucial element of any mobile application is a well-crafted User Experience (UX). It is through UX that a product becomes intuitive and user-friendly, fostering customer loyalty and positive brand associations. Equally important is Customer Experience (CX), which involves aligning the application with customers’ needs and expectations, as well as Multi Experience (MX), which entails understanding different communication channels and interaction types for each user category. Total Experience encompasses these three aspects while placing additional emphasis on Employee Experience (EX) – a satisfied employee equipped with convenient tools for customer interactions directly impacts the experience of the customer.

Moving to the heart of the matter – 2023 and the following years will demand much more than a polished UX for mobile applications. Companies aiming to stay ahead in the race for customers should start familiarizing themselves with the TX strategy, which, although more complex and challenging to implement, has the greatest potential to deliver tangible results and return on investment.

The modern world strives for applications to be like Swiss Army knives – increasingly useful and capable of performing a variety of tasks within one solution. That’s why the rising trend of super apps is gaining popularity. Although initially targeted primarily at Generation Z, who were born in the smartphone era and demand efficient and user-friendly solutions, Gartner predicts that by 2027, they will be actively used by over 50% of the global population. Forward-thinking organizations are already introducing such solutions, and the market will undoubtedly expand to include corporate mobile and desktop super apps as well.

What is the phenomenon behind them? They serve as a great magnet for demanding customers who want to solve as many problems as possible in the shortest time and in one place – in this case, within a single interface that combines e.g.  online shopping, mobile payments, and a social network. Replacing multiple mobile products with one that integrates many mini-apps added and removed according to individual user needs is the future of mobile applications, and it is happening right before our eyes.

Investment in mobile can’t be a spontaneous decision based on intuition. Creating mobile solutions involves hours of consultation, analyzing a company’s current capabilities, industry, user profile, available technologies, trends, and the requirements that need to be met. It is a challenging conceptual work that we undertake with a client during product workshops, laying a strong foundation for a digital product that has the potential to meet the expectations of a rapidly evolving market.

So, how do you invest wisely? First and foremost, in the right order – conduct research, consult with specialists, and then proceed with the project implementation.