Nowadays, everyone is well aware of the concept of mobile applications. With the launch of smartphones and different categories of models and Operating Systems (OS), users have started to spend most of their time on mobile phones, exploring different kinds of applications. These mobile applications are beneficial and essential as they have provided ways of facilitating daily life tasks efficiently and effectively. In this article, we will be reviewing what a mobile application is, why mobile app maintenance is necessary, and how much the service or mobile app maintenance costs in 2023. So without any further delay, let’s start with our topic.
What Is A Mobile Application?
By definition, a mobile application (or mobile app) is known as a software application or a computer program. The goal of developing a mobile app is for these apps to function successfully on small devices like smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc.
Developing mobile applications has become an integral part of every industry’s functioning. Currently, there are more than 2.87 million apps available for users. Since companies and businesses are looking forward to adopting technological and modern ways of advancement, industries like the education industry, healthcare industry, real estate industry, and many more sectors are hiring professionals from a mobile app development company to fulfill the task of creating a top-quality mobile app.
Mobile applications of all sorts have different useful features relating to the services they are made for. For instance, a mobile app made for healthcare purposes might include the facility of booking appointments with available doctors online, and a mobile application made for the banking sector would have the feature of making successful transactions in no time.
What Is Mobile App Maintenace?
Maintenance is pretty much crucial for everything. Just like physical products or objects need maintenance, so do technical products and services.
If you are someone who has been using mobile applications frequently, you might be familiar with times when suddenly your application would stop working, and you would be redirected to the home screen of your phone. There might have also been times when you would get a notification to update the app to get new features.
Well, in this case, you partially know how mobile app maintenance works because this is the time when your app is being updated for the following reasons:
- Adding new features, improving its functional services, fixing bugs, etc.
- Another reason includes maintaining the application’s compatibility with evolving operating systems and gadgets.
- The application’s security and dependability are ensured, and users receive the best possible technical assistance.
- It adds up to the value of user satisfaction, retention, engagement, and success of the application.
Why Is It Important To Update Mobile Applications?
People often ask about the importance of maintaining a mobile application. They have the misconception that if an application is already fully developed, then why does it require application maintenance services? Or if there were flaws in the initial stages, why not fix them then?
Well, the thing is that mobile app maintenance is essential because certain features are not introduced when the app is launched, or sometimes bugs appear from nowhere, which requires the developers to update the application immediately. In this section, we will review why it is important to update mobile apps frequently.
- Making Applications Updated
- Reducing The Chances Of Uninstalling
- Improving User Experience
- Adding To The ROI Rate
- Improving The Overall Security
- Battling With Downtime And Loss
Making Applications Updated
The first point of mobile app maintenance that is important is to update the app whenever it is needed. This might include following the latest trends, adding current features, or improving the overall functionality of an application. Updating a mobile app makes it possible for the application to stay on the market for a longer time.
Reducing The Chances Of Uninstalling
If your app is showing bugs, not serving the purpose it is meant to, or is outdated in terms of features, There is a big chance of users deleting their accounts and uninstalling their apps. This is why it is necessary to avail yourself of application maintenance services regularly.
Improving User Experience
Mobile applications, be they of any kind, have one common purpose, and that is to provide the best quality user experience. With frequent mobile app maintenance, companies make sure that their UX design is maintained. This increases customer satisfaction and revenue.
Adding To The ROI Rate
Making sure that the Return On Investment (ROI) rate is being achieved is one of the top concerns of a mobile app development company. However, maintaining and updating an application makes it possible, as it assures customer retention.
Improving The Overall Security
Maintaining a mobile application has a lot to do with managing security. Threats to security change along with the rise in technological advancements. Your app can stay protected from potential hacks and vulnerabilities with regular upgrades. This also helps companies stay updated on the privacy policies of the platform the app is deployed on.
Battling With Downtime And Loss
Downtime for mobile apps often results in heavy revenue losses. Mobile app maintenance also helps in strategically handling downtime losses by curtailing them beforehand.
How Frequent Should A Mobile Application Be Updated?
Another frequently asked question regarding application maintenance services is how often a company or industry should hire professional and skilled developers to update their app. Well, there are some routine or schedule categories that can be considered while opting for upgrading services.
- Regular Mobile App Updates
- Bug Fix Mobile App Updates
- Launching New Features Mobile App Updates
- Scheduled Or Occasional Mobile App Updates
Regular Mobile App Updates
Regular mobile app updates include routine maintenance of a mobile application by developers to check the functionality and modify the working patterns.
Bug Fix Mobile App Updates
This category includes updated mobile applications whenever a bug or error is identified by developers or reported by users. The focus here is to debug the app and eliminate technical errors.
Launching New Features Mobile App Updates
Since the world of technological competition moves at a fast speed, Developers often consider mobile app maintenance when they want to launch new and innovative features in an app.
Scheduled Or Occasional Mobile App Updates
Lastly, this schedule category for application maintenance includes developers opting for an occasional mobile app check-up.
What Are The Top Benefits For Developers To Maintain An App?
There are multiple advantages to maintaining and updating a mobile application regularly. Here, we will discuss some of these points.
Helps improve Software Libraries
The first benefit of maintaining mobile apps is that it helps improve the software libraries. A software library is known as a source of prewritten code, configurations, and procedures. These libraries may be used to build visual and text communication protocols. They also predict how programs will behave once they have been installed.
Software libraries in mobile apps may become outdated after a certain time. To ensure that the program continues to run at its peak speed, app maintenance helps update these libraries at all times.
Better User Interface And User Experience
Another benefit of upgrading applications is that developers can easily customize the user interface of the application. They can add visually appealing graphics, helpful icons, change layouts, etc. In other words, updating the UI design of a mobile app leads to increased satisfaction with the user experience.
Increasing The Chances Of App Longevity
As we all know, there is an increased number of mobile apps that are being developed and launched in app stores on a daily basis. In such a competitive world, there are high chances that your app might get lost in the crowd. However, if you opt for regular application maintenance services, your mobile app will always stay at the top of the list among app stores and users.
A Way To Gain User Trust
Users of any mobile application want their opinions and feedback to be heard. If they do not feel a sense of belonging, they might turn to different apps serving the same purpose but with better customer handling strategies.
Mobile app maintenance also opens the doors for companies and developers to gain the trust of users by meeting their needs and resolving their issues.
Improves App Security
To make sure that the app is protected from unwanted efforts like hacking and malware, the services of a mobile app development company are necessary. An app has to be built with advanced security measures and tested using different tools to identify any sort of issue in the coding.
Mobile app maintenance focuses on achieving optimum security by practicing system updates, app updates, and upgrades to the most recent versions of app-security tools.
Keeping Up With The Operating System
The operating systems of different mobile companies keep changing and upgrading. For app developers, it is essential that their mobile app is compatible with the current operating system of smartphones. Maintaining a mobile app also has the benefit of making it ready in no time.
What Are The Types Of Mobile App Maintenance?
Moving further in the article, we will now be reviewing a list of the types of services and solutions that mobile app development or mobile app maintenance companies provide. Some of them are.
- Emergency mobile app maintenance.
- Perfective mobile app maintenance.
- Adaptive mobile app maintenance.
- Preventive mobile app maintenance.
- Corrective mobile app maintenance.
Some Of The Best Practices For Application Maintenance Services
Moving on, there are some practices that are known to be essential and necessary for having fruitful results in mobile app maintenance. These practices include the following methods:
- New Features
- UI Updates
- Checking Up On Performance
- Scheduled Maintenance Of The App System
1. New Features
Continuously adding new features and updates to the app is one of the best practices for mobile app maintenance. For instance, an e-commerce application can add the feature of cataloging or categorization.
2. UI Updates
Mobile app developers make sure to follow the latest trends in UI design in order to provide the most trendy and aesthetically pleasing mobile apps for users.
3. Checking Up On Performance
Another practice massively followed by developers for upgrading a mobile application is checking up on the performance or functionality of different elements and sections of the app. For instance, checking the performance of patent methods, verification systems, two-factor authentication, push notifications, etc.
4. Scheduled Maintenance Of The App System
Scheduling the application maintenance services helps developers identify and come up with solutions for bugs that could appear in the near future. It also helps in maintaining a healthy relationship with users, as you can inform them about the update beforehand. In this way, they will not be misunderstood.
How Much Does It Cost To Maintain An App In 2023?
One of the most frequently asked questions and concerns that companies and industries have is how much it costs to maintain a mobile application on a regular basis.
The answer to this question is pretty simple. Professionals in the app development sector always recommend companies and businesses devote at least 15 to 20 percent of their total cost of mobile app development to mobile app maintenance. The reason for not giving a fixed number is that the criteria of mobile app development and maintenance companies differ from each other as they have set criteria on the basis of different factors.
However, professionals do recommend some ways through which the cost of mobile app maintenance can be reduced.
- The first solution is to opt for an outsourcing mobile app development company rather than having an in-house team.
- The second solution is to initially develop an app with minimal features and then add additional features and updates. This way, they can strategically manage and balance their budget.
Bottom Line
There is no harm in accepting the fact that mobile app maintenance is as important and necessary as mobile app development for industries. It is high time that businesses that want to aim toward growth and progress acquire the services of a reputable mobile app development company like Celect Studios to avail themselves of the best app upgrades.
