As a business owner you may be asking yourself this question when it seems like the whole world is going mobile. There are some key points to consider in order to answer this question for your company.
The first thing to consider is your audience. What does your typical consumer look like? Nielson released a study in January 2012 with a sample of 20,000 consumers on reported smartphone ownership. The percent in each category is as follows:
- 66% of 25-34 year olds
- 54% of 18-24 year olds
- 53% of 35-44 year olds
If your target audience is not in these age groups, you may not want to proceed with an app. However, if your audience is in a saturated bracket, consider if you have a following or would be able to create one with a little work. One thing to try before investing in a mobile app would be to create an online presence through a website and Facebook. Would your company be able to use an app to “push” products and services to your followers? Would a mobile app give you a competitive advantage?
Google released some other interesting data to consider:
- Mobile searches have increased 4X since 2010, to over 100 billion mobile searches in 2011. Consumers are looking for information directly from their smartphones, often about local businesses, where to go and what to do.
- 36% of all restaurant searches are done on the mobile phone.
- 70% of smartphone users use their device while shopping in-store
- 53% of searchers purchase as a result of a smartphone search
- 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information
- As a result of looking for local information, 77% contact a business and 44% purchased
- By 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to get online
Does your business have the capability to benefit from this type of use to enhance shopping experiences, promote products or fill time-slots?
The last point to consider would be budget. Development costs can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the app. Meet with a development team to determine what functionality would be necessary and to craft the most useful tool for your business so your company’s costs will be returned exponentially.