A mobile App, short for application, is a piece of software which fills the need of a group of consumers. Apps are used both on mobile devices and tablets and are there formally, to ease the use of a particular website or program. To simplify even more; ‘An APP is nothing more than a “shortcut” to me’ (comment posted on an online forum).

An app is a great relief to complex webpages. Navigation can be altered to ease the flow of information, allowing your customer to access exactly what they want in the least amount of time. In ecommerce, it allows you to frequently update information such as special offers – keeping those frequent flyers informed on all of your business’ updates. From this one may gather that apps increase the overall customer experience.

Apps are very compelling for retail businesses. They often offer a real-time, location-based service, which allows you a potential competitive advantage. This innovation has worked particularly well with the coffee shop, Starbucks, which replaces the customer loyalty card with a digital format, adding the option of paying with the barcode displayed on your mobile screen, loading credits to your ‘card’ to simplify in-store transactions.

It is easy to confuse an App with a mobile optimised website. Apart from being accessed via mobile devices the two have little in common. Thanks to responsive design, websites can easily cater to the frequent mobile user, without incurring your business the additional expenditure that is designing and maintaining a mobile app.

An App which failed quickly was Evernote Hello. Evernote itself is an App which keeps your administrative tasks organised by syncing all of your devices and text notes, it allows you to scan business cards, digitise your documents and post-it notes as well as sharing notes with people via your social networks. Then Evernote launched Evernote Hello – which primarily fails because it serves no real purpose. It records a list of people you interact with on a monthly basis, not truly something handy at all.

App consideration check-list:

Do your clients need access to your website on a daily basis?
Is the information you need to display too complex for a mobile-friendly website?
Do you have frequent information updates?
Do your customers actually use smartphones?
Are you involved in ecommerce or retail?
Do you have the resources to build your own app?
What is your budget?

Apps are best reserved for businesses who offer the kind of service that is used on a daily basis. This is why banking, weather and news apps are so popular. At the end of the day, while an App may grant you competitive advantage, if it is not well thought out, or if it does not fulfil an underlying market need – it is both a waste of budget and time.

Mari Roelofse is a Digital Journalist & Content Editor for Sound Idea Digital | mari@soundidea.co.za | Sound Idea Digital | www.soundidea.co.za