Developers make five times more money with a "great" app -- defined as one that doesn't crash, conserves power, saves time and provides quick access to features -- than a merely "good" app, according to Forrester Consulting. The company recently conducted a survey for IBM of 1,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and India, as well as a number of companies and mobile professionals.
- 55 percent of consumers say a "great" app is one that does not crash, freeze or display an error.
- Great apps add six points to revenue across other channels, such as a website or a store.
- Great apps in the business category can decrease operational costs by 29 percent and boost productivity by 44 percent.
- Great apps also improve customer loyalty rates by 15 percent over good apps.
"In order to win, serve, and retain customers with a mobile app, organizations must understand what customers expect and align their development efforts and investments to meet those expectations," the study said. "There is no question that enterprises are working hard to create mobile apps that resonate with their customers. However, for the second year in a row, enterprises haven't quite synchronized with what consumers say they want. This disconnect means that enterprises will not get their mobile app to answer their customers' needs and demands -- and that means another year of lagging behind competitors who reap the benefits of a great app."
If some of this data seems a little nebulous, there's a reason. The percentage of "great" apps mentioned throughout the study were self-rated by those who made them, while it was the consumer responses that really provided the statistics on baseline expectations. As the report's authors admit, the line between good and great can be blurry, though the suggestion here was that a "great" app would be flawless in terms of not crashing, as opposed to one that crashed occasionally. The real point of this research seems to be helping IBM convince enterprises that they should spent more on app development -- which could be good for indie developers who want to expand into contract work on such projects. Just make sure you brand yourself as one of the all-time greats.
For more:
- see the full report here
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