Nowadays, it’s practically impossible for most kinds of business to get away without a website. This tool guides customers to your business, while also ensuring that you have have a place to put information about the work which you do. Of course, though, technology is always changing, and today’s trends involve things going a little more specific. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring mobile apps, along with the challenges which will need to be overcome by the first small businesses to hit this side of the market.

Compatibility: One of the key problems with mobile phone apps is the environments which they have to run on. There are three major players in the world of smartphone operating systems; Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Each of them requires its own programming languages and compilers to produce a working app for it. This means that companies have to put together three versions of their application if they want everyone to be able to use it, costing a small fortune in the process.

Scalability: It’s easy to create an app out of a website or using a cheap DIY tool, but this sort of route tends to come with some issues. Being able to scale an app like this is almost impossible, as it won’t be built with growth in mind, and often won’t give you access to the source code which enables it all to work. It takes professional app developers to be able to make a piece of software which can grow with your business. Of course, though, this isn’t cheap, and is set to get more expensive as more and more companies start making their own apps.

The Stores: Getting an app onto the Android platform is nice and easy, and everyone with a Google account has the power to get started right away. When it comes to Apple and Windows, though, you need to put a lot more work into it, with a lot of companies having their apps rejected for small things like fonts and text sizing. Following the standards of these platforms is incredibly hard, as they will change every couple of months to include new rules which app owners have to follow.

Functionality: There isn’t much point in working hard to create a great looking mobile app if you can’t find anything to do with it. You need to have a purpose for your app, whether it’s selling your products or offering something else to users, or it will be impossible to convince people to download it. Some people prefer apps, whereas others will want to limit the installs on their phone. This means that you have to work very hard to show people that they will get something out of working with you.

Hopefully, this post will inspire you to start working harder on the time which goes into your company’s web presence. As time goes on, it’s always a good idea to learn about trends like this, even if you never plan to use it. Of course, though, this may mean having to invest some serious time.