Study of Mobile App Development Industry

We are living in an era where a lot of disruptive technologies that change the entire perspective of the market are arriving very often. One such is the emergence of Mobile App Development, which completely changed the way users utilized software. Even though software development generally meant a stand-alone or Web application in the past, now it has enormous space given to Mobile App Development. Standalone technologies demanded the user to have a Personal Computer at least, with them to utilize their applications. However, since the platform on which an app can be deployed is just a mobile phone, the target audience for this type of application development becomes manifold. App development that targets handheld devices has now become a standard by which services reach the target audience faster since almost everyone has access to a mobile device. The App Development industry has only grown in leaps and bounds ever since its inception. This paper discusses in detail the Mobile App Development Industry and its predominance in India. Objectives: To analyse and understand the Mobile App Development Industry worldwide and in India, to understand the preference, usage, revenue, cost, and scope of App Development in India and to perform a SWOC Analysis for the Mobile App Development Industry. A detailed analysis Development Industry is done by various secondary data sources such as websites and blogs. Some Scholarly research articles are also referred to understand the challenges in the industry. Findings/Result: Based on the SWOC Analysis of the Mobile App Development Industry, we can say that this industry is going to be one of the most sought-after industries especially in a pandemic-stricken world. Originality/Value: This paper, analyses various aspects of the Mobile App Development Industry. Based on the analysis, the current and future state of the industry is presented. Paper Type: A research case study paper on the Mobile App Development Industry.


I. INTRODUCTION
Industry of Information Technology, a variety of software have been changing the way we look at things from the dawn of its era. We see that almost every other process we have been doing manually is now done and monitored by systems. Software Development is an industry that comes under this parent and is a general term used in developing and deploying software that is in the category of websites and standalone applications. While creating these applications, the minimum hardware requirements given were typically a personal computer with adequate specifications. In the age of software, people who could afford and own a computer were only able to use or utilize it. Till a particular time, people accessed websites only through Cyber Cafes. Now even though many have access to laptops and PC's, the count remained significantly low compared to the population. After mobile phones were introduced, which were typically a hand-held computer, the number of people who started buying mobile phones is significantly higher and the number of people who can get an idea of applications started getting multiplied. Today we can say that irrespective of which age group they belong to, people are learning to use an application in the form of a Mobile App.
The App Development Industry has taken advantage of it ever since II. OBJECTIVES

•
To understand the App Development Industry in general. •

To analyse the App Development Industry in
India.
• To understand the Usage of Mobile Apps and Revenue generated.
• To understand the cost and scope of App Development in India Compared to others.
• To study the various types of apps in demand and the least preferred apps.  • Since they are basically websites, they won't work without the internet.
• You cannot take advantage of all the features a mobile device has to offer.
• Unavailable at the play store, and so adding or installing it to a phone needs special instructions or promotions to actually reach a user [8].

Hybrid App Development
Hybrid apps are half native apps and half web-apps.
They can be distributed through an app store and take advantage of some of the native features too [10].
Since they are web apps too, they depend on HTML that gets presented in a browser. Even though they look and feel like a native app, they would still be a simple web app running on a browser and hence the name hybrid app. It helps the developers to reach a larger target audience and monitor how many people downloaded their apps, etc. without bothering about developing two different apps [11]. There is a variety of ways in which we can develop a hybrid app, some of which are React Native, Flutter, Cordova, Ionic, Xamarin, etc.

Advantages
• Much Faster to Develop and more economical compared to native app development.
• Need to maintain only one code base that will update simultaneously into any platform that is targeted.
• Can be made available even offline.
• Best to make an MVP (the Most Viable Product) immediately available through an app.

Disadvantages
• Cannot be used to develop performance-centric apps like games that need to utilize the 3D features • Performance is much lesser than native apps since they are limited by Web View.
• Not so optimal in UI since the User Experience cannot be customized [8] Even though there are a lot of apps currently in the market which use a combination of the between the internet, we get via broadband at home and in our mobile data, 5G will be the equalizer [15].
The data will not be standing in the way of downloading and using Data Heavy Applications.

Wearable Apps & Others for The Medical
Industry: The area of app development has not just stopped with mobile devices and tabs and has rather extended to cater to apps that need to be installed in wearable devices such as watches, body monitoring devices etc.
which mostly help people and health care workers.
Agriculture and Health Care Industries are something which cannot be ignored at any cost [15]. The development of apps that help to monitor a person's heartbeat and other vitals, also to monitor how many steps taken, calories burnt, etc. There are a lot of health-conscious people who are looking forward to monitoring themselves with the wearable. It can also support doctors and nurses in monitoring patients who are not able to report these things and are in quarantine at home or health centres.

M-Commerce:
e-Commerce has become m-Commerce with the majority of the orders placed via an app. Some major e-commerce industries give a lot of offers to people who prefer to order through an app rather than through the website, so that they can bring in notifications and future offers quickly to the attention of the customer [15]. The biggest fear for a user was the payment for these orders placed on online platforms. It has been now diluted by various payment modes that are currently in the market starting from Cash on Delivery, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Net banking and even UPI-based payments.
There are all-in-one stores and category specific stores in app mode that facilitate users to buy whatever they want in a few clicks.

IoT:
Even though IoT might not be technically known to many, people understand the need for devices that are used on a constant basis becoming smarter by the day [15]. From the angle of app development, it is to create an app that currently helps with homeautomation like controlling speakers, TV, Cameras, AC, etc. As we progress in this field, we see the development of apps not just for home and entertainment purposes, we see more apps with features that could control equipment in factories, offices or even vehicles. It is inevitable in the future to provide apps that take advantage of the IoT.

Cloud-Based Apps:
Nowadays, most of the users' data are not stored on a local device but rather are stored on specialized and dedicated servers on the cloud to give uniform experience to the user across devices [16]. The features that a user is currently looking for in a phone are ease of access and usage across various platforms, security, storage and processing of the data to obtain information or insight. While the majority of storages are on the cloud, the user gets the data and information needed without bothering about the hardware or configuration of the device he or she is accessing the app from [17]. App developers now target these kinds of apps that take advantage of the cloud services, and it has been a huge improvement over the traditional apps.

VI. MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
In recent times, it is very evident that people consume digital media majorly on a mobile phone and apps take up 90% of the time spent on a mobile phone apart from using it for calls and SMS. The This phase also makes sure that the complete technical and non-technical requirements of that app are noted down clearly [5]. This phase makes the developer understand the problem statement clearly and have overall understanding of the requirements of the customer [19]. For example, we must be able to answer questions like the following so to speak: we need to focus on the functionality that is expected from the app and also the User Interface.
The UI part is where we design what the users will see and interact with and give functionality. It is how the user will be using the app. In order to develop a working prototype of the user interface, the common thing to do is wireframing. Wireframing is a way in which we can design a skeleton of our app.
Developers use it to understand the functionality of the app better and designers use it to understand the process of UI design [20]. Wireframing can be broken down into three different portions-they are: Information Design: In this part of wireframing, the focus is on where to present, place and prioritize relevant information in such a way that it helps the user in understanding [20]. It is basically part of UI Design where the information is displayed in such a way that it makes way for clear communication.
Navigation Design: In this phase, wireframing creates a navigation system that gives a set of user screens which normally decides which page to be shown next based on the context and operations done in one screen [20]. There must be a clear relation between each screen and its links so that the user understands how to navigate through the app for various features.
Interface Design: This phase of wireframing includes designing an interface where a user selects or types data via UI elements such as Text Boxes, Check Boxes, Radio Buttons, etc [20]. It makes sure that the app provides maximum usability and performs as efficiently as possible. After the wireframing is done, it needs to go through peer-review and undergo all the changes and suggestions given by the team members or customers.
Once this is approved, the next phase can begin. It is easier to change a wireframe rather than changing a complete app in development.

Choosing a Backend:
Every app will need to store data, but where it is stored depends on the type of data, cost and effectiveness of the storage environment. Normally, users can store data in the memory of the phone itself either in a key-value pair of data stored typically in an XML format or even in a Relational Database like SQLite. But in case the data needs to persist across users and devices, then using a Web Server would be the optimal choice [21]. That choice has multiple variants based on the requirement such as using a custom server, using a cloud server or using an MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service) Custom Server: We can host the data in a relational database or a NoSQL DB in the company's own server, that makes sure that the data stays within the organization but available anywhere via an API call. Scaling and optimizing might be a challenge in this way [22].
Cloud Server: Cloud Servers come in various sizes and shapes for users to choose from like Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine etc. Data is stored in these cloud servers and are available from anywhere via a service call and is highly scalable and optimized [22].

MBaaS:
It is one of the most recent and popular options that is might not be able to find to be obvious to them [26].
Only when the team is confident that the app satisfies all the requirements stated and is able to handle any scenario given, then the app moves to the next phase.

Publishing:
Releasing the app depends on the platforms where we need the users to officially get a copy of the app. It might be the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, they would have their own process of testing the app. Once that is done successfully, the app is officially released and people can start downloading the app into their mobile devices [27]. Prior to this stage, the team will have decided how much and how to charge the user like Single Purchase, Freemium, Subscription, etc. Based on the host, a publishing cost will be charged and/or a transaction fee for each download.

Maintenance:
The last stage is the constant maintenance of that app after the initial release that actually makes this a Life Cycle. There might be some scenarios or issues that was overlooked in the testing phase and now being pointed out by users and also to make sure that the  mean that the user is using that app. In order to make sure that the app has a higher retention rate, the developer should be able to make the user come back to the app and keep using it for a considerable period of time. This cannot be true for each app that is on a phone. So just because people download an app does not mean that the app is great and will survive for long. It needs to be at a level where the user keeps using it and provides feedback to the developers so that the app can grow and be utilized.

VIII. REVENUE GENERATION
The main purpose of developing apps and investing in them would be to either generate profit out of it or serve a particular society, organization or individual.
Most of the times it is the former that is targeted. It is a very good source of income since the reach of the app is targeting billions of users via the App Stores. In order to figure which monetization model will be optimal for our app, it is quintessential to know the user market, so appropriate marketing efforts can be applied and also can easily forecast the revenue that can be generated [34]. Let us see an overview of the revenue generation that happens because of Apps.

Crowd Funding
It is very rare that an app is funded by donations.
There are a few Crowdfunding websites such as

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is the process of putting an advertisement of another app in yours and getting a commission for every click on that ad, and that gets converted to sales. Lead Generation captures the contact information of the interested users that agree to share the same. In order for this to work, both the apps must be targeted towards the same kind of audience. It is not compulsory to advertise only one particular app, it can be of multiple apps that fall under the same category. Just as with in-app ads, there is no way to predict the revenue that can be generated through this way.

SMS and Email Marketing
This is a very traditional way of marketing a product, sending messages and emails to prospective clients so that they are aware of the product. Even though this will not be a sufficient way of marketing, an email can describe or publicise an app with a description of all its features and benefits with images etc. These ways might just help get people to lead to the app without much hassle, but revenue generation through the app still needs to work its way to actually get money out of it.

Sponsorships
Just like how some events are sponsored by some companies, apps can also be sponsored so that the funding needed for the app will be taken care by the sponsor. In return to that, ads and offers related to the sponsor need to be integrated into the app, so that the benefit is mutual. Most of the times it will be a company that is involved closely in the area of that app category.

Paid Apps
Even though a vast majority of apps on the market are free to download, some apps are upfront paid apps that you need to pay the amount before even installing the app, and all the features are offered to the user without any ads or interruptions further.
Even though it is a very simple and useful way of generating revenue, the developer needs to make sure the amount that they pay in order to get a particular feature is worth it. influence that amount. We will see a few factors that need to be considered before heading for a cost determination [39]. These characteristics determine the worth of the App [25] • Functionality/Purpose of the App • Native Development may not be feasible because of a larger market share of Android and iOS.
• Complete Guarantee of app execution is not possible.
• Development costs are higher than traditional Website Development costs.
• Very Competitive market [42] • Performance is dependent on the target device

Concerns over Security in Older Devices
• Revenue Generation may not be successful for apps with less user base. Opportunities: • A lot of people are moving from applications and websites to mobile apps to do their daily tasks.
• A huge demand for apps is constantly growing in the current market [18] • Can attract a larger and wider group of audience in a short span • Expansion of the app to provide more and more functionalities • Personalization of apps makes every app unique to its user • Marketing for a new app is easy since the user base is already established Challenges: • Revenue Generation is not so easy unless the ground work is done properly in that specific area.
• Modded or Cracked Apps availability risks loss in revenue generation

• Development needed in various Platforms makes it
difficult to give a tailored experience [4].
• Installation of the apps via any other mode except official app stores will not be indexed or supported • Securing App and user data might be an issue since most phones have finger print and face detection as ways of authenticating [23].
• Limited budgets to develop apps with an app to the next level.

Beacon Technology
Beacon Technology is becoming increasingly popular among the recent trends that are taken by the healthcare industry, shopping and hotels, etc.
Customers normally would like to receive Phone and all the essential Apps that the phone has to offer. It is safe to say that a Mobile Phone is now not only used for its actual purpose of calling and sending SMS but a lot more than that [43]. The number of new users joining Apple or Google to activate a new device is constantly growing every day. India has taken advantage of this industry to put itself as a country of fast-growing App Users and App Developers in the world. Apart from that, India has also contributed to be the third largest country from which the revenue from apps have been phenomenal.
This industry has made way for India to be a world leader in not just consuming apps, but also developing them. India has also become a preferred country to invest in app development globally. We have discussed in detail how this industry is and will be.
Since we cannot see a decline in the usage of mobile phones in our day-to-day life, we can also be sure that the App Development Industry is going to thrive in the upcoming days. If it focuses on utilizing the recent trends in IT appropriately and delivering Apps that are not going to be just a remake of existing apps, then the Mobile App Development Industry will keep growing in the upcoming years.