What is a mobile application?

Mobile applications are a genre of user-installed software, more commonly called “apps,” that run on the mobile device operating systems such as Apple iPhone OS, Google Android, and Palm webOS. With the ability to connect to cellular and Wi-Fi networks, mobile applications become powerful tools for businesses and consumers.

Why should my organization have a mobile application?

How people share, absorb, and utilize information is drastically changing.

With simplicity and ease, next generation smartphones enable people to control many aspects of their lives. Mobile devices are used for so much more than traditional forms of communication; they can manipulate external devices, communicated with other web and desktop applications, enable mobile commerce, and provide a captivating brand experience - all through user-installed applications.

Wide-spread acceptance and utilization of mobile applications continues to get people to spend more time on their mobile devices and less time with traditional communication tools and media.

Engaging your target audience through a mobile application will significantly impact the way an influential, multi-generational group of people perceive your brand, use your services, buy your products, and so forth. Mobile phone applications are the new “website.”

What are the characteristics of a successful mobile application?

Successful mobile applications embody all of the following five attributes:

Targeted - focused on your specific users, need, purpose, etc.
Reach - gets to your intended audience
Viral - adoption and use from your potential user community
Engaging - the application captivates your users and retains their attention
Transactional - promotes an exchange (information, goods, services, etc.) takes place between you and the application’s user

Contact Übermind to learn more about succesful mobile applications.

What should I look for in an mobile application developer?

Aside from reviewing any previous work, it is imperative to find a developer that has proven expertise with the technologies central to the next generation mobile platforms. Due to the recent popularity of mobile applications, there are many hobbyist developers that claim to have experience with popularized mobile platforms.

A truly proficient mobile application developer does not merely build software, they leverage years of experience, best practices, and proven methodologies to create enterprise-grade mobile applications with the following qualities:

Responsive - immediate response time to user input
Scalable - works the same for one user or millions
Redundant - more than one physical back-end presence
Uninterrupted Uptime - relates to redundancy
Stability - runs flawlessly - no glitches, crashing, errors
Extensibility & Reuse - engineered to be built upon or modified for future use
Maintainable - should be easy to manage through life cycle

Need more help deciding if you need a mobile application?

Our goal is to serve you - to lend our knowledge, technical expertise, and prove ability to support mobile application initiatives from vision through implementation.