Mobile Response

Discussion Post 1

A mobile application can be thought of as a complete application that can be installed on any mobile device with the required features to satisfy users. Moreover thus, a user can get the services from the app, which would be unavailable to the users from the website. It can be an extension of the website that can give the extra features and act as a standalone one. These can be in the form of services offered to the users or can even be in the form of apps such as mobile banking apps. The main idea of a website is a bit more complex and is always something like a tool for marketing. A website should be a tool to attract an audience (Nuseira & Aljumahb, 2020).

Smartphones and tablets have been popular ever since their arrival on the mobile communication landscape. With more people owning mobile devices, one can perform all tasks with the help of them in the palm of hands. It was inevitable that technology would be developed so that one could perform more and more complex tasks while maintaining connection to the network at all times. With mobile technology advancing so fast, it is now necessary for app developers to design apps that can be used on both smartphones and tablets. Developers have to address the difference in screen sizes, resolutions, and features (Sutisna et al., 2020).

Mobile apps are a part of the customer relationship. However, with various factors like business drivers, competitive advantages, and budgets, they do not always come easily, fast, or quickly enough. There is no doubt that mobile applications have come a long way since the initial iPhone launched. Since then, the mobile applications industry has grown tremendously, and it is now no longer a mystery to consumers that they can buy a mobile app or download it from anywhere they wish. The market is full of many such apps, and several businesses and marketing firms are jumping on the trend to give their products a high profile. The benefits to businesses and consumers of having mobile apps are vast, and the most commonly used mobile apps revolve around messaging, banking, payment, news, and various other products (Nuseira & Aljumahb, 2020).

References

Nuseira, M. T., & Aljumahb, A. (2020). The role of digital marketing in business performance with the moderating effect of environment factors among SMEs of UAE. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 11(3), 310-324.

Sutisna, D., Widodo, A., Nursaptini, N., Umar, U., Sobri, M., & Indraswati, D. (2020, August). An analysis of the use of smartphone in students’ interaction at senior high school. In Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference on Education and Social Sciences (ACCESS 2019) (Vol. 465, pp. 221-224).

Discussion Post 2

With the help of Mobile application development, we develop mobile applications which we use on mobile devices. The number of people using mobile applications is increasing each day. The developers have to consider hardware specifications, screen sizes, and configurations specific to each application to develop these applications. The UI of the mobile app plays a key role because the customers show interest based on how user-friendly the UI is. The increase of mobile application users makes it better than a website for reasons like better customizations. Users can have accounts specific to the apps and customize the settings based on their preferences. Also, mobile applications have features to utilize camera settings to take pictures or make calls using mobile. Users can also receive notifications by choosing the settings, and unlike web apps, few mobile apps don't require an internet connection to use them. Users need less time to work using mobile apps than web apps since their speed is high (Ebone et al., 2018).

These days people using social media platforms are increasing each day. People are showing more interest in socializing and sharing their interests or opinion on such platforms by posting messages, photos, or videos. These have increased the use of mobile applications which is easy to carry and access. Using the website apps is time-consuming, whereas mobile apps are faster, and the UI is also user-friendly. Nowadays, people are using various fitness apps to track their routine exercises and fitness activities. These apps make them get various notifications and track their progress. There are apps like calculators, notes which we are using for day-to-day activities. Most people's routine starts with an alarm on their smart mobiles. These mobile apps provided the feature for video calls where we can communicate with anyone across the globe. Mobile shopping saves a lot of time and also can purchase from any location. These mobile applications indirectly increased the need for smartphones in our routine (Sharma et al., 2017).

Mobile apps make companies reach a large number of customers and engage them in their business. These apps are easy to install and use, making it easy for customers to access them and get regular updates and notifications about the companies. The traditional marketing methods need a lot of time, workforce, and effort. With mobile apps, marketing became so simple for companies to reach customers. Being easy to access, having notification settings can provide better customer service, making mobile apps key in marketing (Tam et al., 2020).

References

Ebone, A., Tan, Y., & Jia, X. (2018, May). A performance evaluation of cross-platform mobile application development approaches. In 2018 IEEE/ACM 5th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft) (pp. 92-93). IEEE.

Sharma, Y., Dak, M. B. K., Acharya, M. N., Kumar, B., & Nivadit, A. (2017). Emerging Trends in the mobile apps market and their potential impact on mobile users' engagement in the global economy. Annu Res J Symbiosis Cent Manage Stud, 5, 61-81.

Tam, C., Santos, D., & Oliveira, T. (2020). Exploring the influential factors of continuance intention to use mobile Apps: Extending the expectation confirmation model. Information Systems Frontiers, 22(1), 243-257.

Discussion Post 3

Mobile application development is unique and in no way the same as website design. Mobile devices come in various pixel densities and screen sizes that must be factored in for the development process. Secondly, there are quite a few variations in the functionalities, like placing buttons between major mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android (“Going From Web To Mobile App Design?  Here’s What You Need To Know”, 2016). Developers must have extensive knowledge about the technical aspects of these platforms to optimize performance (“Going From Web To Mobile App Design?  Here’s What You Need To Know”, 2016).

With the emergence of smartphone technologies, mobile manufacturing companies have been able to harness other capabilities of smartphones. For example, Facebook, which was initially a web-based social media platform, maintained its popularity over the years with the development of mobile applications. They added features such as calling/ texting, which allowed users to be always virtually connected to their close ones from anywhere in the world (Islam et al., 2010). On the same note, the ‘Google Maps’ application changed the way people traveled; earlier, people had to rely on physical maps to drive/ navigate from one point to another. Google Maps offers its users real-time traffic monitoring and navigation by using GPS location data (Islam et al., 2010).

Today most organizations develop marketing strategies involving mobile applications because of several reasons. Firstly, brands need to continuously improve their ways to enhance customer engagement by providing a top-notch user experience. For example, Starbucks came up with a reward-based program that allowed users to gain points if they ordered using their mobile application (Hegde, 2016). With this, not only were they able to lure customers into buying from them, but in doing so, they also elevated the user experience by offering direct payments for their orders (Hegde, 2016). Another reason why mobile apps must be an intrinsic part of the enterprise expansion plan is that it helps align with the company goals (Hegde, 2016).

References

Going From Web To Mobile App Design?  Here’s What You Need To Know (2016). Retrieved 1 November 2021, from https://blog.prototypr.io/going-from-web-to-mobile-app-design-here-s-what-you-need-to-know-c0229150b657

Hegde, S.H. (2016). Why Are Mobile Apps For Business So Important? Retrieved 1 November 2021, from https://www.specbee.com/blogs/why-are-mobile-apps-business-so-important

Islam, M.R., Islam M. R., Mazumdar, T.A. (2010). Mobile Application and Its Global Impact.  Retrieved 1 November 2021, from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.295.7161&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Rovnaya, A. (2021). Making Business More Efficient With Enterprise Mobile Application Development. Retrieved 1 November 2021, from https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/enterprise-mobile-application-development