Mobile App Development Guide for Businesses

Recent data demonstrates that on average, a person spends 4 hours and 37 minutes on their phone every day. In fact, it’s over 1 day per week, 6 days per month, and nearly 70 days per year. Most importantly, the study by Emarketer shows that 88% of mobile time people spend on their apps. 

As for the global mobile development market, Statista implies that it will reach $756 billion by 2027 with a steady Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.58%. 

Obviously, this news should greatly encourage mobile app developers and businesses planning to invest in mobile app development. Since the app market has expanded, it shows consumer demand for innovative, user-friendly, and feature-packed products. Today, startups, small and mid-sized businesses, as well as enterprises, are investing hugely in mobile app development since their customers need these new products. 

In this post, we will focus on the key benefits for businesses from building mobile apps, the main types of applications to opt in to in 2025, the most prominent market trends, and a step-by-step guide from Artkai’s team on how to build an efficient mobile product. 

What kind of app to build (native, cross-platform, hybrid, PWAs)

There are basically two ways to build mobile apps: native development and cross-platform development. According to this, you can choose between the following types of mobile apps: native apps, cross-platform apps, hybrid apps, and progressive web apps. 

Native apps

Native mobile applications are developed for Android and iOS operating systems and specific devices. Developers that build native apps use programming languages and frameworks provided by the platform owners. For instance, for an Android-based application, they use Java and Kotline, while for iOS apps - Objective C and Swift.

With native development, we build an app that runs specifically on a particular platform like iOS or Android. This approach gives us full control over the capabilities of the device, resulting in excellent performance and a superior user experience. However, creating the same app for a different platform requires a separate project in a different language and ecosystem, which means two separate projects and two sets of bugs to fix.

Pros of Native Apps:

Cons of Native development:

As for use cases, native apps are usually leveraged for social media platforms, gaming apps, fitness & health products, apps that need offline functionality, and fintech. 

Cross-platform apps

Cross-platform mobile applications, also known as multi-platform apps, are built using a single codebase to run across several operating systems. By reusing the same code for different platforms, companies can reduce development time and costs and potentially lower bugs while targeting a wider audience. Fixing a bug once means it's fixed across multiple platforms. To build cross-platform apps, mobile app developers usually use languages and cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter. 

Pros of cross-platform development:

Cons:

These days, most companies prefer to create apps using cross-platform development to reduce costs. If you're starting out with your mobile application, we recommend focusing on cross-platform development for better opportunities. Cross-platform apps can be efficiently used for most types of applications, except for very hardware- or platform-specific ones.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs):

Progressive web applications (PWAs) combine best practices of mobile and web development since they leverage web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Due to this, PWAs can be accessible through both web browsers and app stores.

However, PWA applications usually inherit the limitations of regular web applications, like limited access to the device and mobile platform features, offline operations, etc. 

Hybrid apps:

Hybrid apps are web apps with a native app shell that connects to a mobile platform's capabilities through an embedded browser. Hybrid apps can be used offline, run across different platforms (they’re both Android apps and iOS apps), and take advantage of web apps since they are built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript web technologies.

Pros of hybrid development:

Cons:

Content-based apps and internal apps for enterprises are the most common examples of hybrid app use cases. 

Benefits of mobile app development for business

Based on our deep expertise in mobile app development process, we can see the following benefits that businesses gain from mobile applications:

Developing a mobile app streamlines and automates lots of business processes, reduces manual work, eliminates paperwork, and improves overall workflow performance. The reason is that mobile app architecture and UX/UI are built specifically to align with your business operations.  

Users spend 7x more time in their mobile apps than they do in their mobile browsers. So, businesses that don't have a mobile app presence risk missing out on a substantial chunk of their target market in today's mobile-centric world. Reaching people on their preferred mobile devices and building apps to ensure a strong mobile presence are two benefits of using custom mobile apps.

You maintain all control and ownership of the app when you choose custom app development. Being able to update and modify in accordance with your business demands without relying on outside developers is more important than merely having a customized user experience or more dependable security.

Companies frequently require assistance managing dispersed data across multiple platforms and systems. Existing databases can be connected with custom mobile apps to centralize data and facilitate access and management.

Adding any feature, such as specific push notifications, personalized content, loyalty programs, and other types of interaction with your target, can engage users of your mobile app better from the very start. 

In case of any issue inside your company or between your company and your clients, you can resolve it immediately by implementing chat features, in-app messaging, or other functionality into your mobile app.

With a mobile app creation, your brand becomes stronger. By implementing proper design and consistent communication strategy into your app, you can gain a true brand ambassador. Developing a mobile app is an efficient step that helps deliver a consistent message and support brand promise to the right target at the right time.

A high-quality mobile app helps businesses gain a differentiator in a crowded niche. Since 85% of consumers prefer to shop in their mobile apps instead of a browser, you can earn a larger market share, especially in the e-commerce niche. Plus, adding interactive communication features like a chatbot in your branded app could give you a true game-changer. 

Top mobile app development trends

From our perspective, in 2024, the most popular trends in mobile app development are the following: 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Integration

In general, AI and ML technologies make mobile apps smarter and more personalized. As most users prefer hyper-personalized experiences with their mobile apps, AI and ML provide better customer support. From the development side, these technologies are beneficial as well, since they automate tasks and reduce manual work. 

Augmented Reality (AR)

Today, AR makes it possible to add various interactive digital elements like virtual try-ons and enhanced shopping experiences to the real world in a mobile app.

Internet of Things (IoT) Integration

IoT connects mobile apps with different smart mobile devices, which makes a smartphone a control hub for everything that your customers use, from home gadgets to fitness trackers.

Security and Privacy

Since data privacy is key, mobile apps require specific approaches like strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, and strict compliance with data regulations.

Cross-Platform Development

Cross-platform apps are becoming more and more popular because they work on both iOS and Android, saving development time and budget. Different tools can be used to build cross-platform mobile apps. Flutter, React Native, Appcelerator Titanium, and Xamarin are just a few examples.

Blockchain Technology

Since blockchain technology is rising, it shapes mobile app development greatly as well. Blockchain provides high security and transparency for apps built for the financial industry, safe transactions, or identity verification.

Voice-Enabled Interfaces

Siri and Alexa are well-known examples of voice technology that are widely used in mobile app development. They give an extraordinary user experience, allowing hands-free interactions between apps and gadgets and making it easier to get things done on the go.

5G Connectivity

Briefly put, today, due to 5G technology, mobile apps are capable of handling more data smoothly.

User Experience (UX) Design

Today, UX design is considered great when it is simple, easy to use, and keeps users happy by ensuring everything works as expected.

Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce)

As we already said above, 85% of users prefer shopping on their phones instead of browsers. That’s why mobile apps should focus on secure, personalized shopping experiences to boost sales.

Being aware of these trends, businesses can ensure they’re developing truly actual, up-to-date, and useful mobile products for their users. 

A step-by-step guide to building a mobile app for business

Key development steps

If you’re planning to build a mobile application, a clear strategy has to be the first thing you should consider. Basically, at Arkai, we divide mobile application development into several steps, from market research to support and maintenance. Let’s look at each of these steps in detail.

Advisory

We typically start with understanding our client’s vision, objectives, and the very concept of the mobile app. Our team conducts deep market research and analyzes the client’s competitors to define what target audience, user personas, opportunities, and challenges we need to tackle via mobile app. We recommend our clients answer the following questions:

As a result of this step, our clients get a clear project plan with timelines, milestones, tech stack, and resource allocation.

UI/UX Design

After conducting research and building a strategy, we usually take on the app’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) because a seamless user journey is key for mobile products. Artkai’s designers create wireframes and mockups to visualize the app's layout and navigation. Importantly, we seek the client’s feedback at every stage. Iterating work is especially important for design to make your app look and feel as desired. Mobile apps have a really high rate of churn. That’s why UI/UX design is crucial, so you should necessarily build on design consistency so users do not experience any discomfort while navigating your app.

Development

After we select the technology stack and platform (Android or iOS) and agree on the app’s functionality with our client, we start developing the mobile app in a test environment. Typically, our developers build the front-end and back-end components, implement features one by one, handle data management and user authentication, and then integrate the app with required external services.

Testing

Artkai’s team implements different testing phases, such as unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing. During this stage, our developers and QA identify and fix bugs, resolve issues that occur, and define performance bottlenecks. Testing makes it possible to ensure the app functionality runs as expected on various devices and operating systems. 

Deployment

At this stage, our team prepares the mobile app for release. Typically, we create the app store accounts and configurations needed for the most popular platforms, like Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Finally, we upload the product to the stores for further distribution.

Monitoring and Maintenance

Deployment is not the final stage of the mobile application development process at Artkai. We provide our clients with maintenance and support of the products we build. This usually includes monitoring the app’s performance, gathering feedback from users, and analytics to implement insights for improvements. Also, the app needs regular updates and bug fixes to make sure it stays compatible with the latest devices and operating system versions. Moreover, if we get specific user feedback or the client’s business needs evolve, our team can implement new functionality or enhance the existing features of the product. 

If you want to build a mobile app, read this guide too not to make the most popular app development mistakes.

What team do you need to build a mobile app?

To bring the idea of your mobile app to life, you need an efficient development team. From our experience, you may need different-sized teams for different projects depending on the scope and complexity of each project at hand. However, in a nutshell, we’d recommend you have 6–8 members of your development team responsible for different aspects of work. The bare minimum of roles that you may need are the following: 

Of course, ideally, to create apps, you need to have a product owner and project manager as separate roles since they have different scopes of responsibility. Also, it’s better to include a business analyst who works closely with the product owner and project manager and helps identify and translate business needs into technical requirements for the team. However, we mentioned the bare minimum above to help you understand what roles you need to cover as a must to bring your product to life. 

Best mobile application development technologies

Based on our recent experience with mobile app development, we can recommend our clients consider these top app development frameworks for their products: 

1. React Native:

React Native is the most popular option for cross-platform mobile app development. This framework was developed by Facebook for building apps using JavaScript/TypeScript. It’s built on top of React, which is a library for building robust user interfaces. Thus, React Native is a framework for building cross-platform mobile applications using React. It allows developers to write code once and deploy it to both iOS and Android platforms, leveraging native components for a seamless user experience. 

2. Flutter:

Flutter is another popular choice developed by Google. It is widely used by developers throughout the world for building applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It uses the Dart programming language and provides a rich set of pre-designed widgets to create beautiful and responsive UIs. Flutter is known for its fast development cycles and expressive, flexible UI. 

3. SwiftUI:

SwiftUI is a framework that is used by developers to build applications for Apple devices. SwiftUI is primarily known as a user interface development framework that was built based on the Swift programming language. Introduced back in 2019, SwiftUI became popular over the years. This framework uses a descriptive syntax, which means that developers can define the app’s UI and behavior as they want. The basics of a SwiftUI app are the App, Scene, and View protocols. With the use of SwiftUI, development teams can reuse code across Apple products and platforms, which results in faster development and time-to-market.

4. Ionic:

Ionic is a UI toolkit that is used to create cross-platform mobile apps. This framework allows teams to build apps with flexible and highly responsive interfaces that include touch-optimized gestures and hardware-accelerated transitions from a single shared codebase. Plus, Ionic provides built-in support for React, Angular, and Vue and has a Hot Refresh feature that allows the teams to see the changes to the codebase in real time.

5. Xamarin:

Xamarin is another framework used for building cross-platform mobile apps from a single codebase. It also allows developers to write code in C#. It has add-ins to Microsoft Visual Studio, which means developers can build apps within the IDE using code completion and IntelliSense. Xamarin for Visual Studio includes special extensions that make it possible for teams to build, deploy, and debug apps on a device or simulator.

Here, we provided only a few of the many frameworks that can be used for modern app development. However, you may choose any other technology from the wide range of available ones. 

How mobile apps boosted the businesses of our clients

Bitcoin and crypto exchange

About the Project and Business
Our client was CEX.IO, the all-in-one crypto platform that allows to buy, sell, trade, hold, and earn cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2013, CEX.IO now serves over 15 million users from 30+ U.S. states. 

Development Objectives and Challenges
Our main goal was to build an iOS and Android app that could easily sell, trade, and earn cryptocurrencies. We had to create a solid and intuitive user flow with easy onboarding and a consistent visual system to guide users from the beginning to their final operation. 

Development Process
The project took 3,5 months for research and design and 5 months for development and QA.

Our development team implemented the following platform features: Instant Buy for 

buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and other popular cryptocurrencies, Instant Sell to sell and withdraw funds to Visa/MasterCard, Instant Exchange to create personal trading pairs and exchange, Earn/Stake for getting rewards, price alerts and order notifications, money management to deposit and withdraw crypto and fiat in a few clicks.

Outcomes
As a result of our cooperation, the client got a new app that allowed customers to interact efficiently with cryptocurrencies in various aspects. We simplified access to the open financial system, making crypto and fiat transactions affordable and attractive to thousands of users. 

Online banking app for ProCredit

About the Project and Business
Our client, the ProCredit Group, unified commercial banks operating in South Eastern and Eastern Europe, South America, and Germany. The parent company, ProCredit Holding, is based in Frankfurt, Germany. It is responsible for the strategic management of the group, including its capital adequacy, reporting, and risk management.

Development Objectives and Challenges
Our main goal was to create an app that will make ProCredit entirely digital and reduce the workload on physical branches. We had to provide the clients of the group the ability to access and register new services online. We also needed to convert all existing features into more accessible and easy-to-use tools.

Development Process
The project took 4.5 months for research and design, followed by an additional 7 months for development and QA. We conducted a 2-day onsite workshop, 21 in-depth interviews, and 9 usability tests to delve deep into ProCredit business system. 

We built the mobile app with the Dashboard, fast access navigation, my finance section, simplified onboarding, and smart login. 

Outcomes
After our cooperation, the client got 99% of their banking services performed online, 1.5x reduced time to make a transfer, over 60% faster speed of blocking a card via mobile banking app, and doubled speed to log in.

Wrapping up

Artkai’s approach to mobile app modernization is based on deep market and business analysis and a clear understanding of what will work best on the market today. We combine our technical expertise and business optimization to make sure our mobile products not only meet current standards but are also capable of long-term productivity. 

If you want to build a successful app with efficient functionality and user-friendly design that will benefit your business in the long run, contact our team.