From developer or mobile app business perspective, key factor for developing apps is earning revenues either by selling apps, ad space or end user data to other companies. A closer look at growth of mobile app revenue from 2011 – 2015 and further forecast through 2017 gives a rosy picture.

1. Artefacts from TechAhead © Copyright 2016

2. OVERVIEW
Over past few years, world has witnessed an unprecedented
number of people rushing to develop mobile apps for various
platforms like iOS, Android, Windows.
According to Nielsen Report, smartphone usage across US has
increased by 74% from 2012 to 2015. As of end of 2015, there are
several million apps across smartphone platforms and more are
added each day.
From developer or mobile app business perspective, key factor for
developing apps is earning revenues either by selling apps, ad
space or end user data to other companies. A closer look at
growth of mobile app revenue from 2011 – 2015 and further
forecast through 2017 gives a rosy picture.
©2016 TechAhead

3. OVERVIEW
©2016 TechAhead
Worldwide mobile app revenues from 2011 to 2017 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Source: Statista

4. OVERVIEW
•Maximum year-on-year growth was recorded in 2012. Most of
revenue growth was because of iOS based apps
•This can be explained by the fact that Apple launched iPhone 5
this year.
•Android also saw significant jump this year because more mobile
phone manufacturers adopted Android as base OS.
➤ Between 2011 and 2015, revenue grew 445%
➤ In 2016 and 2017, its expected to grow another 69% over
2015 revenue
©2016 TechAhead

5. OVERVIEW
•A recent Nielsen report puts light on some important mobile app
usage statistics (between Q4 2012 to Q4 2015):
•Among millions of apps, users use on average 27.1 different app.
This has remained stable since 2014 (2012: 26.5, 2013: 26.8,
2014: 26.7, 2015: 27.1)
•Time spent on apps has increased by 76% from 2012 to 2015
•Women spent more time on apps than men
•Youth use fewer apps but spend more time with them
•90% of time spent on mobile is on apps
©2016 TechAhead

6. OVERVIEW
•Technology analysts at Compuware found that mobile apps are
still the preferred means of connecting for most users over
mobile websites, with 85 percent choosing the former over the
latter.
Most of us hop on a new app that is launched in market. There is
an initial rush to download new apps. That jumps the key metric
“Number of Downloads” for the app. Users’s behavior shows that
they try a lot of apps, decide to ‘stop using’ those within first 3-7
days. TO be successful, apps need to to get the users hooked
during that critical first 3-7 day period.
©2016 TechAhead

7. (1) Make Apps that are stable and highly usable
A key attribute of App’s usability is its stability. Study finds that
79% users will give a second chance to an app after it fails to
impress them the first time. But, this number falls to 16 %, i.e
only a small number will give an app a third chance.
So, App owners should make this a key part of their App
development lifecycle to have multiple levels of testing done on
the app. They should target getting the app right the first time.
Using newer testing tools/methodologies may help them achieve
required stability.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

8. (2) Send App Updates & Fixes Frequently
Your app development lifecycle, should have regular cycles for
sending updates and bug fixes to the users. Though update should
be sent regularly (weekly or bi-weekly), bug fixes should be sent
as soon as bug is identified and fixed. Delay in fixing a bug is
dangerous to success of your app. Updates may include user
interface update or addition of new features that are inspired by
new needs or improvements of existing features.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

9. (3) Focus on User Experience (UX)
Study also shows that 80 to 90% apps are deleted after one use.
This means, developers should not only focus on a bug-free and
stable app but also do a design thinking on how to hook users
immediately. Agreed that developers will have already made
money from the initial download if the app was paid but a key part
of revenue is in-app sales, developers lose on this.
Let’s define User Experience (UX). A key requirement for an
exemplary user experience is meeting precise needs of the
customer. Research shows that if exact needs of the users is taken
care of, 80% of the user experience is achieved.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

10. Other components of User Experience are Simplicity and Elegance.
Products should be a joy to own and use.
True user experience is what takes UX to next level of supremacy. It
gives customers what they say they want & also what they feel they
need. Key to achieve supreme-quality total user experience in a
product is to have seamless merging of the various offerings related
to the product like engineering, graphical design, interface design
and marketing.
It's important to distinguish the total user experience from the user
interface (UI) and usability. UI is integral part of UX but not the only
thing to please users. Usability directly relates to meeting the
requirements that decides quality of the product. Combined together,
UI, Usability & Services define a Total User Experience
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

11. (4) Use Analytics to Build, Launch & Retain Apps
By monitoring user behavior, app success can be increased
multifold. Following 4 metrics define user behavior that if
monitored can help you develop and grow your apps.
• Acquisition – different channels users come from
• Activation - % of users with satisfying initial experience
• Retention – returning users
• Referral – users helping in growth of user base.
By monitoring these metrics, you will be able to improve your
app. You should:
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

12. • Start monitoring before publishing app
• Use different tools for different apps
• Track what makes sense
Using in-app analytics usage will help you gather meaningful data
to drive above insights.
(5) Lifetime Value
LifeTime Value is the value of a mobile user as compared to a non-
mobile user. If mobile user for a business is is more loyal, spends
more, and/or evangelizes more than your regular consumer,
mobile strategy is working.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

13. Value means different to different businesses. A news app may value
ad impressions, a music app may value time spent listening to
content, a retail app would value purchases, a game may track in-
game currency. The point is that knowing the value of various
consumers means you can compare users.
(6) Monitoring User Behavior
By taking advantage of native APIs available on the mobile device,
you can drive user engagement through push notifications and cloud
backup options. Monitoring your users’ every move throughout your
app is imperative to understanding user behavior and seeing how
they use the app. Tracking the usage pattern can give you very useful
information about various demographic groups. That helps in
segmentation of apps.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

14. For example, by tracking app usage a game development company
may learn about a particular age group that contributes to
maximum revenues. With this information in hand, app
developers can develop marketing strategies to target that group
of users.
(7) Use Gesture Analysis
Gesture analysis is technique of monitoring users gestures to
improve your app. Several tools are available that use
mathematical algorithms to interpret human gestures. In your
app, you can use touch heatmaps to see user’s gestures via a
visual report. You can analyze actions such as taps, swipes and
pinches that provides insight on user behavior.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

15. - Where are they tapping most?
- Where are they pinching?
- Where do they interact the most?
These can be valuable data points for you to improve your app for
touch actions. Remember, every “micro millimeter” counts in
smartphones.
(8) Use Push Notifications to derive effective marketing strategy
Push notifications is a way to alert users of something new even
when the user is not actively using your application. You must
convince users what benefits they will be getting if they allow you to
send push notifications to them. Getting permission is key.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

16. Users who opt-in to receive push notifications have just over a
25% higher probability to continue using the app than those who
do not. Some best practices for sending push notifications are:
• Send push notifications at right time, not at midnight or in
wee hours.
• Don’t send too frequent push notifications. If it gets
overwhelming, users will get annoyed.
• Based on segments defined by using user behavior data, send
NarrowCast Notifications that have maximum impact.
• Try to send 1:1 notifications that look more personalized.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

17. • Innovate with rich texts and graphics for push notifications rather
than traditional text based push notifications.
• Implement scoring models to change content in notifications.
• Try time constraint vanishing offers via push notifications.
(9) Integrated Mobile App and Marketing
With a disintegrated mobile app from marketing databases, you miss
on using data for effective marketing strategies. With integrated apps
to marketing data, you can trigger personalized content and
interactions across your emails, website, call centers and more. With
this kind of integration, you can run marketing campaigns for your
mobile app across Digital Media such as email marketing, social
media marketing apart from mobile app marketing.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

18. (10) Build Effective Feedback Monitoring Mechanisms
Apps that closely monitors feedback sent by users on app stores and
responds diligently, succeeds at winning users’ confidence even if
there is a negative feedback. With thousands of choices, users have
low appetite for a bad User Experience. Make service a key
component of your App delivery strategy. For positive feedback,
thank users with personalized messages. Users normally feel
disengaged from taking app experience surveys, try to be innovative
so users take the surveys. Make surveys very concise with great user
interface so that users don’t feel burdened. Data collected from
surveys can be a good source of improving your app or any other
aspect related to the app delivery.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

19. (11) Speed Is the Key
A key part of user experience is Speed at which your app opens,
operates or responds. Specially when talking about apps for
gaming, financial services (banks etc), hospitality, travel and m-
commerce, network delays plays spoil-sport to the success of apps.
Though CDN can be used to accelerate apps, its not very effective
technology. You need to look at acceleration from multiple
perspective:
• Application Layer Acceleration: It improves application layer by
optimizing caching, compression, load balancing etc
• Connection Management : For efficient use of server resources
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016

20. • Network Loss Protection : Use advanced loss and congestion
recovery techniques to reduce impact of packet loss
• Transparent Turn Reduction: Reduce unnecessary number of
trips between end user and web server.
• Transport Layer Acceleration: Eliminates latency and improves
performance.
©2016 TechAhead
11 MOBILE APP RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR 2016
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