Consumer expectations for high-quality, high-performance business applications have never been higher, but a bad experience can have costly consequences. 100 milliseconds of latency costs Amazon $5.4 billion in lost sales. Brand reputation and customer relationships are also at stake. But these trends don't just apply to large global companies like Amazon. With more than seven million apps available on iOS and Android platforms, even SMBs that want to compete to grow their user base and increase revenue must offer unique, engaging, and easy-to-use mobile apps.
The impact of poor quality mobile apps on SMEs can be felt right down to the bottom line. In fact, 96% of global SMEs estimate losses of up to $2.49 million as a result of poor quality mobile apps. Users face challenges with device or platform compatibility, lack of native apps, and slow or buggy experiences. These are issues that SME business leaders are aware of, as they recognize the value of a well-designed mobile app to build brand equity, deliver an improved user experience, increase competitiveness and drive customer retention, acquisition and sales. equally.
That explains why senior IT professionals and application developers in SMBs increasingly categorize mobile application quality as critical to their businesses and recognize the importance of testing the quality and success of their mobile application development. organization.
Rapid delivery of quality software has become a necessary prerequisite for gaining and retaining customers and, ultimately, achieving digital success. But the surge in demand has also exposed challenges in the mobile app development and testing landscape. This has led SMEs to make serious decisions about how to reduce the impact of poor application quality.
Director of Product and Strategy, Tricentis.
Define and deliver quality
Ultimately, the customer is at the center of mobile app development.
Security, high performance, good user experience and accessibility rank high as key indicators of success among SMEs. The challenge, however, is that mobile app users don't differentiate between businesses of different sizes (and budgets) when it comes to user experience: they want an app that's fast and easy to use, regardless of size and scale. of the company. organization behind it. Delivering a quality user experience is not just about developing apps that work, but rather creating an end-to-end experience that helps users operate mobile apps intuitively.
However, SMEs suffer from a significant lack of resources to effectively support mobile development and testing to ensure this level of quality. We're hearing more and more from IT leaders at companies of this size who recognize that there is a lot of room for improvement in their mobile app development and testing strategies, but say they simply aren't able to find the quantity and quality of staff needed to do so. achieve better results.
Competing priorities and costs also present challenges for SMB mobile app development and testing, compounding issues of complexity and lack of resources. And yet, many still use manual testing for mobile apps – a slow and laborious process.
Embrace automation and AI to overcome challenges
Automation, supported by AI and low-code/no-code tools, presents a solution to these challenges. A 2023 YouGov survey, commissioned by The Times and Lloyds Bank, revealed that 10% of SMEs had already used AI to grow their businesses by improving processes and systems, while 16% said the introduction of automation had improved their productivity. There is therefore strong evidence that SMEs can make significant productivity and efficiency gains by incorporating these technologies – our own research shows that up to 75 hours a month could be saved.
Beyond productivity, user experience features prominently as a key use case for the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence in mobile app development and testing. Automated testing allows teams to more quickly identify opportunities to optimize application delivery while maintaining quality and performance, bringing better applications to market faster. Meanwhile, AI can answer developers' questions much faster, reducing the amount of tedious work needed to manually find information. This leaves them free to focus on improving the end-user experience and fixing any bugs found during testing.
Despite these anticipated benefits, the number of those already reaping them remains low. However, with greater education on when and how to use them, the best AI tools will play an important role in reducing the financial losses SMEs incur as a result of poor quality mobile apps.
Mobile Testing Crossroads
It is clear that SMEs cannot afford to continue losing money due to poor performance of mobile applications. Now is the time to build long-term strategies and invest in technologies that will positively impact both user experience and revenue opportunities, as well as help bridge skills and productivity gaps.
The quality of mobile apps has never been more important, and the mobile app development industry is at a pivotal moment, where AI and automation present a unique opportunity for those who take advantage of it. It is clear from our research that all SME stakeholders, from senior management to developers themselves, are focused on improving the quality of their mobile apps and testing processes, and have much to gain.
We have listed the best mobile app development software.
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