Does my Business Need a Mobile App? | EP 457

Does my Business Need a Mobile App?

1.  No, you don’t need a Mobile App! 00:37
2. People want the least amount of apps possible. 00:46
3. One of the most popular apps is the one that virtually everyone has already, it’s called a web browser. 01:39
4. Mobile Apps are expensive and costly. They require on-going care both as regard to fresh content and technological updates.02:37
5. When developing a Mobile App is worth the cost? 03:04

Read the full episode transcript below:

00:26 David Blackmon: Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of WP the Podcast, brought to you by WP Gears. I’m David Blackmon.

00:35 Tim Strifler: And I’m Tim Strifler.

00:37 David Blackmon: Today we’re going to talk about whether or not your business needs a mobile app. The answer is no, we’ll see you tomorrow.

00:45 David Blackmon: Just kidding.

00:46 Tim Strifler: Yeah, essentially, I mean, that’s kind of how we feel. I guess we could unpack that more and explain why. But I feel like back when smartphones kind of first became mainstream and Apple and Android had their app stores available, and developers were creating apps like crazy, it was, I guess, more common for businesses to create their own mobile app because users were more excited to download more apps and install them on their phones. But now that smartphones have been around for a while, at least this is how I feel, I want the least amount of apps possible. I’m not going to take the time to install an app, have it take up space on my screen and have to organize it in a folder, unless it’s something that I’m going to be using a lot. Like something that I’m going to be using on a daily or weekly basis. If not, then I don’t want to waste my time with it.

01:39 Tim Strifler: I think for a lot of businesses, if they have that kind of inclination to like, “Should we create a mobile app?” A web app is probably a better approach, where it might function sort of like an app, but it’s in the browser and users can just go into their browser app on their phone, open up a new tab, load your website, rather than having to download and install something.

02:01 David Blackmon: And it can also give you the app feel with the icon on your smartphone, to where you just, it’s a shortcut, really quick, boom. It clicks and opens. And I think, Tim, you hit the nail on the head. I think that in order for you to justify, first of all, the expense of a mobile app, a full-blown mobile app, they’re very expensive to create. So if you’re going to make that investment into something like a mobile app, you’re going to need to make sure that it’s providing some type of functionality to where your end users really need it and they’re going to use it and stuff.

02:37 David Blackmon: If you’re just creating one just to have one, just to be, you know, in … Then I would highly recommend you not doing it, because they’re expensive, they’re costly, you have to maintain them, keep up with them. Technology changes so fast. And if it doesn’t have a specific functionality that you need to have for a mobile app, then absolutely don’t do it for your business.

03:04 David Blackmon: Now, if you have a great idea, you know, then app, go for it. I’ve had a friend of mine recently, we both started our businesses in the same year at the same time. And he created a mobile app, waiter app. It just went public this past year, in December of 2018. He was on NASDAQ ringing the bell. A company bought his company for $350 million. So we’re not saying that if you don’t have a great idea and a need for it, not to create one. But we are saying that, for the majority of businesses that probably listen to this podcast, you probably don’t need a mobile app.

03:53 Tim Strifler: Yeah. There’s a stat, I tried to find it before. I can’t seem to find what it is, but it’s something to do with, like 90% of smartphone users use, I think, their top three apps like 80% of their time on their phone. Or something like that, meaning people are spending their time on their mail app, their messaging app, Facebook, Instagram, their top five apps. So that’s the majority of their time, they’re not going to those smaller apps. And I see that in my own use as well. It’s like, I don’t … There’s no point in me having an app on there, because the bulk of my time on my smartphone is spent in this handful of apps.

04:36 David Blackmon: All right. Well, tomorrow, we’ve got another great episode, Google Ads versus Facebook Ads, which is better. Dun dun dun. Tune in tomorrow to find out the answer. Tim? Until tomorrow, we’ll see you then.

04:52 Tim Strifler: Take care. Bye-bye.