As 2019 nears its midpoint, the accelerated growth of mobile applications shows no sign of slowing down for the remainder of the year, decade, or century. With new and more sophisticated apps available on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep up with the latest and greatest.

Ideas are what mobile apps are made of. Whether it’s an idea to solve an existing problem or an idea to create something new for a specific target market, mobile apps are designed with a specific purpose in mind. With a powerful and unique idea, you are already more than halfway through the process of launching a successful mobile app. The mobile app development process can be relatively straightforward with the aid of tools, technologies, and a skilled development team...but it’s not until these components are unified by the right idea that they make sense and become meaningful.

In the context of how important ideas are, we make the case for app uniqueness and the required information to generate a new idea for a mobile app in the following article. 

App Uniqueness

Being one of a kind means a lot in the world of mobile apps. With the ever-expanding universe of applications available at the tip of our fingers, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s unique and what’s a copy of something that is already being delivered through another app.

Being unique brings value to a mobile app.  Before a single step is taken in the app development process, you need to identify the problem your app is going to solve.   However, additionally, you need to keep in mind that the most successful mobile apps not only have a clear and concise purpose but achieve it better than the competition.

When you’re building an app, you want that app to be distinctive/unique or to address an existing idea in a better way. Now, the issue your app is trying to solve or address in a better way may not be unique, but the concept behind the app can be different or solve the problem in a completely innovative and unique way. Sometimes, it’s not about reinventing the wheel but designing the wheel in a better way.

If there’s not a clear answer to the problem you are trying to solve, the value and uniqueness of your app is difficult to achieve and it is hard to target and attract users. App uniqueness and the definition of the target audience should be determined as part of the pre-development process as they are central to the purpose of the app.

Some helpful questions to ask yourself to determine the app’s uniqueness prior development are:

• Is it similar to another app?
• How is the approach different from other existing apps?
• Are the features better than other similar apps?
• Does the user experience address a specific target audience?

The bottom line is that you need to make sure to provide unique value through your app by pinpointing the exact issue your app can solve or the benefit it can deliver.

Best practices to generate new and simple app ideas

Here are some key best practices and recommendations to help you generate new and simple app ideas for your business and therefore grow your revenue.

Take an introspective look at your company

Who knows you better than you, right? To generate new and powerful app ideas, companies must look within to discover their pain points and needs more acutely, even if their ecosystem is constantly evolving. From rotating staff to growing markets to changing strategies, the company must have an eye set on their road to success. The first step down this road in the world of mobile apps is to generate new ideas that take into account the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

With this insightful look within, it is easier for companies to identify areas of opportunity in which a mobile app is a right solution. By looking at the company’s mission statement, vision strategy, or overall business plan, teams have enough understanding to begin generating new and simple app ideas that solve a specific issue. 

Review the customer requirements

As a service provider, it’s vital to maintain an open communication bridge with your customers. You must be in line with every need, want, requirement, and complaint they may have to focus on how a mobile app can serve them better. Through constant communication, questionnaires, surveys, and more, you can get a clearer picture of exactly how they feel about your product or service. 

Besides constant communication, it’s a good strategy to monitor their navigational paths or the interactions they engage in with your app. That way, you can discover areas of opportunity where more valuable content is needed or if new features should be considered. Another best practice is to maintain a track record of feedback from customers about suggestions to improve the app - through these records, you can easily identify trends or common areas of opportunity.
With this knowledge, you can begin to think about innovative ways to address specific issues.

Analyze the Top 100 applications

Looking at the competition is a great place to find inspiration. By staying up to date with the latest trends, you can take a proactive approach and think about generating new ideas that serve modern needs. A lot of times, coming up with new app ideas means bridging the gap that competitors leave open which is why it is important to keep a close look at what they’re doing to use that stage as a trampoline to generate fresh ideas.

As a best practice, you can examine the top 100 list of applications in a specific area and analyze their approach, success domains, areas of opportunity, gaps in strategy, faults, and more. This knowledge is readily available and provides an insightful look into the industry’s afflictions and in turn, becomes a trigger to generate new ideas of how to improve an app or create an entirely new one that addresses or solves a specific matter.

Analyze the marketing strategy and the industry

If there is one area in your company that is focused 24/7 on customers, it is marketing. Marketing is known for studying customer relationships and satisfying clients through engagement, nurturing, and improving the overall user experience. As a premier component of business management, marketing offers a wealth of information about customers that help generate new ideas for mobile apps.

By analyzing the company’s marketing strategy, you can discover innovative ways to transform specific needs into an app or determine if an existing app should be enhanced to complement the user experience. For instance, you could envelop a specific marketing activity into an app to reduce the budget or save time.

Another variable to look into is the overall market in your industry. By looking at industry trends, you can think of app ideas that help you stay up to date or be ahead in the game. Through the use of analytics tools, predictions, online posts, and more, you can access an overload of information about the industry and discover gaps or areas of opportunity left to be addressed.

Android app ideas

As of the first quarter of 2019, Android has over 2.1 million apps ready for download in its store while Apple boasts 1.8 available apps in its app store. Nowadays, as the saying goes, there’s an app for everything. Well, almost. From premium features, subscriptions, ad space, and more, apps have become a reliable source of revenue for companies and that is why there’s a rising need to create more and more apps that solve everyday tasks.

From healthcare, fitness, food delivery, traveling, gaming, organization, photography, and more...there is plenty to choose from and Android is no stranger to delivering apps in a fast-paced environment. It is a well-known fact that Android is a lot less expensive in terms of platform and devices when compared to iOS, which also plays a key role in the type of apps that are developed and deployed for the Android ecosystem. An increasing number of developers are focusing on the Android ecosystem to develop Android app ideas that target this specific mobile platform due to its creative, open development guidelines, its relatively cheap cost, and its quick time-to-market.

iOS app ideas

The app market is one of the biggest industries worldwide. From thousands of developers to millions of apps to billions of users, companies are adopting mobile apps rapidly. The major distribution channel for apps is through app stores and Apple has the second biggest app store in the world.

Known as the more expensive counterpart, the iOS app store is a curated list of apps that follow stringent guidelines from Apple in order to be approved and made available in the store. In other words, apps must guarantee a certain level of quality and standardization to make the cut. Developing iOS app ideas goes hand in hand with the consideration that iOS users are more prone to spend money than Android users and they are generally partial to spending money for an app if it provides a higher degree of quality, security, and aesthetics.

Generating iOS app ideas is a very interesting task as the subject of monetized, paid apps play a big role in the type of app that is to be developed.

Clusters of mobile app ideas

These are some examples of mobile app ideas divided into separate clusters with similar purposes. Please note that some of these ideas already exist to a certain extent but can be used as the basis for innovation.

Healthcare & wellness

Scan/shop medicines. An app capable of scanning specific images of medicines and locating the best online options to shop from.

Motivation app. An app that is a mix of a reminder service and a motivator to perform the personal health tasks on a user’s to-do list, such as exercise adequately, meditate, take medication, and more.

Health inspection. An app that monitors and tracks health records, clinic visits, illness history, medications, checkups, and more to alert users of appointments or to re-supply a specific medicine.

Affordable healthcare abroad. An app that lists health providers and consultation services at reasonable prices in a specific area or city. This would be particularly helpful for travelers who are looking for medical attention without wanting to spend a fortune.

Elderly help. An app to plan daily activities, remind them about medications, bills, and physician appointments, as well as simplify the ordering and delivery of food products.

Lifestyle

Car Parking according to GPS. Parking spaces are hard to come by but with the help of a GPS-powered app, users could find nearby parking spots during rush hours in a quick and effective way.

Chatbots. The chatbot trend is becoming increasingly popular due to the advancements made in Machine Learning technologies that enable these apps to become more smart, efficient, and available non-stop to users.

Trade Hubs. An app could provide a centralized hub to locate specific individuals who specialize in a particular trade and provide contact information or a specialized communication channel.

All-in-one social network. A one-stop app solution that combines all major social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more into a stylized, single page that acts as a single platform to engage.

Virtual interior or landscape design. With the help of AR technologies, there could be an app that allows users to upload a photo of a room or an outside space they are trying to redesign and interact with it in order to change colors, lighting, remove items, add furniture, etc.

Traveling

VR Tours and Travels. Virtual Reality (VR) provides the opportunity to enjoy a virtual tour of a tourist location. With its capabilities, VR offers the chance for users to access key spots, restaurants, museums, popular locations, and more.

Disaster alerts. An app that sends automatic alerts in case of natural disasters in the place users live in or visit abroad. It would include contact information, directions, and other crucial information about shelters, hospitals, fire departments, police stations, and more.

Public transportation. An intelligent app that could suggest the most suitable bus routes, subway itineraries, and other transportation options in a budget-friendly and timely manner. It could have offline capabilities to ensure users could take advantage of it even in remote areas or with limited connectivity.

Real-time voice translation. An app competent enough to translate real-time spoken words into the user’s native tongue.

Custom itineraries. An app for travelers who want an outstanding experience with travel itineraries for big and small cities that are unique and suggested by users.

Conclusion

Good ideas are breakthroughs conceived from evolutionary needs and the drive for innovation, and these two ingredients thrive in environments of research, knowledge, and creativity. So don’t be afraid to explore and get inspired by numerous information sources because just like we stated at the beginning of the article, a remarkable idea is more than half the battle on the road to mobile app development. 

App ideas are a huge component of the success of an app and it is in the development and implementation processes that it comes alive. By selecting a great team of experts to work with, you take away the uncertainty of developing a comprehensive mobile app and your project is on its way to success.

Partner with Svitla Systems and let us help you transform your idea into a cutting-edge, stylish, functional, and tailored app.