Biggest Threats Application Development Companies Are Facing Today

Application development is a delicate process. To build high-quality applications, not only expertise is required, but also important measures and their proper implementation. Today, as the number of applications is increasing, problems apart from cyberthreats are increasing in parallel. These threats might cause applications to malfunction, slow them down, or just might make them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. However, there are precautions as well. Blockchain, for instance, is one of the safest servers that application development companies are preferring today. 

In this blog, we are discussing some crucial threats and hurdles for app development companies and precautions these companies are taking to avoid them. If you are a tech enthusiast, developer, or app development professional, stick with us until the end to have some amazing insights. 

1. Too Many Apps

As the adoption of smartphones is increasing, the number of apps is expanding simultaneously. As per a Statista report, in the first quarter of 2021, the Google Play Store had 3.48 million apps for Android users to pick from. On the second position, the Apple App Store maintained the chase with 2.22 million iOS apps.  Imagine the competition if we include third-party app stores like Shopify, Windows, Opera Mobile Store, and more. 

Such a huge level of competition makes it hard for app developers to rank their apps. With a good marketing and demonstration strategy, competitors, even if their app is lower in terms of quality, might lead in the market. As a result, development companies that have built a top-quality app but did not do proper marketing might not even generate enough revenue to cover development and app maintenance costs.

2. Continuously Evolving Technologies

Regularly coming innovations and trends in the market might be good for users, but for developers, they are also new milestones that need to be achieved. From Artificial Intelligence to IoT, the app development market is constantly evolving. For instance, a few years ago, we were supposed to shortlist our favorite programs and movies on Netflix manually by searching them with titles or genres. But now, with machine learning and AI, Netflix knows what we might love and provides us customized recommendations on the homepage itself.

3. Evolving Cyber Threats

With technologies such as IoT, cyber threats have evolved as well. For instance, an IoT network consists of multiple smart devices in a network. Cyber attackers usually target one of such devices to infiltrate databases. For the mobile app development industry, such cyber threats can not only compromise the app but might also provide a gateway to the user data storage systems. 

On the other hand, the amount of Big data used today is getting bigger as time is passing. Almost for every virtual activity, including user behavior, user requirements, and more, there is a huge chunk of data getting stored in databases. Thus, identifying attacks hidden in such an amount of data can not be done without the proper implementation of AI. AI in the app development process can help in monitoring cyber threats properly. Also, it can detect anomalies and uncommon behaviors in codes to predict the possibility of cyberattacks. 

Another technology that is helping fintech apps in improving security is Blockchain. Blockchain is a database that provides a tamperproof entry system. In other words, once an entry is made on the blockchain network, nobody can edit or delete it. To make changes in actions, making new entries are required. Blockchain also keeps track of the username, IP address, and other information stored with each entry whenever modifications are made. So, it is quite easy to track if any unauthorized attempts have been made on the database of the app.

4. Evolving Smartphone Configurations

With time, as the number of smartphone users has increased dramatically within a few years, to stay ahead in the competition, manufacturers are coming up with innovative technologies regularly. From foldable screens to gesture controls, these technologies are now behaving like threats to the growth of applications. To stay ahead in the competition, developers have to make their applications more efficient. And, they also need to ensure that with the backward compatibility support, users who do not shift to new technologies soon are able to use services as well. 

5. Bad Marketing Strategies

As mentioned earlier, marketing is the most important factor that decides the growth of the app. Thus, today, be it gaming apps or non-gaming apps, proper marketing budgets and strategies have become the crucial focus points for app developers. As per an App Annie report, updating app icons was one of the major App Search Optimization (ASO) steps taken by 30% of developers. 

Now, the trend of targeted ads is trending and will surely continue for a long time. The data collected, consisting of information like user preference, search engine history, websites visited, products shortlisted, etc., is used to target ads to potential customers. However, it is easier for large companies to afford such ads. 

On the other hand, startups use ways like promoting apps through social media platforms, websites, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), reviews, and Guest posts, among others. To target internet-based consumers, such ads have the great potential of spreading information.

Conclusion

Among all threats app development companies face, competition can be considered as the most dangerous threat for these companies. Especially if they have just started their journey and need to make a place in competitive markets such as India, the USA, and more. A Statista report says, the US had the highest percentage of Android developers with a margin of 21.23% approximately by the first quarter of 2018. In the second position, India had 5.72% Android developers in the same period. 

Now, these numbers are a reflection of how crucial it is to plan properly before developing an app, or taking the project. As the competition is high, alternatives are easily available as well. Thus, a bad reputation of the company can convince clients to move their projects to other partners and that might kill any company.