Is it a mobile app you need or a mobile strategy?

I've been contracting in the mobile arena now for nearly 4 years and have worked with many different companies on a great deal of different types of app from A.R. to messaging to hardware interfacing to, well, pretty much everything in between. Mobile is big business. The problem though is it a business that companies really understand?

Let me explain that question.

In the last 18 months I have had to start to turn down contracts. Not because I've been over employed or that there is that much work out there for me to be picky. No. I've turned them down due to one of three common problems; either the company does not know what they actually want, they want something as a competitor has something or there is a power struggle and want someone to use either as the flak catcher or the reason for failure.

The question I therefore ask first is why do they want an app? That is usually a simple one to answer, but the stumbler comes next. What will your app have that will make people want to use it? At this point, I get one of three responses; a bunch of completely blank faces, a look of complete incredulity or an answer (which invariably goes from "um" to a well reasoned answer to buzzword bingo).

Obviously, the next point that many companies don't expect is the cost. There are genuinely companies that believe apps can be knocked together in a week and gain 5* ratings on the app stores. There are also companies that develop websites who seem to think that the same designs and code will work on mobile. Perhaps if it is a web app, this is true. For anything else - no. A quick example is that you can change a font in CSS with one line and it is instantly propagated throughout. For an app *every* label, text box et al has to have that font added and each platform does it differently.

The next problem they have is updating the app. Again, the expectation is that it will be free. They paid for the original code and therefore updates should be free. While I will guarantee my code for around 3 months after delivery, upgrades aren't free and yes, they will have the source code, but do they have the same toolchain that I use and do they have the pre-requisite developer accounts?

Typically at this point, the meeting stops. The company has had an hour of my time and experience and come to a realisation; mobile is not just something you do, it is something you have to plan for. It needs a budget, design, graphic artist, advertising and everything else that development requires. The days of throw something together have long since gone. What was good in 2013 was dated in 2014 and looks terrible in 2016. A web app is all well and good, but it's not what users want and certainly isn't why it would be kept on their phone. 

The USP for the mobile app has to be considered. If you honestly look at your phone or tablet, if you exclude games - what app can you say you use the most that doesn't come pre-installed with the OS (in other words, phone, text, phone book, web browser, email and calendar) and why? I will guess that it will be a GPS app or one of the big social media apps (Facebook, twitter etc). Why is this? I'm guessing that the apps aren't inherently awful, just there doesn't seem to be a justifiable reason to have them; they don't offer a reason to use them.

Apps such as the new one from Coca Cola that use AR to allow a glass on the phone to pour a Coke or fill from a tap and a QR code generated to get a free drink, offer a reason to use them. They also include some cool technologies that offer something of use to the user of the phone; they will keep using it for as long as free drinks are given out.

The moral of the story: Before you ask for a mobile, understand what mobile is, what it isn't and that as with any sort of outward facing system, it requires planning, a budget and more over a strategy.