Mobile Apps: What are they?

Mobile applications. Say it seven-times fast if you can. The topic for this, our first blog, seemed to be a no-brainer: what exactly is a mobile app anyway?

At ImagePlus, we provide mobile app development for a business community becoming increasingly alive to the power of mobile applications. But at the same time we know that not everyone is yet onboard with the app revolution.

That’s not necessarily because they don’t use one: from messaging on your smartphone to watching the BBC on your tablet, mobile apps are everywhere. The success of mobile application development has been so great, however, that very often the mobile applications themselves can be invisible.

A mobile app is simply a means of manipulating and presenting data. Your smartphone or tablet is a powerful device, but traditional websites aren’t always designed for the mobile platform – even where they can display well on them, it can be fiddly to navigate. That’s where mobile applications come in: they offer very particular ways to interact with online material whilst on the go.

Some mobile applications have offline content – games are a good example – but even these often rely on an internet connection for updates or expansions. Whatever the particular functionality or style, then, the key with mobile app development is to offer as seamless and intuitive an experience for the user as possible: the mobile app your business develops should be a pleasure to use and get the job done.

Many mobile application developers therefore concentrate on enabling users to undertake specific tasks easily and quickly, within an attractive interface: there are apps to check the weather, book train tickets, or buy books. Where we might on a desktop computer access a website which allows us to enact a range of functions, a mobile app is a convenient, streamlined means of accessing a resource rapidly and seamlessly via your mobile device.

In short, then, a mobile app is a computer program that runs on your mobile device and is focused on efficiently enabling you to perform a given task. That offers businesses huge opportunities – mobile app development has expanded exponentially and now covers a huge range of functions and sectors, meaning it is possible to help your customers develop whole new relationships with your products and services.

So explore the site … and expect more blogs to lift the lid on the secrets of our mobile app developers and their mobile applications…