Mobile Application Strategies that Work in Saudi Arabia in 2022

Saudi Arabia is becoming a one-stop destination for mobile application development and experiencing tremendous market growth in the sector. It is a center of devotion and progressed as a business hub with several enterprises that focus on digital tech solutions.

Latest technologies like AI, IoT, Cloud and many others play a vital role in the digital transformation of major businesses in KSA. Mobile apps in Saudi Arabia help enterprises to grow in any niche and expand their targeted audience anytime and anywhere.

Many businesses in Saudi also offer digital marketing services, web and app development services. The most popular apps that are top ranking in Saudi Arabia include: Survival Game: Squid Challenge, Telegram, Kwai – Short Video Community, Makeover Race, Candy Challenge 3D, Instagram, Snapchat, Noon Shopping, Absher, Sehhaty, Alrajhi Bank, Microsoft Teams, and more. 

Similarly, the top 10 mobile app development companies businesses in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam include: Alareeb ICT, Hyperlink InfoSystem, eSense Software, SITN (Saudi Information Technology Network), UXBERT Labs, Enozom Software, Pixel Arabia, Ertekaz Technology, and iSpectra.

Saudi Arabia’s ‘Tamara app with the buy now pay later’  feature based on FinTech raised $110 million in debt and equity funding from Checkout.com earlier this year. 

The coronavirus pandemic has become the critical driver of app use in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi has the world’s largest and third-highest smartphone penetration rate with approximately 21 million smartphone users (in 2019, 80.7% of the population used a smartphone), a number which is projected to increase at almost 24 million by 2022.

The World Bank has also identified the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s wealthiest nations in terms of spending power. Market research firm Grand View Research estimates the global mobile app market to be worth over $170 billion and expects growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5 percent between 2021 and 2027.

 

Top Mobile App Strategies to Apply for Companies in Saudi Arabia

Mobile app strategy is the way to understand how a mobile app will solve customers’ pain points, integrate into a business, and how it becomes a valuable digital asset to generate ROI and overall assists in running a successful online business.

The growing popularity and usage of mobile-based interactions are changing the way consumers engage and transact throughout the customer journey. The relatively ‘young’ middle eastern population, including the natives of Saudi Arabia, is putting pressure on businesses to improve mobile experiences so that they can fulfill their unique needs.

The Saudi market for mobile applications is exceptionally crowded. And, the most frequently used apps in the country are Google Maps, Hunger Station, WhatsApp, Uber, Careem, Twitter, and YouTube.

Creating a new mobile application in the presence of successful mobile apps in Saudi Arabia is challenging because it requires a digital-first approach and new technologies. It also demands knowledge of key mobile trends with an effective digital marketing strategy to drive positive business outcomes. 

The number of people accessing information through wearable, tablets, and smartphones has been increasing with time. Today, every consumer prefers a mobile app for online shopping, storing and managing data, socialising, and navigation. Many businesses are building mobile apps in Saudi Arabia to gain the attention of their potential users and increase competition in the global market. 

At this point, if you are planning to develop a fully-customized mobile app for your firm, you must know that your application should be unique enough to satisfy the special needs of your audience. 

Furthermore, you must follow top mobile application strategies for 2022 that work in Saudi Arabia to ensure that your application will help you gain success and outrank your competitors.

 

Must-Know Strategies for Mobile App Development 

Here are strategies that you can follow for your mobile app development.

 

• Establish a Clear Role

Make sure the mobile app has a clear purpose. The app should be responsive to support users to buy your products or services and find any product information from the mobile device.

It should be problem-solving and able to help customers manage their accounts by paying bills and checking their bank balances from the mobile device.

Mobile apps help obtain necessary information such as the location of a restaurant, traffic updates, and even entertain in many ways. By establishing the role of your mobile application, you can ensure that your mobile app strategy focuses on fulfilling your customer’s needs. 

 

Here are the different types of apps:

• Know the Difference of Apps: Native, Hybrid, and Web 

You’re excited to bring digital transformation in your industry with a newly-developed mobile app, but do you know the difference between the most popular types of apps: Native, Hybrid, and Web? If not, you should first understand their comparisons because they differ from each other and serve a different purpose.

For instance, there are three types of mobile apps:

•  Native apps:

  Native apps are designed for one particular platform or operating system. Whether it is Google’s Android, Apple iOS, or Windows Phone, native apps are beneficial to optimize user experiences and operate the platform faster. 

Technologies Used: Native apps are built using the most popular programming languages. Some examples include Objective-C, C++, Python, Swift, Java, Kotlin, and React. 

Advantages: Native apps are reliable and faster in terms of performance. Due to the single focus, native apps use devices’ resources more efficiently than other types of mobile apps and use the native device UI to help users get a more optimized experience. Similarly, native apps are easy to connect with the device’s hardware and ideal for accessing various device features such as camera roll, phonebook contacts, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.

Drawbacks: native apps require more effort and money because the code 

you create for one platform cannot be reused on another. Also, the user has to download the new file and reinstall it if a new update occurs in the app that consumes a lot of space in the device’s storage.

 

• Web apps:

  Web apps can work on any OS or mobile device because these apps are a responsive version of websites but are accessed through a web browser on your mobile device. 

Technologies Used: web apps are designed leveraging technologies like HTML5, CSS, Ruby, JavaScript, and other programming languages used for websites. 

Advantages: It doesn’t require additional development costs because it is completely web-based and doesn’t demand the customization of an OS or a platform. Plus, they don’t take as much space as native apps, and there is nothing to download, which means maintenance of web apps is easier. 

Drawbacks: Web apps are browser-dependent and used on the device, which means the functionalities that are available on one browser, but not on another potentially offer varying customer experiences. It also requires a strong internet connection to take the data backup on your device. 

 

• Hybrid Apps:

  Hybrid apps are web apps that include a similar look and feel like native apps. They may have a responsive design, home screen app icon, fast performance, but they are not reliable as native apps.

Technologies Used: Hybrid apps use programming languages like Objective-C, Swift, HTML5, and a mixture of web technologies and native APIs.

Advantages: Developing a hybrid app is cheaper and quicker than a native app. Hybrid apps are easy to load and use in countries with a slow internet connection. These apps use a single code and give a consistent experience to users.

If you require a robust mobile app strategy to build mobile apps in Saudi Arabia, you must decide whether you need native apps, web apps, or hybrid apps because the cost of making these apps can vary as per the experience, resources, and the actual time needed to a developer for the mobile app development. 

 

• Understand the Importance of Foundation 

The benefit of building a mobile app on a single platform is that it allows you to integrate new services and add new features to meet changing demands.

The most common platform is Android and is used by almost 20 million smartphone users in Saudi Arabia and the MEA region. In contrast, 23 percent of smartphone owners use Apple devices such as the iPad and iPhone.

If you want to obtain high quality, you should build your app on a single platform because it speeds up the time that is required to launch the product into the market and gives quality assurance to take your business to the next level. 

 

• Mention the Data that will be accessible through the Mobile App

It is vital to decide which data you want to make available for your users in the app. Also, avoid too much functionality and placing too much data in one app as it creates complexity for users and makes it difficult for them to navigate and understand. Your users prefer an app that is easy and simple to use. 

 

• Design the Data Security Protocol

Security is one of the essential factors for any app, and it must be considered while creating a mobile application strategy. With the rapid acceleration of digital transformation, the risks of data breaches and the rates of cyber attacks have increased.

This also creates an urgency for the Kingdom to think about a secure environment for data and digital operations. There must be a robust security system to ensure that your users’ & company’s data will remain safe in the application. If your mobile app’s security is not up to the mark, it will surely fail in the future because customers don’t like apps that often have data leakages.

 

• Focus on the Financial Model

Include a financial model into your mobile app strategy. An app that allows you to gain more customers should be free, as it can help you increase loyalty and revenue. 

Apps like Survival Game: Squid Challenge, Telegram, Makeover Race, and many others that we have discussed above as the most popular apps in Saudi Arabia are available for free and help in driving high-volume installs. 

If the app provides valuable services to users, the chances are high they will stay on your app for longer, so you can offer them a free app and place advertisements on it to generate revenue for your business. 

 

• Don’t Forget the Mobile App’s Performance

With the advanced technologies and the consistent launching of mobile devices, focusing on mobile optimisation becomes important than ever to ensure your mobile application is friendly, responsive, and faster in terms of performance.

Your customers hate apps that are relatively slow and easy to crash. They can leave a bad review on Google and other online reputation management sites to down your reputation in the market.

There are different problems raised by mobile app crashes, like data leakage and loss of user data. To avoid such situations, you must hire a trustworthy mobile app development agency who has knowledge and expertise in building mobile apps networks & memory management, error detection, adequate testing, and other factors that are required while creating a mobile application strategy.

 

• Leverage Cloud Technology

Developing mobile apps on the cloud has many benefits, such as cost-effectiveness, agility, standardization, flexibility, etc. Companies that hire cloud-proficient developers can acquire as many benefits because they have cloud-oriented development tools to develop the app from anywhere.

The best part is these cloud-based tools don’t require installation and ask you to maintain the infrastructure. Many business and consumer applications are now cloud-based like CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Google Docs, Office 365, and Microsoft Azure. The reason to leverage cloud technology is a smooth learning curve and faster on-boarding process that is enjoyed by new users.

 

• Analyse What Will Allow Users to Visit Your Mobile App

Think about your mobile app from the customer’s point of view because this is the main factor that will help you achieve success in the era of digital transformation.

Customers should have valid reasons to visit your app. That’s why it is always suggested to create a unique mobile application strategy that further helps create a useful app to offer services. With such apps, you can even attract your potential customers and encourage them to use your solution every day. 

 

Creating a Roadmap for Your Mobile App 

Here are tips and ideas for you when creating a roadmap for your mobile app:

• Know Your Users and Solve Their Problems in Real-Time

You must know who your customer is. Because if you’re going to develop and launch a mobile app to solve an existing problem or innovate a new service your customers will use, you must know what challenges they are facing in their real lives or businesses.

Suppose, if you are planning to create an Uber clone, you must have a robust mobile application strategy to ensure that your users can hire a taxi in the most convenient and cost-effective way. Similarly, your business requirements will be fulfilled at a low cost.  

 

• Identify Your App Competitors

After investing your time in identifying app users, the next step is to conduct thorough research of your competition because your competitors have already published their applications on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. With this idea, you can know their app’s features and strengths.

For this, you can take the assistance of Google or any other search engine. You can even search for your competitors by leveraging some keywords that are words and phrases, which your customers may use in the question form to satisfy their intent and obtain the exact results.

Do not worry if there are lots of competitors. Believe me, the fittest will survive, and there is enough room for all the fit ones. 

 

• Establish the Application Objectives or Goals

A plan with no goal is just a dream. If you want to succeed in your mission, always have the objectives for your mobile application. Also, these objectives should be clear and appropriate for obtaining specific outcomes for your customers, business, or product.

It helps in making effective decisions and gives positive outcomes to employees, stakeholders, or investors. In order to create the app’s goal, you must have the answers to the following questions.

• What pain points or problems will your application solve?  
• Why is your app essential to your users?  
• How will the features and content of your application differ from your website?  
• How often are you planning to add new content or update the app?  
• Will this project require specialists, collaboration with other departments, or need community partners to satisfy the needs of your audience?  
• Why should users use your app?  
• Why should your users come back to your app and share it with their friends & relatives?  
• What makes your app unique and customer-specific compared to the similar apps available in the market?  
• What mobile version will you use & how will it look different from other versions?  
• How do you plan for risks?  
• How do you plan to have a check on app uninstalls?  
• Why should a user install your app?  

 

• Select the Right Mobile Platform for Your App

Getting the application ready from the developer is easy, but making it successful is challenging. If the app you’ve built doesn’t support the operating system that your users have, it may be downloaded by the fewest users.

Accordingly, you will not be able to produce the profit or income that you expect during the development. To be successful in the current mobile platform market, you should choose the right operating system because it helps manage the device hardware and software functions or acts as an interface between the hardware (end-user device) and the software (application).

According to Statista, Android has become the leading mobile operating system worldwide and holds the mobile OS market with nearly 73 percent share. Google-based Android & Apple’s iOS has a global Market share of 99 percent, which means creating the application either through the Android operating system or iOS can become an excellent choice for your app.

You need to remember that the cost of the application can vary according to different operating systems. Yet, you can take a rough idea that the expected price of building an elementary application in Saudi Arabia can cost around $12,000.

The application with additional features can cost from $20,000 to $45,000, and this cost can grow to $80,000 if the app is complex with plenty of features to create the first impression in the user’s mind. Before making a mobile application strategy for 2022, you must have clarity of the right mobile app platform; it can help you win in the era of digital transformation. 

 

• Hire a Professional Mobile Application Strategist

Hiring a professional mobile application strategist is crucial because it has a team of mobile app developers with a detailed knowledge of Agile methodologies and top mobile app development frameworks used in Saudi Arabia. For example, React Native, Xamarin, Mobile Angular UI, Native Scripts, Flutter, Corona, Adobe Phonegap, JQuery Mobile, and more to create customer-oriented mobile apps and launch the product successfully in the market. 

Before developing a mobile app, you must create a solid strategy from the best mobile app development planner because it ensures that your application will launch as intended, meet your unique company’s goals and objectives, and help you produce a true ROI. 

 

Conclusion 

Mobility is nothing but more than a tool that requires a solid thought process to create a successful mobile app and helps in delivering desired outcomes.

Are you planning to build a result-oriented mobile application development strategy for your EdTech firms? You can choose Alareeb ICT because we are specialized in digital transformation and have a decade of expertise in creating an effective mobile application strategy for your native, hybrid, and web apps. Build a roadmap for your mobile app development with us. We ensure that you will get a user-friendly application to meet your unique needs.  

 

For more information, click on the link below to schedule a call with one of our experts.