What to Expect from the App Store and Google Play Store (Points to remember before Launching Your First App)

Being a businessman, you may have identified your target market for your application. So, you must be aware of the different platforms you’ll make a move to Android, iOS, or both. To be reliable, we’ve compared these two platforms to aid you with a better understanding and preparation for publishing the apps. For better understanding, we’ve also described the pros & cons of each platform along with the other obstacles that can get in your way. Ready? Let’s start!

Just like everything has a right and wrong way. Similarly, launching an app also has it.

As a company expert who has witnessed both sides of the ambit in the past years, I can assure you that you don’t want to launch your app the wrong way.

Sometimes mistakes early on in the process can be so pernicious that it becomes difficult to retrieve.

First impressions are important. No one wants their company name and brand to be associated with any problems.

So getting it right the first time around will save you headaches and keep you from having to go through a rebranding campaign strategy to repair the image of your app.

There are as many 1.8 million apps on Apple’s App Store as of Q1 2019, as stated by Statista. This is a lot, especially considering there have been only 5,000 apps by the end of 2008.

But what a number of apps are being released monthly on the App Store these days? According to data compiled by Pocketgamer.biz, developers are currently submitting over 9,000 (sometimes over 11,000) apps per month on the average basis. A record number of apps – 160,665 – were submitted for approval by Apple in September 2016, with the mobile game category accounting for 29 percent of that figure.

Meanwhile, the entire number of apps downloaded from the App Store reached 205.4 billion in 2018 and is forecasted to hit 258.2 billion by 2022. Even though these figures appear to be impressive, downloads don’t always correlate with retention. Unfortunately, 21 percent of all mobile apps downloaded by users worldwide are only used once during a six-month period after installation.

As of December 2018, there have been nearly 2.1 million apps on the Google Play Store. From 2016 through 2018, there have been over 6,000 apps added per day. The total number of applications downloaded from Google Play was around 197 billion in 2017, with Business of Apps forecasting 352 billion downloads by 2021.

Entry fee

How much does it normally cost to distribute an app on the Google Play Store and also the App Store? This is probably the key question of worrying most app developers.

But it is not only the platform entry fee that matters. It is also important to weigh the opportunities you get once you pay this fee. Let’s check out how much it costs to access the App Store and also on the Google Play Store and consider what benefits you’ll get once you spare your money.

Page layouts

To keep up with ASO techniques, you definitely should work on your app’s product page. Marketers normally use different ad campaigns to draw in iOS and Android users, as they need alternative ways of thinking. You should consider that when filling out your product page with content and comparing your app with competitors’.

App store optimization and app discovery

Marketers know that creating your app stand out on an app store is as hard as building it. That’s why you merely can’t escape with poor app store optimization (ASO). Even though the success of your app depends on the trouble you set into ASO, both Google and Apple do their best to assist you.

App review processes

So you’ve done your best to create the right application to succeed in your target users. What’s next? How does one submit your app for approval by Google or Apple? What are the differences?

Security

Most people have the belief; the App Store is safer as compared to Google Play Store. That is true because the App Store takes considerable time in reviewing any application and then uploading it on the main platform. App Store scrutiny criteria are based on a high-quality standard; that is why it takes so much review time. Google Play Store contains some low-quality apps, and its reviews and uploading process is not as complex as compared to App Store.

App Store

You’ll have to pay just $99 a year to create and distribute your mobile products on the App Store. Needless to say, you’ll have to become a full member of the Apple Developer Program. But what’s included?

First of all, you get access to all or any of Apple’s cutting-edge technologies that allow you to create hot and interesting applications. These technologies include Apple Pay, Maps, HealthKit, and HomeKit. Apple kindly provides you with all the required tools (think SDKs and APIs) to create pure and compelling user experiences.

Secondly, you’ll get the chance to try your app before releasing it. Because of TestFlight beta testing, you’ll share early builds of your product together with your internal team and obtain comprehensive feedback in no time. Up to 25 members of your development team can participate in beta testing if they’re assigned a Developer or Admin role in iTunes Connect. Moreover, each member can try your product on up to 30 devices.

If your internal team’s feedback isn’t enough for you, you’ll also invite up to 10,000 independent testers to run your app on their devices just by using their email address. Whenever you invite a replacement tester, they’ll receive an email inviting them to hitch the ranks of the beta testers. They’ll even be prompted to put in the free TestFlight app from the App Store for his or her iPhone, iPad, or other iOS devices.

Once the beta version of your app is installed, TestFlight will notify testers whenever a replacement build is out there, offering a simple thanks to leaving feedback and giving testers clear hints on where to focus.

Thirdly, you’ll get the chance to distribute your apps (including for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and other devices) and Safari extensions via the App Store. There are not any hosting fees or any concerns regarding payment procedures inside your app: Apple handles it all. they’re going to take a 15 percent cut of your revenue, however. But that’s a subject for a separate article.

Lastly, you’ll get fresh insights on user engagement, marketing campaigns, app performance, monetization, and other metrics with App Analytics.

Google Play Store

To register a Google Publisher Account, you will have to pay a $25 fee. But unlike Apple’s Developer Program, a membership that must be renewed yearly, you simply pay this fee once.

Your account will then be linked to your Developer Console, “a home for publishing and managing your apps.” The Google Play Developer Console allows you to upload your Android apps, build product pages, manage in-app purchases and subscriptions, configure distribution, and publish and promote your apps.

Google’s Developer Console provides a variety of useful features that make it easier to publish an app but trying to summarize all of them in one short piece would be pointless. Below, we’ll cover only the foremost notable features.

Since there are thousands of various Android devices, it’s necessary to know how well your app runs on many various devices. That’s the work of the Cloud Test Lab.

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