Two Other Problems with Mobile Traction
Consumer Trust and Cross-Platform Challenges
Last week, notable tech blogger Andrew Chen released an essay suggesting that despite the massive growth in smartphone adoption, fostering initial mobile traction for startups was getting harder, not easier. He cited the following reasons:
- Difficulties in product differentiation;
- Rising Cost Per Install (CPI);
- Editorial teams of App Stores goals are at times at odds with mobile developers; and
- Lack of investment in consumer tech.
I suggest there are two other challenges adding to the struggle:
a) the lack of consumer trust in new apps, and
b) the rising need to develop cross-platform apps.
Lack of Consumer Trust
Consumers have been scorned by far too many spammy apps, and the result is a widescale distrust in new, relatively unknown applications. The breaches of trust from their spammy colleagues have left the two buttons above as some of the most feared on the internet. A reality that is an unfair burden many mobile developers are forced to shoulder.
Users are alarmingly cautious in allowing new apps access to their location, social graph (i.e. Facebook login), and push notifications. While it’s true that getting someone to download your app may be a daunting task, getting them to actually use is far more challenging. Usage requires a demonstration of value to a new user, yet doing so becomes exceedingly difficult when that app has already been forbidden access to so many mobile features that often require it to demonstrate that value.
As more apps try to further their own growth through spammy and cutthroat tactics, users find themselves forever scorned, barely finding enough trust to allow access to even the largest consumer tech companies. Building this trust, and cultivating a relationship of long-term value is something that is forged with time. Startups, however, live in a world of shortsighted time constraints and optimizing for “right now”, reconciling these trust issues with the pressing need for traction is a challenge for all mobile developers.
Cross-Platform Challenges
Companies can no longer expect to cultivate an early adopter user base exclusively on iOS. In the past, additional platforms (Android, Blackberry, Windows) may have represented a niche user that could be marginalized until a company advanced to their growth stage. That is no longer a reality. Early adopters are flocking to Android and it is vital for startups to map a cross platform strategy as early as possible.
The challenges of developing for multiple platforms have been well documented. As such, building native iOS and Android applications in tandem is a dream that rarely comes to reality for startups. The challenge is that larger companies that are ubiquitous across all platforms (iOS, Android, web), giving them an unfair advantage that startups must attempt to overcome. Crafty companies have found ways to adopt mobile web strategies that attempt to bridge this gap. But in a mobile first world with user experience at a premium, mobile web falls short, and native apps prevail.
As Andrew Chen points out, product differentiation is a growing challenge for mobile startups. Opportunities likely may not exist for startups attempting to build the better photo sharing, news, or mapping mousetrap. However,there are still so many daily human interactions yet to be enhanced by software, and it is these gaps in the mobile consumer space that present the greatest opportunity. The problem is that interactions with others now requires being cross-platform, and in order for some companies to reach the traction they need (to raise their seed or series A round) an aggressive early stage Android strategy is required. For startups with one or two engineers on the founding team sometimes overcoming this challenge is insurmountable.
The Battle for the Home Screen
The mobile consumer landscape is still wide open. With the exception of few, apps on one’s home screen today find themselves in a dubious position moving forward, susceptible to being usurped by new startups. Worldwide smartphone adoption continues to grow at a rapid pace and with trends in online behaviour continuing to shift from web to mobile; the door is open for tremendous opportunities in startups that find ways to translate daily interactions into native mobile experiences. The opportunity for massive success as a mobile consumer startup has never been greater yet the challenges have never been more pronounced. Only the masterful will win.
