What you should do when your app idea is already in an app store

Mobile apps make our lives convenient and easy and they have become the order of the day. The demand for mobile apps has grown significantly and apps have moved beyond social media, gaming and instant messaging.

Everyone would like to build a unique app which is not yet available in the app stores. But did you know that there are more than 3 million apps in the Google Play Store and more than 2 million apps in Apple’s App Store? The chances of your app idea being unique are bleak and there might be several apps similar to your app idea.

We are not discouraging you but it is a fact that almost all good app ideas have been already taken by mobile app developers. So what should you do now? The above facts and statements do not mean there is no scope for new apps. Here is the way to go ahead with your app idea.

RESEARCH

If you love the app idea and are very much interested in creating it, there are few things you need to do.

Determine keywords that define the features of your dream app. Use the keywords to search the apps in app stores that have similar features. 90% of the time, you will be surprised to see a similar app.
Download the similar apps and check their features and note down the user experience.
Note down the drawbacks of the apps and find features that will improve usability and user-friendliness of the app. If you cannot find any aspect for improvement, jump to the next point.
You need to refine your app idea. For example, if your app idea was to develop a quiz application on cars, you can consider developing a quiz application for vintage cars.
After you have refined your app idea, you need to search for similar apps in the apps store and perform the steps 1 to 3 for your refined app idea.

MEASURE COMPETITION

Competition is also a good measure to validate your app idea. If there is little or no competition it could mean two things – no one has been able to serve the niche well enough until now or there isn’t demand for such app.

If there is enough competition, it is a good sign, it indicates there is good demand for such apps. Once you have sized up the competition, select one or two similar apps and study their customers and their feedback.

What are people saying about the competitor’s app? Are they leaving negative feedback? What areas are your competitors lacking in which you can excel? See what has worked for them and what hasn’t. If there are unsatisfied users, your app with right features can strike a chord with unsatisfied users.

VALIDATE YOUR APP IDEA

Once you have refined your app idea and checked for similar apps, you need to validate your app idea and see if there is a market for it. There are different methods to validate game apps and non-game apps.

If you are developing a game app, you need to check top charts of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. In addition, you need to also check gaming websites and see if such games are popular among audiences. Online gaming sites like Miniclip, y8 or Toucharcade are some of the popular gaming websites where you can know about gaming trends and popular games. You can easily know the number of game plays and downloads for games listed on these sites.

If you see a huge number of fans for the type of game you are planning to develop an app for, you can proceed with the app idea. You will be surprised to find that game apps are not unique; there are different variants of the game. For example, there are thousands of racing games in app stores, the only difference between these games is the cars, racing tracks and different game plots.

If you are developing a non-gaming app, your research should not remain limited to finding successful apps in app stores. In fact, you should dig in deeper outside the app stores to find out what your target audience is talking about, their pain points and their complaints about competitors apps. Some of the websites you can check are:

Go to these platforms and search with relevant keywords to find about active and relevant topics and how many people are interacting on these topics. Perform an analysis of the discussions and determine whether you have a good number of followers for the app trends you are interested in.

BUILD A SUPERIOR APP

Once you have completed your research, measured the competition and validated your app idea, you need to focus on mobile app development. You can start with writing few essentials of your app. Define your app idea in greater depth so that it is easier for you to compare your app with what’s out there.

What you need to define in greater detail is the app context and the problem you are trying to solve (pain points of targeted customers) and why customers would use your app. Once you have defined app context and functionality, the next step is defining the target customers. The more specific you are, a more unique app you would be able to build and be successful.

When you are able to determine the target customer of your app, you will have a better understanding to customize the app experience to users needs. Also defining specific customer segment will help you keep the user acquisition costs lower.

Once the customer segment is defined, you can map the user journey which shows main functionalities of the app, how to use them and plan for the best user experience. Take, for example, the Apple’s iPod or iPhone.

iPod was not the first mp3 player. Before its introduction in 2001, there were several portable digital players that could play mp3 files. The only thing was these mp3 players were clunky, hard to use and had less user-friendly interfaces. Steve Jobs was quick to ascertain the need to develop mp3 players that were lightweight and compact (could snugly fit into the pocket), could stack large library of mp3 songs and have easy to use interface. There is no doubt, iPod was superior to other mp3 players in every aspect and the device made new records in terms of popularity and rest is history.

ADOPT A DISRUPTIVE STRATEGY

Just because you have built a better app, it does not mean all users will abandon the mobile apps they are using and embrace your mobile app. There is no guarantee that better apps are always successful. Hence you need to adopt a disruptive strategy while launching the app. The disruptive strategy can be on monetization or price.

For example, you can offer a free app where all competitors apps are paid. You can also consider offering premium features offered by competitors in the free version of your app. Try to pack more value to the customer than your competition that will make users go for your app.

EXECUTE BETTER

Designing and developing an app is only a half battle won. You also need to put in efforts to market your app in the right way. Look for weaknesses of your competitors apps. For example, some of the apps may not have an attractive description. You can use their weakness to your advantage by writing attractive app descriptions.

WRAPPING UP

If you are planning to drop your app idea just because “someone has already done it before”, get over such mentality. Did you know that some of the most successful apps in the app stores were built among the strongest competition? Remember, your mobile app may have several advantages over your competitors apps. You will never realize the chances of winning unless you try.

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