Have you put a lot of work or money or both into developing your app(s)?

This article on BusinessWeek describes how creating apps with basic functionality is becoming easier and more affordable, resulting in an enormous amount of apps being pushed out by small companies and individuals with little or no coding skills at all.

While we do not want to go into the pros and cons of using a service that helps you get your very own application within a day, we do see these types of services and the apps they produce picking up momentum, leading to an ever more increasing amount of apps, all distributed through one central channel (the App Stores). Surely, questions of quality and general product value should be raised, but the fact remains that almost each and every one of these “24-hour-apps” competes with your product in terms of taking up attention-space in the App Store and among users.

If we believe BusinessWeek (referring to Ovum data), the number of apps downloaded through the typical type of App Stores (Apple, Blackberry, Android) could reach 18.7 billion in 2014. Of course, until then, some things will probably have changed in a positive way (e.g. better and individual app recommendations). Still, the amount of apps downloaded combined with the fact that the number and speed by which new apps will be “produced” and released will force each and every app developer who is serious about getting some traction to professionalize his or her marketing.

Since we are obviously just at the beginning of a development here, this is probably the best time for you to take away key learnings, don’t you think?