A successful app launch is a critical milestone for an application, marking the beginning of its journey to reach and engage with receptive users. It can also be a stepping stone to success in the competitive mobile market and long-term profitability.
A well-thought-out pre-launch strategy is the key to a successful app launch. It helps ensure that the app is ready to be rolled out, avoiding potential app store rejection due to unfinished features or bugs. It also helps to identify what makes the product unique in the crowded app market and how to differentiate it from similar competitors. This step can be done through detailed market research, competitor analysis, and interviews with prospective users.
To build excitement, consider announcing the launch date of your app well in advance. This can trigger a sense of urgency and exclusivity amongst your target audience, especially when aligned with a specific event (e.g. New Year fitness resolutions).
Upon a successful app launch, it is vital to optimize the startup of your app to make sure it loads quickly and that its performance doesn’t degrade over time. To achieve this, it’s important to understand what is happening at the system and app levels during a cold, warm, or hot start. You can also reduce your initial launch time by using ViewStub objects to inflate sub-hierarchies later and implementing lazy loading of visual properties such as bitmaps.
Lastly, it’s essential to keep track of and monitor all your app’s key performance indicators (KPIs). Revisiting a performance reporting dashboard at least once per week helps ensure that you are staying on top of the metrics that matter.