Your Business Doesn't Need an App, It Needs a Mobile Strategy
Every few months, a business owner somewhere decides they need an app. Maybe a competitor launched one. Maybe someone in a meeting said "we should really have an app" and everyone nodded because nobody wanted to be the person who disagreed. So, they get quotes, pick a developer, spend somewhere between ₹3 lakhs and ₹30 lakhs depending on who they talked to, and launch something into the App Store.
Eighteen months later, the app has 200 downloads. Of those, 60 are the founder and their team testing it. The rest stopped opening it after week two.
If you're searching for "does my business actually need a mobile app in 2026", you're asking the right question and you deserve a straight answer, not a sales pitch. So, let's actually think through this.
The Question Nobody Asks Before Building
Here's the one question that should come before any conversation about features, platforms, or budget: what would my customer do in my app that they can't do better somewhere else?
Not "what could they do." Not "what would be convenient." What would genuinely be better through a dedicated app than through a mobile browser, a WhatsApp message, or a phone call?
If you can't answer that clearly, you don't have an app idea. You have an assumption. And assumptions are expensive things to build software around.
The problem is that most mobile app conversations start from the solution, "we need an app", rather than the problem. A restaurant that wants to take orders doesn't necessarily need an app; Zomato and Swiggy already have the customers and the infrastructure. A coaching business that wants to share video content doesn't necessarily need an app; a well-built mobile-optimised members portal might do the same job for a tenth of the cost. A logistics company that wants to let clients track deliveries might need a very focused, narrow app or they might just need a tracking link that renders beautifully on mobile.
The cases where a business genuinely needs a dedicated app are actually more specific than most people assume.
When You Actually Do Need an App
So when does the calculus change? When does a business actually need to build for iOS and Android rather than optimise what they already have?
A few real scenarios where a native app earns its budget:
When your users need to access your product offline, or in low-connectivity environments. A mobile browser fails in these conditions. A native app with local data storage doesn't. Field service companies, delivery personnel, healthcare workers in remote areas, these users need something that functions without a signal.
When you're using device hardware repeatedly. Camera, GPS, accelerometer, biometric authentication, if your core product relies on these in a continuous or intensive way, native mobile is the right choice. A browser can access these things but not nearly as reliably or smoothly.
When push notifications are central to your value proposition. Real push notifications, the kind that appear on a lock screen even when the app isn't open, are genuinely only possible natively. If timely alerts are part of how your product works, that matters.
When the experience is the product. Gaming, AR, anything where smoothness and responsiveness are part of what you're selling, native is the only way to deliver that without compromise.
What a Mobile Strategy Actually Looks Like
A mobile strategy is bigger than an app decision. It's asking: how do my customers interact with my business on their phone, across every touchpoint, and how do I make that as good as possible?
For most businesses, that starts with their website. Not a separate mobile site, a responsive, fast-loading, genuinely usable mobile experience on their main site. Google's mobile-first indexing means this already affects search visibility. But beyond SEO, think about what your customers actually do when they land on your site from a phone. Are they trying to call you? Is the number clickable? Are they trying to see your menu or catalogue? Does it load without scrolling sideways? Are they trying to book or buy? How many taps does that take?
These are solvable problems, and solving them tends to have a more direct impact on revenue than a new app with 200 downloads.
Then there's the messaging layer. WhatsApp Business, SMS notifications, email that renders on mobile, these are often more powerful engagement channels than an app, especially for businesses that don't have the marketing budget to drive consistent app opens.
And then, if you've genuinely gone through this analysis and concluded that your use case warrants a native experience, work with a team that understands how to build something people will actually use, not just something that technically functions. The team at Mittal Technologies' mobile development practice approaches this the right way, starting with use case clarity before touching code.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Most Business Apps
The average app in the consumer category loses 77% of its users within the first 3 days. Not three months, three days. For business and B2B apps the numbers are better, but still sobering.
This isn't because the apps are technically broken. It's because they were built to satisfy an internal conversation, not a user need. When the app decision comes from a board meeting or a competitor's launch rather than from observed customer behaviour, the product ends up solving a problem nobody actually had.
The businesses that build apps that stick, that become daily habits, that users would genuinely miss if they disappeared, almost all went through a rigorous process of validation before building. They talked to customers. They ran the mobile browser version first and watched people use it. They identified a specific friction point that only a native app could solve. And then they built exactly that, nothing more.
That process doesn't take long. But it takes honesty about whether you have a real use case or just enthusiasm for the idea of having an app.
FAQ
Q: Is a Progressive Web App (PWA) a good middle ground?
Often, yes. A PWA gives you installability, some offline support, and push notifications on Android without the App Store approval process or development cost of a native app. It's a legitimate option for businesses where a full native app is hard to justify, and a sensible first step to test whether users actually want an installed experience.
Q: How do I know if my audience actually uses apps regularly?
Look at your existing analytics. What percentage of your website traffic is mobile? What do those mobile users do, browse and bounce, or complete meaningful actions? Talk to ten actual customers about how they use their phones for similar needs. That conversation will tell you more than any market research report.
Q: What's the minimum viable budget for a serious mobile app?
For a focused, well-built native app (iOS + Android) with a real backend, realistic budgets start around ₹8-12 lakhs and go up significantly from there depending on complexity. Below that, something is being cut, usually quality, testing, or post-launch support. All of which create problems later.
Q: Should we build iOS first or Android first?
Depends entirely on your audience. If you're targeting premium urban users or creative professionals, iOS first often makes sense. If you're targeting a broad Indian market or businesses in tier 2 and 3 cities, Android first is almost certainly right. Check your existing website analytics for the OS split among your mobile visitors, that's your answer.
Q: Can we build the app ourselves to save money?
If you have in-house developers with mobile experience, yes. If you're planning to learn as you go or hire a freelancer with no mobile portfolio, the "savings" almost always becomes more expensive than doing it properly the first time.
