What to Look for When Hiring a Mobile App Development Company in New York

The mobile app market continues to rise rapidly, with a market size expected to top $500 billion by 2030. But joining in the revenue and business windfall of that growth is not automatic. You need the right idea, strategy, and partner. That's where the potential of hiring a mobile app development company in New York comes in.

It's not as simple as hiring the first developer you come across on a Google search. Instead, spending the time and attention necessary to find the right partner can pay off significantly in the long run. It's about knowing what variables to look for in order to ensure that the company you hire becomes a true strategic partner for your app development process. 

Those variables are complex but break down into a few relatively simple categories. But of course, the first question you have to ask yourself is why you should hire a mobile app development company in New York, to begin with.

Why Hire a Mobile App Development Company in New York?

Quality app developers exist all over the United States, and even overseas. Once you make it known that you're looking for a partner to develop your app, they'll all come knocking. You don't need to hire a New York app development company, but doing so does come with some important advantages to keep in mind.

First, and perhaps most importantly, you're hiring a partner at home in one of the world's technology hubs. The technology and media industry in New York City alone accounts for nearly $125 billion in economic output, thanks to 7,500 tech firms operating within city limits. And it's still growing—nearly 20% annually—making it one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the United States.

This thriving tech scene actually results in two important benefits for finding a potential app development partner:

1. A plethora of talent, increasing the chances that the developers working on your mobile app have the knowledge and experience you need—and know how to apply it to your specific situation.
2. Knowledge of current tech and mobile trends, thanks to the proximity of national and regional hubs by tech giants like Google, Amazon, IBM, and Apple.

Hiring a New York app development company also decreases some of the risks you might run into with alternatives like offshore development. You can certainly find offshore developers who are cheaper than domestic competition and still deliver great quality—but time and language challenges, along with the sheer physical distance between your company and your development team, can complicate the process. Working with a mobile app development company in New York decreases the risk of these challenges and resulting errors or miscommunications. Your mobile app is an investment in your company, so ensuring it has a solid foundation and the support you need is essential.

7 Variables to Consider When Hiring a New York Mobile App Development Company

Of course, none of the above benefits of concentrating your search for a partner in New York happens without effort. With hundreds of options available, you still need to make sure that any company you hire matches your unique needs and situation. These seven variables can help you get started.

1. Choose a Company that Matches Your App Development Needs and Any Gaps in Your In-House Capabilities

The first step is to understand what part of the app development process you actually need help with. You can hire full-stack developers who will create the app on your behalf or specialists that only focus on pieces of the process, like ideation on one end or app launch optimization on the other.

You might have existing development expertise on your staff already. In that case, you'll want to hire a mobile app development company that can naturally integrate with your team, joining your staff on regular calls and interfacing with them throughout the process. 

Related: The 4 Top Custom Mobile App Development Services for Startups

On the other hand, you might not be completely sure what type of app development services you need yet. That's also an important nuance to be transparent about. The more open you are about the variables you know and don't know in terms of needed scope and expertise, the more your potential partners can determine whether their niche and expertise match your internal gaps.

2. Match Your Situation With App Development Nuances

Beyond the general scope of the partnership, you'll also need to determine exactly what type of app you're looking to develop. For example:

• eCommerce apps have very different structure and needs than social networks or intranet apps
• Android app development differs from iOS app development in a few important ways and requires varied expertise and skill sets.
• Audiences will engage with apps differently; there are few similarities between apps built for Gen Z and apps built for boomers.

And those are only some of the variables. Your app idea and, even more importantly, the business and audience needs behind that idea should drive your quest of finding an app development company with expertise and experience in your niche.

3. Find a True Partner for Your App Development Process

There's a reason the word 'partner' has already appeared 10 times in the course of this guide. That's because the best app developers are not just order-takers. They become strategic team members who, in addition to building the final product, can provide guidance and even gentle pushback as needed to make the app as good as it can be.

The harsh reality is that even though thousands of new apps appear on Apple and Google's app stores every day, the average smartphone user only has 40 apps installed on their phone at any given time. The rest join a graveyard of apps that may have seemed to make solid business sense but never addressed core audience needs.

When you hire the right mobile app company, you get more than just functional expertise. You get an extension of your own team with plenty of aptitude in this space. More importantly, that expertise can lead to strategic guidance on the direction of your app from beginning to end, maximizing your chances of building an app that solves both your business and core audience needs.

4. Determine True Expertise and Experience Among New York App Developers

We already mentioned a core benefit of working with a mobile app development company in New York as being an increased chance of finding mobile experts who know and can leverage the latest trends. But you still need to make sure that this expertise is more than just marketing speak. You want to know it will actually become an advantage for the app you're building.

That means going deeper into the past work of the development company you're looking to hire. Read through past app development case studies to better understand their approach and the type of work they've completed. You can even ask for references of current and recent clients to get an independent perspective on whether the company you might partner with keeps its promises and can help you build a great app.

5. Prioritize the Agile Methodology in App Development

Digging into a potential partner also means examining the way they approach the app development process and how that approach might line up with your needs and goals. And, as it turns out, it's impossible to discuss that topic without at least considering the benefits and importance of agile development.

The agile methodology is a development process in which, rather than one big and final delivery at the end of the contract, an app gets built in small, iterative steps. Each step is called a sprint and offers the opportunity for feedback and testing to make tweaks before the work moves ahead too far. 

Related: How We Work and Why We Chose Agile

Study after study bears out just how well this agile approach works. But it's especially important in this process because it allows you to be more directly involved in the app development. The entire process becomes more flexible, more transparent, and more adjustable as needed to ensure the final product will resonate with and engage your audience.

6. Emphasize Long-Term Partnerships Over Short-Term Development Needs

You need an app, so it's only natural to look for a New York app developer that can help you build it. But even more important than that all-important app launch is a conundrum: as it turns out, the final delivery is not so final after all. 

Apple releases a new iOS update every year. Android releases security patches almost monthly. Users find bugs or start demanding new features. An app that stands still is an app that, even after initial usage and engagement, will slowly stop bringing in the ROI you are looking for.

That's why, when you're looking for a mobile app development partner, it pays to keep your eye on the horizon. If you have the capability to update your app after launch, ask about the nature of the hand-off to ease the process for you, and keep in mind that you might need your developer again for new features or other major updates. If you lack that capacity, an app developer staying with you long-term to spearhead those updates becomes essential.

7. Align the Development Partnership With Your Budget and Timeline

Finally, and most functionally, you have to make sure that the scope of help you need aligns with your current company situation in two crucial ways:

• Developing an app that fits within the budget you have set for the process
• Working toward a launch date that matches your needs to begin seeing a return on your investment

The developer search can inform some of these choices. As you talk to more companies, you might get a better idea of the budget and timeline needed. But ultimately, it pays to ensure that by the time the ink dries on the contract, you're both aligned on budget and timeline to avoid potential complications and misunderstandings down the road.

Work Toward Success With a Mobile App Development Company in New York 

If you're looking for an app development company in New York, you'll have plenty of options. The key is sifting through those options to find the potential partner that best matches your needs. Variables like the nature of the partnership, the development process, and alignment on budget and timeline can all help.

But ultimately, the most important piece is the communication between you and your mobile app developer. From the first consultation onward, the fit needs to be right and feel right. At Milo Mobile, we're confident in our expertise and proud of our New York location. Schedule your 30-minute free consultation to see how our expertise can be a good fit for your needs.

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