mobile-appsWhat would you say are currently the best markets to launch an app in (that means with a good balance between competition and trendieness)?
It completely depends on your app, your target platform, and the languages you speak fluently. A few suggestions based on my own skimming of information and observations over the years:
US arguably is the bigger market and easily feeds into UK, CA, AU, and NZ. There’s lots of both OSs, with an advantage for iOS owing to market share, purchasing power, keenness of buying apps (many Android phone users in developed countries are using them like dumb phones or nearly so), and possibly lower piracy. But the competition is extremely high, if only because many developers outside of the US are testing waters in the US before launching elsewhere.
DE, FR, and other rich EU countries are smaller but share similar market characteristics as the US without having as much competition. They require localization and reasonable understanding of how to sell to those markets. Bluntly speaking and caricaturing somewhat, US consumers easily fall for “check how cool this is, you’ll be the only one with it” whereas Europeans are somewhat more prudent and stall their purchases a bit to buy tried and tested products.
If you’re into Android, my understanding is you shouldn’t pass on developing nations in East and South East Asia because these are all countries with mobile native populations. An entire generation grew up in Asia (and Africa, and Latin America) with a smartphone - typically Android - as their only computing device. One could argue that they’re a few years ahead of the curve when it comes to how people use mobile devices, with the US and the rest of the western world lagging behind. Chinese mobile natives in particular use smartphones nothing like westerners. Targeting these markets requires localization, obviously, and good understanding of how they use their devices. Also, piracy is rather rampant and many users could barely afford apps even if they wanted to, so factor that in as well.
A peculiar island in Asia is Japan, in that iOS is dominant there like in the US and the EU. In this sense it’s closer to DE or FR, though with the twist of being ahead of the mobile curve like its neighbors. I’d hypothesize that it’s the best place to launch an iOS app: large market, rich country, ahead of the curve, less competition. But only go there if you’ve a good grasp of how they think and how they use their devices, else - like the rest of Asia - the language and the cultural divide will get in your way.
Seeing that you’re in Germany yourself, the language and cultural barrier shouldn’t be problems, plus you’ll be able to meet end users in your area, so you should at least consider launching there IMO. Unless, that is, your app is written in English and you’re merely expecting bias confirmation - if so then yes, go after the US market.
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