Mobile testing solution provider SOASTA unveiled the findings of a series of surveys questioning American adults about their concerns when buying mobile apps, as well as the issues developers face with testing apps before they are released.
The results of the consumer study show that 77% of consumers who purchase mobile apps have concerns that would prevent them from buying a mobile app, while it appears that developers are not doing enough to ensure a high quality user experience for their apps that reach the market.
The concerns U.S. consumers who ever buy mobile apps have that would prevent them from buying a mobile app include bugs (58%), crashes (57%), performance (48%), speed (32%), app does not respond to gestures or swipes (30%), and other (10%).
Moreover, men were more likely than women to express apprehensions when purchasing a mobile app (66% v. 58%, respectively), while millennials (aged 18-34) were statistically more likely than their counterparts aged 55+ to have concerns that would prevent them from buying an app (76% v. 48%, respectively). Men were also more likely than women to be more concerned with speed (30% v. 21%, respectively) while the Northeast (46%) and West (44%) regions were statistically more likely than the Midwest and South (33% and 35%, respectively) to be concerned with performance.
On the other hand, developers cited the following reasons for not testing apps: cost (51%), time (51%), absence of a good Freemium solution (36%), hard to learn testing software (33%), and lack of testing skills at their companies (20%).
According to SOASTA, developer study results indicate that developers are craving cost-effective, efficient, and easy to use software to aid in the mobile app testing process, and to that end the company suggests its newly launched TouchTest LITE solution.
Finally, in case you wonder, Harris Interactive conducted an online survey on behalf of SOASTA among 3,130 American adults ages 18+ (the consumer study), while uSamp polled 1,309 information technology specialists and mobile app developers (the developer study). Both surveys occurred in July, 2013.