Test Your Mobile App’s Performance
Test Under Different Network Conditions Without Ever Leaving Your Office
There’s no question about it—any business that wants to stay relevant these days needs to have a mobile app to keep communication flowing between their clients and their organization. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 52% of the population check their smartphones multiple times per hour and another 20% checks at least once per hour—making the average mobile device a marketing hotspot for businesses.
Savvy small and mid-sized business owners are aware of this data, and they know they need to invest in an app to keep up in today’s competitive marketplace. What they probably don’t know is that they need you to provide them with an app that works under any and all network conditions.
While it’s clear from this data that a mobile app is the most effective way to reach the majority of today’s consumers, what isn’t so clear is how to test the app under different, controlled network impairments to ensure optimal performance out in the real world.
Let’s address each of these concerns below:
Why is network testing of mobile apps in variable network conditions so much more important than with a standard desktop app?
More importantly, how can mobile app testing be done successfully without repeatedly going out into the field?
Why Test a Mobile App Under Different Network Conditions?
The answer to the first question lies in the app’s functionality and user-friendliness, which both depend on the range of network conditions that a mobile app is expected to perform well in. A typical client-server desktop application is built to communicate via a network, but that network is predetermined to have specific qualities that the developer is well aware of before the app hits the shelves. When a desktop app hits the market, it presumably functions as expected in a consistent, reliable corporate network environment.
A mobile app, on the other hand, is expected to climb mountains and provide the same performance in the lowest levels of an elevator. It must handle a fast corporate LAN connection and a slow 2.5 G speed without missing a beat. After all, a mobile app user traveling from London to New York expects the same reliable app performance and functionality on both sides of the pond—and these days, they expect it in the airplane as well.
The answer to the second question is where a network emulator provides the best solution to a mobile app developer’s ongoing problem of performance testing under variable network conditions.
Achieve Maximum Functionality Across Network Conditions
Most functional defects occur on less-than-optimal networks, indicating that unpredictability and network impairment creates instability in the app that should be addressed before the app is released to market.
A network emulator can provide the network variables that your team needs to fully evaluate the performance and functionality of a mobile app under real-world conditions.
Provide a Consistent User-Friendly Experience (UX)
When you make application testing a priority with a reputable network emulator, your team can evaluate an app’s performance and UX before it leaves the DevOps phase. This crucial step takes place well in advance of your users’ brutal real-life testing scenarios, and protects against all the potentially negative reviews that come when a new, untested mobile app enters the real world.
As most mobile app developers are painfully aware, those negative reviews can stop a new, untested app’s success in its tracks if it enters the consumer market without the proper network impairment testing.
A mobile app is expected to provide users with the ultimate mobile experience of a business. In order to achieve that goal, your team needs to test that app under a variety of real-life network impairment scenarios.
To accomplish this important task without running around between basement parking garages and elevators in an attempt to simulate your own variable network conditions, the professionals at IWL can help. Contact us today for a free consultation about our innovative network emulation tools.
Are you looking for a way to test your mobile app’s UX and functionality without having to search out different network environments out in the real world? Check out IWL's network emulators for access to variable network conditions right from the comfort of your own office.