There is increasing investment in application lifecycle tools by companies looking to meet demand from developers, according to a study from IDC.

Mobile application lifecycle services help developers pick the most suitable mobile platforms to work with, develop their business cases, plan back-end integration, and look at agile approaches to development and testing.

IDC found that enterprises and independent software vendors (ISVs) are looking to establish mobile initiatives – native, web-based or cross-platform – for a number of B2B and B2C applications. Supporting this, the market for lifecycle services is developing, to enable developers to speed up getting technology to market, reduce total cost of ownership, and improve productivity and quality.

IDC application outsourcing services director Rona Shuchat said third-party lifecycle players need to address “the broader spectrum of enterprise customer needs, from new entrants to the mobile space to more mature customers that have been engaged in a mobile road map strategy for a few years.”

App lifecycle management is becoming more important as developers look to reuse components, develop application factories and use internal IP to make apps portable between different platforms. The growing integration of mobile apps with cloud-based back ends is another area that benefits, according to IDC.

Usability and user experience are also becoming more important elements for mobile application lifecycle services, to ensure developers are able to accelerate development timeframes and better align with business expectations.