Cost Efficiency
As mentioned above, mature products are the result of years of development, with the price tag to match. But because these apps were created iteratively over a longer period, the cost is spread over time, often with a reinvestment of the revenue generated from earlier versions.
MVPs allow you to take the same approach by driving the highest value for your business, within the shortest amount of time while minimizing cost. Providing immediate value is at the center of releasing the MVP, and as you gain more users and gather more information to inform the direction of the product, you can begin to invest more (and more intelligently).
Note that, an MVP should not be confused with a Prototype, although, prototypes can be very valuable in their own right as pre-cursors to development.
The key takeaway here is that a Minimum Viable Product allows you to start smaller and iteratively build up to produce a better, more polished product – all in a way that allows you to leverage user intelligence to make the best product decisions. With every release version, the product evolves to maximize ROI and move towards a fully mature application.