How We’ve Learned To Meet The Challenges of Mobile App Development

How We’ve Learned To Meet The Challenges of Mobile App Development:

Image via CrunchBase

Each year that Appsolute Genius has been in business has come with new challenges.
At first, our challenges were all about getting our company known and explaining what an app was to people we met.  Slowly, the challenges grew to working on more complex projects and handling many projects at once.  Then a time came when we were challenged with building a company culture and keeping a group of coworkers focused on the same mission and purpose.
If you know me well, you probably know that these challenges are what drive me and a big part of why I do what I do.
Mobile development has come so far in the last 3 years!  The development tools have improved so much and the capabilities of the mobile devices have increased so quickly.
To give you a frame of reference, when Appsolute Genius started building apps for mobile, 15% of the US used a smartphone and Blackberry owned about 40% of the US smartphone users.
Today, over 50% of the US uses a smartphone and Apple & Google own about 91% of the US smartphone users.  And here’s another stat that will blow your mind: more iPhones are sold per day than babies born! I think you get the point.  Mobile is growing very, very fast.
The latest challenges we face involve a few misconceptions about what we really do and what it takes to build an app successfully.  Don’t we just hire some smart developers and lock them in a room to code something? Can we just use a wizard to create an app for Apple and Android?
With a maturing mobile market, many tools are coming to market that promise that you can build your own app or that you can have an app for a fraction of the price of hiring a custom developer.  This is an issue that we can certainly understand as a business owners.
There are two tips we would give you when looking at these platforms.

1. First, what is the quality of the app the “build your app” produces?  Your app will represent your brand whether your customers use it or your employees.  It must be look really good and be very easy to use or building an app will not be a good experience for you.  Think back to the first website you built.  You might have even built it yourself.  Did you eventually replace it with a better website?
2. Second, when you work with a custom app developer, they should really be tailoring an app to meet the needs of your business.  If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to wear a one-size-fits-all gown at the hospital, you probably already know that one size doesn’t really fit all.  This is still true in app development.

Another current challenge we face involves companies asking us why they shouldn’t do the project in-house or just hire an inexpensive freelance developer to build their app.

The more we’ve thought about this, the more we’ve really dug into what makes us valuable to our customers.  I believe it comes down to a several key points.

1. First, we have a lot of experience building apps with companies both big and small!  We’ve run into just about every problem you can imagine whether it is dealing with the Apple submission process or having a truly difficult bug to track down.
2. Second, building apps for over 3 years, we’ve learned a good deal about how users use products when they are mobile.  We generally refer to this as mobile usability but it involves digging into how people think when they are on the go.  Have you really thought about people use a phone versus a tablet?  We haven’t just thought about it.  We’ve discussed it, argued about it, asked users about it, read studies about it, and more.  You get the point!
3. Third, we keep up with this industry each and every day.  We are so into mobile that we spend time reading 30 pages of release notes and 200 page design guidelines — for both Apple and Google.
4. Finally, we assemble a team for each project or customer.  This team could have a designer, an iOS (Apple) developer, an Android (Google) developer, a web service developer, a project manager, and a mobile strategist.  All of these people have significant experience with mobile, and it really does make a difference.

Like I said, these questions have really forced us to understand our value and ultimately forced us to continue to grow as a company.
Mobile development has been a truly wild ride due to how quickly it’s grown.  While we do run into questions and even misconceptions, we wouldn’t change anything about our experience.  We have been able to meet and work with so many interesting businesses, and we believe we’ve been able to make a real difference in companies.
We welcome the chance to answer your questions and learn more about your company.  Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or need help with mobile!
Written by Appsolute Genius CEO Brian Cauble