Android vs. iOS App Development: A Comparison & Decision Guide [Infographic]
There’s a revolution in mobile app development happening right now with the number of apps available for download in major app stores being at an all-time high. App developers are burying themselves in work, creating the latest software applications for mobile devices and hoping that their creations make enough money for them at Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. Apparently, the numbers are more than encouraging.
As of March 2017, the App Store had slightly more apps available at 2.2 billion compared with Play Store’s 2.8 million apps. Also in Q1 2017, combined iOS and Android app downloads were up 15% year-over-year, reaching a total of about 25 billion new downloads globally.
With re-installs, these numbers could go much higher. In terms of in-app purchases, revenue likewise increased 45% year-over-year for a staggering $15 billion across the iOS and Android systems running worldwide.
It’s definitely a good time for mobile app companies to continue hiring app developers to work on a wide array of mobile app products—from mobile music apps to instant messaging and mobile game apps. These apps are forecast to generate close to $200 billion in in-app and in-advertising revenues in less than three years’ time. But the question is, should you develop Android or iOS apps?
The following infographic gives you a comprehensive comparison between Android and iOS app development services in terms of demographics, the range of devices, time frame of development, hardware, publishing and restrictions, cost, and revenue. These are the factors you will need to consider as you decide whether to develop on the Android or iOS platform.
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The Android and iOS platforms both provide a venue for your mobile app development, but they have very distinct functionalities on their own. Sometimes, you get a clear-cut distinction between the two. However, there are also areas where they go neck and neck so you’ll have to rely on your judgment and preference when choosing the appropriate platform to develop your ware.
Demographics
Market share-wise, Android has a greater reach than its competitor, although iOS users’ income levels and spending capabilities may balance things out in the overall picture.
Devices
Screen and Resolution
The operating systems of Android and iOS differ from one another to a great extent. In designing your app, you need to factor in how your app will run given a particular device’s screen and resolution, the hardware compatible with the platform, and the individual features and capabilities of various phone models.
It might be a little more challenging to develop apps on the Android platform since you’ll be designing for different screen sizes and resolution. Meanwhile, iOS has a more uniform size range so that may free you up from having too many considerations to worry about.
Manufacturers
With Android, you’re developing not only for one Android-based device but thousands of other devices produced by different vendors. Since Android has an open nature system, you can leverage it to run your apps not just on mobile phones but also on smart TVs, wearables, or media streaming devices.
Since different Android devices have different capabilities that are unique from one another, your apps should be designed to allow compatibility with all Android devices. You have to consider the whole Android family—from low-range to mid- and high-range iterations when developing and designing your apps. Otherwise, you might be leaving out a large portion of the Android market from running your apps.
On the other hand, developing your apps for iOS means you’ll have fewer configurations to make, as you only have a limited lineup of gadgets at your disposal. This also means you’ll have fewer fragmentation issues developing your apps within the iOS system.
Development Time
As a developer, you’re naturally concerned about how much time it will take you to develop your app and put it on the App Store or the Play Store. Spending more time on app development may cause a dent on your resources and your chance to generate revenue for the company.
Testing your app across Android’s wide range of devices will naturally require more time as you look for and fix issues on one device after another. If the app works well on one Android device but not on another, you have to make the necessary modifications to the app.
Development Tools
Integrated Development Environment (IDE):
Android Studio replaced Eclipse, the previous iteration of Android’s IDE. Although Android Studio has been padded with improvements, iOS’s Xcode is deemed more mature. Specifically, in terms of debugging capability, the mobile simulator, which you use to build a prototype of your app for mobile, of iOS is deemed better than that of the Android simulator. However, Android Studio makes up for this by having a better autocomplete functionality for your coding work.
Programming Language
Java and Swift have a fairly similar structure. What differentiates them is that the former may be a bit complex if you’re just beginning to code, while the latter is based on Objective-C and touted to be generally error-free.
Publishing and Restrictions
From membership application all the way to submitting and publishing an app, it would seem like you’ll have to do a look-for-a-needle-in-the-haystack sort of thing with iOS apps, with no certainty whether your app will get approved on the App Store. In contrast, you can readily publish your app on the Play Store just by signing up and uploading your APK.
The strict quality standards of iOS may benefit users on the one hand but may scare freelance developers off on the other. That said, you’re more likely to have a better experience with Android’s mobile development policies, especially if you’re a startup developer and you’re not willing to spend on annual fees.
Cost and Revenue
Both the Play Store and the App Store put developers on equal footing when it comes to revenue generation, but the interplay of cost and revenue seems to favor iOS more. This may be attributed to iOS users’ willingness to spend on app purchases. Thus, iOS would seem to be the better choice over Android cost- and revenue-wise since it’s faster and less complicated to develop on the iOS platform.
Apple devices are known to be of premium quality and work well with a wide range of peripherals. These factors make the iOS platform effective for mobile app development as you need a shorter time to design, test, and release your app.
And the Winner Is?
After pitting Android and iOS against each other, both fared fairly the same.
Android may be your go-to platform in terms of compatibility with any hardware, more lenient rules for membership and approval of apps, and affordability of publishing fees. On the other hand, iOS shows better mileage in terms of uniformity in the screen size and resolution of devices for which the apps are intended, a more streamlined interface, shorter time frame of development, and cost and revenue model.
It’s a draw between Android and iOS when you consider market demographics, IDE features, and the nature of programming language used.
With all things considered, no one can claim to be better than the other. What one lacks, the other compensates for in another area of app development. It’s really your own choice to make, depending on your business goals and availability of resources.
Best Solutions to Top Mobile App Development Challenges
More than half of the world’s population now uses a smartphone. As the price of data plans continue to decrease all over the world, web traffic coming from mobile devices increases year by year. In fact, more than half of today’s global internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
People are spending more time on their mobile devices, thereby increasing the demand for mobile apps. Recent statistics show that 52% of the time individuals spend on digital media is on mobile apps. In 2016, global mobile app revenues amounted to 88.3 billion U.S. dollars, and it’s forecasted that by 2020, global mobile app revenues from app stores and in-app advertising will reach 188.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Indeed, mobile app development is a lucrative business, given the mobile and digital revolution.
But, for every venture comes a challenge. It’s important to know the potential challenges you may face and how to address them before hiring an app developer.
Tight Market Competition
The app market is overcrowded, and it’s becoming a challenge for a mobile application to get noticed. Apple’s App Store has over 2.2 billion apps and Google’s Play Store has over 2.8 million apps as of March 2017. That doesn’t even include the apps in Windows Phone Store and BlackBerry App World.
Solution! Define your target market and the main goal of the app. These two details are fundamental to the overall design, UI, and UX of your mobile app.
Make sure to do your market research to study the apps that already offer similar functionality. Determine your unique selling point, and make sure that your app features a beautiful design and an easy-to-use interface.
Funding
So, you’ve already come up with a solid app idea, and you’re sure that it’s going to be a hit. It’s time to get the funding to get it built.
Mobile app development can be costly, depending on the design, function, and interface of the app. Prepare the funding before you hire an app developer to avoid delays in the launch. You should also take into consideration the cost of marketing your new app.
Solution! If you can’t personally fund your mobile app idea, there are many ways to get funding. You can try crowdfunding websites like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, AppBackr, and the like. You can also ask your relatives or friends to partner up with you. If you want your mobile app to be a solo venture, then you can try for a bank loan or personal loan from people in your social circle.
Screen Size and Device Compatibility
Users have a wide variety of devices that run on different screen sizes, operating systems and platforms. Make sure that your mobile app developer understands the importance of a responsive design. Your mobile app should work for devices of all screen sizes, from the smallest smartphone to the largest tablet computer.
Solution! OS is another aspect to consider. iOS, Android and Windows has its own UI and algorithms. Be prepared to encounter bugs and errors along the way. For this reason, it’s highly recommended to release a beta version.
Interactive UI and User-Friendliness
Poor user experience is one of the top reasons why a lot of mobile apps don’t succeed simply because it turns off users. Your mobile app must be easy to use and understand. It doesn’t need to have a wide plethora of unnecessary features.
Solution! Include a tutorial that users can go back to within the app itself. Also, mobile devices nowadays include high-tech sensors and hardware that offers a range of opportunities for creating an interactive app. Explore the possibilities, but stay true to the goal and function of your mobile app.
Development Approach
There are numerous app development approaches that you can utilize, such as hybrid app development, cross-platform, native app development, or platform specific native app development. Also, you don’t want to waste time and additional resources in developing an app that wouldn’t work for multiple devices and platforms.
Solution! Strategize and decide on the tools and frameworks to use according to the UI and UX needs of your app. Platforms like OpenSourceSDK offers the ability to develop apps using C/C++ or HTML5. It also allows developers to incorporate single API across multiple platforms. Then, there are cross-platform developer tools that you can leverage for your mobile app venture, such as RhoMobile, PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Mosync, and WidgetPad.
Managing Mobile Content
Content is the life of a mobile app. Today’s mobile users demand rich content, image, and animation. However, you need to consider internet speed and bandwidth. Oftentimes, wireless network connection contributes to the failed delivery of mobile app content. As a result, users find it too bothersome to use mobile apps that don’t load quickly.
Solution! Choose a mobile content management system that simplifies content and optimizes bandwidth, such as AirWatch, Alfresco, and MobileIron. These tools can help you deliver rich content reliably.
Balancing Performance and Battery Life
It’s a big challenge to design a well-performing and bug-free app that contains rich media yet doesn’t consume too much battery life. Pokemon Go, for instance, is a great game with rich AR graphics and features. Users were hooked the moment they downloaded the app. But, most users are complaining that the game drains their smartphone quickly. Graphics, animation, content, and function should not compromise battery consumption.
Solution! Run tests to monitor the performance of your app.
Marketing and Promotion
Your mobile app is now among the millions of apps listed in the Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. How do users find it? Branding, marketing and promotions play a huge role in the success of your mobile app.
Solution! Platforms like AppTamin, AppScend , MobileDevHQ, and Smore can help you market your mobile apps. You can also take to social media advertisements to get the word out there. Create a data-driven strategy and consult with marketing professionals about how you can get your target market to download the new app.
It’s true that mobile apps are popping up like mushrooms in app stores. But, mobile app development isn’t as easy as 1, 2, 3, launch! There are challenges that beset creators and developers. Fortunately, these challenges can be overcome with careful planning.
Golang Guide: A List of Top Golang Frameworks, IDEs & Tools
Golang frameworks
Since its introduction, Google’s Go Programming Language (Golang) has been experiencing an increasing popularity among mainstream users. In a December 2016 survey, 89% of the 3,595 respondents claimed that they program in Go at work or outside of work.
Additionally, Go ranks highest among the programming languages in terms of expertise and preference. This July 2017, Go ranks 10th in Tiobe's Programming Language of the Year, jumping from its 55th ranking last year.
Clearly, Go is attracting many programmers from various disciplines and software development outsourcing professionals. And it’s safe to say that this is due to the ease of using Go.
As a compiled, open-source programming language, Go makes it easy for developers to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. It is the product of the innovation and evolution of the more conservative languages such as C and C++.
With Go, the amount of code typing is reduced and writing robust APIs without sacrificing its performance has become easier. Designed for scalability and concurrency, Go makes optimizations possible. A compiler can perform all the code inspection work before runtime.
We’ve compiled a list of the top frameworks, IDEs, and tools for Golang for your quick reference. Bookmark it on your browser so that you can come back whenever you’re working with Go!
Frameworks for Golang
Web frameworks help developers build applications as easily and quickly as possible. Go is still relatively new, so it’s important to use frameworks with sufficient documentation.
Here are 9 frameworks you can use to help you build projects using the Go Language.
1. Revel
As a high productivity framework for Go, Revel includes a Hot Code Reload tool that lets you rebuild your project on every file change. It also includes a wide variety of comprehensive and high-performance features, so you don’t need to find external libraries to integrate into the framework.
2. Beego
Beego is a full-fledged MVC framework with its own logging library, ORM, and web frameworks. You don’t need to find and install third-party libraries. It features a built-in tool called Bee Tool that watches out for code changes and runs tasks when changes are detected.
Beego will save you a lot of hours, especially in the beginning of a project when you’re figuring out the logging framework or application structure.
3. Martini
Inspired by Sinatra, Martini is an extremely light but powerful framework. It was developed for writing modular web applications and services in Golang.
It features a non-intrusive design that’s quick and easy to use and includes a wide range of handlers and middleware. It’s capable of performing basic routing, exception handling, and default document serving for AngularJS apps in HTML5 mode.
Martini’s best feature is its use of reflection, which lets developers dynamically insert data into the handler functions and add new services. Martini is also fully compatible with the http.HandlerFunc interface. The downside, though, is that the Martini framework is no longer maintained.
4. Gin Gonic
Gin Gonic is a web framework with a martini-like API, but with much better performance. If you’ve used Martini before, then you’ll be familiar with Gin Gonic. Otherwise, it will only take you 10 minutes to learn Gin. It’s that easy!
Gin Gonic is a minimalistic framework that includes only the most essential libraries and features. This makes it perfect for developing high-performance REST APIs. Plus, it’s 40 times faster than Martini.
You can add middleware, nested groups, JSON validation, and rendering, but it still maintains its optimum performance. Gin Gonic uses httprouter, the fastest HTTP router for Go.
5. Buffalo
Building new web applications with Go is quick and simple with Buffalo. When you’re starting a new project, Buffalo already has everything setup for you—from front-end to back-end development.
It features Hot Reloading, which means that dev command will watch your .go and .html files automatically. It will then rebuild and restart your binary for you. Just run the dev command, and you’ll see the changes go live right before your eyes!
Buffalo is more than just a framework – it’s a holistic web development eco-system that lets you get straight to building your application.
6. Goji
Goji is a lightweight and fast web framework that has composability and simplicity as its main priority. Much like net/http.ServeMux, Goji is a minimalistic HTTP request multiplexer. It includes Einhorn support, which makes it possible for you to have websocket support in Goji.
Additional features include URL patterns, re-configurable middleware stack, graceful shutdown, and more. Goji can be used in production and has served billions of requests across several organizations.
7. Tiger Tonic
Inspired by Dropwizard, Tiger Tonic is a Go framework for developing JSON web services and building high-performance REST APIs. To stay true to the principles of Golang, Tiger Tonic strives to keep features orthogonal.
The downside to Tiger Tonic is its inadequacy when it comes to building large, back-end applications.
8. Gocraft
Another powerful yet minimalistic framework, Gocraft offers fast and scalable routing performance. It adds routing to the net/http package from the standard library.
Gocraft is a Go mux and middleware package that features casting and reflection capabilities so that you can type your code statically. You can also add an optional functionality with the built-in middleware or write your own.
Since performance is always one of the top concerns for developers, Gocraft is a great choice for developers. It’s very easy to write backend web applications using the Gocraft framework.
9. Mango
Although Mango is not actively maintained by its creator, Paul Bellamy, a lot of Go users still use it. The great thing about Mango is its modularity. You can choose from a variety of libraries to include in your project.
Mango lets you build reusable modules of HTTP functionality as quickly and easily as possible. It compiles a list of middleware and application into a single http server object to keep your code self-contained.
Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) for Golang
IDEs for Golang are gaining popularity, along with the Go Language. While many developers still prefer to use text editors, many prefer to use IDEs as well.
If you’re working on a large-scale project with an extensive codebase, an IDE can help you organize your code and navigate it with ease. Furthermore, IDEs can help you test your code and edit them accordingly.
Here are the top IDEs that work great with Golang.
1. Gogland
Software development company JetBrains released another reliable IDE, but this time, for Golang. Gogland is a commercial IDE that provides a robust ergonomic environment for Go developers. It also features coding assistance, debugger, and an integrated terminal.
Because an established company created Gogland, it has an extensive IntelliJ plugin ecosystem where you can get additional tools should you need more.
2. Visual Studio Code
Created by Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is a full-featured, open-source IDE and code editor that supports a wide variety of programming languages. It features smart completion with IntelliSense; debugging using break points, call stacks, and an interactive console; built-in Git integration; and hierarchical folder and file explorer.
As another popular IDE, Visual Studio Code has a supportive community of Go developers that regularly contribute. With Visual Studio Code, you can extend functionalities with the array of available plugins.
3. LiteIDE
LiteIDE is among the first Golang-centric, open-source IDEs that was created more than 5 years ago. As a C++ Qt application with a unique look and feel, LiteIDE offers code management, configurable build commands, gdb and Delve debugger, auto-completion and theming with WordApi, MIME type based system, and more. It also provides JSON and Golang support.
4. Wide
Wide is a web-based IDE for Golang programmers. It’s designed for collaborative development and works best for teams and web development agencies. Wide features include code highlight, debugging, Git integration, and more.
Because Wide is created and maintained by a Chinese developer, most of its documentation and support are in Chinese.
5. Atom with go-plus plugin
If you’re already using Atom, your code editing experience in Golang can be improved with an open-source package called go-plus. With go-plus, you get instant, real-time feedback on your syntax and build errors.
The go-plus package offers almost all Golang support in Atom. It can also be used for tools, build flows, linters, vet and coverage tools.
Go-plus also includes various code snippets and features such as autocomplete with gocode, code formatting with gofmt, goreturns, or goimports, and more.
6. Eclipse with GoClipse
Because Eclipse is a widely popular IDE, numerous plugins have been created for it. GoClipse is an Eclipse plugin for Golang that offers Go source code editing with configurable syntax highlighting and automatic indentation and brace completion.
GoClipse also serves as a project wizard and builder that reports syntax and build errors instantly. Additional features of GoClipse include debugging functionality and code assist.
7. Sublime Text with GoSublime
Sublime Text is another sophisticated text editor with a large community of contributors and developers. As such, a wide variety of plugins has been created for this IDE.
GoSublime is a Golang plugin for Sublime Text 3 that offers code completion from Gocode, lint/syntax check while you’re wiring code, automatic addition and removal of package imports, and more.
8. Vim with vim-go plugin
Vim is a free, open-source IDE that can be customized and configured with various plugins. If you’re a Golang programmer, you can use Vim with the vim-go plugin created by Fatih Arslan. Vim-go automatically installs all the necessary binaries for providing a smooth Vim integration for Golang.
Vim-go is a powerful plugin suite for writing and developing Go. Its features include advanced source code analysis, adding and removing import paths, multiple 3rd liner support, goto definition, quick file executions, and much more.
Vim-go is highly customizable, with individual features that can be enabled or disabled according to your need.
9. Komodo
Komodo is a full-featured Go language IDE that supports other programming languages such as Node.js, Python, Ruby, Perl, and more. With this Go IDE, you can write clean code easily. Its features include an advanced code editor, intelligent code completion, syntax checking, version control and unit testing, and a Go Code Intelligence that allows code browsing and code hinting.
The great thing about Komodo is that it works great for team collaboration since multiple developers can edit a document simultaneously. Komodo can be installed on Mac, Windows, or Linux with just one license.
10. IntelliJ IDEA with Go Language (golang.org) Support Plugin
IntelliJ IDEA (same company as JetBrains) is an IDE that can be used with Golang through the Go language support plugin. If you want to use IntelliJ IDEA with Golang, you need to install this plugin, albeit with limited features as opposed to Gogland.
Tools for Golang
Golang tools can be used for a wide variety of projects and web applications. Developers can write code and build applications as quickly and easily as possible with these helpful tools.
Here’s a list of the top Golang tools for your reference.
1. Apicompat
Apicompat is a new Go language tool that helps developers detect backwards, incompatible changes and exported declarations.
With Apicompat, you can avoid false positives. However, not every backwards incompatible change can be detected by Apicompat. Swapping argument parameters and other changes still need to be considered by the library author.
2. Checkstyle
Inspired by Java Checkstyle, Checkstyle for Golang prints out coding style suggestions. It also lets developers check file line/function and line/param number, which can then be configured by the user.
3. Depth
Depth is another useful Golang tool that helps web developers retrieve and visualize Go source code dependency trees. It can be used as a standalone command-line application or as a particular package within your own project. You can add customizations by simply setting the appropriate flags on the Tree before resolving.
4. Go-Swagger
This toolkit includes a wide variety of features and functions. Go-Swagger is an implementation of Swagger 2.0, and can serialize and deserialize swagger specifications. It’s a minimalist yet powerful representation of your RESTful API.
With Go-Swagger, you can swagger spec document, validate against jsonschema, and other extra rules. Other features include code generation, API generation based on swagger specs, spec document generation based on the code, extended string formats, and more.
5. Go Meta Linter
If you need to run Go lint tools and normalize their output concurrently, that’s exactly what Go Meta Linter can do for you. Go Meta Linter is intended to be used with a text editor or an IDE integration such as Sublime Linter plugin, Atom go-plus package, Emacs Flycheck checker, Vim/Neovim, and Go for Visual Studio Code. It also supports a wide variety of linters and configuration files like JSON.
6. Go-callvis
Go-callvis is a web development tool that allows you to visualize the call graph of your Go program with Graphviz's dot format. This tool is especially useful when building large projects with complex codebases. This is also useful when you want to understand another developer’s code structure or rebuild someone else’s project.
With go-callvis, developers can focus specific package within a program; group functions according to package and methods according to type; and limit packages to custom path prefixes, and ignore those that contain them.
7. Gonative
Gonative is a simple Golang tool that lets you build Go toolchains with native libs, which can be cross-compiled while still utilizing the Cgo-enabled versions of the stdlib packages.
Gonative downloads the binary distributions for each platform and copies their libraries into its proper places. At the same time, Gonative sets the correct mod time to avoid unnecessary rebuilds.
Unfortunately, Gonative remains untested on Windows. Additionally, there’s no Linux/arm support provided.
8. Grapes
Grapes is a lightweight Golang tool designed to distribute commands over ssh easily. It’s written and actively maintained by Yaron Sumel.
Grapes will soon support full host key validation, so that’s something developers should watch out for.
9. Gosimple
The great thing about this Golang linter is that it focuses on simplifying Go source code. Gosimple always targets the latest Go version, so it requires Go version 1.6 or later.
If there’s a new Go release, gosimple will suggest the easiest and simplest methods to avoid complicated constructs.
10. Go Vendor
Go Vendor is the Golang tool that works with the standard Vendor folder. It allows developers to copy existing dependencies from $GOPATH with govendor add/update. You can also directly pull new dependencies or update existing dependencies with govendor fetch and move legacy systems with govendor migrate.
Wrapping It Up
If you’re coming from a JS/Node background, you need to learn some new programming concepts such as coroutines, channels, strict typing with compilation, interfaces, structs, pointers, and some other differences. But, once you get into the groove, you’ll find Golang easier and faster to use.
7 Mobile App Development Trends That Matter to Your Business
Mobile app development is a growing industry—thanks to the increasing number of smartphone users. According to the Digital in 2017 Global Overview report, 4.92 billion or more than half of the world’s population now uses a smartphone. The Ericsson Mobility Report predicts that there will be a total of 6.1 billion smartphone users by 2020.
As such, the overall usage of mobile apps is on the rise. The Apple App Store already boasts of almost 2 million apps, and it’s predicted that by 2020, global iOS application downloads will be at 35.2 billion. Google Play Store, on the other hand, has over 2.2 million apps, with an astounding prediction of 80.3 billion Android application downloads by 2020.
The statistics above clearly indicate how important it is for businesses to adapt to consumer trends. Some businesses resort to outsourcing app development experts to avoid being left behind. Part of keeping up is being aware of these seven mobile app development trends:
1. Strict Security Measures
Since smartphones hold highly sensitive personal and financial information of every user, stricter security measures are crucial in app development to protect users from hacking and breaches.
A Gartner study claims that 75% of mobile apps would fail even the basic security tests. Some security concerns such as insecure storage, privacy violation, system information leaks, and insecure deployment were also raised by an HPE Cyber Risk Report.
To address such issues, Apple already implemented the mandatory ‘App Transport Security’ feature last January 2017.
2. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Just last year, smartphone users all over the world went crazy for Pokemon Go, which uses augmented reality to seamlessly blend the real world with the pocket monsters’ world. Meanwhile, real estate companies are adopting virtual reality apps to let home buyers feel what it’s like to live in the homes they sell.
Aside from gaming and real estate, we will see an upsurge in AR and VR apps in the coming years. Fashion, retail, TV, and other businesses will see the benefits of using AR and VR to woo consumers into buying their products.
3. Hybrid Apps for Enterprises
As more enterprises embrace the “bring your own device” model, and more workers are using mobile devices for work, the demand for hybrid apps will increase. A recent study shows that more than 72% of organizations are already starting to adopt BYOD models.
Hybrid apps are essentially mobile websites that run in an app form. Hybrid apps are responsive to multiple operating systems and devices—from smartphones and tablets to laptops and desktops.
Businesses will continue to see the benefits of hybrid apps for enterprises. They’re more cost effective and faster to develop.
4. Cloud-Based Mobile Apps
A lot of apps use heavy graphics, illustrations, and functions, and need to be accessible across all platforms. Cloud technologies can also be used to develop mobile apps that require integration with IoT, wearable devices, artificial intelligence, and the like.
Mobile cloud adoption and cloud-based applications will be more widespread. Apps no longer need to take up too much space in the smartphone’s internal memory, as files can be served directly from the cloud.
5. Big Data
Big data analytics has been a crucial tool for businesses and marketing professionals to measure the results of their digital products and investments. With big data integration, businesses, as well as developers, will be able to track user behavior that would help them arrive at informed decisions when updating mobile app UX and UI.
6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chat Bots
AI and machine learning will help developers write better codes and boost the capabilities and functions of mobile apps. Microsoft's Intellisense is one of the many companies adapting AI and machine learning in their developer tools. Other mobile apps will increasingly feature AI and machine learning capabilities to predict user preference and behavior.
Chat bots are one of the many applications of AI and machine learning in mobile app development. As online shopping becomes more popular, customized and conversational commerce will soon be common, which will be made possible with chat bots.
7. Internet of Things
These days, it’s not just about being connected, it’s about being interconnected. That’s what Internet of Things (IoT) is all about.
Everything now is being made ‘smart’—from smartphones, smart watches, and smart TVs to smart homes and smart offices. Mobile app developers need to consider other devices as well aside from just the smartphone.
These trends are here to stay. Consider these when mapping out business strategies, business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Also, be sure to hire trusted mobile app development companies to help you reach success.
Off-the-Shelf or Custom Software: What's Best for Your Business? [Infographic]
In the ever-evolving digital landscape and competitive business environment, companies are in constant pursuit of perfecting processes to help them deliver the best value and experience to clients and potential customers. Accordingly, businesses have unique and specific workflows that can be automated and streamlined with software, from productivity, collaboration, reporting, messaging, and other tools. This is where the question of whether to buy off-the-self software or customize your own arise.
Balancing your company’s short-term needs and long-term plans is fundamental to the success of your business. Often, it can be tricky and daunting. How, then, do you choose between buying off-the-shelf software solutions and outsourcing software development builders?
Many business owners and managers often face this dilemma. To help you decide, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of buying off-the-shelf software and building custom software solutions.
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Some organizations are perfectly content with off-the-shelf software or canned software solutions to improve their workflow. There are software and tools in various categories from productivity, collaboration, messaging, office solutions, conferencing, marketing, sales, and many more. These are immediately available to individuals and businesses for a one-time fee or a monthly subscription fee. Some are even free, with limited features available.
On the other hand, some companies have very particular challenges that they need to address with custom-built software, so they either hire dedicated developers or outsource software developers to build one from the ground up. Costs for custom software development may vary from company to company.
Cost-Effectiveness
Off-the-shelf software is generally cheaper than custom-built software. Some offer it for free with limited features or you can get premium features by paying a one-time fee or a low monthly subscription fee.
For most startups and small businesses, the free software works, until such time that they need the full set of features. They can then choose to upgrade once they decide that the software fits their needs.
Custom software development may incur high upfront costs, especially if you choose to hire an in-house team of developers. Outsourcing software development is more cost-effective for bespoke software solutions.
Availability
Off-the-shelf software solutions are readily available. It’s as simple as signing up, placing your payment information, and you can immediately start using the service. On the other hand, custom software development may take months to develop, depending on your specific requirements.
Compatibility
Most off-the-shelf software can be integrated with other popular tools. However, there may be limitations. You may encounter a canned solution that perfectly addresses your challenges, but it’s not compatible with the current systems you have in place.
If you have a custom software, developers can ensure that it will work for your current infrastructure. Should there be a new software that your company needs to be incorporated into the workflow, you can ask your in-house or outsourced development team to work on it.
Functionality
Off-the-shelf software offers a wide variety of features and functionality to cater to the needs of a large market base. Sometimes, you’ll be surprised to find an additional feature helpful to your process. But often, there are more features than you need, which can make the product more complicated and hard to use.
This affects the performance of your team, making it difficult to get them onboard the new workflow and software. Your team members are the end-users of the software, and at the end of the day, it’s what’s easiest for them to use that matters.
On the other hand, a fully customized software guarantees to meet all your business needs, as it is tailored to match your specific requirements. Should there be an additional function that you would like to add in the future, you can ask your outsourced software developers to update your software.
Support
Customer support is usually provided for premium users of SaaS. However, customer support is limited to community support forums for free software users. If your growing business needs prompt attention to an issue, your options may be limited.
This is not the case for custom software. At IntelligentBee, we provide warranty for our code, and our software developers will work on bugs and issues on the spot, at no extra charge. Maintenance programs are also available to ensure a continuous focus on your custom software features and functionality.
Scalability
When choosing between off-the-shelf software solutions and fully customized software development, ask yourself this – can this software grow with your business? Scalability is an important consideration.
SaaS providers often roll out new features and updates without increasing their subscription fees, but these new features are not tailored to what your business specifically requires as your grow bigger. You can submit a feature request, but it may be ignored or rejected if it doesn’t fit the needs of a larger consumer base.
With a fully customized software, you can scale up the features whenever you need to or however you want to. You can start with your minimum business requirements, and slowly add features as your business grows.
Intellectual Property
Your company owns the intellectual property rights of the custom software built for your business. This can be considered an investment for your company. Factor in the added value that your custom software offers your business and your end-customers.
Competitive Advantage
With off-the-shelf software solutions, you’re basically using the same software that other businesses in the same niche use. It would be difficult for your organization to outperform your competitors if you employ the same workflow and tools.
Obviously, when you own custom software, this provides your company competitive advantage over your competitors. You use and own a tool that none of your other competitors have, giving your business a leg up in your industry.
Think of the value that your custom software can potentially offer your end-customers. By designing a software solution that meets all your unique business needs, your team will be more efficient, you can gain insight into the customer journey, and be able to improve your product and service, optimizing the customer experience.
Every business, small or large, has unique needs. Carefully considering the relevant factors when choosing between off-the-shelf and custom software is paramount to an organization’s efficiency, productivity, success, and eventual growth.
Ultimately, every organization’s goal is to improve performance and deliver the highest value to your customers. Custom software development for web and mobile applications can help you gain a competitive edge in today’s demanding market.
At IntelligentBee, we have a team of experienced software developers who can take your business to the next level with customized business solutions that can meet your every need.
How Custom Software Can Improve Your Business Performance
Each business has its own software needs for their processes and activities to run smooth. However, not all solutions are provided in software available in the market, also known as off-the-shelf software.
The crucial thing with off-the-shelf software is that it can only address your concerns up to a certain level. It doesn’t go to the nitty gritty of things where most problems emerge. Also, there are off-the-shelf software features that could go to waste as you may not need them. This means that you could end up paying for features that won’t be of use to your business.
It’s always better to have a software that can adjust to you instead of you changing your ways for the software. Hence, custom software.
Anything customized has a higher percentage of efficiency and effectivity, as it is designed to cater to your business’ problems and activities. Plus, using a software made for the mass market won’t get you far and different from your competitors. If you want a competitive advantage, custom software is the way to go.
Improve Your Business with Custom Software
Building your custom software can propel your business to success by bringing these benefits:
1. Automating Workflows for Improved Efficiency
Operational costs are reduced by simplifying complicated workflows. Instead of multiple people working in one line of work, one custom software alone can do all the tasks just by itself. It can cut the time spent on transferring from one person to another including the training and briefing of a specific task.
By having the extra time on tasks previously done manually, the workforce can focus on highly important tasks. This doesn’t only bring better productivity to your employees but also ensures quality in your business requirements.
Also, automated workflows let you identify the pain points in the process. You can better gauge if a certain task will be carried out on time. At the end of it all, you can save in cost and invest in productivity while making sure it’s done at the optimum.
2. Accelerating Reporting to Reduce Time Costs
Preparing reports is one of the most time-consuming tasks. Even when a person can master the processes over time, a custom software can still do it faster, as it can deliver your data in a snap.
Because a single software does the process from top to bottom, the information becomes centralized, making it easier for analysis. You don’t have to deal with different information coming from different tools and fit them all like puzzle pieces. In other words, you’ll have a database rich with information.
Furthermore, reports sometimes need data from its previous versions. Customized software can do the searching from your history and show results of relevant information.
3. Streamlining Communication
In any business, getting transferred from one person to another for a single piece of information doesn’t sound efficient. You must take into consideration the availability and reachability of the person you’re looking for.
Custom software can provide platforms for team members or departments to communicate fast and efficiently. By simply providing a communication channel where exchange of information can be done quickly, your business performance as well as your team’s output can improve by a mile.
4. Strengthening Security
Placing all your data in one system can pose a threat to security. Custom software addresses this by putting extra importance in keeping your data safe from hackers that would want to steal your information.
In fact, off-the-shelf software is more vulnerable to hacking as it is available to the mass market. It’s easier for hackers to study off-the-shelf software and find its loopholes. With custom software, hackers are challenged due to the software’s exclusivity and intricacies. Hence, external threats are minimized.
5. Providing Custom-Made Solutions
Because a custom software is designed for specific needs, it provides appropriate solutions to address problems the way you want it. And since you have full control of your technology, you can make tweaks each time you encounter new challenges or see rooms for improvement.
So, there’s no need to wait for updates and patches from off-the-shelf software. With your own custom software, you can come up with real-time solutions.
As they say, customizing is now the name of the game in every industry. A well-tailored software can undoubtedly give you an edge over your competitors.
Of course, you cannot stop from the first version of your custom software. Formulate a schedule of your updates to enhance its functionality. By outsourcing software development firms or professionals, you can be guided and assisted well from building your custom software to doing checks and improvements.
IB2.0 - Decision making: stand out as a company
What I realized is that most of our people see and distinguish as decisions only those that have a big impact . These are usually seen as the important decisions. You know, a decision that comes from a superior and is communicated in some sort of official medium like a meeting or an email.
After it is communicated and only then it’s usually perceived as a decision, making it look like it’s a rather short process. Also, I noticed that after the decision is made, there are lots of times when everyone is somehow relieved. Like something just finished, as in “oh that’s good, finally we decided about this, let’s celebrate”.
I think there’s more about a decision that this.
We see two important steps in a decision making process. First is documenting and debating and second is implementing.
Step 1 — Debating and making the decision
The action here is the process of gathering the information needed so that the decision maker can actually make a good decision. As documented as possible.
Step 2 — Implementing the decision
That is the most overlooked part but sadly it’s not less important than the decision itself. It’s actually the work put in by the team to make things happen. I liked the expression read once : it’s putting the meat on the bones.
What we’ve learned
After focusing the attention on the decision making process itself , we were surprised to find out that things were not actually going the ideal way in IntelligentBee.
The way I see it there are 2 speeds you want to have at the steps above. Slow and Fast.
Fast - Slow
If it’s Fast-Slow , it means that the debate and decision making is happening fast, and the implementation is slow. This results in quick decisions that are not always the correct ones due to lack of time for research. We’re already starting with half-chances of success here. And it’s getting even worse. After making the let’s-pray-this-is-a-good-one decision then here comes the implementation phase that starts late and happens slow. That kills the momentum, people forget why we’re doing the things we’re doing. They don’t usually perceive it as a whole, ruining the chance of success even more. In short, we don’t want to be there.
Fast - Fast
If it’s Fast-Fast it means that the debating and making the decision happens quickly and implementation fast. It may look we’re in a slightly different position, but actually we’re not. It’s because there was not enough time to make a good decision: gather all data, see alternatives, buy-in. As a result, the implementation will eventually be slow because the outcome desired was not thought over and the work needed to get there is often not estimated correctly.
Where you want to be: Slow - Fast
If you ever fired a rifle you know that the ready-steady-aim process should be a slow one if you want to hit the bullseye. You don’t actually want to have a cowboy shooting when you’re making decisions in your company.
The debating and making the decision should be a through step. All the options are carefully studied and debated. All people affected by the outcome are involved and committed.
The implementation step should be a lightning fast one. There was a time to research, a time to debate, a time for talks and analyzing. Now there is time to act. After lots of conflict, there is perfect alignment. Everyone is committed to execute as fast and as good as possible the decision that is now made. There is no room for changing minds and certainly no place to bring out the arguments used above, in the debating phase.
All team act as one and everyone is aware that what’s making a company stand out is not the speed at which they make decisions, but the speed and quality they execute against every decision made.
5 Considerations When Hiring a Custom Software Development Company
Once you have decided that your business needs custom software to meet specific goals, the next plan of action is to hire dedicated developers who can build your stepping stone to growth.
A custom software is like a suit tailored for your business. It is built with special features for exceptional demands, which off-the-shelf software cannot provide you. Not only does it's customized, it also allows your team to perform at their best.
A caveat though: one can easily make wrong decisions when hiring or outsourcing software development professionals. You may find a pool of talents out there, but not everyone has the required skill set, experience, expertise, and promptness that you need to build your custom software.
Avoid burning money on bad hires. Take time to consider the following key points when hiring a custom software developer or firm.
Things to Consider When Hiring a Custom Software Developer
Project Timeline: Can They Deliver on Time?
At the end of the day, what you want is someone that can deliver your custom software with the best quality within a reasonable deadline. According to a study by PM Solutions, 37% of IT projects are at risk of failure each year. One reason is the inability to meet the delivery schedule.
The percentage of success should be one of the first things to look for in a custom software company or developer. Be sure to check the history and portfolio of your candidates for telltale signs of reliability and work ethic.
Make the most of your investment by ensuring that no additional costs are incurred due to failure to deliver on time. Settle only for the option that can keep risks at a minimum.
Your Business Needs: What Do You Want to Achieve?
Of course, arriving at the appropriate software solutions can only begin by determining your business problems. Identify the specific demands that you require, which a custom software can only solve.
Do you need a specific feature that will simplify your complicated workflows? Or do you want a platform that will centralize your team communication? Knowing what needs to be done can guide you on what to look for when hunting for the perfect hire.
Budget: How Much Are You Willing to Pay?
All projects entail costs, and it’s a significant factor that can influence your hiring decision. Determine your budget through a cost estimation, which includes hardware and software costs, travel and training costs, as well as effort costs, among others.
Developing a custom software can be more cost-efficient than buying off-the-shelf software. In fact, a study by Forrester reported that IT shops spend about 27% of their software budget on custom software development compared to 35% spent on packaged application software. This means 8% lower budget.
However, be wary of unreasonably low budgets, as it could lead you to bad hires and compromise the quality of custom software that you want to develop.
Technological Expertise: How Technologically Proficient Are They?
When hiring a custom software developer or firm, consider the kind of technology and methodology required to build the tool you need. Some developers are proficient in Java technology while others are experts in .Net applications. It's important to pick one that can execute the right methodology to minimize costs while maximizing gains.
Remember, custom software development is not limited to one programming or scripting language. There is a plethora of variations out there, with different tools and frameworks to be used for specific circumstances. So, look at technological expertise, versatility, and capability to mix various tools to get the job done – whether it’s cutting edge software or legacy applications.
Technical Support: Can They Provide Tech Support After the Development Stage?
Your custom software will have issues and bugs over time, and that’s inevitable. A good custom software developer is someone who can provide technical support even after the development stage. Find those who communicate in a friendly, professional manner and can assist you with any issues. This will give you more time to focus on the core processes of your business.
On the other hand, an unfriendly and unsupportive custom developer firm could potentially sabotage your business, and lead to project failure.
Last Thoughts
Consider these key points to make a more accurate choice when choosing a custom software developer or firm that will execute the project you need. Hiring software development teams like IntelligentBee due to its friendly team of developers, proven fast delivery, and a wide range of software and technological expertise is an advantage to your business.
Give yourself time and do your research in advance to find the perfect custom software developer or firm that will achieve your desired result.
IB2.0 - Manager vs Leader
A world-known debate. What makes a Leader and what makes a Manager? What’s the difference, seen through the eyes of the IntelligentBee culture.
Of course, there are tons of content on the internet about this subject, all with reasonable and well documented arguments.
What’s better?
I think that’s an example of the wrong question. Actually, it’s incomplete. I’ve seen this question (especially in the title/header) on countless posts and I think it’s not relevant.
Better would be: What’s better in your current stage of the company?
There are many ways to differentiate a Manager and a Leader. For example, if we’re talking about strategy vs tactics, someone said once that the difference between Manager and Leader is: if you’re in a forest, a good Manager will tell you how to get from point A to point B with minimum of resources and in the shortest time possible. A Leader will tell you if you’re in the right forest or not.
Of course, that’s a way of looking at things. I’ll try to give my 2 cents on this from a different standpoint : IntelligentBee culture.
At IntelligentBee, we’re in a stage of growth with our company where the balance between management and leadership that we need from our middle and top managers is more inclined towards leadership. When I say “more” I mean a lot.
Encourage bottom-up communication in your team VS communicate only with your direct
The main point is: we want all teams to be unified and work as a whole. This came from the simple statement we agreed on a while ago: we come to the office because we like what we do and we like the people we work with. That is the main trigger that created our awesome culture based on the 4Hs: Humble, Honest, Hungry, Happy that kept our team highly motivated and engaged.
We think the team communication has a crucial role. We all love to feel like part of a tight team that has a purpose tied to its existence. When everything that happens or is about to happen in that team is first discussed inside the team rather than outside, team will start seeing the manager more as a leader. Regardless of its nature: plans, successes, fails, personal schedule that prevents planned things from happening, mistakes done, lessons learned, you name it.
Plan with your team VS assign work to your team
This comes right off the first one above. When everyone in your team participates in planning and decision making process, everyone will feel more empowered — therefore motivated to push for the team. We don’t particularly like situations when managers talk only with their superior/direct, and make a decision only based on that. Afterwards it’s just a simple “telling” to the team what is to be executed. No one likes to only execute. This of course is a good point to consider also for the superior/direct. A simple question to the manager: What’s your team thinking about this? should immediately trigger at least a question if not the whole pre-decision process involving the team. If the team participates in the pre-decision phase they will start looking at their manager more like a leader.
Serve your team VS your team serves you
A manager should be part of the team. One of her duties is that the team has all necessary resources to do their job. Although it might sound like a cliche, it has never been more true. But that’s not enough. Helping your team deliver by involving hands-on when something is at risk of being not finished on time, acknowledging everyone’s involvement, creativity and effort — only a few of the things that will make the team look at their manager more like a leader.
These are just a few traits of the managers we want to have in IB, traits that will make them more like leaders to their teams. It’s a well-known fact that employees stay or leave the company because of their managers. This is crucial for the culture we have and want to preserve in our company.
IB 2.0 — how we are scaling our company
Like probably many other companies, we’ve already hit 2 walls so far when scaling IntelligentBee: one at 8 people, one at 15 and we’re currently facing another wall hitting: the one at 30 people.
After struggling for more than half a year with this, we thought it’s time to do something about it.
We don’t pretend we know exactly what would be the outcome of this, but we sure know what we want to achieve: sustainable scaling. Or, if we must have a clearer objective, let’s say we want to hit 100 people. I know it doesn’t sound very much like a business objective, but it kinda makes sense as we’re a services company . Therefore our main output depends very much on people’s knowledge, expertise and skillset.
Initial data
We’re IntelligentBee, an online development services company, 6 years old. We do mainly web applications and recently we decided we want to tackle mobile apps.
I’m Costi, Founder and CEO. I have a technical background backed up by some business studies and experience. A geek turned on the dark side of management like some people like to call it :)
The quest: scaling
Statistically, our scaling was around 40% growth rate per year since we started. This might sound awesome and it actually is: things were crazy all these years. We’ve gathered lots of achievements and learning under our belt . Looking ahead I can’t see how we’re going to scale this company further using the same approach, tools and structure.
So, the quest is mainly about : how we’re scaling our company. I’m sure there would be lots of bumps along the way and therefore lots of learning involved. I’m thinking about writing down all about it and create what’s called a growth log for IntelligentBee.
That being said, I do now know what my next posts would be about specifically, but they will sure be about one of the three main topics: something we’ve learned, something we screwed up or something we got right.
IB 2.0
We called all this process IB 2.0. IB stands for IntelligentBee. 2.0 stands for a completely new “version” of ourselves as a company as we understand that if you have a black-box and you don’t change the Input but in the same time you’re expecting (somehow) the Output to change, you’re either a fool (or a sorcerer). We’re neither (eh, maybe we actually don’t want to be the first… remains to see if we are or not) so we decided to change the Input.
The Input
What do I mean by the Input ?
For us, the Input is how we’re doing things in our company. There are specific ways of doing things suitable for each growth stage you’re in. For us, the way we’re currently doing things starts to lose it’s effectiveness and certainly it’s not a recipe for success having our plans in mind. It’s simple: how we’re doing things now got us to roughly 30 people, if we’re continuing like that — we’re going to stay at 30. If we need to grow to 100, we need to “change gears” :)
So, stay tuned if you would like to see how we’re getting there, what we’re going to learn and what we’re going to break. We hope to get there in a couple of years, but hey — you never know! What we do know is 2 things: 1. we’re gonna get there and 2. it’s going to be quite a ride!