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“There is an app for that” is the best way to describe why the last two years have probably been the best time for app developers across platforms. Not only have apps entered everything from health, entertainment, education and more, but also created brand new niches for themselves.

The App Scene

For example, the PDA (personal digital assistant) aspect of a smartphone has morphed into the to-do list app industry, each app working to outdo each other, throwing everything from minimal interfaces for note taking to feature-packed software that lets you do everything from making a phone call to recording videos – right inside the app.

The almost overnight-success stories of a handful of mobile games has led to not only games that copy or in many ways emulate the USP’s of app marketplace winners, but also to “gamification” – apps which reward you for being true to your goals or checklist.  And a whole range of apps are designed for industrial purposes, from laying concrete to architectural calculations to even using your device as a controller for factory machinery.

The intense competition has led to a few areas of concern that app developers need to keep in mind which are being explored below:

Device Compatibility

While apps are often devised keeping in mind a certain OS (notably Apple’s iOS) for a consistent experience, a new, emerging challenge is being usable across the entire gamut of devices.

Designing an app that works well, without lags, glitches, bugs and compatibility issues across laptops, computers, mobile, phablet and tablet is often a formidable task. A variety of factors come into play -responsive and adaptive design, the need to showcase content differently, choosing whether the app is online, offline or simply syncs online whenever the Internet is available.

While tablets and phablets are finally mainstream, it is revolutionary experiments like the Google Glass which will pose new challenges to device developers, with new design rules and requirements

Processor Requirements – How much is too much?

With quad-core processors, can we safely assume that the future of mobile are high-powered apps that clock high on the CPU and feature HD viewing? Perhaps not, because at the same time, markets like South East Asia are still biased towards budget phones.

At the same time, even in countries like the UK, people still want more for less. This necessitates rapidly rolling out different versions of apps for different devices as updates, and app developers run the risk of alienating device owners with older specifications. And, in the cutthroat app market where every pixel and every line of code matter, copycat apps which are stripped-down, bare minimum versions of the original often thrive and that becomes yet another challenge.

The Market

Market leaders can radically dent the market. Apple quietly leaving out the CD player in a few of its Macbook editions, or NFC being ignored by many big players means that a technology that has developers vying with each other to develop apps on can be suddenly pointless. Unpredictability prevails in the markets and developers need to take into account the business aspects as well.

Only an experienced app developer like Softwaredevelopers UK understands the dynamics changes in the world of apps and can deliver solutions conforming to clients’ individual needs.
 

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