The Difficulty In Relying On Offshore Mobile Developers

If you are a business looking for a company to help with your iPhone or Android development, you will find that there are limited choices. This is because the demand for mobile platform development is extremely high and the number of businesses that offer quality mobile development is relatively small. Because of the high demand for this service, a large number of offshore development shops have cropped up. Formerly offering web development, they have shifted their offering to iOS and Android development. This is how the free market works, when there is a large demand for a service, the supply increases. What happens is that these offshore businesses move their developers into mobile app development. But it is often the case that these developers have very little real experience developing native mobile apps. A business looking for a mobile developer must understand what is happening in the marketplace and how that can affect the outcome of their development project. 

A business looking for a mobile developer is really looking for help that will produce the outcome of what it means to their clients to have an Android or iOS app. This means that their clients or customers will be better served by having mobile app options to purchase or access their services. To accomplish this, the quality of the mobile app must be high and the time to market must be fast. The total amount that a business pays for mobile app development must include the following calculations: money, time, energy, and lost opportunity.  

Money is the easy part to clearly understand. It is the dollar amount that a business must pay to have a mobile app designed, developed and delivered. Many businesses that need apps only consider price. But selecting a developer based on price alone is what more often than not produces huge problems. When the decision maker only considers price, offshore mobile developers usually win the bidding competition. Yet the businesses that select on price alone rarely achieve the outcomes they desire.

Time is the amount of time that must be spent working with a mobile app developer to realize the desired outcome for the business. Businesspeople who do not consider their time in the cost equation often find themselves spending much more time than intended working with offshore developers. Not only is communication  problematic, the difference in timezones produces the situation where the businessperson must rearrange their schedule to work with the developers. Most offshore development shops have sales staff in the US, but provide very little local support for their clients. This is one way that they keep their price low,  by placing the burden of managing the development project on the client.  

Energy is the amount of effort that a businessperson puts into managing their mobile app developer. The scheduling difficulties and communication differences that arise when using offshore developers causes breakdowns. Fixing those breakdowns takes enormous amounts of energy. Getting up at 4:00 in the morning to communicate with developers burns energy.

Lost Opportunity is what you trade any time you engage your time, energy and money on a project to produce an outcome for your business. What is important to keep in mind is that the lost opportunity is temporary. Many times what happens with offshore development is that some type of fatal breakdown occurs in communication, scheduling, or development. This pushes the timeline for the project to become extended far beyond the original deadline. Often at this point the work that has been completed is of such poor quality that the project becomes a failure. The business has wasted opportunity.

Besides money, a careful consideration of time, energy and lost opportunity will set your business up for a successful mobile app development project. Then you can ask yourself what are you really willing to pay and if offshore development is really an option.

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Software Ops specializes in iPhone and Android development as well as “rescuing” development projects that don’t perform up to expectation. And you don’t need to get up at 4:00 am to talk to them.

John Gruber Wants to Start a Campaign Against App Developers

In a recent post on Daring Fireball, John Gruber adds his support for the Tumblr titled Eff Your Review. He writes, “I’ve long considered a public campaign against this particular practice, wherein I’d encourage Daring Fireball readers, whenever they encounter these ‘Please rate this app’ prompts, to go ahead and take the time to do it — but to rate the app with just one star and to leave a review along the lines of, ‘One star for annoying me with a prompt to review the app.’”

This is the source of Gruber’s comment: http://effyr.tumblr.com. It is a typical bit of nasty from an anonymous person.

For all that Gruber has done to help app developers in the past, to start a campaign against app developers is the last thing I would expect Gruber to “champion”.

He knows the sad state of the Apple App Store comment system, one that hasn’t changed much in the five years of the App Store. There are two significant problems with the review system, but before I describe them, the value of app reviews for shoppers can’t be understated, and the relevance of reviews to app developers also can’t be understated. 

Reviews for apps that have not gone viral have significant meaning to iOS users. Finding quality apps in the App Store by using Apple’s search is almost impossible. The Apple App Store search is well documented to be pathetic. Do a quick search on “bad app store search results” in Google and see what shows up, page after page, after page.

Some people claim that reviews are used to produce App Store search. If that is true, running a few searches for apps using relevant search keywords doesn’t seems to prove that theory.

When your app is found or if a kind person has recommended your app and that person then goes the the App Store, besides seeing your app icon and screen shots, the app star ratings are readily visible. Nothing wrong with that. The star ratings are the only “impartial” information about the app from the perspective of the potential customer. Therefore, the star ratings and the reviews that produce them are critical for app acceptance.

Many app developers resolve this problem by simply buying reviews from companies in Asia. Many ethical companies would rather have their satisfied clients write reviews on their behalf, and thus the app developers make a simple request for their customers to write a review and then give a link to that app’s page in the App Store to easily write a review. Some review requests are more intrusive then others, but in most cases, to simply say “no thank you” takes a second and the review request is gone. For Gruber and the misfit at Eff Your Review to make this mountain out of a mole hill is silly.

The real problem is with Apple’s App Store review system:

Developers are not able to respond to the reviewer privately and in public. Developers need both options to better communicate with their customers. Some users don’t understand that Apple doesn’t share user data with developers. Developers don’t know who buys their apps unless the app has a signup feature for an account. (This problem is worth it’s own blog post.) Over the past 5 years, I have seen a large number of 1 star reviews where the reviewer’s concern was completely unfounded. Often the case was their misunderstanding of a feature or the purpose of the app that resulted in a 1 star review. In those cases being able to communicate with the reviewer publicly, in the review system, and privately through email, would help the customer and potential customers.

Reviewers real names should be listed on the review. This would put a stop to fake negative  reviews and false positive reviews. It would also help eliminate the spiteful negative reviewer from posting 1 star reviews that do nothing to actually help a developer if a negative review was caused by a product issue.  

Lastly let’s not forget the one truth of a satisfied customer: Satisfied customers are substantially less inclined to write positive reviews without encouragement. 

Why Gruber and the dimwit at Eff Your Review are campaigning against app developers who are spending time, energy, money and lost opportunity to build and improve apps, I simply don’t understand. Both of them combined have likely lost well over 100 seconds of their life over the past 5 years because of all review requests. But really? Punish the app developers?  Yeah, that is the best possible solution to the problem. Maybe next week they will start a campaign against Amazon sending out emails to customers asking for reviews after online purchases.

Navigating the Mobile Space - Threats, Obligations and Opportunities for the Enterprise

Mobile applications are creating a space of possibilities for people and businesses who are willing to adopt mobile solutions to fulfill the needs of their customers and employees. Those businesses who are a market for mobile system software face competitive threats from businesses who are already offering mobile solutions. The marketplace is forcing them to adopt and adapt mobile technologies to expand their core offers with mobile solutions. As a necessary part of their continued growth strategy, they must be open to accepting new offers from businesses who can design and create mobile system solutions for them, allowing them to remain competitive in the marketplace. Situations that mobile applications create for people and businesses include threats, obligations and opportunities.

Threats

Any business that has customers who are mobile, that want location based services, or that require constant contact and/or communication, are in danger of having their current offers diminished or eliminated by their competitors who are already utilizing mobile technologies. These businesses must be open to the space of possibilities that mobile computing offers. If they fail to adopt and adapt, they will likely be forced into the position of watching their offers being snatched away by those who are a step ahead and have already responded to the opportunities that mobile computing provides. Business that are location based or have employees that work out of the office will have their offers continue to be threatened if they don’t provide mobile solutions.

Because mobile apps are a disruptive technology (with the power to transform life, business, and the global economy) and it is still in the early days of adoption, many businesses are unable to fulfill on their need to bring mobile solutions into the marketplace. They lack the internal talent necessary to produce the needed software and will need to get help from established business who have both the expertise and experience to build mobile systems.

Obligations

What people and businesses may not completely understand is that the current marketplace is now obligating them to offer their services via mobile devices. The expectation for easy access to services and existing software systems to be available through mobile devices will only continue to grow. In the United States, an estimated 30 percent of web browsing and 40 percent of social media use are done on mobile devices - part of the continuing trend where users expect unlimited access to services while on the go and when going about their daily routines.

Opportunities

Businesses will continue to see the need to create opportunities to make offers to their “connected” customers, those who are always plugged in in due to their mobile devices. Because mobile computing provides location based services and always connected communication, many business will find that they are location based. Newly defined location based businesses include but are not limited to: construction, delivery and courier services, transportation, real-estate, outdoor recreation, outside sales, news and reporting.

These location based businesses and and those who have employees who are mobile, have the opportunity to create marginal utility by adopting and adapting mobile technologies to their needs and the needs of their customers. Businesses who’s customers are always “connected” need to create opportunities to make offers available to their “connected” customers. Use of these opportunities will continue to create a viable competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Conclusion

The wide spread adoption of mobile devices is forcing enterprise businesses to react to the marketplace and offer mobile enhanced solutions. Those businesses that have anticipated the current state of mobile adoption, and already have solutions in place are gaining marketshare for their products and services. In either case, businesses must continue to enhance and advance their mobile offering to remain competitive in a mobile world.

Audi + Google = Mistake

I’d wager that Audi Marketing in the U.S. is not too happy with the Google partnership right about now. Bold claim you say? Let’s talk about one piece of antidotal evidence that I can share with you and see what you think.

Software Ops offices are located in north Scottsdale, AZ. Scottsdale is a bubble of affluence. It is not a typical city in the US. Every third car on the road is an Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Accura, Tesla or Cadillac. People here drive Bentleys, Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis.  They all eat out at nice restaurants and they mostly all have iPhones. Their teenagers and adolescents have iPhones. iPhones rule. What I mean is that 8 out of the 10 people that I mentioned have iPhones. Even the youngsters. The wealthy in Scottsdale are already embedded into the Apple ecosystem.

I totally understand why Google wants to partner with Audi, but why would Audi go with Google? It’s like they are completely ignoring their already existing customer base. I could go so far as say they are disrespecting their customer base. It is a shame frankly.  

Now, I drive a Lexus, but I still drool over the Audi driving down the street. I was going to give Audi a second shot on my next lease. But now they are off the list. Why? Because I’m fully invested in iOS and the Apple iTunes ecosystem. I will not be moving the to Google ecosystem. Will others be willing to move ecosystems? I can’t say, but many will not.

I accept of course, that the Audi system will work with my iPhone through standard Bluetooth interfaces and that is all fine and good. But how will a car with an iOS system work with my iPhone or iPad? I’m sure there will be a much more interesting interface than just a plain old Bluetooth connection. And that interaction will be key in the choice of a luxury car for me.

It may seem preposterous to make such a claim, but step back and consider why people choose between two competing entities in a free marketplace. They choose based upon the marginal utility of an offering that is most interesting to them. Some people pick a car for its color, it styling or its interior. In the new age of the Internet-of-Things, a car that already has all the cool luxury choices, all the horsepower I can use and is in the color I like, why would I not select based simply upon one of the most important subsystems in the car? I will and so will may others.

The question for me is this:  will Lexus get on board with Apple and iOS? They better…. BMW already has.

$10B In App Store Sales In 2013, Software Ops Is In the Game

Wow! 10 billion in app store sales in 2013 and the only people surprised are the analysts who track Android shipments. The crew who have claimed that Android has won, because of all the super low end cell phones using Android that are shipping to third world countries, must be scratching their heads in wonder.

I have nothing against Android, we build Android apps for business who must support both platforms. We are in complete sync with our clients who need that cross platform support. But at this time Software Ops doesn’t have Android apps for any of our proprietary products.

The reason is simple. At this time we are growing on our revenue stream only and not on investor funding, therefore we must make prudent decisions on new products and product enhancements. The money is currently in the Apple App Store and that will remain our focus until either the market situation changes or our situation changes.  Here is why …

One thing we are seeing is the difficulty of new apps designed to earn revenue in the App Store. The apps that are for sale or have in-app-purchases are finding it harder and harder to gain any traction. (I will leave games out of this discussion, that is a completely different ecosystem with its own dynamics.) We are also noticing that apps with a history and that provide value are constant sellers. Month after month they continue to hold the top spots in the gross revenue listing.

This phenomenon presents a real opportunity for Software Ops to expand upon its strong foothold in the app market. It also represents a huge opportunity for investors who can see the future of a 10 billion dollar marketplace that is growing every year as Apple’s iOS dominates in the market that counts … people with money to spend. 

Learn more at TechCrunch.

Starbucks Mobile App Leaves Users' Passwords in the Clear

It is astonishing to me that the powerful Starbucks is storing their mobile customers' passwords in the clear given all their technological capability. 

This article from CNN Money describes their predicament:

“The popular app, which allows Starbucks customers to purchase drinks and food directly from their smartphones, saves customers' usernames, passwords and other personal information in plain text.” (Read the article here.)

Software Ops has been encrypting our customers' passwords, credit card numbers, bank account numbers and photos for over 5 years. We have constantly updated the security on our apps to thwart attacks on our customers' data by continually making our encryption and security harder and harder to crack. It is as high stakes game we play every waking moment. We understand how hard it is to encrypt mobile app data effectively while still keeping the user experience intact.

Starbucks should give us a call.

Philosophies of Customer Care

Before I can share Software Ops’ philosophy of customer care, first I must answer: What is “customer care” for a custom mobile software development company? 

I’ll start with my interpretation of “philosophy”. Philosophy is the study of fundamental human or business concerns and how people act to take care of those concerns.

The first point to reflect on from the definition above is how many mobile development companies even study the fundamental human or business concerns of their customers? We do at Software Ops. This is one of the many aspects of Software Ops that separates us from the competition.

For many of our competitors, their only objective is to produce the lowest possible prices for mobile development work requested. They think that the only thing their clients care about is money, therefore the only offer they produce is price. How wrong they are.

Understanding our Customer

Understanding our customer is taking the time understand why a customer has come to us to build a mobile app. What concerns does the app address in their business? Is it a marketing tool? Will it help save money in operations or generate revenue? Does it help manage people or resources? Is it a tool for education? Does the production of a mobile app solve a problem that is occurring in their business or preventing a problem from happening? Is the marketplace forcing them to produce a mobile solution for their services?

Once we understand the concerns or problems a mobile app addresses for our clients, we can help them produce a superior app, in a timeframe with enhanced return-on-investment. 

Our Customer Care Philosophy

Software Ops produces internal practices, guided by moods of care with clear definitions of outcomes that produce satisfactory outcomes for our clients. Consider the word “care”. Taking care means holding a customer’s concerns, challenges, standards and already existing commitments and standard practices as our own. We care about a client’s business strategy, operations, products, the quality they desire, their marketing and sales strategy, their ethics and market dignity.

This is strange right? Isn’t the purpose of a software development company to price low and hit impossible deadlines all while maintaing A+ quality? One would think so, except in never seems to work out that way. Mainly because people trade a lower price for a project for the less understood costs such as time, energy and lost opportunity. The number one reason for mobile development project failure is selecting price over everything else.

What matters is producing a mobile app for our customer that represents a highly-valued accomplishment for them, so they can build identity in their marketplace and produce outcomes of trustworthiness, value, authority and leadership. This is our definition of customer care.

Go Ahead, Take Expert Help From The Experts

The following is a great article from Forbes about accepting help in areas where you are not an expert, allowing you to focus on what is important for your enterprise.  

How the Decision to Outsource IT Freed My Staff

Now this article focuses on outsourcing what I will call “standard” IT services. It doesn’t mention outsourcing mobile development in particular, but the notion is the same. Most IT departments who may have some internal software development, likely don’t have the mobile experts necessary to build sophisticated mobile systems. Yet there are businesses, like Software Ops, who specialize in mobile app system development. Instead of investing in areas of expertise where you have to compete for talent and spend time and energy to gain knowledge, spend your time building a strong partnership. Let the experts handle your technical needs.

One of the best quotes in the article is the following:

“While cost is always a consideration, it was clear that we didn’t want to simply select a vendor on price alone – we wanted to weigh factors to find a true business partner.”

If cost is the outcome you are looking for, then by all means go to the lower bidder. But if putting  fantastic software systems to work at your business that produce return-on-investment, then select a partner who will give you that outcome. There is a reason some vendors can only compete on price, it’s not hard to figure out they have less to offer.