It appears that many are cashing in on app development, charging thousands if not hundreds of thousands on something relavively easy to create, simply because there is a gap in the market. Currently those asking for apps are big conglomerate companies, smaller business don’t ask for them as much, and if they did they would likely run away due to their pricing.
Reminds me of the .COM boom, where many spent hundreds of thousands on web pages thinking they will become the next big thing, we all know what happened there. Now most ‘normal’ medium to small businesses would prefer to spend a couple of hundred than a couple of thousands. Big companies would be more inclined to spend the thousands, then again they would want much more. In the very end they get what they paid for.
This huge market gap in app development skills has allowed app developers to charge what they like, passing down those crazy figures to the end consumers.
How will the nature of mobile development change, as more and more app developers flood the market? Will wee see more budget mobile apps being created to accomodate for those smaller business? Will more and more big companies hire inhouse app development team to avoid paying those crazy prices.
PS: I recently heard of companies charging up to 10,000EUR for 3 days work on app development, which sparked this thread off.
Sooner or later, people will wise up to the fact that web apps are far easier to create, are much nicer to use, and are far cheaper to create, and yet work on all platforms.
There are many, many discussions of this online, which are better at explaining this than I, such as http://mashable.com/2012/09/12/web-vs-native-apps/, so I’ll let you read what’s online. (Usually it will come under something like “web apps vs native apps” etc.)
Thanks for the article. Certainly very interesting. I think mobile is the future, if not already here. But we need to be careful how we invest out time. Apple’s seams not to be disapearing, and their natives apps are very attractive. Saying this, it almost always goes down to money and what we can do to reduce the money spent. I would love to get my hands dirty making an application.
Sometimes an ‘app’ stricty speaking may not be needed at all, and just an applike web page. But you can make an app with HTML, CSS and JS and also wrap it up in a container (e.g. PhoneGap) to turn it into an app. So there are lots of options.
I completely disagree. While what you say might be true for smaller sites there will always be a need/desire for native apps for large web applications such as; Facebook. I much prefer using my Facebook app on my phone than the mobile site. The same can be said for browsing these very forums using TapaTalk. The only thing I agree with is that small sites perhaps even medium sized ones do not mobile apps. Apps are useless wastes of money for corporate websites and small business sites. Anything lacking a significant amount of user interaction, large data and complex UI would be a waste.
We are already seeing what’s happening. Visit my site, click on the link for the “PhoneGap Helpful Links” and scroll down to the Frameworks section. It is HUGE. Many companies have jumped on the bandwagon to make it easier and more affordable for people to code apps. So that’s one consequence: many want in, and many services, free and otherwise, are produced to accommodate the demand.
As in anything else, dollars will determine which apps remain and which drift downward. The market will determine.
Money certainly determines the way things are influenced and shaped.
Back in the day people were spending hundreds of thousands on a pretty basic website, as prices fell those individuals either had to evolve or quit their job.
Technology really does flow to the value of the customer.
From my exprience those 4 figure website aren’t really in demand from many. On another note if you’re building a businss, which is what I am doing, having one giant customer makes little sense, as if they find an alternative provider you would be out of a job. So really passing value down to the customer works both ways.
I honestly think apps will go in the direction of the consumer, the trouble is determining the price that customers would be happy to pay, and what they can use it for. With my websites I generally let people know what their website can do and then using tools I incorporate them into their site. It’s finding those tools. At the moment from what I understand there are no tools on a mobile framework which can extend your application passing true value to the consumer.
