Building a mobile application : Going from Android to Apple
Every one thinks that it's a no brainer to build a mobile application.
That you just come up with the idea and voila! you have an application in a week.
It's like selling a product to an individual, versus selling a product to the government.
In the case of the individual, all that matters is merit, where you just convince the one individual.
In the case of the government, you have to convince an entire group of at least five people before you get an approval and then the payment.
Similarly, to build a mobile application, is much simpler and easier in Android, because all you do is that you first launch a beta application, give it to a lot of people to try out, they like it, they give feedback, then you publish the application.
Of course, being so easy to publish, means that you get a lot of competition, regardless of the type of application.
And that's the fun part, the survival of the fittest, that you need to really work hard to make your application unique, since the barrier to entry is so low.
The main differentiator has to be content. Think of content like a book. Hence, if you have enough content to fill a Reader's Digest magazine, it's a great start to building a lovely application.
So after say a month of seeing what your friends think of the application, you then release it to the public for a period of one month, to analyze the response and feedback.
If you are honest with the feedback and you quickly incorporate this feedback in your application, then you should publish it again, with the update, to see if you can actually receive a sharp rise in number of downloads.
The first people who should download your application, should be your mum and dad. If you can make it really simple for them to use and understand, then it's the first part of the hurdle which you have just covered.
The point of the Android application, must be all about getting the basic usability and functionality correct.
Once you have worked out basic functionality, then your focus in building an Apple application is all about the Wow factor, about making something really unique to the application, which is over and above the typical call of duty.
That you just come up with the idea and voila! you have an application in a week.
It's like selling a product to an individual, versus selling a product to the government.
In the case of the individual, all that matters is merit, where you just convince the one individual.
In the case of the government, you have to convince an entire group of at least five people before you get an approval and then the payment.
Similarly, to build a mobile application, is much simpler and easier in Android, because all you do is that you first launch a beta application, give it to a lot of people to try out, they like it, they give feedback, then you publish the application.
Of course, being so easy to publish, means that you get a lot of competition, regardless of the type of application.
And that's the fun part, the survival of the fittest, that you need to really work hard to make your application unique, since the barrier to entry is so low.
The main differentiator has to be content. Think of content like a book. Hence, if you have enough content to fill a Reader's Digest magazine, it's a great start to building a lovely application.
So after say a month of seeing what your friends think of the application, you then release it to the public for a period of one month, to analyze the response and feedback.
If you are honest with the feedback and you quickly incorporate this feedback in your application, then you should publish it again, with the update, to see if you can actually receive a sharp rise in number of downloads.
The first people who should download your application, should be your mum and dad. If you can make it really simple for them to use and understand, then it's the first part of the hurdle which you have just covered.
The point of the Android application, must be all about getting the basic usability and functionality correct.
Once you have worked out basic functionality, then your focus in building an Apple application is all about the Wow factor, about making something really unique to the application, which is over and above the typical call of duty.