App Business – Stephen Adams

Weeknotes #2

This week has been manly working on getting a first internal release of the client project. So as part of the internal team I’ve been working on a lot of small CSS changes to the Ionic application, giving it that extra polish to make it look as close to the original designs as possible.

What Went Well

The internal app is getting close to being released to real users, even though internal users it’s going to be good to get the app on devices and used by non-developers hands.

Book writing is still going, half way through and it’s clear that writing a book is a slog after a while. Being at the halfway point must be the toughest part. But it has been a great learning experience getting into the depths of Angular.

I also emailed Pete Bacon Darwin, who is a member of the Angular core team, after I heard an interview with him on the My Angular Story podcast. In the podcast he mentioned how working on open source has really helped him and opened a lot of doors in this career for him. So I thought I’d email him to say how I enjoyed the interview and if he had any advice on getting started with open source. And amazingly he emailed me back and said that there are so many ways to get involved, working on projects, writing documentation, answering others questions on Stack Overflow.

So after finishing the book I’ll be working on getting into a few open source projects.

What didn’t go well

Not much really, has been a good, but quiet week. I need to start working on using social media more in order to start promoting myself and business getting ready for my next project.

The business management of my freelance business needs to be something I need to focus on a bit more. Instead of going for one contract to the next, I want to build a lifestyle business instead of having a Limited company for contracting purposes.

As part of this I have been trying to be better organised with both work and personal life. So trying to work on that, but not there yet.

Things I’ve Read

I have read many articles this week, but I have been watching a few YouTube videos. One series in particular is the [Overpass](https://www.youtube.com/user/OverpassApps) Apps channel. Where the owner of Overpass Apps makes a daily video about running a mobile app development business.

The rise of hybrid and a question by a Mac developer

Recently the great Mac app developer Brent Simmons posted on Twitter “Sometimes it looks like there are people *rooting* for the demise of native Mac apps. Why?” This started a long thread from various other Mac/iOS developers, all giving their opinion on why this is. Some said it was because of the UIKit which is used to layout Mac apps and how slow it is compared to using web technology others said it was a skills issue. Easier to find JS/Web developers than Mac developers.

What stood out to me about this question, is not the answers, I really don’t know if the APIs used in Mac development is slower than web development or not, what I found interesting is that one of the leading Mac developers was asking why more people are interested in using web technology than native to build Mac/iOS apps.

This is the first time I’ve seen from the other side (hybrid vs native) it’s interesting to see that now native developers are seeing this rise in hybrid apps, or apps built using web technology as a concern. It shows that the growth of developing apps using HTML/CSS/JS is getting more prevalent and Mac app developers are starting to notice this new trend growing.

Does this mean that hybrid app development has won this ‘war’ on native vs hybrid, well no, because there probably isn’t a war between the two sides? It just means now there is another viable option to native development, which a lot of developers are now taking advantage of. Whether it’s because of the latest performance gains in web technology is making building apps with web tech a good option or there are more web developers moving over into app development as well as web development, who knows. One this is that now apps can be developed either the native way or the web way is a good thing. It’ll lead to more opportunities for developers, and better apps for users.

Working for Free

As a mobile app developer, I’ve seen many examples where developers get asked about making an app for someone either for free or for equity.

Usually this is an ‘entrepreneur’ with a killer social media app idea, the next Facebook or Twitter and if the mobile app developer doesn’t want to work on this app for free, they are going to regret it when they make it big.

Unfortunately what these entrepreneurs don’t seem to realise is that mobile app development is the business that the app developer is in. If they wanted to be in the social media space then they would be developing their own app instead of someone else.

The app developer has also probably had several emails already about the next big social media app that they should be apart of before it goes massive. For the app the developer these type of apps ideas come and go. Usually never to be heard of again.

Equity and the promise of greatness don’t pay the mortgage.

But is there ever a good argument for building an app for free…..

Well I think there is. You see some apps are not just social media or todo apps. They are apps that are trying to solve a real problem, using mobile technology and all the great benefits it brings to help.

So here’s the list of reasons why I would working on an app for free:

I have the time between full time projects. If I have some time between two projects and then I might decide to provide some help for free
If I feel the app would be helpful to someone, it solves a real problem
If the work isn’t a 3 month build. That’s too long to work for free
If there is a chance in the future that the app will do well

The reasons why I wouldn’t help make an app for free:

It’s the next Facebook
It’s going to be huge according to the entrepreneur
It’s the next Twitter
It’s more than a couple of weeks work

Now a lot of app developers may think that by not helping out on this next great thing that if the app does become big, you’ll be gutted to have missed out. But honestly how many apps are still making it big. Long gone are the days when you made millions from a single app.

Are Mobile Apps Doomed

Photo by Adrien on Unsplash

I recently read an article called ‘Mobile Apps Are Doomed, I Repeat All Mobile Apps Are Doomed’ a very provocative title. In the article the author Rajat Saxena, who is an Android developer, says that if you are planning on releasing your own apps to the app stores then he has news for you, you’ll hardly any downloads. The reason for this is that no one downloads apps anymore. According to him there are only a few apps people use now, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s a very interesting article to read, to get a developer who has a few apps in the stores, perspective on how hard it is to make a living or money from the App Store.

Does this mean as mobile app developers we should stop building apps? As the title says, mobile apps are doomed!!!!

Well the author goes on to say he doesn’t think so, instead we should be apps that have more value to the user. Apps that use AI in order to give the user an app that works for them, has great value to that user. And it’s this user engagement that will make you, as an app developer, successful.

I also think there is another reason why app developers shouldn’t give up just because apps don’t sell so well in the App Stores. More and more businesses are developing apps internally for their own business needs. As mobile is now everywhere, businesses are building apps for their staff in order to help them carry out their jobs. I myself have built a number of internal apps.

So if you are either a hybrid or native mobile developer I don’t think it’s a bad time to be an app developer. It’s just that the dream of making it big through the app store is no longer so easy or so common.