Offshore Mobile Developers Don’t Have to be a Threat
It’s no surprise that the giant East Indian corporation Tata, or actually one of its many divisions, is one of the two firms in negotiations with Apple to carry a CDMA version of the iPhone. The GSM version is already available in India through Bharti AirTel Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd., but 20% of the mobile handset market there uses CDMA phones. Does this greater availability of the iPhone mean more threat for N. American iPhone apps developers? Probably not.
Now I’ll admit that when I first saw the headline at WSJ, I was thinking, “Great, more iPhone development competition for me; should I get out of this now?” However, iPhone price points in Indian and Pakistan will naturally limit handset purchases and, indirectly, development competition. The cheapest iPhone in India is reportedly about US$680 and nearly half the country’s earners make about half that in an entire year, so I can’t see much opportunity there for Apple, and even most Indian developers probably wouldn’t want to shell out that much when they can test much of their iOS code on a simulator.
Now if you’ve done any iPhone apps development, you’ll know that you can get away with a lot of code being tested on a simulator, but if you have to develop for distribution, you’re pretty much going to need to test on a device. As for a dev environment, unless an Indian iPhone dev is working for a company, they end up likely using a Hackintosh, created from an Intel-based PC/laptop running Mac OS X, which Apple views as being against their TOS. I’ve done extensive research out of curiosity, and even for a long-time programmer such as myself, who’s comfortable taking apart a desktop PC and tinkering, building a Hackintosh does not seem to have a guaranteed ROI. There are too many problems, and using the right computer is important to begin with. At least for N. American devs, it’s probably not worth the time to build a Hackintosh. For a lone Indian dev wanting to work nights and weekends, it’s a necessity, but even just a Windows-based PC can cost a considerable portion of their monthly salary.
For cost and other reasons, many Indian mobile dev houses are likely partnering with a N. American consulting firm — which reduces competition from individual developers. My own experience is that too many offshore companies are underbidding on projects and end up doing poor jobs because they’re not partnered, leaving a sour taste in clients’ collective mouths. Other problems are time zone differences. If you’re in continental N. America, you’re between 9.5-12.5 hours behind India, and it is not easy working with a remote team. It also seems that with all the job-hopping going on there, resources are often lacking and newbies need too much handholding.
Being of Indian origin myself but growing up in Canada and the U.S., I feel I can get away with saying that, and it’s a harsh reality for clients. On the other hand, if you understand Indian culture enough and have reliable contacts in India, if you have more than enough work that you might otherwise turn away, you could consider working with a remote team there. From my own experience, I’d suggest redundancy of personnel, but at relatively low salary costs, it’s still affordable to have two different developers do the same work and for you to choose the better code. The only drawback is that you’d likely have to purchase Macs here and have them shipped over. Oh, and in many parts of India, you’d probably want to have a UPS (Universal Power Supply) box, to avoid downtime when the electric grid goes kaput. (From my own home state, that can happen every single afternoon, especially during monsoon season.)
Links: WSJ.
Android Might Become Top Mobile OS, But What About Design Environment?
The writing’s on the wall: Android is probably going to dominate in the mobile OS space, from the consumer perspective, for quite some time. In fact, NielsenWire just published a report (link below) stating that Android has leaped into top place in the smartphone OS category, at least in the U.S., amongst recent smartphone purchasers — passing the iPhone. A number of other online publications have been saying for a few weeks that Android will dominate over all, and the report is echoed in the NY Times and in GigaOm. While I have nothing against Google — I do use many, many of their web tools daily — as a mobile developer, I have my own concerns about this. Namely, can the Android dev & design environment attract quality mobile apps development?
Let me clarify, if I can, so as not to offend. I’ve been thick in the development of iPhone/ iPad apps for the past few months (hence why I have not written on CallStyle lately), and only just started picking up Android skills. I love the Mac’s Xcode environment and the Interface Builder, both of which make it relatively easy to to at least mockup iPhone and iPad screens
I don’t feel that that’s the case with Android. While I have no Android phone to verify the quality of Android apps, I have been working with the Eclipse IDE and necessary Android plugins to do some very simple “hello, world” type of mobile apps in the simulator. Now, I am an experienced programmer of more than 25 years (though I’m not saying how much “more”), and I can assess an dev environment fairly quickly. I’ve always liked the Eclipse IDE, though most of the languages I used to program in didn’t have plugins at the time, so I’ve never used Eclipse all that much. However, it’s the Android screen design that I’m not impressed with. Mocking up screens in Android is nowhere nearly as enjoyable as for Apple iOS. What’s more, Android phones have far too many screen sizes overall. It’s like designing sites for the Web all over again.
Call me biased but when offshore companies (i.e., outside Canada and the U.S.) are bidding as low as possible on mobile app projects and even prototyping for free, it’s hard enough to survive and create iPhone apps that will function on just 3-4 types of devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPhone 4, iPad). Sure, Apple might soon release a 7″ iPad, or other devices that’ll have iOS and need apps, but for now, it’s relatively easy to design for iOS, and the Mac’s Interface Builder makes it easy too. I’m not seeing the equivalent for Android. It just doesn’t feel as enjoyable, and the simulator feels like an afterthought.
Apple’s App Store is still the biggest for now, but if I recall, there are experts who believe that won’t last. I don’t know. While I will be developing for Android and probably WebOS, my money (or at least my time) is still on iOS for now. What about you? As either a consumer of mobile apps or a developer, which platform are you betting on and why.
Links: Nielsen Wire, NY Times, GigaOm.
VCs Show Us the Money: Funds for Apple iPhone/ iPad Development
If you’re a mobile apps developer wondering which of the multitude of device platforms you should develop for, the fact that there’s suddenly a plethora of funds for iPhone and iPad might help you decide. It’s not surprise, given that there are predictions of 7M units of iPad alone sold for 2010 (20M+ by 2012), and that schools like Seton Hill University giving full-time students an iPad this Fall. (George Fox University students get to choose between a MacBook and an iPad.) iPads in particular have an incredible potential in terms of personal computing, education, planning, healthcare, and more, despite the naysayers. According to Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital (WSJ), the iPad has the potential to be a laptop killer.
While it’s expected by many tech experts that iPad apps will sell at a higher price point, on average, than iPhone apps have, there’s already evidence that that may not be true. The problem is, if iPad apps sell in the same price range as iPhone apps have, there’s a possibility that many small mobile software startups simply won’t be able to afford the development costs without outside investment. It’s important for this ecosystem to have development funds. Here are a few such VC funds, targeted at iPhone and particularly iPad.
- AppFund — Offers from $5K for starting, and up to $500K for development, marketing, distribution. AppFund has specific interests in a variety of apps that target 16-39 year-olds “with higher incomes.” Meaning you probably want to develop apps that’ll warrant selling for more than $0.99. One of the hot areas for mobile apps is location-sharing (Foursquare, MyTown, Stuck, and many more), and AppFund does have an interest in this type of app. Read more about AppFund at EpochTimes.
- KPCB iFund — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, aka KPCB, just doubled their iFund(tm) iPhone/ iPad development fund from $100M to $200M, days after announcing it. They’re already funding numerous mobile app developers (some of whom have web development projects), including Booyah, Cooliris, ng:moco, Shazam, Zynga Mobile, and more, for a total of fourteen startups. The apps these companies are producing are expected to pull in over $100M in revenues this year alone, and KPCB will be raising additional funds for them, from other sources unrelated to the iFund. Videos discussions and details of the iFund – which seem broader than AppFund’s — are worth a peek, as is the iFund FAQ. (The FAQ points out that they will invest outside the United States.) Interestingly, John Doerr, who sits on the Google board, is a partner.
- NFM – In the UK, Northern Film & Media is targeting iPad developers from mostly north-east England. Current funds are 40,000 British Pounds, though that may double.
- Vexiom vFund — Vexiom Equity Partners is targeting app development for the iPad and “other mobile tablet applications” (which might or might not mean non-Apple devices). Accortding to a press release, investments will range from $10K to $1M, dependent on app complexity and potential. Send proposals to Vexiom.
These are by no means the only funds available for iPhone and iPad development. If you know of more for Apple or other mobile platforms, such as Palm WebOS or Google Android, let us know. Have a mobile device, platform, application, service, accessory or related news you want to share? Email info/ press releases to callstyleblog at gmail.com.
[Other sources: MocoNews]