Desktop Web App vs Mobile App: Choosing between the two platforms for your next app project

Desktop Web App vs Mobile App: Choosing between the two platforms for your next app project

Choosing the right platform for your app is a complex decision that requires careful consideration. While your audience's preference for desktop computing is valuable input, it's essential to weigh it against other factors such as user convenience, market trends, competitive advantage, and development costs. Evaluating these aspects will help you determine whether prioritising a desktop web app or a mobile app aligns best with your audience's needs and positions your app for long-term success. Remember the words on product innovation famously attributed to Henry Ford:

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

How to: Apple Developer Program License Agreement updates

Apple is constantly updating its Apple Developer Program License Agreement. These updates have to be accepted before an app or app update can be released, and they do have to be accepted by the account holder, so unfortunately we cannot do this for you. This comes up so much that I thought I’d make a post for our clients to refer to!

Here is how to do this:

  1. Go to the Apple Developer website.

  2. Enter your Apple ID, and then click Sign In.

    • Note: Make sure you're logging in as the account owner. This can't be completed by anyone else.

  3. You should see a banner at the top of the screen—click ‘Review Agreement’ to view the updated terms.

  4. Check the confirmation box, and then click ‘I Agree’ to finish.

What if I don't see the banner?
Sometimes the banner may not display correctly. In this case, try accessing the "Agreements, Tax, and Banking" page directly through your Apple Developer account. Any important updates or approvals will always be shown on that screen.

Click here to access Apple's step-by-step instructions on how to find and accept these agreements.

Returning to Business-as-Usual

Our team is 100% up and running through the current environment. We have worked through the government’s lockdown period remotely and will continue to do so in the immediate future. All our meetings and workshops continue to be held remotely by phone and teleconferencing.

We do expect to re-open our offices in due course. For now, our team is finding remote working continues to be the most safe and productive option for our clients, our team and the community.

Fighting COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic is causing disruption at home and worldwide. Our team is contributing to the fight against it by strictly observing all government lockdown and health policies. During this time, our offices will be closed, but our team will continue working uninterrupted remotely.

All our face-to-face meetings are cancelled and replaced with teleconferencing only. All our workshops with clients will go ahead at their scheduled times via teleconferencing also. Our offices will remain closed for the duration of the lockdown period - until we are given a clear green light to re-open.

Because we have invested heavily into remote-work processes over the last 5 years, we are able to continue working unaffected. While our team is noticing some changes initially due to the relatively sudden lockdown, we are well prepared for this, and we expect to be in a business-as-usual state from Thursday March 26th onwards.

We invite our clients, friends, families, whanau and the wider community to look out for each other - especially those most vulnerable during this difficult time. The reality of a full lockdown will take some getting used to, but we take comfort in knowing that our actions will save lives.

How To Create An App: How Much Does An App Cost?

How much does it cost to develop an app is one of the most oft-asked questions, so I’ll just answer it right now! A typical app budget might be around $50K, but it depends. A simple app might cost just $5K to design and develop, while a complex enterprise-grade system might be a couple of orders of magnitude higher. It all depends on the complexity of the design and app functionality that you need developed.

The process of building an app is kind of like building a house. A developer might have some idea of ballpark pricing when you tell them “3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms”, but they’ll need to know the lay of the land and see some blueprints before quoting. Similarly, an experienced app developer can give you a rough ballpark estimate up-front, and an accurate quote after doing some scoping.

If you’re wondering what your app might cost to develop, head on over to our contact page and have a quick chat with one of the team right now! A 5-minute phone call is all it takes.

What goes into the price of an app?

Apps are made by a team of highly skilled designers, developers and support personnel. A small, flexible, highly up-to-date team like ours would use the latest proven tools and techniques to get the highest quality results.

We would start off with understanding in detail exactly what you are after. Quite often this involves helping our clients clarify how they might achieve their goals, and just what exactly is possible with the technology at the moment.

We then go through a design process, during which we aim to create a great, world-class user experience (UX) for your app. In the early days of the app economy, there often wasn’t enough attention to the UX design. Thankfully now, most people realise just how important this is. App users have access to not just apps designed in NZ or Australia, but to the best of the best around the world. This means they expect high quality.

At this stage we also start engineering the app function by function. We test everything as we go, until we have a working solution. Once the engineering and design are in place we stop and test everything from scratch again, until we are satisfied the app is working correctly. Then we give the app to our client for a test drive until they are satisfied. Once the client is satisfied, it is time to write up marketing descriptions for Google Play and the App Store and release!

What does it cost to maintain an app after launch?

Typically apps nowadays are always on and connected to the internet in order to enable saving user data, connecting users to services and to each other. In order to enable this, we would use a secure and proven hosted server for a small monthly fee. The server can start off really small and scale as your app usage grows. It’ll typically cost under $10 / month per thousand users.

What about future changes and enhancements to my app?

We always aim to build a long term relationship with our clients, so enhancements are just part of the package. We would typically work closely with you on a product roadmap and as you execute your plans and get feedback from users we’ll happily prioritise the work that’s most important to you.

How To Create An App: Getting The Timing Right

How To Create An App: Getting The Timing Right

There is a fine line between “taking your time to get it right” and “rushing to get it out first”. How do you know which approach best suits your business? The answer is you’ll never quite know 100%. The best way to ensure you are not dragging your feet, and at the same time not taking on unnecessary risks is to follow the lean startup model of venture creation.

How To Create An App: Navigating Software Development Risks

How To Create An App: Navigating Software Development Risks

The software industry is flawed — we had to change. One project in particular stands out as an inflection point in our quest to deliver consistent results. Our small, sharp team used to get most projects right even while we were using industry-standard processes, but industry standards left some wide gaping holes in this project.