Android Apps development might be the way to go if the product or service you wish to sell or market is designed exclusively for people who surf the Web with Android devices. But what if you also want to reach the billions who don’t?
The answer – in South Florida as elsewhere – is mobile friendly web development.
Web Development South Florida
Andriod Apps, like all native apps, are software APPlications (computer programming) written for a specific operating platform: In this case the Linux-based Android smartphone operating systems developed by Android, Inc., acquired by Google and maintained by the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Here’s a notable quote:
Android became the world’s leading smartphone platform at the end of 2010. For the first quarter of 2012, Android had a 59% smartphone market share worldwide. At the half of 2012, there were 400 million devices activated and 1 million activations per day. Analysts point to the advantage to Android of being a multi-channel, multi-carrier OS… Android has a large community of developers writing applications (‘apps’) that extend the functionality of the devices. Developers write primarily in a customized version of Java… In October 2011, there were more than 500,000 apps available for Android.”
Two of several questions this should bring to mind are “Does anyone really need 500,000 Android Apps?” and “Do I really want to spend my limited marketing money developing Android App #500,001?”
The answers for most small to medium-sized businesses are: NO, and NO.
If you eliminate all the redundancies, sales gimmicks, apps that are little more than website gateway links and other marketing spam, that 500,000 figure would be much, much lower. Even then, the percentage of the remainder that offered any real utility for any given user would be miniscule. And if your online marketing budget is limited, why spend it developing an app that’s only accessible by Android users when for the same or less money you could develop a Mobile Web App, W3C mobileOK minipage or Mobile Friendly website that would be accessible by Android users and everyone else? It’s your call to make:
Android App development? Or Mobile Web development?