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Arlene Minkiewicz, Chief ScientistPRICE Systems, LLCarlene.minkiewicz@pricesystems.com

Software on the Move

Cost Considerations for Mobile Application Development

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Agenda

• Introduction

• Historical background

• Categorizing mobile apps

• Cost Overview

• Cost Drivers

• Conclusions

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Introduction

• January 2011 IEEE Spectrum puts the Smartphone at the top of its list of top technologies of the decade

• Proliferation of Smartphones and tables has led to a proliferation of mobile apps

• Mobile app development presents new and exciting challenges to application developers

• Mobile apps will become important to many businesses

• While the industry is still basically in start up mode, it’s not too soon to assess cost drivers and likely costs

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Historical Perspective

• 1983 – Motorola introduces the first hand held cellular phone– Weighed 2.5 pounds– Memory for 30 phone numbers– 10 hours to recharge– Sustain an hour of conversation before recharging

• 2007 – Apple announced the launch of the iPhone which integrated:– Cell phone – Web browser– iPod– Camera– All the gadgets teenagers (and some of the rest of us) can’t live

without• 2011 (anticipated) – iPhone 5 is expected to be available with:

– Near Field Communication (NFC) technology– Updated OS with cloud integration– Music streaming– Voice interface– Embedded social networking tool– 4G connectivity

• Similar offerings are abounding from other providers as well

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There’s an App for that (or at least there could be)

• As technology advances it seems there are no limits to what we can do with our phones. Some examples:– Games– Banking– Social Networking– News– Travel and entertainment

• And the list goes on with new apps emerging every day

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Categorizations of Mobile apps

• By Platform– Apple– Android device– Blackberry

• Native or web

• By function types– Basic table driven functionality– Data driven functionality– Games– Device driven functionality– Full dynamic functionality– Custom utility functionality

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Cost Overview

• Data collection not a real priority

• But much is being written or blogged by both the developers (probably optimistic) and those selling mobile app services (potentially opportunistic)

• General conclusions

– Simple app $10-$20K

– Average app $40-$60K

– Complex app $100K+

• Apple seems generally cheaper to develop for than Android and Blackberry

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Cost Drivers

• Areas where mobile app development is different than traditional software development:

– Multiple platforms

• Literature suggests that developing for more than one platform increases costs by 20 to 50%

• Compatibility issues when multiple companies are developing hardware

• Multiple OS’s to support even within a platform

– Interfaces

• External sensors

• Touch screens

• GPS

• Real or virtual keypad

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Cost Drivers

• Areas where mobile app development is different than traditional software development:

– App may need to respond to motion of the device

– Resource consumption is important

– Testing of the application

• Development environment is not the user platform

• Emulators and simulators are available but the jury is still out on many of these

• Sheer magnitude of ensuring successful operation across all possible combinations of hardware, software and carriers

– Development Resource availability limited – projects either need to:

• Pay extra $ for experienced developers

• Expect to spend extra time and $ for training and learning

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Conclusions

• Mobile app development is still somewhat of a Wild West type activity – technology is new – not a lot of process around many development efforts

• While mobile app development is similar to other software development in many ways there are new challenges associated with multiple platforms, added complexities, and limited resource availability

• Mobile apps will increasingly be in demand as:

– Technology advances (4G, cloud computing, etc)

– Businesses realize the strategic importance of utilizing mobile apps

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