With 9% marketshare, Apple has 75% of all cell phone profits

Drew CrawfordNews

According to CNN, Apple’s “tiny” 9% marketshare accounts for 75% of all cell phone profits. This chart covers all phone sales, not just smartphones, and the whole world, not just the U.S.  This teaches a powerful lesson: more marketshare does not mean more money.  Not all customers are created equally.  Android’s marketshare looks impressive, but when you drill down into … Read More

The agility of small teams

Drew CrawfordNews

Some managers think that it’s important to have lots of programmers working on a project.  After all, the more people you have, the faster it will get done!  But nine pregnant women can’t make a baby in a month. Adding more people to a late software project makes it later.  – Fred Brooks In fact, large software teams lead to … Read More

Agile iPhone Development

Drew CrawfordNews

At DrewCrawfordApps, we practice an agile development methodology based on multiple small sprints and continuous delivery.  This is because agile methods provide higher productivity, lower costs, result in higher quality software, and happier clients. Higher Productivity and Lower Costs According to VersionOne’s 2010 study, 66% of agile practitioners report faster time-to-completion for software projects.  More than half of all respondants report that … Read More

5 reasons why your app won’t get funded

Drew CrawfordNews

We’ve talked to dozens of entrepreneurs who are trying to get their ideas funded by outside investment.  Of the entrepreneurs we talk to, less than 1% actually secure the funding they need. #1: An investor has thousands of app investment opportunities right now Generally speaking, investment markets move much slower than consumer markets.  From an investor’s perspective, they may still … Read More

What maintenance is needed for an iPhone app?

Drew CrawfordNews

Many clients want to know the ongoing cost structure for their application after development.  Relative to the high upfront cost to develop an application, the ongoing costs are usually low. Maintenance tasks typically involve: Fixing crashes or errors reported by users of the application.  Our automated bug tracking software helps us monitor bugs in the wild.  If the client has … Read More

Apps you can’t write

Drew CrawfordNews

Apple limits the kinds of apps that can be written.  This is a list of apps that can’t be written due to technical or other restrictions from Apple.  This list is not comprehensive, and if you’re a registered developer you should read the official Review Guidelines.  But it is compiled from some of the requests we’ve gotten over and over … Read More

How much does an iPhone app cost? Part III

Drew CrawfordNews

In Part I, we introduced the different types of applications.  In Part II, we introduced the development team and gave some rough figures for how much each component costs.  Now, we’re going to play with the numbers. It should cost much less! Sometimes it does.  Certain applications may simply not need certain components.  Coke or McDonalds may not need a … Read More

How much does an iPhone app cost? Part II

Drew CrawfordNews

In Part I, we explored the different types of applications.  Once you have identified the type of application and the complexity of your project, it’s time to meet some of the people who will bring your app to life! Development Any iPhone or iPad app is going to involve developers, people who write the software code.  Depending on the firm, these … Read More

How much does an iPhone app cost? Part I

Drew CrawfordNews

We get this question over and over.  Let’s walk through the numbers. App Types iPhone or iPad apps are not all alike.  You have several different kinds of applications. Each of these application types may require a slightly different skill set, have a different time and cost profile, and require developers with different expertise.  Counterintuitively, it can sometimes be a … Read More

iPad outselling Android tablets 24-to-1

Drew CrawfordNews

Thanks to John Gruber’s clever arithmetic, we now know that the iPad is outselling Android tablets 24-to-1. It’s easy to forget in the marketshare battle that Apple’s dominance is much larger than phones.  iOS software runs on three platforms: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, with a combined install base of over 200 million units.  Not to mention Apple’s 11% North … Read More