12 Jun Coding in the Modern World
Changing State of the State:
The last twenty years have been a particularly fruitful few decades for technical development houses worldwide as they have taken a strong foothold in the market gaining a powerful position raking in over $600 billion a year in 2015 and 2016. Its been a very lucrative market.
The average development house now employs over fifty full-time staff. The average development project involves small teams clustered around very specific areas of expertise including a half a dozen mobile developers, half a dozen web developers, designers, project managers, a project owner, and nearly a dozen QA and support staff. Using industry averages for costs:
Average iOS developer cost: $57,427
Average Android cost: $85,799
Average Project manager cost: $83,654
Average Designer cost: $41,764
Timelines for these projects are not exactly “responsive” lasting between 6 – 18 months with budgets spanning $100k – $500k depending on the number of resources involved, the length of the project development timeline, and the quality of the project being developed.
Thats a big risk for anyone to take.
True efficiency cannot exist in an environment requiring each developer to painstakingly create/re-create the same individual components of each app along with the endless responsive variations for each screen size and device types. Code that adapts to the differences between iOS, Android, and web requirements and standards. Code that is flexible, user-friendly, and analytical while retaining security and protecting the ever-changing data rights of users.
Its a tall order.
How coding in the modern world has changed
In the past couple of years, a new “standard” set of platforms are emerging. They are universal in their approach in that a developer can create an app via a single code base that meets the requirements for every device, resolution, flow etc. A “build” command provides a web app, iOS and Android app at the same time. While this technology has been around for a while, the tools/methods have finally matured to make them useful.
These platforms are incredibly easy to use and require only basic skills to implement.
DISCLAIMER – With that said, none of this changes app success idioms – good design, good UX, proper security but these platforms are causing significant chaos the app landscape and its ALL good for clients and consumers.
Apps can now be created in the same amount of time it took to build an InVision prototype (and that was the rage a couple of years ago). Easy, endless, quick iterations are now doable giving clients/users a much more responsive solution.
Our Experience
We began looking at this market just over a year ago. We chose to work in a platform called Meteor because it integrated both front end/backend code into a single program environment. We found it to be uber friendly with its neighbors (node.js etc), have found tons of helpful WP like plugins and a good healthy set of googled help pages when we first got started.
The experience blew us away.
As with any platform, it takes time to get up to speed and get a project to the appstore. But once we got past the first app, we started flying. Our 2 week scrums dropped to 4 day sprints with client reviews every Friday.
Besides the ability to code and prototype quickly, it also has changed the way we sell our services. Now instead of presenting our clients with a flat set of images in a deck or creating a flat images prototype, we can build a functional demo app. This gives our clients a MUCH better look and idea of what the final product will look like.
What’s the trade-off?
The common perception that a reduction in development personnel would involve a significant trade-off in the quality, time to publication, or the range of functionality offered with the platform is no longer true. It has proven to be incorrect as Blockbuster’s perception was that no one would want to stream their movies instead would rather to pick them up at the store for themselves.
Platforms like Meteor represent a fundamental change. It is not yet fully understood by the average project owner or small business, but one that is shaking the industry and who’s time will come quickly.
Need more persuasion?
Don’t take our word for it. There are hundreds of highly reputable developers within the industry who have lauded platforms like Meteor even more than we have. Check out some of these resources for more information:
7 Reasons to Develop Your Next Web App with Meteor
Why Meteor Js Platform Should Scare Any Technology Company!
Meteor is F***ing Awesome
Interested in hiring Rincon Tech Services to develop your website and apps more quickly and efficiently than traditional software development companies? Contact us below:
[formidable id=”3″]
No Comments