1. The Realities of Developing
Mobile Applications.
Steven Mitchell, Ph.D.
Componica, LLC

2. About us.
Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)
Memorize Words for Spanish / Russian / French
Between February-March 2010, top 4th selling
app in education.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

3. Convergence of Disjointed Talent
Programming in Objective
C, Javascript, Java, C++
Graphical Interface Design
Data / Music / Game Levels
Marketing and Advertising
Project Management
Michael, Sarah, Patrick, Steve (myself)
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

4. Programmers are expensive
$3,000 to $8,000 per month per person
just to pay salary and benefits.
Typical project takes 1 to 5 months.
Specialized skill. This isn’t web
design...your best friend’s brother
probably cannot help you here.
A good developer can literally be 10x
faster than a mediocre one saving money
in the end.
Do it yourself? Some people can, most
people can’t. It’s free but time consuming.
Outsource? It’s very tricky to find an
effective developer. Steve (myself), Patrick, Donald
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

5. Adhere to guidelines
There’s always a risk your app may be rejected.
Designers sometimes apply web paradigms onto mobile:
There are no hovers. The user isn’t using a mouse.
Not using standard GUI controls increase development costs and risk rejection.
Buttons and widgets must have a minimal size otherwise people with fat fingers
can’t tap them.
Must adhere to published human interface guidelines.
Must not crash.
Duplicate apps might be rejected. This also means don’t compete with an app that
Apple or Google is developing. You might not know you are until they reject you.
No more stupid fart apps or other “trivial apps” (Apple actually states “no Fart
apps” in there guidelines).
etc...
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

6. Your app must look awesome to compete.
People buying decision is very very influenced
by the screen shots and the app icon.
Graphic designers cost a few hundred to a few
thousand.
Quality and style varies a lot.
Difficult to find a good artist, so you need to
see their past creations.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

7. Planning ahead, the storyboard.
The client might not be aware apps design requires this much
detail.
Poor planning wastes development time and that will cost you
thousands.
Everything must be explained and diagrammed: This button
goes here, that screen looks like that, the app will react this way
when the user does that.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

8. Limitations of the Device
Sure that iPad costs as much as a decent notebook, but it’s pretty
weak as a computer.
Apple’s making a killing selling a computer weaker than a $150
netbook for $600.
1 Ghz CPU with 256 Mb of RAM. (I benchmarked it at 10x to 30x
slower than my Macbook Pro depending on iOS device and use.)
A custom GPU to create the illusion it’s a fast machine with
hardware-based 2D animation, video decoding, and OpenGL (3D
graphics).
Example: A real full-featured Photoshop-like iPad app is unlikely.
Not enough RAM to hold full-size DSLR images and CPU too slow.
(iPhoto fakes it by shrinking the image in iTunes).
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

9. Interfacing the Device to Hardware
Apple charges thousands to have access to the iPod/
iPad/iPhone port.
By default Bluetooth only works for headphones and
microphones. They also charge thousands to get access
to Bluetooth for custom use.
Access doesn’t just mean the legal rights to it; it mean
special passwords from Apple or Google so that our
code is allowed to talk to the hardware. (Clients often
ask “Well it’s not going on the App store so can you do it
anyway?”...”No.”)
Wifi and audio jack are the only ports you can use for free.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

10. Data doesn’t magically appear.
For example, each language took six months of
development:
Developing a flashcard dictionary
Recording a native speaker (difficult to find.)
Sound editing...carpal tunnel galore.
Costs ~$6k - $8k per language.
No, we’re not going to create Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch or
any other minor language. We can’t afford it.
Stephanie, Katya (Russian Speaker), Nicole
Not stock photos, and we really own a
soundbooth.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

11. Will it talk to others? Servers.
Sometimes a client will request their app must have a
forum, connect to Facebook, upload the user’s location to
somewhere, etc.
Costs will dramatically increase because you’ll need to
implement servers.
Requires a completely different type of programmer(s).
Server are not free. Hundreds to thousands a month for the
client.
Is this a critical requirement or just a feature?
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

12. Market your apps, or don’t bother.
Apps DO NOT sell themselves, there’s at least 150k
apps to compete against.
Hire a marketing group that’s good at it.
They suggest design changes, price points, and
selling tactics.
They do mysterious things to create buzz and sales.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)
Marketer group redesigned the Logo
Marketer made reviews of our app mysteriously appeared.
Twitter feeds popped
out of nowhere without
our direct consent.
Marketer group suggested a better price.

13. Ideas are cheap, implementation is not
There are many people with many ideas, but most people lack the means,
persistence, or desire to implement them. There’s a lot of talkers out there
and very few doers.
You are competing with our own ideas and unlike you we can create
whatever we think of (You wouldn’t be approaching us if you could) So...
Just as you’re trying to find good developers, we are trying to find good
clients.
When I’m (Steve) listening to your pitch, I’m trying to decide if I should halt
our in-house projects and work on your project.
Our in-house projects are quite profitable, so the threshold is very high.
Is your idea more profitable than ours? Is it really?
We don’t take equity as payment. Your idea isn’t that awesome, trust
me, you’re wasting time for both of us if you think it is.
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)

14. In Conclusion...
Unless you do it yourself or are very savvy at outsourcing, it will cost tens of
thousands. Will you sell enough apps to recoup that investment?
Planning is everything.
Be realistic, ask seasoned developers.
Fill a niche. Easy ideas are gone. (Roxio wrote many games before Angry Birds became
a hit...it didn’t happen by accident, it happen by insane tenacity)
On the bright side, seeing an idea come alive is very rewarding.
“I am a paramedic for the FD and it
is helpful to learn body parts,
symptoms and other medical terms
before learning about train stations,
bus stops or other tourist type things
you have to learn first in other
programs.”
“Something fun and effective ...you’re
doing it right.”
“I needed to improve my Russian for
a trip to eastern Ukraine without a
laptop and Rosetta, this is a great
little tool for on the go and
impromptu learning on the plane
train bus airport etc”
Copyright 2011 - Componica, LLC (http://www.componica.com/)