Tech News: New Web Application Allows Developers to Create Apps More Efficiently
Android and iPhone development solutions company, PHIRE Interactive Ltd., announced Tuesday the release of AppSidekick (TM), an industry-leading Web application and software developer’s kit.
According to PHIRE Interactive, regardless of which platform or development language used, AppSidekick will increase developer’s app revenue potential and reduce app development time by 50 to 70 percent.
“We know developing client/server apps across multiple mobile platforms, including Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows and Blackberry is a very time-consuming job,” said Greg Ellis, PHIRE’s director of development in a statement.[1] “Most developers minimize the task in their mind because they forget how much server-side development goes into creating the app. With AppSidekick looking after much of the server-side work, developers can focus on building the app itself.”
AppSidekick features allow developers to easily add GPS locations along with ads, QR codes, events, and more depending on client’s needs.
Additional features include the ability to store and retrieve app and user data, send push notifications to all users of the app or specific groups, enable clients to edit app content in real time, and provide full REST API communication with the AppSidekick Web application.
“AppSidekick makes adding push notifications to Android and iPhone apps very simple and reliable,” said Ellis. “Every client wants to be able to control their own app content whether they realize that before the code is written or after. AppSidekick makes it easy for anyone to change the content within an app using our user-friendly content editing interface and tools.”
Ellis adds: “Using a centralized dashboard and intuitive drag and drop tools, AppSidekick enables app developers to focus their energies on building creative and functional apps while at the same time increasing their revenue potential by providing clients with more built-in interactive options today’s mobile app users are looking for.”
The availability of the AppSidekick comes one month after the announcement of Apple’s iOS 6 which is said to have over 200 new features. Although the iOS 6 won’t release until fall, Apple has made the beta version available immediately for members of the iOS Developer Program.
In the meantime, Apple released iOS 6 beta 3, while the previous version is set to expire on July 31. Apple is encouraging all developers to continue pushing forward as the release date nears, as reported earlier by Slash Gear.
As mentioned above, AppSidekick can be used across any platform and with any developer language. However, it will be interesting to see where developers take their new apps – Apple or Google?
In June, Flurry, a mobile application analytics company, reported that app developers hold allegiance to the Apple platform versus Google’s Android Market. Flurry collected their data each day by tracking more than “1.2 billion anonymous, aggregated end user sessions across more than 100 million unique devices.”
Findings showed that while 31 percent of app developers prefer Google’s platform, 69 percent prefer the iOS platform instead. According to Flurry, developers are more attracted to Apple because of its tablet.
Flurry stated in their report:
“Not only does Apple offer a large, homogenous smartphone base for which to build software, but also when developers build for smartphones, their apps run on Apple’s iPad tablet as well. That’s like getting two platforms for the price of one. Apple offers the most compelling ‘build once, run anywhere’ value proposition in the market today, delivering maximum consumer reach to developers for minimal cost.”
[1] AppSidekick (TM) Lets App Developers Maximize Margins
