With the countless apps flooding the app markets of different platforms, you may think that app development is a simple process. And indeed, some of its aspects are not as complicated as one would expect, but there are numerous considerations that app developers have to make and numerous sacrifices to the quality or the features of the app that have to be accepted if you want to offer a product that the majority of your consumers will be able to use.
New Amazon’s service, AppStream just might be able to make the developers’ lives easier and ensure that we get much more impressive apps.
The Choice Of Platform:
Consider the app development process from the developer’s point of view. First of all, you have to decide on the platform for which you’ll develop the app. If you later want to offer the same app to users of different platforms, you basically have to make it all over again. Furthermore, with some platforms, like Android for instance, you also have to consider not only its current, numerous versions, but make sure to anticipate the features that they might get in one of their following incarnations, and make the app in accordance with the current state of affairs and those predictions.
Every Mobile Device Needs To Be Covered:
Naturally, the platform is not the only restricting factor. You also have to keep the end user’s hardware in mind. Sure, there are a lot of high end devices out there that wouldn’t have a problem with running demanding apps, but a large majority of mobile device users don’t really have access to that powerful hardware, so again, you have to take care not to make your app too demanding, that is, if you want a lot of people to be able to use, and chances are that you do.
This led to developers leaving out a lot of features out of their apps, and creating mediocre products that can be available to as many people as possible. However, AppStream might put an end to this approach.
Cloud Resource For Developers:
This service enables the developers to upload their apps, or just parts of them, into the Amazon’s EC2 cloud, and have it run the apps. The users simply get the platform appropriate client, and can easily access the app that is stored in the cloud. What this means is that the developers don’t have to limit themselves only to certain platforms, but can instead build one app and simply provide clients for all the platforms they want to cover. Updating the app also becomes much easier, as instead of addressing each platform specifically, they only have to update the app in the cloud, and all the users can now enjoy the newer version.
The apps are using the cloud’s resources to run, and basically only send an image to the user’s screen, similarly to the remote desktop setup. This means that your hardware no longer plays a role in which apps you can and can’t use, which both removes another constraint from the developers and allows you to use apps that you previously couldn’t dream of using on your resource poor device. Your storage will also have to bear fewer burdens, as you don’t actually need to download and install the app, only the small client.
This should mean that we are about to witness a renaissance when it comes to apps. Not only will we be able to use more demanding apps, the developers will put more effort into making them, and be able to offer them to different platforms, so the competition in individual markets will increase, which should increase the overall app quality.
