Cost to Create an App for Businesses Often Over-evaluated

(Newswire.net –February 17, 2013) Montreal, QC, Canada – Cost to create an app for companies can often be massively marked up by developers, who can take advantage of clients in a burgeoning market of companies looking to get into the iTunes and Android App stores with first corporate app, states Dan Shannon, founder of Montreal based ID Digital Media, and independent app development firm based in Montreal.

 “As we are quite active in this space we closely monitor the cost to create an app for native apps destined for iPhone, iPad and Android devices in the current developer marketplace.  Our findings are that a lot of app developers can pretty much charge what they like, due to a brisk demand for corporate app developers. Our clients, regularly ask how come the other bids they received before choosing us are sometimes as much as 5 to 10 times more than ours for what appears to be a comparable product.” says Mr Shannon.

 Native apps which are destined for iTunes and Android App stores, (as distinct from mobile websites), can clearly bring value to corporate communications offering, but ROI can be difficult to measure, especially when the typical company app is free on the app stores.

 “The true cost of app development is really a question of what you are measuring it against.  Sometimes an app has a branding value, sometimes it improves a certain business process within a complex network betweens clients and corporate staff. Sometimes it is a question of leads and sales generation. The truth is to have a successful app, and to know what to measure, you need to ask the right questions before you start. We begin each new relationship with a questionnaire, then we approach each project from the perspective that we have been mandated to create the ‘swiss army knife’ for that particular industry. It must ‘do’ something unique, something the company website does not. Once we get this process going with our clients, they tend to get pretty excited and bring in a lot of creative ideas they might have not imagined. Then we work to define the right positioning for the app which key to setting the right expectations.  This is done partly with client input, but also with search data to help us find the sweet spot in a given market for the client’s new app.” Says Mr. Shannon.

 ID Digital Media has produced over a dozen apps in the last year, mostly for US-based customers ranging from publicly-traded companies to mom-and-pop outfits, in the fields of science and technology, manufacturing, education, real-estate and entertainment markets, creating apps for iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

 

 About ID Digital

ID Digital Media is an independent App developer and digital marketing company based in Montreal Canada.

 About Dan Shannon

Founder of ID Digital Media, Mr Shannon is an author, film producer and digital media evangelist, specialising in mobile app development and media production with strong interactive design and story-telling values and analytics-based media strategy.