Developing mobile apps is expensive, time-consuming, takes too long, requires hiring big-money mobile developers, and means you'll have to use an entirely different set of mobile app development tools than for the Web, right?Wrong. Those are just some of the myths you'll hear about mobile development. In this first part of a two-part blog, I'll crush those myths and others, and show you how developing for mobile can be cheaper and easier than you think.
Myth #1: You have to hire new developers and can't use your existing resources
Typically, enterprises have a development staff with an established skill set that is often heavily weighted towards the desktop and traditional Web experience. There's little mobile expertise.So, the myth goes, you only have a few choices if you want to develop for mobile. You can hire new mobile developers. You can re-train your existing staff on mobile app development tools. Or you can throw your hands in the air and hire outside experts, and be at their mercy. All three choices are expensive.
But the myth is wrong. There's a fourth choice. There's a simple way to use the talent and experience of your existing staff, with minimal retraining -- use a development environment that's familiar to them, and lets them leverage their existing experience for mobile development. Much of the work they've already done can be re-purposed with a minimum of time and a minimum of cost. In my next blog, I'll tell you how.
Myth #2: Mobile development is expensive
The second myth is that there are big mobile development expenses beyond staff, notably for tools, deployment, and support. The thinking goes that you'll need new infrastructure with a new set of training and support requirements. And even more worrisome for many enterprises are the unknowns: What costs are there that you don't know about going in?In fact, though, not only does mobile development not need to be expensive, it can actually reduce some costs. You can unlock the value of your existing apps if you go with a strategy of dual mobile/Web development. With this strategy, rather than each application being its own island of development, they can be centralized and put on a single platform. Existing content can be leveraged for future mobile apps.
In my next blog, I'll crush three more mobile myths, and tell you about the tools you can use to save you time and money.
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