App Developers Shaping Media to Favor Simple, Direct Content
Facebook just launched a feature to automatically subtitle videos posted to their platform. Why does this matter for iPhone app developers? It matters because it illustrates that Facebook has successfully brought back the “silent movie,” forcing content creators to cater their wares to the limitations of the platform rather than the other way around. Following […]
2017’s Unicorn Startups Could Be in “Brick-and-mortar” business
“Brick and mortar” or employee-reliant tech companies often face an uphill battle in Silicon Valley. The costs are high. Investors are suspicious. But if Amazon’s strategy has anything to teach us, it’s that so-called “traditional” businesses could be some of the hottest tickets for new entrepreneurs in an increasingly crowded, competitive app store. Does that […]
App Development and Ethics at the Crossroads Post-Election
In the past five years, the effects of the app economy on the social and financial structure of America has grown far beyond what anyone expected. The Ubers and AirBnBs of the app store have revolutionized how we rent, buy, and even think about property. Social networks like Facebook have connected us in ways we […]
Ringing in the New Year with the Promise of Mobile Tech IPOs
Expectations were low for tech IPOs in 2016 — driven in large part by the slow plateau and declining userbases of former stars like Twitter and GoPro. While the tech sector as a whole continued to thrive, public companies floundered, driving a general suspicious outlook on publicly traded mobile app companies on Wall Street. But […]
Liquidation Preferences and Why They Matter for App Developers
Founders tend to be a passionate group focussed strongly on the nuts and bolts of their product or service. When it comes time to raise venture capital, it’s easy to just say “yes” to anything and everything that presents itself. The problem is that shares of a company aren’t all created equal, and startups often […]
Mobile Startup Targets Old-School Online Forums
Remember online forums? For anybody with an Internet connection in the 90s and early 00s, forums were as central to online life as Facebook and Twitter are today. (Especially if you had a weird or offbeat hobby, like keeping exotic snakes or collecting Star Wars action figures.) For better or worse, forums have mostly gone […]
Netflix Secures Top Grossing iPhone App Rating
Netflix’s app has only been available in the Apple App Store for a year or so. In spite of it’s newcomer status to mobile, the app just snagged Apple’s coveted “top grossing iPhone app” rating, signaling huge potential for NYC iOS app developers entering the mobile market with streaming-based products. The rating comes as a […]
Google Has Opened Google Home Device for App Developers
Google just announced that the Google Home personal assistant device is now open for app developers and integrations. This is big news for San Francisco Android app developers who have been eager to further integrate Google products into their mobile services. Conversations with the Google Home device are similar to those with other Google Now […]
How Google is Winning the Delight Game with Mobile App Users
Google and Apple have a lot in common when it comes to branding. App developers on both platforms will notice that play, experimentation, and a youthful “underdog” aesthetic underpin much of what the tech giants do — although they admittedly are far from underdog status at this point in the tech boom. While Apple is winning […]
E-sports Services Are a Huge Startup Opportunity in 2017
Two new patents entered the e-sports space this past week, as the app developers behind Skillz launched their service for scaling mobile games to spectator-ready tournaments. (For the unfamiliar, “e-sports” means “competitive gaming.”) Skillz operates on a simple but whip-smart premise: making it simple for brands to turn any mobile game into a competitive event, […]