Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality: Which Trend Will Dominate?
Virtual reality has been dominating media coverage of tech, and when mobile app users imagine the coming VR revolution they usually imagine the sort of VR devices we saw at SXSW — big headsets, cords on the ground, complete visual immersion in a digital world. So Pokemon Go, the record-setting high-growth mobile gaming startup from […]
The Best Apps to Accelerate Your Startup
The startup life has never been easy. More than 90% of mobile apps fold within a year of launch. Even fewer move on to become commercially viable. At the same time, startup profits are higher now than they’ve ever been before, with mobile app developer revenues from the Apple App Store and Google Play rising […]
Freemium Pricing: Can it Work for My App?
In just a few years, freemium pricing for mobile apps has gone from an unusual fringe strategy to the dominant pricing scheme in the mobile app industry. How dominant? Well, in 2014 98% of all app revenue in Google Play came from freemium apps in the form of in-app purchases and monthly subscription fees. Apple […]
Google Launches Hardware Initiative to Teach Kids Code
Google just launched a new hardware initiative, Project Bloks, with the aim of expanding youth exposure to coding principles through “tangible coding.” Unlike the software-based coding systems mobile app developers who work with kids might be familiar with, tangible coding systems represent coding concepts — objects, binaries, if/then statements — as physical objects that can […]
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App?
Short answer: anywhere from $25,000–500,000. Long answer: building an app is like building a house. Who is it for? Bricks or beams? What’s the neighborhood like? Tree houses and penthouses are both “houses,” but serve radically different purposes at radically different price points. The team here at Dogtown has launched over 100 mobile app […]
Brexit Vote Sends Shockwaves Through Startup Community
The United Kingdom’s Brexit vote in favor of leaving the European Union (EU) has sent shockwaves through the business world, and tech is no exception. Surging stock prices only 24 hours before the historic vote saw Wall Street place their bets against the UK’s departure, making Friday’s 52:48 near-tie all the more bitter a pill […]
Top 10 Reasons Your App Might Be Rejected from the App Store
Making apps is hard. Waiting for apps to be approved by the apple app store? Nerve-wracking. For developers, the biggest frustration with the App Store review process is that apps are often returned as soon as an issue is found, rather than receiving a top-to-bottom check the first time around. For example, an app returned […]
How to Meet Investors Who Will Fund Your Startup Idea
You have a great startup or iPhone app idea. Maybe you’ve even assembled a small team or developed a prototype. The next step is ripe for the taking — but first you need funding to make hires, grow the product, and market it to relevant users. The question is, where do you look? The answer […]
Why It’s so Difficult to Retain Talented App Developers
Engineering talent is often difficult to find, and even trickier to retain. Even as engineering salaries range into the hundreds of thousands, the dramatic shortage of educated and reliable talent leaves many companies fighting for top AI app developers with perks that go far beyond Ping-Pong tables and free meals. While most Americans struggle to make […]
Ignoring Tech Education for Generation Z Is a Mistake
America has a tech education problem. According to government reports, over a million tech positions went unfilled in 2015, forcing many companies to outsource or bring in outside help rather than hire locally and participate in their local economy. Meanwhile, the average salary for technical code-centric careers like mobile app development hover between $90,000—$100,000. Multiply […]