Personal Reflections of App Development (Essay Sample)

Personal Reflections of App Development Student Institution Course Date According to Foo (2011), the global economy has witnessed a major transformation following the advancements that have taken place in the digital space. Many businesses, both small scale and large scale have been able to make maximum use of the digital transformations to achieve higher levels of efficiency and reduce operational costs. Those behind this digital transformation are the entrepreneurs and innovators who have come up with various digital platforms through which various business activities can take place (Deakins & Freel, 2009). For instance, while initially companies would rely on making cash transactions with their customers, entrepreneurship and innovation has led to the development of mobile applications that facilitate cashless transactions. Similarly, as intimated by James (2014), it is possible for a customer to order for certain desired products and services through mobile applications and have the goods or services delivered to their doorsteps at their own convenience. Various banks have also developed apps through which various bank transactions can be done from anywhere and have facilitated transactions on a 24/7 basis. This paper is a reflection on the process of app design and development and the marketing process of such apps in line with the entrepreneurship theory. The process of design and development of apps is not that easy though. It entails a great deal of research. I discovered that various mobile applications that have been developed by entrepreneur and innovators and the process of design and development differ from one app to the next (Dana, 2011). One such application is IOS. The process of building this app that was initially developed by Apple Company requires the use of Xcode 8 for programming purposes and subsequently run the IOS in a built-in simulator. I discovered that technology is evolutionary and changes from time to time as new innovations come up as observed by James (2015). For instance, the IOS is the operating system that Apple uses for its iPhone models but it was not the initial operating system, there were previous ones such as Yosemite and Mavericks which Apple had to upgrade. Later versions of operating systems which have been developed by Apple include macOS Sierra 10.12 and EI Captain 10.11.5 (Minniti & Moren, 2010). The process of setting up the Xcode 8 for the development of the IOS app is not a laborious one though. It involves five major simple steps which if followed as instructed; one can have a well developed application in App Store and have it registered for commercial purposes. The first step as I learnt involves opening up the Mac App Store where Xcode 8 is downloaded through the App Store. The next step as intimated by Zahra (2009) involves searching for the Xcode where the word "Xcode" is entered on the search engine on the top-right end of the screen and the pressing the Return button. The third step involves the installation of the Xcode once it has been downloaded. At this point I was surprised and impressed at the same time that Apple offers its Xcode at no cost and the customer just needs to click the "get" key in order to begin installing the app. I imagined the cost that the customers would have incurred if the Xcode app was not offered for free by Apple Company owing to the size of the app which is several gigabytes. However, the length of time it takes to have the who app downloaded is disheartening as a app of such huge magnitude in size would have to take several minutes or even hours depending on the internet speeds and one might lose patience. The next step in the app development process involves launching the Xcode. When launching the Xcode, one comes across a window that has the writings "Welcome to Xcode”. It is at this point that I realized that I was in the final stages of getting the app to function. The version of the app was 8.0. After the successful launching, it was time to register for the IOS Developer Program (Rahul, 2015). It was quite exciting to discover that I had reached the stage at which my app can be patented and its commercial worth established. I however realized that even in the digital space, there are rules and regulations which still apply and in adhering to these laws, I had to obtain a developer license at a cost of $99 every year from Apple Inc. given that I was prepared and excited to release the new app to App Store for easy access to the public so that as they download it and install in their mobile phones, I also gain from my entrepreneurship through some fees and marketing charges as intimated by Shane and Venkataraman (2000). However, I learnt that it is not advisable to buy the annual license on the spot incase one is not ready to have the app in the Apple App Store. Marketing the app is one of the things I found easy with these applications. This is because of my experience in marketing in various digital channels such as websites and social media platforms. The app is much easily advertised through social media channels including Facebook and Whatsapp. In my experience, I did not have to spend several dollars to various marketers or advertisers in order to attract customers given that in digital marketing, the cost of acquiring customers is virtually free so long as one can gain access to the internet (Foo, 2011) This made it more cost effective and since social media has fans from across the globe, the app gets access to a global audience and this enhances its rate of publicity as virtually no costs as compared to other modes of marketing such as televisions or daily newspapers which can be expensive incase the entrepreneur targets a global audience. One of the digital approaches to marketing the apps involves building a microblog. According to Dana (2011) the microblog is often one or two pages and contains the advertising content where one can come across while visiting other relevant websites. Alternatively, another effective way through which the customers can get sufficient information about the product is to launch a full blog page. In the blog, it is necessary that the website administrator develops interesting topics which can attract the attention of the target audience and have them click on the website to view the content and in the process; Rahul (2015) posits that they get to know all about the existence of the app and its purpose. In terms of social media marketing, I appreciated how vibrant the social media platforms have become. There are a variety of social media channels which are effective in marketing of mobile applications including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ (Dana, 2010). In these platforms, the marketer uses his or her account to market the application to make the social media users informed on the existence of the app and its purpose. I realized that Facebook is the best marketing platform owing to the fact that it allows the marketer to post as much detail as possible for customers to view and this is beneficial especially for an app that is yet to be launched in the market for it to gain market share. As opined by Minniti and Moren (2010), marketing through Facebook may take the form of opening a page specifically for the app and its brand name, or marketing the app in facebook groups where many users can view it. Another marketing strategy and which is also effective involves the use of videos posted on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. The content of these videos ought to be creative and funny in order to make the viewers’ eyes glued to its content. The process of application development is not an easy one and requires a g...