A thriving business is one that grows and adapts to an ever-changing world. With that in mind, most established businesses have some type of presence on the web. At a minimum, that presence includes information about the business and how it is of value to its customers. At best, it includes methods for obtaining or purchasing the product or service that business has to offer right from their web site.
Current reports show that this type of web presence is no longer enough. Increasingly, consumers are using mobile devices for all of their web needs. With small screen sizes a traditional web site is just not optimal for mobile use. To keep up with consumer demand, businesses large and small need to offer a mobile application for download.
Fortunately, there are many tools available to help with the creation of a mobile application; often referred to as an app. What follows is a comparison of three tools for building apps for the iPhone.
| Basic Features: | |
| AppBreeder: | Pre-formatted app kits based on business industry Pre-defined collection of gadgets, icons, behaviors to add |
| BuildAnApp: | Pre-defined templates or use advanced custom page builder Choose from inventory of graphics or use your own |
| SwebApps: | Pre-defined templates based on funtionality Use backgound image from library or choose your own |
Pricing
AppBreeder charges a monthly fee of $29.00 after the app is published. There is no initial setup fee. BuldAnApp has a monthly fee of 19.00 and an initial setup fee of $199.00. There is an optional fee of $49.00 to remove banner ads from the app. SwebApps charges a monthly fee of $29.00 and an initial setup fee of $399.00. There are a few optional fees as well. Apptracker is $10/month, and a custom load page is $100.00.
Note: an iOS developer account is required to publish an app to the Apple App Store. The fee for an iOS account is $99.00 which is paid directly to Apple. The user will be required to pay this fee in additon to the cost of the app creation tool.
Web Hosting
All three tools will host the user’s application. AppBreeder and SwebApps allow the client to specify, if they wish, the price a user pays to download the app. BuildAnApp does not support charging for downloading an app.
Viral Marketing
None of these tools list viral marketing for the app among the services they provide.
Android Capable
All three tools have the capability to create an app for the Android market. Each charges an additional fee for this service.
The availabilty of a downloadable mobile application is important for every business that wishes to stay competetive. Fortunately, neither a major cash investement nor hiring an outside programming firm is required to produce an app. To build an app best suited to the needs of customers, a business only needs to use one of the aforementioned tools.
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