Mobile apps and services development tools

In an earlier post, I promised to come back with an overview of development tools for mobile apps and services, geared towards the "drag&drop" developer, or developer who doesn't want to work directly with, let's say, the SDKs and APIs for Android and iOS.

Most of these tools now support cross-OS publishing or builds, so one can get apps done in one go for Android, Apple iOS and MS Windows Phone. Or mostly, some tweaking to adopt to user interface and conventions per OS might be needed, but for single-task apps, that apps was all about in the beginning, and to tip the toe in mobile development waters, they are a great help and introduction.

OK, the list!

1. Mobincube: Template based development, free for basic features, publishing to app-stores, add integration and really seems to be evolving very well.  Great pish on HTML 5 side as well, so should be useable towards Firefox OS as well. The one I tried myself for some basic apps. recommended!
2. Appery.io: Supports the usual OS suspects, drag and drop development environment, DB and cloud backend integration and more.  Also has free edition for basic features.
3. Conduit: Positions itself as the quick and easy alternative for cross-platform app development and has many great demos and use cases on their site.  
4. Widgetbox: Supports iOS and Android, another template and widget based approach to get apps "done in minutes".  
5. MobileNation: A senior in the market with a good track record, drag& drop approach, free option to get started

Any of these is a good choice to get started and acquainted with mobile apps and services development.

One important thing, besides ad networks integration, is to make sure you have full tracking on number of downloads, usually from app-store, and access to usage and traffic statistics for your app or mobile service as it reaches thousands and millions of users.

Some candidates for app usage and traffic logging, statistics (avoided the Big Data thing there):

1. Keen IO: Extended app, or most anything else, service logging and statistics
2. Google Analytics: Hard to avoid this one, now enhanced with mobile app and services tracking as well
3. Good Data: Analytics-as-a-Service, and makes it easy to come up with good looking and useful service usage reports.
4. Mixpanel
5. KISSmetrics
6. And to make your statistics look good on the big screen - Gecoboard

Erik Jensen, 08.11.2013

Cloud platforms for mobile services development

Now this headline and it's subject could be the title and scope of a whole book (and there are a number of them available), but I wanted to get into the subject by some initial posts on the matter.  And do some mobile "drag & drop" app development myself to try out a range of new app dev tools for non-programmers (see links later on).

To start with, Gartner predicts, with usual assurance, that by 2016, "40 Percent of Mobile Application Development Projects Will Leverage Cloud Mobile Back-End Services".  And it doesn't stop there; "causing development leaders to lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises, predicts Gartner, Inc."

Mobile developers and apps using cloud-based platforms for their service management, processing and storage doesn't mean loosing control per ce in my opinion, just as on-prem or in-house development and deployments platforms aren't more secure or insecure than cloud based one . It boils down to security policy and culture, and how one actually adheres to them. But using a cloud based service delivery platforms for mobile apps and services seems like a no-brainer if the app in question is Internet-facing or supposed to be used by a public audience, and not just internally in an enterprise.

Using a cloud-based development and service delivery platform, i.e. a Platform as a Services (PaaS) kind of cloud platform with a wide range of support for ready-to-go development environments, databases and tools a step above basic IaaS platforms, gives a range of benefits and options, including

• A uniform development, test, piloting and launch environment and platform - one doesn't need to move code, databases, web-servers and other service delivery platforms from a closed, limited capacity dev environment to a more scalable test & pilot environment, and then onto a production set-up that supports the number of user and traffic that might come in at peak every month or whatever
• In other words, a cloud based dev, test and production environment for mobile services gives built-in load-balancing, scalability and capacity on demand that in-house platforms or IT-departments typically struggles with
• Most cloud platforms also has built in functionality for server side processing, off-loading clients or the apps form this, as well as caching and static content serving
• And most cloud service platforms has built-in security provisions, like DDoS-protection, firewalling as well as authentication services.

If one are using development platforms on Google App Engine or Mobile Backend Starter, MS Azure or Amazon AWS, one also typically get

• Access to industry-norm development environments like LAMP, RUBY or Node.js
• Authentication of users and services against the vendors shop, messaging or document store services
• Integration of log and analytics tools for mobile apps and services, for instance Google Analytics for Mobile
• Easier access to public app stores like Google Play

With smartphones and tablets now becoming the clients of choice for most users, there's a race on between the dominant and wanna-be cloud service providers to been seen as the most attractive platform for mobile developers, recently highlighted by the Google Mobile Backend Starter launch earlier on in October.  Here's a list of some cloud-based mobile development platforms and services:

1. Google Mobile Backend Starter
2. MS Windows Azure Mobile Services
3. Rackspace Mobile Stacks
4. Amazon AWS Mobile Development Center

Now, about the list of mobile "drag & drop" app development tools - new post coming up shortly!

Erik Jensen, 30.10.2013