On February 7-8th, 2013, approximately 5,500 mobile developers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, innovators and investors converged upon San Francisco’s Moscone Center for the Apps World North America 2013 conference.
Apps World 2013 - Discover the future of multi-platform apps
Organized by Sixdegrees Events, the conference brought together nearly all the players of the mobile industry to learn, network, and collaborate. There were multiple zones where developers and marketeers could listen to speakers and panels from various hardware and software companies. Sessions were broken up into zones including:
- Developer Zone
- Droid World
- Technical Briefing
- Enterprise Zone
- Gaming Apps
- Mobile Marketing & Advertising
- Mobile Payments & NFC
Each zone had open stages where attendees could listen, ask questions, or move on to a specific vendor of choice. There was a good balance between phone and tablet manufacturers and various software vendors. Backend-As-A-Service hosting as well as multi-platform toolkits and frameworks were represented.
Attendees could attend speed networking sessions, listen to expert panels, lounge on colorful bean bags, play with the latest tablets/phones, get a photo with the giant green Android droid, or cruise the booths for swag and attempt to win the latest iPad Mini or Nexus tablets offered by nearly every vendor.
Presentations included iOS Xcode improvements, to Microsoft technologies, to Android, to Barnes & Noble Nook and multi-platform frameworks from nearly every major provider including Adobe Cordova, HP Enyo, Corona Labs, and many more.
The Business of App Development
One of the key messages being discussed for both consumer and enterprise apps is the challenge in multi-platform applications. What this means is the ability to deploy an app across all platforms such as iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, and others.
As an app developer or development company one of the key challenges is cost of development and traditionally one would need to program an app in different software languages such as Objective-C for native iOS and Java for native Android. Depending upon app complexity this could range from $10k to $100k or more.
Therefore there is an industry movement to look for tools to make multi-platform app development more cost effective in building an app once and running it across multiple tablets and phone manufacturers. However there are so many options, each with their own pros and cons. It is a fast moving industry as each technology framework and tablet provider has a slightly different offering which challenges developers.
Educators both at home and in schools require quality application choices. Educators require multi-platform apps to augment native Apple iOS apps with Android's Google Play, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Blackberry and Windows.
Ongoing technology decisions and market research will be instrumental in continuing these efforts. One of the key drivers of multi-platform apps is the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) practice applied to students using personally owned devices in education settings. Families have also been purchasing lower cost Kindles or Nooks for their children as eReaders which now can also run educational apps.
The goal is to enable equitable access. The social or economic status of a parent and/or teacher should not prevent them from being equipped to assess the learning process. The mobile industry is rapidly changing and innovative educational apps that support the Common Core State Standards are required across all forms of devices.
For more information on the next event in Europe:
Developer Conference & Exhibition: London, Oct. 22-23, 2013: Now in its 4th year, Apps World has grown to be one of the leading global multi-platform events in the mobile industry. This year’s Earls Court 2 event is set to be the biggest yet with over 250 exhibitors and over 8000+ attendees including developers, mobile marketers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, platform owners and industry professionals registered for two days of high level insight and discussion. With 10 targeted workshop tracks, speed meeting, one-to-one meetings, parties, and awards the event will be tackling a spectrum of issues across the app ecosystem.
Disclosure: The author of this article is the Chief Innovator and co-founder for iHomeEducator, Inc., developer of multi-platform educational apps. Slideshow Photos include their high school product manager who attended the conference with her father.
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