Mobile platform fragmentation is a problem...but not at Appguppy

With a wide array of protocols, standards, and regional differences by country, mobile platform fragmentation poses a serious challenge to brands with a need for a mobile marketing strategy.  Platform fragmentation is also one of the major reasons that the mobile technology, HTML 5, is gaining steady buzz as a possible unifying solution. Here at Appguppy, we’re moving beyond HTML 5 to provide a software platform that truly enables you to create a mobile experience on any smartphone, through any OS. But just how big a problem is platform fragmentation and why do we think it’s such a big deal that we’ve gone head to head with this issue?     

Mobile platform fragmentation prohibits market penetration: Compatibility with the top three or four mainstream native platforms (iOS, Android, Symbian and BlackBerry) brings apps to barely more than 20% of devices sold. In stark contrast, compatibility with only two or three mainstream browsers reaches 80% of web users.  Platform choice can mean sacrificing the right customer demographic in order to save money.  And with limited engineering resources, that’s exactly what most companies are doing.  But we don’t think you should have to.  That’s why we’ve created a tool that can help you get your app to any smartphone, through any platform.  

App stores worsen platform complexity: Meanwhile, app stores worsen the platform conundrum: Each of the fifty-plus app stores available has its own developer sign-up, app submission process, artwork and paperwork requirements, app certification and approval criteria, revenue model options, payment terms, taxation and settlement terms.  All of these additional restrictions don’t just keep people from getting their apps into the stores, they keep people from monetizing the apps that they already have in stores.  At Appguppy, we solve this problem posed by stores by bypassing them to create a truly scalable solution to this problem.   

HTML5 is only part of the solution: While HTML5 is a technology that powers platforms to offer apps through browsers, it may solve only a small piece of the puzzle.  After all, different smartphones offer different levels of support for the implementation of HTML5.  At Appguppy, we’ve jumped way ahead of this issue by customizing our code to every single platform so that you don’t have to. 

One thing’s for sure, the mobile application market is on the verge of a disruptive change, fueled by the need for innovation that solves the problem of mobile platform fragmentation. And we’re proud to be pioneers on this front.

Why do businesses want mobile apps?

Here at Appguppy, our focus is always on the customer.  After all, that’s who inspired our hacker to code for hours and hours so that our frontend, custom mobile-app creation and dissemination tool would be available in just a couple of weeks, on September 15^th.  

So one of the things we’ve done at Appguppy is to take a really close look at what’s driving the demand for mobile apps among our customers.  

Current estimates indicate that combined spending on consumer and business mobile apps will top $13 billion worldwide by 2012, a nearly fivefold increase over 2009.  What we wanted to know is, why? 

Mobile app demand driver #1: There’s been an exponential rise in smartphone usage

The number of phone users in the US currently totals 236.6 million and will grow to 256.2 million by 2015.  Of these, the number of smartphone users just jumped by 10% to 82.2 million in the three months through July, according to a report by metrics company comScore Inc. released today.

Mobile app demand driver #2: Consumers use their smartphones to make purchases

According to Google's “Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users”  from April 2011, 74% of smartphone users have made a purchase as a result of using a smartphone.

Mobile app demand driver #3: Mobile apps drive purchasing on smartphones

Among US smartphone owners, 31% who reported completing a purchase as a result of mobile marketing, did so through usage of an app, according to a survey by Mobile Dependence Day conducted in June 2011.  The survey also found that two leading categories of mobile apps downloaded by smartphone users include shopping/retail and dining/restaurant apps.    

Woah, every 1 of out of 3 consumers uses an app to hear about, research and purchase something from a business?!  That’s a number that really got our attention. 

So there you have it:  Based on the behavioral patterns of consumers, mobile apps are getting businesses “made” and “paid.”    

On Inspiration

Great entrepreneurs are always trying to make a novel technology simple and available to everyone so that the public, not just an elite few, can make use of it.

Benjamin Franklin believed in public, rather than individual health, so he invented the flexible urinary catheter and offered it to everyone.

If you fast forward to the mobile era, you get to what’s inspired us, here at Appguppy:

That’s you!

We’re inspired by all of the small businesses, nonprofits and startups in Boston, rising up above the dust of the recession and trying to get the word out about a product or service that they believe in.

We’re inspired by that passion and commitment, whether it’s coming from a brick and mortar business in Jamaica Plain that sells specialty cupcakes or a lean startup founded by college students in Cambridge.

We recognize that you’re feeling the push to go mobile and create a mobile presence to connect with customers but you can’t! It’s too costly, too complicated or too confusing.  And we get that because our team is made up of people who are just like you, and have had experience getting a small business off the ground.

That’s why we’ve come up with Appguppy. We want to make it free and easy for all of you to embrace the latest technologies to grow and monetize your customer base by going mobile.


Cheers to Boston businesses!!!

-Appguppy