5 Tools for building free mobile apps

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Christopher Gerber, Associate Digital Editor
February 15, 2012
Filed under Chris Gerber

With the rate at which smartphone adoption has been growing (as many as 700,000 new phone activations a day for Android and 6 million on Christmas Day alone), there is a strong incentive for companies to jump into the mobile Web app marketplace and target its users.
But the costs associated with mobile app development can pose a barrier to making the move. Depending on the complexity of the app you require, the costs can be staggering, with a price tag anywhere between $10,000 to $100,000 or more with a 6-8 weeks development window.
Luckily, several companies have come out with great alternative solutions to this problem. Companies like MyAppBuilder.com and AppMakr by Socialize produce free (or cheap) native Android and iPhone applications that are built by you.
Most of these solutions require just a little bit of HTML knowledge as well as some design skills and Internet savvy to develop an app that has a lot of the features found in other traditionally developed apps.
Nothing comes completely free, of course. Many of these companies make their money by ads placed in the mobile apps. In exchange for being allowed to place ads in your app, you can use their software to create and customize your app to fit the needs of your business. Others charge a small amount each month to build the app but require no upfront costs.
There are a few hidden fees as well for Apple iPhone apps — submission into the iOS App Store requires you to join the Apple Developer’s Network, which runs $99 a year. With the developer login, you have access to all of Apple’s developer forums, which are run by Apple certified developers and employees, who will provide help answering questions for building the apps, as well as help with any questions or bugs that can come up along the way.
The Android Marketplace is free to publish in and the Android Developers Network is just as extensive as Apple’s, with as many people available to answer any kind of technical question you can come up with.
Each app store has its benefits and fallbacks, so it may be worth looking into what kind of functions you would like out of your app and what your customers are using.
For a tight budget, paying a smaller amount upfront to test the smartphone waters can be a smart move, especially for smaller companies and dealers in the marine industry. So without further ado, below are five tools for building “free” apps:
Appmakr –
Appmakr, a browser-based platform, allows you to build iPhone apps quickly directly from their webapp. With Appmakr, you can add live content streams that update directly inside of the app, pulling content directly from your blog and uploading it into the iPhone app for your readers.
Appmakr also offers the option for a paid, ad-free model, where you can choose to pay a fee of $79 per month per app and have ads removed from the iPhone app, as well as other advanced features.
Appbreeder -
AppBreeder provides a business with access to the iOS, Android and BlackBerry app stores with its “Build Once. Publish Everywhere.” motto. Users can build an app inside of the AppBreeder application that can be deployed across any marketplace or even available as a webapp on your company’s website.
Like a few of the other models below, AppBreeder charges a monthly fee ($29.99) to maintain and update your app.
AppGeyser -
AppGeyser provides Android apps built by you, using content generated from your company’s mobile website (if you have one). Because it is built using your website, it may not fit the needs of some companies, especially if they’re looking to add additional features and information in the Web app that isn’t found on the mobile website.
But for companies looking for a simple solution, it provides an alternative to the more complicated or feature-packed options.
Mobile Roadie -
Mobile Roadie offers a very robust suite of features, with the ability to share music, videos, photos, and calendars inside of the app. The app will also automatically connect with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook once the user logs in, allowing for easy communication between the application and social networks.
Mobile Roadie is a bit more expensive though, charging users a $499 set up fee as well as a $29 per month recurring charge. It also limits the app to 1,000 installs, charging up to $1,200 a year for unlimited downloads (otherwise it’s $0.01 per download each month to stay at the monthly price).
MyAppBuilder.com -
MyAppBuilder.com provides users with a way into both the Android and iPhone platforms for $29.99 a month and nothing up front for your first two apps. For this, MyAppBuilder.com will compile the data you send them, put it in the format that you want, and then submit it to each app store for approval.
If users want to create more than the two free apps that MyAppBuilder.com allows, it’s a nominal $59 a month.
With any of these options, users are allowed to set the price of their app, or make it free, and some of the paid options even allow for companies to sell ads inside their apps or put in another company’s advertising to monetize the app further.

Advertising / Publishing / Affiliate Solutions Research

Sunday, February 19, 2012