Backend as a Service Blog infographics

In order to make designing for your target platforms easier, we made a cheat sheet for both iOS and Android Human Interface Guidelines (HIGs). It gives a high level summary of the User Interface, how to support multiple screen sizes, icon sizes, and touch gestures so that you don’t have to dig through the books to find them every time you need them. It also allows you to see the subtle differences between the platforms.

Just six months ago, the backend as a service (or BaaS) category was small and relatively unknown in the general tech community. Now, though not quite a household term, BaaS is gaining recognition thanks to lift in media / analyst coverage and a surge in new companies entering the space. Today we’re pleased to share the third version of our BaaS Ecosystem Map, complete with new entrances and new data points.

How long does it take to build an iOS or Android app? About 18 weeks according to this infographic from Kinvey.

Tuesday morning, before taxiing down the runway (the first time), my United Airlines flight ran a short video promoting a glorious future where dynamic mobile applications would let passengers book and change travel plans on the run. Two hours later, this vision blurred when the 757 returned to the gate in Boston, canceled the flight, and regurgitated several hundred people into the terminal. A single desk attendant stood nervously behind the desk, as the line snaked through the hall. Former passengers were using their mobile devices to tell people their plans had changed, but did not appear to be using UA’s existing mobile app to book new ones.

I am still asked this question from time to time: “What in heaven’s name is Backend as a Service?” Good question! First, some history ->

The phrase Backend as a Service came about because when I talked to mobile developers about how they wanted to setup and operate backends for their mobile apps to host data, run business logic, etc., they didn’t directly want to use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings like Amazon EC2, RackSpace Cloud and Windows Azure – that was too hard, and most of them didn’t want to deal with Linux prompts or virtual machine setup. At the same time, they didn’t want to get stuck with building a backend platform stack from scratch with Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings from Heroku, CloudFoundry and OpenShift. Mobile developers REALLY wanted all their backend features to be available out of the box, as a fully secure, scalable and managed service.

A now famous study by Localytics found that 26% of mobile apps studied last year were opened once, never opened again- and likely – deleted.  With over 400k apps in the Apple App Store, and over 200k in the Android Marketplace, its is becoming increasingly difficult for an app to cut through the clutter. The Localytics study clearly shows that total # of downloads is not the only accurate measure of an app’s success, especially if the app is free or freemium.  The best apps are used time and time again… and the best way to have your app not only be downloaded initially, but to be used frequently is for it to give the user a rich experience.  Connecting to social networks, providing location information, taking payments, showing the user custom info- tailored for them all greatly increase the chance that the app won’t become one of the dreaded “throwaway apps.”   – but to do all of the things to make an app rich, you need a backend.

We all know that if you don’t ask a girl for her number then your chances of getting it (or her) are 0.  Still politicians are determined to act like the shy nerd in a John Hughes movie when it comes to contacting their app users. Just ask for my contact info already!!!  I would ask for your number, but it’s kinda public knowledge (politicians are so easy).

The vast majority of political apps do not ask for user’s contact information and, as a voter, this feels like a slap in the face.  It says that the app is purely one-way and informational instead of interactive and that’s the line of thinking that makes political mobile apps so horrible.