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Ask HN: Does Android-development-as-a-Service make sense to you?
My question: would it make sense to offer Android as a Service?
Startups/businesses often don't do Android apps, but your audience likely is on Android. So I'm exploring this idea of doing Android as a Service.
We would design + build + maintain your Android app, as a copy (but adjusted for Android) of your iOS app. The important bit is: it would be JUST AS GOOD, not a crappy Android copy but an Android app that feels Android-y and has a great UX.
Doing this as a subscription service (not a project-based consulting service) would (?) make it much cheaper for you. And it would also mean your Android app continues to get love and polish after launch, which is what you'd want. You'd sign up for ongoing development at a fixed monthly price, and you could cancel anytime.
I am looking for startups/businesses that have an iOS app but not an Android app and that think having a great Android app without tons of distractions, and at reasonable cost, could help them grow significantly.
I want to discuss this idea. It may well be dumb (feel free to criticize in the comments). I'm probably missing a bunch of things.
I wrote down some more detailed thoughts on a landing page here:
http://getandroid.co/
(you can leave your email there too if you're interested in seeing how this turns out)
- petervandijck 12y agoClicky http://getandroid.co http://getandroid.co
- benologist 12y agoThis already exists in a fashion so it's not a terrible idea - http://www.apportable.com/ http://www.apportable.com/
- petervandijck 12y agoThanks, I did see them. That's more like a tool, ours would be more like an optimized service.
- benologist 12y agoYes, they're just looking at the dev side not the actual upkeep I think.
- on_and_off 12y agoIt looks like what many agencies are already doing (for both Android and iOS), so it is definitely a viable business model. I know some startups that already have agencies working on their mobile apps (either Android, iOS or both). After some time though, they all want to develop their apps in-house.
- petervandijck 12y agoSo is it more like an option initially? What size startups are they/what type of product do they offer? One other thought I had was that Saas-type startups could use a service creating mobile apps, which they can then later move in-house.
- djb_hackernews 12y agoThat is usually accomplished through project based consulting with a maintenance clause in the contract. Nothing too out of the ordinary. You are on track as it is more lucrative to create apps for others than it is to try to sell your own apps on the app stores.
- jefflinwood 12y agoI've done this type of work before (porting Android to iOS, and porting iOS to Android), and it doesn't strike me as great for a subscription service - instead, just advertising that you are Android porting experts would probably be sufficient, if that's the market you want. I'm not sure what the difference is between paying your company $5k/month for a year, for this Android-app-as-a-service, vs just paying your company $5k/month for consulting services (and maybe locking that in as a minimum spend). On your end, you could end up losing a lot of money by not estimating the porting costs correctly, and quoting too low a rate. Personally, I find that straight-up porting projects aren't very interesting (as a software developer), so I tend to take on projects where the client needs both iOS and Android apps developed from scratch.
- petervandijck 12y agoThanks, wise words.