Small Screen Software is a small business focused on creating mobile application software for the Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. It was started in 2009, producing titles for the Android platform. A good way to describe Small Screen Software is, perhaps, what it is NOT. It is not a large, corporate enterprise in a skyscraper with cubicles, cutting-edge workstations, and rows of developers slaving away. It has zero funding from venture capitalists and is currently operated as a sole proprietorship. Small Screen Software is also not merely a hobbyist's operation, although it did start that way. This operation is seeking to bring unique and/or innovative titles to the mobile marketplace. This matters because the Android Market, especially, is loaded with apps from hobbyist or beginner programmers, and it shows in the primitive user interfaces some titles present. One goal Small Screen Software has is to bring a comfortable user experience to mobile computing - in everything from a title's first presentation to the user, to screen layouts, use of color and graphics, and placement of help. Small Screen Software's developer Charles Tatum II has over 20 years of experience developing application programs not just on mobile devices, but also on desktop/laptop systems, and larger mainframe systems. The developer, being a frequent user of software, though, also understands what it's like to sit in the user's chair, and gets what delights and frustrates. This extensive insight is carried into each title from Small Screen. The Small Screen Software logo features a stylized smartphone with three stars on the screen. Those three stars symbolize the goals Small Screen products seek to attain - simplicity, style, and value. Checkbook Genius, Small Screen's signature app, has delivered on these goals to the satisfaction of thousands of users.
Why Paid Software Is Often Better Than Free Software The mobile software field is more competitive than ever. With hundreds of thousands of titles, users have plenty of choices in a lot of cases - but not all. Some users adamantly refuse to spend any money on any software titles, with a variety of rationales including light use or being strapped financially. The problem with such rationales is that such users provide zero incentives to quality developers - such as at Small Screen Software - to continue their development efforts. App development is not like typing a text message, or bringing up a page in a web browser. It's a complicated, time-consuming process than can be likened to doing thousands of algebra problems - over and over - for weeks or even months at a time. Most people's fear and/or loathing of math and science would prevent them from even considering taking up app development as a hobby, much less attempting to create a viable business from it. A summary of what happens in the creation of an app for Android, iOS, or Windows Phone is:
As you can imagine, this is not the sort of thing that can be accomplished in 30 to 60 minutes. (How many of your heads are spinning?) It's challenging enough work for an experienced technical professional, much less someone who's new at it. While it's satisfying for developers to see 5-star ratings from users over and over again, such high ratings can't be cashed in and used elsewhere. A developer can't take a rating of 5 stars to the gas station and fill his tank, nor go out to eat or join his buddies at a coffeehouse. Mobile apps are, by their nature, a huge bargain! For less than 5 dollars, any individual can buy the developer's expertise, weeks or months of development time, and sheer dedication. It can be thought of as a tip of sorts, but the cost of an app is much more than that. It's an investment that allows a developer to continue working to bring you the apps you've come to expect - such apps don't just appear out of thin air. Consider this example: an app that requires 5 hours of time a week for three months results in a total of 60 hours. Even if those 60 hours were billed at our nation's current minimum wage, $7.25 as of July 2011, the total would be $435.00! Most technical professionals make far more than that in their daily jobs - think figures of $30 an hour or more. Tech work is hard - for those who hate math or science. Believe it - mobile apps costing $5 or a less are a huge bargain! There are many users who are of the opinion that "everything should be free". This flies right in the face of the old expression, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Anyone with a smartphone probably has a job and does some kind of work for pay (including to pay the monthly cellular bill!). It is very highly unlikely that many of you with jobs would do whatever your bosses ask of you five days a week for FREE. You go to work to earn a paycheck - to get money to do whatever it is that gives you pleasure. Mobile app developers like the one at Small Screen Software are no different - they, too, like to get paid for their work. The small amounts paid for apps - and they do add up! - provide the psychological "fuel" to make improvements to existing apps possible, to create new apps and, of course, to help users solve issues by e-mail as technical support. (Besides, who in the world would want to work for a bunch of spoiled freeloaders who want your time, help and expertise for nothing?) It is another goal of Small Screen Software to create titles that are seen as a good value for users. Checkbook Genius, for example, at $3.95, is less than the cost of a fast-food value meal, a pack of cigarettes, or two gallons of gas. Yet it will last as long as you have your mobile device. So remember that when you buy a title from Small Screen Software, you're paying for something well designed, attractive (and even stylish in many cases), and relatively simple to use. You're paying for convenience - not to have to do the math or other processing of information yourself. In other words, you're paying for quality. And that's often not something you'll typically get with a free app.
|
