Apple Says App Store Ad Changes Won’t Hurt Small Developers
iPhone app developers have been voicing concerns about Apple’s new App Store app-install advertising proposal, after an email to developers announcing the beta program went out to the development community. According to Apple, Search Ads will be similar to Google Adwords in that users will place bids on relevant keywords in order to appear at […]
Facebook Promotes fbStart at Global Entrepreneurship Summit
President Obama and Mark Zuckerburg shared the stage at last week’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit to draw attention to tech and small business in the American economy. While the thrust of the talk was aimed at increasing support and diversity among startups and mobile app developers, Zuckerburg used the stage time to promote a little-known but […]
Twilio Defies Brexit to Blaze Trail for Tech IPOs
Communication software startup Twilio’s decision to launch their IPO the day before Brexit was one of the more mysterious financial moves in tech this quarter. Depending on your perspective, it was either brilliant or deranged — particularly given the pressure on the company to perform after last season’s disappointing crop of tech IPOs. On the […]
Brexit Vote Sends Shockwaves Through Startup Community
The United Kingdom’s Brexit vote in favor of leaving the European Union (EU) has sent shockwaves through the business world, and tech is no exception. Surging stock prices only 24 hours before the historic vote saw Wall Street place their bets against the UK’s departure, making Friday’s 52:48 near-tie all the more bitter a pill […]
Apple App Store Tops $50 Billion in Developer Revenue
Apple recently announced that developer payouts on their app platform passed the $50 billion mark, with a record-setting 2 million apps live and 130 billion downloads. The announcement comes at an interesting time in the mobile revolution as the advancing popularity of app alternatives like voice, bots, and integrated assistants begins to chip away some […]
Siri Is Finally Bridging the Gap Between Mobile and Desktop
When Apple bought Siri back in 2010, few San Francisco iPhone app developers believed it would become quite so central to the mobile experience. That success on mobile has made Mac devotees eager to use the personal assistant on other apple devices and platforms — yet it’s been years without an apparent move to jump […]
Facebook Embraces SMS, but Chat Apps Are Still the Future
Facebook recently turned heads among Android app developers with the rollout of SMS support in Facebook Messenger, a development that flies directly in the face of the companies pushback against what the social media titan considers an “outdated technology.” The feature has been testing since early this spring and the feature — which allows users […]
4 Lessons Startups Can Learn from Small Businesses
According to CB Insights, only 1.28% of startups become unicorns. Does that make the other 98.72% failures? Hardly. In startup culture — and even more so in venture capital culture — there’s a tendency to overlook the value of thinking small. While it’s true that a business model that can’t scale to a billion dollar business […]
4 Ways to Guarantee Your Startup Doesn’t Get Funded
Venture capital firms, angel investors, and iPhone app development companies all have one big factor in common: they hear dozens of new startup ideas every single day. The mobile industry is only growing in 2016, and with that growth comes a rush of smart young technologists and entrepreneurs with big dreams. More often than not, […]
Stop Calling Them Bots: The Micro-app Revolution Is Coming
“Bots. UI-free apps. SMS services.” Technologists are calling them something new every week. Here’s the bottom line for mobile app developers: the revolution will not be televised — but it might send you a timely, helpful chat message. This isn’t a bad thing for Chicago iPhone app developers. It will, however, require development companies to […]