Mobile app development in South Africa

Why apps disappoint after launch

Getting an app onto a phone is the easy part. The hard parts come later: the back end that has to hold up once people actually use it, the store review that rejects a build the week you planned to launch, and the operating system update that breaks something nobody touched.

Most apps that disappoint were built screens first, with the data, the sign-in and the payments treated as details. We start from the other end. An app is only as good as the system behind it, so we design the two together.

And an app is never finished. Apple and Google change their rules and their operating systems every year, so an app needs someone who will keep it current, or it quietly stops working for the people who rely on it.

What we build

• Apps for iPhone and Android

  Apps that feel at home on each platform, open quickly, behave sensibly on a weak signal, and work for people who use their phones differently.

• The back end behind the app

  Accounts, sign-in, payments, notifications and the data the app depends on, built as carefully as any system we build. If you already run systems, the app works with them; if you have none yet, we build what it needs.

• Store releases, handled

  Store listings, signing, privacy declarations and the review process at Apple and Google, rejections included. The app is published under your own developer accounts, so it is yours; if you do not have them yet, we help you set them up.

• Apps for your customers and your staff

  A customer app that puts your service in someone's pocket, or a field app for the people doing the work: inspections, deliveries, claims, bookings. One back end can serve both, and your web systems too.

• From an idea to a first version

  If you are starting from an idea rather than an existing business, we help you decide what the first version has to do and what can wait, so you launch something people can use and learn from rather than everything at once.

Who it is for

Businesses that want an app their customers or staff will actually use, connected to the systems they already run. And founders and individuals with an idea they want built properly, who would rather work with the engineers writing the code than with a sales team.

If an app is not the right answer, we will say so. Sometimes a well-built mobile website does the job for less, and you will hear that in the first conversation.

How an engagement runs

1. 1

   Start with what the app is for

   A call with an engineer, or a First Pass if you would rather gauge it first. We want to know who will use the app, what they need to get done, and what it has to connect to.

2. 2

   Agree the first version

   A written view of what the first release needs, what can wait, and the parts we think are riskier than they look, including store rules that could shape the design.

3. 3

   Build, test on real phones, publish

   The people who scope the work are the people who write it. You try the app on your own phone through test releases as it takes shape, and then we take it through store review to launch.

4. 4

   Keep it current, or hand it over

   The code, the store listings, the accounts and the documentation are yours. Once it is live we can keep it current with each new version of iOS and Android, fix what users report and add what they ask for, or hand it to your own team.

Capabilities