Mobile App vs Desktop application Development

The app development and release cycle for mobile (or tablet) and desktop applications differ vastly.

A desktop application is expected to be feature complete at the time of launch and may have undergone years of development (in the case of large applications like an Office Suite) before a major version is released. Only minor fixes for bug and security are expected till the next major release.Unless it is a major security related update, most of the time I ignore application updates for my desktop applications. This is because if there is no change in user experience or performance, it doesn’t seem work to go over the procedure of doing an update (A system restart for some applications if on Windows adds to this misery). I keep my graphics driver software up to date without seeing any significant performance improvements.

On the other hand, most users expect their mobile apps to get regular updates. It has sort of become a norm. This could be an addition of a new feature, improvement in user experience or a bug fix. Updating an app is seamless and there is little or no data loss and you can start using the updated app as soon as it is updated.

So while developing a mobile app, in my view, it is important to launch the first version with the most important and basic features that an app is concentrating. And add additional features upon each updates in short cycles. This would keep give the users a feeling that the app developer is constantly developing the app on improving the user experience. Most importantly this would keep the app fresh. If it stops evolving, users might get bored and may try out another app.

The advantages of this kind of release cycle are that the developers can get feedback from the users early and take into account feature suggestions or changes.

It should, however be noted that these views may not apply to all scenarios, there are exceptions. For e.g.: there is no scope or need for a short release cycles in the case of an app like Calculator.Desktop browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox have short release cycles, although there may be some minor change in a version.

To conclude, the approach for mobile app development is different from that followed for conventional software releases. This should be researched from a marketing as well as technical stand point before being finalized.