Top app development companies interview: Applaud

Henrik Aavik is the CEO of Applaud. The mobile app development company was founded in 2013 by Andrei Korobeinik and himself.It is located in Tallin, Estonia. The mobile app development company 19 mobile app developers and IT professionals.

Henrik Aavik is the founder of several IT, web and mobile related companies. He has been active in the internet marketing (SEO, Adwords, RTB), e-commerce (board member of the Estonian E-commerce Association) and blockchain business (board member of Estonian Cryptocurrency Association). Henrik Aavik is a tech enthusiast and businessman.

Let’s see what Henrik has to say about Applaud and the mobile app development world.

What does Applaud do?

We are a small boutique-type development company. We have purposefully kept ourselves to an optimal size, to have a good working atmosphere in the office and also to provide what we believe is the best service to our clients. Evolution has wired humans to work in small hunter-gatherer bands and not huge herds of hundreds of people. At the same time we have enough specialists to cover every important skill and speciality. We keep the number of projects we run small enough so we can be agile and react quickly to any need.

What clients have you worked for?

We have done quite a lot of FinTech (Erply, Pocopay) and public sector (Estonian Public Broadcasting, Estonian E-voting app, Estonian Digital Signature app and Port of Tallinn). Other prominent clients include Telia and Wormapp.

If you had to choose one category, what kind of app do you think is your mobile app development company’s specialty?

FinTech, we have done payment apps, ERP apps and more.

What is the average budget of the mobile apps you develop?

€30,000.

Do you develop all mobile apps in-house or do you outsource some parts of the process?

We do everything in-house. This way we can control the process better and results are generally just a lot better. For example, we have testing and design in the same room, so communication is fast and efficient, and there is lots of synergy.

Which would you say are the best mobile apps that your company has developed and why?

Estonia is the first country in the world to hold legally binding general elections over the Internet, and we are very proud to have developed an app which allows people to check their vote via an independent third party channel to make the online voting process more transparent. Technically we are proud of Wormapp, which allows users to make cool slow motion video clips, Taxipal (Uber-like app made in 2010) and KV.EE Üürikad (apartment rental app popular in Estonia).

Do you prefer to build mobile apps with native, hybrid or web languages?

Native apps are obviously technically better. But hybrid apps have their business applications. They are cheaper to develop and for certain types of business models it really makes sense to go the hybrid way. Hybrid is also good for prototyping and testing app ideas, and quickly building and launching an MVP.

Let’s focus on iOS and Android mobile app development. Which are the Pros and Cons of each platform?

Android and iOS are both very good platforms, but the broader situation of having to deal with two different platforms has a few shortcomings.

Design guidelines in certain areas seem to be purposefully made to be just different from the competitor, and that is obviously not good for the clients. These artificial differences serve only as a behavioral lock-in for each OS. We would like to urge Google and Apple to do some cooperation and build the app-economy together.

Also the whole hybrid app hype is based on the assumption that it is impossible to convert apps from Swift to Kotlin, so businesses have to either pay for two apps or use a hybrid to get it a bit cheaper but lose on the UX. Why not cooperate a bit to make apps more easily convertible between platforms, supported by both Apple and Google?

The 30% cut on in-app payments is also way too expensive. If platform owners would only dial back the percentage (something like 5% would be sustainable in the long run), app economy would probably skyrocket and generate way more.

Which one will evolve more within the next 5 years?

Both of them are are well funded companies with talented people, they will probably evolve similarly.

Which device is the best in the market right now?

Real marketing does not depend on the device. A device is a device, people have one or another. I think we will see a shift away from the hardware and devices and onto making apps that are usable across all kinds of platforms and devices. ChatBots and marketing automation will also be big in the future.

And which device do you feel more comfortable developing an app for?

We have a long history doing both. Apple came first, so we have worked with it a bit longer. We have also worked with all kinds of hardware from smart mattresses and iBeacons to bluetooth-connected street lights and life vests.

Why is AppFutura useful to you?

We do not have a dedicated sales department and Appfutura helps us find clients so we can concentrate on what we do best: making kickass mobile apps.

Go to AppFutura's Applaud developer profile to get more information about them.

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