Top app development companies interview: ScienceSoft - Follow up

After more than a year, we got back in touch with ScienceSoft, this time interviewing Boris Shyklo, CTO of the mobile app development company. Let’s learn more about the new app projects, the app developers and the advice he has for app owners or app startups.

Your last interview was published in 2016. What great apps has ScienceSoft been working on since then?

Probably one of the most successful mobile apps we’ve developed in the last 2 years is a native iOS/Android banking solution for Unibank, it was highly praised by Deloitte a few months after the app’s official release in spring 2016.

We have also implemented a HIPAA compliant Chiron app, a highly-reliable security tool with AES-encryption, a Smart Home controller, a car insurance claim app that lets you mark damage on 3D car models and a pet tracking wearable software.

Which mobile app has been the biggest development challenge for your mobile app development company?

We are always frustrated when our customers choose low-quality hardware to develop a solution for. In one of our latest projects, we didn’t manage to talk the customer out of cooperating with a third-party producer of mobile devices. Just as we feared, the devices we received were weak and low-performing, and we had to make up for the hardware limitations with software agility, so that the mobile app features wouldn’t be affected. That was quite a challenge. We love the final app, but we know that with more hardware investment from our customer’s side it could have been even better.

What do you think will be the biggest smartphone release this year?

It’s always a new iPhone, even if you are not an iPhone fan yourself. Since Apple continues to strive for minimization and convenience, iPhone X seems to be a logical outcome of their aspirations. Also, while 2D biometric security has been proved imperfect, the 3D facial scanner of iPhone X looks promising.

Besides smartphones, what mobile device do you think is worth having first?

A tablet. They turn out to be very convenient when working with complex enterprise mobile apps. You have more space on an 8”-10” screen and can easily interact even with the most feature-packed menu.

How has the mobile market evolved since our first interview?

Mobile-enabled Augmented Reality made a huge progress in the past two years. Until recently, developers needed a lot of time to calibrate environment/lighting understanding and eliminate all the related errors to develop an AR app. Such a project required enormous resources. Yet now, with ARCore and ARKit as a basis for Android and iOS, even small development teams will be able to create decent AR apps.

Mobile apps evolve too, their features change depending on the device used. What kind of app has a greater future ahead?

You can say that smartphone and tablet apps have their great future here and now. They are already at the peak of their success and will most likely stay at the top for years to go.

The concept of smart cars is of a big interest to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, while the IoT market has Google, Apple and Amazon as its 3 major players. Thanks to the big brands’ attention, mobile application development for these two domains may become quite a thing in the future. Still, I don’t see smart car or IoT apps becoming as popular as smartphone apps anytime soon.

With wearables, it’s more difficult: as this year’s MWC showed, even hardware vendors are somewhat reluctant to invest in wearable products, as those don’t catch on with people. Unless there is a surge in sales of wearable devices, wearable app development won't evolve much.

Is ScienceSoft adapting to new technologies and devices coming along?

We see a lot of potential in mobile image recognition and Augmented Reality. Currently, our mobile app developers are running tests and creating demos to get experience in the most complex parts of these technologies.

What advice would you give to anyone with an app idea who didn’t know how to get started?

It’s trite to say so, but if you aren’t in the mobile industry, find a good consultant. All the issues (especially those regarding mobile app features) have to be addressed at the very beginning of the development project, since even the smallest detail can have a drastic impact on the final product.

It’s impossible to read all the how-to and what’s-the-difference articles to make sense of everything and choose the best option: you always risk missing something vital. The key to successfully bringing you app idea to life is talking to a tuned-in mobile app development company. The best consultant will not try to make the decision for you, but will point out the most crucial issues, explain you everything in plain terms and let you choose.

How has AppFutura helped you?

Thanks to AppFutura, we found different mobile app development projects that peaked our interest. We’ve already sent out our proposals and are looking forward to the customers’ feedback. Besides, we sometimes have website visitors who come from AppFutura and request various types of mobile app development.

Go to ScienceSoft developer profile to get more information about them.

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