Software Testing Blog

I know… these two words aren’t seen very often in today’s world.

As a marketplace, uTest builds supply (testers) and demand (customers) for software testing services.  And since we have 15,000+ testing pros from 152 countries around the world, we usually have more than enough supply.  But as uTest grows, we do run into scenarios where demand grows faster than supply.

This is exactly what has happened in mobile during 2009.  In the past three months, dozens of companies have come to uTest to get their mobile apps tested.  And, while we have a lot of mobile testers around the globe, we need more.  So consider this a very public announcement that uTest has mobile app testing work available and we are actively looking for more testers to keep up with demand.

If you are a testing pro (or if you know someone who is) who wants to make some extra money for testing iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps, sign up as a tester today.  For our current crop of QA pros, update your profile to tell us which mobile devices you own.

In many cases, mobile testing offers bigger payout than web or desktop app testing.  For example, a recent Blackberry app release is paying a guaranteed $100 for a completed test script, plus $20 for each approved bug.  While payment varies by release, the point is a tester can make good money in just a few hours of heads-down testing.

Currently, our most urgent need for mobile testers is in Europe, but with the way demand has been growing, we are soliciting mobile testers in the US, Canada, South America and Australia as well.

If you know of QA pros or developers who are willing and able to test mobile apps, send them a link to this post.  Likewise, if you know of websites, message boards, forums or e-newsletters where uTest can advertise to find more mobile QA professionals, drop me a comment.

In the past few months, we’ve been providing QA services on a bunch of mobile apps.  As a result, we’ve had the good fortune of meeting some really cool, creative entrepreneurs and developers who are building top-shelf apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, G1 and others.

So I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for articles from leading mobile app entrepreneurs.  And while perusing Alley Insider, I came across an article from Dan Frommer.  Frommer highlights a fantastic first-hand account from mobile app veteran Craig Hockenberry, maker of iPhone hits such as Twitterrific and Frenzic.

Hockenberry’s 2,000 word piece is a must-read for aspiring iPhone app developers.  Frommer was kind enough to summarize it as follows:

- Learn how to develop Web pages for Mobile Safari so you know how to think about designing apps for a mobile device.
- Buy a Mac. You can’t make iPhone apps from a PC.
- Sign up for Apple’s developer program.
- Watch the “getting started” videos in the iPhone dev center.
- Goof around with some of the sample code on Apple’s site.
- Check out a few of the better iPhone coding books.
- Read up on a few of Craig’s old posts.
- Go for it!

In particular, Hockenberry mentions a few books iPhone app dev books:

If you’re just starting out, I’d highly recommend Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche. The best thing about this book is the step-by-step approach it takes to working with Xcode, Objective-C and the iPhone APIs. They’ll lead you through the basics and you’ll be building your own apps in no time at all.

As you get more comfortable with the tools and AppKit/UIKit frameworks, I’d recommend you take a look at Erica Sadun’s iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK. This book presumes a bit more knowledge about the SDK, but is a very handy reference both to the official and unofficial APIs.

Since you’re going to be working with Cocoa Touch on the iPhone, you’ll also want to start thinking like a Cocoa programmer. Every great iPhone and Mac developer has nothing but wonderful things to say about Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass.

If you have previous development experience with C, C++ or Java, you’ll want to read this mailing list post by Erik Buck that enumerates some of the difficulties that you’ll have coming up to speed with Objective-C and Cocoa.

As we come across more of these practical, hands-on resources, we’ll share them here.  If you know of other helpful articles or posts, please send them our way.  For you future mobile mavens, I hope some of these resources are helpful.

Interested in building an iPhone App?  If so, there’s a must-read article over at Mashable.  In their words:

Ten23 Software has created an entire 37 page guide to the development process (below), decisions they made and what they learned during the creation of their PhotoKast app. Their hope is that the document might provide insights for other developers when they start out on iPhone App development projects.

Have experience building mobile apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android or other mobile platforms?  If so, drop us a note and share your experience and tips.

For all of you mobile app developers who dream of creating the next hot iPhone, Blackberry or G1 application, a key question to ponder is this:  once you’ve conceived, developed, tested and launched your killer app, how long will it remain killer?

Well, TechCrunch highlights the answer from a recent Pinch Media presentation, and it’s not the cheeriest news for mobile app developers.  It turns out that, for free apps, less than 20% of users return to an app even one day after downloading it.  And by day 30, less than 5% of users are still utilizing the app. And for paid apps, the drop-off is even slightly steeper.  Grim.

The moral of the TechCrunch story is this:

It answers the eternal question that all iPhone developers have: Should my app be free or should I charge for it? For all but the most successful apps, the free route does not make much sense because there is not enough time to recoup the costs of developing the app from advertising.

Free apps tend to be run 6.6 times more often than paid apps, but even with that increased usage, it is not enough to make more money.

Yardley estimates that less than 5 percent of all apps would make more money right now with advertising than charging for paid downloads. His advice: “Unless there is something inherent about the app that screams free, sell it.”

I completely agree with Yardley’s math and logic, but I think there’s another important lesson to be learned here.  He addresses the issue of maximizing revenue, but ignores cost containment as a means to profitability.  Said differently, another powerful driver of profitablity is the cost and speed in bringing your mobile application to market.

By finding ways to develop, test and launch mobile apps more quickly and for less money, developers extend the money-making window, enable themselves to launch more apps per year, and decrease their break-even levels.

What do you think — what’s the secret to profitability for the creators of iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps?  Drop a comment and drop some knowledge on us.