For Small Businesses Caught By Apple’s Restriction On Templated Mobile Apps
If you’re a small business and you have your own mobile app, there’s a good chance you’ve used templated-app-services. They’re a set of tools that make it easy to create a customized mobile app that you could then make available to customers through the Apple App Store or Google Play. This all changed in December when Apple announced that starting January 1, 2018, they were banning apps made with these services from their store, resulting in many of the providers of these tools shutting down services and support, and in some cases completely closing up shop, leaving scores of small businesses holding the bag. The public outcry led to U.S. Congress threatening to step in, a move that saw Apple softening the wording on the restrictions imposed on the support for these apps. Good news, right? Until you read the fine print and realize not much has changed. If the content of your app could be done on a website, was marketing-oriented, or like others listed, your app would be rejected. Apple’s app store is no longer a practical option for many small businesses these days. One local business has an escape hatch from the clutch of app stores entirely. Five years ago InspireHUB Technologies Inc. set out to create a tool that made it easy for worthy causes to connect
and collaborate through mobile technologies. With an origin story in Africa serving project partners that had tiny budgets, low-tech tools and unreliable connectivity, COO and Cofounder, Karolyn Hart, lead a team of developers to meet what seemed like an impossible challenge. The solution? Skip traditional “native apps” completely and forge a trail with what was, at the time, a pioneering technology called “Progressive Web Apps,” also known as PWAs. PWAs work on all devices, from the most basic mobile phones to tablets and even laptop and desktop computers. They even work offline. At the time people told Hart she was crazy to lead with a Progressive Web App, but it’s that choice that leaves InspireHUB Technologies standing today as the provider of an app builder that’s not only immune to the Apple lock-down, but able to provide businesses and organizations with an easy way to create a hyper-personalized, branded mobile app at a fraction of the cost. The Progressive Web App technology has since been adopted by Twitter, Medium and The Washington Post, with the head of Google Chrome participating in the technical whitepaper Hart issues out into the industry. Hart’s prediction? “Look for this new
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FRONTLINES Local Firm Offers An Escape Hatch
technology to become ubiquitous not just with ‘apps’ but any digital presence.” She points to case studies and research that prove their success with early-adopters obtaining 2X the amount of engagement within 60 days and 5X the amount of engagement within six months. “PWAs offer stable, online, experiences, that are instantly accessible and don’t require users to jump through hoops to simply gain access content,” describes Hart. “That’s why the businesses using them get such high engagement.” American brand Patagonia made the jump to PWA in 2016 and retired their native app that same month. The cost-effectiveness combined with increased engagement is far too sticky for marketers to ignore. If you’re interested in learning more about the way that small businesses and worthy causes are using the Progressive Web App technology to create, curate and collaborate visit: InspireHub.com to see more information through videos, free webinars and blog posts.
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