CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
4.4 P HASE 1 AND P HASE 2 OF THE STUDY
In light of the recent propagation of mobile technologies, a study was conducted to explore the landscape for mobile applications development in the Western Cape, SA.
4.4.1 What are the key constructs of the mobile application development landscape?
Table 4.2 represents a summary of the key constructs of the mobile application development landscape emanating from Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the study:
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Table 4.2:A summary of the key constructs of the mobile application development landscape
Phase 1 – Academics Interview Phase 2 – Industry Interview
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the national e-Skills Institute (Department of Communications) has established the Western Cape CoLab. They established the CodeJam 2013 initiative which strives to provide young
entrepreneurs with the necessary technical, innovative and entrepreneurial skills to develop mobile apps.
Four of the seven of the businesses had previously been involved with mobile application development projects. Three of these businesses developed their apps specifically for clients and with the intention to generate revenue from them. Two of these
businesses were unable to generate income from their apps after having successfully completing them. Commercialisation is a major challenge.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) and Samsung Electronics entered into a partnership to develop innovative mobile phone applications in response to unique needs in Africa. The project is called the UCT Samsung Mobile Innovation Laboratory (SMILe) and aims to increase mobile innovation and skills development. This project extends beyond UCT's Information Systems Department and the Computer Science Department and includes local government agencies like the Cape IT incubator and the Bandwidth Barn.
Their largest budgets ranged between R200 000 and R700 000 and the number of completed mobile application development projects was as low as two, with the highest 22.
All of the businesses designed cross-platform apps and believed that it did not make business sense to design platform-specific apps as it restricted the commercial viability if designed specifically for Android, IOS or BlackBerry.
The Computer Science Division at Stellenbosch University (SU) has established a partnership with the South African cell phone company Vodacom.
The partnership strives to generate an
understanding of mobile application development and to motivate South African students to join the drive in developing applications with South African content for the Vodacom App Store. This is a co- curricular programme and is not part of the formal curriculum of software development at SU.
The majority of their clientele were commercial entities and one business had mobile phone users between 12 and 40 years of age as clients.
Commercial entities were prepared to pay between R40 000 and R80 000 for search tool apps, sport apps and travel apps. Productivity apps and calculate/utilities apps are more costly and ranged between R100 000 and R1 000,000, depending on their functionality.
The Kujali Project of Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) uses mobile technologies as a channel to provide innovation to those in under- resourced communities in rural areas of SA. Its aim is to provide creative and innovative IT-based solutions to facilitate basic educational information and access to quality healthcare services. It has created mobile applications on a wide range of mobile devices. This is a co-curricular programme and is not part of the formal curriculum of software development at CPUT.
Technologies used in app development include:
CSS HTML5 Java
jQuery Mobile Oracle Apex 4.2 PhoneGap PHP Xamarin™
The majority of these businesses outsource one or other function of their mobile applications
development project to other entities. Typical outsourced functions include design of the app.
4.4.2 Key themes and questions resulting from Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the study pertaining to the SMEs in the innovation sector:
Key themes and questions relating to the way in which SMEs in this sector conduct their business manifested from Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the study.
The first theme was Business Model. This theme emerges from the fact that two of these businesses were unable to generate income from their apps after having successfully completing them. Emanating from this theme were two questions,
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namely, what business model would work best for the SME, and what are the
possible benefits of collaboration within established networks for the SME as opposed to individual efforts from the entrepreneur?
The second theme was Business Opportunity. This theme emerges from the fact that three of these businesses developed their apps specifically for clients and with the intention to generate revenue from them. Key to this theme were questions like: How can one explain the status quo of the opportunities in mobile application
development? What does the fact that the SME requires the development agency to promote opportunity mean? Why do many entrepreneurs struggle to convert their idea/innovation into tangible profit? Why would one consider mobile application development to be a good opportunity to pursue?
The third theme was Technology Platform. This theme emerges from the fact that all of the businesses designed cross-platform apps and believed that it did not make business sense to design platform-specific apps as it restricted the commercial viability if designed specifically for Android, IOS or BlackBerry. Key to this were questions like: What technology can enable the creation of products and processes to support present or future development? What are the critical performance
underpinnings?
The fourth theme was Market Trends. This theme emerges from the fact that two of these businesses were unable to generate income from their apps, suggesting that commercialisation appears to be a major challenge. The following questions
emerged: Are there any best practices which can be learned from? What are the key issues to be addressed? How can the mobile application development SME ensure more success and avoid failure? What are the characteristics of people required to catalyse this mobile application development sector?
The fifth theme was Product Expertise. This theme emerges from the fact that The majority of these businesses outsource one or other function of their mobile
applications development project to other entities. Typical outsourced functions
include design of the app. Key to this were the questions: What technology skills need to be on hand to make the mobile application development business a success?
What will it take to bring about the necessary changes indicated?
The final theme was Service Expertise. This theme emerges from the fact that even though the businesses developed their apps, commercialisation appears to be a
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major challenge. Relating to this theme were: What particular aspects of capacity building does the mobile application development SME require? SMEs appear to have been established based on the business owners’ deep technical understanding of their product and associated technologies.