The Cost of Offshore App Development

You have it. Your Million Dollar Idea. Feels great, doesn’t it? Now all you have to do is develop your app, bring it to market, then decide on which yacht you’ll purchase for that long-neglected trip to the French Riviera. Because you’ve earned it. Well, almost.

Startup Culture

We see a lot of startup enthusiasm here at Appstem. Mostly because we work with talented startups that all have that million-dollar-idea gleam in their eyes. Also because we are app developers in San Francisco, and well, that’s just San Francisco for you.

These startups have a choice. Develop their apps here, in the good old US-of-A. Or they can take their business overseas, what we in the app development industry refer to as “offshoring.”

Offshore Investment

We love offshoring, at least for essentials like chocolate, coffee, and Nutella. But for apps? No way, Jose. The benefits of offshoring? Easy. It’s cheaper. The old bottom line. We appreciate that. “Cost effective.”

Anything else?

Anybody?

Bueller? Bueller?

Not really.

The first casualty of war is innocence. The first casualty of offshoring is communication. Good luck juggling time zones and Skype accounts and conference calls trying to nail down that daily meeting all the way on the other side of the world. It’s possible, sure, but a hell of a lot more difficult when you also take into account language and cultural differences.

Those cultural differences also matter when you are discussing design concepts, sometimes abstract. What passes for aesthetically awesome there quite often is not what we are looking for stateside. And when it’s finally time to go to market and you need all hands on deck for any day-zero bugs, well, best of luck to you.

Intellectual Property Loss

Probably the most egregious issue we see is intellectual property loss. It sounds bad because it is. Yup, despite that non-disclosure agreement your offshore development house signed, some disgruntled (underpaid) employee swipes your app code he was debugging and offers it up to your competitors. It happens. The bottom line bites back. And sorry about that NDA. They are of little use in prosecuting these crimes in countries like China or India. In fact, India doesn’t even have a law against theft of trade secrets.

Even if your idea isn’t auctioned off to an underground Chinese software house, the lack of oversight and secure access to code and materials is enough to raise our eyebrows. In the end, offshore development raises a number of red flags. Your Million Dollar Idea deserves better.

To learn more about mobile app development contact Appstem today.