Positioned as we are in the midst of this application development phenomenon, we have what we consider, excellent perspective in to the industry’s evolution. As with any field being continuously redefined by innovations and new ideas, we’re really trying to pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. In fact, we’ve gone so far as to model our very business on what we think are the best approaches to mobile enterprise application management.

At the top of that list? The single-vendor vs. multiple-vendor dilemma.

What’s the best approach? Is it working with one trusted partner who gets within the very substance and structure of your application to ensure top performance? Or would you rather engage a series of mis-aligned, poorly communicating providers who may or may not be in tune when it comes to determining whether or not your code works?

It’s pretty obvious what our take on the situation is, but it’s worth some further explanation.

The trouble with multiple vendors is that incompatibility issues aren’t merely increased — they are compounded. Take the release of a new SDK, for example – a fairly common occurrence that can and should go smoothly. But we all know that sometimes that new SDK release is the culprit in an app crash. If the third party actions are what’s causing the application to crash, there’s a good chance you’re shutting them all down to roll back and determine what happened.

The big factor, really, is fear of the unknown. You’ve written your code. You want to know whether or not it works. Now, you fold in a third-party library without complete understanding, hoping that it will perform properly, praying it won’t use too much memory or clog your network.

Dial that fear up exponentially with every additional vendor. You’re creating a proverbial programming Frankenstein monster that may or may not raise up off the table. Sure, it may lumber around — but it might also smash the lab to pieces. Scary stuff, and precisely why you’ll find us firmly in the single-partner camp.

Share Your Tales of AppDev Terror
In the run-up to Halloween, we thought we’d invite everyone in the app dev community to sit around our virtual campfire and share a scary story or two.

We’ve heard a few blood curdling anecdotes about multiple-vendor situations gone mad. Tell us yours [keeping the culprits anonymous, of course] in the comments below.