Malaysian app developers still lack market knowledge - True / false?

Referring to the article by The Star I feel this is something i feel strongly about and i must comment. To a very large extent i strongly agree with the statements brought forth. I do have my own opinions on some and i do not agree on all. For the most part Developers are developers and Marketeers are Marketeers. It rare to see someone walking both fields. But lets go thru the article one by one.

“We have enough talent but many don’t know how to match content and product to the needs and demands of the market,”

As someone who started developing apps relatively early in malaysia. i started on iOS4 over 3-4 years ago. While i do not want to say it was the earliest, malaysia only started to sell the iphone 3g half way thru its year cycle. My development cycle began during the iOS4 beta stage on which the iPhone 3gs was selling. I can say that the rookie mistake i made was thinking that the app market was designed for one men team to create, publish and monetize their app in a then telco dominated industry. I thought the app store was for developers, and i could not have been more wrong. An app even on the best of terms is a 3 man team. You will always need a developer, a designer and a marketeer. The reason why in my opinion so many apps fail is because they lack the second 2. Developers are always over defensive of their creations. make no mistake an indie app developer is much like an artist .. a song composer if you will. They try to put the best functionality into the app, rarely paying attention to the gui / ui/ux of the app.. and weather the package is marketable or not. And even if by chance they do get this combination right, marketing is a totally different story. Indie app developers by nature are not open to ideas. Especially when it means changing architecture to meet market demands

“We need to create platforms for local budding app developers to commercialise their content,”

I disagree on this partially. Trying to commerciallize garbage is an almost impossible battle. Commercial input as in any business is REQUIRED to be part of the app development process.The commercial input is what is lacking. The contents need to be worthy of being commerciallized. And being a content that is meant to be interacted with via a touch screen (mostly) design plays a huge role in this process.But the saddest part of all is that the big names of the industry , while being supportive "on paper" ..... they clearly lack giving support on commercial and creative input. What does the market expect to see?! And this is where it really starts to hurt. Check out these games. I put forth games because they trancend generations and are easily accepted by everyone given done correctly

DIGI CFC winner - CLASSIC NEW GAME / MY TRADISI

What is this supposed to be ? Congkak/ takraw / wau ... ok.. noted but the quality is embarrassing. Bare in mind this was a collaboration between Digi, Google , Microsoft and MDEC. 

PRESENTATION IS IMPORTANT!

Badminton: Maybank Malaysia Open

Ok... what is this sorry excuse of an app doing on the appstore? This was made by MAYBANK! In collaboration with MAXIS! One of the strongest banks in malaysia teams up with the strongest telco and comes out with the demon app from hell that can't even get its controls right! Its the equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie giving birth to Mini Me (Dr Evil's mini me!). Its an abomination and should not be the quality of these to gigantic companies. If 2 of the biggest companies in malaysia.... and a Telco at that, can 't get this right. How are they to set an example for the industry.

Digi : I will Yellow You

Ok.. this is just sad.... No wonder the DigiCfc  winners are so messed up.

With The leaders of the industry doing this? Who expects the indies to do any better ?

To achieve this, collaborations and joint effort between industry partners, telcos, government and platforms must be strategically in place

I believe the collaborations, platforms and efforts are in place. The executions however are miles below par. Even with names like Mdec,Google, Microsoft, Maybank, Digi and Maxis the quality lacks tremendously.Even Celcom have what they call "The League of Extraordinary Developers" . But i haven't seen them produce anything significant in ages. The name itself speaks only for developers. For all we know the creative input is also coming from the developers ( syok sendiri ideas that are non marketable) or from the heaps of unused / unmarketable ideas they stacked across the years

“MDeC is working to develop the capacity and building the ecosystem for local developers to enter the global apps market. In order to build content that can compete in the global market, we should build on our foundation and be strong in the domestic front first. So we provide training and expose local prospective app designers and developers to the ‘wow’ factor of apps, what makes an app compelling and what the local needs are. It is not all about technical knowledge,”

Who am I to say such things against such big corporations. But i know for a fact these collaborations and training have been going on for quite some time now. The market is evolving.

Do we have the development capabilities ? Yes!

Do we have the design capabilities ? Hell yes!! Life of Pi animations were done by a company of our own!!!

Do we have the marketing capabilities? I would like to believe we do. 

I think the synergy in bringing these 3 teams together is the what is lacking

But , in my final comment,  to induce a new level of WOW into an app i think the creative process needs an evolution. Contents, that is enjoyed by multiple layers of society should be deemed art. Thus one should not limit the creative process to those with a degree in any subjects. Apps are now enjoyed by even 1 year olds. If we trust a 12 year old to sing a song.. or to act on screen.... why can they not contribute to app development? I think the games and rules of engagement changed with the appstore. Perhaps we are going at this wrong.. Maybe we should replace the computer clubs at schools with app clubs and get them to contribute on ideas and developments?  Maybe we just might see something amazing :)