Many software developers are now recognising the growing market mobile devices offer to them and they are keen to leverage the potential profits available to them. Historically, those who have developed solutions for desktops have stuck with that model and it has worked for them. However, with so many Cloud services available they see the chance to build mobile apps that can synchronise with desktop software to create a seamless experience for the user.
Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to make mobile apps that look and feel like desktop solutions and there is always a danger that the expectations of potential purchasers could be too high. These expectations are often unreasonable because they expect mobile apps to work the same way as desktop apps and this is almost impossible to achieve. So developers have found a new way.
Most mobile add-ons to desktop solutions are built as ‘add-ons’ and to simply let you carry your desktop data with you. This works for many people and makes perfect sense, but can still lead to disappointment if the user is expecting too much from the mobile app. The fact is that cut-down solutions work best on mobile devices and if they can let you read your data, amend it and synchronise the changes with the desktop counterpart, that should mean success for the developer.
It is important to remember that these are not the same app, they are complimentary and designed to work together. They are not designed to compete with each other.