Can apps offer a solution to our urban woes?

These really are the best of times for urban residents, who can tap an app on their smartphones to get almost anything they want, and at bargain prices.

The latest addition to my app collection is one called edaixi, an on-demand laundry service that my wife found a couple of months ago.

We hit the app to summon a deliveryman to our door, stuff our dirty clothes into a large edaixi bag until it almost bursts at the seams, all for 99 yuan.

The company claims its bag can contain as many as 33 shirts, or 3 yuan apiece. It also offers coupons or free washes on certain occasions. Clothes are returned within 72 hours by deliverymen recruited from neighborhoods.

The survival of any tech startup hinges on high volume and demand, which forces many to do everything they can to make a return.

So luckily for us, early marketing strategies often focus on giving subsidies to customers.

I have also stored apps for food, travel, golf and other services that cater to both my needs and my wants. I check them out now and then to see if they are carrying any new offers of discounts or cash rebates, and I delete those that do not.

But edaixi is not just another Chinese clone that simply emulates Uber to connect customers with service providers.

For any tech startup to take off, it also needs its own branding, customers and experience, and edaixi fits the bill perfectly, as a mobile extension of a traditional Chinese laundry chain that started up in 1990.

Launched on Thanksgiving Day in 2013, it already claims to have nearly a 90-percent market share in the online-to-offline laundry industry, with 50,000-100,000 orders per day from 5 million customers.

It still has to continue to use part of its recent blockbuster funding of $100 million from investors led by search engine giant Baidu Inc, however, to subsidize its customers.

In the race to lure returning buyers with cash incentives, most other app startups that have popped up in the past few years are faring far worse as they try to gain a niche in an on-demand business crowded with clones.

In a tell-tale sign of a domestic tech bubble that could be about to lose steam, many apps have already reduced or stopped subsidizing their offerings, leading to an exodus of users.

I do wonder, sometimes, if using an app is really better than a brick-and-mortar restaurant or laundry, if you take away their price discount.

When possible, we would probably all opt to dine in our favorite eatery, rather than simply order and eat at home or in the office.

Despite edaixi's meteoric rise, we have also heard stories of customers complaining about poor quality control, as the company outsources to many different laundries.

We've had experience of this, too, when my wife's clothes were damaged during cleaning, and no one could tell us why, or where.

This company and other Uber clones have focused on customers who just want simple, cheap alternatives rather than discerning customers who expect personal, specialized care.

Ironically, while edaixi's managers scratch their heads about how to get more clients to use their more profitable dry cleaning services, they are already thinking about providing home services like cooking and elderly care, and transforming its deliverymen into an army of neighborhood "e-housekeepers".

But I also wonder how many in their target low-end market will be as wild about hitting an app for an unknown "e-housekeeper" to arrive, to cook in their home, or take care of their loved ones.