Why Business Sectors Consider IOS 7 A Strong Alternative to Succeed

Creating a well designed mobile app can make a company feel like it is chasing its tail due to the complexities involved in creating a great user experience and through maintenance.  This invites a careful planning and execution of a well-defined mobile application development strategy that can lead to significant gains in key business drivers.

Apple has announced iOS 7.0.3 a few days back which has rapidly become an effective alternative for enterprises across the globe than just a simple application development. Why because, it brings a whole host of features such as easy mobile device management, central control and additional security- quite suitable for the existing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment within the enterprise sector.In addition to, here are the four important reasons why enterprises are using this upgrade from Apple? Let’s go.

1.       Security

With BYOD concept booming these days, employees should be assured complete security over their own personal mobile devices within an organization. This reacts in scenarios of the device lost or theft.

IOS 7 offers the Activation Lock feature which makes it impossible for the hackers to steal the data stored within the mobile device.

2.       File sharing

The AirDrop functionality of iOS7 will let the users to share their files smoothly and remotely, extensively used in the social sharing.

3.       Enterprise App Management

This latest upgrade from Apple brings some important features for the IT departments to manage employees’ usage of corporate data and to keep track of their employee’s activities.

The new VPN (Virtual Private Network) enables IT departments to dynamically configure apps for employees so as to connect to its own private network while restricting the access to the users’ personal apps.

4.       Totally FREE iWork Suite

The main purpose of creating this application is to compete with the Microsoft’s free Office Suite without any cost in all the latest iPhones running iOS 7.

Needless to say, these elements lay as the basic foundation for how companies build and grow their mobile footprint.

The Challenges & Opportunities in Developing a Mobile App, 2014

With the increasing number of smart phones and tablets evolution, there is a significant change to the form factor of software solutions. The future looks both bright and positive while demanding more ‘n’ more innovative and sophisticated mobile apps and it seems like the mobile developers are taking advantage of this lucrative opportunity.

Challenges

1.       User Experience

One of the major challenges with mobile application development is user experience. While many app developers treat mobile devices as just another screen, realizing that user interactions and behaviours are vastly different. This makes for an unintuitive and cumbersome experience for users resulting in low adoption and usage of the application.

2.       Development Technology (Native, Hybrid and Web)

Considering the varying capabilities of all the devices and building an app that works well for all of them: one question to consider is, “Should your app be native or hybrid to single platform or whether it should be a web app that runs on all the devices?

This decision is based on the cost as the development budget can escalate if you choose to make your app run on all the devices.

3.       Personalization of Services & Devices

In general, the mobile developers have a presume time within which conversion must be done. This could happen with a quick sign-up process with Facebook or GPS- but still they are not able to turn the potential visitor into an actual customer. The problem is they fail to provide further utilization that can lure the visitor to pay.

Opportunities

1.       Sustainable Advertising

Sustainable advertising help you in generating more revenue which is why app development companies are more focussed on social media, advertising and ecommerce benefits through their apps.

2.       Development of Niche Apps

Developing business apps cater to improvising the efficiency of business and increase the profitability in short period of time, but then this is not applicable for game app development.

All the above mentioned points will surely let you know about the challenges and opportunities involved in the mobile application development world.

Enterprise mobility to Enhance Your Business Reach

Be it any kind of work and personal tasks- from email and schedules to file management and to-do lists, all the tools are conveniently located right in the app store. Enterprise apps allow workers full accessibility to real time data wherever and whenever they need it.

Let’s have a detailed look at how enterprise mobility has become the name of the game.

The Growing New Trend of Implementing Mobile Apps

Employees nowadays are demanding greater connectivity and the flexibility to work from different locations which has influenced many organizations to adapt to enterprise mobility strategy: Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies or allowing employees to select from the already available choose-your-own-device (CYOD) options.

Say for instance, hospitals, clinics usually prefer electronic medical records (EMRs) to store and track medical and clinical data. Meanwhile, the retailers depend on mobile apps that help manage their inventory and logistics more effectively. In such a case, mobility serves both customers and employees in a faster phase which result in strengthening customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Another example is mobile apps for Restaurants: These are a few benefits that follows

ü  GPS directions feature to connect and engage with customers faster

ü  Enable online food ordering system, table bookings etc.

ü  Facilitate push notifications to the customer regarding special discounts, offers on food.

ü  Offer  various loyalty programs through the app

ü  Notify the kitchen staff once the customer is seated, helping to take orders faster

ü  Take door orders at one click

ü  Enable to share favourite food with friends and relatives through the social media share option.

These are a few... there are plenty of them out there.

Why Hybrid?

With the right mix of features, performance and platform support at an affordable cost warns organisations to decide between whether to build a native, web and hybrid app.

The recent explosion in tablet and smartphone sales and growth of BYOD encourage providing mobile apps for staff and customers that run across multiple platforms. This is one reason cross app development flourished. A custom app can help reduce the hassles of organising while facilitating sales, and engage more customers thereby providing the best user-experience.

3 BIG Mistakes Guaranteed To kill your iPhone App Sales

Nowadays, we get to see a lot of developers spending hundreds of hours even thousands to develop a beautiful app, getting it in the store but completely ignoring to follow any marketing strategy. Unfortunately, even the best designed iPhone apps do not sell well because of such missteps.

If you would want to save hours of frustration while taking the shortcut to boosting your app sales, here are the top three mistakes you need to avoid when selling iPhone apps.

Ignoring Various Marketing Tactic

There are many free marketing tactics to promote your app that you should not ignore. A few include: starting a Twitter account for your iPhone app; creating a blog site using a free tool such as WordPress; a free press release using a service like prMac. But this isn’t. These are just a few freeways and a plenty of paid marketing is available out there. Take some time to research app marketing ideas that can save you time and money while increasing your sales.

Saying No to a Free Version

Sometimes to get visitors download your app even a free could be a tough job. Among 100,000 other apps, you need to convince your customer it is worth their time to hit “download”. It gets even tougher when trying to sell a paid app.

In the App Store, a user has to make a decision is a few screenshots, your description, and maybe some reviews. Get them hooked with a scaled-down version and encourage them to upgrade, occasionally.

Failing To Describe in Brief

Yes, it’s all in the app store. But how do your developers present it before the visitors’ matters. They won’t wait to read the complete description and that’s why the first sentence plays the Hero. It is one of the first things that people will see about your app and get to click “More”.

Say exactly what makes your app unique and how it will help your customers.

Perfection must be your main goal and this needs an app development company with experienced developers who will understand your needs. Your ideal business app is just a call away.

How Cross Platform Mobile Apps Help You Brand Your Company

There are times when mobile were doubted to be a tool set to retail businesses and other associated firms. But studies say, on average Americans spend 410 minutes shopping on their mobiles, around 12 per cent of their total time and with tablets showing up, it has increased by 18 % in 2013 alone.

So, this is it! Your business can expand by creating a mobile app for customers to download from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Img Source - squaremelons.com

Plays Great in Marketing

June 2014 report says that there were approximately 1.2 million users in both the Apple Store and its Android counterpart, with around 30,000 quality apps launched every month. Means, if you develop one using hybrid app development, not only it ensures promoting your brand across platforms but offers a secure presence across them all.

Sticks to Consistency

Since a single code runs on all platforms, the look and feel of the app remains constant, no matter for operating system or version being used thus hampering user experience.

Cost Effective

Yes, you need to some extra amount to getting your app in the store. If deployed effectively, the same apps can improve business processes, reduce costs and generate valuable business intelligence and analytics.  s the application matures, it is easier to manger releases and is cheaper to develop new features and bug fixes.

Absolute Greater Reach

With Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android competing for top positions worldwide, developing an application that runs on both gives you the added advantage of tapping into greater market potential.

There are definitive benefits of going with a cross platform tools like Appcelerator, Phone Gap but finding the right one is an exercise in optimizing for application’s functionality and user experience, the cost of tool and the cost of development and long term maintenance.

5 Point Check-List for a Successful Enterprise Mobile App

Enterprises have begun to realize that enabling mobile applications can bring in great degree to drive greater productivity. With this aspect coming into play, building a Mobile solution and maintaining it would take a fraction of the overall investment.

Here are some of the crucial aspects you need to consider while developing Enterprise Mobile Applications.

Gathering In-Depth Business Insights

Understanding complete details can help you overlook on certain factors 

·         how functions are executed currently within a department,

·         where exactly lies the bottleneck,

·         how mobile can bridge the gap and

·         how does the mobile application help users to get their jobs done efficiently

Any negligence here might affect the operations in the long run leading to reduction in productivity and effectiveness of the mobile project.

Measuring Business Process & Development

Along with its detailed layout one can come up with a wireframe design of the Mobile application that allows the team to visualize how the Application would look like. Feedback-Refinement cycle can be carried out at multiple stages to ensure the application is built on user-centric design process. 

Choose App Testing

Obviously, one cannot check the app for every possible scenario. However, polishing the app to make it work smoothly, ironing out the bugs & fixing them in different browser versions, devices or operational systems are a huge task. At the same time performance is critical. Therefore, testing using right tool is a crucial aspect before the App is set for its first release.

Phased-Wise Approach

The simplest way to build a mobile app solution is to do it in stages. Trying to implement everything in one-go might lead to a lot of disruption and delays. At the same time, a staged approach also means a smart way to manage the expectations of business teams.

Appropriate Network Connectivity

One of the major concerns influencing the success or failure of an Enterprise Mobile strategy is network connectivity. Various metrics to consider includes: network connectivity options, connection speeds, reliability, throughput and quality of service so that anybody can access any time, from anywhere be it in office, factory or on the road.

Why Enterprise Mobile App Fail and 5 Simple Steps to Fix It

The demand from business units in enterprises puts increasing pressure on IT organisations to deliver large numbers of mobile applications. Thanks to the consumer app wave that makes or scheduling, note taking, to do list,  file sharing, document viewing and editing, surveys, photos and more- simpler and faster.

Besides, 90% of businesses have already launched corporate apps by 2014 and the result is:

·         Increased Productive Employees

·         Enhanced Service Quality And Customer Engagement

·         Improved Content Distribution And Standardization

·         Eliminate Bundles Of Paper Works

·         Replace Of Legacy Hardware

·         Use Real-Time Data And Enhanced Business Intelligence

Unfortunately, this is not the norm as about 52% of enterprise apps fail to meet expectations. And let’s see why?

Why Do So Many Mobile Enterprise Apps Fail?

No defined Scope and Design: The requirements tend to be based on an existing business process

Starting-Off Huge: Surprisingly, some consider that developers normally complain the budgets are too small forgetting how long and complex is the project.

Lacking User Experience: Compared with other apps, most enterprise apps look terrible and therefore employees cannot and don’t want to use them.

Insufficient User Involvement: The internal customers don’t get involved until the final delivery when it’s too late for user testing or feedback.

5 Steps to Fixing a Failed App

1.       Evaluate how employees and the organisation as a whole use mobile technology today for work

2.       Benchmark competitors and companies to learn and be inspired from others success

3.       User Experience is the backbone. Successful enterprise apps are those that allow users to perform actions in the professional realm

4.       Choose the right development team which means the hired app developers must have a good track record of delivering beautiful and easy to use solution
Set targets and create a business case so as to measure the results, productivity increase and expected return of investment.

The Top 5 Attributes a Consumer Wants in Their Business App

The early days of enterprise mobile app development was simply focused on creating a functional experience in a short duration leaving "quality" behind for another day. But things have changed NOW. The app market has emerged to be highly competitive which is why creating an app that stands out requires a lot of attention to performance. 

Here are main five of the attributes your consumers will want from an app.

Functionality

Performance is a key pillar of quality that mobile shops often overlook in their race to market. 60% of developers don’t make functionality a top priority when creating their apps, which is an absolute insane. Depended on the operating system, whether iOS or Android, you'll want to ensure that its functionality is comparable.

Great User Interfaces

Second most important factor to create successful apps is assuring a clean UI in which buttons and other elements are each to touch. While these devices are still relatively new, there are a number of experts who can help developers create interfaces that will work well on mobile devices.

Attractive Design

Mobile device users love designs that look great!
Since the screen size is limited on Smartphone’s, and even tablets are smaller than typical laptops, minimal amount of elements of the screen is preferable. Graphical elements that serve functional purpose are best suit; some 3-D elements might be able to improve your app's appearance.

Interactivity

Users have a preference for apps that let them share information anytime, anywhere. For instance, it can make apps a bit more fun to use meanwhile increasing the time users load your app. Interactivity as in like letting them share an online high-score table for games can make them more fun to play.

Cloud Accessibility

These days, buying both smart phones and tablets, and sharing information between devices has been notoriously difficult. Howbeit, users are demanding that their information be available on all of their devices. With the help of a large platform like Google, Twitter or Facebook, it is easy to secure user information, added there are a number of cloud providers too if you don't want to create your own data server.


Mobile competition shows no signs of slowing and that’s why companies like Openwave computing LLC, NYC keep offering a number of great resources. Following some simple guidelines can help them take advantage to create great apps than engage users and generate revenue. 

How Lucrative is the Enterprise Mobile App Opportunity?

The scope of mobility has soared beyond expectations and businesses are back to square one trying to cope up with the shift. The rise to enterprise mobility 2.0 and businesses are looking beyond informational apps and games better platforms and the pervasiveness of mobility.

A recent study found that 16% of developers who are targeting enterprises are twice as likely to be earning over $5k per app per month. Broadly speaking,

Here is the Few Take-Away from the Survey

·         Building enterprise apps on the Apple iOS operating systems pays significantly more. Apple AAPL +0.28%’s iOS operating system is adopted by 98% of Fortune 500 companies earning over $25k per app per month compared to their Android counterparts.

·         Only 8% of the global developer community is occupied by the Enterprise IT developer segment. Even then they are the most lucrative to build applications for Product Extenders (8%), Digital Content Publishers (4%) and Gold Seekers (4%). Together, they represent 35% of global revenues and 25% of developers.

·         Majority of mobile app developers are focused on games with the most successful being able to quickly develop market and sell them across multiple channels including app stores.

Based on the report, it is clear that mobility has the potential to tap your target market and offer the best brand experience to your customers. However, with the right mobile solution reaching out to the market at the right time is the key to survive in this cut throat market. This way you can easily end up facing competition even in releasing your mobile app and not just with your products and services in the market. A sound enterprise mobile strategy is not enough but requires an effective mobile project management mechanism too.


Is your organization equipped to embrace enterprise mobility? Would you hire an app development partner? Now this is the First Step!

5 Quick Tips to Make an Android App Faster Smoother and More Responsive

We live in a generation where advertisers for applications need to work harder than ever to engage target consumers. Based on which, here are some tips on how to make your Android app faster, smoother and more responsive.

Make Your Android App Faster, Smoother and More Responsive

A smoothly operable interface is a major success factor for apps. While deftly concealing the limits of the technology, making the program responsive to the user is one of the major disciplines. Let’s see what all the factors that affects the speed and performance of an Android app.

·         With the amount of devices and quantity of versions releasing, Android fragmentation really has to be done- not the Android file system.

·         Loading your home screens with live wallpaper and widgets can really slow down your Android, especially an older device. Whereas, in case of having a newer Android mobile device, it is not the widgets but animated wallpaper that lags and mar the battery life despite being quite appealing.

·         Basically, Android does a stellar job in the process management which means there is no use of many task killer applications. You should definitely uninstall any uncooperative applications.

·         The responsiveness of an app plays a vital role. Given that there are tons of photo-shooting apps with a few effects and upload functions out there, why people choose popular apps like Instagram?

·         Android mobile device users who are still using an older version like Gingerbread can install a new browser to see an increase in performance.

Owing to which, the basic trick lies in optimizing the collaboration between development and design and that requires hiring a professional expert in app development. Do you need an Android app build for your business? Openwave Computing LLC offers many types of services in Android Application development that includes Business Applications, Navigation, Social Networking, Lifestyle and Entertainment apps, Multimedia, Education / Learning apps, GPS based applications, Utility Applications, Web Search.