Monday 24 April 2017

Aspects that drive startups towards iPhone App Development

Nowadays, the mobile applications have become a key marketing tool for business firms especially the startups that usually lookout for a wide range of audience by deploying an effective tool. However, with such a host of mobile operating systems available in the market, it becomes a bit confusing which OS will be the best to invest in. Moreover, the budget constraints also play a major role in the selection process. 

Well, this is the reason most of the start-ups consider investing in a single platform that brings them great results with limited investments. The iPhone App Development has become quite popular in the market. It's important for your business setup to have a detailed overview of the advantages of both these platforms so that you don't have to face any confusing situation during the later stages of app development.





Both the Android and iOS are the two major mobile operating system. Each one of them comes with a unique set of features and functionalities, because of which they stand apart in this sector. However, with the greater scope of revenue generation & usability, iOS enjoys more advantages over Android. 
Safety

The modern, mobile apps need a high-level of security. Apps used for the purpose of online shopping, payments, or any other service which requires the exchange of confidential information via the servers, needs to be secure. While considering this fact, iOS-based apps offer an extended functionality to users. The app approval process of App Store is quite strict and they restrict the apps which have malicious content. Apple pays great attention to safeguard the user information, regardless the size or type of devices they use. Compared to the Android, the Apple devices are safe. 

Compatibility


At present, Android is powering a range of smartphones and tablets. However, the iOS devices are always in sync with each other. Thus, in turn, it helps the app developers & business owners to lay more focus on the development instead of figuring out the compatibility with the different devices. Furthermore, Apple controls the iOS software ecosystem and is solely responsible for all the changes in it. Since they manufacture all the products by themselves, therefore, they enjoy an integrated control over its software updates and features. On the other hand, Android has made efforts to upgrade its functionalities, add huge storage space and increase processor speed which, will allow businesses to develop feature-packed applications.

Greater Specification on App Development

Building iOS apps offer a greater scope to app developers to work precisely across the range of devices manufactured by the Apple. On the contrary, the Android hosts more than 10 brands which offer devices based on different processing speeds, screen sizes, camera options etc. Experts often suggest customers develop an iPhone app and iterate it as per the updates for obtaining proper user feedback.

Summing Up


Although the Android allows you to get in touch with a broader audience, iOS user-group is more loyal & engaged. Thus, being a start-up, your primary goal is to showcase brands on the forefront which will help you pump out more revenues. 

Monday 17 April 2017

How mobile apps have enhanced the growth of quick serving restaurants?

Mobiles apps have proven to be the driver of growth for several industries. But the one sector which has been benefitted the most are the quick serving restaurants. The value of a QSR depends on the products they offer. In many cases, the food is light & portable, so it becomes easy to draw in more traffic, and with the quick delivery system, the wastage is also reduced. Well, the modern technology has helped these QSR's grow in stature. 

The QSR's have two different segments of customers. In this article, you will read about the different customers and how a mobile app is helping these restaurants grow.



The Impulse Driven Segment of Customers 

This is the first segment of customers who prefer eating out especially at the quick serving places. By opting for Mobile App Development the owners can quickly place their order, get food delivered and they can have a quick bite of some light food. These people are mostly impulsed driven and thus are likely to be frequent customers for several brands. You cannot consider them as a loyal customer until you provide them with some rewards or benefits on their purchase. 

With the help of a mobile app, you can reach out to your customers and can pitch them in a proper manner. You provide them with personalised offers like rewards, loyalty points, discounts etc. Apart from that, you can also put some aggressive marketing campaigns based on the customer's buying behaviour. You can also place a store locator functionality will surely help the customers to locate their favourite QSR store and will also boost your sales. 

With a mobile app in place, you can learn and understand the purchasing behaviour of the customers and it will also give you great insights about the app-based sales. Things such as billing volumes, top-selling food items, the frequency of repetitive orders from a specific customer, add-on topping etc. All this data can be vital for business growth. 

The Regular Young Working Customers


The corporate orders are rare to come and are considered lucky for the QSR. To convert these young people into regular/loyal meal eaters for the retail stores, a mobile app will be the best option. Thanks to the affordable app development services, you can quickly revitalise the sales. By adding offers such as group discounts, special offers for famous institutions, colleges, universities, companies, BPO employees etc. 

Well, the group discounts have always been the traffic building measure, so try to motivate your users to make group order so that they can secure a good discount. With a good amount of bulk orders coming every week, your business can quickly make hefty profits and can cover all the costs invested in app development. Try to target students or employees living away from their families. 

Once these potential customers have been accustomed to placing an order via the smartphones using the app, they will be assured of the fact that they will get warm and fresh meal just a click away.

Monday 10 April 2017

A security guide for the Android App Development process

The Android is a Google-powered mobile operating system which is based on the Linux open-source tech. No doubt, that Android OS has changed the whole mobile world. The recent statistics reveal that the sale of Android devices is much higher than iOS and so is the demand for Android apps. As the consequence, the app market is flooded with app developers who have an expertise in building superb apps. 

No matter how huge the demand is, accomplishing the same process is not simple as it sounds. The best thing about Android App Development is that the SDK (Software Development Kit) is available for free and getting your app published on Google Play is also hassle-free. As there are a wide array of Android devices available in the market and distinct flavours of OS versions, the app security has become a major concern for the developers.



Given below are some security features which you can implement to ensure the safeness of your Android app. 

Be cautious what data app stores in the device: While developing an app you need to draw out some parameters like what data would be cached, logged as well as what else will be stored in the structured data. Common vulnerabilities include unsafe storage of user credentials and sometimes even passwords within the structured data or system cache. 

Always Use Encrypted Communication: When it comes to communicating with the backend application server its recommended to opt for the encrypted format. The use of certificate pinning is a very good example of enhanced security and is considered as the best practices while developing an app. 

Don't trust any user input in a web app- As with the Apps, all user input should be treated as un-trusted and same should be done with Android apps as well. Various issues involving Cross-side scripting (XSS), SQL, JSON/XML and OS Command Injections, need to be handled by both the client and backend app server. It will be good if you avoid using classes with known faults in the code. 
Avoid storing any sensitive data: Make sure avoid storing any sort of sensitive information on your Android devices, especially during the run time. Doing this will surely discourage the hackers and prevent them from tampering your app. The idea behind this is the data processing, which can be deleted as soon as the requirement ends. 

Go through Perplexity:
It is essential that your app must face an obfuscation process. This should be done to encrypt the key which has been used for the encryption. A good approach would be to avoid downloading the key from the server, especially during the run time. 

Avoid Unnecessary Permissions: Asking for excessive permissions should always be avoided in the Android apps. Only ask for the urgent ones. It should be strict “No” to use permissions that try to give access to personal information. 

Summing Up

This is a discussion on the potential security tips for Android development. Remember that it's essential to merge an effective and efficient app development life cycle which contains multiple app protection layers. It will be good if you draw a strict security checklist. This can help you pre-identify vulnerabilities present within your Android app.

Friday 7 April 2017

Latest trends surfacing in iPhone app development market

Every day a new technology or tool is launched in the mobile sphere and it's essential to keep pace with all these innovations so that your app can reach more users. Well, there's no doubt in that the iOS apps offer high quality features and functionalities because of which Apple devices have been able to capture a large share in the mobile sector. In this article, you will be reading about some trends that will surface in 2017 and will continue to grow in the coming years.
Given below are the seven trends that will become a part of the mobile marketplace:





1– Swift Coding


Scripting is the essential part of the iPhone app development process. Recently, Apple introduced Swift code which made the app coding a lot more simple and stress-free. Thanks to Swift, iOS apps will now be developed in less time. Moreover, the advent of Swift has also made the iOS development quite flexible. Soon Apple's WatchOS and tvOS will also be based on Swift code. 

2 – Security

As the eCommerce is now turning to mobile sphere, the security concerns of online merchants are rising. Security has always been a major issue in apps. The mCommerce sector is expanding at a rapid pace and millions of people are nowadays using mobile devices to shop online. So developers are adding several security steps in the app which offers a secure shopping experience to users. Moreover, the latest iOS version 10.2 has some improved security features to protect the information of its customers. 

3 – IoT and Wearables


In the year 2016, Apple launched the Apple Watch 2 which was one of the most successful wearable techs. All you need to do is to connect it with your iPhone or iPad and you will receive all the notifications on your watch and you can reply to the text, read emails, take phone calls and can do much more. 
After the great success of wearable techs, app developers are now trying to remodel their apps so that they can function on a smartwatch as well. It is predicted that the number of IoT apps will triple this year. 

4 – Free Apps

Earlier Apple's App Store had several paid apps because of which it was failed to grab the attention of users. But soon they started offering apps for free and today App Store has the top position in the market. To gain access to these free apps, all you need is an Apple ID through which you can log in and download the desired apps on your iPhone,iPad or iPod Touch. Just like the premium apps, the free apps on the App Store also offer high-quality features and functionalities. 

5 – Integrated Cloud 

These Cloud services came into existence in the year 2015 and within two years, it has gained a huge popularity in the app market. The best thing about Cloud Storage is that it allows users to access their data anytime and anywhere. This trend has enabled users to take advantage of apps in a healthy manner. Nowadays, several apps with the Cloud Storage or Backup options.  

Summing Up

In this article, you will come across some innovative trends that will surely revolutionise the iOS development company market. 

Tuesday 4 April 2017

Some key trends to consider while creating a mobile app

The mobile applications are considered as the invention of the century. In the last couple of years, mobile apps have shown an amazing growth. From the top-notch technologies such as mCommerce, Beacon, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things to highly-proficient gadgets like Apple Watch, Google Glass etc these apps are playing a major role in enhancing the connectivity and communication. 

Thanks to the advent of smartphones and tablets, the Mobile App Development has become so much popular that, at present, there are over 5 million apps in the market. This can certainly lead to the fierce competition in the mobile market, especially in the application marketplace. Every app developer is quite keen to gain knowledge of the latest market trends so that he can come up with an innovative app for the users. 

To stay ahead in this game, you need to keep a tab on some development trends. Given below are some upcoming trends which might help you in increasing your app's success rate.


Application Security

The app security has always been a major concern for the application developers and it's essential you shouldn't overlook this fact. In the last few years, there have been several app breaches which lead to the large jeopardization of user's private data. In fact, there is only handful of the app which passes the basic app security test. A single loophole in your app can risk the entire data present on the mobile device. So make sure you handle the security details of your app in a proper manner.  

Augmenting Beacon and Other Location-Based Services

In a very less time, the beacon technology has gained a lot of momentum. This tech has enabled websites and mobile apps to quickly fetch the user's location and share highly personalised ads and messages to attract and interact with potential customers. Nowadays, not only beacon but various other location-based WiFi services have also become popular among the users and business enterprises. It is expected that it will help drive billion of dollars in retail by 2017. 

Making Digital Mobile Payment

While counting the app development trends, you cannot leave behind the digital mobile payments. Samsung Pay, Google Wallet and Apple Pay are already in the market. These techs have changed the way people used to make payments. These services are already popular and will surely become more popular in the coming years. This trend shows the growth of safer and simpler mobile payments and this is certainly expected to continue in the future. 

Smart Wearables 

There's no doubt, that Wearable Tech has defined the new dimension to the mobile technology. With the rising popularity of wearables, it is predicted that they will be performing more useful functions rather than just tracking our fitness and health. Apart from that, fashion brands such as Fossil, Gucci and Michael Kors have come up with their own smartwatches and are reaping benefits from this growing trend. 

Summing Up

If you wish your app to reach out to millions of users, then it is important that you must keep a track of latest and upcoming app development trends surfacing in the market.  

Monday 3 April 2017

Various tailor-made services for Android-based enterprise apps

In recent years, the usage of Android-based apps has just skyrocketed. At present, there are over 5 million apps in the mobile sector and it is predicted that every year this number will increase by 25 percent. The rising use of apps has also increased the sales of smartphones and tablets. Brands such as Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Sony and Xiaomi are leading manufacturers of Android powered devices.

The primary reason Android App Development became so much popular is because the Android OS is an open-source tech which makes the development process affordable, successful and innovative. Thanks to the insane popularity of the Android app, there's a huge and open marketplace for the developers where they can publish their apps without any issue. Another good thing about building apps for Android OS is that there are very fewer restrictions compared to iPhone development. Moreover, you can build the Android apps on Linux, Windows and Mac.


The companies which are offering Android development services are quite in demand these days and there's a huge need for different app types in the mobile world. Several app developers prefer Android OS because it allows them to create an app without investing much. The Google Play which is the official app store for Android consists of over 3 million apps. Apart from that, the new generation Android phones come pre-loaded with pretty amazing features which make the app usage hassle-free. 

The Android powered mobile devices are shipped with some default software such as Gmail, SMS, Google Chrome and Contacts. The stock version of Android comes with “Developer Option” which allow users to edit the backend codes of the operating system. Moreover, the developers can also reuse the existing API's to create a new framework. This re-usage saves both time and money. 

Apart from general usage, the Android apps are also playing a crucial role in the enterprise world. With the help of these apps, the businesses can quickly reach out to their personnel who are facing any sort of difficulty in the field and can provide them with effective solutions in real-time. Along with that companies can also maintain their inventory and can keep a tab on the daily sales. Earlier, firms have to manually input all the data in their ERP database, which consumed both time and money.

To improve the business-customer relationship, developers created apps which come pre-integrated with ERP solutions, so that the there is an information sync between the sales personnel in the field and with the backend database. This enabled companies to offer quick updates to their customers & employees. At present, there are several offshore app development agencies which are known for developing mobile apps for enterprises. Here's that list of popular android app development services:

Custom app development
Mobile Business Software development
Third-party libraries implementation
Security-based mobile solutions
QA and testing apps
Communication apps and much more 

Summing Up

In this article, you will read about how Android apps are helping enterprises in their day to day functioning. Along with that, you will also come across the list of popular app development services.