Monthly Archives: January 2014

iOS 7: Have You Noticed These Features?

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Using an iOS 7 device, without being familiar with all the key features and properties of the interface, would be a bit of a shame. Read through the following, and enjoy using the all-new mobile interface from Apple to the fullest.

 

According to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc., iOS 7 had been downloaded on nearly 65% of all the iOS devices present worldwide, within a month of its release. This statistic clearly underlines the eagerness with which iPhone and iPad users had been looking forward to the new mobile user interface. Without going into the debate about whether iOS 7 has been able to really satisfy all user-expectations, we will only highlight some of its features and properties that you might have missed out on:

 

  1. Backward-swiping feature – No longer do you need to actually close every app or settings page manually. Once you’re done with downloading a song, sending a mail, or changing the phone settings – simply swipe on the screen backwards, and you will get back to the previous page. This one will help you save quite a bit of time.

  2. Camera Burst Mode – Hailed by experts from nearly every iPhone application development company in India, the Burst Mode for camera on iOS 7 is definitely one of the high points of the latter. When you press the camera shutter on the handset (along with one or both the audio buttons), the device will snap along at intervals of about half a second. More opportunities to capture that perfect frame!

  3. Calling from the Messages app – That’s right, on an iOS 7 device, you can directly call up a person – after reading a message from him/her (no need to go back to your phonebook). On the top right hand corner of the page, you will also get options to look up all the contact information about the sender, and can even invite him/her for a FaceTime chat.

  4. Better multitasking features – The multitasking properties of iOS have been revamped – something that has earned praise for Apple, from mobile application development companies in India and abroad. To swap between two or more applications, you only have to tap twice on the home screen, and then tap on the app you want to work with at present. The absence of a ‘Back’ button is still an issue, but multitasking on an iOS device is no longer as frustrating as it once was.

  5. Visibility of message timestamps – Need to find out exactly at what time someone had sent you a multimedia or a text message? Contrary to what it might appear at first, iOS 7 does not delete such time-related information – it only hides them from the default view. If you swipe left on the screen, the detailed timestamps of each of the messages will become visible.

  6. Blocking a contact – If you do not want to be bothered by prank calls, or an acquaintance – you can simply block that person’s number on your contact list. On devices powered by iOS7, you will find a ‘Block This Caller’ tab against every entry on the phonebook. Of course, you can unblock the number/person at any time too. Remember, when you block a number, you won’t get messages sent from it either.

  7. Control Center – With the recent upsurge in iPhone app development in India, the average number of applications installed on iOS devices is increasing too. The Control Center on iOS 7 makes it easy to manage all the installed/default mobile apps – from a centralized location. Apps that are not already open will be displayed as locked in the Control Center.

  8. A more ‘eager-to-learn’ Siri – Siri is back on iOS 7, and she is more eager than ever to respond correctly to all your commands. For instance, you can now teach her the correct pronunciation of the names of each of your contacts – so that voice dialing never becomes a problem. The only possible flipside? Siri will give you three options for every name, and if none of them is correct – well, tough luck!

  9. Automated app upgrades – Although not a particularly good news for the already-suspect battery life of iPhones, this iOS 7 feature has made getting the latest versions and releases of the mobile apps that you regularly use a lot easier. You only have to turn the ‘Automatic Downloads’ feature on, from your handset’s settings dashboard. However, if you are going for a long-distance road trip where there would be no facilities for charging your phone, it will be advisable to switch off this feature.

  10. Airdrop – iOS 7 makes the task of sharing stuff (documents, pictures, videos, practically everything) with others through iphones/ipads extremely easy. You have to set Airdrop on from the Control Center, put the things that you wish to share there, tap on the ‘Share’ button – and enter the number of the person(s) with whom the sharing has to be done. Airdrop for iOS ranks high on the security count too.

 

If you have plenty of iPhone apps with push-notification features installed, you will find the option to hide unnecessary notifications to be handy too (you need not go through each of them). The new down-swipe feature of Spotlight is also much more user-friendly than the need for side-swiping on the older versions of iOS. The Compass app (native in iOS 7) is yet another element of the interface that is useful. iOS 7 might still not be an absolutely ‘perfect’ interface, but it ain’t too far off the mark either!

 

Is An Android Handset Better Than An iPhone?

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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A comparative study of the Android and iOS mobile platforms throws up several interesting findings. We would here focus on certain points which make an Android handset seemingly more user-friendly than an iPhone.

 

From the very outset, let it be known that we are not judging the two mobile OS and application development platforms on the basis of quality or technological excellence. Both Android and iOS powered devices are enormously popular all round the globe – and, understandably, there is no glaring weakness in either of them. Even so, there are certain points which indicate that Android phones are at an advantage, compared to iPhone handsets. Readers would here be familiarized with some of these factors:

 

  1. Presence of widgets on home screen – Of course, iPhones also support a wide range of widgets, but they can be stored only on the lock screen of devices. On the other hand, all widgets can be placed on the home screen of Android handsets. The only thing you need to ensure is that the home screen does not become too cluttered with these widgets. Since the widgets are relatively more easily accessible on Android phones, their usability becomes higher too.

  2. Performance in the Cloud environment – iPhone app development in India has improved greatly, but it still has a long way to go – to come close to matching the speed and reliability of internet-enabled services on Android phones. Right from the Gmail app and general Google search applications, to the web calendar functions – Android comes up trumps on practically all counts. iPhones, however, are still bogged down by the lousy Apple Maps app, dicey wireless connectivity, and an unnecessary Photo Stream application – none of which can be really relied upon.

  3. Compatibility with third-party keyboards – Apple phones run with Apple keyboards – there are no two ways about it. Even on the all-new iOS 7 interface, you do not have the scope of using high-class third-party keyboards (like SwiftKey) with an iPhone. On Android handsets, there are no such restrictions – and typing on your mobile screen can be made way easier, by using the third-party keyboard feature that you are most comfortable with.

  4. Better syncing facilities with computers – You can always plug in your iPhone (via VNC) with your computer – but iPhone application development companies in India or abroad are yet to come up with a separate app for controlling handsets through a PC. Android sets do not, however, disappoint on this count. At the Google Play Store, you will find quite a few mobile applications that are meant for syncing smartphones and computers in a much more seamless manner.

  5. Option to go ‘back’ – Many Android-phone users from across the world harp on the user-friendly in-phone navigation features they offer – and that has a lot to do with the presence of the ‘Back’ button in these sets. On an iPhone, there is no option to ‘undo’ your action, once mobile apps have been launched. You will have to tap your way back to the home screen, before doing anything else. If you use an Android phone though, you can easily tap the ‘Back’ button to return to any window of your choice. Quicker, and decidedly easier!

  6. Adding attachments to emails – If you cannot view the file system setup on your phone, you will, of course, have problems in attaching documents to emails – and it is surprising that Apple or any other iPhone application development company have done nothing to address the issue. Android-users can attach files in practically all formats easily with their emails. Compare that with devices powered by iOS 7, where you need to use the ‘Share’ properties of another application, to attach Word, Excel or PPT files.

  7. Battery-saving features – No smartphone comes with out-of-the-world battery life, but here too, Android sets steal a march over iPhones. The Tasker application of the former is the chief factor for this – since you can use it to turn off mobile apps on your phone, as and when required. In the absence of such automated app-management features, you need to close every app manually on an iPhone. If you neglect to do this, the iPhone battery would die soon.

  8. Better app notification features – Android handsets ensure that you do not ever miss out on even a single app notification – an assurance that not even the most technologically advanced iPhone can provide. Notifications can be grouped and modified in a much better, systematic way on Android phones, and there are no chances of a notification getting hidden (a possibility in iPhones, particularly if the volume of notifications is large). Cleaning the app-drawer is a quicker and simpler task on Android phones than on iPhones too.

  9. More app-usage flexibility – Yes, using third-party mobile applications on iPhone by jailbreak is an option – but do you really want to lose the warranty on your handset, for an app you have not even tried? If you wish to play by the rule book, you necessarily have to choose apps from only the iTunes store for your handset. An Android set, on the other hand, is much better for downloading and using third-party, custom mobile applications. Why be restricted in the choice of apps available to you?

  10. Browsing for new apps – With the number of apps present in the Apple store being in excess of one million – it is hardly an easy (or quick) task to browse through them, and select the ones you need. However, for Android handsets, there are separate applications (e.g., AppBrain) that perform precisely this function, within a matter of seconds. Whenever you have some spare time on hand, you can look for new mobile apps by using the wireless network of your Android handset.

 

The extendable memory features of Android phones (via microSD cards) also put them at an advantage over iPhones. In terms of general screen customization too, the Google-powered handsets are regarded to be better. For transferring files to and from mobile phones, NFC for Android is way more convenient than AirDrop for iOS 7. iPhones surely have many things going in favor of them, but Android handsets might just be a tad more user-friendly!

 

Look Who’s On The Phone! Celebrities & Their Favorite Mobile Apps

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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International celebrities are, more often than not, snapped with their snazzy smartphones in tow. Let’s take a peep into their world, and see which mobile apps they spend their time mostly on.

 

Hooked on to the world of glitz and glamour of Page 3 news? Forever wondering what your favorite celebrities and other renowned personalities are doing? Over here, we will take a look at the favorite smartphone applications of some of the biggest names from the world of media and showbiz. Maybe you use some of these apps too!

 

  1. Blake Lively – If you were a big fan of the ‘Gossip Girl’ television sitcom, the pretty face of Blake Lively would be more than familiar to you. The 26-year old American actress loves iphone applications, with the Hipstamatic app being the one she simply swears by. Lively also likes her regular dose of education, available on the cool iTunes U application. We wonder if Ryan Reynolds loves the same apps too!

  2. Lisa Lampanelli – Apart from making audiences go ROFL with her witty repartees and (at times!) slightly insulting stand-up humor, Lisa Lampanelli is extremely conscious about her figure. That’s precisely why she has, and regularly refers to, the Weight Watchers Mobile application. According to her, watching the amount of daily calorie intake is essential – and we can’t help but agree!

  3. Matt Damon – The Nespresso application for smartphones has not garnered highly favorable reviews from any mobile application development company – but Matt ‘Jason Bourne’ Damon fancies it. The actor, in fact, features in the television commercial for Nespresso too, along with George Clooney. The app offers one-touch information access to all Nespresso news, boutiques and products, although Damon has not yet highlighted why he particularly likes the application.

  4. Emma Watson – The cute little ‘Hermione Granger’ of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001) is all grown up now – and she is a fan of iphone apps too. With traveling around the world for shoots and promotions being a part of her schedules, Emma relies on the AroundMe app for that bit of extra guidance. She also happens to be a feline-lover, and often uses the Cat Effects application to put cute kitty pics around her photos.

  5. Marlon Wayans – You have seen him in the hilarious first two ‘Scary Movie’ flicks, as well as the recent ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’. However, you were probably not aware of the fact that, Wayans relies on the iAnnotate mobile application, to get a proper grasp of his scripts and dialogs, and even jot down notes on them. How one wishes that an iphone application development company in India also comes up with a similar app – Bollywood actors would be delighted!

  6. Jennette McCurdy – Ever wondered how your words would sound like, if they were played in the form of rap? Jenette McCurdy, the gorgeous ‘iCarly’ lass, has tried out the AutoRap app, for precisely this purpose – and has fallen in love with the effects. McCurdy’s other favorite mobile apps – Twitter and Facebook – are much more conventional though.

  7. Ben Affleck – With ‘Argo’ making all the right noises in Hollywood and at the award ceremonies last year, interest among the common public about Ben Affleck is at an all-time high. Apart from apps like Evernote, Waze and IMDb (well, he’s a film star, after all!), Affleck also regularly uses the official application of MLB.com (Major League Basketball). The actor is a die-hard fan of Boston Red Sox, and makes it a point to keep track of all the latest fixtures and results of his favorite team, at all times.

  8. Michael Emerson – Remember Henry Gale/Benjamin Linus from the runaway hit TV series ‘Lost’? Well, that was Michael Emerson – who won an Emmy for his role in the series. Emerson prefers to keep things simple with his choice of smartphone applications, with the TuneIn Radio app being the only one he uses practically everyday. The actor, who can currently be seen in ‘Person of Interest’, is planning to get a dictionary app on his mobile soon too.

  9. J. R. Smith – New York Knicks can’t do without J. R. Smith as their shooting guard – and the much sought-after basketball star cannot think of his handsets (a Blackberry 10 and an iPhone 5) without the League Pass application. Apart from basketball, Smith takes an active interest in the world of professional golf too – explaining his affection for the official PGA tour application.

 

Thanks to the rapid growth of Android and iphone app development in India, celebs from our country have also caught on the habit of using such applications regularly. For instance, ‘Dev D’ and ‘That Girl in Yellow Boots’ girl Kalki Koelchin loves the Voxer multimedia IM app, while Tusshar Kapoor is hooked on to the Twitter mobile app. Star Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin uses the TrueCaller application to filter out unnecessary fan calls. Celebs from all over are increasingly spending more time on mobile applications, and their interests vary widely too!

BBM Vs Whatsapp – Does Blackberry Messenger Hold The Advantage?

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Opinions about whether Whatsapp is a better mobile IM application than Blackberry Messenger, or vice versa, is extremely polarized among smartphone-users all over. We here present a few points that suggest BBM might just have an edge over its more popular rival.

It’s the big fight between the two biggies from the world of instant messaging apps that everyone is talking about. Ever since Blackberry Messenger (BBM) became available for iphones and Android devices, techies around the world have been trying to guesstimate whether it would be able to match (or supersede) the popularity of Whatsapp any time soon. Although the Blackberry platform is currently facing a host of problems, the following points indicate that people do have ample reasons to switch from Whatsapp to BBM:

 

  1. Creating customized contact list – On Whatsapp, there is no scope of building your very own chat contact list. Every person whose number is in your phonebook (and who is also a Whatsapp user) will automatically be added to your chat lists. On the other hand, to create a BBM contact list, you will need the unique 8-character PIN number of every user. You have much greater freedom to choose with whom you wish to chat!

  2. Checking the status of chat messages – Many professionals from the domain of Android and iphone app development in India feel that this one might be a clinching factor in the BBM Vs Whatsapp fight. The tiny ‘D’ and ‘R’ symbols beside every message you send via BBM indicate that it has been ‘delivered’ and ‘read’, respectively. Whatsapp has a ‘single check’ and ‘double check’ feature – but that only indicates when your messages get delivered to the server, and to the phone of the recipient.

  3. Sharing of files – The file-sharing support offered by BBM is stronger than that of Whatsapp as well. On the latter, you cannot send anything other than pictures, videos, and location information. Blackberry Messenger, however, allows users to share multimedia files in practically every format. Sharing calendar information and files in groups on BBM is also decidedly easier.

  4. Less of a disturbance – If someone creates a group on Whatsapp and includes your number in it – you will keep getting updates from it, irrespective of whether you are interested in the topic(s) under discussion or not. You can, of course, leave the group – but that isn’t possible without everyone else noticing it. On BBM, you get to decide whether or not you should accept a group chat invitation. There’s no chance of your smartphone keeping blinking round the clock!

  5. Your activities remain more private – If you are a BBM user, no one can know when you are logged on – except for the person(s) you actually ping for chat. Whatsapp, however, shows the exact time when a user was ‘last seen at’. There’s no scope of quickly checking the app before curling up with a book for an hour – people will notice you are online, and would expect you to respond on Whatsapp.

  6. Audio/video chatting features – Be it for general users, or professionals from a mobile application development company – this is another comprehensive #win factor for Blackberry Messenger. BBM’s VoIP is nothing short of excellent – totally unlike the noticeable lags in the audio chat feature of Whatsapp. Of course, the latter has no option for live screen chat, which sets it at a further disadvantage. BBM even boasts of seamless screen-sharing options.

  7. Security – The Blackberry mobile application development platform has always been a pioneer in the field of smartphone security – and BBM (rather expectedly) trumps Whatsapp on this count. Even if an unknown person (with shady intentions) manages to get your phone number, (s)he will not be able to contact you on BBM, since the PIN number would be required. If you remain loyal to Whatsapp though, you keep yourself exposed to the risk of receiving offensive/lewd messages from strangers.

  8. The PING feature – Yet another specialty of BBM, that Whatsapp lacks. If the person you are chatting with is not responding for a fairly long time, you can click on the ‘Ping Contact’ option – to send a bold, red-colored ‘PING!’ display to his/her phone. The device would vibrate too. If someone snoozes off while chatting with you on Whatsapp, you can do nothing about it, than waiting patiently…or going to sleep yourself!

  9. Social media integration in status messages – The custom status message you set on BBM can be shared directly through the app – on your Facebook/Twitter profile. That, in turn, makes it more dynamic than Whatsapp, where you can only choose from a set of pre-defined status messages. This ain’t a factor that would affect your chatting experience, but the way your profile is set up also matters, right?

  10. Chat logs can be copied and emailed – Some people can consider this as a disadvantage of BBM, but in reality – this feature often comes in handy for people chatting on BBM on important business topics. Once your interactions are over, you can copy the entire chat and email it to yourself and/or any other person who needs to be kept in the loop. On Whatsapp, records of past chats get automatically deleted over time.

From the perspective of mobile app designing and user-convenience, Whatsapp does not provide any extra advantage over Blackberry Messenger. The one point where Whatsapp does come out clearly on top is the availability of emoticons (it has about 190 of them, while BBM has less than 100). However, this factor rather pales into insignificance, when all the above points are taken into consideration!

 

Which side are you on in this big fight? Let us know!

 

Check Out These 9 Amazingly Expensive iPhone Applications!

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Even as the download figures of free mobile apps surge, some of the most expensive applications on the iTunes store remain popular among their niche users. In what follows, a few of these pricey applications for iPhone have been listed.

With the increasing popularity of in-app purchases from the iTunes store, the popularity of free mobile applications has shot up over that of paid apps. In 2013, the number of free apps downloaded from iTunes was nearly ten times the figure for paid ones. In such a scenario, it indeed seems interesting that there are several expensive iPhone applications, which bear astoundingly high price tags (far from the usual $1.99 or such nominal amounts). We here take a look at some such iPhone applications which come with a pretty hefty pocket pinch:

  1. The Alchemist SMS ($999.99) – Designed exclusively for professionals from the scrap metal and steel sector, the exorbitant price of this app comes across as a surprise. To be fair, the advanced linear programming techniques supported on the application are impressive, and the overall mobile app designing scheme is user-friendly. It has been reported to be effective in pulling down raw material cost figures for steel manufacturers. Even so, not all small businesses are going to be able to afford this app.

  2. Preebs ($799.99) – As far as compatibility and portability features are concerned, Preebs would feature amongst the finest examples of iphone app development in India or abroad. The application makes use of outdoor billboards and banners to provide advertising support to travelers. Whether every commuter would actually find it worthwhile to shell out nearly $800 for the app remains the question.

  3. VIP Black ($999.99) – Remember the days when Blackberry handsets were promoted as mobile phones for business professionals? The VIP Black application (from Apple) has a similar air of exclusivity about it – except for the fact that, it is way more expensive than any of those RIM-powered smartphones. Touted as the ‘Millionaire’s App’, you can download and use VIP Black only if your income is in excess of one million Pounds. Snobbish? Probably. Remarkable? Definitely!

  4. QSFFStats ($999.99) – You would have thought that keeping track of all the updates from games you love won’t cost you big bucks – but QSFFStats would surprise you. If you love flag football (and have cash in plenty!), you can consider setting it up on your smartphone. Customized game lists, match reports, player stats and a host of other in-depth insights about flag football leagues around the world can be obtained from the app. This one is definitely for passionate and affluent fans of the game!

  5. BarMax CA ($999.99) – This one could have been an absolute gem for those who are aspiring to clear the bar examination in California – if only its price was a bit more competitive. The app goes a long way in thoroughly preparing students for the exam – with nearly 1500 sample questions, including plenty of questions from the earlier years’ papers. It’s a pity that not all students are ‘rich enough’ to get help from BarMax CA.

  6. Agro ($999.99) – Professionals from almost every iphone application development company in India would have recommended this app for the country’s leading agronomists, but its prohibitively high price stands as an obstacle. The functional features of the Agro application are beyond reproach though – with the field reports and stats generated by it being insightful and high on accuracy. If you are in this line of business and can afford to buy this app, interacting with your clients will become a lot easier.

  7. iRa Pro ($899.99) – Given the seamless, high-end security features that iRa Pro has on offer, its high mobile application development cost seems more or less justified. The application is meant to set up and manage CCTV cameras at large organizations, educational institutions, government offices and other such places – and get regular live feeds from them on iPhone handsets. iRa Pro also happens to be one of the more intuitive security-related smartphone apps.

  8. Barcelona vs Real Madrid ($349.99) – Can’t wait for La Liga action to start every weekend? You can now play games between the two giants of the Spanish football league on your phone – but only if you are prepared to shell out a whopping $349.99 for this app. The app development graphics used lend a high-resolution, almost life-like feel to the gameplay in this application, and the player animations are worth applauding too. However, there are cheaper gaming apps available – which are not really less exciting!

  9. MobiGage NDI ($999.99) – From preparing designs and taking measurements, to process and assembly management and quality inspections – MobiGage NDI is an all-in-one mobile application for metrology professionals. It comes with provisions for simultaneous creation and editing of reports and plans, and users can also automate the inspection processes through it. Is the app worth its price? That’s for the experts from the metrology industry to decide.

 

LSAT Titan, KGulf and PDR Quote are some of the other pricey apps created by any mobile application development company. If you need to work regularly with CAD files, you can consider splurging a bit to purchase the vueCAD Pro iphone application. Free apps might have much higher download figures than paid apps – but the expensive applications listed above also have quite a few takers from their targeted sectors.

Wish To Extend The Battery Life Of Smartphone? Follow These Tips!

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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A common complaint of smartphone-users across the world is the frustratingly short battery life of most advanced handsets. Let us here focus on some tips that would help you to extend the battery life of your smartphone by a few hours, at least.

The average battery life of the high-end iphone 5S has been found to be better than that of most of the Samsung Galaxy handsets and even the highly popular Nexus 5 phone. Don’t, however, run away with the belief that – once charged, the battery of an iphone would last for a couple of days. According to research reports, the iphone 5S offers a battery backup period of a shade over ten hours – and you can well imagine how low the general battery life of smartphone models (other types) normally are. Even so, you can get just that bit more battery juice from your handset, by following these guidelines:

  1. Adjust the screen brightness – Unless you have a vision impairment, or are in a dark place – you will not require high brightness levels on your smartphone screen. Lower the brightness settings to a level that, whenever any notification comes along, extra pressure is not placed on the phone battery. Ideally, the screen should get slightly dimmed when not being used, to conserve battery.

  2. When outdoors, turn off wifi – Experts from iphone maintenance and mobile application development companies in India typically emphasize on this point. When you are outside, your smartphone keeps searching for available wireless networks in the neighborhood. This, in turn, causes battery drain – and connecting to an unknown network is not particularly advisable either. Before you step out of home, make sure that the wifi feature on your phone is turned off.

  3. Schedule app upgrades only when you are at home – This is basically derived from the earlier point. Sophisticated smartphone models come with the provision of downloading the latest versions/upgrades of mobile apps, as and when they become available. However, if you allow such downloads when you are not at home – wifi won’t be available, and too much strain would be placed on the mobile network, and consequently, the battery. Instead, set all app upgrades in your phone when the device is at home, and connected to a trusted wireless network.

  4. Avoid light-colored wallpapers and themes – In case your handset does not have an AMOLED display screen, you can probably ignore this piece of advice. However, most Android users can improve the battery life of their smartphone by at least a couple of hours, by setting up dark wallpapers and themes. If the background chosen is of a light color, more pixels would be required for it to be displayed properly.

  5. Consider the type of battery present in your handset – The charging requirements for phones with nickel-based batteries differ significantly from those with Li-ion (Lithium ion) ones. For devices with the former type of battery, charging should be done only when the phone is ‘almost dead’ (otherwise, the long-run battery performance might get affected). On the other hand, smartphones with Li-ion batteries can be charged practically anytime – and ‘overcharging’ is hardly ever a risk.

  6. Turn off unnecessary push notifications – The surge in Android, Blackberry and iphone app development in India has led to the creation of many interesting applications – but many of them have a common disturbing feature. They keep sending push-notifications to users, about a host of stuff (the bulk of which most users are not even interested in). Although slight, such notifications do eat away at the battery life of smartphone handsets. Apart from the apps for which you indeed require push-notifications (e.g., the email app for Blackberry), turn off this feature for all the other applications.

  7. Do not overuse your phone’s GPS – Neither should you use location-based mobile apps for too long. GPS applications consume battery in rather generous amounts, and overusing them might require you to charge your phone within a short span of time (in cases, even less than an hour!). Many people do not require GPS services on their phone either, and they need to adjust their phone settings accordingly. Use location services on your handset only when required.

  8. Do not make your handset a storehouse of apps – After buying a smartphone, the first thing you would probably do is download and install a lot of mobile applications. You won’t be using all of these apps regularly though, and the ones that are hardly ever used need to be removed from the handset. Even when smartphone apps are not being used, they can remain active in the background (check the Settings of your smartphone for that), and gradually exhaust the battery. Why bother keeping redundant stuff on your phone?

  9. Make sure that the screen time-out does not take too long – Does the screen of your phone remain lighted, even a full minute after you have stopped working on it? If yes, that might be one of the causes why you are having to charge your handset three times a day! Adjust the screen time-out period to around 15-20 seconds, and do not simply leave it at the default level. If required, you can always extend the time-out span by a few more seconds.

  10. Don’t use battery-extending apps – Because most of these smartphone apps are hardly of any use, and are nothing more than a further burden on handsets. Battery-handlers from practically every iphone application development company in India advise against installing any of the several ‘battery-life enhancing apps’ currently available. These apps are mostly free – but that’s about the only good point about them!

If you do not really require lightning-fast internet connectivity, switch off the 3G/4G connections (as applicable) on your phone, at least for some time everyday. Make sure that the mobile apps on your phone do not get auto-refreshed after every few hours. Avoid placing your smartphone in direct sunlight, which can cause the device to get excessively heated up. Following these tips won’t make the battery life of a smartphone last a week – but you will, at least, be able to do away with the need to charge it multiple times in a day!

Failure Of A Smartphone App: Probable Causes

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Even experienced app developers can go wrong on various counts, while creating a brand new mobile application. Nearly 70 per cent of all apps remain unsuccessful, and we here present some probable causes behind their failure.

 

 

 

Global research studies have shown, about 7 out of every 10 newly launched mobile apps turn out to be loss-making ventures for the developers. A wide range of factors can contribute to the ultimate failure of a smartphone app- even if the basic features of the latter are not particularly bad. With the incidence of mobile app failures around the world being so high, a look at the probable underlying causes for the same would be in order:

 

  1. A ‘me-too’ application – If there are similar apps to the one you have developed (and if they are already popular enough) – it can become almost impossible to get enough market for your new application. Most such ‘me-too’ apps do not manage to provide any viable reason why people should switch over to it, and leave the app they had been using earlier. It is always advisable to prepare a unique app, which would be easy to promote.

  2. Tacky, troublesome functional features – In a bid to make new apps visually charming and have a host of functions, executives from several mobile application development companies have ended up making apps that were far from user-friendly. There are many smartphone apps whose framework and functions range from plain boring to extremely complicated – and they invariably do not find any favor among buyers.

  3. Not attractive enough – The earlier point, however, does not under-emphasize the importance of sleek mobile app designing in any way. In fact, the images and screenshots of a new application have to capture the attention of prospective users – for the app to stand any chance of being a hit. Depending on the genre of the app that is being developed, the right mix of colors, designs and overall layout has to be determined. If quality is kept constant, a good-looking app always sells more!

  4. The app does not address a particular requirement – With the tools and techniques used for Blackberry, Android and iphone app development in India evolving at a rapid pace, most new apps have a dash of creativity about them. However, even the most innovative app idea can prove to be worthless, if it does not solve a particular requirement/problem of people. For instance, mobile apps like Droidfart and Crush or Flush were ‘different’ enough, but they were of no practical use to anyone.

  5. Poor speeds – This generally occurs when app developers in India do not bother checking the bandwidth requirements of their mobile applications. An app that takes up a large amount of memory space/bandwidth is almost sure to be rather slow. The overall speed of the smartphone on which it has been installed might also be affected. While testing an app, its speed has to be carefully checked – so that users do not have any complaints on this count.

  6. Lack of device portability – If an app works like a charm on an iphone, and refuses to function properly on an ipad – that is definitely likely to make general users thoroughly frustrated. The same goes for Android apps that can be used on only select categories of handsets. You need to conduct a preliminary research on all types of handheld devices currently available that have the same mobile application development platform for which the app would be created. Smartphone applications that do not work on certain devices would automatically have a limited appeal.

  7. Apps with bugs – Neglecting the stage of beta testing for apps is almost a surefire way of ensuring the failure of the latter. Once the prototype of a new mobile application is ready, it has to be meticulously tested – and bugs (if present) have to be removed, before the final release. If the initial version of an app has viruses, people would be reluctant to download its latter upgrades, even after the problem(s) have been rectified.

  8. No specific group of target users – Yes, mobile app users are relatively gadget-savvy people – but that’s not all that you need to know, while deciding on the type of application to develop. You have to identify the groups of people (based on their age, interests, business requirements or any other pertinent criteria), for whom developing a customized app would be a viable idea. Proper targeting would also allow you make your promotional activities for the app more focused. A vague, general application hardly ever works – since they do not appear to be ‘essential’ for any segment of people.

  9. Poor promotional strategy and online visibility – The Apple Store has over a million smartphone applications, and you need to make sure that your app does not simply get lost in the crowd. Every iphone application development company in India and abroad has systematic promotional plans for their apps in place – including pre-release publicity drives (mainly through social media websites). Once an app gets approved at the App Store, it should be easily accessible to people via the web.

  10. Lack of timely updates – There are also instances of a new mobile app being fairly successful initially, with the charm wearing off over time. Users typically look for some novelty, along with an increasing set of functions, in the applications they use – and you can deliver these only by releasing regular updates/versions of apps. Even a money-making app can get discarded for being too dated, if there have been no upgrades on it for years.

 

The success (or otherwise) of mobile apps also hinges crucially on the reliability of the carrier services available for the OS they have been developed for. Contrary to what many novice developers believe, people do not like using applications with too many features either. An exorbitantly high download price can also turn off potential buyers, particularly if cheaper alternatives are available. Every quarter, many well-hyped mobile apps fail – and one or more of the above factors is invariably the cause of the failure.

 

Mobile App Market in India: Overview & Major Trends

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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A detailed study of the Indian mobile app market throws up interesting figures and observations. Ranging from the prevalence of smartphones in the country, to availability of data plans and nature of app-usage – certain salient features of the mobile app market in India have been highlighted here.

 

As per research reports, the total number of Indians with smartphone would be almost 400 million, by the end of 2016. The number of 3G subscribers in the country is also on a steady upward spiral. These findings, in turn, indicate a vast and potentially lucrative market for advanced mobile apps in India. In the current discourse, we will highlight some major points related to the app market in our country:

 

  1. Total market value – With the regular launch of new smartphone apps and the emergence of several mobile application development companies, the Indian app market is one of the most valuable ones in the globe. In a couple of years, the market for mobile apps is expected to go beyond Rs. 2600 crores.

  2. Market share – The Indian scenario on this count is significantly different from that prevalent in the international markets. Android is the overwhelmingly dominant mobile application development platform (with over 90 per cent of the total market share) – while Apple, the leading platform in the US, has a rather negligible presence. Compared to worldwide app download figures, the share of iphone app development in India hovers around a lowly 2 per cent.

  3. Popular app categories – News applications and social media apps enjoy maximum popularity among Indian users, while gaming apps also witness high download figures. Surveys have shown that Whatsapp and mobile Facebook were the two smartphone applications people spent most of their time on. The share for music and video apps is also on the rise.

  4. Average profitability of paid apps – Rather surprisingly, the amount of money spent by an average smartphone user on paid applications is projected to go down by over Rs. 50 over the next couple of years. That, however, is likely to be offset by the rapidly increasing base of 3G service subscribers. As such, the total revenue figure from the paid apps market segment alone is likely to go beyond Rs. 2050 crores.

  5. Linguistic barriers – By far the biggest challenge that any mobile application development company in India typically faces. Only about a quarter of the total number of smartphone users in the country are fluent with the English language – and its difficult to penetrate into the rural belts, where there are plenty of non-English speaking people, who use Android handsets or iphones. There are even cases where users are not even aware of the data plans provided by the mobile service providers. Phones that support vernacular languages are being launched, to tackle this factor.

  6. Mobile internet access – Almost 10 per cent of all web pages viewed in a day by Indian users are accessed via mobile handsets. More than half of the total number of internet-users in the nation have web-enabled smartphones. The popularity of Broadband connections on desktops/laptops is still high – but mobile web access is fast catching up.

  7. Dominance of feature phones – Although smartphones are gradually making their presence felt in the Indian markets, the cheaper feature phones remain the preferred choice of most middle-class to upper middle-class users. At present, eight to nine of every internet-powered handset in India is a feature phone. Professional app developers, hence, are more focused on churning out custom mobile applications for these handsets.

  8. Profit-sharing – While the huge (and expanding) pool of internet-enabled phone users is an encouragement to every Blackberry, Android and iphone application development company in India – the skewed revenue-distribution structure serves up a problem. Most mobile operator companies demand a hefty share from the total revenue generated from apps, with the developers finally ending up with below-par final profit figures. Thankfully, the sheer volume of users somewhat makes up for this factor.

  9. Number of mobile transactions – Monetary transactions via mobile apps is increasingly finding acceptance amongst users in India. The total number of such transactions on an annual basis stands well over seven million, and new finance applications that support secure payments are also being launched in the Indian market regularly. Remarkably though, the average volume of such mobile transactions (under Rs. 300) is much lower than that in the United States or the United Kingdom.

  10. Data tariffs and plans – Given the still-existing prevalence of feature phones over smartphones in India – the GPRS data packages offered by the different mobile service providers have to be competitively priced. However, that has not always been the case, and average consumers have stayed away from subscribing for any of the expensive, high-end plans. Over the last few years though, GPRS data tariffs have come down significantly – and this has had a trickle-down effect on mobile app usage.

 

According to researches conducted by LinkedIn, India features in the top 5 mobile app markets in the world, in terms of potential profitability and opportunity for growth. Along with Android and Blackberry (the latter, though, has suffered several recent setbacks), Apple iphones are also starting to make their presence felt in India. With the quality of the value-added services (VaS) provided by the mobile companies also being improved constantly, Indian users appear all set to welcome apps in their handsets in a bigger manner within the next two to three years.

 

Consider These Factors While Naming Your New Smartphone App

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Apart from ensuring technical excellence and user-friendly operations in mobile apps, developers also need to choose relevant, easy-to-remember names for them. To make sure that the app name you select indeed contributes to its success, you need to follow these tips.

Are you even aware of the existence of mobile apps named Eefoof, Crush or Flush, or Pikipimp? Chances are high that you aren’t – and that has not got all to do with the rather substandard features of these applications. The biggest reason why these apps have been lost in obscurity is their confusing (often misleading) names. While selecting a name for your smartphone apps, you need to keep in mind the following guidelines:

 

  1. Do not be in a tearing hurry – Releasing your app within a scheduled timeframe is, of course, important. However, that does not mean you can afford to simply choose the very first name that comes to your mind for the application. Remember, the brand presence and marketing activities of mobile apps are all based on their names – and you need to devote enough time to come out with one that would be really suitable.

  2. Refer app functionality through its name – Consultants from every mobile application development company advise developers to choose such app names that would be reflective of their primary features and functionality. For instance, an app like ‘Story Time For Kids’ would automatically tell buyers that it is about storytelling for children. You cannot expect people to go through the entire app descriptions on the iTunes store, to find out its genre.

  3. Think simple word(s) – Simple is always more effective from a marketing perspective – and the task of naming an app is no exception to this rule of thumb either. The name you finally select should ideally have two to three words – each of them simple and easy to pronounce. Your English vocabulary might be real impressive, but refrain from showing that off while naming your products.

  4. Avoid piggybacking on similarly-named apps – Resist the temptation of choosing a name that would be same, or overtly similar, to that of a popular one already existing in the online app stores. An established iphone application development company would always steer clear of such dubious, misleading means to generate high initial download figures for their apps. Trying to piggyback on other successful app names can even lead to copyright violations and other legal problems.

  5. Keep track of the names of all the existing apps in the same category – With the total number of mobile apps at the Apple store exceeding one million and the number of Blackberry and Android apps steadily on the rise too – it is very much possible that the name of your new app becomes, inadvertently, too similar to that of another existing one. To avoid such a scenario, you need to keep track of the names of all the apps that are already available under the same category – and make sure that the smartphone application you have developed remains unique enough. Similarly named apps often have problems in getting approved at the App Store, and generally do not get adequate visibility either.

  6. Research for keywords – For consistent success in the field of iphone app development in India, you need to have some basic knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO) as well. In other words, you have to be aware of the ‘keywords’/’keyphrases’ that people mostly use, while looking for smartphone apps similar to your own online. Try making one of the relevant keywords a part of the app’s name. The presence of that keyword in the URL of the app’s page on the online store would be instrumental for getting greater exposure to prospective clients.

  7. Avoid numerals and special characters – In particular, the latter. Special characters in the name of an app are not only unnecessary – they can also mess up the promotional strategies for the concerned application. Use numbers in the name of a mobile app, only if you are releasing an upgraded version (e.g., version 2). Otherwise, people might be left wondering as to what the significance of the number is.

  8. Make it catchy – The app name should be easy to remember, and have a high recall value. For gaming applications in particular, you have to select a name that would immediately capture the attention of the targeted buyers. A catchy app name would, in turn, make it easier for people to look for it online too. A classic example of a catchily titled mobile app would be ‘Angry Birds’.

  9. Do not use too many characters in the name – Just like you should not have more than four words (max.) in an app name, the latter should not have over 12-14 characters either. If the name of the application is too long, it is very likely to appear distorted on the screens of mobile handsets. Shortlist two to three names, and select the one that appears the most appealing on the device during the testing stage.

  10. Use characters in caps sparingly – A string of words in all caps conveys the impression that someone is shouting out at buyers, while those with all small letters are generally considered to be too inconspicuous. Only the first letter of the app name should be capitalized (along with, maybe, one other character). If the name of your app has more than one word, capitalize the first letter of each word.

 

Consult with the other professionals at your mobile application development company, and determine whether the name of your app should be in ‘camel case’ or ‘sentence case’ (which is way more popular). A well-chosen application name should provide buyers a visual feel about the app’s features as well. A simple, catchy, relevant name can ensure greater longevity and appreciation of an app – being too innovative on this count almost never helps!

15 Handy Mobile App Designing Guidelines

Hussain Fakhruddin
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Hussain Fakhruddin

CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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Among the many mobile apps that fail every year, most share a common feature – a complicated, cluttered design theme. If you are a mobile app developer, you need to follow these design tips, to bolster the probability of success of your applications.

No matter how many sophisticated features a new mobile app packs in – if its user interface (UI) appears cluttered and confusing, it is likely to prove to be a disappointment. There are multiple smartphone apps available at present for practically every purpose, and if your mobile application development designs are not efficient and appealing enough, people won’t think twice about ditching your app and choosing the ones created by your competitors. To make sure that such a scenario does not crop up, you should keep in mind these app-designing pointers:

 

  1. Avoid overloading your app – First things first – users should never face any problems while using the Android, Blackberry or iphone apps you develop. A mobile application should ideally be designed to serve a single, precise requirement of the targeted users (which might be simple story-reading for kids, or complex personal finance calculations for executives). In case you wish a new app to have multiple functions, consider launching different versions/components of it.

  2. Keep the texts scannable – No one likes to squint at their mobile screens, to decipher what is written on the dashboard of smartphone apps. Choose a default font for your application, which would be easily readable on mobile screens and tablets. People should be able to adjust the font size/style according to their convenience.

  3. Pay attention to design precision – Professionals from any top iphone application development company in India would agree that – since individuals typically use their fingers/thumb to tap on app buttons and links (instead of using joysticks) – these ‘call-to-action’ components need to be large enough. Remember, even the largest mobile screen is way smaller than a laptop – and if the app buttons are small, even repeated thumb clicks might not yield the desired results.

  4. Plan for custom mobile applications – Even for apps that are supposed to run on more than one mobile application development platform, you need to make the necessary customizations in it. In general, the technical features and tools used for creating Android or Blackberry apps are different for those required to make iphone applications. Avoid simply taking the same version of an app to different platforms.

  5. Make the app take full advantage of the available smartphone features – A high-end smartphone typically has a lot of features (like GPS, front camera, etc.), which are not available on a standard desktop/laptop computer. Your mobile app designing plans should be such that, the applications can be easily integrated with all the features available on the host phone. Otherwise, people will not be able to experience all its benefits.

  6. Think linear – According to expert designers from the domain of Android and iphone app development in India, applications that have side-scrolling features are generally looked upon unfavorably by users. Instead, you should have a streamlined, linear structure of data/images and other stuff in your app. Do not include any concealed menus. A linear layout would also help you to prioritize the app menu items.

  7. Use grid patterns in the app – Navigation across the different portions/pages of a mobile application becomes a lot easier – when you incorporate a consistent grid pattern in its overall designs. Choose the type of grid that would be in sync with the type of app that you are developing.

  8. Provide a grand first-time experience – The Apple app store alone has over a million smartphone applications, and the competition among every mobile application development company is intense. In such a scenario, your app should have some standout features in its design, which would get people hooked on from the very start. Do not, however, include any innovations that might confuse people.

  9. Make the app upgrades count – Do not release upgrades of your existing apps without including any additional features/functionality in them. As users grow increasingly familiar with an app, they typically start looking for more services and features from it. Gather feedback from as many buyers as possible, and incorporate the suggested improvements in the new version of the app.

  10. Scalability for all devices is a must – Not everyone is going to use your application on a mobile handset. Apart from having separate mobile application development plans for each platform, you also need to make the apps scalable – so that they can be properly viewed/used on tablets, ipads and all other popular handheld devices. Keep track of all the latest phone models that are being launched too.

  11. Include drop-down features – This would economize on the space used up on the user-interface of an app, and would enable you to include more stuff in it as well. Cropped drop-down menus are particularly suitable for mobile applications that have a large number of links/buttons. Make sure that the menu items are easily clickable.

  12. Never neglect app-testing – The app you develop might be the best ever according to you – but, at the end of the day, it is the opinion of the end-users that matters. You need to ensure that there are no bugs or virus files present in the final version of the application, by carefully testing in a beta-group and also via automation. A faulty application can ruin the brand image of your company.

  13. Test on the right devices – This is basically an extension of the previous point. If you are preparing an ipad app, there is hardly any point in testing it on a computer screen only. The testing device/medium for each app has to be the same as the one on which it would be used by the buyers. In case you detect any design glitches while testing, get it rectified before the app release.

  14. Apps should not consume too much of mobile bandwidth – Apart from checking the visual appeal, speed and basic user-friendliness of the app design scheme you have selected, you also need to find out how much of the available bandwidth on smartphones it is taking up. Ditch all such design plans which might look charming enough, but would take up a large percentage of the total mobile bandwidth – consequently slowing down the device.

  15. Do not include long forms – No one likes filling up long, boring pages of forms – least of all, in a mobile application. In case you do wish to gather information about users through an app, put in small, interactive dialog boxes at different pages/portions – instead of simply putting in a long, plain form in it. Make sure that the fields in the dialog boxes are spacious enough.

 

For personal banking and finance-related mobile apps, incorporating the necessary security features in them is of essence. Professional app developers also need to set up an analytics tracking system in every application. A smartly designed mobile application has a much better chance of becoming a hit among users than a complicated one – even if the latter has more features!