Monthly Archives: February 2014

Native Mobile App Or A Responsive Website: Which One Should Businesses Opt For?

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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While most startup businesses around the world are aware of the importance of designing responsive websites to reach out to mobile users, developing native apps at an early stage might not be considered as important. Over here, we have highlighted how such customized mobile applications can, in fact, perform better as a medium for promoting a company, than an optimized website.

 

According to a recent survey, nearly 50% customers across the world revealed that, if a company did not have a responsive website, they simply did not consider it worthwhile for doing business with. Couple this with the forecast that, by 2017, about a quarter of all retail transactions would be carried out through the smartphone platform – and the growing importance of businesses having a strong mobile presence becomes clearer. The million-dollar question remains, is a responsive website enough to reach out to all prospective clients on the go, or whether native mobile applications are required. We here present a comparative analysis between the two options:

 

  1. Cost of development – The expenses that an organization has to incur for designing a responsive website from scratch is, in most cases, much higher (nearly double) than that required for creating native apps. However, the relatively smaller intervals at which mobile applications need to be upgraded/redesigned somewhat offsets this factor.

  2. User-friendliness – A properly made responsive website would automatically detect the device on which it is being viewed – so that the ‘correct’ version is displayed. While this promises a high-degree of viewer-friendliness, a native app is likely to prove better on this count too. This is primarily because, apps are created only for mobile devices – unlike web pages which have been ‘modified’ for phone visibility.

  3. Version monitoring – This round goes to responsive websites, easily. If a business takes up mobile app designing for promotional purposes, it has to be prepared to monitor, bear the maintenance costs, and regularly upgrade the different versions. It has to be remembered that, a native app would have a web and a mobile version – and the latter, in turn, would have different versions for the iOS, Android and Blackberry platforms. When it comes to a responsive website, there are no multiple versions to worry about.

  4. Direction of navigation – Since responsive websites offer only top to bottom navigation options (except very few cases), they are considered to be suitable for blog portals, sites with vertical news feeds, and the like. On the other hand, horizontal scrolling is way easier on native applications – which makes them ideal for businesses that have more information, tickers and photo galleries to display.

  5. Download and installation – A native promotional app, much like any app released by a mobile development company, has to be downloaded by users, and installed on their handsets – before it can be of any value. In case complex configuration settings have been used on the applications, that can lead to confusions as well. Viewing a responsive website is way easier – all that one needs to do is type in the URL, and the web pages will be displayed.

  6. The issue with Flash – Until iOS devices start supporting files in Flash format, neither native mobile applications nor responsive websites can feature such dynamic components. However, while a non-Flash smartphone app can be engaging enough, a similarly designed website can appear decidedly boring.

  7. Potential bandwidth problems – Images and videos currently figure prominently amongst the on-page content of websites – but they are not particularly great for responsive portals. If the latter calls large-sized pictures and video files from the server, chances of the available bandwidth limit getting exceeded do crop up – and the website can, as a result, appear cluttered. A native app, on the other hand, has built-in bandwidth management features, and do not, generally, slow down handsets either.

  8. Substitute of a static website – The responsive version of a website is not a substitute of its original, larger, static counterpart. A well-planned fluid design can, however, include most of the original website’s features in the responsive pages. Mobile applications are created via a completely different method, and they cannot be considered as an extension of a company’s website in any way. Consequently, building a strong brand-presence through native apps can be slightly trickier.

  9. Speed – Does a responsive website take more than eight seconds to load properly on mobile screens? If yes, its bounce rate would be significantly high, hurting the promotional strategies of the parent business. Ideally, the loading time of a mobile-optimized website should be around four seconds. Speed is generally not an issue with native apps though, particularly if they have been created by a reliable mobile application development company. Responsive websites are generally fast, but apps are often faster!

  10. Monetization strategy – Monetizing a mobile application is significantly easier than implementing monetization strategies on a responsive website. Tracking the revenue-earning prospects of a website can also be more difficult than doing the same for mobile apps.

  11. Purpose of visit – Having only a responsive website (without a native app) can work only when a business wants its website to remain accessible to potential customers at all times – without any extra focus on mobile commerce and retail transactions. If m-commerce is an integral part of a firm’s operations, there is hardly any way to avoid developing a custom mobile application.

 

Developers have to design native apps in a manner that they get easily approved at the online stores – something that is not required for responsive websites. To take a broader view, a company without a responsive portal is not likely to have a large-enough client-base, while for regular interactions with clients, native apps are necessary. It is not the case of whether you should go for one instead of the other – both responsive website and native apps are important for the long-run success of companies.

 

Frustrated With The High Power-Consumption Of Mobile Apps? Try These Tricks!

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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While the functional features of most sophisticated smartphone apps are excellent and varied, many of them cause an excessive phone battery drainage. In what follows, readers will be acquainted with a few actions that can improve the energy performance of mobile applications.

Are you in the habit of downloading plenty of free gaming apps and using multiple GPS-powered apps on your smartphone? If yes, chances are high that you also tag along your phone charger – wherever you go. While it is not possible to make the battery of a smartphone last for 2-3 days, a better app-management strategy can certainly reduce the extent of power-drain from your handset. To bring down the excessively high power-consumption of mobile apps, these actions would be effective:

 

  1. Choose apps with failover parameters – There are many mobile applications that integrate with the built-in Bluetooth settings and/or the GPS features of a smartphone. Before you install any such app, make sure that it has proper failover parameters – i.e., the additional phone resources which it uses get automatically turned off, as soon as the app is closed. You should not have to manually turn off the GPS/Bluetooth every time.

  2. Avoid having too many free apps – Although the ratio of free apps to paid apps created by almost any mobile application development company in India is on the higher side, you should not download too many of the former. Free applications typically have fairly large numbers of advertisements, the display of which can cause battery drain. A selective choice of paid apps will protect your phone from such risks.

  3. Set the intervals at which push-notifications are to be sent – Do you really need the default email or Facebook app in your mobile to send new notifications after every 10 minutes? In all probability, you don’t – and hence, it makes sense to set the interval at which the apps should search for new mails/notifications at around half an hour (or even slightly longer). The strain on the phone battery would be eased.

  4. Take advantage of data caching – If the smartphone apps you are using are primarily web-based, this is a viable way to lower battery wastage. Instead of having to communicate with the mobile server every time, find out if and how you can cache data within the applications. Clearing app cache is often not necessary (unless, of course, you have exchanged confidential personal information through it).

  5. Get rid of unused apps – Thanks to the ongoing rapid growth in mobile app development in India and overseas, you have literally millions of applications to choose from, at the online stores. While there is no harm in trying out most new apps once, you need to uninstall (and not simply leave unused) the ones that won’t be of much use in future. If you are an Android handset user, consider rebooting your device after uninstalling redundant apps.

  6. Adjust the display settings of apps – Those who are fond of mobile gaming are surely familiar with applications with interesting app development graphics, and a bright display. What isn’t generally appreciated is that, such additional display brightness can cause the phone battery to get exhausted sooner. Change the display settings to a more optimal level, and make sure that the screen automatically dims if you do not interact with an app for a minute or so.

  7. Consider making partitions in mobile apps – Cloud offloading has been tested to be an effective technique to partition smartphone applications that have relatively high energy requirements. While launching and operating on a partitioned app in the cloud network, you can rest assured about more economic battery usage.

  8. Check the FPS of gaming apps – FPS refers to frames-per-second, and a very high count can cause your phone to ‘die’ in less than a couple of hours. In general, the FPS figure for any application should be set at around 25-27. The sophisticated video apps launched by Android and iPhone application development companies generally have their FPS in this range.

  9. You do not need location-tracking at all times – Give your phone GPS a break at times, particularly when you are at home or in a familiar neighborhood. Along with automated wi-fi network detection, GPS services can have a serious effect on the longevity of phone battery, if you do not bother to turn it off from time to time. This, in turn, also implies that you should not go for multiple apps with GPS requirement (even if they have failover features).

  10. Remember to close apps – With navigation features and multitasking becoming increasingly easier on new-age smartphones, there is a growing tendency among people to leave apps running in the background – even when they are not being used. A news-ticker application would be a classic example in this regard. If you wish to protect the battery against overuse, you need to actually close the apps you have finished using, for the time being.

 

The backend mobile app designing themes used often also have an impact on the general energy-efficiency of applications. Irrespective of whether you are using a Blackberry phone, an Android device or an iPhone/iPad, you should be aware of the way in which the effect of every app on the phone battery can be checked. Use apps on your smartphone in a ‘smart’ manner – and do away with the hassles of having to charge your handset after every few hours!

 

16 Wireframing & Prototype-Making Tools Every Mobile App Developer Would Love

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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To create and share wireframes and prototypes of advanced, personalized smartphone apps, developers typically use a series of software tools. Some of the tools that have been tried and tested for wireframe creation have been highlighted here.

 

While designing custom mobile applications, it is of essence for professional developer companies to keep their clients in the loop. This is precisely where the importance of app wireframes, mockups and prototypes come into the picture. At different stages of the mobile application development process, these can be shared with clients, for approval, feedback, and further suggestions. If you are a mobile app developer, you should be familiar with these tools for preparing wireframes:

 

  1. JumpChart – A high-end application wireframing software, with both free and professional versions. JumpChart comes with additional data export features for WordPress portals as well. Making a detailed prototype of mobile applications is also easy, with this user-friendly tool.

  2. Pencil Project – As far as open-source mockup tools in the field of mobile app designing in India and overseas are concerned, this one is surely one of the finest. With Pencil Project, you can chalk up in-depth graphic-user interface (GUI) prototypes for the applications you are creating. It has impressive compatibility features with many desktop systems too.

  3. Mockingbird – Mockingbird is designed to serve as an end-to-end wireframing and mockup tool, for both mobile apps and web page applications. After creating wireframes, you can preview the same – and make the necessary corrections with ease. Sharing the Mockingbird wireframes with third-party clients is a quick and simple procedure as well.

  4. Indigo Studio – If you specialize in Android app development, you are probably already aware of this one. Indigo Studio helps professional developers to browse through more than a hundred interactive UI options and storyboards – and select the most appropriate one(s) among them. The latest version of Indigo Studio can also be used to create iPhone app prototypes.

  5. JustInMind Prototyper – Among the premium wireframing aides used at leading mobile application development companies, JustInMind features among the most popular ones. In addition to the regular controls for drawing up mockups and prototypes, this tool has responsive forms and gesture options for developers. Extensive support is also provided for the development of web apps.

  6. Tiggzi – For mobile application development on the cloud network, developers often rely on the Tiggzi software. The backend architecture and app designing support services of the tool are at par with the best. There are additional features for visual app development, providing greater scopes for customization.

  7. Axure RP – Although mainly regarded as a wireframing tool for HTML websites, Axure has earned rave reviews from iPhone app developers over the globe too. The high-clarity UI mockups of Android apps generated by the tool also rank well on the accuracy count. All wireframes and mockups created through Axure have a degree of interactiveness about them.

  8. Pidoco – If you are in a time-crunch to share collaborative app designs, sketches and other specs with clients, Pidoco can come to your help. With this software, you can perform real-time mobile app testing as well. It is a premium wireframing tool, but comes with a limited period free trial offer for first-time users.

  9. Wirify – Even the free software applications can provide seamless assistance to web and mobile app development – as Wirify clearly proves. The tool enables  mobile app developers to transform web pages of their choice, to user-friendly wireframes, in seconds. The uncluttered, efficient dashboard of Wirify is yet another of its high points.

  10. AppCooker – If you wish to adopt a unified approach to the app development services, include AppCooker in the list of tools you regularly use. The app offers holistic assistance for transforming app concepts and ideas, to viable mockups. iPad apps can be created with AppCooker too. You would also get the option of adding links to your mockups.

  11. iMockups – The name might suggest that this tool is meant only for iPhone app mockups – but its functionality is much wider. Experts from many app development companies in the world have already used it to create wireframes for web applications. iOS, of course, remains the main platform for which iMockups is used.

  12. Mockups.me – From creating interactive sketches of app wireframes on tablets, to sharing them with your clients and/or other peer developers – this one proves to be handy at practically every stage. The tool has a robust data import capability, ensuring that you can access your Balsamiq files, from wherever you might be. Mockups.me is designed to help Android app developers, in particular.

  13. Adobe Proto – Just like most of the tools already mentioned in the list, Adobe Proto is also a classic prototyping and wireframing software for smartphone apps and mobile websites. The reliability factor of Adobe Proto, however, is superior than that of most of the other tools. Via Adobe Proto, you can engage in effective two-way communication with your peers too.

  14. HotGloo – Creativity and visual appeal play important roles in the long-run acceptance of mobile apps. The HotGloo tool is used by many developers to add that extra bit of elegance and style to the mockups. The interactive nature of app wireframes can also be bolstered, with the help of HotGloo. A collaborative procedure is adopted to create application prototypes through this popular software.

  15. WireframeSketcher – You can use the WireframeSketcher tool as a plugin with any operational Eclipse IDE system. Apart from multi-featured mobile apps and web apps, it is useful for propping up the wireframes of desktop apps as well. Mockups and final prototypes can, of course, also be developed with WireframeSketcher.

  16. Mockability – Experts from mobile application development companies harp on the importance of testing app mockups on proper iOS devices – and Mockability would allow you to do exactly that. The basic app ideas can be combined with images, designs and suitable features in the tool, to create captivating, interactive mockups for clients. Mockups created by using this tool can be shared by Dropbox too, apart from email.

 

Moqups and Antetype are two other wireframing tools that enjoy high levels of popularity among mobile app developers worldwide. For preparing flowchart-based Android applications, Lucidchart is a widely trusted tool. Creating efficient, insightful wireframes and mockups for mobile apps is not as tough as it is often made out to be. You only need to use some of the tools mentioned here!

11 Useful Pointers To Get More Out Of Google Now

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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During the last year, both Google Now and Siri showed significant improvements in terms of command-recognition accuracy. In terms of reports, the improvements in the former have been higher than those in Apple’s virtual assistant. We here present a few guidelines to use Google Now in the best possible manner.

Google Now, the highly-regarded virtual assistant application for Android handsets, became available for iPhone users last year. Although there were not any reports of serious shortcomings in Siri, Google Now came across as a much sought-after alternative option. In fact, as researches later proved, the latter was slightly more effective in terms of understanding voice commands than Siri was (in certain cases). If you have newly installed Google Now in your mobile, you would find the following tips to operate it handy:

 

  1. Viewing only what’s relevant – Google Now lacks Siri’s built-in wit and humor, but it more than makes up for it by serving as a comprehensive pool of information. However, the prospect of scouring through cluttered information cards for what’s important to you is generally a time-consuming one. After the latest update, you can now hide info cards/sections from Google Now, by tapping the right arrow sign on the screen. Going through neat, organized cards would be a lot easier.

  2. Frame your important searches as a research – Keeping track of your search history becomes a cinch, when you start using Google Now. Consultants of any mobile app development company would be able to familiarize you with the way each of your searches on the application is arranged as a research topic on it. You can also find out about the links you had clicked on earlier, while looking for certain information.

  3. The ‘OK Google’ phenomenon – This has been one of the most convenient factors about Google Now, at least for American users, so far. To provide voice commands on the app, all that you need to do is register your voice, and say ‘Ok Google.’ At times, there might be problems in the assistant understanding heavily accented US English, but an update is expected soon, to get rid of such issues.

  4. Getting email notifications – From flight information and travel plans, to hotel bookings and restaurant table reservations – you can get emails for practically everything, from Google Now. You have to, of course, provide enough data to the application, to ensure the accuracy of the mails. Don’t worry, Google would never compromise the confidentiality of your information!

  5. Never missing your favorite television shows – That’s right – Google Now can help you with this too. A lot of credit goes to the latest techniques for Android and iPhone app development in India, for incorporating a customized reminder setting in the virtual assistant. If you provide information about your favorite tele shows, the app would automatically ask you whether it should remind you when the next episode would be aired.

  6. Provision of getting updated information – The informative research cards of Google Now are all very helpful, but what if you have to search for a large number of topics within a span of few days? You can keep things organized, by tapping on the ‘Remind Me’ button, that’s present on the knowledge graph-accompanied search results. That way, you will be notified whenever updates on the topics you are interested in become available.

  7. Messaging with Google Now – Just like Siri, Google Now handles all your messaging requirements in an efficient manner. For sending text messages, the voice command is ‘Send To’, while for emails – you need to say ‘Email to’. Apart from the email recipient(s), you can tell Google Now to include Cc and BCc information too.

  8. Personalized image lookup option – If you mostly upload photos on Google Plus, this would come across as a really useful function. You can give voice commands to look for any type/genre (e.g., sunset pictures) of snaps, and Google Now will promptly look up images that match your description, from your collection. At present, this facility is not available for users outside the US though.

  9. Making the Google Now dashboard completely customized – Although the app figures out your search preferences and the stuff you are interested in, you can further expedite the process. For instance, if you are a regular investor, you can choose the stocks/securities, whose prices you need to monitor. Similarly, if you wish to check the progress of a football team – you need not go through all the weekend match results. Simply ensure that you have chosen only your favorite match reports to be displayed.

  10. Commute sharing option – Google Now goes one up on the regular location-sharing features offered by Siri, and most other GPS-based mobile apps. You can share your commuting information with your contacts on a real-time basis, via Google Plus. In case you are facing transportation problems and/or traffic hassles, such information would serve as early warnings for your friends!

  11. Keeping things private – Not many iPhone application development companies would recommend this – but you do have the option of not sharing any of your private information with Google. For this, the web history has to be completely removed, after every search. Remember, if you do opt for this option, most of the above-mentioned Google Now functionalities might become unavailable.

 

 

If Chrome is your preferred web browser on PC, you can integrate the features of Google Now with it as well. For Smart TV owners, connecting the virtual assistant to the same wireless network is also an option. Google Now for iPhone still has a long way to go to emerge as a serious threat to Siri’s popularity, but it does have a host of user-friendly, interesting features.

Won’t You A Love A More Efficient, Improved Siri?

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 iPhone-users, Siri is already a rage – but can the virtual mobile assistant become even better? It definitely can, and here’s how!

 

We have already dwelled on the enormous range of tasks that Siri – the virtual assistant on iPhone – can perform for users. The ready wit and humor that has been programmed into Siri has also been touched upon. However, is Siri the quintessential ‘perfect’ mobile assistant? Probably not, if the lawsuit that Apple faced over the shortcomings of Siri is anything to go by. Let us here take you through some features that an improved Siri (if and when available) should have:

 

  1. Tweeting – Given that the Twitter integration on iPhone 5 is really great, the fact that Siri cannot create and publish tweets on your behalf comes across as a disappointment. Surprisingly, the virtual assistant does understand the task – but is (as it says itself!) is incapable of doing it. A newer, better version of Siri should definitely address this issue. A tweet-reader functionality would also help.

  2. Understanding heavily accented English commands – The fact that Siri is now available in multiple languages has been hailed by general iPhone users and representatives from every mobile application development company worldwide. However, there have also been reports that Siri often fails to understand English commands without the traditional American accents. With the global user-base of Apple iPhone steadily on the rise, Siri simply cannot suffer from a language barrier.

  3. Less reliance on web connectivity – It’s as simple as this – if your iPhone does not have internet coverage, Siri will not work. The latest iOS devices have done away with the old offline voice dialing features – and that often adds to the problem. In late-2012, there was a serious network problem on Apple devices, and Siri was rendered useless for over 24 hours. An improved Siri should retain certain basic functions even when there is no internet connection.

  4. Better performance as a task-scheduler – Setting reminders with Siri is easy – for activities ranging from important business meetings, to a visit to the local grocery store. However, there is no option to edit a reminder, after you have confirmed it. Setting up a list of goods you need to buy is an unnecessarily time-consuming task as well. Siri is, at present, the most trusted mobile reminder app – but there are still scopes for improvement.

  5. A bit more common sense – Siri’s pool of general knowledge is mighty impressive, but she should really stop taking every command in the literal sense. In particular, if your command is a fairly long one (e.g., a command to text a contact about something important), the response can often be erroneous. If you say ‘Tell Mark he has to play tonight’, Siri would send the text ‘he has to play tonight’ – leaving poor Mark completely confused!

  6. Managing the Bluetooth and Wi-fi connections – For managing your iPhone’s wi-fi and Bluetooth features, there are no options other than browsing to the ‘Settings’ tab, and doing what’s required manually. Siri cannot help you with enabling/disabling these connectivity features – which is strange, because it is programmed to perform much more complex tasks. When those up top at Apple plan a new and improved Siri, they should surely implement these wi-fi/Bluetooth toggling features in it.

  7. A better ‘raise-to-speak’ option – Wish to raise your iPhone near your ear, for giving voice commands to Siri? You might find that the feature does not get activated – even though you have made the required changes in the Siri settings. A common complaint that many iPhone app development companies in India and abroad often receive is that, people are still having to press the ‘Home’ button, even though ‘raise-to-speak’ has been turned on. When Siri gets a makeover, users (hopefully) would find using this option to be easier.

  8. Email readability – Siri can read text messages, but email messages are, apparently, too difficult for her. While you can instruct the iPhone virtual assistant to compose and send emails, reading new mails has to be done on your own. If you receive spam mails, Siri won’t help you to mark/flag them either. Siri might have problems in reading long emails with heavy attachments – but why it can’t read even short mail messages remains a mystery.

  9. More voice options – Probably a petty complaint, but even so, it is worth a mention. You can toggle between the male and the female voices of siri – but that’s about it, when it comes to the speaking versatility of the popular virtual assistant on iPhone. If you do not like the default male/female voice (there’s no guarantee that you will), there is no option to browse other voice tones and modulations. People interact with Siri every day, and they should be able to choose a voice that they find to be the most pleasant.

  10. Ability to add contacts – Another inexplicable shortcoming that Siri, in its present avatar, has. Since the mobile assistant has easy voice-dialing features, you would expect it to add new contact names on command too – but Siri can do nothing of the sort. You have to tap on your phone screen, to make a fresh entry to your address book. Siri cannot edit any contact information either.

  11. Option to initiate apps with Siri – The Spotlight feature of iOS devices does make using multiple mobile apps simultaneously possible – but things can be made much easier. If only Siri could be instructed to launch the applications you require, you would no longer have to browse through the apps that are already open. In case you have lots of apps running, choosing the one you need at a certain point in time can be tiresome.

With iPhone app development in India and overseas steadily picking up pace, we can probably expect Siri to have better voice-transcription abilities in future. The new version of the virtual iPhone assistant, when it comes along, should also provide the option of directly navigating to specific web addresses (Siri can’t do that at present). Siri is relied upon by many for tasks of various types – and with a proper upgrade, it would become even more useful!

 

Mac-Magic! 22 Facts About Apple Mac That You Should Know

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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It’s birthday time, and that too of an entity all of us are very much familiar with. Mac was launched in late-January 1984 – and on its 30th b’day, we take a trip down memory lane about some facts associated with it.

 

When Steve Jobs presented the Apple Macintosh on the 24th of January, 1984 – not many really believed that it could compete with Windows PC systems. Thirty years have passed, and Mac has more than held its own in the global computer markets. Although Windows still remains the leader in desktop computing OS, the market share of Mac is steadily moving upwards. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Apple Mac, we take a look back at a few interesting facts about it:

 

  1. The first Apple computer – Steve Jobs, then a twenty-one-year old youngster, had the guts to leave a plush job to collaborate with computer engineering wizard Steve Wozniak – to create the very first Apple computer. The chunky machine bore a price tag of nearly $670!

  2. Keyboard and monitors – what’s those? – Apple I, which came out in 1976, did not resemble a computer in the way we visualize it at present. The device only had loops of wires and cables and circuits, and did not even have a monitor or a keyboard. Not surprisingly, marketing it initially was a bit of a problem.

  3. Arrival of Mac – According to people related to the field of iPhone app development in India and overseas, this was one of the most defining events in the timeline of Apple Inc. Jobs had been frustrated by internal unrest within the company, and had taken charge of the Macintosh project (then perceived as a low-value project). The ‘1984 will not be like 1984’ commercial for Mac became a part of Apple’s folklore.

  4. Color screens – The first-launched version of Apple Mac did not have any color features. Jobs and his team changed up things with the Mac II, which could support nearly 17 million colors (with the help of an external graphics card). The price of Mac II was not competitive though, by any stretch of the imagination.

  5. The first Apple laptop flopped – At least it wasn’t the big success that most Apple products are expected to be. However, the 1989 launch of the Macintosh Portable did reveal that the company wanted to design computers that could be used from any location.

  6. Money Matters – In the modern day world, when iPhone application development companies from all over are raking in huge revenues, it is easy to forget about the profitability of the Apple Macintosh. It was revealed in a report that the company made around $1280 on every Mac machine – more than double of the money flowing in from the sale of an iPhone handset.

  7. Apple vs Microsoft – Apple and Microsoft were at loggerheads from the very start, and things came to pass in 1988 – when Apple sued Microsoft for allegedly ‘stealing’ copyrighted graphic user interface (GUI) systems. The lawsuit verdict went against Apple though, and there was a bad buzz about the company for some time.

  8. The ouster and return of the genius – Steve Jobs’ journey with Apple Inc. was not a uniformly smooth one. Inspite of the promising start to Mac systems, internal quabbles led Jobs to resign from Apple in 1984, and start another company – NeXT Inc. 13 years later, Apple was in such a bad shape, that the then-CEO had to get Jobs back on board. Ironically, that CEO (Gil Amelio) was fired at a board meeting soon after.

  9. Speed – A high operational speed has been one of the standout features of all Mac versions. Once, a race between the performance of a 1990 Mac Classic was tested against that of a Windows Dell PC (2007). The former won, in a canter.

  10. Most popular Mac system – Surveys have shown that almost half of all the Mac-users across the world have the MacBook Pro computer. The user-friendly features and the superior reliability of the model have led to its widespread acceptance among people.

  11. Can a Mac flop? – Oh yes it can, and there have been several cases of Mac models not finding a decent-enough market. The biggest disappointment in this regard has got to be the Mac Mini. The sales figures of the widely hyped MacBook Air also fell way short of expectations.

  12. Fierce competition – In 1990, Microsoft showed clear signs of edging out Apple, after the Windows 3.0 platform had been released. Apple responded by designing and launching Macintosh LC, IIsi and Classic – three relatively cheaper Mac models. None of the three were poorly-received, but they were not big money-spinners either.

  13. Visual appeal – Jobs wanted to break the conventional visual features of computers, which, till 1998, bordered on the boring. That was when the colorful iMac made its appearance, with the Apple CEO even challenging Mac-lovers to get all the five versions that were launched. Disk drives and USB ports were present on iMac systems, instead of the soon-to-be-useless floppy drives.

  14. Internet Explorer on Mac – That’s right – the old Mac OS9 did have a version of the Microsoft Windows Explorer. Firefox (more well-known as ‘Camino’ to Mac-geeks) and Chrome took over later, and IE made an exit from the Mac OS framework.

  15. What does OS X mean? – If you are using a Mac OS X system, you should be aware of the meaning of the platform’s name, right? OS X is the acronym for ‘Operating System Extreme’ – which, remarkably, uses features of OPENSTEP (from NeXT, the company Steve Jobs had founded when he was out of Apple).

  16. A cube-shaped computer! – Never shy of experimenting with device design features, Jobs and his colleagues brought out the Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000. The machine had a protective casing around it, and could be put in any spacious cubical structure. Power Mac G4 Cube was not quite the financial success that Apple had hoped it would be.

  17. The man behind the Mac design – It wasn’t Jobs who actually designed the iMac. That credit goes to Jonathan Ive, who was later officially recognized for his creativity and imagination. Ive also designed the iPhone and the iPod – and deserves much applause for the ease with with which people can now use the various iPhone apps.

  18. Launch of the iPhone – 2007 was a landmark year in the timeline of Apple – with the launch of Apple TV and iPhone. The company, hitherto known as ‘Apple Computer Inc’, was renamed to ‘Apple Inc’. The timing for this name-change was right – for Apple was increasingly diversifying its electronic products.

  19. End of the PowerPC microprocessor – A year earlier, the era of Mac computers with PowerPC microprocessors came to an end. Instead, the new Mac systems were powered by the x86 processor, and a customized Boot Camp software program. The latter helped many users to set up Windows OS on their Mac systems.

  20. First Mac with wi-fi card support – As early as 1999, Apple managed to introduce the concept of wireless web access, with the iBook G3. At the time, using a computer without wires and cables was nothing short of a miracle, and Steve Jobs indeed make the launch event of iBook G3 look like a magic show.

  21. The steady increase in exposure – Any person with the remotest knowledge about computer usage is familiar with the name of Apple at present – but things were not the same three decades back. In fact, there was a time when delivery personnel in Japan thought that Apple was into marketing…not computers, but apples!

  22. And then, there was iTunes – The year was 2008 (18.7.08, to be precise) when the iTunes app store was launched. The range of iPhone and iPad apps showcased at the store grew steadily, and have, at present, surpassed one million. People find it easy to download apps from iTunes, and the latter has also helped many mobile application development companies make handsome money!

The MacBook Air Platinum is the most pricey Mac system, and only five units of it were released in the markets. Apple had to ward off allegations of environmental abuse (most prominently by GreenPeace), and Jobs and Wozniack had to face severe fund crunch during the nascent years of the company. It’s remarkable how Apple successfully competed with Microsoft and Exxon, and finally surpassed them – to become the most valuable public company and technology company in the world. If it had not been for Steve Jobs’ vision and the charm & usability of the Mac systems, modern-day computing would have not received that extra dash of sophistication.

 

Happy 30th Birthday, Mac!