Author Archives: Hussain Fakhruddin

AppBoard Tuesday – The Journey From An Idea To An App

At times, you just know that you have chanced upon a good app idea. And then, all goes to waste – because you spend too much time procrastinating on how it can actually be transformed into a mobile application (or whether doing so would be even possible). The notion of learning the basics of iOS/Android programming, and then getting down to make an app, is hardly practical either. A unique, interesting, and (most importantly) practically viable app idea is worth its weight in gold – and in this week’s AppBoard Tuesday (ABT), we will guide you on how app ideas can be systematically transformed into efficient mobile applications:

  1. Make sure your app idea is complete – You cannot work with a half-baked, one-liner app idea (say, ‘I want to make an iPhone app for travelers’). Jot down the features that you want the application to have, and think about the manner in which end-users will benefit from it. Make sure that your app idea has one core focus (which would be the main ‘purpose’ of the app). There is also the small matter of deciding whether you should go for a native app or a mobile web app. With the surge in the worldwide smartphone usage rates and the emphasis on user-experience, opting for native applications would be smarter.
  2. Decide on the platform – If you want your app to have maximum reach, you should optimize it for the Android platform. On the other hand, if you wish to earn more revenue (mind you, that’s not a given…and the costs would be slightly higher), you need to hire the services of an iOS app company. Cross-platform mobile app development is important – but ideally, you should start off with a single platform. Once that one is successful, you can always create versions for other mobile platforms.
  3. Look for a mobile app company – If you do not have time to kill (and then some!), trying to give shape to your app idea all on your own won’t be a smart option. There are literally hundreds of good mobile app companies listed on the internet, whose services you can avail of. Do some research on the web, create a shortlist of 3-4 app development firms, and ask for free app quotes from each of them. Have a chat with their respective representatives as well. Depending on the quoted expense, the track record of the companies, and your first impressions about them – select the one that seems the most suitable.
  4. Be wary of shady clauses – Unfortunately, like in any other professional field, the domain of mobile app-making has its fair share of fraudulent companies (on the hunt for quick bucks and getting one up on unsuspecting clients). Before signing/agreeing to any contract document, ask about things like the estimated deadline for the completion of the project, the total costs and when you need to pay (run a mile from companies that charge all the money in advance!), the intellectual property rights of the app, and when/what upgrades will be released in future. The best Android or iPhone app development companies will never charge you extra for app upgrades.
  5. Include wearables in your app development plan – Okay, this one is (mainly) for those who wish to create iOS applications. Along with the iPhone version of your app, request the company to make a custom version for Apple Watch as well. It won’t be a tough ask to find a firm that has started out with WatchKit app development (it might have already released a few Watch apps). IT software and app developers feel that wearable technology is the future of mobile tech, and your app idea should include provisions for that.
  6. Know how your app idea is being worked on – Xcode, Eclipse, Android Studio, Swift, JSON – these might all be just random words for those of you who have an app idea, but are from a non-technical/non-programming background. That does not, however, mean you cannot understand (and indeed, ask the app company to help you understand) how the app is shaping up. Request for primary wireframes (low-fidelity sketches) and mockups to be shared with you on a regular basis. Suggest feedback and tell the developers on the job to modify anything that you do not like. You are the client, you are the one paying the big bucks, and you have every right to be a part of this ‘idea-to-app’ journey.
  7. Be careful about the app UI and designs – There are two ways to go about this. If you have professional-level expertise in working with tools like Photoshop, CorelDraw and Spine – you might take care of the designing/animation aspect of your mobile app yourself (make sure you let the app company know about that from beforehand). Alternatively, you can delegate the entire app development process (development and design deployment) to the agency you have hired. Make sure that the coding and the designing is not done by the same team (if it is, it’s time to look for another company). Check the screens, layouts, proposed touch behaviors/gestures, and the in-app navigation. Even a small glitch in these can ruin an otherwise nice application.
  8. Brace yourself for some initial disappointments – Mistakes happen, miscommunications crop up, the app prototype deviates from your initial idea – even if you hire the best mobile app company in the world. Never be hesitant to send in feedback and suggestions on the design prototypes (in case you do not feel that the screens are not quite pixel-perfect) – and keep at it until you are completely satisfied about the features/visual elements of the app. If possible, visit the offices of the company which is working on your project for a one-on-one meeting. It takes a bit of time for the developers’ way of working to become completely in sync with your way of thinking – allow some time for that.
  9. Know the tradeoffs – Think of a triangle. It has the app development cost figure at one corner, the quality factor of the app at the second, and the scheduled project completion deadline on the third. With competition among iOS as well as Android apps being fierce, you cannot possibly compromise on the quality factor. This means there will be a small tradeoff between the expenses and the time factor. If you are not in a tearing hurry to release your app, the final cost figure will remain within your budget.
  10. Find out how you will earn – Ah, now we come to the point that all (okay, most) people with an app-idea are interested about. Inquire the Android/iPhone app developers on the job about what monetization strategy will be used in your application (you can choose from in-app purchases, mobile ads, or paid downloads – the first among these being the most popular). In addition, make sure that the mobile app analytics will be monitored by the company (i.e., the way the app would be used by people). Ignore these factors – and you might end up spending big money on a piece of mobile software that does not yield adequate returns.
  11. Be a part of the app testing group – The initial builds of your app will be plagued by bugs, screen freezes, crashes, and other problems. Professional developers would systematically remove these problems (most IDEs offer real-time code testing options for agile development), and then move the app to the final testing phase. Apart from the in-house testers of the company, you should also install the app on your own smartphone/tablet – and check it out. Testing the app in the cloud is also important. Look out for the speed of the app, its bandwidth/memory requirements, and whether it is causing excessive battery drain. Factors like these can (and probably will) get your app rejected at the store.
  12. Make sure that the app is well-marketed – How many personal contacts do you have? 50, 100…500? You cannot possibly ask each and everyone to try out your new Android/iOS application – after it is released at the store. In the absence of proper app marketing, general awareness among smartphone-users about it would remain low (can’t blame them, there are 1.5 million+ apps at iTunes and Google Play Store). Do some marketing on your own – and make sure that the app is being publicized by the developers, via press releases, social media posts, emails & newsletters, and app review channels (the genuine ones, of course). The end-users can give a positive rating to an app only if they are aware of its existence!

When you contact an app company with your idea, ask about the devices the application should be optimized for. This is comparatively easier on the iOS platform, where new apps should be usable on iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPhone 5 (and maybe, iPhone 4S). The task is way more difficult for Android, where there are so many vendors – each tweaking around with the plain-vanilla version of the OS. You need to focus on maximizing the reach of your app as much as possible (read: optimize for all popular devices). After all, everyone should be able to check out your app idea!

 

That, folks, brings us to the end of yet another edition of AppBoard Tuesday. In an earlier edition of ABT (in October 2014), we had given a more general overview of how ideas can be transformed into apps – you can go through that too. Feel that there is something else required to move from the idea to the deployment stage? Let us know, and if your point is valid, we would include it in this list.

 

AppBoard Tuesday will come back next week, with another mobile app-related topic. Till the next time, love thy apps…and make sure that your app ideas do not go to waste!

 

 

Training iOS Developers. Shaping Careers. Helping In App Creation. All At Teks.

 

Making an iOS app requires in-depth knowledge about the platform, the development framework and tools, command over programming techniques…and a feel of the pulse of what would work and what won’t. That’s precisely why we conduct regular app development training workshops, seminars and hands-on sessions. We daresay they have been helpful for attendees, and well-appreciated among them till date.

 

At Teknowledge, we do not believe in rat-races – getting dragged down in a desperate fight to stay a step ahead of other mobile app companies. Instead, knowledge-sharing is the thing we have always valued the most. Anyone who wants to learn about iOS development – right from theoretical tidbits to actual deployment – can expect thorough guidance from our developers, and indeed, myself. It’s an exciting professional field, and Teknowledge would love to move ahead in this domain with all aspiring/currently working developers.

 

Before I outline the basics of the 22 different iOS training courses we offer, let me just touch upon one point. I do not generally write about these training sessions over here, on our official blog. So, why the exception now? Well, today marks the completion of 6 years of our very first iPhone app development seminar. It has been a long, enjoyable journey – one during which we have learnt, and hopefully helped others learn, quite a bit.

 

Okay, now onto our training courses. I’ll just focus on the courses that are on offer in 2015 (3 workshops, 1 of them overseas, have already been conducted this year). Check out the following – and do let us know if any of you would like to sign up for our upcoming seminars:

What Are Our iOS Training Sessions About?

 

Oh well, everything related to (and at times, not that closely related to) creating iOS applications. In particular, we focus on training developers to make complete apps for the iOS 8 platform.

 

Which Programming Languages Are Discussed At The Seminars?

 

We mostly concentrate on making our delegates familiar with the Swift programming language for iOS development. Porting Objective-C codes to Swift (and the other way round) is touched upon too. During the Q&A sessions following the hands-on sessions, we take specific questions about working with both Objective-C and Swift.

 

Do The Attendees Need To Know Programming?

 

Yes, a basic coding knowledge is a must. We take delegates through the more advanced techniques of iOS app-making, but they should have the knowhow to write simple Objective-C/Swift codes. We give the programming expertise of freshers an edge, and resolve queries & doubts of professionals.

 

Which Version Of Xcode Do We Focus On?

 

At present, it’s obviously Xcode 6 (Xcode 6.3, to be more precise). Apart from introductory lectures, we have provisions for practical sessions – where attendees can get a first-hand feel of working with the IDE. Right from storyboarding and GUI-designing, project navigation, a tour of the Xcode features, code debugging and using actions/outlets to connect visual features – everything is included in our Xcode training modules.

All You Need To Know About Cocoa Touch

If you wish to become a successful iOS app developer, there is no way you can manage without thorough knowledge of the various Cocoa Touch APIs. That’s the key reason why we have started allotting 4 sessions for training attendees on Cocoa Touch from this year (earlier on, we had 2 sessions for this). Using core classes of the framework, code partitioning, interacting/handling the controller layers – these are some of the topics related to Cocoa Touch we receive many queries on.

Other Topics We Cover In Our iOS Training Workshops

 

Yep, this is getting lengthy. Let me just wrap up by mentioning the other tools/topics that are touched upon at our app development training sessions. We invite internationally recognized speakers to share their knowledge on:

 

  • Setting up and using View Controllers, Segues and Storyboards.
  • Implementing touch gestures and animations in app codes.
  • The basics of Model-View-Controller (MVC).
  • Designing the UI and overall layout of apps (we have a separate team of graphic designers who helm this module).
  • Keyboard configuration and usage.
  • JSON framework (optional).
  • Mobile app testing.
  • General debugging methods.
  • Chalking out plans for app upgrades.
  • WatchKit app development (i.e., making apps for Apple Watch).

What Is The Duration Of Our Seminars?

When we started out (one sultry mid-May morning in 2009), it was a 6-hour seminar – with 3 speakers. Over time, we have been fortunate to have more guest speakers, and the number of delegates (from India and overseas) has grown exponentially. From the last year, we have started hosting two types of seminars:

 

  • Single-day iOS training (for those who are already know Swift programming and are familiar with the basics of Xcode/Cocoa Touch).
  • Two-day iOS training (for freshers who have just completed their programming courses).

 

 

Of course, experienced professionals are more than welcome to join the latter course. We would love to have them!

 

Do The Attendees Need To Bring Anything?

Their pens, their notebooks (or laptops)…and their thinking caps! From a couple of days in advance, we start setting up the projectors, PA system, Mac computers, and everything else that would be required for the workshop. All that our attendees have to do is learn, ask questions, and learn some more!

 

The People At The Helm

 

Apart from me and my senior colleagues, we invite globally renowned experts on iPhone app development to conduct sessions at our iOS training programs. On average, around 25 case studies and 15 dummy projects feature in the training modules we organize. As the attendees to our previous events testify, we provide the best iOS training sessions in Asia.

See You At The Next Seminar, Maybe?

If you are an aspiring iOS developer, we would love to have you as our guest in our next training program. We are planning to organize it sometime in late-June – and if you are interested to participate, simply drop in a mail to info@teks.co.in. We will notify you about the event itinerary, as well as the dates of the next edition of the Teks iOS training session.

Samsung Pay vs Apple Pay: Battle Of The Mobile Payment Platforms

Apple Pay became available to users in October 2014, and already, we have a worthy alternative mobile payment app to it – the Samsung Pay, which has released with the latest Galaxy flagship phones. In today’s discussion, we will analyze which of the two applications is better, on the basis of certain vital parameters.

 

 

You have got to hand it to Apple and Samsung for continuing with, and in fact, expanding their professional rivalry. As has been the norm over the years, the battle between the latest smartphones of the companies (iPhone 6/6 Plus and Galaxy S6/S6 Edge respectively) is going strong – and the tussle between the tech giants has now spilled over to the domain of contactless payments (i.e., mobile payments) too.

 

Samsung announced its mobile payment platform – Samsung Pay – at this year’s Mobile World Congress, barely six months after Tim Cook had let everyone know about Apple Pay (last September). Apple Pay debuted on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, while the Korean company included Samsung Pay in the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge handsets. In this Samsung Pay vs Apple Pay battle for superiority, which one comes out on top? Let’s do a point-by-point comparison:

 

  1. Compatibility – To start things off, let’s see on which devices users would be able to avail the services of the two mobile payment channels. As was widely expected by software and mobile app developers worldwide, Samsung Pay is ONLY available on the latest Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. The device compatibility of Apple Pay is rather limited too, since users who own the iPhone 6/6 Plus, or are early adopters of Apple Watch, can make payments with it. Both of these are proprietary software, unlike Visa Checkout or the proposed Android Pay platform. Apple Pay has the advantage of arriving earlier at the market, but the difference would hardly matter in the long-run.
  2. Security – Once again, there is nothing to choose between the two. The process of generating random numerical values by Samsung Pay and Apple Pay (‘tokenization’) ensures that the actual card details never get disclosed to the merchants and sellers. According to experts from the domain of mobile transactions and app development, ‘hacking’ card details is virtually impossible when payments are made via either of the two platforms. There is, in fact, a school of thought that mobile payment channels like these will gradually eat into the popularity of traditional credit card usage.
  3. Setting up the apps and adding cards – The edge lies marginally with the product from the Cupertino company here. There is no difference in the card registration/addition procedure on Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – it can be done either via scanning cards with the camera, or simply typing in their unique number and expiration date. However, there is a difference when it comes to accessing the cards for payments. To use Samsung Pay, an upward screen swipe (from the bottom) is required. On the other hand, whenever the latest flagship iPhone is in the vicinity of a contactless reader, the card details immediately appear on its lock screen. No extra swiping involved!
  4. Retailer support – Trust the two persistently warring tech giants to gather plenty of retailer support for their ambitious mobile payment channels. Within 72 hours of Apple Pay being available for iPhone-owners, more than a million cards were reportedly registered on it. The total number of retailers supporting Apple Pay stands in excess of 200000, with most American banks and credit card companies having pledged support to it. On its part, Samsung has announced that nearly 31 million retail companies already have the setup to support Samsung Pay transactions. The key factor here is: iPhone 6 is already a hit, giving a cushion to Apple Pay. To become a success, Samsung Pay will be heavily reliant on how well (or otherwise) the Galaxy S6 phones fare.
  5. Tracking transaction history – Apple does not, in any way track or store the details of the transactions conducted via Apple Pay. Mobile software analysts and iOS app developers feel that this eases a major security concern from the minds of users. Neither is any transaction data provided to third-party retailers. Samsung also refrains from tracking user-purchase and transaction history. Given that it is still early days for mobile payment technology, its main rival is Apple Inc., and there is still some apprehension among people about using these platforms – the Korean tech giant can hardly afford to slip up in this regard.
  6. NFC and more – Wherever Apple Pay works, Samsung Pay works. The reason is simple enough: both the mobile payment gateways support near-field communication (NFC), which makes transactions quick, hassle-free and completely secure. The fact that Android-users had a feel of NFC before Apple finally got around to it on the iPhone 6 is a point in Samsung’s favor (since Android-users are more familiar with the technology). Samsung Pay offers yet another advantage too – it can also be used on magnetic credit card readers (Magnetic Secure Transmission, or MST). Since there are many retailers who have not adopted NFC yet, the reach of Apple Pay can remain limited. Samsung, however, has the software for point-of-sale terminal usage.
  7. Ease of usage – Apple Pay keeps things brief and systematic. All that iPhone or Watch-users have to do to use it is select the card for payment on the screen, and authenticate it via fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint sensor feature of the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge phones is central to the use of Samsung Pay as well. Users have to tap their phone screen at the magnetic strip of the merchant or the contactless card reader – which is an extra step. What’s more, many mobile app development experts as well as general users have reported that it is rather troublesome to hold devices in the ‘correct’ way over the magnetic stripe readers. Handing over the Android handset to the merchants is, understandably, not an option that finds favor among users. The difference is not much, but Apple Pay is just a tad simpler to use.
  8. A bit more about MST – Samsung Pay offers MST payment support over and above the NFC technology. This, in theory, should give it an advantage over Apple Pay (As we have pointed out earlier). What’s more, Samsung would, in all likelihood, move to the developing nations with its mobile payment platform – and in these countries, magnetic card readers are still way more popular among retailers than the NFC setup. In fact, Samsung had acquired LoopPay in mid-February to ensure that it did not need NFC for remaining functional. However, the Magnetic Secure Transmission has also been hailed by many iOS developers as a piece of outdated technology. Particularly in the United States, this extra feature won’t give any additional leverage to Samsung Pay over Apple Pay.
  9. Provision for in-app purchases – This one is a serious advantage in favor of Apple Pay. The terminal can be used for in-app purchase transactions, on freemium applications in the iPhone 6 phones, iPad Mini 3, and iPad Air 2. Those who are making payments via MST on Samsung Pay cannot use the platform for any form of in-app purchases – since the technology supports only older terminals. There is some uncertainty over whether Samsung Pay with NFC will be usable with general Android applications.
  10. Partnership with credit card companies – Both Samsung Pay and Apple Pay are already working in partnership with major players like MasterCard, Visa and American Express. From the perspective of the users, this means that cards will be automatically accessible and usable on either of the two applications, once they have been registered. However, Apple enjoys a first-mover’s advantage here, since it has already entered into tie-ups with close to 120 major financial institutions (including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup). It remains to be seen how many, and how quickly, Samsung Pay is able to get into partnerships with the same leading financial institutions. One thing is clear though: it is a win-win scenario for credit card companies.
  11. Availability on wearable gadgets – Apple provides it, Samsung (as yet) does not. Android app development professionals worldwide feel that the next generation of Galaxy Gear devices would have Samsung Pay – but till then, the mobile payment app is available only on the recently released Galaxy S6/S6 Edge. Apple Pay, on the other hand, is available for use on Apple Watch – the company’s first smartwatch. As per early reports, using Apple Pay on Watch is extremely easy. Until Samsung Pay becomes available on its wearable gadgets, it will be at a slight backfoot.
  12. Geographical reach – The need to pick one from Apple Pay and Google Pay is an option that is available only to American users at present – since United States is the only country where both the mobile payment technologies are available. Apple Pay is, in fact, available only in the US, while Samsung Pay can be used for making payments in USA and…no surprises here…Korea. The advantage of geographical reach, however slight, lies with Samsung.
  13. Backward support – Apple Pay requires NFC, and hence, it is not (and will never be) usable on older iPhones (iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 owners will miss out). Similarly, Samsung has not revealed any plans till now of pre-installing the Samsung Pay app on the predecessors of the Galaxy S6 phones. Mobile application developers feel that, with backend support – both Apple Pay and Samsung Pay would have had higher adoption rates.
  14. Can Samsung Pay hurt Apple Pay adoption? – Even though the fight is apparently between the mobile payment platforms of the two companies, the competition is – in essence – not directly against each other. Android users are not likely to switch over to iOS simply due to the features of Apple Pay (neither is the opposite scenario likely). If Samsung Pay indeed becomes popular and Apple Pay keeps growing – they will contribute together to the growth of NFC technology in particular, and mobile payments overall.

In a recent comparison study, LoopPay beat Google Wallet hands-down, indicating that Samsung Pay (which comes with Infineon security assurance) is indeed an easy-to-use, secure and efficient mobile payment application. George Wallner and Will Graylin have ensured that the app is comparable to Apple Pay. While the robust sales of iPhone 6/6Plus phones have given a headstart to Apple Pay, its adoption is still sluggish (85% of iPhone 6-users are yet to give Apple Pay a try) – and even if Galaxy S6/S6 Edge sells equally well, the early adoption of Samsung Pay will not be very high. All things considered, Apple Pay holds the aces over Samsung Pay – thanks to its earlier arrival and popularity of the supported devices. Samsung Pay has plenty of high points too (in the short-run, the MST support can be a game-changer), and over time, has the potential to become equally popular.

 

The final winner? Contactless payments!

Are You Aware Of These New SpriteKit Features In iOS 8?

When the iOS 8 platform was launched by Apple, the SpriteKit framework received quite a few new features – geared to make the tool more developer-friendly. In what follows, some of these new SpriteKit features have been listed.

 

Released with iOS 7, SpriteKit has fast become the preferred mobile game development tool for many developers across the globe. According to reports, its popularity has already started to rival that of Cocos2D. The fact that SpriteKit is a native Apple framework has been an advantage too. On the iOS 8 platform, several new features have been added to SpriteKit – much to the delight of mobile game developers. We will here highlight some interesting new additions to SpriteKit on iOS 8:

 

  1. Integration with SceneKit – Apple finally brought the Objective-C-based SceneKit tool to its mobile platform – SceneKit – with iOS 8. Game development experts now have the option of using this tool to add 3D content in applications created with SpriteKit. A SK3DNode object has to be declared, which would serve as the root for the app/game scene. The three-dimensional content gets rendered directly within the SpriteKit pipeline, and coders can manage them just as general SKNode instances. The overall hierarchy becomes something like: SK3DNode → SCNScene → SCNNode → SCNLight/SCNCamera/SCNGeometry. Of course, SceneKit can be used on a standalone basis as well.
  2. Enhanced physics support – SpriteKit on iOS 8 offers delightful game physics support. The SKFieldNode, which is used to include physics fields, can be combined with an array of diverse factory methods. Radial gravity fields (SKFieldNode.CreateRadiaGravityField() ), Spring Fields (SKFieldNode.CreateSpringField() ), and radial vortexes are some instances of the new physics fields that can be created with SpriteKit. With the same SKFieldNode class, iOS app development experts can tweak around various field properties, like region, strength, and field force attenuation.
  3. Compatibility with OpenGL ES – Prior to the release of iOS 8, there were no provisions of accessing the OpenGL ES framework directly from SpriteKit. Apple has changed things around with its latest mobile platform, by introducing greater support for the built-in fragment shaders in OpenGL ES. The SpriteKit tool had been released in the first place to provide iPhone game developers an engine on top of OpenGL, and with iOS 8, collaboration between the two tools has become seamless.
  4. From Textures to Physics Bodies – This is a breakthrough feature of SpriteKit, added in the new version. While creating 2D/2.5D iOS games, developers can now derive physics bodies of sprites from their respective textures. The extra coding required for this only involves calling SKPhysicsBody.Create (i.e., sprite.PhysicsBody = SKPhysicsBody.Create () ). Note that, the size and the texture attributes have to be present inside SKPhysicsBody.Create. With the help of this new feature, game animators can now make clashes and collisions in their game interfaces appear much more realistic than before.
  5. Customized Shaders and Effects – Apart from supporting the fragment shaders of OpenGL ES, SpriteKit on iOS 8 comes with a variety of other shaders for screen customization. Since the required coding for implementing shaders has significant similarities with Objective-C, proficiency with that programming language is essential (then of course, you cannot start using SpriteKit without knowing Obj-C, right?). Since the shader effects are applied in the per-pixel method, they appear that much more detailed and engaging. After creating a ‘ShaderSceneEditor’ in the ‘SpriteKit Scene’ (under File → New → Resource), game developers need to navigate to ‘SKNodeInspector’, and set the Gravity and Size parameters. This will add the desired shader effect to the game scene.
  6. Magnetic Fields – Another newly-added feature in SpriteKit that helps iPhone app and game developers add more realism to their software. The Magnetic Fields are all about ensuring that, in a scene, all the nodes would be under a virtual gravitational effect and would be pulled in a downward direction. Both the strength and the position of the magneticFieldNode have to be configured, and coders have to add a separate SKPhysicsBody instance under didMoveToView: (to implement the gravitation pull). The magneticFieldNode instance variable, of course, is created in PhysicsScene.m. All new magnetic field nodes are added as ‘child nodes’ to the SpriteKit scene.
  7. Displaying physics field effects in sprites – Professionals from the field of mobile game development correctly point out that many of the new features of SpriteKit are related to its physics properties. Here’s another of them: developers can now add the effect of the same or different force fields on a sprite. A ‘public override void TouchesBegan’ class has to be added for the former. Whenever players touch the game screen/specific objects, the physics field effects are displayed (for example, radial movement of a character). A sprite can also be influenced by a different physics field by declaring a ‘SKFieldNode fieldNode’, and specifying the ‘fieldNode.Enabled’ option as ‘True’. Remember to add the other properties (falloff, position, strength, etc.) of the fieldNode as well.
  8. More lights for games – Game illumination can be made more personalized than ever before with SpriteKit in iOS 8. To make their iOS games more visually appealing, as many as 8 different lighting effects can be added to every sprite. Inside the LightingSceneEditor.sks, there is a well-stacked Media Library – with a host of resources that can be added to game interfaces (including ‘Shadows’). While configuring the light and shadow, developers have to first set the Node’s Z-Position to ‘1’, and then set the properties/values for ‘Ambient’, ‘Shadow’ and ‘Color’. Each property of the sprite nodes are matched with the ‘categorybitMask’ light property (this happens during the scene rendering) – and whenever the properties are in sync, the lighting/shadow effects are displayed on that particular sprite. In SKNodeInspector, the background has to be updated – otherwise the light won’t illuminate the background.
  9. Calculating Inverse Kinematics – The objects in SpriteKit games can now be made more geometrically accurate by iOS developers – thanks to the new Inverse Kinematics (IK) functionality. In the joint hierarchy in SpriteKit (with parent nodes and child nodes), the final points of any structure is given – and based on its position, coders can calculate the angles at which the other joints have to be present. The max. and min. rotation angles between joints is specified via the constraints specified for each of them. Since all the joints are moved around their respective ‘anchor points’, the overall structure remains systematic. Inverse Kinematics can be implemented directly from the PhysicsSceneEditor, and after selecting the target sprite(s) from SKNodeInspector.
  10. Getting real time feedback on shaders – Not only has Apple really revamped the shaders in SpriteKit on iOS 8, it has also made the chances of errors remaining undetected minimal. While coding the shaders, game developers can check real-time feedback (within the Xcode environment). Since alerts are generated as soon as any potential shader errors are detected, developers need not wait till the actual deployment of their games on simulators/devices to find out bugs (if any). The overall mobile app testing procedure also becomes a touch easier. To get the runtime feedback, coders have to configure the Assistant Editor in a manner that, both the new shader as well as the SpriteKit scene are visible.
  11. New set of Constraints – A new range of physics field constraints have also been added to the SpriteKit tool. The properties of every single sprite node can be altered by adding constraints to them. To specify constraints, you have to be in the ‘Edit’ mode and set values for IK Constraints Max and Anchor Point X. Once this is done, you can check out the effects of the specified constraints under the ‘Simulate’ mode. In addition, there are options to manually change the properties (size, position) of the sprite nodes.
  12. Including Custom Shaders – Ever since SpriteKit custom shaders were showcased by Apple at last year’s WWDC, they have been a focal point of interest for all iPhone/iPad game development experts. Adding these shaders is simple enough – an empty source file has to be created, and from ‘iOS’, the Other → Empty option has to be chosen. After that, a small block of code has to be written, to add a custom shader. Alternatively, shaders can also be added by detecting the tap-position of users on the game screen, and putting a custom SKSpriteNode there. Following each tap, a new sprite (the type depends on your specifications) gets added – with custom shaders and modified textures.

The option of adding Color Sprites is yet another nice addition to the Lighting features of SpriteKit in iOS 8. With the help of the SpriteKit-SceneKit integration, game developers can check out live previews as well as import external models. It is advisable to start off working with SpriteKit on the latest stable iterations of Xcode (Xcode 6.3) and iOS 8 (8.3). The new features in the game engine indeed make the tool more exciting and developer-friendly.

 

 

AppBoard Tuesday – How NOT To Use Mobile Apps?

Let’s start off this week’s AppBoard Tuesday (ABT) with a rather remarkable statistic. Last year, on average, 1 out of every 5 downloaded mobile apps were opened only once within the first six months by users. Feel that this is a pretty damning evidence in favor of the fact that most apps are viewed as ‘unsatisfactory’ or ‘useless’ by people? Well, the ‘once-used’ figure stood at 27% in 2011 – so things have, in fact, improved ever so slightly. Even so, there are complaints galore about the usability of many iPhone/Android apps – with a large number of applications being downloaded but never used (nopes, not even once) by smartphone-owners. While there is no denying that a large number of these apps do have bugs and/or other issues, wrong usage of apps by users can also lead to problems. In today’s ABT, we make you aware of common mistakes while using mobile applications. Avoid them and get optimal app (and device) performance:

  1. Downloading ALL new apps – You might be in love with your iPhone and be eager to try out every available app on it – but that won’t be a smart idea. For even the busiest of executives or the most prolific mobile gamers, only a handful of apps are necessary on a regular basis – while the rest simply reside on the phone, taking up memory space and being a general nuisance. On Android phones, this is even more of an issue – since a large portion of the available DDR RAM is taken up by system files. Search for and download only the apps that you are likely to use regularly. Your phone is not a storehouse for dumping ‘never-to-be-used’ software.
  2. Not checking the battery consumption of each app – iOS 8 comes with a Battery Usage Monitor, the battery juice used up by each app can be tracked on the latest Android Lollipop-powered devices – and it would be a mistake to not use these features. Once every couple of days, check how much of your phone’s battery juice is being ‘sucked up’ by each of the installed applications. If you find any of the apps is causing serious battery drain, get rid of it immediately (you might consider reinstalling it, in case you use it regularly). If the battery performance of your handset has gone down all on a sudden, a rogue app is probably the reason for that.
  3. Letting apps run in the background – This is yet another mistake many smartphone-users make. Experts on mobile software and app development state that it is advisable to close every app, when it is not being used. Simply letting it run in the background (and this can happen without the user even knowing it) would be a folly, and would lead to unnecessary battery usage. Check the Task Manager of your device to find which apps are currently active, and close the ones that are not being used. Too much of mobile multitasking can be a bad thing!
  4. Not checking reviews before downloading apps – Exchanging fake 5* reviews have become a common mobile app marketing strategy for many companies (there are plenty of Facebook and Google Plus communities for the purpose). Even so, you should always check the store reviews and ratings of an app, before actually downloading it. Pay particular attention to the unfavorable (if any) reviews. These are the ones that will give you an idea about the problems that an app might give rise to.
  5. Ignoring problems in your device – A new iOS application is not working properly on your device, so it HAS to be a problem with the app, right? No, wrong! If you are using an older flagship smartphone (say, the iPhone 4S), it is entirely possible that your device is not performing optimally – and hence, it is not being able to support the apps you have recently downloaded. Getting your smart device serviced at least once a year would be a good idea. Glitches in a device can lead to unsatisfactory performance of apps too.
  6. Not checking for device compatibility – Most mobile app companies try to make their applications compatible with as many devices and version models as possible. That does not, however, mean that your phone would necessarily support a particular app. In particular, an Android application might work fine on one device, and show up problems in another (this occurs mainly due to the tweaks that the different vendors do to the ‘plain vanilla’ version of the Android OS). Older flagship iPhones might also be not supported by newly released applications (most new iPhone apps are optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus). Randomly downloading any app without checking its specs would be too naive.
  7. Glossing over privacy and security concerns – This is one mistake you definitely do not want to do. A couple of weeks back, there was considerable controversy over the usage of certain mobile wallet apps – on the grounds of their security (or the lack of it!) features. With mobile payment software like Apple Pay and, to a lesser extent, Google Wallet (Samsung Pay has also debuted on the Galaxy S6) gaining in popularity – it is of essence that you stay away from third-party, untrusted wallet applications. According to leading mobile app entrepreneurs, only such wallet apps should be used whose security features can be tested and found okay. Otherwise, unauthorized access of personal data remains a risk.
  8. Not upgrading the apps – App upgrades are not something teens generally miss out on. However, smartphone-users from a slightly older age-bracket might not keep track of the new versions and upgrades of apps released by the app development companies. These upgrades are free, they fix the bugs present (if any) in the previous versions, and bring along several new features. Not moving to the latest version of a mobile app would mean staying stuck with the outdated (and probably buggy) version. If you want top-class app performance, that’s certainly not what you want to do.
  9. Being unaware of the bandwidth requirements of new apps – Okay, this IS a problem of the app – but the onus lies on you to remove the applications that hog excessive amounts of mobile bandwidth. If your device slows down significantly after installing an app/set of apps, that is a telltale sign of a problematic app having been downloaded. Do not just let the app ‘live’ in your phone. You won’t be using it (read: can’t use it, for it’s too ‘heavy’), so what’s the point of keeping it?
  10. Not using parental control features in children’s apps – The best Android and iPhone apps for kids have built-in parental control features. Unfortunately though, many parents are not aware of this and/or do not know how to activate the parental permissions. As a result, children (bless their innocent souls!) have a free reign while chatting with shady strangers, downloading stuff via in-app purchases (for which the parent has to pay later), or surfing web pages that are…well…inappropriate for them. When you download a mobile app for kids, you should be the first person to learn how the thing works. This goes for general educational apps too. Do not have half-baked information, and then complain about not having control over how your kids are using smartphones and tablets.
  11. Be wary of device overheating – If you are an intense mobile gamer, you have probably faced this problem more than once. After an hour or so of playing games, if you find that the device has become fairly warn, stop playing, exit from the app – and give the smartphone/tablet some time to cool down (literally and figuratively!). Using apps continuously for extended periods won’t do much good for your mobile battery either. It is not the fault of a perfectly good gaming app if you overuse it!
  12. Using third-party Apple Watch apps – There isn’t much you can do about it. Close to 4000 WatchKit apps have already been created by developers – but only a few of them are of a decent quality standard. If you are one of the early adopters of Apple Watch, all that you have to do is wait for a few months. More, and importantly, better apps for Watch would soon be available at the store.

Do not get into any in-app purchase transactions that you do not need (no matter how lucrative an offer might sound). You should preferably download apps submitted by indie developers/mobile app companies which have a fairly large portfolio. Be careful about GPS-based location-sharing apps. If you use an Apple smart device, upgrade to the iOS 8 platform, since most new apps are optimized for the new platform (the adoption rate of the latest Android platform, Lollipop, is still pitifully low though). Use mobile apps the smart way – the way that they are meant to be used – and you will find that there are a lot less reasons for complaint. Mind you, you can always come across an app that is indeed buggy!

 

Okay then, that wraps up AppBoard Tuesday for this week. Do you know why we chose this topic for discussion today? Well, it can take upto $120000-$130000 to create enterprise apps, and it would be a shame if they were not used the right way. The costs for making general consumer apps is not insignificant either.

 

AppBoard Tuesday will return next week with another fresh mobile app-related topic for discussion. Till then, stay well, use apps wisely…and of course, love thy apps!

iOS App Submission Guidelines: A 16-Point Checklist

Every quarter, a significant percentage of the total number of apps submitted at the Apple Store gets rejected. In what follows, we have highlighted some important points that would boost the chances of an app being approved.

 

Unlike at the Google Play Store, getting new apps approved at the Apple App Store can be just a trifle tricky. Developers need to follow a host of terms and guidelines, while creating applications and submitting them at the store. Although the Cupertino company does not release any official figure regarding the volume/percentage of the total volume of rejected apps, 58% of all rejections can be attributed to ten rather common factors (or mistakes, from the point of view of developers). Here’s a checklist of key store review guidelines that need to be followed, to maximize the chances of an iOS app going from ‘In Review’ to ‘Ready For Sale’:

 

  1. Test your apps. Thoroughly – Apple takes the issue of app bugginess very seriously. According to available stas, over 3% of all app rejections occur due to the presence of bugs/malware, and resultant app crashes. Mobile app companies need to have separate teams of testers, who would be in charge of checking all the features of applications, before they are submitted at the store. In addition to the simulators (available in Xcode), new apps have to be installed and tested on actual devices too. What’s more – apps that cause excessive battery drain and/or are likely to cause harm to the target Apple device(s) in any way are rejected forthwith.
  2. Follow the 4+ rating – Every visual element of an app at the store – right from screenshots and previews, to app icons have to conform to the 4+ age rating – as specified by Apple. There should not be any differences between the small and large icons of the same iPhone/iPad/iPod/Watch app. In case iOS app developers assign incorrect ratings to their apps or include them under a wrong category/genre, they should brace themselves for rejection too. The name of the app at iTunes Connect and on the device have to be identical.
  3. Location APIs and user permissions – Indiscriminate usage of location-based APIs is an absolute ‘no-no’ in iOS applications. Experts from the field of mobile app development advise against using any API in a new app, for either emergency purposes or controlling automobiles/planes on an automated basis. App developers also have to make sure that their mobile software asks for user permissions before collecting location-based data and using the same for any purpose. Provided that the necessary permissions are obtained, location data can be used by an app for advertisements.
  4. Stay away from duplication – For new iPhone app developers, the temptation to simply replicate an existing iTunes application can be immense (after all, there are well over 1.5 million apps, many of them are successful, so why not just make a copy of any one of them?). Doing so, however, would be an ideal recipe of getting a new app rejected. The rejection risks increase in proportion with the number of apps that are similar to a newly submitted application (e.g., flashlight apps). Never release multiple versions of the same app, which would be treated as spamming. If an app is found to be a miniature version of a website, or if it does not provide any long-term value, it will be in violation of the app review guidelines too.
  5. Placeholder text and metadata – Apple clearly specifies that new apps cannot contain any placeholder text. Those that have placeholder content are invariably deemed as ‘incomplete’, and hence, are generally rejected. If an iPhone app company wishes to submit a beta app, it can do so only through TestFlight (there is a separate set of TestFlight guidelines to be followed). The metadata of an app cannot contain the name of any other mobile platform either. In case the description is not found to be relevant/related to the actual functionality of the app, that is another criterion for rejection. Close to 2% of app rejections at the App Store occur due to incorrect app descriptions provided by developers.
  6. In-app purchases – Revenues from freemium apps are growing at a rapid clip (the growth was more than 200% last year). However, app developers need to be careful while implementing freemium features in their iOS software. No other purchasing mechanism other than Apple’s in-app purchase (IAP) method can be included in an application. The services or content (e.g., new digital storybooks in a mobile app for kids) have to be available within the app as well. It is possible to use in-app purchases for providing credits/currency – but the same must not get expired, and should be consumable within the application. The IAP subscriptions should remain available to users for a minimum of seven days.
  7. App advertising guidelines – Although including in-app ads is a valid mobile app monetization strategy, abusing this method can lead to new apps getting rejected. Developers should never resort to any shady, underhand methods to increase the click-through rates (CTR) of the advertisements present in their apps. Every quarter, plenty of iPhone apps get rejected, simply because their prime purpose is displaying ads (i.e., they do not deliver any specific ‘value’ to end-users). There should not be any blank iAd banners present in the app either.
  8. Implementing push notification functionality – If an app has push notifications feature, the same should be available for free to users (i.e., they are not liable to pay any charges for such features). There is a specific API called Apple Push Notification, which has to be used for implementing the notification feature (the unique Push Application ID has to be obtained beforehand). Via push notifications, no form of personal/confidential information can be transferred. Nor can they be used for the sole purpose of displaying promotional content. Make sure that no form of malware gets transmitted through push notifications. An iOS application cannot download any type of codes either – so be wary about that.
  9. Size and functionality – Any iOS app development expert worth his/her salt would know that apps should never exceed the maximum size limit of 100 MB. Non-compliance to this limit will make the app non-downloadable over any cellular network. The features and functions of the app have to match the descriptions provided by the concerned app company (read: no hidden functionality allowed). Apple also prohibits the usage of non-public APIs in new applications. The onus lies on iOS developers to ensure that their applications do not make use of any data from sources other than the assigned counters. If a feature is present in an app but is not documented by the developer, it would almost surely get rejected.
  10. Stay away from using offensive content – While creating apps or games, developers have to make sure that no group or community is being deliberately downgraded in any way. For example, in a game application, the ‘villain’ or ‘enemy’ must not be depicted as members of a particular community (race, caste, etc.). App companies are not supposed to submit apps that are similar to/are variants of Russian roulette, or encourage violence and usage of realistic weapons. Apple places prime emphasis on parental control features in the iPhone apps for kids at the store – and that’s precisely why applications with any form of ‘crude content’ are liable to get rejected immediately. In general too, an app should give users the option to flag inappropriate content.
  11. Media and content streaming – The data used by an app for streaming audio content cannot exceed the limit of 5MB (over a period of five minutes). For large video streaming (e.g., for longer than 10 minutes), a 192 kbps baseline has to be used, along with the HTTP Live Streaming feature. There is a bar against replicating the interface of the iTunes store in any of the screens of a new app as well. The media resources in the Apple Media Library can, of course, be accessed by an app – but for that, the latter should be using the available MediaPlayer framework. If audio or video content is downloadable from third party channels (e.g., SoundCloud or YouTube), separate authorizations are required.
  12. Following Game Center guidelines – This is vital for iOS game developers. Those who try to reverse lookup, data harvest, trace, or misuse Player IDs in any way run the risk of getting booted out from the iOS Developer Program altogether. Final users of the game app should not be able to view Player IDs, while leaderboards can be displayed only after the required approval is obtained from the Game Center. During the testing phase, developers have to check whether any type of unnecessary data, virus, programs or files (generally used for phishing purposes) are being transferred via the Game Center. If an app uses Player IDs for any purpose that is in conflict with Apple’s terms of service, it is simply waiting to be rejected.
  13. iPad compatibility and resource usage – While creating an iPhone app, a developer needs to ensure that it would be downloadable and usable on the iPad too – at a resolution level of 2X iPhone 3GS. Apple also provides WebKit JavaScript resources (apart from the WebKit framework), which have to be used by applications that have web-browsing features. App-makers do not have the permission of specifying which carriers their app will be compatible with, while location-based exclusion of users is not allowed either. In addition, an app should not be created for the purpose of promoting/marketing/encouraging the download of another application. The regulations specified in the iOS Data Storage Guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/icloud/documentation/data-storage/index.html) also have to be followed.
  14. Charity apps, lotteries and sweepstakes – Apple does not take any responsibility regarding the sponsorship of mobile sweepstakes. The concerned app development company needs to declare itself as the sponsor of the contests/sweepstakes. There is a prohibition clause against allowing users to purchase raffle tickets directly from an iOS application. In case a lottery app is submitted at the store, the same should have all the legal permits, provide all pertinent information to users, and must not involve transference of real money for gaming purposes. Charity-based applications have to be free, with text messaging or web browser services being used for the collection of donations.
  15. Making iOS apps for kids – The App Store has a vast range of children’s apps – right from mobile storytelling apps to learning apps for kids. Developers are required to specify the age range that their apps target (for instance, 6-8 or 9-11, etc.). These apps cannot have advertisements that are customized with the behavior of the end-users (kids) on them. For outbound linking from the app and/or in-app purchases, parental gateways/permissions have to be used. An iPhone app for kids should also contain a detailed privacy policy, and must not violate the security considerations of the little users in any way.
  16. Apple Pay, HomeKit and HealthKit – Proper Apple Pay branding has to be used by iOS apps that offer mobile payment options to users. The items available for purchase should not violate any territorial law, and the app needs to have a privacy policy as well. User-data can be shared only for the purpose of facilitating the delivery process of the purchased goods and services. All relevant information should be available on the app, prior to the purchase being made. The HomeKit framework may be used by developers for including home automation functionalities only. Care has to be taken to make sure that the HomeKit APIs are not being used to harvest or mine data, or use them for any other unauthorized purpose. Apps that include the HealthKit framework are not supposed to store any form of user-health data on iCloud. Once again, a privacy policy document is necessary, providing inaccurate data is prohibited, and the HealthKit API must not allow third-party access of a user’s health information without prior permissions.

iOS developers working on apps with extensions need to carefully go through the information provided in the App Extension Programming Guide (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/index.html). Providing previews of iTunes music in a new app is strictly prohibited. Apps that use Passbook credentials have to be created in line with the specified guidelines. No form of pornographic applications are allowed at the App Store, and developers should never try to access user-passwords by including hidden data transfer features in an app. WatchKit developers need to think beyond applications that only show the time and do little else. To be approved at the App Store, an iOS application needs to have high-quality user-interface, in-app navigation and layouts.

 

Around 6% apps were rejected last quarter because their interfaces were not user-friendly enough. More significantly, over 13% were dumped due to absence of adequate information provided by their developers. Make sure that you follow all the clauses of the Apple Program License Agreement. You are putting in the hard yards to make a new, unique app – finding that it has been rejected would certainly be disappointing!

 

Mobile Trends & Figures 2015: From The Developers’ Perspective

Keeping track of the latest mobile trends and updates is absolutely essential for developers who wish to earn professional success. In today’s discussion, we have summarized the most noteworthy facts and figures from the domain of smart devices and app platforms from the first few months of this year.

 

 

A lot has been happening in the world of mobile technology since the turn of the year. Highly-anticipated smart devices like Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy S6 have been launched – much to the delight of gadget-lovers. The iOS vs Android tussle has been raging on, with the latest mobile OS from the respective platforms (iOS 8 and Android 5.0 Lollipop) clamoring to go one up on the other. Mobile app developers and analysts are also looking forward to this year’s Google I/O (May 28-29) and Apple WWDC (June 8-12) events, where major announcements are expected to be made. Let us here take stock of all the interesting trends and figures related to mobile tech from the perspective of developers, from the first quarter and a half of 2015:

 

  1. Workload – On average, professional app developers are taking up 6-7 projects annually. Most mobile app companies across the world are focusing on being prompt in providing free app quotes and other ongoing services to clients, and delivering value via their products. Developers are also increasingly working on multiple platforms (iOS, Windows, etc.), instead of limiting their service on any one platform.
  2. Battle for market-share – Android still has a more than healthy lead over iOS, but the dominance might just be faltering a bit. Researches conducted by mobile app development experts have revealed that, while Android’s market share in Europe stood at 68.5% at the end of the first quarter of 2015 (a fall of more than more than 3% compared to 2014 Q1), that of iOS jumped to nearly 21% (an increase of around 2%). In addition, Apple’s mobile platform has experienced rapid growth in the Chinese markets (its current market share in China is 26.2%).
  3. Android losing users to iOS? – One of the most intriguing aspects of the iOS vs Android debate in 2015, and one that has got app developers all hooked on. In Europe, almost 32.5% smartphone-users switched over from Android to iOS during the first quarter of this year. The success of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 probably has contributed to this so-called ‘exodus from Android’. It remains to be seen whether Google can hit back with its Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
  4. Revenue talk – iOS is, by far, the mobile platform with the maximum earning potential for app makers. However, there are distinct indications that the pace of revenue-generation from mobile apps have slackened in 2015. 6 out of every 10 iOS app developers have a monthly income of less than $5000. On the Android platform, only about 18% developers manage to touch or surpass that income figure. In fact, the HTML5 platform has more app developers over the $5000/month earning zone than Google Android.
  5. Not a profession that promises overnight riches – From the evidence available from 2015 Q1 figures, it would be fair to say that the number of unsuccessful app developers is way more than that of successful ones. Only 5% of the total number of app development professionals worldwide manage to rake in more than $500 per month from their projects, with a further 5% falling in the $100 to $500 income bracket. At the other end of the spectrum, we have close to 18% app developers not making any money whatsoever on their software, and another 18% earning less than $100 every month. It is, in fact, somewhat paradoxical that app revenues have stagnated somewhat at a time when smartphone sale figures are escalating.
  6. Consumer apps ve Enterprise apps – Once again, there is a difference between the developer mindshare and the earning potential between these two categories of mobile applications. Around 45% of those involved in enterprise app development boast of monthly income figures in excess of $10000 (not even 20% of consumer app developers can make a similar claim). However, when it comes to professional focus – the enterprise market is treated as the primary target by only 2 out of every 10 app developers. For 65% mobile app development companies, creating apps for general consumers is more important.
  7. Primary platform for developers – With Blackberry struggling and Windows yet to make any significant mark, it’s once again iOS and Android fighting it out for becoming the primary platform for app developers across the globe. Figures from the first few months of 2015 suggest that Android has a slight edge in this regard (it is the primary platform for 41% developers, while 38% treat iOS as their main development platform). Interestingly, these figures are up by 15% (for Android) and almost 10% (for iOS) over last year’s statistics. This only goes to show how far the other smartphone OS platforms are falling behind.
  8. The curious case of Windows Phone – The Windows platform did manage to register solid growth in developer mindshare in the first quarter of the year (at present, 3 out of 10 developers work on the platform). However, a paltry 8% app developers consider Windows Phone as their primary platform. Windows has not been able to make much headway in terms of market share either (approximately 3%). For freelance/indie developers though, the Windows platform does offer a scope to gain greater professional exposure than the already overcrowded Android and iOS platforms. In terms of revenue though, the prospects seem pretty bleak.
  9. Developer mindshare outside Europe and the United States – There is a general belief that iOS dominates in Europe and the US alone, while Android is the king everywhere else. While not entirely true, the figures from the  Q1 of 2015 are slightly skewed in that direction. 43% of mobile app developers in Europe and America reported that iOS was their primary platform, while outside EU and US, 49% developers preferred working on Android as their primary platform. The difference is even more significant when it comes to overall developer marketshare. Almost 60% app developers in the UK and the US create apps on the iOS platform. In other countries, Android has a whopping 73% developer mindshare.
  10. Premium vs Budget – As expected, the focus of Apple has remained on positioning iOS at the premium end of the mobile market. The price tags of iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus and the recently released Apple Watch bear testimony to that. In any case, the Cupertino company was not going to walk down the budget-smartphone line – after the iPhone 5C debacle. On the other hand, although the Android One project did not do well in India – Android still has many vendors that churn out budget smartphones on a regular basis. The only catch here? Most of these vendors do not provide the ‘plain-vanilla’ version of Android in their phones.
  11. Adoption rates of the latest versions – iOS has a headstart on this count. By March 2015, the adoption rate of iOS 8 was an impressive 73% (despite the fact that the iOS 8.1 and 8.2 upgrades were pretty lousy). The number of iOS 7 users (which, incidentally, was off to an even faster start) has dropped to around 26%. On the Android front though, Kitkat still leads the way with a close to 40% adoption figure. Android 5.0 Lollipop has been installed in just a shade over 2% devices – a far cry from what many Android app developers and software analysts had predicted. The uncertainties over the rollout of the Lollipop update hasn’t helped either.
  12. Swift is a roaring success – There are no two ways about it – Apple has hit the bull’s eye with its new Swift programming language. More than 20% app developers worldwide have started coding with Swift, and more interestingly, 23% of them have actually replaced Objective-C with Swift (47% developers use Swift and Obj-C simultaneously). If the overall iOS app development scenario is concerned, only a shade under 40% developers use Swift on a regular basis. App-makers have clearly taken a liking to it.
  13. The cost factor – Both on the software and the hardware fronts, the mobile app development costs on the iOS platform is significantly higher than that on the Android platform. This, in turn, slightly offsets the discrepancies in revenues from the mobile platforms of Apple and Google. iOS app developers still earn more than their Android counterparts – but the net difference is lower than what it seems at the first glance.
  14. A final word about Blackberry – It seems that new CEO John Chen is repeating his Sybase-magic at Blackberry as well. When the company officially reported a loss of almost $6 billion early last year, most app developers had written the company off. In fact, BB had failed to find a buyer in 2014, when it was almost certain that the company would be sold. The much-hyped Z10 and Q10 were unmitigated disasters too. However, the impressive show of Blackberry Passport and Blackberry Classic have made cross-platform developers sit up and take notice. Maybe, just maybe, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for this once popular mobile platform.

iOS and Android are still expected to be the platforms that app developers would be interested in the most, for the next few quarters at least. It will be interesting to note how the Tizen OS (from Samsung) performs, if and when it is released. By the time Watch released, there were well over 3000 WatchKit applications at the store – although most of them were qualitatively below par. All eyes are on the next few months, as developers keep an eye on new announcements, and strive for ways to boost their earnings and serve their clients better.

Top Reasons Why Samsung Galaxy S6 Will Not Be An ‘iPhone 6-Killer’

The reviews of the recently released Samsung Galaxy S6 have been mostly positive, and the sales have been highly impressive. However, it is not quite the ‘iPhone 6-killer’ that both Google and Samsung had hyped it to be.

 

Over the years, many smartphones have been hailed as ‘iPhone-killers’. The Samsung Galaxy S6, launched on April 10, is the latest to join the bandwagon. Android fans and loyalists have been quick to point out how the first-week sales figures of the S6 and the S6 Edge have been more than that of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (79586 vs 36700 units, according to an April 20 ATLAS Research and Consulting report). So, will Samsung Galaxy S6 live up to its billing as the ‘iPhone 6-killer’? The following factors and device bugs suggest that it won’t be able to do so:

 

  1. Poor battery performance – Flagship smartphones hardly ever boast of great battery lives. The Galaxy S6 is no exception to this. Its battery (2500 mAh) is slightly smaller than that present in its predecessor – the poorly received Samsung Galaxy S5 – and in terms of performance, it is about at par (maybe marginally better, but it’s too close to call) with that of iPhone 6. Activating the Battery Saver Mode can help users (or doing a factory reset) get a bit more battery juice from the device. Rather inexplicably, Samsung has gone for a non-replaceable battery for the new flagship phone. There have been reports of the battery of S6 dropping by more than 60% within 5-6 hours of normal use.
  2. Unreliable wifi connectivity – Prior to the release of iOS 8.3, the iOS 8 platform also had this problem. General users as well as Android app developers have confirmed that the new Samsung Galaxy phone has the same bug as well. The speed of the wifi connection is generally sluggish, and there have been many instances of call drops. Testers have found that the wifi of S6 remains weak even in environments where the signal is fairly strong. A telltale sign of poor wifi reception is the painfully slow speeds at which common social media applications (Twitter, FB, etc.) load on the S6. Samsung has failed to bag any advantage over Apple in this regard.
  3. Memory bug – This one has been officially admitted by Samsung, and is a major usability issue with the Galaxy S6. The presence of 3GB DD4 RAM in the S6 and the S6 Edge sound nice in theory – but many users have discovered that only about 400-450 MB is available for use at any time. In other words, this means that around 2.5 GB of memory is being eaten up by the system tasks of the new devices. At online Android app development forums, there have been several complaints of users not being able to install applications – since their brand new S6 has inexplicably ‘ran out of memory.’
  4. Error-prone GPS – Apple Maps is not yet perfect, but neither is the built-in GPS of the ultra-hyped Samsung Galaxy S6. The problem becomes particularly pronounced if a user does not set the GPS to ‘High Accuracy’ (under Settings → Location). For general purposes, the location tracking features of the S6 are fair enough – but there is a disturbing app lock related problem that crops up often. While using fitness apps, many people have reported that grossly inaccurate data is being displayed on the phone.
  5. Faulty screen rotation – This has been a concern of the early adopters of Galaxy S6 as well as Android app and game developers alike. It is pretty much certain that the accelerometer and gyro sensors of the phone have issues – due to which the display often gets stuck in the Portrait Mode (even when auto-rotation is activated). Device analysts have found that the x-coordinate of the device’s sensors does not change from -32768, which gives rise to this display problem. Incidentally, users of Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge have experienced this problem too. There have been no similar bugs reported about the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
  6. Random refreshing of apps – Together with the RAM management problem, this has been yet another irritation for buyers. According to reports obtained from the XDA forum, Android apps get automatically refreshed – even when there is plenty of free memory space. There have been instances of app refreshes interrupting other active tasks on the phone. In all likelihood, this is a software bug – and the best workaround is opening the ‘Smart Manager’, identifying the apps that are not likely to used regularly, and getting rid of them. iOS 8 app developers have, to date, not received reports of such user-complaints.
  7. Camera flash does not turn off – This has been a bit of a shocker for many Android fans. The 16 MP rear camera of Galaxy S6 was expected to be qualitatively a couple of notches higher than the 8 MP iPhone 6 camera. In reality though, the bugs in the former has made it practically unusable. The built-in flash in many of the Samsung device remain on even when the camera app is not being used (there have been stray reports of the flash remaining on after the phone has been turned off too!). Mobile software analysts and app developers have reported that the camera focus of the S6 and the S6 Edge has room for improvement too. With bugs like this, no smartphone can become an ‘iPhone-killer’!
  8. Problems in Bluetooth connectivity – Another very common issue with new flagship smartphones, and Samsung has not been able to stay away from it. Locating and connecting via bluetooth (Bluetooth 4.1 is set up in the phone) is strangely slow and often buggy, while cases of connection drops midway through file transfers are also not uncommon. Those who have tried to use Bluetooth in the car on their S6 devices have faced this problem more frequently. Booting the phone in Safe Mode can be a workaround (as can be making the handset ‘forget’ all the connected devices, and then initiate search again). However, until a patch is released to resolve this issue, users will remain dissatisfied.
  9. Auto-deletion of messages – Another quirky feature of Samsung Galaxy S6 which keeps it from becoming a serious challenger of iPhone 6. A fairly large percentage of users have found that the text messages received on the phone get deleted on their own, after a certain time interval. Restarting or doing a hard reboot does not sort out this intermittently appearing problem. What’s more, those who make Android apps and other related software have found that deactivating the ‘Delete old messages’ option is not of any use either.
  10. Charging problems – Android has evidently not been able to work its way out of phone-charging-related problems yet. While using a wall-charger (the one that comes with the device), many users have found that the charging process is too slow. At times, the charging stops and resumes automatically as well. Experts in phone battery management and Android application development have advised people to use USB chargers – but the process becomes even slower if that is done. Poor battery life and problem-ridden charging is certainly not a desirable combination in a smartphone that aspires to become one of the best of all time.
  11. Tendency to get overheated – Not a uniform problem, but even so, it is worth a mention. Mobile gamers as well as professionals from the domain of game development have found that the S6 gets overheated after an hour (often, less) of playing games on it. The rate of battery drain accelerates significantly too. A temporary fix for this can be rebooting the phone (preferably in the Safe Mode). Interestingly, some users have experienced overheating problems even though they were not putting the phone to any intense use. Another problem for Samsung to identify and sort out.
  12. Mediocre app performance on certain cases – Mobile app companies have received plenty of reports about applications not functioning normally on the S6/S6 Edge. In general too, there is a bit of sluggishness about the performance of the device (which is a surprise, since Samsung has done a good job of improving TouchWiz). Some of these issues have been more or less resolved when users have updated the problematic apps – but most Android fans are looking forward to a performance patch for the new flagships.
  13. Call drops and random disconnections – Again, not an universal problem – but something that an ambitious, state-of-the-art smartphone should not have at all. However, it has been tested and confirmed that call drops do occur rather frequently on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Certain users have also stated that, while their calls do not get disconnected totally, the voice sort of fades away (even when the phone volume is turned up). To compete with iPhone 6, major improvements on this count are required.
  14. Buggy fingerprint scanner – It’s just sad that, at a time when issues related to mobile security are being highlighted, an Android phone has come along which has a rather unsatisfactory fingerprint scanner. The ‘Home’ button has to be repeatedly touched/tapped, for the phone to be able to ‘recognize’ you. On the one hand, Apple Pay is gaining in popularity by the day (it works like a charm on Apple Watch), and on the other, the Galaxy S6 is riddled with biometrics related problems.

Speculations have been rife over the non-arrival of the Tizen OS (for many months, rumor had it that the next flagship Samsung phone would ditch Android and have its in-house operating system, Tizen) on the Galaxy S6 phones. To give where credit’s due, the new handset is a vast improvement over its shoddy predecessor (the Galaxy S5), with the metal body instead of the plastic on the previous models being a refreshing change. It gives the phone a premium look and feel too. However, until all the above bugs are successfully removed, the Galaxy S6 will not be challenging the popularity of iPhone 6 – let alone ‘killing’ it.

 

 

AppBoard Tuesday – Make Good Apps, Spread The Happiness!

“Choose A Job You Love, And You Will Never Have To Work A Day In Your Life”

                                                                                                                               — Confucius

Nothing can probably sum up the mindset of mobile app developers who are passionate about their jobs better. Getting the charge of new projects is akin to exciting new challenges for them – and from that point on, it’s all about completing the job in the best possible manner. A good app (visually and qualitatively) can deliver happiness (‘satisfaction’ would be a weaker term) to all parties concerned, be it the clients or the concerned app companies. In this week’s AppBoard Tuesday (ABT), we point out a few ways in which well-made mobile applications make people happy:

  1. Happiness of not losing a good idea – App ideas that are both innovative and practical are not the most common things in life. A person would, understandably, be elated if (s)he finds a company which can transform his/her ambitious ideas into workable, interesting applications. At app agencies, employees are, in fact, encouraged to come up with new, unique app ideas and concepts. A good app is, in essence, a well-thought out idea in the physical form.
  2. Happiness in getting new projects – For newbies, working on dummy iOS/Android app development projects is all very fine – but nothing beats the thrill of being assigned to an actual project. For experienced app developers too, most projects present opportunities to learn something more, something new. Generally, a team is given the responsibility of working on an app – and that fosters the spirit of collaboration and the willingness to help out each other. The result? A ‘better’ app.
  3. Happiness in showcasing sincerity – This one is for the heads of app development companies. Quick bucks might be earned in the short-run by including a couple of shady clauses in the app contract agreement documents – but real happiness lies in ensuring a transparent way of operating. Right from providing free app quotes and abiding by clients’ precise requirements & budgetary preferences, to remaining accountable right through the app development period and providing post-submission support – each of these little things build up the trust factor about a mobile app company. And when a company has a positive buzz about it among its clientele, CEOs are invariably happy!
  4. Happiness in showing off creativity – Creating a custom mobile app for kids (e.g., a game, or a storytelling app with illustrations) is the perfect opportunity for professional graphic designers to show off their creative skills. Working in tandem with animators (and obviously, as per the instructions of clients), they can create layouts and splash screens and characters and actions that would make the app truly appealing to potential end-users. Yes, directions have to be followed – but app designers can bring in their own inputs too.
  5. Happiness in getting value on investment – Someone randomly chances upon an original app idea and thinks about hiring app developers to give shape to it. Do you what holds them back in many cases? That’s right, the uncertainty of whether doing so will be worth the investment (mobile app development costs are not exactly insignificant!). A bug-free, properly usable, nicely customized app delivers the ‘VALUE’ on investment that a client always looks for – and it justifies the expenses incurred on making it. ROI figures matter in all lines of business!
  6. Happiness for programmers – This is a type of mental bliss those from non-technical backgrounds can never quite appreciate fully. App coders get a supreme sense of achievement on being able to write out a program snippet without any errors or warnings, and/or debugging the programs written by him/herself. There are people in our very own company who take pride in completing apparently tough coding assignments overnight. With the arrival of Apple Swift and the gathering of momentum of WatchKit app development, programmers now have more opportunities to enjoy themselves at work than ever before.
  7. Happiness for app marketers – Putting in the hard yards for making an iPhone app can all go to waste, if it is not marketed properly (there are, after all, more than 1.5 million other applications in the iTunes store). If an app is indeed a ‘good’ piece of mobile software, those in charge of promoting/marketing it will be more confident about it. The publicity campaigns and pitches will be more…shall we say, from the heart…and the marketers would enjoy the feeling that they are sharing information they too believe in.
  8. Happiness at not being kept out of the loop – A good mobile app company will make it a point to regularly share app wireframes, rough sketches, mockups and other related stuff with its clients. There will be meetings and feedback sessions held at pre-specified intervals as well. For people who have invested money on making apps, this is important. They have the right to know exactly how his/her project is being handled, who and how many developers are working on it, and whether it will be completed on time. ‘A good mobile app is being made from my idea’ – this belief itself is nice.
  9. Happiness at quick approvals – The average time for getting an iOS app approved at the App Store is 9-12 days. No matter how quietly confident developers might be about a recently submitted application, they get a massive kick out of seeing the status of their app change from ‘In Review’ to ‘Ready For Sale’. For really well-made apps that have been developed in accordance to all the Apple guidelines, the approval can be complete within a week. Now, that’s some extra motivation for iPhone app developers to pursue excellence in what they do!
  10. Happiness at the lack of uncertainties – Free app quotes are provided by most app companies upfront. Clients generally get the option of specifying their budget preferences. Some of the leading multinational app agencies have the provision of signing non-competing agreements too, to protect the intellectual property rights of the customers. On top of all this, if a client gets the constant assurance that his/her app would be of top quality – (s)he would surely feel happy. No uncertainties and apprehensions whatsoever.
  11. Happiness due to recognitions and awards – The logic is straightforward: good apps have more chances of picking up awards and professional recognitions, while lousy ones remain confined to a corner at the online app stores. Winning a prestigious app award (or even being shortlisted for one) makes the owner of an application happier than almost anything in the world. Getting to work, switching on the computer, and chancing upon a 5-star review on a popular app review site/portal/magazine has a decided ‘pick-me-up’ effect as well.
  12. Happiness at not having to work – Ever studied the faces of people with mundane, 10 to 6 jobs? No matter how fat their pay packages might be, most of them are bitter about the workload, the workplace conflicts, the ‘impossible’ deadlines and targets, and if nothing else, the sheer boringness of it all. A mobile app developer hardly ever feels like that – simply because working on new, challenging projects is exciting, something to look forward to, something that they love to do. Employee-oriented app companies provide developers plenty of training and on-the-job learning opportunities. In essence, and just like Confucius had stated, what they do is not ‘work’ per se. Who wouldn’t love to be in a profession that is exciting AND financially rewarding?

Speaking of monetary matters, the revenue-earning potential of good apps is yet another source of happiness for its makers/owners. Provided that a proper app monetization strategy has been implemented and the app analytics are being tracked, the payoffs from a successful mobile application can be handsome indeed.

 

On that happy note, let’s bring today’s AppBoard Tuesday to a close. If you (developers or general readers) can think up of any other excitement related to the profession of app development – do share it with us. We would love to hear why you love making apps.

 

Some other app-related topic would be put under the scanner in next week’s AppBoard Tuesday. Till that time…oh well…you know you should love thy apps!

iOS 8.4: 14 New Features To Look Forward To

iOS 8.4 beta 2 (for developers) was seeded last week, and its initial reviews have been mostly positive. The update is available both over-the-air as well as on Apple’s developer portal. We here do a round-up of the major updates in the soon-to-release iOS 8.4 version.

 

 

It has been just over a month since the release of iOS 8.3, and the buzz among Apple-enthusiasts is already on about a further upgrade – iOS 8.4 (the firmware has been dubbed the ‘Copper’ update). The second developer beta of the latest iteration of the iOS platform was seeded last Monday, along with the first public beta and the second developer beta of Xcode 6.4. The build number of iOS 8.4 is 12H4086d, and it is expected to be an improvement on its relatively stable predecessor. Some new features expected to be included in iOS 8.4 are:

 

  1. App Store search – Among the several bug fixes iOS 8.4 will have, this one is, arguably, the most important. In the first beta of the upgrade, App Store search was non-functional (on iPads) – and that has been sorted out in the second beta. The GPS accessory support feature (‘Made for iPhone’) has also been revamped. Mobile software analysts and iOS app developers, however, feel that there are still several bugs in the music app of iOS 8.4 (beta 1) that need to be worked on.
  2. Up Next desktop player – In its bid to improve the music experience of users, Apple will be adding an ‘Up Next’ icon to its iOS 8.4 update. The icon will be available from desktop iTunes, and tapping on it will open up the ‘Now Playing’ playlist. People will be able to customize the order in which songs/music will be played with greater convenience. If and when required, songs present on the playlist can simply be skipped with ‘Up Next’ too.
  3. Beautifully designed music app – iOS 8.4 will probably have the biggest influence of the Apple-Beats music deal (the acquisition took place last August) to date. According to early previews and discussions at online mobile app development forums, the Music app is all set to get a stunning redesign. There will be options for users to add personalized images to each song files, as well as snaps of their favorite artists. The overall navigation system in the Music app will be made user-friendly, and any particular album can be launched straight from the Album List. The revamped Music app will be the single-biggest highlight of iOS 8.4.
  4. Album accessibility from the artwork – This is, in essence, a continuation of the previous point. In the upcoming iteration of the Apple iOS platform, there will be specially designed icons present in the album artwork. When tapped, these icons will activate and play the album next to it. The focus seems to be on one thing: to bring the favorite music of users closer (read: a single tap away!) to them.
  5. Global Search from Music app – There is a tiny magnifying glass icon in the Music app of iOS 8.4 beta. When tapped, it enables people to search for music files from practically anywhere in the device ecosystem. The results corresponding to every search query is generated within seconds – and they are properly organized to ensure that particular song files can be found quickly and without any difficulty. Better searchability would, of course, give the usability of the new music application a big boost.
  6. Trending Search feature – This will be complementing the aforementioned Global Search feature. iPhone app developers who have tried out iOS 8.4 beta 1 and 2 have confirmed that trending searches from all over the globe will be displayed to users in iTunes Radio (just like the trending results in the App Store). These trends will be shown whenever anyone searches for a song in the Music app. Many developers had predicted that Apple would be including ‘Trending Search’ in its latest mobile platform upgrade.
  7. All-new MiniPlayer – Yet another feature related to the Music app of the iOS 8.4 platform (no surprises there!). When a person will browse through his/her collection of music on iTunes, MiniPlayer will display the file currently playing. Additional options to control and personalize the playback will also become available. What’s more, the MiniPlayer would double up as a shortcut tab to the ‘Now Playing’ section. To navigate to the latter section, a single tap on the MiniPlayer would suffice.
  8. No more app crashes – A common complaint among iOS developers with the first beta of iOS 8.4 was the disturbingly high frequency of Music app crashes/freezes, whenever CarPlay was active. The new developer beta has fixed this problem, with the app now being simultaneously usable with Apple CarPlay. When the new version finally releases (sometime in June), people are expected to have no problems in using the Music app while on the move.
  9. More user-friendly iTunes Radio – A new ‘Recently Played’ tab will be present in iTunes Radio, to make sure that listeners can get back to the stations they were hearing to recently. There will be no need to browse through the entire list of stations all over again. Under ‘Featured Stations’, an exhaustive set of hard-curated radio stations will be listed. In addition, people will be able create their very own channels (based on particular artists or song genre) as well.
  10. Availability – App development experts already testing iOS 8.4 beta 1 can find the second beta under Settings → General. Downloading and installing the new update takes hardly a few minutes. Apple has provided the option of standalone installation too, from https://developer.apple.com. The over-the-air installation procedure has been reported to be easier than the second option, by most developers.
  11. Wireless music streaming – Apple has ensured that the functionality of AirPlay is also used in the upcoming version of the iOS platform. Music can now be streamed via AirPlay, in wireless mode. The streaming can be started from within the ‘Now Playing’ section. Till now, there have been no reports of connectivity problems and/or streaming failures related to this feature. According to app makers, the wireless music streaming through AirPlay would add an extra touch of innovation in iOS 8.4.
  12. Listening to recently added files – This will become easier than ever before in the latest version of Apple’s mobile platform. Thanks to the ‘Recently Added’ feature in the Music app, the song files will be organized by date – with the most recent ones being sorted at the top. All that the users have to do is tap on the icon, and the new songs would start playing. Chances of losing a recently added music file would be minimal.
  13. Now Playing would get a facelift – In addition to the enhanced functionalities, the ‘Now Playing’ interface of the music application will also be improved in iOS 8.4. The album artwork will be viewable in an all-new, way more customized manner – and there will be changes in the other visual components of this section as well. A lot of emphasis has evidently been put on the redesigning of the ‘Now Playing’ screen of the app, to make it more appealing to end users.
  14. Device compatibility – Apart from iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (but of course), the iOS 8.4 update will be available for all the variants of iPhone 5 as well as iPhone 4S. It will also be downloadable on 5th generation iPod Touch. In the tablet line, iOS 8.4 will be coming to iPad 2, iPad Mini/Mini 3, iPad Air 2, and the third-gen iPad Wifi. It will be a major update, and will be available on virtually all major Apple mobile devices.

More is expected to be known about the Music app-Beats music streaming service collaboration in iOS 8.4 at this year’s WWDC (scheduled to be held on 8-12 June 2015). There might be some additional features and updates related to Apple Watch as well. The Cupertino tech giant is moving into music service big time with iOS 8.4 – most of the above new features are clear indications of that.

 

iOS 8.4 will be, in all likelihood, the final iteration of this version – before iOS 9 is announced later this year (probably with iPhone 6S). The second developer beta and the first public beta of OS X 10.10.4 have also been seeded along with iOS 8.4 beta 2. Apple is eyeing a summer release for iOS 8.4 in the final form – and developers feel that it will be a major success.