Author Archives: Hussain Fakhruddin

15 Mobile And App Trends For 2018 To Watch Out For

Last year, nearly 198 billion mobile applications were downloaded by smartphone-owners – ~18% more than the corresponding figure in 2016. To keep up with the high demand levels, the availability of apps is also spiralling rapidly. By December 2017, the total count of apps in the Google Play Store was in excess of 3.5 million. The Apple App Store, on the other hand, had 3.1 million+ applications (including games) in 2017 Q3. Given the high revenue potential of the global app ecosystem – more and more coders are taking up app development as a profession. At last count, the App Store had close to 500000 app-makers, while nearly 970000 developers were working on the Android platform. In today’s discourse, we will do a roundup of some interesting facts and trends related to mobile apps for 2018:

Money matters

For all the speculation about the worldwide app economy slowing down as it enters early maturity, the revenue potentials of this sector are set to remain high in the foreseeable future. By the end of 2021, total revenues from mobile apps will edge close to the $190 billion mark – more than 2X the revenue figure in 2016. Not surprisingly, games will continue to grow in terms of adoption and profitability – with the share of gaming applications in the total app revenues rising from 23% (in 2016) to 32% (in 2021). In the United States alone, the ‘net-to-publisher’ app revenue will jump to $74 billion by the end of this decade – nearly a three-fold increase over $27 billion figure in 2015. Well-made, well-marketed, user-focused applications can be financially rewarding in a big way.
Smartphone adoptions

A recent Forrester report has revealed that less than 47% of the global population had access to smartphones in 2016. In 2017 Q2, the total smartphone shipments added up to ~366 million (Android 321 million; iOS 44 million) – and the market is expected to steadily grow over the next few years. By mid-2019, over 2.7 billion people will become regular-users of smartphones – with each person having 32-35 apps installed on their devices. Interestingly though, the share of the world population to own a smartphone will remain relatively flat – with minimal rise in percentage points on a YoY basis – till 2020. Revenues from smartphone sales have continued to soar – with $478 billion coming in from shipments in 2017 (in 2014, smartphone sales brought in ~$380 billion).

Note: In terms of profitability of the smartphone market, China takes top spot, with around 25% share of the total annual revenues. The United States comes in second.

Enterprise apps on the rise

By the latter half of 2017, more than half of all small businesses in the US had created their very own enterprise applications on the mobile platform. This trend is set to continue in 2018 and beyond, as more and more startup-owners/entrepreneurs realize the importance of having a strong presence in the mobile space – and the opportunities (engagement, leads, etc.) available here. Significant increases in sales and high-quality customer service have been the two biggest drivers behind the growing popularity of business applications. Among companies which do not have apps yet, many have plans to invest on them this year. Interestingly, nearly 48% of all companies prefer building their apps in-house.

Note: There is a direct correlation between the size of a business and the likelihood of it having an app. Companies with relatively young owners (18-34 age group) are also the most likely to invest resources on app development.

iOS and Android to remain (by far) the biggest platforms

Taken together, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android make up nearly 99.6% of all smartphones in active use at present in the world. Android has a yawning lead over iOS as far as market share is concerned – although the gap has slightly shortened over the last couple of years. In the US, almost 66% of all new activations in 2017 were for Android – with iOS accounting for a relatively low 31% of activations. In general, iOS has the edge in the more developed nations in the world (by virtue of it being positioned as a ‘premium’ product) – and iPhone users are more likely to: a) have more disposable income, and b) spend more on apps, than their Android counterparts. Traditionally, iOS was always a fair way ahead in terms of revenues – but that advantage is also gradually disappearing. In 2017, the revenue from the App Store was $40 billion – which is roughly equal to the revenue from Android applications downloaded from Play Store and other third-party Android stores (Mobogenie, Aptoide, Amazon Appstore, etc.). It has been estimated that this combined Android app revenues will rise to $78 billion in 2020 – comfortably more than the projected $60 billion earnings from iOS apps.
Facebook continues to be the most popular app

Among the young crowd (age 18+), Facebook is easily the most popular mobile application with a whopping 81% penetration rate. Facebook Messenger, with 68%, is also at the third spot – with the YouTube app (70% penetration) sandwiched between the two. Instagram is in sixth, while Google Play and Gmail occupying the eighth and ninth spots respectively in popularity charts for 2017. However, in terms of usage, it is Amazon that users in 18-34 age group (millennials) deem to be the most important, followed by Gmail and Facebook. Whatsapp, somewhat surprisingly, is in the ninth slot – and Snapchat is not in the top-10 on either list. Clearly, while the demand for social networking apps is high – millennials ‘cannot live without’ the more functional, utility-based applications.
Games attract the most downloads, but what’s next?

In January 2018, mobile games have accounted for 1 out of every 4 downloads from the App Store. Business apps, with nearly 10% share of the downloads, is the second-most popular category on the platform – with the next three positions taken up by education/learning apps, lifestyle apps and entertainment apps (travel apps, with a measly 3.9% share in downloads, is at the seventh spot). In the Play Store, however, productivity tools have the biggest reach to end-users, while travel and local applications also have an impressive ~95% reach (placing the category in the fourth position). The other most popular app categories on the Android platform are communication and video players/video editors. The demand for business apps is much lower on Android in comparison with iOS – while shopping applications, for all the hype around them, also have lots of scopes to expand their popularity and adoption.
Digital media rules, and mobile apps score over tablet apps

The average adult in the United States spends nearly half of the day (12 hours+) interacting with different forms of the media. Digital media is the clear winner here – with people spending approximately 5.8 hours per day on computers, smartphones (excluding call operations) and other connected ‘smart’ devices. At a more micro-level, mobile devices – with a 3 hours+ daily engagement plan, is easily ahead of desktops/laptops (with sub-2 hours engagement rates). Once again, it is the group of millennials who are the heaviest users of mobile digital media – and users in this age group have a clear preference for smartphones over tablets (in a month, 93 hours are spent by an individual user with a mobile app. In comparison, the interaction time with a tablet app is only 27 hours). While this preference is much less pronounced for older users (those above the age of 65 spend 42 hours with mobile (non-voice) and 23 hours with tablet, on average) – the mobile platform is still the chosen one.

Note: As the average user starts getting on in age, (s)he is likely to prefer using slightly larger, two-handed devices.

Ad-spending and ad-blocking

By 2021, the total ad spending on the mobile-platform will breach the $200 billion mark – marking a three-fold increase from the current figure. Already, more than half of the total expenses for digital media advertisements is contributed by the mobile platform – and this share will continue to grow rapidly. Nearly 500 million smartphone users regularly use different types of ad-blocking software on their devices. Researches have shown that there has been a ~90% increase in the adoption of mobile ad blockers over the last couple of years. The challenge for app developers lies in creating and displaying such ad content that will capture the viewers’ attention, without disturbing them in any way.
Driven by Android Instant Apps, app streaming to become more mainstream

App streaming, when done well, can deliver a great deal of convenience for app users. The latter can quickly check out/use a set of features in the app they need – without having to go through the whole hog of actually downloading/installing the software. Android Instant Apps, announced at the Google I/O 2017, have shown the way in this domain – and at present, the technology is supported by well over 500 million handsets. Many third-party Android app developers are also coming up with ‘Instant’ versions of their applications (in the Play Store app listings, Google has added a ‘Try it now’ button). By 2020, there will probably be more than 100000 Android applications available for such ‘instant previews’. One thing is for sure: more and better app streaming options will help in bringing down the much-talked-about ‘app abandonment’ problems.
Core group of apps

It is fairly common for a smartphone to have 25-27 third-party apps installed on it. A recent US-based study found that, 62% users in the country had at least 20 applications installed on their phones – and they used ~30 apps in a month. However, as far as actual usage is concerned – the average user spends nearly 49% of his/her ‘mobile time’ with only one app, and 77% with his/her core group of top three applications. Broadening the results further, ten apps take up around 96% of the time of the device-owners. On the other hand, there are many apps that are never used after being downloaded, while 25% of all newly installed apps are abandoned after single use.
Growth in IoT to be a major factor

Back in 2015, the total number of connected devices was just a shade over 15 million. Cut to 2020 – and that number will have doubled, with the count of smart IoT gadgets expected to reach ~75 million by 2025. Right from smart homes and autonomous cars, to security, education and healthcare – IoT-based applications are finding rapid adoption in various domains, and developers are making a definite attempt to seamlessly integrate the technology in their newest apps. Before the decade draws to the close, IoT will become a $456 billion industry, with the CAGR for the 2016-2020 period hovering around the 29% mark. This year, it can be reasonably expected that IoT will play an important role in many instances of mobile app development. Smart agriculture is yet another field where the opportunities are huge.

Note: Semtech’s LoRaWAN has emerged as a key driver of IoT technologies worldwide.

12. Location services will be on the rise

Any decent smartphone offers fairly accurate location-based services (LBS), or GPS. Apart from helping the users with general navigation, the technology is also being used by third-party developers to come up with diverse types of applications that deliver real-time locational information. Although the adoption rate of Beacon technology (iBeacon) had been flat (at best), apps with built-in GPS support are fast gaining in popularity. Location services are, in fact, core elements in many travel apps, mobile security tools, retail shopping apps, payment channels, mobile indoor mapping tools, and the like. The overall GPS tracking market will grow exponentially between 2017 and 2023 – and more and more apps will depend upon it for full functionality.

Note: The only point of concern over here is the greater battery drain caused by constantly using GPS. It will be interesting to see if the OEMs are able to offer a viable solution for that.

13. How much are the app developers making?

While the potential revenues from top-ranking apps can be amazingly high – both the iOS and the Android marketplaces are remarkably ‘top-heavy’ when it comes to earnings. Around 33% of developers do not manage to generate even 10000 downloads of their applications, and nearly 57% of them have sub-$1000 monthly earnings. The top-heavy nature of revenues in the app marketplaces is best accentuated by the fact that only 25% iPhone developers, and 16% Android developers, manage to earn northwards of $5000 every month. It is also worth noting that 3 out of every 4 developers prefer working on the Android platform over iOS.

14. VR/AR/MR in app-making

In their bid to come up with unique products and stay a step ahead of the competition, developers are constantly trying to come up with apps that deliver more immersive, engaging experiences. While virtual reality has been in the picture for some time – augmented reality and mixed reality are the technologies that are likely to take the standards of mobile app development a couple of notches higher in 2018 and beyond. The recent IDC report showed that this year, the total spending on VR/AR will be just a tick under $18 billion by 2020. The so-called ‘reality apps’ will be changing the way in which we interact with software systems as well as our smart devices. Pokemon Go showed the way – and 2018 might well be the year when AR finally comes of age in the field of app-making.

15. Why do people uninstall apps?

Given the alarmingly high rates of app-abandonment, it is extremely important for developers to know what exactly causes people to turn away from any software application. As mobile technology is becoming increasingly advanced, the concerns over app security is growing – and according to Gartner estimates, a whopping 75% of applications do not satisfy even the most elementary security parameters. Apart from this, other common causes for app removals include technical glitches, unavailability of updates, and an ad overkill (disrupting the overall UX). Given the sheer variety of apps available in the stores, it is also not really difficult to find similar applications (competitors) with better features and functionality. If an app takes up too much of memory space and/or is a battery hog – it is bound to fail as well.

Note: If the ‘need’ for an app is not strong enough, a person can even forget that (s)he had downloaded it. Too many notifications is yet another no-no, while problems in in-app navigation also cause many people to get rid of certain apps.

With the arrival and growing popularity of Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Home (Apple HomePod is also in the offing), personal home assistants in particular, and voice technology in general, are fast coming into focus. 2018 should witness a meaningful rise in the number of voice-enabled mobile apps, making things more convenient for final users. The importance of delivering optimized user-end experience is also becoming more important at present than ever before. The jury is still out on whether the global app market is past its peak or not – but it can be safely said that this market is not going to become completely mature and static anytime soon.

Innovations and new technologies?

Yes please!

The $30M Apple-VRvana Acquisition Deal – What You Need To Know

The reports from Bloomberg, Catcher Technology and Quanta are all pointing in the same direction: Apple Inc is ‘secretly’ preparing a powerful new ‘headset-like gadget’, powered by augmented reality. Going by updates from the Nikkei Asian Review, the Apple AR glasses will have a 100% transparent system, and will be running on the breakthrough ‘reality operating system’ (rOS). Incidentally, the Cupertino company ventured into the AR space for the first time in 2017, with the ARKit platform for developers (launched with iOS 11).

The foray of Apple Inc into the field of AR is not much of a surprise though. For starters, the company has been looking for a worthy flagship product to follow up the iPhone (iPad’s fortunes are not looking up) – and CEO Tim Cook is also a big fan of the technology. In November, Apple splurged $30 million for the acquisition of VRvana (the maker of the unreleased Totem mixed-reality headset) – another thinly-veiled hint of the company’s planned investments on AR (the actual deal probably happened a couple of months earlier). Over here, we will take a look at some interesting points from the Apple-VRvana acquisition deal:

Size of the market

In 2016, the value of the global augmented reality market was a little over $2 billion. By the end of 2021, this value is expected to swell to $83 billion – with the market growing at a CAGR of >55%. Combined together, the value of the AR/VR industry will be more than $108 billion – with mobile AR being the fastest-growing segment over here. The total earnings from the VR/AR are expected to double in each of the next 3-4 years, soaring to $214 billion by 2021. The immense growth and revenue potential of the AR technology is certainly not lost on Apple. The company wishes to have a strong presence in the market – and the takeover of VRvana is the latest endeavour in that context.
Relative lack of competition

Apple is not going to be first-mover in the AR space – but the absence of excessive direct competition is going to be a big advantage. The much-maligned Google Glass flopped hard in 2015 – and the current Glass EE (enterprise edition) is primarily targeted towards workers in factories. Microsoft Hololens has managed to get good reviews – but it is not a consumer product per se, and a dedicated ‘consumer edition’ is not expected to arrive till 2019. In such a scenario, if Apple moves (and moves fast) to launch cutting-edge AR glasses, that would make a lot of sense.

Note: Apple CEO Tim Cook has reiterated that the company was not unduly concerned about releasing AR tools before others (‘don’t give a rat’s about being first’). The focus, instead, is on making the best AR gadget in the market.

3. More about VRvana

Will all the buzz on Apple’s ‘secret AR project’, curiosity is building about the VRvana company. The latter is a Montreal-based mixed reality startup – helmed by CEO Bertrand Nepveu (Marc-Olivier Lepage is the COO and co-founder). The company was founded way back in 2005, and was initially known as True Player Gear, Inc. Interestingly, the only product showcased on the official website of VRvana is the Totem headset. It remains to be seen how the technical expertise of VRvana is utilized by those up top at Apple.

4. The unreleased Totem headset

VRvana’s Totem mixed reality headset has received a lot of praise from those who managed to check it out first-hand (the headset was never shipped). The product delivers immersive and highly engaging ‘extended reality’ experience to wearers – combining the best elements from both VR and AR technologies. At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2017), Totem received the ‘best in mixed-reality category’ award – with professionals referring to it as the ‘most impressive product’ showcased at the event. The headset, however, never got beyond the crowdfunding stage – and was never released.

5. The USPs of Totem

Totem has several interesting features, which make it a more powerful headset than similar products launched by Microsoft and Windows. For starters, the OLED screen (1440p) of the Totem headset has the ability to display truly opaque images – creating a distinctive environment for viewers. The graphics are rendered by pass-through cameras, and true-colour animations can be seamlessly displayed. Users can easily swing back and forth between virtual reality and augmented reality experiences with Totem. Unlike HoloLens, there are minimal lags in the VRvana product, and the latter’s camera-based operations are a cut-above the former’s projection-based functionality. Apple is reportedly keen on making its own AR headset – and Totem can easily serve as a handy point of reference for Jony Ive and his team.

Note: Inside-out positional tracking and hand tracking also feature among the most important features of Totem.

6. Apple’s acquisition of VRvana is a first (and also, it isn’t)

Metaio, a German AR startup, was snapped up by Apple in the first half of 2015. The New York-based Flyby Media – a ‘spatial perception’ company – was acquired in early-2016. Other notable AR-related acquisitions by the Cupertino tech giant include Faceshift (November 2015), Emotient (January 2016) and SMI (June 2017). It is pretty apparent that Apple has been interested in AR tech for a fairly long time. Even so, the $30 million acquisition of VRvana is unique in the history of Apple – since this marks the first time the company has purchased a startup that is into making head-mounted displays (HMDs). ARKit on iOS 11 is a success – and Apple has plans to build further in this sector.

7. Important for maintaining Apple’s position as a tech leader

The launch of the much-hyped Apple HomePod has been delayed, and it is not expected to arrive before another six weeks or so. That, in turn, is going to make it more difficult for the HomePod to fight it out with Google Home and Amazon Alexa – both of which are fairly popular. In essence, Apple is already late to the game in the personal voice assistant domain. The series of AR-related acquisitions indicate that Apple does not want to be a late-entrant in the augmented reality/mixed reality space as well. Over the years, the company has emerged as an undisputed consumer technology leader (iPhone revolutionized communications; iPad changed the face of music-listening). Staying a step ahead of competitors (qualitatively) is going to be crucial for Apple.

8. Moving towards a stiff deadline

According to experts from the tech field, Apple is set to launch a new AR-powered headset/HMD in 2019, with a public rollout expected to happen the following year. Given that the HMD will have its own customized display, a new chip will have to be created (and tested), and it will run on the new ‘reality operating system’ (rOS). There is a lot of work to be done – and completing it all and coming out with top-notch AR glasses with high-end features by 2020 is not going to be easy. With acquisitions like VRvana, Apple is getting the talent and expertise ready on hand for the ‘big AR challenge’.

Note: One thing looks fairly certain: Apple is not going to simply rebrand Totem and release it this year.

9. Focus on improving the quality of AR

There is considerable speculation on a future where we might find augmented reality being used as a product itself – instead of the technology being used as a feature in other devices. Tim Cook himself is a big fan of AR – but he has also expressed concern over the quality of the currently existing AR headsets (the way in which the HMDs have to be put on also has to be looked into). Totem resolves the lag-related problems in most other headsets – with its latency being as low as ~3 milliseconds. It has been pointed out, correctly, that the currently available AR products fall short of delivering optimal experience to users – and Apple is making an attempt to plug that gap.

Note: While the Totem headset handles latency very well, its considerable bulk remains a minus point. It is certainly not something an average user would like to keep on for hours at a stretch.

10. Will there be a new headset?

Topsy Labs, a promising analytics company, was acquired by Apple in December 2013. About two years later, it was officially announced that Topsy is going to shut up shop. There are several other instances of the Cupertino company taking over small startups to gain access to the talent and expertise – and shelve the acquired company’s product(s), or shut it down altogether. Although Apple does seem seriously invested in AR, there remains the outside chance of VRvana being acquired for similar motives. If that is indeed the case, new Apple AR glasses might not be in the offing anytime soon.

Note: More than $200 million was forked out by Apple, for acquiring Siri Technologies in 2010. There was a waiting period of around a year, before Siri finally debuted on the iOS 5 platform.

11. Official confirmations

There have been none forthcoming (about this acquisition) from either Apple or VRvana. However, reliable sources (like Techcrunch) has reported the deal – and also, Apple generally mentions ‘series of acquisitions’ instead of coming out with dedicated news on a single acquisition. Another tell-tale sign of the acquisition deal going through is the fact that there have been no updates posted on the social pages of VRvana after August 2017 (the VRvana website is still active though). Most of the employees of VRvana have also shifted to California, to work for Apple.

12. Diversification is the name of the game

With AR, Apple is probably looking for a new gadget that would have as big an impact as the launch of the first-generation iPhone back in 2007. In general too, the company has been constantly striving to diversify its field of operations – with recent acquisitions covering various advanced tech fields, like machine learning, security, processor power, cloud services, GPS/location services, and more. The takeover of VRvana is yet another proof that Apple wants to make AR one of its key business focus areas in future.

Note: In November 2013, Apple acquired PrimeSense, a 3D sensor company from Israel. The breakthrough Face ID feature of iPhone X has been created from that company’s technology.

The Apple AR glasses, as and when they are launched, are going to be pricey devices. Their prices can vary anywhere between $130 and $1300, depending on the precise configurations of the headsets. CEO Tim Cook has referred to AR as ‘profound’, Craig Federighi had touted ARKit as the ‘largest AR platform in the world’ – and the Cupertino company is clearly keen to make a mark in this field.

Dreamfactory Case Study – Eventify

Business Objective

To create a highly customized, fully scalable digital event app building platform. The platform would have its own business logic built-in – and coders as well as non-coders will be able to use it with equal, consummate ease.

Technical Challenge

Development and seamless integration of API services (backend-as-a-service), to enhance the performance of the product. From managing user roles and access, to ensuring high security standards and usability for the creation of custom mobile apps for all kinds of events – Eventify has to deliver cutting-edge functionalities. Generating efficient API services from database was also a challenge.

The Solution

In DreamFactory phpMyAdmin, a mySQL database was created. After connecting with the database and importing it, new API services were generated. Additional logic in pre-script and post-script were also added.

Priority 1:

Create Eventify as a user-friendly digital tool for promoting and managing ‘paperless events’.
Ensure that external API services (BaaS) can be generated from database and integrated to the platform.
Manage user-login, access and permissions according to their roles – while maintaining proper security standards.

Priority 2:

Add extra business logic in pre-script and post-script of APIs, for optimal functionality.
Offer users (event planners) smooth drag-and-drop features, so that those with no prior coding expertise can use the platform with ease.
Use Swagger for secure, continuous API documentation.

A Digital Platform For Building Mobile Event Apps

Eventify puts a fresh new spin to the task of promoting and managing events. The digital platform is highly scalable and comes with a wide array of personalized features – enabling users/planners to create custom mobile apps for their events, and maximize the exposure/awareness levels about the same. It has been created by Teksmobile – a leading mobile app and API development company, with 1000+ applications in its portfolio.

The Eventify platform can be used to create apps for practically all types of public and private events – right from conferences and trade shows, to business seminars, panel discussions, workshops and other personal occasions. For each event, a single app can be created. All pertinent information, like scheduling details, speaker bios and sessions, exhibitor information and sponsor details, can be added to apps created with Eventify. The platform also has ‘local’ and ‘global’ search capabilities.

“The global event management industry is witnessing rapid growth. The total number of business conferences organized every year is going up – and we identified that organizers need to have a digital tool in their hands, to manage and promote their events effectively. Eventify is a platform that they would find very handy in this regard”, opines the senior manager of the project.

With the market for event management software set to grow by 8.4% in 2016-2020, and over 85% event planners already having apps for their events (in 2016), coming up with an all-features-included app building platform made a lot of sense. The platform also enables users to add real-time chat feature, include location maps and floor plans, and delivers excellent networking opportunities.

Integrating API services via DreamFactory

“According to early estimates, we had guessed that it would take around 8-10 weeks to create and launch the Eventify platform. Development and deployment of API services, in particular, looked likely to eat up a lot of time. We then came across DreamFactory…and things became a lot more organized, streamlined.”

— Programming Head, Eventify Project

DreamFactory was instrumental in smoothing the roadmap for optimized backend automation in Eventify. The developers created a mySQL database in the phpMyAdmin of DreamFactory (just like application tables), and then, imported that database to generate full API services (i.e., the required REST API endpoints). Objective-C was the programming language used to code Eventify, and APIs were essential for integrating the full business logic in the app. In essence, DreamFactory served as an efficient mediator to manage the database and the delivery of APIs.

With the help of DreamFactory, the Teks Team managed to significantly shorten the duration of the development cycle. Instead of having to manually code each API, the platform now had automated API solutions from the database. From the security standpoint too, using DreamFactory proved beneficial.

Managing the user login session tokens and API key validations became extremely straightforward with DreamFactory. While accessing all the features of Eventify (like bookmarking, chatting) requires the user to login – there are certain ‘view-only’ elements which people can check out, without logging in with their credentials. With customized API solutions, providing this selective permission access was also rendered easier.

Building The Business Logic

One of the main reasons for integrating DreamFactory in the Eventify project was the creation and implementation of robust business/operational logic in the latter. All types of data entry, as well as all the validations, were automated, for superior performance. The API helper tools offered additional advantages (e.g., the Swagger API documentation tool).

The in-house team at Teksmobile also utilized the server-side scripting feature of DreamFactory to good effect. Provisions were made for adding extra logic in the API pre-script (e.g., checking the validity of a user or an event ID) and the post-script (e.g., checking the returned data after the user has logged in). Emails, notifications, and all the other third-party services on Eventify were also automated with DreamFactory.

“Eventify is a platform that looks to deliver complete event management control in the hands of the planners,” says the CEO of Teksmobile. “The automated backend solutions available in DreamFactory made our task considerably easier.”

The Future Of Event Management

Thanks to DreamFactory, the team in charge of creating Eventify managed to register big gains in terms of time-savings, business logic development, security, and data access management (according to user roles). The efficient automated architecture of DreamFactory made the task of expanding the functionality of Eventify easier than ever.

There is very little margin for error, when it comes to creating a dynamic app building platform like Eventify. Mobile apps are well and truly changing how events across the globe are being organized, promoted and managed – and this platform has the potential to emerge right at the forefront of this evolution.

Eventify

Eventify is a fully customized event app building platform, with a plethora of features and strong BaaS support – for smooth usability. Different types of public/private events can be created and promoted via the digital platform.

How To Make Your Mobile App User Acquisition Strategy More Powerful?

The global app economy may have entered early maturity – but it is still a big-money sector. According to a recent App Annie report, total revenues from mobile applications will soar to $110 billion by the end of 2018 – with the annual growth rate hovering around the 18% mark for the next three years (till 2020). 1 out of every 4 iOS app developers make more than $5K every month – and around 16% of Android developers also have similarly high earnings. At first glance, the potential opportunities to make profits in the mobile app business seem immense.

Like most other things in life though, there is a flipside. For all the hefty revenues from a small number of apps – the fact remains that an overwhelming majority of applications turn out to be failures (the app market is remarkably ‘top heavy’ in terms of revenue). It has been estimated that a measly 0.5% of all mobile apps will actually manage to yield reasonable profits in 2018. Not having a large enough market is a common cause for the failure of apps – and if app companies do not have customized, well-defined strategies for acquiring users, that contributes to this problem. In today’s discussion, we will highlight a few effective mobile app user acquisition tips for 2018 and beyond:

First, built a high-quality product

In the United States, a whopping 73% of smartphone users do not download more than 2 mobile apps in a month (~50% download none). In essence, your app will be vying to be one of these two apps for capturing the attention of the end-user – so that (s)he can be motivated enough to download it and give it a try. There is no way on earth to be successful in this if your software is not of optimal quality to start with. Create a great app, identify and highlight its USP(s), and make sure it delivers top-class user-end experience (UX). Only when if you are confident about your product, can you market it well.
Create a website; Optimize it well

It’s been more than three years since the popularity of mobile apps went past that of mobile web (currently, the former is growing nearly 3X faster than the latter). That said, it is of paramount importance for every new application to have its very own, customized website. Make sure that the site is user-friendly, lists out all the key features/controls/benefits of the application, and has the store download link(s). Implement strong SEO practices to enhance the reach of your app website. It should also be linked as the ‘support portal’ of the app at the store. Presence of a dedicated app website is instrumental in building up a trust-factor with your audience – and that is vital for higher user acquisitions.
Pay attention to App Store Optimization (ASO)

On average, 6 out of every 10 downloads happen through search behaviour in the app stores. This, in turn, brings to light the importance of efficient app store optimization (strategies). Identify relevant keywords (avoid the ones with too much competition), and incorporate them smoothly (no stuffing) in the (max) 30-character app name, the (max) 170 character promotional text, and the product description section in Apple App Store. If you are working on the Android platform, optimize the 50-character app title, the 80-character short description and the 4000-character long description. Use HQ screenshots to showcase the most important screens/sections of your application. Create engaging and informative app preview videos. You have precious few seconds to get a person interested in your app – and the importance lies in ensuring a good first interaction with the app.

Note: Over 74% of all featured apps at stores have keyword(s) in their titles.

4. Share your app’s objective

What does your app set out to do? Or better still, why is it in existence in the first place? If a professional app developer is not proactive about resolving such (very natural) queries in the minds of prospective users – the latter are simply not likely to feel any NEED to download a new application. Make apps that have a core functionality and solves an actual problem/requirement of end-users (fitness tracking, personal finance, social networking, and even gaming). Let people know why your application does a better job than other, similar apps already in existence. ‘Appeal optimization’ of an app is important – and it can be attained only when there is complete clarity over its purpose. A lazy, ‘me-too’ is bound to fail.

5. Segment your users. Not too many segments though

A generic, ‘one-size-meets-all’ promotional strategy does not work well for most products, and mobile apps are not an exception. Identify the overall target audience for your new application – and divide this total user-base in different segments (on the basis of age, gender, geographical location, language preferences, etc.). Avoid making more than 3 such segments though – since too many user-groups can pose a problem for promotional strategy-making. Launch customized marketing campaigns for each of the target customer segments, to increase chances of positive responses.

6. Use the reviews/opinions of existing users as pointers

An app development company should ideally make use of information on user-behaviour on their previous applications, while designing a new software. Find out what features people liked and what they didn’t – and chalk out the operations of the new product accordingly. Be particularly careful about people’s reactions to in-app messages, push notifications, advertisements, and the like. If there are unfavourable reviews on a particular app, find out the main reason(s) for its unpopularity – and avoid making the same mistakes again.

7. The importance of strong content marketing

When it comes to maximizing the reach of a new application (basically, making as many people as possible AWARE about the app) – content marketing on the digital platform is a developer’s best friend. Start publishing short and informative blog posts and articles on popular online portals about your app, mentioning its objectives and features and the competitive advantages it delivers to final users. You can publish press releases (free or paid) as well, with the latest app-related news. Publishing classified ads is also an effective option. Keep in mind though, that the content you push out should not have an aggressively marketing tone (except, of course, the classified ads). The focus should be on seamlessly sharing information among likely users.

8. Referral marketing can bolster app engagement

Uber is one of the many apps that does this brilliantly. For every new user signed up, the person who had ‘referred’ him/her to the app (i.e., shared the referral code) gets a nice reward. Motivate your existing users to invite more people to the app – and offer something in return (hints, coins, level up, etc.) for doing so. Having a referral program right within a mobile application (and ideally, on the app website too) gives a lift to its engagement levels, and obviously, can build up the total user-count as well.

9. Promote apps on social media

58% of the entire adult population in the US have active profiles on Facebook. The corresponding usage figure for Twitter is ~34%. What’s more, the global adoption figures of these two social networking channels are rising exponentially. In such a scenario, there is no way your app can survive without having a strong social media optimization (app SMO) plan. Publish posts on FB about your application, share images and screenshots, and tweet about it on a regular basis. Join relevant Facebook groups and post over there (avoid spamming though; a healthy, constant interaction is important), use hashtags on Twitter, and use channels like LinkedIn and Google Plus to get in touch with potential new users as well. Come up with ideas to make your posts more interesting and engaging (for instance, polls).

Note: A mobile app should, of course, have its very own FB page and Twitter account handle.

10. Early ratings and reviews are vital

Yes, registering high download figures are important – but you can make it your only objective at your own peril. It might well happen that people like what your app has on offer, go ahead and download it, discover a serious snag in it, and discard it soon enough. That’s precisely why you need to carefully track the early set of user reviews and ratings coming in. If someone gives a lowly rating, try to understand what factor(s) have caused this behaviour – and how you can fix the problem. Respond to every review (even the 5-star ones). Remember, the opinions of the early adopters give you a fair idea of whether your app will be successful in the long-run or not.

11. Factor in app localization

You create a mobile app that can be used by everyone – but then go ahead and release it in English only. Bit of a waste – since there are plenty of non-English speaking smartphone-users, and you are willingly passing up on the chance of reaching out to them with your app. Researches have shown that the download figures of an iPhone app can go up by as much as 760% by using proper, ‘localized’ keywords in different languages. Depending on the type of your app and its target audience – consider creating custom versions of it in other languages (e,g., French, Swedish, German, Russian, Korean, etc.). An app that has multi-language support automatically has higher user acquisition prospects.

Note: The ‘Download On The App Store’ badge is available in 40 different languages.

12. Use video ads

To promote a new mobile application, short video ads are mighty effective. On average, 30-second app advertisements have an impressive 88% completion rate – indicating that people do check out videos that pique their interests. App developers have to determine the best possible section to place such video-ads – in a manner that they deliver the relevant information without hampering the mobile-using experience of individuals in any way. Keep changing the video ads to keep things fresh – and avoid making videos that are over a minute long. Apart from these in-app ads (helping in cross-promotions), you can also create, upload and share longer videos – explaining the features of your app – on Youtube.

13. Invest on paid ads and campaign boosters

Once your organic app marketing strategies are in place (and your budget allows for it), consider turning your attention to paid channels. You can start app ad campaigns on portals like Google and Facebook – to gain greater visibility and (hopefully) higher downloads. Design and link a proper landing page with the ads, so that people do not feel confused after clicking on the advertisements (i.e., there should be no barriers to conversion). There are several great mobile ad networks/paid acquisition channels in place (Flurry, AdMob and StartApp, to name a few) – and you can easily start to use a couple of these platforms to spread the word about your ad. Be careful about the expenses and the ROI on your ads at all times. It has been noted that 39% of users who see banner ads on mobile can actually recall them.

Note: Interstitial ads are the way to go, if you wish to cut down on unwanted ad clicks.

14. Showcase the designs

By the end of 2017, Behance had 10 million active users. In order to be successful, a mobile app needs to have the right mix of functional efficiency and visual appeal – and for the latter, showcasing designs on Behance is a preferred strategy among many app developers worldwide. Highlight the creativity that has gone into designing your software, display the most important screens, include animations, and add short, informative texts. Use tags wisely to gain greater visibility on the platform. Also, try getting your app featured in the curated galleries of Behance, for that extra leverage. Instagram and Pinterest are two other channels which you can use to visually market your product.

Note: In all your messages to the prospective app users – blogs and PRs and videos and design/creativity platforms – convey a definite ‘message’ to the viewers or readers. Do not adopt an overtly sales tone everywhere.

15. Have retargeting ads with cookies

What if a person visits your app website, but does not download anything? In such cases, retargeting can be a useful method to ‘get back’ that prospective customer. The app website should have cookies (small internet files to ‘remember’ visitors) – which can be used to display retargeting ads to people. Find out at what time-intervals these ads should be shown, and make sure that people who have already downloaded your app are not shown the ads (that would be an irritation). Deep-linking in mobile apps is crucial for the success of mobile retargeting.

16. Track the key metrics

Most mobile app developers make the mistake of tracking only the ‘installs’ and the ‘install rates’ of applications – and leave it at that. These metrics are obviously important – but more often than not – they provide an incomplete picture. To get a thorough idea about whether your acquisition/promotional strategies are performing as desired (or not!), you also need to monitor other key performance indicators (KPIs), like cost-per-installs (CPI) or customer acquisition cost (CAC), app retention rates, and the lifetime value of applications (LTV). Keep in mind that tracking only the CPI is not a good idea either – since there is a trade-off involved between CPI and LTV (10% of users acquired by CPI have a <$10 LTV). If possible, use screen heatmaps to monitor the real-time behaviour of people while using your app. Make changes, if required, accordingly.

17. Email marketing is not dead

Marketing emails often have a sub-10% ‘open rates’. However, if composed well and shared with the right people, that ‘open rate’ can jump to 35%+ – clearly indicating that email marketing can still be a handy app user acquisition strategy. Create an email template with a brief but informative introduction about your mobile application – and request for an online or telephonic follow-up, at the recipient’s convenience. It would be even better if you attach a powerpoint presentation with the email – presenting the USPs and features of your app. It would be too naive to hope for very high response rates – but you can definitely gain some customers through this channel.

Note: If you can manage to connect with a key industry influencer and get your app promoted by him/her – that can be very helpful.

18. Word-of-mouth is the make-or-break factor

Bad press can be the biggest app-killer out there. Actively seek opinions and feedback from your users – and find out the type of word-of-mouth (WOM) publicity that your app is garnering. If there are any perceived pain point(s) reported by these users, fix them as quickly as possible. Prior to launch, have a focus group (members should all be first-time users of the app) try a hand-on experience with your application. If a person is happy with your app, (s)he will recommend it to others as well – and your user-pool can start swelling quickly. On the other hand, if the WOM is poor…the consequences can be dire.

19. Provide ‘Play Before Pay’ options

A smartphone-user is just like any other regular shopper. He/she would love to get a feel of what your app does – before actually taking the trouble of installing it (if yours is a paid app, there is the question of justifying the expense too). Mobile app developers should ideally have a ‘play before pay’ strategy in place – providing users with live demos and previews of the app (Android Instant Apps have made this really easy). In general, consider providing limited access for free to first-time users, so that they can get an idea of the quality and benefits of your application. Once they are convinced that your app is a good ‘un, they will proceed to download it (free or not).

20. Aim for virality

The purpose of having a definite, well-rounded mobile app user acquisition strategy is to make your promotional campaigns ‘viral’. In an ideal scenario (where your app has indeed achieved the much-desired virality), every person should bring along more than one additional user for the app. Provide easily accessible options for registered users to send out invites to their contacts, and have strong social media integration (sharing) features. An app that goes viral can continue to move along on autopilot – constantly registering high download figures.

A new app has to acquire close to 40000 new users in a day (i.e., have that many new daily installs) – for getting featured in the App Store. The challenge is big and the app marketplace is definitely overcrowded – but with the above tips, you can indeed take your user acquisition/marketing campaigns to the next level.

Swift 4 Is Here: A Roundup Of The New Features

Apple’s Swift programming language is showing signs of recovery, after going into an absolute freefall between July and November 2017. The language, which had broken into the top-ten list on the TIOBE Index for the first time in March, had 1.566% ratings in early-December (rank – 11) – slightly up from the ratings the previous month. Interestingly though, there has been a 0.57% fall in the ratings of Swift on a YoY basis (2.134% in December 2016). The fourth iteration of the language was released by Apple last September – with many experts predicting that it will help in shoring up the adoption rates of Swift. Over here, we take a look at some of the interesting new features in Swift 4:

Migrating to Swift 4

The latest version of the programming language has been launched along with Xcode 9 (Xcode is the IDE for coding apps on the Apple platform). Xcode 9 offers full support for Swift 4 along with the transitional Swift 3.2. This, in turn, eases the process of migrating any code written in version 3.x to the newest syntax. For projects that have more than one target, different versions of Swift can be defined for each target. The built-in Swift conversion tool ensures fast and secure processing of the migration – and developers might have to recompile their dependencies in Xcode 9. Once the target(s) in the project have been selected, the conversion can be initiated by clicking on ‘Edit → Convert → To Current Swift Syntax…’.

Note: Since the Swift Package Manager is still not quite robust enough, coders generally prefer using the CocoaPods dependency manager.

Key value coding with keypaths

Dynamic referencing of properties with the help of ‘keypaths’ is one of the most convenient features in Objective-C. However, till now – creating such references in Swift was not possible (users could create references to methods, since functions in Swift have ‘first-class’ type status). This issue has been resolved in the new version of the language. Now, there are keypaths that serve as ‘uninvoked references’ to properties in the code. For getting updated values, this referencing keypath has to be called/invoked later (after specifying it). On the other hand, the current value of the property at any point can be obtained by invoking the reference at any time. In Objective-C, coders often ran into troubles with the strings and arrays – and that problem is also tackled effectively by Swift 4, thanks to the ‘strongly typed’ keypaths in the latter. In future versions of the language, runtime creation of keypaths should also become available.

Note: With keypaths, developers no longer have to access with the underlying property values. The properties can be referenced directly.

One-sided ranges in Swift 4

This feature has been implemented in a bid to reduce the verbosity of the language, while performing slicing up to/from an index within a collection. To ease out the process of creating methods for different ranges, there is a new method called ‘RangeExpression’ – and the ‘missing’ side of the one-sided range is inferred to be the prefix or the suffix. Pattern matching is a classic use case where these one-sided ranges can be very useful (checking for conditions within a range). App-makers also have the option of defining ‘infinite sequences’ with a countable start index. The ‘RangeExpression’ protocol controls all the ranges in the code. If there are overloads that assume values other than ‘Range’ – they can also be quickly converted to generic methods that conform to ‘RangeExpression’.

Note: There are no resilience or compatibility consequences of using the one-sided ranges. This is because of the purely additive nature of the new types/operators.

Arrival of the ‘Codable’ protocol

Probably the most important new feature in the latest version of Swift. Custom data types might have to be serialized/deserialized at any time – and doing that wasn’t the easiest challenge in Swift 3.x. Developers had to either use classes (manual encoding/decoding required), or work with value types (which do not work well with NSCoding and other APIs in Obj-C). The ‘struct Language: Codable { ’ line in Swift 4 offers a nice and easy alternative for these tasks. The codes for serialization are now auto-generated by the compiler (even for serializing to JSON). All the values/properties contained in the data types are encoded by the protocol – and ‘data’ objects can be converted back into strings (decoding) as well. It is also possible to support either encoding or decoding separately, in the following manner:

Struct EncodableTypename: Encodable { . . . }

JSONEncoder (JSONDecoder) and its corresponding method has to be called to encode (decode) anything. The Codable protocol includes both encoding and decoding capabilities.

Note: In Swift, both encoding and decoding are marked as ‘throws’. ‘Codable’ is a highly flexible protocol, and can be implemented in different ways (apart from the default implementation).

Writing multi-line strings

Adding multi-line strings in programs has become easier than ever, with the ‘multi-line string literals’ in Swift 4. Strings with text in any format (HTML, JSON) can be pasted without risks of value losses – and there is no need for any escaping either (as was required in earlier versions). The syntax is simple enough – a multi-line string literal has to start with 3 double quotes ( “ “ “ ), the string has to be pasted from the next line, and the literal has to close with another 3 double quotes on the following line (after the string ends). There are no limits on the length of the string that can be interpolated like this – and line breaks, variables and quote marks can be included too. The readability of long strings also gets a boost with these multi-line string literals.

Note: By putting backslashes at the end of lines, newlines can be escaped in these multi-line literals.

Improvements in the Package Manager

Ever since the launch of Swift 3 last year, there have been clamors among developers for a better, more flexible Swift Package Manager. While the latter is still not as resourceful as it might be, the Package Manager in Swift 4 does have certain significant improvements. Products can be built as libraries or as executables, there are new conventions that have to be used to declare targets, while the manifest API has undergone a revamp as well. A developer-friendly ‘dependency resolution’ feature has replaced the ‘pin mechanism’ of Swift 3.1. More changes in the Package Manager are expected in Swift 5 and later versions.

Note: The Swift Package Manager now also has built-in support for C and C++ languages. There is also a new ‘run command’ for building/running executables in the code.

Smoother access control

For all its other merits, the access modifier in Swift 3 (‘fileprivate’) was a pain point. This mechanism allowed other files easy access to members – with access being shared for type members located in the same file. The alternative was to use ‘private’ – but that did not work in cases where certain types did not have access to the required members. In an ideal scenario, ‘fileprivate’ should be used very sparingly, while ‘private’ should be used inside the member(s). In Swift 4, it is finally possible to have a type and its extension, and share the access control between them (of course, this functionality is valid only when the type and the extension are in a single source file). In essence, developers can finally use ‘fileprivate’ in the manner it was always supposed to be used.

Note: Coding in Swift typically calls for the creation of logical groups, with the help of code-breaking with extensions. ‘fileprivate’ is important for the purpose.

Revisions in string operations

Initially a feature of Swift, the need for Strings conforming with ‘Collections’ were dropped in the second iteration of the language. This conformance have made a comeback in Swift 4 – along with a series of other string-related updates. For starters, there is a ‘StringProtocol’ for writing extensions through ‘String’ and ‘Substring’. The ‘StringProtocol’, in turn, will follow ‘Bidirectional Collection’ – and both the ‘String’ and ‘Substring’ types will conform to the ‘RangeReplacableCollection’ protocol. For low-level Unicode operations, there is a new Unicode ‘namespace’ (enum Unicode { ), as a caseless ‘enum’. The interop C string methods have also been tweaked around, with the new version of the language having 2 init (cString) and 2 ‘with cString’ operations. There are changes in the underlying transcoding support of the language as well.

Note: All the string-related new features in Swift 4 are part of the ‘String Manifesto’.

Unicode 9 supported

Full support for Unicode 9 is yet another high point for the latest Swift version. The language has traditionally run into troubles with the unicode characters – with iOS app developers facing problems, particularly while handling large programs with Unicode. In the latest iteration, there are no bugs or complications with the counting of Unicode characters, and once again, the readability is enhanced with the Unicode 9 support. Devs can now create correct grapheme collections for emojis (‘person + skin tone’, ‘four members of a family, etc.). These countings were, in many cases, erroneous in Swift 3.

Note: The ‘key value observing API’ has undergone an update in Swift 4.

10. Strings have become collections (reversing an earlier change)

As mentioned earlier, Swift 2.0 had removed Strings as Collections – and Swift 4 has brought it back. While a relatively small workaround, this feature will be mighty helpful for coders – since most strings have either Unicode scalars or sets of characters – both of which can be managed as ‘Collections’. Other instances can be documented with API as ‘special cases’, and worked upon accordingly. With Strings becoming Collections again, a lot more can now be done with the former – right from character-on-character looping, to full reversing. Reiterations can be done directly on a String in Swift 4, and the need for having separate ‘characters’ arrays has been done away with. From ‘Collection’ and ‘Sequence’, more functionalities can be obtained inside ‘Strings’.

Note: There is a new StringProtocol too, for the purpose of declaring functions that had been declared earlier in a String.

11. More powerful Dictionaries

Unlike in Swift 3, filtering a dictionary in Swift 4 actually returns a new dictionary (instead of an array of tuples). A dictionary in Swift 4 can be initialized with duplicate keys – ensuring that other key-value pairs do not get accidentally overwritten. A tuple (i.e., a sequence of key-value pairing) can be used for dictionary creation as well. Values can be mapped directly in the dictionaries with the new mapValues () method – while custom ‘Dictionary Grouping’ (from sequences) is also supported. In case a dictionary key is missing and a default value has to be assigned, that can be done directly in the latest Swift version – without having to depend on the often-troublesome ‘nil coalescing operator’. What’s more, developers can now filter new objects from both ‘Set’ and ‘Dictionary’. Swift 4 has made Dictionary operations more intuitive than ever before.

Note: Explicitly reserving capacity is another new capability of Dictionary. This operation is available in Sequence too.

E.g., variablename.reservecapacity (10)

12. Limiting Objective-C inferencing

The @objc compiler attribute is useful. It can be used for handling Swift APIs on the Objective-C platform. That said, there are certain problems with using this Obj-C inference too – particularly in the form of increase in the binary size of the final software, and also the unforeseen creation of ‘selector collisions’ in the platform. In Swift 4, this referencing has become a lot more limited – with explicit inferencing required for only such instances where the entire dynamic dispatch capabilities are required. Classes derived from NSObject no longer need to use the inference, and the code lines that are not being used are not compiled (no redundant compilation). There are certain cases where implicit Obj-C referencing will be still required though (say, in declarations with an @objc attribute).

Note: With the limited Objective-C referencing, the size of a 20 MB app can be brought down to 16-17 MB.

Another new feature in Swift 4 worth a mention is the presence of generic subscripts. The ‘where’ clause can be used for associated type constraints, NSNumber Bridging is available to move away from errors in earlier versions (delivering greater consistency), and a new method – ‘MutableCollection’ – has been provided, for swapping elements from indices. There are several other small yet important additions to Swift 4 – all of them contributing to make the language even more developer-friendly.

Most new features in Swift 4 have backward compatibility (with codes in earlier Swift versions) – and in general, the changes are not as large as those introduced in Swift 3. The Swift Evolution community is constantly evolving (Swift 4.1 was released in October) – and the next version of the language is set to have ABI compatibility and stability, with libraries from different Swift versions being compatible with applications (the feature should be implemented by the end of this year). Swift’s soaring popularity apparently hit a roadblock in mid-2017 – and the new additions in Swift 4 can be instrumental in boosting its adoption among Apple developers worldwide.

2017 Is Done. It’s Time For 2018…

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Time flies. It seems only a couple days back that we were welcoming 2017 with great fanfare…and lo and behold – the year has almost passed us by! Santa has come and gone in his sleigh (driven by deer, maybe?), the festive season is on in full swing, and in a matter of a couple of days – 2018 will be upon us. It’s a great time of the year..when I can take stock of the year gone by, and start planning for the next year. This was a big year for Teks, and we plan to make 2018 bigger!

First things first though, the Teksmobile brand got a year older (we all did, right?) this year. What started out as a modest startup in the spring of 2006 is now a healthy 12-year old – prospering amidst technological innovations and worldwide appreciation from clients. It has been an amazing journey for me personally – and I trust for everyone associated with the company. Here’s looking at you, dear developers, and designers, and testers, and the backend team, and of course, everyone who decided to do business with us in 2017. You make what Teks is now…and a big ‘thank you’ to you all.

2017 saw us move forward in our quest to strengthen the international presence of Teksmobile. Two new offices – at Seoul and Busan (South Korea) – started operations from the third quarter, with Eric Jinsu Kang heading the team over there as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). A new website for the Korean chapter (Teksmobile Korea) has also been launched (go ahead, have a look). When me and my motley team started out with simplistic Java apps more than a decade back – we had perhaps hoped to, but were not entirely sure about, seeing a day when our company will have offices in 5 different countries (Sweden, Australia, USA, India, and now South Korea). Over the next couple of years, we have plans for more expansion – but that will happen when it will happen. Fingers crossed for that.

Teksmobile…Everywhere!

On the work front, me and my team have always craved for variety. Same is boring for us (as it should be)…and new challenges, projects where we can really showcase our professional and technical expertise, really get us going. 2017 has been a really rewarding year from that perspective. The array of projects we have worked (and are still working!) on have been well and truly diverse. From a smart travel wallet app and a automotive service app, to a customized travel journal application, an educational game for kids (which also doubles up as a digital storytelling tool), and a ‘find-a-medic’ app – we have worked on them all this year. How about a video-streaming app for the top-ranked fishing and outdoors channel in Australia? Yep, done that too!

More than pretty faces: The Uber-Efficient Ladies At Teks

On average, 8 out of every 10 of our apps get featured at the app stores. However, if I were asked about the category we are most successful in – my response would probably be ‘apps for children’. As our uber-successful Story Time For Kids application has gone on its merry way of collecting accolades and honourable mentions, My First Words (an audio picture dictionary for toddlers) has cemented its place among our best-performing products. Among our more recent works, Soccerman is off to a fast start, while Minilobes (another learning game app with a twist) also has the potential to become hugely popular. We believe that we are good in what we do (at least our clients keep saying that!) – and evidently, we really excel with our kids’ applications. Who doesn’t love the li’l ones, anyway?

Oh, and did you know, the Story Time For Kids app now has a customized version (Bedtime Stories For Kids) for Apple TV too?

The ‘Teks Guys’!

Those who follow this blog (for those who don’t, here you go) would know that I had emphasized on consolidating my company’s position as a ‘driver of technology’ (more like ‘the face of changing technology’) in 2017. I am happy to report that things have been consistently on course regarding that. We are currently in the final stages of creating a full-blown IoT firmware (powered by the LoRa technology), cross-platform development tools like React Native are being used regularly on projects (as and when required), and we have also completed our first successful foray in the domain of ‘smart agriculture’. I feel that it’s high time that we learnt about, embraced and implemented more cutting-edge technologies – in a bid to come up with better, more futuristic software and tools. Delivering more than the clients’ expectations has always been something my team has strived for – and I can safely say that in 2017, we made all of our ‘external employees’ (that’s how I like to refer to our clients) very happy indeed.

Speaking of working with breakthrough technologies, I should also mention two of our new in-house projects – with which we are really trying to push the bar. The first of them is NOLBI (No Language Barrier Instrument) – a tool designed to make cross-language conversations/communications easier than ever before. The mobile app version is almost ready, while an interactive voice response (IVR) system and a voice telephony terminal are also in the pipeline. The biggest USPs of the NOLBI tool will be: a) near-real-time translation services (minimal lags), and b) high accuracy levels. I trust that NOLBI will make life convenient for a lot of people (travelers in foreign lands, particularly) from next year. We are looking for an early-2018 release for that one.

The other project I would like to mark out for this year is Eventify. It is a digital event app building platform – a tool that allows event organizers to create fully customized, scalable, information-rich and user-friendly event applications. The tool went fully functional in the second half of 2017, and was used to create the official apps of the Nordic APIs Platform Summit (Stockholm, Sweden), the Nordic Smart Cities event (Stockholm, Sweden), and StartCon 2017 (Sydney, Australia). Corporate tech events do not come much bigger than these – and let’s just say that Eventify more than proved itself in each of these cases. Expect Teks to partner with, and Eventify to be the creator of, the apps of several high-profile tech events in 2018.

I have been in the mobile apps business for a long time now (am a ‘veteran’ mobile apps architect, if you please!). Over the years, I have overseen, and taken immense pride in, the many #win moments for our apps – when they had bagged important awards and honourable mentions on the international stage. Even so, it still gets me all excited whenever the news of new successes float in. In the final weeks of 2017, the Android version of the My First Words application crossed the 300K downloads mark (the iOS version is also doing very well). Also, the app for StartCon 2017 broke into the list of top-25 applications in the Australian App Store – within 24 hours of its launch. A fair testimony to the hard work, dedication, and sheer expertise of our in-house developers, methinks.

Startcon 2017 app – a resounding success

Teks has never been, and will never be, an ‘only-work-and-no-fun’ organization – and 2017 had its share of delightful, fun-filled moments. On a personal front, I was absolutely amazed with the way in which the team had (secretly) arranged for my birthday celebration at office. Since I was scheduled to be out of the country on the actual date, they arranged for the decorations and the cake-cutting and the (real cool!) gifts a couple of days in advance. Every year, I get the feeling that the guys are planning something for my birthday – but, to date, have never been able to second-guess them. One moment you step out of your regular office cabin…and minutes later, you find balloons and ribbons and pom-poms in it! This annual surprise really MEANS A LOT.

Of cakes, gifts, balloons, and more…

All Smiles: Planned by my ‘sparkling’ team!

We were also off to our yearly off-site tour in May this year. There was plenty of fun and frolic on the beach as the sun beat down and the waves splashed – with many cool games and rounds of candid conversation. At Teksmobile, we do not believe in a rigid, top-down managerial system – and easy interactions are preferred. These off-site trips help a lot in breaking the proverbial ice among the team members old and new – and we will be off again somewhere in 2018. Destination suggestions, anyone?

Our motto for 2017 was ‘be more productive’ – with a particular focus on establishing and fostering mentor-mentee relationships at workplace. Things have gone absolutely swimmingly on that front. Newcomers (there have been quite a few of them this year) have loved the opportunity to get hands-on training and expert guidance from the seniors. The latter, on their part, have been more than eager to share their knowledge with anyone who was ready to pick their brains. In the next year and beyond, we will stick with this mentor-mentee culture…it has indeed done wonders for boosting productivities and lifting employee morales. Maintaining optimal quality of service, working within deadlines, and making each of our customers happy – we have done all that in 2017, and then some more. Wish us similar success in 2018!

We started out with the slightly-delayed ‘employee reward scheme’ this year (finally!). Each member of the Teks Family received a little gift on their respective birthdays – and three of our senior employees were given special awards, for their unwavering commitment to contribute to the company over the years. More prizes are on the offing from the next year – including performance-based awards. The only caveat will be – you WILL HAVE TO EARN these prizes!

Key Account Manager at Teks walks away with an award

So, was everything good about the year gone by? Mostly yes (we managed to finish up a couple of troublesome projects too) – but there was one thing that I found rather disturbing. Over the last decade or so, I have had the good fortune of hiring some of the best talents in the business to work in our company. This year though, there has emerged a trend of new interns and freshers – youngsters I hired for the sole objective of giving them an opportunity to showcase their skills, and also to learn – moving away as soon as the training period is complete. I am a firm believer in the value of employee-retention (there are quite a few guys who have been with Teks from the very start) – and I feel annoyed when people try to treat Teks as just another place to test the waters. Note to myself: will have to be more careful with my hiring policies in 2018. Manpower is the strongest asset of Team Teks – and I don’t want wrong ‘uns getting into the mix.

Me and my team are already looking forward with great excitement to the new year. For starters, we will be finishing up with the NOLBI project (hopefully, it will get the success it deserves) – while work has also started on a subscription-based educational app for junior-level school kids. The app is going to have 60+ games – both single-player and multiplayer – and will cover English, Mathematics and GK topics. Apart from that, we will be carrying on with our regular app/API services, custom web solutions, and game development services – and keep an eye out on the ever-changing technologies, tools and frameworks. More work will be done on the IoT front as well, while making apps for wearables is another priority point. I am confident of having an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ attitude from my team…to make 2018 our most successful year yet.

Before signing off, I would once again like to wish all dear readers the heartiest greetings for this festive season. My 2018 be good for each of you…as well as on us!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Or is it the other way round?

How To Tackle App Fatigue? Here Are Some Answers

We are at the fag end of 2017, and the global app ecosystem has grown bigger than ever. The phrase ‘there’s an app for that’ (coined by Apple Inc. in 2009) has become more than literally true – with multiple apps existing for the same core purpose…for delivering similar values to end-users. According to reasonable estimates, close to 198 billion applications will have been downloaded this year – with the Android platform notching up ~91 billion downloads, while the iOS app download count hovering around the 26 billion mark. By 2021, we will be looking at more than 350 billion app downloads in a single calendar year.

While the app industry seems all bright and filled with opportunities, there is a primary point of concern – in the form of ‘app fatigue’. In layman’s terms, this refers to the sheer tiredness, and resultant unwillingness, of general people to download and use new apps. In the United States, nearly 66% smartphone-owners download a grand total of ZERO applications every month, while a further 17% download one or two applications. What’s more, 85% users regularly use only 4-5 apps (even when they have 30-odd applications on their devices). These are not great stats for third-party app developers, among whom the competition levels are also immense (there are ~500K Apple developers, and a jaw-dropping 970K Android developers at present). As 2018 rolls into view, we present some handy tips for both developers and smartphone-owners to overcome the ‘app fatigue‘ challenge:

(for app developers): Consider the security features and permission requests

With tasks of critical nature being increasingly performed through mobile applications, concerns over their security and reliability have been – understandably – increasing. Most users also typically keep an eye out for the permissions that an app requires and the type/extent of data it has access to. If an app has to be regularly updated for retaining its functionality, that can also be viewed as a hassle. App makers need to focus on creating software that have robust security assurance, and do not need too many permissions.
(for app users): Avoid downloading apps for experimentation

In the United States, a typical mobile-user has 27 applications installed in his/her device (this figure has remained relatively flat over the last three years). While that seems pretty much reasonable, it won’t be difficult to find people with 150+ apps, stretching across 7-8 home screens, installed on their handsets. For these users, the phone often feels unnecessarily cluttered and clogged up (apart from the device running short on storage capacity). It’s high time smartphone-users stopped downloading every new app that hits the stores – simply to check it out. Browse through the apps available, find out the ones that would fit your requirements the best, and get them only.
(for app developers): Take advantage of the new Apple and Android updates

As the worldwide app market gradually moves towards maturity, developers need to start thinking out-of-the-box, for tweaking the app-usage experience for end users. iOS app developers can easily take advantage of the all-new subscription-based model for users, as well as paid searches, to drive more business for their products. The revenue-sharing option on the Apple platform can also be rewarding. On the other hand, the arrival of Android Instant Apps earlier this year has revolutionized the scenario for those working on this platform. Indie developers as well as third-party app companies can now allow users to check out a section of an app’s functionality directly from mobile web – without the latter having to actually download the application. It’s a handy way of giving people a first-hand preview of an app – and if they like what they see, downloads will happen.

Note: The cost-per-install (CPI) figure for developers has jumped significantly over the last few quarters, and currently varies in the $5-$10 range.

(for app users): Be ruthless in deleting what you don’t need

App fatigue has got a lot to do with app overload. That, in turn, comes from the general tendency of keeping applications that are hardly ever used on the device. Over time, the number of such uninteresting and unnecessary apps begin to accumulate – clogging up the display and eating into the phone memory (on Android, maybe the SD card memory). There can be occasions when you download an application, only to find that it isn’t quite what you were looking for (or it isn’t efficient enough). In such cases, get rid of the concerned app immediately, and look for an alternative. A smartphone should ideally have only those third-party apps that will be used.

Note: In general, do not have duplicate apps (i.e., apps for the same purpose) on your handset. A probable exception to this can be on-demand cab apps, though.

(for app developers): Go for the best possible UX

Irrespective of whether it’s a B2B or a B2C application, a seamless blend of functionality, ease of usage, and design optimization (visual appeal) should be present in any mobile app. It is of utmost importance for developers to make the best use of the available resources – including innovative technologies like speech-recognition (on the lines of Siri and Google Now), artificial intelligence and machine learning. Keep track of all the latest developments in the app development tools and frameworks, and consider how your existing apps can be further improved. In addition, mobile app development experts have to make sure that their software has smooth device-specific capabilities (i.e., can optimally utilize the features (say, camera) of the device it is installed on). Human-centered design (HCD) is what you should be aiming for.
(for app users): The importance of mobile web

By 2014, mobile apps had pulled ahead of mobile web in terms of popularity. Even so, at a time when many users are facing problems due to ‘app overkill’ – it would be a prudent option to check out the mobile web version (if available), instead of downloading the app straightway. Right from banking sites to online shopping portals abd news portals – most present-day websites are responsive, have fluid designs, and are generally user-friendly. Users can give them a try – and more often than not, they can perform tasks without having to download ‘yet another app’. Mobile apps are more convenient and have higher adoption rates – but mobile web is not dead, and it should also be given a chance.
(for app developers): Be wary of front-end fatigue

Coding languages, and CSS and HTML and agile methodologies and javascript libraries and open source tools and time-management skills – the required skills of a professional app developer can often seem overbearing. Attempts to learn everything within a short span of time often results in burnout – and all that the concerned developer is able to come up with are sub-standard software applications. Keep in mind that you DO NOT have to learn everything – and the trick lies in being a master of the skills that you already have. In other words, specializing in a set of tools and technologies is what app developers should focus on. You also need to keep some time aside for constantly learning and upgrading yourself (technology is in a continuous state of flux). A tired developer is incapable of creating apps that have the much-required edge.
(for app users): Check out the mobile app ads

The total expenditure on mobile advertising globally stands at ~$144 billion at present. By 2020, this figure would swell $247 billion. Problems arise when this money gets wasted – when users do not bother watching the ads, and making an effort to understand what the main features (USPs) of a new app are. Instead, they frame an idea about the qualities of the app under question – and whenever these expectations are not fulfilled, ‘app fatigue’ arises. Users need to be patient enough to watch the app ads, to get a reasonable idea on the nature of the application – and the requirements it has been designed to fulfil. This will prevent them from indiscriminately downloading (and uninstalling soon after) a large number of apps. Ads are displayed on any digital platform for a purpose – and it’s high time we gave them some time.
(for app developers): The need for efficient app marketing campaigns

The Apple App Store has more than 3 million apps (including games). Over 3.3 million apps are available for download in the Google Play Store. In order to gain visibility in an already overcrowded app marketplace, the importance of coming up with smart marketing strategies in general, and app advertisements in particular, is immense. Provide genuine, updated information about your mobile application (highlight the ‘gaps’ it can bridge) – and avoid overselling your product (for instance, with exaggerated info). Apart from being informative, mobile app ads should also be interactive – prompting the users to do something on playback. If a person can simply mute his/her phone and set it down when the ad is displayed – that’s an opportunity lost. Engaging, informative, and interactive – these are the chief qualities of a good app advertisement.

Note: App ads need to be relevant and personalized as well. A recent Fiksu report has shown that apps with irrelevant, annoying ads are often uninstalled immediately.

10. (for app developers): Integrate deep linking in apps

Deep linking with the help of Universal Resource Identifiers (or, URIs) can be particularly useful for enterprise applications. The average employee in the IT sector regularly use more than 10 apps on their handsets – and things become a lot more convenient for them, if there are deep links in an app, for navigating to other applications (or moving to other sections of the same app). There are several platforms available for integrating deep linking in apps (Deeplink.me is a good example). Complicated in-app navigation is a frequent cause for app-abandonment – and deep linking can go a long way in solving that problem.

11. (for app developers and app users): A change in mindset

Most developers focus only on the total download count/number of installs for their new applications. While these figures are important (early downloads boost the chances of an app getting featured in stores) – in the absence of a proper, end-to-end app analytics system, these metrics make little sense. It might very well happen that a new and promising app is downloaded by many people – who then detect a major flaw in the app’s functionality – and as a result, the app gets removed from most devices. The mindset of professional app developers has to change – from simply counting downloads, to factoring in the feedback received from users, and planning improvements on the basis of them. Apps have to be FOR and ABOUT users…if the latter are unsatisfied with a software, it is doomed (whatever the early download figures might be).

Speaking of mindset changes, the increasing availability of freemium apps and games are making the average user less inclined to spend money on mobile applications. The onus lies on developers to make use of the freemium model to drive revenue for themselves – without hampering the user-experience in any way whatsoever.

12. (for app developers): Create apps that deliver value

Candy Crush Saga is an insanely popular game. However, the same cannot be said about its hundreds of clones (almost similar match-3 games). Avoid being a copycat, and put your attention to conceptualizing apps that would deliver something unique…something better to the target-users. There has to be a primary functionality of an app (‘easier banking transactions’, ‘football on the go’, ‘karaoke fun’, etc.), which: a) can be used in the promotional pitches for the app, and b) would appeal to end-users. Do not try to pack in too many features in a single app. That would only end up confusing people.

Note: As a rule of thumb, the simpler it is to use an app (which has important value proposition(s)), the higher is its chances of becoming successful.

13. (for app developers): The need for Mobile App Management (MAM)

Researches have shown that app fatigue can cause considerable loss of employee productivity at workplaces (the time required to install new apps, research about their features and going through their security features can take up a lot of time). To tackle this issue, dedicated ‘app containers’ can be created – from where the app deployments to the employees’ devices would take place directly. Apart from taking away concerns over installation and app-security, such container-based MAM can handle app upgrades, regular monitoring requirements, and data safety standards. Enterprises need to make an attempt for reducing the number of work-related apps people have to use – and MAM is a more than viable option for that.

14. (for app developers): Customized versions for different platforms

Contrary to what many believed earlier, a mobile app is NOT an watered down version of a website. Software development is certainly not a field where the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach works – and the onus lies on third-party developers to determine the platforms/devices that their apps will be usable on – and then create separate, customized versions of the software (e.g. for web, mobile, tablet, etc.). With wearables in general, and smartwatches in particular (2.7 million units of Apple Watch were shipped in 2017 Q3) growing in popularity – developers have to come up with compatible versions of apps for these smart devices. IoT (Internet of Things) is growing fast – and the techniques of app development have to keep pace with it.

15. (for app developers): Do away with unused features in apps

Generally, app updates are all about either bug-fixes or adding new features. However, getting rid of the features of an app that are hardly ever used is important too – for removing distractions in the path of the final users. Precise focusing of apps also increases overall engagement levels. Once again, the presence of a reliable, real-time app analytics system is essential, for finding the usage rates of the different features of an application (i.e., behaviour of app users). Depending on the likely interaction by a user, and the device(s) (s)he is using, the UX of the app should be modified.

Note: The importance of cross-device continuity and functionality is also going up. A person should be able to launch and start using an app on one device, and finish up with it on another device.

App fatigue stems from two channels: the tiredness of general users with too many apps, and the tiredness of developers churning out similar apps repeatedly. In the US, there has been a 20% dip in the download-count of apps developed by the 15 biggest app companies – clearly indicating that this fatigue is not a myth. The good thing is, the ‘app fatigue’ is avoidable, and can be managed – both by developers and end-users. Mobile apps are here to stay…and the app industry will only get stronger in the foreseeable future.

13+1 Mobile App UI/UX Trends To Watch Out For In 2018

You like a person. That person like you back. There is an instant connection, and the two of you get along famously – chatting through the evening. And then, it happens. Just when you had started to wish that the good time would never end, the said person abruptly stands up and leaves, without even a proper “Goodbye” – and you never hear from him/her ever again. Pretty sad, right? Similar is the case with smartphone users and mobile app retention rates.

According to a recent Localytics report, 8 out of every 10 mobile apps (on average) are not retained on devices beyond 90 days from their installation. Close to 25% people interact with a newly-downloaded app just once, and a lowly 37% users bother launching an application more than 10 times. Improving the visual appeal and overall user-experience can go a long way in boosting the app-retention levels – and in what follows, we will take a look at some important UI and UX trends for 2018:

More vivid colours and bold typography

This August, YouTube changed its logo and app design for the first time in twelve-odd years. In 2018 and beyond, many more business organizations and companies will also tweak around the visual presentation of their apps – with the focus squarely on using a brighter, more vivid colour pallette, and crisp, bold typography. Developers will try to incorporate fancy yet clear fonts in place of traditionally used structures – and the overall web and mobile app landscape is set to become more creative, more experimental than ever before. Coupled with optimized layouts, HQ images and animations, bright colours and beautiful typography can be instrumental in bolstering user-experience levels.
Material Design to the fore

Flat designs are all about being minimalistic, and they have been popular for years now. As the skill levels of professional UI designers become more nuanced, the possibilities of integrating greater complexities on ‘flat’ layouts are opening up. Google offered a glimpse into the future back in 2014, with its concept of ‘material design’. Apart from subtle animations, cool transition effects and layer depth (with the help of translucent imagery) are becoming increasingly mainstream in applications. The option of adding shadows is also making interfaces richer and more interesting. Material design should become an integral part of app designing strategies, on iOS, Android and web platforms.
Focus on First Time User Experience

Mobile users are an impatient lot. A recent research revealed that the average attention span of smartphone users is less than 9 seconds. This makes it doubly important for mobile apps to deliver top-class first-time user experience (FTUE) – to have any chances of becoming an engaging tool. The loading speed should be quick (the splash screen should not be visible for more than 6-8 seconds), the onboarding should be quick and easy – providing users with a gentle ‘learning ramp’, and designers will need to place their attention on ‘designing for zero-state’ (i.e., the state where there is nothing to be displayed). For instance, if a connectivity error happens, the screen should display the error, instead of simply going blank. There are more than 5 million apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store (combined) – and if an app does not manage to capture the users’ attention at the first go, it is not likely to get a second chance.

Note: 8 out of every 10 apps that do not offer good enough FTUE turn out to be failures.

Single, immersive images. Full screen videos

The trend of using multiple images in a photo carousel to represent a brand is gradually losing steam. In 2018, we are likely to see more and more mobile and web apps to use single, high-clarity, immersive photos – to showcase the brand personalities of the concerned businesses. Full-screen videos (instead of short video files embedded on screens) also have the potential of becoming a tool for providing more intuitive experiences to app users. The best thing about (most) full-screen videos is that they do not require users to scroll down and/or zoom on the screen. For telling a ‘brand story’, such videos can be really powerful.

Note: Over the next few quarters, the use of gradients in app designing should also rise.

Greater personalization

In the US, the average adult user spends close to 90 hours every month with their mobile devices (working out to just a shade under 3 hours daily). Not surprisingly, people have started to expect that their handsets would ‘behave’ like knowledgeable companions – and with the immense advancements in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the past few years, providing seamless personalization has indeed become possible (replacing the traditional, generic experiences). App developers, in 2018 and later, would make a conscious attempt to ‘learn deeper’ about their customers through their applications – and customized displays and illustrations and controls will play a big role in that. The latest development on this front is the emergence of age-responsive UIs that take into account the display preferences of users from different age-groups.
The rise of SVGs

It’s not that designers will move away from images in JPG and PNG formats drastically – but there will be a steady rise of the scalable vector graphics (SVGs) format over the next couple of years or so. This growth will be primarily fueled by the mounting need for easily scalable, high-quality images. Also, SVG images can be scaled without their quality/clarity/crispness being adversely affected in any way. For gaming apps in particular, there are several other 3D vector formats which might witness high adoption rates in mobile apps in 2018. The emphasis will be on coming up with uniformly user-centric designs (UCD), and the new image file formats will have a prominent role to play in that.

Note: On flat designs with added elements, designers add different types of geometrical shapes (patterns, circles, etc.) – in their bid to showcase their creativity.

More content and parallax scrolling

The general tendency of website and mobile app designers was to create the layouts first, and then look for content. Expect a change of approach in 2018 – with ‘content-first’ strategies taking centerstage. UX designers will have to factor in considerations of visibility and information-sharing through the screens – and as such, long-form content (simply put, greater text content) will find more favour. The challenge will greater on the mobile platform than on web – due to the much smaller screen real estate of the former (also, the shorter attention spans). To counter the problem of some content going ‘below-the-fold’, developers will also start to invest more on the parallax scrolling feature in their apps. In addition to helping people check out the entire info on a screen, parallax scrolling will let them ‘discover something new’, every time they scroll or swipe on the app screens.
Growth of voice-based UI

1 out of every 5 search activities on mobile took place with voice technology in 2016 (according to Google). By the end of next year, around 30% of all interactions with technology platforms will be conversation-based – i.e., through voice UIs. The widespread popularity of mobile virtual assistants like Siri and Google Now and Cortana have shown that people indeed find it convenient to interact with their handsets through voice technology (as opposed to the conventional method of typing). We can reasonably expect more and more third-party app companies to come up with innovative new applications with speech-recognition features. Operating them will be quicker and, more often than not, simpler – and people will be able to get work done with voice-instructions, while performing other tasks.

Note: The challenge on this front lies in the security and authentication part. App makers have to ensure that the speech technology integrated in their software is actually able to accurately ‘recognize’ the authorized user(s).

Borderless displays are the new in-thing

Bezelless phones are here to stay – and the recently launched iPhone X has revolutionized the very concept of edge-to-edge displays. There have been other high-end bezelless phones too this year, like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and the excellent Samsung Galaxy Note 8. More of such devices will be launched by different vendors in 2018 – and designers can ill-afford to stay static with their highly restrictive grid-based design concepts (which admittedly, still works great for websites). While working on the mobile platform though, they will have to think beyond grids, and add motions, transitions and depth – to add more verve to the borderless displays. The importance of leaving enough whitespace to ‘let the content breathe’ should also be highlighted at this point. Apps optimized for bezelless phones need to provide holistic digital experiences to end-users…a requirement that designers will try to resolve in different ways.
The year of the password-killer?

Oh well, we do not expect passwords to be completely gone by the next year. However, with the volume of app-usage and the amount of sensitive data being stored by smartphone-users in their applications going up all the time – the need of the hour is for faster, and more secure, authentication processes. In the near future, apps can come with biometric identification, fingerprint identification, or even face/iris recognition (Face ID of iPhone X probably lays down a blueprint). Authentication codes and OTPs, which would be sent to the same devices, can also effectively replace passwords. With these alternatives, the average user will no longer be burdened with the task of having to remember scores of passwords.
Designing for the device-agnostic app user

A person can start booking a cab on his/her Amazon Echo, and confirm the booking on an Android device. With the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem expanding by leaps and bounds and the number of smart devices in our lives increasing exponentially – it’s high time for UI/UX designers to gradually replace their ‘mobile-first’ strategies with a clear eye on providing uniformly optimal ‘multichannel app experiences’. The likely behaviour of users while using an app (user-interaction) should shape how it should be designed – and designers should do well to remember that people are only interested to get at their goals (in our example, booking a cab), without any ‘interruptions’ due to change of mediums/channels. Providing seamless omnichannel UX is going to be an exciting challenge for app developers in the next year or so.
Identifying and removing irritants

In a 2017 survey, it was found that over 70% of the respondents removed apps from their phones due to repeated, annoying notifications. The onus is on graphic designers and UX developers to find out what might ‘disturb’ the user – and remove all such ‘potential exit-points’. The much-loved ‘hamburger menu’ of Android is also likely to give way to the more easily viewable tab view of the different menu options. The overall in-app navigation has to be smooth, and there has to be help available (say, in the form of chatbots) at every point. Every screen should highlight the primary task users have to do on it (e.g., making a choice, or giving a feedback). As a rule of thumb, it should not take more than three interactions for a user to reach the screen/page (s)he is looking for.

Note: In 2018 and beyond, more importance will be placed on minimizing the chances of ‘false inputs’ – by ensuring that all tappable areas can actually be accessed/tapped easily. The size of average ‘touch areas’ should be 7.5-10 mm.

13. Augmented reality to make its mark

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg predicted at this year’s F8 conference that all screens will make way for augmented reality (AR)-powered lenses in the foreseeable future. With the latest flagship smartphones having cutting-edge camera features, excellent processor power and HQ displays – the opportunities are with UI designers to integrate the technology in their new software applications. The real-world scenarios have to be accurately and interestingly depicted, with the virtual elements having contextual support. Users will be able to get immersive AR experiences, without having to perform two many ‘actions’ on their own. Of course, the technology will be best enjoyed when the user is moving around.

Bonus Trend:

The importance of smarter animations

From displaying the system status and app loading status, to highlighting navigational transitions – functional animations can make a mobile app ‘seem alive’. The trick here will lie in not piling on too many effects and animations just because it is possible – making the app ‘too heavy’ in the process. Instead, designers should try to help end-users get an idea of the Why, What, and How of changes on a screen. In other words, subtle, well-placed animations can intuitively represent the logic-flow of an app, and give people an idea about the status of any tasks. Zooming effects and cute little animations while providing answers to on-screen questions all add up to the visual appeal.

App icons are set to become more interesting too, with small animations and minimalistic outlines. New tools and software like Kits and Adobe XD will enable designers to create better user-experiences, while Google Optimize will make the task of performing A/B split tests easy. While not particularly innovative, card-based designs will remain popular too – thanks to their ability to neatly categorize and showcase large volumes of information.

Android will continue to be the first preference of mobile app designers (at present, ~78% designers prefer working on the Android platform over iOS). The app marketplace is immensely competitive, there are no paucity of good applications – and in many cases, it is going to be the app designs and overall UX that will make a difference.

Will A Startup Survive And Thrive? Here Are 13 Key Signs

In 2016, close to 659000 startups were launched in the United Kingdom alone – marking a YoY increase of more than 8.55%. On a global basis, around 137000 new companies start operations everyday – with the annual figure for startup launches worldwide standing in excess of 50 million. In the United States too, the startup revolution is at an all-time high, with ~7.5% of job-seekers opting to start their own businesses in 2016 Q4 (the corresponding figure in 2015 Q4 was only 4.8%). Apart from the US and the UK, the number of startups is rising…and rising fast…in Latin America and Europe.

The remarkable rise in startup launches across the globe should not, however, mask the fact that a high percentage of these new businesses fail within the first year of existence. Taking the daily averages once again, approximately 120000 startups wind up business everyday – and almost 90% of all startups ultimately fail. Unavailability of funds, improper business scaling, and inability to show adequate ROI to investors feature among the chief documented reasons of such failures. However, the problems, more often than not, lie deeper. If you are planning to launch a startup, these factors will give you a fair idea on whether it will soar or crash:

Having a detailed budget

On average, 3 out of every 10 new startups run out of funds before becoming properly established. That, in turn, brings to light the importance of framing and maintaining a detailed budget – while planning all the aspects of a new business. Following a pre-decided budget helps entrepreneurs avoid unnecessary expenditure, and analyze all the accounts carefully, on which money will be spent. The key factor over here is making optimal use of available resources at all times. It might be a small $100 startup or a large-scale business venture – working without a budget and ‘taking things as they come’ is an absolute no-no.

Note: As a CEO, if you are not too fond of number-crunching, hire a qualified accountant for the purpose.

Availability of funds

If there are no funds, there will be no business – it’s as simple as that. According to a recent study, around 80% of startups are funded by the owners themselves, while a measly ~1% are sponsored by venture capital (VC) firms. Depending on the line of business you will be working on, find out the approximate expenses required to get started – and decide whether to raise the funds from your own pocket – or if taking a small business loan, or pitching to reliable angel investors would make more practical sense. There are several crowdfunding sites (e,g., Indiegogo, Kickstarter) which can help you out as well. It also has to be kept in mind that, in the context of startups, ‘resources’ do not only refer to ‘funds’ – and there are lots of useful free stuff (free software, supplier credit, probable partnerships with customers, etc.) that can get a new business going. If your startup is to emerge a success, access to adequate funds and other resources is an absolute must.
The motivation factor

Do you have a regular day job, and are thinking about launching a startup only for some extra cash? If yes, you should better lay off the idea. Nurturing a startup calls for super-dedicated motivation on the part of the founder (if the main man isn’t motivated enough, how will the others be?). Ask yourself whether you will be able to give your entire time towards the new business – taking up different responsibilities, and forgetting about weekdays and weekends and working hours – until the startup’s operations find a steady footing. Do not be afraid to wear different hats simultaneously (you might have to manage projects, do a bit of coding yourself, handle a couple of interviews, check designs, and the like). A startup is just like a baby – if you are not prepare give it your best care and attention, you might well not have it.

Note: Interestingly, only 1 out of every 5 startups with single owners manage to survive. The success rate jumps to 47.5% when there two people join hands to start a new business.

Talent acquisition

You are not going to have a startup if you don’t have ideas…preferably, lots of them. However, ideas look good on paper and boards only, and there needs to be a carefully recruited, well-trained team ready at hand to implement these ideas. Among startups across the globe, nearly 24% face problems due to not having ‘the right team’ from the very outset. Chalk down the job titles that will be present in your company, and hire the most suitable candidates. Look out for people who have the ‘can-do, will-do’ attitude, on top of academic/professional qualifications. Working with freelancers can work for some time – but keep in mind that it is a stop-gap solution, and full-time in-house manpower will be required in the long-run.
Existing need for your product/service

Consider this: you have the ideas for really innovative arcade games. Will it be a good idea to invest time and money to create a startup for making such games? No, because the world has moved on from arcade games – and there will not be a market for your products. Before spending a single penny, do your homework to find out whether the product/service your startup will offer is likely to have adequate demand from prospective customers. Avoid selecting fields of work that are either outdated, or are too far-fetched. Ideally, work with something that you already like and/or are somewhat familiar with. Study trends, analyze markets, and identify ‘demand gaps’ where your startup can slot in and be economically viable.

Note: Not having a large enough market for their products/services is the principal cause of failure for a whopping 42% of all startups. If your business idea is not tenable, your startup will go kaput!

Focus on discipline and transparency

A classic sign of whether your startup is ultimately going to make it is the degree of honesty and integrity with which you start out. There should be no information that you might have to keep away from other stakeholders (co-founders, employees, first set of clients) at any time. Manage your operations in a completely transparent manner – just as you would do if everyone was watching you at all times. Follow up with your strong work-ethic with uniformly high discipline standards. The discipline should cover everything – right from budget and expense management, to operations and quality of service (QoS). It’s all about establishing a strong brand reputation – a positive buzz about your startup – and the importance of maintaining high business integrity levels for that is paramount. If you have things to hide from others at the start, bigger troubles are bound to crop up soon.
Is a properly researched business model in place?

If not, your startup is not ready to take flight just yet. Sit with your team and create a well-defined business model – specifying the fixed cost levels, the estimated revenues and sources of earnings, the operating costs, the gross margins, the profit levels, and other metrics that you might want to follow. Find out the payments and pricing models that would be best suited for your business (your products/services should, of course, be competitively priced). Find out what the reasonable estimates of profit margins come out to be – and if the numbers do not seem good enough, postpone your startup plans for the moment. Get started only when you feel every factor is in favour.

Note: 18% startups report problems with their costs or pricing (or both) at fairly early stages of their life. Having an in-depth business model helps to avoid such problems significantly.

Validated customers

Investing on a startup is risky business. The only way you can minimize the risk factor (mind you, the risks cannot be totally mitigated) is by ensuring that your business has some ‘traction’ – that people will actually be interested to pay for what you will be offering. More importantly, your products/services should have an apparent edge over that offered by your competitors. Close to 20% startups cannot cope up with the existing competition, and perish as a result. A smart option would be start your operations from a home office, before having a startup formally in place. That will give you a fair idea of the volume of ‘validated customers’ you have. It’s like have a captive audience/buyers for your business – the bigger the pool is, the better.

Note: For gaining business traction and exposure, you also need to have strong, updated marketing and promotional strategies in place. Generating awareness among people is one of the stepping-stones for gaining recognition.

Scalability and adaptability

As an entrepreneur, the onus lies on you to identify opportunities to improve your startup all the time. Be dynamic with your operations, keep track of the latest tools and technologies and market trends, and find out how you can tweak your operations to take things forward. Be prepared to change policies, scope of operations, and other aspects of your business – if the final result would be good for the business (i.e., for the ‘greater good’). However, be wary of scaling up your business too fast – without considering whether such a move is necessary. Nearly 3 out of every 4 internet startups face problems due to premature scaling. The world of business and technology is constantly evolving, and you need to have flexible plans in place to make the most from every situations. Keep in mind that your best-laid early plans might have to be changed (or even scrapped) at a later date.
Experience and networking capabilities

There is an element of ‘trial-and-error’ involved when you are starting out with a new business. However, if you have a degree of credible experience in the concerned field, that will help you minimize that factor – and put you in a relative ‘comfort zone’ for business. Another absolutely must-have quality for any new entrepreneur is powerful networking skills. You need to be able to strike up connections with people at the ‘right places’ (investors, partners, clients, etc.), and make the most out of your existing connections. In addition, your experience and dedication levels should also be inspiring enough for the others to give their best. Never work with a ‘siege mentality’ (‘Us vs Them’ at all times). Be social, and constantly strive to expand your network. A startup that tries to operate in a vacuum is almost sure to fail.
Ability to handle adverse situations

Things will not always go according to plans. Sales might go down, the number of clients can fall off a cliff – and there might even be loss of in-house talent (employee turnover is high in most industries). The key for success for a startup lies in the ability to tide over such tough scenarios, without hitting the ‘panic button’ or going into some sort of a ‘survival mode’ (say, finishing all projects at hand as quickly as possible, taking up more work that it can handle, etc.). Staying true to a clear business ‘vision’ is mighty important at such times – and you need to look for ways to bring your business back on track. If you feel that your company will run like a well-oiled machine and there will be zero shocks, managing a startup is probably not the thing for you!
Avoiding negativity

In an earlier post, we had discussed the importance of avoiding toxic employees. One of the biggest traits of a good entrepreneur is optimism – and positivity is vital for the overall well-being of your business as well. Do not leave any room for workplace gossip (you will have a relatively small team to start off, anyway) – and make sure that there are no rumours or negativity doing the rounds. The best way for ensuring this being completely frank with your top-down communication with employees, and encouraging two-way conversations. Everyone should be in sync with the overall organizational goals, and there should not be any conflicts (general workplace arguments or conflicts of opinions with investors/other stakeholders). A startup where everyone is happy and sincere is a startup that will do well.
Putting technology at the fore

Ideas are great – but unless you have the technology to work on them, they are of little use. In any digital startup company, the focus should be on establishing a powerful technology platform (complete with coding tools, software engineering support and other stuff). Once the tech is in place, and there are people who have been trained to handle it – it will be easy to follow an agile development/production methodology. In case you are not a technical person yourself, consider having a chief technology officer (CTO) at your startup. An ‘ideas-first’ approach is not a great way to do business – and you need to get the technology framework ready from the very outset. A business that keeps shying away from implementing the latest technologies is likely to be left behind.

Choosing the right time for launching a startup is also vital. Make sure that you will be able to give your undivided attention to the business in its early years (if you are planning a long vacation, or are set to become a parent in a couple of months, now will not be the right time to get things started). A dynamic approach, together with seamless two-way communication with all parties, will also help you to not miss out on pivots (cause of failure of 7% startups) or facing problems due to ‘misunderstood pivots’ (cause of failure of >10% startups). Of course, the final product/service should be excellent in terms of quality – and customer support has to be top-notch. Nothing kills off a startup more effectively than bad word-of-mouth publicity.

When you begin a startup business for the first time, you hope for the best – but must also be prepared for failure. It has been seen that ~20% of people whose first startups have failed, taste success with their next endeavours. A single failure should not weigh you down too much.

There are instances of startups floundering in spite of having all the signs highlighted here. Conversely, a new business can flourish even if it does not satisfy a couple of these conditions. However, these are exceptions – and if you wish to maximize the chances of success for your startup, you need to follow these signs carefully.

Cloud Computing Is Growing…But So Are Risks

By the end of 2017, the value of the global cloud computing market will go past the $260 billion mark – marking an impressive 18.5% YoY jump. The growth is all set to pick up further momentum in the next few years, with a Forbes report estimating that the cloud services market will be worth a whopping $411 billion by the turn of the decade. Both infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) will be important drivers of this growth, with 23.3% and 15.7% estimated CAGRs for the 2016-2020 period respectively. In the US, 8 out of every 10 companies have expanded their use of cloud computing services in one way or another. Adoption and use of public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud platforms are all on a rapid upward spiral.

While the advantages of cloud computing regarding greater flexibility and more scalability (also, cost-efficiency) are beyond the scope of doubt, shadows remain over the security aspects. In a recent survey among businesses, 25% of the respondents highlighted ‘security’ as a major concern, while a further 23% mentioned ‘compliance’ as another important point of concern. The biggest of tech giants – from Microsoft and Yahoo, to Apple and Dropbox – have suffered serious data breaches over the years. In 2016 alone, over a billion identities were compromised as a result of cloud services being hacked. Not surprisingly, investment on cloud security is also increasing, and is set to touch $3.5 billion by the end of 2021. Let us here look through the most serious types of cloud computing risks:

Authenticity and reliability of cloud vendors

Channels like Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure are, obviously, secure – but the same cannot be said about all the third-party cloud service providers out there. The problem is further compounded by the fact that many small and mid-scale businesses do not really make an attempt to track the robustness of the technology support offered by these vendors. A wide range of uber-important ‘business critical data’ is stored on cloud platforms by companies – and when handled inefficiently (or in the hands of the wrong person) – can spell doom for the concerned businesses. The lack of knowledge about how a cloud vendor work and the integrity/efficiency of the individual workers over there is also an issue. When an obscure cloud service provider messes up stored data, the reputation of the companies takes a serious hit.
The security assurance (or lack thereof)

In September 2013, the large-scale data breach at Vodafone (the banking data of over 2 million customers were stolen) made a lot of news. Over the years, the threat has intensified more – with tech entrepreneurs highlighting security threats as a major barrier in the way of large-scale cloud implementation. The onus lies on companies to read the fine print on what security standards a cloud service provider abides by, how the data would be stored, and how data integrity levels will be maintained at the time of outsourcing. In addition to these, the agreement should also clearly mention the extent of data the cloud platform will have access to – and the players who will be able to retrieve it (as and when required).

Note: Since cloud storage is done on distributed networks, recovering from hack attacks is generally quick. Other such wholly internet-based services have similar security risks.

Lack of vulnerability assessment of cloud service provider

Every cloud vendor claims to have the best security practices in place. However, that should not be enough – and businesses should ideally do a thorough vulnerability assessment study on the vendors they are considering to partner with. An idea of how these cloud platforms can recover from data theft attempts and breaches (disaster recovery) is also important. Virtual machines, malicious bots, infected software and brute force attacks are all becoming alarmingly common – and unless a vendor is well-equipped to handle such attacks, the problems will remain.
Unauthorized third-party data access

Think of it this way: a company maintains all of its data on its local server. Now, it decides to start using a cloud server for data storage. Understandably, more people (outsiders) will have the chance to snoop around this proprietary data than what was earlier the case. As more and more small small and mid-level businesses start using cloud services (i.e., the cloud platforms start aggregating more and more data) – single points of attack are created, just like what the phishing experts and miscreants would love. Companies generally feel that their data security levels get boosted when they switch to a cloud platform – but that factor is partially offset by the fact that more people have to be trusted now, more people have access to data, and chances of attacks become higher. It’s a necessary evil…but still, an evil.
No standardization affects cloud services

What is a ‘safe cloud system’? Get in touch multiple vendors – and chances are high that you will get varying replies, highlighting totally different factors. This lack of standardization forms yet another risk – since companies do not have a pre-specified benchmark to judge the quality of operations of the service provider. Once again, it is up to the clients (i.e., businesses) to ascertain the technological expertise and platform stability of the vendor – before actually storing data with the latter. The initial contract should clearly mention that if a company is not happy with the services of a cloud vendor, it can switch to another service provider without having to pay anything extra. Hopefully, the regulatory bodies will come up with some standardized practices in the near future.
Need for infrastructural change for cloud compatibility

There is very little room for doubting that ‘being on the cloud is the way to go’. However, things might not be as simple as they seem on paper. Companies have to make wholesale changes to their traditional IT system in general, and data infrastructure in particular. Making such changes can be both time-consuming and expensive. In addition, large companies typically have to go for the more advanced cloud-subscription plans and packages – given the sheer volume of ‘mission-critical’ data that has to be stored on the network. Unless an organization makes sure that the storage and protection benefits from a cloud service provider are commensurate with the subscription prices – there can be quite a lot of unnecessary expenditure.

Note: By May 2018, around 80% of the total IT budgets of large organizations will be used up on cloud services.

Privacy can be compromised

And in a big way. When a business starts using a cloud platform for storing critical data (in a public cloud) – it effectively allows shared access of processors, storage units, memory, namespaces and other things. That, in turn, opens up the possibility of third-party agents getting access to other people’s data (accidentally or otherwise). An apparently minor bug in the cloud platform can allow attackers (powered with the access to the data owners’ resources) to steal/manipulate data, and even assume the digital identity of others (i.e., identity theft). In what should be a new and empty storage network, users might find the records of other customers – which is far from an ideal scenario. Before subscribing to a cloud storage plan, there should be a service level agreement, or SLA, – clearly stating the ways in which the vendor would protect the privacy of its users.
The risk of downtimes

The leading cloud vendors all promise ‘round-the-clock’ availability. That, however, is nearly never practically possible – since some maintenance downtimes (an hour everyday?) are definitely required. Since cloud technology is entirely web enabled, the chances of internet outages/bandwidth interruptions cannot be ruled out either. Businesses also have to factor in the occasional connectivity problems in their own IT systems – which will have a ‘trickle down’ effect on the cloud resources. These downtimes, if they happen during business hours, can lead to significant loss of value for companies. Even in the best-case scenario, around 15-17 days in a year can be lost due to connectivity problems, and the resultant unavailability of cloud services.

Note: To be fair, most cloud vendors make a conscious attempt to schedule maintenance downtimes at odd hours.

Probable legal and/or compliance breaches

When a company makes the switch to a cloud platform, it gives permission to the vendor for storing critical business data in multiple data centers. These data centers might be present at different locations, and even in different countries. That, in turn, brings the importance of the varying data regulation policies in different countries in focus. Once more, it is the responsibility of the client company to find out ‘where’ its data will be stored, ‘how’ the database will be maintained, and ‘who’ will be able to access it. In the absence of this information, a data compliance breach on a cloud platform might put the ‘owner’ company in a legal soup – with the service provider avoiding all blame.

Note: Data security and privacy policies differ across regions. Companies have to keep track of such changes, and monitor how such locational differences might pose a problem.

10. Need for record retention

Conformity with record retention agreements (if any) are also often overlooked. The vendors should know: a) the meaning of record retention, and b) the time-span for which each data-record should be stored/retained. It can also happen that a cloud vendor simply wounds up its business at any point in time. In such scenarios, its client companies should be able to get back all its critical data – without any transfer or sharing with other, unauthorized agents. The same provisions should be present at times of termination of contract between a company and its cloud service partner.

11. Lack of constant monitoring

The tendency of handing over key data to the cloud platform and resting easy after that can be fatal. Many companies also do not have the setup to perform regular monitoring of the cloud services network. As a result, data breaches, connectivity interruptions (potentially affecting business continuity) and other operational glitches can remain detected – leading to serious complications later on. Business owners would do well to remember that starting to use cloud services does not represent a complete transfer of responsibility – and having a reliable, end-to-end cloud data monitoring system can be very useful.

12. Skill shortage

As the demand for secure cloud computing for businesses is increasing, the need for qualified, experienced cybersecurity professionals is coming into focus. That’s precisely where the problem of skill shortage is also becoming prominent. A recent study revealed that close to 47% organizations are facing such problems at present. Interestingly, 55% of the respondents also opined that the lack of adequate skilled personnel is putting additional pressure on existing teams – increasing chances of ‘early burnout’. Over the last 2-3 years, the cybersecurity skills shortage has persisted at fairly steady levels. Lack of skilled professionals is also preventing many startups or small businesses make full use of cloud networks.

Faulty system performance, inability to troubleshoot problems on a real-time basis (due to lack of monitoring), suspicions over the business viability of the service providers and unintentional data leakages also feature among the prime risks generally associated with cloud computing. While our analysis might paint a grave picture at first, the good thing is – most of these risks are manageable, and can be mitigated with due care on the part of businesses and the cloud vendors. As cloud technologies become more advanced and users learn to use them better – most of the above risks might very well cease to matter.

Money matters

Smartphone adoptions

Enterprise apps on the rise

iOS and Android to remain (by far) the biggest platforms

Facebook continues to be the most popular app

Games attract the most downloads, but what’s next?

Digital media rules, and mobile apps score over tablet apps

Ad-spending and ad-blocking

Driven by Android Instant Apps, app streaming to become more mainstream

Core group of apps

Growth in IoT to be a major factor

12. Location services will be on the rise

13. How much are the app developers making?

14. VR/AR/MR in app-making

15. Why do people uninstall apps?

Size of the market

Relative lack of competition

3. More about VRvana

4. The unreleased Totem headset

5. The USPs of Totem

6. Apple’s acquisition of VRvana is a first (and also, it isn’t)

7. Important for maintaining Apple’s position as a tech leader

8. Moving towards a stiff deadline

9. Focus on improving the quality of AR

10. Will there be a new headset?

11. Official confirmations

12. Diversification is the name of the game

Business Objective

Technical Challenge

The Solution

Priority 1:

Priority 2:

A Digital Platform For Building Mobile Event Apps

Integrating API services via DreamFactory

Building The Business Logic

The Future Of Event Management

Eventify

First, built a high-quality product

Create a website; Optimize it well

Pay attention to App Store Optimization (ASO)

4. Share your app’s objective

5. Segment your users. Not too many segments though

6. Use the reviews/opinions of existing users as pointers

7. The importance of strong content marketing

8. Referral marketing can bolster app engagement

9. Promote apps on social media

10. Early ratings and reviews are vital

11. Factor in app localization

12. Use video ads

13. Invest on paid ads and campaign boosters

14. Showcase the designs

15. Have retargeting ads with cookies

16. Track the key metrics

17. Email marketing is not dead

18. Word-of-mouth is the make-or-break factor

19. Provide ‘Play Before Pay’ options

20. Aim for virality

Migrating to Swift 4

Key value coding with keypaths

One-sided ranges in Swift 4

Arrival of the ‘Codable’ protocol

Writing multi-line strings

Improvements in the Package Manager

Smoother access control

Revisions in string operations

Unicode 9 supported

10. Strings have become collections (reversing an earlier change)

11. More powerful Dictionaries

12. Limiting Objective-C inferencing

(for app developers): Consider the security features and permission requests

(for app users): Avoid downloading apps for experimentation

(for app developers): Take advantage of the new Apple and Android updates

(for app users): Be ruthless in deleting what you don’t need

(for app developers): Go for the best possible UX

(for app users): The importance of mobile web

(for app developers): Be wary of front-end fatigue

(for app users): Check out the mobile app ads

(for app developers): The need for efficient app marketing campaigns

10. (for app developers): Integrate deep linking in apps

11. (for app developers and app users): A change in mindset