5 Tips For Mobile Application Development

Giles Goodwin is the co-founder and president of Product and Technology at Widgetbox, a leading platform for mobile and web technologies. Giles has more than 15 years experience in building innovative software products and managing computer technologies.

Savvy entrepreneurs, businesses and marketers know that they need a mobile presence –- either via a mobile site, mobile advertisement or mobile app –- in order to capture the ever expanding and on-the-go mobile audience.

But with so many different smartphone operating systems, it can be difficult to know where to begin with the app development process. The good news is that there are now tools that can take the burden of development off your team and make app development easy, affordable and multi-platform — enabling you to build a single app across multiple devices to reach as many consumers as possible.

If you don’t have a mobile presence yet, you need to get one quickly. If you aren’t tech-savvy and don’t have deep pockets to hire a mobile developer, start here with these five basic rules for business mobile app development.

1. Tap in to the New Tools

Take advantage of new tools that eliminate the pain and expense typically associated with app development. App development has, until recently, required custom development knowledge for each platform. It is time consuming to learn the coding for each platform and expensive to execute. Unfortunately, these are the main barriers keeping small businesses away from custom apps because they simply do not have the resources for such an endeavor.

However, new tools have emerged to simplify the process of building an app and to cut the associated costs of doing so. There’s no need to code, you can simply use templates to create an app that is useful to your audience. It’s similar to what blogging platforms like WordPress (WordPress) and Tumblr (Tumblr) did for creating your own blog or general web presence.
Some affordable options include iSites, and EventMobi.

2. Stick to the Essentials

Many small businesses don’t need a robust app; they just need something that will help bring their content to their customers on mobile devices in a useful and interactive way. Companies can make app development easier and cheaper by sticking to the essentials. For example, a local realtor might not need an app capable of playing dynamic videos of each home she lists — which would be expensive and time consuming to develop — but the app does need to have quality photos and descriptions of home listings and contact information for the realtor.

3. Leverage What You Already Have


Creating an app using text, content, visuals, video and resources you already use in other channels allows you to create an app that mirrors your brand with the same rich look and feel of native iPhone and Android (Android) apps.

For example, if you are a restaurant owner, you should include your operating hours, menu and wine list. You could then entice the customer to return to the app by including an RSS feed of the daily specials. You could also leverage existing APIs by embedding mapping and public transportation tools to help diners find your business.

4. Minimize the Development Cycle

By moving outside the app store, you don’t need to wait for unpredictable app approval hierarchy and processes. For those who have developed an app specifically for the iPhone App Store (App Store), you know that the approval process can be lengthy and opaque, giving you no insight into when your app will be approved or denied. And then one day, surprise! It’s published.

If you just plan to bring mobile to your existing customers, it may be a better option to distribute a mobile web app directly to them with a custom hyperlink or QR code. This eliminates the need to participate in the iPhone app store, thus bypassing the headache of approvals. You can build the app you want and quickly get it into your customers’ hands.

If you put a QR code on your menu, your restaurant diners could easily scan the code and access the mobile web app while they are waiting for their meal to come. Business owners can distribute their app to customers by including a link to in their newsletters. Customers can easily view the app and save its location to their phone’s home screen, instead of having to go directly to the app store and searching for it.

5. Design an App for Multiple Platforms

Since you’re not going through a specific app store, you don’t need to meet specific standards. This means you can simultaneously develop an app for several platforms rather than spending all your time and money with a single platform before moving to the next. This will broaden your reach to help get your small business in front of more customers via your mobile app.

Instead of simply turning your existing web presence into a mobile site, new advances in HTML5 allow business owners to create a native app-like experience right in the mobile browser.

New frameworks like Sencha Touch and SproutCore allow developers to easily take advantage
of HTML5 and CSS3 web standards, enabling web apps to look and feel like native ones. Web apps respond to touch and interact with native functions on the phone, such as maps, calling and e-mail. Additionally, since they are web applications, they can be easily distributed via text messages, QR codes, or social media channels such like Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook (Facebook).

For more informations about Mobile Applications Development, Mobile App Developers, to hire your Mobile Application Programmers, log onto http://www.dckap.com

7 Tips for Building a Better Branded App

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

At this point, many companies recognize that developing a branded mobile app can be an asset. Unfortunately, fewer of them understand how to best leverage this new channel in order to benefit their brand.

“We were inundated with requests that were like, ‘We need an app because somebody within an organization says we need an iPhone app or we need an Android (Android) app,’ ” says Anthony Franco, the president and co-founder of app development agency EffectiveUI. “The conversations are sometimes a little awkward because we asked the very simple question, ‘Why?’ And there was this struggle, and there’s still a little bit of struggle with articulating the reason behind the mobile app.”

In order to better articulate the factors that should drive mobile app development, EffectiveUI recently commissioned a Harris Interactive survey of 781 online adults who downloaded mobile apps. As the company suspected, the study found that 38% of mobile app users weren’t satisfied with the apps available from their favorite brands.

Franco recently chatted with us about how brands can avoid contributing to this group of unsatisfied mobile app users.

1. A Mobile App Is Not a Marketing Campaign
 
If your goal is merely to make your brand visible, advertising networks are a better outlet for your marketing campaign than a mobile app. Only 18% of respondents in the study said that they even considered whether an app was from a brand name company when deciding to download it. Even your most loyal customers won’t download an app unless it does something useful for them.

When a major credit card company recently tried to build a social network around its brand on a mobile app, for instance, it crossed the line between what is appropriate for a mobile app and what is appropriate for a marketing campaign, said Franco.

“[The mobile app] had nothing to do with their business really, other than to attract eyeballs,” he says. “And if you look at the reviews on that app, it’s: ‘This is an obvious attempt at trying to market to me. It’s a well-designed app, it’s pretty, but all it is is about deals in my area trying to sell me something.’ Try to stick really closely to what your business does, and provide value.”

2. A Branded App Is Not a Mobile Website

Some companies that Franco has worked with have initially wanted to put all of their website features into their mobile apps. But that’s not what apps are intended for, Franco says. Seventy-three percent of mobile app users in the study agreed that they expect a company’s mobile app to be easier to use than its website.

Taking the top 10 features of a company’s website and moving them directly over to its mobile app, for example, just doesn’t work. The problem is that those 10 features may be useful on the web, but that usefulness may not translate when put on a mobile device.

“[Customers] don’t want the entire website on a mobile application. They want utility and a very defined set of features that are specifically designed for mobile use cases. Make it easier to use — make it less complex than your website.”

3. A Branded App Should Provide Utility

Seventy-five percent of survey respondents said that a mobile app should do exactly what they want or need it to do. “In other words, provide me utility,” Franco says. “Don’t market to me. Provide me something to get something done.”

There are quite a few utility-based branded apps out there. Chipotle, for example, has an app that allows you to order without waiting in line. One feature in the Starbucks app allows users to buy coffee with their phones. And Target recently introduced an iPad app that will make it easier for customers to shop during the holidays.

4. Focus on the User

In order to understand what will appeal to your target users, it’s helpful to understand your target users. And a little research never hurt in contributing to this objective.

Franco says that after the brand decides what kind of consumer it is targeting with its mobile app, the app developers should figure out a way to deepen their understanding of what that consumer wants. Sometimes it’s a matter of interviewing people on the street. Sometimes it’s going into people’s offices and watching how they use a website or software.

“[A mobile app] has to be user-centered,” Franco says. “It has to come from a place of empathy for what the user wants to get done on their device. It can’t be from a place of big creative, big think, big campaign, and hoping it’s going to go viral. That’s not what people want on their mobile devices.”

5. Build Around Mobile Use Cases

People accomplish some tasks on their phones. They prefer to do other tasks on a website or in some other way. It’s important to focus on the former category so that you don’t clutter your app with features that users won’t appreciate in a mobile setting.

EffectiveUI cited the FedEx app, for instance, allows users to do four tasks: make a shipping label, track a package, find a FedEx location and get a quote. While the app leaves out a lot of features that are available on the company’s website, it focuses on tasks that people are likely to complete on their phones, while standing in line, on a train or during a break.

6. Think Twice Before Becoming a Game Developer

While some brands like Barclaycard and Audi have had some success with branded mobile apps that are games, this strategy is a risky one. First, you’re entering the gaming business. There are a lot of companies that exclusively build games in the app store, and they’re pretty good at it. Competing can be tough. Second, it’s hard to determine the ROI for a game. Are they really engaging with your brand by, let’s say, navigating a character down a crazy waterslide?

“If you want to [get] eyeballs, there are ad networks for that,” Franco says. “You’re specifically going in and picking out a game that is relevant to your brand and saying, we want to sponsor that game. So instead of getting into the gaming business, stay in the marketing business if that’s your goal. And sponsor other things. Or use the mobile ad platform.”

7. It’s Better to Have No Branded App Than a Mediocre One

The EffectiveUI study found that 13% of people who had a bad experience with a branded app avoided downloading other apps from that brand because of it. That means that if you create an ineffective branded app, it will affect your future attempts at mobile applications as well.

“The study basically says take this channel seriously,” Franco says. “And don’t just treat it like a $60,000 microsite campaign. A bad microsite falls flat, and it’s designed to go away in three months. A bad mobile application does lasting damage — it’s there forever. So take it very seriously.”

For more informations about Android Applications Development, Android Developers, Android Programmers, log onto http://www.dckap.com
Source: http://mashable.com

Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development is the process by which applications are developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These applications are either pre-installed on phones during manufacture, or downloaded by customers from app stores and other mobile software distribution platforms.

Platforms supporting devices by multiple manufacturers

Android is a Linux-based platform from the Open Handset Alliance, whose 34 members include Google, HTC, Motorola, Qualcomm, and T-Mobile. It is supported by over 34 major software, hardware and telecoms companies. The Linux kernel is used as a hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Application programming is primarily done in Java. The Android specific Java SDK is required for development although any Java IDE may be used. Performance critical code can be written in C, C++ or other native code languages using the Android Native Development Kit(NDK).

Windows Mobile is a variant of Windows CE for mobile phones. Windows CE was originally developed for palmtop computers and Pocket PC PDAs with stylus-touch screens, and later adapted for use with keyboard-equipped smartphones. Phones have become the largest installed base for CE, though market share has fallen since the introduction of Android and IPhone. Windows Mobile supports a subset of the win32 programming interface, and a simplified GUI with one window on the screen at a time. Applications can use the .NET Compact Framework Devices are compatible with applications on Pocket PC/Windows Mobile devices. Windows Mobile 6.5 introduced IPhone-like finger-based touch interfaces, while Windows Phone 7 is a substantial redesign that uses Silverlight and XNA for rich user interfaces.

iPhone functions as a camera phone, including text messaging and visual voicemail, a portable media player, and an Internet client, with e-mail, web browsing, and Wi-Fi connectivity. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch  screen, including a virtual keyboard rather than a physical one. Third-party applications are available from the App Store, which launched in mid-2008 and now has well over 300,000[2]  "apps" approved by Apple. These apps have diverse functionalities, including games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, and advertising for television shows, films, and celebrities.

BlackBerry supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services as well as a multi-touch interface. It has a built-in QWERTY keyboard, optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type. The BlackBerry devices soon took a dominating position on the North American smartphone market. Also important for BlackBerry are the BES (Black Berry Enterprise Server) and the Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS).