Category: Marketing

Recently our team decided to brush up on the experience with augmented reality and geolocation, so we have created a custom-designed Augmented Reality navigation application for cafes and restaurants in the city aimed at foreigners.

The application shows real-time distance and time of travel for a particular spot and shows important information about a particular place of interest.

The augmented (as well as virtual) reality s market is growing rapidly and it’s only a question of time when it would skyrocket. According to Statista, it’s going to happen quite soon: in 2022.

[Source: Statista]

Project Overview

Sometimes, all it takes to start a project is the sheer desire to learn something new. Places started like that. At the very start, it wasn’t even supposed to be an application – just a learning exercise for developers to get a grip on augmented reality. However, as time went by, it evolved into a fully-fledged application.

Places mobile app is specifically designed for those who don’t know the whereabouts of the city but want to visit its local restaurants. It is part discovery app and part navigation app. Places AR app consists of two modes:

• Map mode where the user can see the entire area with pins;
• AR mode where the user can see pins in accordance with the actual distance between user and place.

The application provides everything one needs to know about the particular place – where it is situated, what kind of meals it serves, price range, etc. The app also shows approximate distance and travel time towards a selected spot.  

In its current incarnation, the project required not a just tech-savvy team with solid expertise both in augmented reality and geolocation but also thorough business analysis and thought-through business model in order to launch successfully launch an app.

Our team was responsible for the project from start to finish. It was a result of refining of the skills gone so far it evolved into a full-on application.

Camera Calibration

One of the biggest challenges our team had faced during the development of the project was adjusting the calibration and orientation of the camera phone in order to correctly depict pins and their distances. The challenge is that you need to know where the user is and how the phone is orientated as he walks around.

Due to the imperfections of mapping real-world device moves into a 3D scene coordinate system in ARKit, this procedure needed additional solutions and thorough testing. In order to pull this off, we set up the configuration in such a manner that ARKit would align the world both with gravity and direction (with regards to True North) which allowed a more accurate definition of the camera’s orientation on the application.

In order to avoid mistakes in the placement of the pins, we have developed an automated calibration solution that extracts pixel coordinates of the pinpoints and uses map coordinates to create correspondence. This provides precise placement of the pins on the screen with a realistic depiction of distance.

Coordinate Transmitting

Another big challenge was to maintain transmission of coordinates from Google Maps / Places to the phone so that it would be adequately depicted through the camera. We needed to secure the correct depiction of scale, distance, and vertical axis.

We created a link between the user’s device and Google Maps / Places so that it would depict nearby pins with correct distances. Complex calculations and vector transformations had been applied to place location pins in proper places.

Each place as seen on Google Places was transformed into the local 3D coordinate system on the device.

Read also: Business Cases for AR Navigation

Intuitive Design

In comparison with other challenges, the design wasn’t that big of a deal, but it definitely was a challenge of its own. Design requirements for such kind of project are extremely minimal and that required a completely different approach than we are usually applying.

Basically, we needed to figure out a design scheme that was both intuitive and engaging. In order to pull that off, we went through a series of tries and fails until we have managed to come up with the most effective and yet minimal solution.

During the development process, we have rearranged and streamlined the entire design scheme to a bare minimum – only those elements that were necessary were left. Everything else was nixed so that the user experience will be absolutely seamless.

Read also: 8 Challenges with Augmented Reality App Development

Technology Stack

• Xcode (the standard instrument for developing iOS mobile apps)
• Cocoa Touch (standard iOS components)
• ARKit (augmented reality framework for iOS)
• Google Maps (well, the map itself)
• Google Places (Google’s API that provides information on nearby places)

Find out What is Tech Stack and How to Pick Best One for Your Project

Our team consisted of:

• Project Manager (manages communications and sets the tasks and priorities, what features are critical at the moment and which can be a part of the next iteration)
• iOS developer (actually develops the mobile app)
• Business Analyst (creates various use cases to think the architecture through and the features that ultimately would have to be developed)
• UX/UI Designer (creates the designs and thinks the user flow through to make sure the users would actually know how to navigate through the app)

Summary

This local restaurant and cafe app for iPhone was a giant leap forward for our company. As first of its kind, it was a gamble that ultimately paid off in a form of a well-made application.

Over the course of the project, our team refined and expanded expertise on the subject of Augmented Reality and geolocation. This gave us several insights which we are eager to apply in future projects. This restaurant finder app was a great learning ground.

The Progress company released the results of the “State of Mobile Development” investigation in order to highlight some interesting tendencies in the world of application development. 3,000 respondents, the developers compose the majority (49%), CEOs/owners (14%), architects (14%), IT professionals (8%), CTOs (6%), and others.

One of the most remarkable and surprising results of their research show that 57% of developers have never created a mobile app. For comparison,  47% of developers, on average, produce just one dynamic app every year.

The main reason for developers not investing time and money in creating a mobile application is a constantly changing technology; Also, there is an understandable disappointment as new-but-attractive technologies and projects are finding their niches such as the IoT, wearable devices, and connected cars.

“It is a well-known fact that software developer community needs to access easy-to-use tools and processes in order to push forward their mobile applications in a more substantial way,” said Karen Tegan Padir, President, Application Development & Deployment Business Unit.

Another curious moment of Telerik’s research is that 44% of developers take into consideration a user experience as the most critical factor when launching mobile applications.

It’s clear that developers feel the pressure more than ever to supply their applications to the market – 19% blame a lack of time as one primary reason for instability in mobile development.

The research also shows that developers prefer cross-platform development over web or native to ensure a balance is made between the capability to target various platforms and performance. 33% of developers name “hybrid” their leading form of development, followed by native at 25%, and web at 19%.

Android has won the race in the smartphone world, and due to new market projections, Google’s OS will reach an 81.1% market share in 2019. The survey demonstrates that 76% of developers are building applications for Android, followed by 63% for iOS, and 40% for Windows Phone. Of those who make progress in iOS, 83% also create apps for Android showing that developers are attracted by the big market share owned by Google’s platform. 36% of developers in the survey consider cross-platform development as the most demanding part of the mobile development system.

In general, this latest report provided us with a good understanding of the top reasons and potential benefits for building mobile apps, where the mobile industry is going to, and how developers have to deliver their applications to the new market. This report also paid attention to that developers are waiting to make a profit from new technologies such as the IoT and wearables.

Isn’t it a great achievement to launch a hundred applications for employees? However, according to the recent study that looks into this sphere, a better deployment strategy is based on the targeted and small launches, regarding the fact that companies find enterprise application development too expensive.

The findings also found some obvious facts, such as that IT and technology organizations are leaders among mobile enterprise apps producers, and that applications that encourage and support those who work in the sphere of marketing and sales are widely used. Thus, they have also found an interesting fact: the best and the most successful launches were made in the organizations that limited the number of apps to one or two for a small group of workers.

Where the applications are now?

It is quite natural that Technology companies are moving ahead with mobile applications. There are more than 25% of organizations utilize mobile apps. After them goes the IT-sphere (11%), consulting (11%), public sector (11%), finance (8,5%), healthcare (7,5%), and mass communications (6,5%).

Most of these applications were developed for such roles as sales marketing, field services, HR, IT utilities, and office productivity. Launching mobile applications for enterprise lead to even more applications. Some companies have really big app portfolios that contain more than a hundred of them.

Where the applications are going?

Rebecca Wetteman, vice president of research, enterprise applications at Nucleus Research, says that the pulled down prices for app development changes the entire policy of the creating and utilizing process. The lower cost changes what exactly is made, for whom it is made, and how long it is going to serve. This also is related to the new concept of  “single-use application”, she claims, which is expected to appear in 2017.

“The decreasing price for mobile applications also means that I can start one for a promotion or an event because the cost is low,” she says.

Another turn she expects in 2017 is to focus on the tablet features and applications since more and more companies send their employees on the road with tablets which are more convenient to use than traditional laptops.

The other predicted change is more communication – extending video, voice, text messaging, etc. These apps will be dedicated exclusively to employee contact and communication. Moreover, the productivity applications will also develop within themselves allowing even more opportunities to access a lot of databases and sources from any place.

Of course, these applications that allow communication and data access are amazing, and apps are conquering companies becoming mandatory to have. Today you will hardly find a successful and large company that ignores the convenience of enterprise-oriented apps. Applications are touching not only IT and Technologies spheres, but almost every industry under the sun somehow utilizes mobile applications. There is no such CIO who does not think about the ways of encouraging and enabling their employees.

Applications are touching not only IT and Technologies spheres, but almost every industry under the sun somehow utilizes mobile applications. There is no such CIO who does not think about the ways of encouraging and enabling their employees.

As a mobile developer you dream about three things: 1) create killer mobile apps, 2) get them downloaded by millions of users, and 3) create more killer apps that get downloaded by even more users. But hard truth is that this path is tricky and misleading.

There’re lots of stumbling blocks and misconceptions which might take you away from the right path. That’s why avoiding crucial mobile app development pitfalls comes into the first place. 

Myth 1: Pay-to-download apps are the deal-breaker

When you come to Wal-Mart, you pay once to get a product you need. However, this rule of thumb isn’t the only monetization option (and definitely not the most effective!) in the world of mobile applications!

It might sound crazy, but FREE apps bring developers MORE MONEY! Check out these figures: in 2016 free apps were downloaded by users 287 billion times in comparison to only 3 billion paid app downloads. Consequently, mobile users prefer FREE stuff and apps, which must fix your marketing efforts in the right direction.  

So, the first myth is busted!  

Myth 2: Trusting your gut is better than trusting a team of paid experts

That’s your app, that’s your brainchild, that’s your masterpiece, that’s you…  Continue the list as you wish. “My app, my rules, right?”

Wrong, this line of thinking leads to zero profits. Trusting your gut is good, but modern mobile marketing is all about thorough data research, analysis, testing, reaching out to clients, gathering feedback, and deliberate decision making. Trusting your sixth sense led you to set forth a mobile app, but now it’s time to trust proven figures instead of pure intuition.

Thus, the myth is busted too.

Myth 3: Eye-candy beats the content value

Some developers make their apps aesthetically appealing but somehow forget to fill it with proper content. First impressions are most lasting, yet no matter how grand the sweetie paper is, a candy must be as good. Otherwise the only time a user opened your app and viewed an ad would be this first time when nifty visuals but poor content had risen to view.

Remember – arty package is the thing that draws attention and makes a user download your app, while it’s engaging content that makes people open an app time after time, watching ads and making your bank account fatty.     

‘Eye-candy over mind-candy’ myth busted.

Myth 4: When an app is done, the job is over too

So, you’ve developed an app, published it on Play Market, landed an advertising deal, now it’s high time to sit back and wait for the money flow to you like from the horn of Amalthea. Offering relevant content and updating features isn’t necessary either.

Well, with such an approach users will simply forget about your app and delete it for good. To keep ad money makes you happy every day you have to work on that product 24 hours a day, gather statistics, look for new channels to engage the audience, elaborate on usability, etc. Just as you stop working, revenue will stop flowing. Those ads won’t just watch themselves, you know!

Lazy app developer myth busted.

Myth 5: Number one or none at all

Many app developers, especially beginners get carried away by the pursuit of being this number one add so much they forget about other things that matter at the moment. To make an app being the most downloaded in Apple Store, for instance, you have to first raise a bump or two, step on some rakes on the road, learn and adopt best practices, and only then watch your product climb the popularity ladder straight to the top.

Plus, if your app isn’t in at least TOP-100’s most popular applications, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. So…

…the fifth and final myth just has been busted too.      

Slow and steady (and definitely not greedy!) wins the race

What’s wrong with today’s app developers? Meaning, why so many great ideas never make it to users’ mobile devices? It’s a lack of consistency and promise of quick enrichment!

Too many catch an idea to quickly set up a simple app and earn publishing ads. However, few actually make it to the production stage. First-week development zeal shrinks to a nullity right till week number two, and so another brilliant idea gets buried under laziness and inability to draw up a business plan or code a couple of coherent functions.

But those who are persistent usually win the cash race. Even if moving gradually, step by step you’ll reach success given you’re dedicated, result-oriented, and have a solid plan to guide you further. Getting rich quickly creating a simple app is a myth, perhaps the biggest out there, so have a cool head on your shoulders to bust it from day one working on your new app.

Modern people are working and living with digital devices. With some powerful and ever-moving developments in the space of mobile app development, the products give clients great experience and convenience. Here are some of the upcoming trends of the smart age.

E-commerce

E-commerce market leaders in India (Flipkart and Myntra) have shut their websites and started to use mobile apps only. They have found even more popularity and demand of clients: around 95% of traffic was collected from smartphones and tablets. The mobile applications caused bigger sales. Some experts predict that this trend is going to show itself in 2016 and become the best scenario.

Messaging apps

The war between social networks and mobile messaging applications becomes stiffer. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp app, Viber, and Telegram have more than 2 billion active users around the world. The same numbers equal to Twitter,

The same numbers equal to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram users. However, the messaging apps have higher influence and great chances to win the battle. 35% of smartphone users use messaging apps.

Security matters

In 2015 5 of 6 mobile applications failed in security tests. This is what developers were working on the next year and in 2016 this goal must be achieved. The mobile apps are strengthening their security protocols and data encryption strategies this year.

It is natural, that sometimes apps store confidential or personal information and users cannot allow any security issues within the apps.

Cross-platform on the stage

The need for all devices is a number of platforms. Today a single platform is a thing from the past since users require advanced features and functions. Cross-platform proves to make the user experience much better and developers focus on multiply platforms to keep up with the most modern trends.

User experience is important

User experience dominates in the modern marketing. Developers have to analyze user experience constantly to match the demands and know about their failures or mistakes. No matter what kind of app it is, it must be functional and effective among other apps and across all mobile devices. Developers who pay maximum attention to this aspect become the most successful.

Smooth advertising, marketing, and purchasing

Mobile apps are a perfect source of income and 2016 foretells a high level of expense on purchases made inside of the app. Apps will allow more advertising in different formats including text, images, and video. Advertising inside of the applications, paid downloads and purchases will appear in a new format in 2016.

In fact, some of these trends will change the market and will become the main drivers of the progress this year. Commerce apps will become more popular, while cross-platform apps will improve user experience.

All in all, mobile app development will make even more impact in the digital world. 

Smartening up your home is going mainstream. And this hi-tech area is supposed to simplify and improve our lives in a matter of minutes. Everybody’s home is about to get smarter, no matter what. We, potential users, expect all these devices to fix the new level of comfort, safety, and entertainment quality for us.

For the majority of people, the smart home concept looks a bit complicated: too many options, gadgets tend to be too smart, and much time is needed to set them up. That’s not what a common man hopes for, I bet, when thinking Smart Home.

This paper is going to outline the current situation and trends in the Smart Home integration market, spell out challenges Home Automation companies face when offering technology to their potential clients and finally, will demonstrate the benefits of incorporating a smart home automation app. It’s also going bust a hefty myth of the hi-tech home being too complicated to deal with instead of simplifying life.

All things Brainy Home

For your potential clients, smart home technology is all about order, safety, automation, control, and most importantly, simplicity.

The idea is quite sophisticated – usually implemented as a system of switches, sensors, and security units together with a controlling wall-mounted console. It covers things like doors, windows, lights, bells, water heaters, clocks, thermostats, ventilation, and all kitchen devices, etc.

Other than that, there are a lot of smart devices, that are handled independently through the web interface, gateways, or else.

But again, let me emphasize that – Smart House for a common man like myself is potentially my improved living. I don’t really want to spend hours configuring plenty of things and checking if I switched off heaters or closed the garage through the integrated tools.

As mobile phones invade all spheres of our lives and people get more and more engaged with their devices, we get used to reaching and working out most tasks on the smartphone within a couple of clicks. Also considering that there are no reliable unified technologies of incorporating home control science yet (still a huge number of implementations), a company that will do a smart home app development for you comes in handy.

That being said, competition in the home automation sector increases as demand among consumers escalates:

User challenges when integrating Smart Home

The current curve of Smart Home app development and penetration into everyday life can be marked as infancy – with a huge number of options of how to start up one’s home.

Let me proclaim one thing – there is a couple of deciding obstacles users face trying to implement “Smart Home” and this stops a lot of people from invading this cutting-edge venture:

• no common platform – currently everybody interested in the latest technologies and willing to “go smart” needs a lot of time and enthusiasm to choose a system and then make it work. Not to mention, there are so many remote controls, switches, and consoles around the house… That’s can get too confusing;
• study how to use your “new” home – if you wanna own a smart house, you’ll definitely need to go through a bunch of “how-to’s” to be able to manage it and adapt your life to these innovations. Do you have enough time for that, why is that so complicated? Isn’t this technology all about simplifying life?

This graph shows a significant influence on how people recognize “Home Automation” nowadays. The technology-savvy part of the globe is already implementing “Smart Home” elements, but there is 85% more of a blank marketplace to be fulfilled. By your simplified and user-friendly smart home system. The idea to build a smart home app is an amazingly obvious and easy solution for controlling a full house altogether.

And it sounds absolutely effortless as users tend to see Smart Homes!

Look out for the Smart Home Control app

What’s the difference between a web interface, control panel, or application, after all, you say, if you’re getting the next level of security, comfort, and resources?

Here is why:

Read also: How Much Does It Cost To Make an App?

And the cherry on top – 90% of time spent on mobiles actually goes to mobile applications.

The thing is that invisible, but well-tailored improvements are what really helps your leg up on the competition. Not to neglect all these little things, let me outline the range of benefits you’ll get after developing the mobile app for the smart home system:

• Computer challenged part of a population is yours – remember those who get distracted just from checking their e-mails on the web. The simple one-tap management of the full system will make it easy and quick to get used out of the full Smart Home. It means that a huge stack of potential clients will be much more open to your particular product;
• Centralization is everything – a single platform seems to be a dominant concern and here is yours – “all in one place” control app gives the opportunity to check everything is even far away from actual home is your game-changing benefit;
• Updates, updates – new features spring up like mushrooms overnight, and all you need to do to renew the platform is to download an upgrade altogether – saves time and makes sure you’re always on the edge;
• IoT in action – connected to one system, all devices are able to communicate with each other and ensure smooth and close-knit performance;
• Combinations are endless – this integral connectivity amongst devices allows to set various modes, options and relations in between and customize it non-stop;
• Staying informed – the average user interacts with about 10 to 20 mobile apps daily, and one single “Smart Home” app interface and alerts will help not to get totally confused;
• One remote control, not tens of them – this is an enormous benefit for all mobile apps included the one for smart home control – you got access and control over your house while being on the go. Car, boat, airplane, even remote island – enjoy!

Vital features for your Smart Home Control application

The mobile app that aims at controlling a range of other devices and applications might have a variety of features. But there are a couple of crucial ones, which build a skeleton of an entire engine:

• Remote access to all integrated gadgets – this is basically a feature, which makes all application. You can operate any device from within your smartphone – switch off a lamp or close the garage doors in a matter of clicks. Similar access to computers feature, but for corporate docs turnover, was successfully implemented by our team in a SkimDoc application:

• the wide net of settings/configurations/modes – just like any other personal profile, this one needs, even more, customization opportunities for tuning all possible options for personal convenience. For our clients we develop one-of-a-kind settings logics, implement and test it narrowly for the sake of absolute customer satisfaction;
• connectivity within all devices – any custom configuration won’t be possible if devices are not talking to each other. If you want your morning coffee right off the bat, make sure your smart mattress will send a notification to a coffee machine once you’re up;
• push notifications – yes, of course, how will you know that TV is left turned on after you left home other than receiving a notification. This is also a major tool for mobile marketing strategy, that will keep your consumers updated with some add-on products or services you want to up-sale.

Read also: Ten Ways to Build a Bulletproof Push Notification Strategy

Once you know what functionality to expect from your application, you can get a prototype and the cost of your smart home app development – that’s a very convenient way to visualize the whole system and calculate the overall cost and profits for the future.

Putting it all together

To nail down the whole idea of the post, let me just say it out loud: when hitting a worldwide market – go simple! And no need to worry about terms “smart” and “simple” to go a bit apart in their basic definitions.

What we suggest is simplify usage of all these smart goodies as you can and people will end up loving how little it takes them to use the latest technologies with your help. And that’s what you want after all, right?

Startups. Startups all around. Everybody is coming up with killer ideas and rush to find their target audiences to turn these concepts into beneficial businesses. As people become more and more open to new exciting experiences, a lot of projects really shoot up in quite a short term.

There always is another side of the coin, which is financing the whole venture. Here we come to an important decision because not everybody is able to support a business project independently.

Happily, nowadays freedom of communication and all these cosmopolitan trends in business present a lot more opportunities to young and creative people than back in the day. So in fact, you are not limited by only going to a bank and ask for a loan, you can find a lot of alternative funding options online.

Joining a startup accelerator, for instance, will ensure you not only with free office facilities or consulting services but also seed fund you. You can also barter your skills and this way get some service or facility for free or find an investor – angel or venture capitalist ones. You can even pre-sell your product before it’s actually done. Finally, you are able to apply to some business grants, which spring up like mushrooms overnight.

The objective of our today’s talk is two antipodal ways to fund your business:

• Bootstrapping – which is basically doing your best at crafting business with own resources;
• Investment funding – this is all about selling your idea to an investor, get your money, and give ownership equity to your creditor in return.

After reading the article, you’ll know exactly what do these financing methods mean and in what way they are different; what questions should be asked before committing to any of these models and which way can be more beneficial to pick.

First things first: explaining bootstrapping and investment funding

Bootstrapping

It’s essentially a way discovered by every entrepreneur at least once in their business journey. So anyone who’s started his or her business, tried to stretch any sort of available recourses as much as possible, right? And I don’t only mean startup thing, it can be a to-go strategy at various stages of business life.

The term bootstrapping comes from that very famous legend of Baron Münchhausen who pulled himself out of the water with the help of his own bootstraps.

The vital idea behind bootstrapping in commercial means is to borrow as minimal finance as possible. In two words, you only rely on either on your own budget and savings, on some crowdfunded amount, or simply on loans from friends and family. That’s totally the opposite of, for instance, selling your business idea to investors.

Bootstrap financing is also considered to be one of the most effective ways to assure a positive cash flow for your business and for a good reason. This scenario urges you to borrow insignificant amounts of money and this way keep interest costs minimal. You are turning your home into an office, follow a strict diet, and manage every penny of the budget narrowly for the sake of the flourishing future.

What does bootstrapping mean in business? In fact, this strategy doesn’t seem to be a huge trend internationally, but there is a list of really big brands, whose creators eventually bootstrapped them. And they nailed it.

I will just leave these names down below:

• Apple;
• Microsoft;
• Dell Computers;
• Hewlett-Packard;
• Coca-cola.

Investment funding

It is another alternative to arranging your business. And this strategy is different in all ways.

To make a long story short, this is a way to sell your idea to investors, who are interested in getting profit out of your one-of-a-kind idea in the future. So they finance your project for some ownership equity in return, evaluating closely the business potential beforehand. The most popular ones recently are an angel investing and venture capital investment funds.

Angel investors

These are usually wealthy businessmen, who are passing their funds onto well-selected businesses and promising start-ups. These guys are usually very cautious in making decisions because these are their private money. What’s more, angels also expect really high returns from their investments, as high as 15 to 30% of the company’s ownership. On the other hand, angel investors share not only funds but also knowledge, experience, and advice with us, fresh entrepreneurs. To get these guys’ attention, you should be well-prepared, competent, and have a thought-out strategy.

Venture capital investors

This option makes your contributors the decision-makers in a venture, not you. At the same time, getting under some high profile investor’s wing can give a rapid start and some extra credibility to your business. Without a doubt, they will also ask for the ownership equity of your company – that is a common scheme of such funding. You’ll also agree to various restrictions on your salary, cooperation with other companies, etc.

According to recent studies, the venture capital funding field is expanding and there is a growing number of start-up accelerators detected. The overall number of these funds also increases and stockholders become more and more open to smaller companies.

Described ways of financing your business are totally contrasting and offer various approaches to managing recourses and building overall commercial strategy. Both of them have proved to be realistic to implement. The decision is only on you – which one to pick. You are the creator of your success after all. Let’s just dive into the details and find out what details and questions should be considered before adopting any of these concepts.

4 major questions to ask yourself before picking a strategy

Apparently, you’ve already passed the stage of asking yourself a question “To be or not to be?”. Now it’s time to ask further, more complex, questions.

In the context of selecting one of the above-mentioned ways to go, let me outline and systematize topics for you to study in order to make a wise decision.

First and foremost: what is the focus of your [future] business?

If your ultimate priority is steady growth, then you better fix an investor’s support. With funders, it will be much easier to achieve. In this case, you want to clarify if the speed is important for you and in general throughout the market and if you’re able to keep up with it.

For example, if your startup is tech-oriented, here the tempo is quite high and it’s an inevitable part of the market. Technologies develop real quick and you have no chance but move with them, and even be a step ahead.

Otherwise, if you decide to concentrate on taking your product to a new quality level instead of spending time in meetings with investors, you should certainly try and bootstrap your biz. Besides, more money can solve a lot of problems and bring real decisions, but not always. For instance, if you’re limited on budget, you’re forced to make creative decisions and it will ultimately play into your hands.

Second important question: how much control do you want to have over your venture?

If that is one of the major principles for you, then cut off the idea of calling external funding in and look at bootstrapping or alternative self-funding schemes. You appear to be the only decision-maker and free to pivot from one corner of the market to an absolutely different one.

Unlike any venture investing scheme, which works approximately the same: you are expected to provide some ownership equity to your investor and they gonna rebuild your strategy and advise you what actions to take and decisions to make. In other words, many opinions are about to meet, a lot of meetings and discussions to handle.

Questions #3: what returns are you expecting from this enterprise?

Now we all know what does bootstrap means and obviously, you cannot expect some fixed income or salary to come to your pocket with this approach, right? Most of your cash flow from this project is going to be injected back into it – that is how companies with limited budgets develop and grow.

In the case of investors’ involvement, it’s easier. Even though a salary will be somehow limited at early stages and fixed in the contract, you are still guaranteed a monthly payment, which sounds secure, doesn’t it?

And last, but not least: what knowledge pool is required for growing your biz?

Are your skillset and knowledge base enough to craft a successful venture from the scratch?

What I mean is if your product or niche particulars require specific experience, knowledge, or access to any resources. And if you are able to fix it independently. Because investors bring in not only extra money, they own and share their widescale experience and professionals, who really know what they do and how to make things work the best they can.

Differently, if you rely on your own knowledge, connections, and potency, then it’s easier to go for the bootstrapping option.

Which path to take: the pros and cons of bootstrapping and investment funding

Now it’s time to only shortlist all the advantages and drawbacks of both financing strategies for your startup idea or any other business. Afterward, I will leave you with this food for thought and study so that you make up your mind and definitely go for your dream!

Best of luck and happy crafting new businesses, guys!

Whether you are an app marketer, business leader, or client, you must understand mobile business basics. You must know that your app falls into a certain niche and is suited for a specific customer pool with exact requirements. Chances are, you already know that every business undertaking takes money, and if done wrong, may cost you users in the long run.

However, creating an economically sound app for companies is a challenging undertaking. You’d be surprised to know that the hit ratio of building creditworthy mobile apps is pathetically low – around 0.01%

Now the heart-balm.

You can dodge app failure by studying meticulously your brand insides – strengths and weaknesses. This is where a free SWOT application mobile analysis comes onboard.

[Source] 

You shouldn’t underrate the importance of creating your mobile app project plan of action on a solid foundation. This refers to thorough management and addressing the ongoing operational tasks. Only after obtaining extensive data are you ready for decision-making. 

Therefore, a SWOT analysis is the best tool to transform your brilliant app idea into a tangible app. Otherwise, there is no point bothering developers and going for app development in general.

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS VS. MACHINE LEARNING: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

What is SWOT?

A SWOT analysis is a core element of any business and strategic planning that every company should add to their toolbox. The abbreviation stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or free project planning. 

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While strengths and weaknesses are deemed internal factors, opportunities and threats are considered to be external factors. 

A SWOT diagram analyzes an application or business undertaking by concentrating on each of these aspects, and makes analysis easy and accessible. The analysis usually consists of four boxes, each box describes a certain factor. However, the exact shape may vary depending on the design. It can be a box, circle, or any other convenient way that will help you conduct the analysis.

DATA MINING VS. PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS: KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

A free SWOT analysis comes in useful when trying to decide whether or not to engage in a certain project or strategy by picturing the for and against and pinpointing all the good, bad and ugly sides of a project. A SWOT analysis also facilitates decision-making regarding further moves.

This analysis will allow you to determine the aspects of your business that are doing great. These are the key success factors of your business that are strong and provide a head start. Outlining these assets will help you remain at a high ranking, and you will also need to find ways to leverage and build upon these strengths to expand your business.

Next, you’ll want to identify ways to eliminate or recuperate your weaknesses. Weaknesses are the features that put you in a less favored position to your competitors. Figuring out what these weaknesses are, and taking measures to lessen them before they hurt your business, is vital. This stage calls for an elaborate and straightforward analysis of what is going wrong within your organization. 

Once you are done with internal factors, you can proceed by identifying your external impacts. By recognizing your weaknesses, you can overcome and escape threats.

But what’s in it for a mobile app development agency?

Well, it’s simple. Being a standard process, a SWOT analysis gives a closer look at mobile application development technology. Additionally, this method allows businesses to analyze and test the related potential and worthiness of their app ideas, targets, and app purposes, to find and assess challenges and experiences that may be influencing their company. 

DOES YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED AN ENTERPRISE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Last but not least, it allows any app ideas to prove more successful for the end-customer and market needs. Gaining this insight can help deliver greater results and overcome threats for your mobile app project.

This was a quick walk through the process of carrying out SWOT analysis. Now let’s move onto the benefits this analysis entails for you and your business.

Benefits & Limitations

Before we dwell on the benefits, you must understand that a SWOT analysis does not give a ready-made solution. Instead, it facilitates analyzing the issues that impact your company or idea. A SWOT analysis is not a one-size-fits-all option for any application. Therefore, it is crucial to understand its main advantages and restrictions before you perform it.

SWOT Benefits

There is one thing that you should know – this type of analysis comes at no cost. However, if you cannot see the backside of your idea or business, it’s better to contact a professional analyst. We usually offer such a service to our clients.

Here is a quick overview of what benefits this analysis entails:

• It allows better divergent thinking and an enhanced vision of your business;
• By understanding weaknesses one can overcome and escape threats;
• Its framework gives you a competitive edge and more opportunities. 

SWOT Limitations

SWOT analysis is not the panacea for your brand, it’s just one imperative stage of your strategic planning. Therefore, it only encompasses what its name implies – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

SWOT is not suitable for complex and intricate issues or aspects. For example, this technique doesn’t have a priority ranking and doesn’t bring you to the final action. SWOT analysis is an idea-generator, it doesn’t steer you toward the best option.

GOOGLE CLOUD SERVICES FOR BIG DATA PROJECTS

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Conducting a SWOT Analysis of a Mobile App Idea

Before taking the first steps, you need to outline the objective of your analysis. You can use SWOT on your companies, brands, mobile app ideas, minimum viable products, or any important features.

After this, you need to conduct profound research on your industry and the market. The data can be retrieved from both the online space and your team, business partners, or users.

Strengths

As an initial step, study all features of your future app. There is a good chance that most of them will fall into the strengths category. Additionally, do some competitive research to define your competitors’ strengths. If you find some similarities, your business idea must adopt these strengths as indispensable elements.

Also, it is necessary to go through your advantages, unique selling proposition, unique resources, and the final goal regarding your sales.

Weaknesses

This step requires a bold and honest look at your business idea. As there is always room for improvement, you will likely find some weak points.

Again, some competitive research allows you to compare your weaknesses to those of your competitors and get some answers.

Consider the following points:

1. What new enhancements would you offer?
2. Is there something you could discard?
3. What weak sides do your customers point out?
4. What product features hinder your brand success?

OUTSTAFFING VS. OUTSOURCING VS. MANAGED SERVICES: DIFFERENCES AND BENEFITS

Opportunities

The top tip while assessing your opportunities is to take a hard look at your strengths. You need to think about how you can transform your strengths into new opportunities. 

Cutting-edge technologies and different trending patterns can allow you to do that.

Also, remember that federal police monitoring and behavioral models of your target audience can create new opportunities as well. 

Threats

If we are talking about threats and opportunities, there is one tool that helps identify the big picture. This tool is not new and is known as the PEST or PESTLE analysis. It helps analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and Technological shifts in your business environment.

Let’s go over the best questions that will allow you to find your threats:

1. What new challenges may you come across?
2. What anti-threat techniques and tools do your competitors use?
3. How do quality standards impact your product?
4. Is your product ready for evolving technologies?
5. Are you sure you won’t have any financing constraints?

However, when you use the SWOT technique it is crucial to use only credible information and explicit statements. In this way, you will get rid of the apparent new facts and prioritize the rest.

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION FOR THE PROJECT’S MVP

Another tip is to use the categories at the same level and not to mingle the points. Thus, you cannot use the idea’s weaknesses in SWOT on UX, etc. As we have stated above, to get a more extensive feature try other analytic tools like PEST Analysis, USP Analysis, Core Competence Analysis, and so on.

Example of SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is the ultimate tool. You can use this technique for both your business idea or app and for your brand in general. It is also relevant for different categories like user experience. 

User experience cannot be crafted based on your friends’ or relatives’ feedback (well, it can, but we rather you didn’t). UX calls for better and direct feedback from genuine end-users.

Now let’s have a look at how you can use this analysis on UX:

Read also: How Does Business Analysis Work and What Are Its Benefits

Takeaway

A SWOT analysis is an unbelievably straightforward yet robust technique to help you build your new game plan.

It also outlines your objectives whether you’re building a startup or mentoring an existing company. One cannot underestimate the power of analysis and planning. SWOT analysis is among those useful tools that can get your product potential to a new level. It improves the performance and given resources at any phase of your SDLC.

This system also enables you to come up with the best tactic, define your challenges, and evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

You can also reach out for our assistance. Our BA will be glad to carry out a profound analysis and decide on further moves. Please, liaise with our manager to schedule a meeting.

One of a trend that has shaped a previous year and definitely is going to influence the year 2017 is the increasing popularity of chatbots.
Chatbots is a program that simulates a real conversation with users by using artificial intelligence.

To understand this technology and find use cases that will fit your business and your customers` needs, let’s analyze the background that drives this trend.

Factors Influencing the Rise of Chatbots

1. The exploding popularity of messaging apps is hard to deny. The GlobalWebIndex Statistics says that 75% of Internet users are adopters of one or few messengers. Also, take a look at the Business Insider statistics that shows how quickly growth the popularity of messengers:READ ALSO: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP A MESSAGING APP LIKE WHATSAPP?
2. The rise of artificial intelligence technologies brings chatbots to a new level. Together with natural language processing AI brings up to 90% the accuracy of machine parsing and understanding of requests. Another significant factor here is sophistication notifications that take into account the context of the situation and are always on across devices.
3. The accelerated development of all kinds of sensors and wearables in addition to analytics and data science boosted the personalization of virtual communication and the capabilities of predictive assistance.
4. Payment integration to third parties via APIs brings, even more, options to the chatbot functionality.

Adopting Chatbots for business

There is one interesting nuance you probably haven’t ever realized. In-app stores, you can find millions of different apps available. However, Forrester Research shows us, that users use about 24 apps per month wherein 80 percent of the time is on just five apps. Without any doubt among them are Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. That means that you hardly can shoot ahead with a new app for your business, but you still have high chances to integrate your chatbot into one of the platforms from your user’s everyday routine.

Of course, bots have not appeared just now, but at the Annual F8 Conference in April 2016 Facebook has announced its platform. That gave a massive impulse for the implementation of this technology for business needs.

Chatbot app development has all chances to be one of the hottest trends and a new challenge for companies and software vendors.

When Building a Chatbot Makes Sense

1. You receive many requests that are similar to each other
   For every business, there is always a set of typical questions that your employees have to answer over and over again. You can gather all these matters in the FAQ form on the website or Facebook page, or you can create a chatbot for that. Also, chatbots are essential when customers need to get a consultation ASAP.
2. Products you sell are low involvement
   Low involvement goods and services mean that the clients do not spend much time making a decision to buy or not to buy. Emotions dictate such purchases, and I bet you do not want to miss such a customer`s impulse by not providing info in time. By one single request bots immediately understand what the customer wants and offer it without human interaction.
3. Your customers need information that is easy to provide
   Everything is simple. The more you can give to your client conditionally for free, the more loyalty you get. That is how your chatbot actually can become another channel of winning sympathy. From another hand, by providing info automatically also you save some money for human recourses. Also, take note that this information can be easily personalized.
4. You work in a highly competitive niche
   Working in a field where products, services, and prices for them are mostly the same, it is hard to compete. Most likely that your customer will choose the vendor that requires spending fewer efforts to get a product. Moreover, again your chatbot is a winning strategy! First of all, your customer will get information regardless of the day of the week, time, holiday, etc. Secondly, no one likes to speak by phone nowadays.

5 Inspiring Chatbot Use Cases

Chatbots change the form of communication between the brand and the consumer. Of course, some of them will stay with us longer, and others are going to evolve further. Anyway, there is no doubt that both users and brands can get benefits from this technology. We have gathered five inspiring chatbot use cases.

1. Shopping

The percentage of consumers who prefer to buy online is inexorably increasing every year. Today this number tends up to 45%. At the same moment, there is another curious fact. 64% of consumers search online before making a purchase, which means that even those who prefer offline shopping spend some time looking online before this.

That is why chatbots can become one of the most important channels for your retail business. As it is written above, this model will better work for the products with little involvement like clothes or accessories. Furthermore, the chatbot helps you to ensure your customer with a personalized experience.

A good example of a retail chatbot is Shop Spring. You do not need to chat with it, only to pick up some answers from the list of questions to narrow down the options for the final choice. The main advantage of the bot before the marketplace is that it minimizes the number of actions and clicks that the user needs to do.

2. Payments

With the help of a chatbot, you can not only choose the product or service but also and buy it. At the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016, the Head of Messenger David Marcus has announced that bots are going to accept payments. So indeed, from late September 2016, Facebook Messenger users can not only initiate orders but complete them through payment systems like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree.

Of course, every financial operation requires a high level of privacy and security. At The App Solutions, we do know all actual threats and provide reliable fraud protection.

3. Restaurants & Delivery

The main point of any fast food is quick. Your chatbot here will win on all counts. It`s always online and ready to take an order in a few steps. A good example is Pizza Hut. “We are committed to our servicing our customers in the most convenient way and meeting them in the channels they already prefer,” said Baron Concors, Pizza Hut’s Chief Digital Officer.

Another great example is Domino. The system is more sophisticated. After the sign-up, the system saves contacts and a so-called favorite basket that the user can request later. This bot also has an excellent sense of humor 🙂

4. Healthcare

Same as in the financial sphere, any healthcare or hospital app requires a high level of security standards. The confidentiality of patient`s private data and HIPAA compliance are crucial.

Healthcare chatbot patients can book an appointment with doctors, pay invoices for services, store and track all payments and medical care. Also, such a chatbot can perform as an instrument of patient education. Such a strategy helps healthcare providers to build stable and value-rich relations.

A great example of a medical bot is a HealthTap that instantly connects users to doctors. The database of medical staff includes 100,000 physicians from over 140 specialties.

5. Customer Support

Customer support and technical assistance are quite a resource-consuming part of any business. This process can also be improved with the help of chatbots. Once you analyze incoming requests, you will see that most of them are identical.

By creating a chatbot for business, you can automate repetitive requests. Your customer will appreciate the direct communication that avoids holding on the line and talking to strangers from support service.

Takeaway

Chatbots are a powerful tool for brand-to-customer communication that also helps to reduce costs and resources. The reason for such exploding popularity is the rise of mobile messengers and extension technology of artificial intelligence.

Vendors and retailers need to rethink their communication strategies to strengthen their presence in the channels where their customers prefer to be. For now, it is messenger apps.

There was a time, way back when parents hoped their kids would someday become lawyers or doctors. Nowadays, the situation changed, and the meaning of success became much different. So, today people desire to create a viral application, sell it for millions of dollars, and achieve the American dream quickly and easily. Not so fast.

In fact, the app developing business, which is one of the biggest and fastest-growing industries in the whole world, is different than other traditional industries in many points. Furthermore, its daily modifications change the rules of all games. Since the app industry is such a unique sphere, being an entrepreneur – an entrepreneur concentrated on producing applications – naturally demands unique traits, skills, and abilities.

READ MORE: How much does it cost to develop an app

Here’re a few simple steps of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur in the mobile area:

Think extremely fast

For entrepreneurs, the term “innovation” takes on an absolutely new meaning. If you think that the technology industry changes fast, just wait till you get into the mobile arena. Today, it’s not just about generating original and great ideas, but it’s more about making certain that by the time you complete elaborating your product it’s still applicable and relevant to the market. The app business varies everyday, and innovation isn’t just a part of the initial process but a daily urgency.

This is totally true since the mobile ecosystem is originally made. Many mobile applications depend on other platform with an eye to existing and big changes made by one influential player could lead to a mobile avalanche. Due to this, the professional entrepreneur has to stay flexible all the time.

Embrace simplicity

Most popular applications are focused on performing a single task perfectly well. But think for a minute about the difference between the app industry and other brands. For decades, brands have been trying to sell clients a whole lifestyle that generally consists of multiple products and merchandise. Usually, proposed products were costly and accounted for most of the business’s revenue.

As opposed to such companies, the app market is entirely different. It’s all about keeping it as simple as possible and offering a product that is extremely stylish, refined, and focuses on a single purpose. For example, in contradistinction to merchandise, applications are inexpensive goods that make users more open to installing them.

Define a monetization strategy

There is no trickier business model than mobile applications. Many well-known and successful apps with millions of clients all over the world still haven’t figured it.

Despite being a super popular product, users simply hate paying for applications. This tendency results in appearing challenges for entrepreneurs looking to provide users with what they really want – an outstanding output that’s free of charge.

Thus, entrepreneurs should always be confident that the used app monetization model doesn’t push away potential clients, whether it’s a freemium, in-app ad, or download fee model.

Flexibility is the answer

We all know the Coca-Cola myth about a company that intended to produce a new cough syrup and, as a result, ended up with a famous drink. The app business is full of fantastic examples of products that began with one purpose and ended up changing their track.

Truly speaking, applications are always required to add new useful features and remove less-desired ones to guarantee clients a well-functioning and reliable product.

The changeable nature of mobile app market needs entrepreneurs with a flexible mind. Such competent specialists have to accept changes and make their product adapt accordingly to the market requirements. Consequently, applications that don’t comply with the modern evolution of the tech world will simply lag behind.

Remember, it’s all about marketing

Of course, the striking idea is a must and perfect execution is vital, but, on the other hand, what is really significant in making your application a successful one is how efficient your market it.

Nowadays, mobile marketing is a completely new field that is different from traditional marketing. In fact, it allows entrepreneurs to select their target audience. Besides, it gives an opportunity to hit potential clients with persuasive messages that are relevant to their interests and consequently has more impact than billboards or TV advertising.

To prosper in the app industry, entrepreneurs have to get familiar with these options as an essential part of their marketing strategy and allocate appropriate channels to promote their products effectively.