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Google just announced that they will now test including direct downloads of apps from Google’s search app thereby bypassing the need to go to Google Play. Many stories have been written about how Google is facing antitrust issues due to their anti-competitive behavior around Google Play services. It’s not hard to see how enabling direct downloads from Google’s search app puts other stores at a direct disadvantage as well. It’s also not hard to see how the EU might view this type of move if Google isn’t offering the same opportunities to other stores.

Perhaps even more scrutiny will come as a result it was recently revealed that Android is a massive source of revenue for Google.

Google’s attempt to monopolize both the distribution and discovery channels for apps is not in and of itself surprising. Large players in other categories have attempted this before before being disrupted, most notably the music industry. The labels controlled the content, distribution and discovery of music. While the number of labels competing with each other made this example different than what we see with Google, it was eventually technical innovation that broke the stranglehold. Here, Google is using technology too, to tighten the noose on alternative channels and force content producers to use their channels.

A more recent, large antitrust example, would perhaps be the case of Internet Explorer and Microsoft. That comparison holds today for Google Play and Android, where Google as the Android owner forces Google Play through archaic constructions and rules. This step that Google is now trying, would be similar to Microsoft hijacking the url for say productivity software and always changing it to Microsoft. Surely this will be the nail in the coffin for antitrust lawyers if Google goes ahead with this?

As a company that thrives working with players who seek a world less influenced by Google, we can confirm that the movement to break free is growing stronger every day. We cannot but quote Princess Leia on this one:

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Smartphones or mobiles are increasingly becoming the primary devices for business use. They are here to stay, and their usage is increasing. It is estimated that the enterprise level mobile usage is likely to grow above 40% by 2018. Firms and enterprises have tested the success of mobile technology and are spending loftily on the Mobile Application development services to advance their businesses.

by Lindsey Patterson

Business owners

The Android, Windows, and the iOS app stores are increasingly overflowing with education resources including business tools. There were 1.3 million android applications by the end of 2014. This clearly indicates that there are so many options available for mobile users and are discerning about which app to prioritize, to download and keep.

For an App developer and business owner to succeed in this competitive environment, you must improve the performance of your apps and reach out to the fully competitive market. The challenges facing App developer business owners today concern application speed, scale, and power for them to achieve the most optimal performance and exploit the market. It is important for the app developers to understand that the difference between a profitable project and a failed one is meeting the challenges that face them both in business and development. The challenges include:

2015 12 Guest blog 2

Usage Peaks, A Gain Or Loss

Once an App developer releases his application into the market and starts gaining attraction from the users, he feels blessed. He feels his work is finished! But that’s not the case. For some applications, once the app has been deployed it just means work has started.

Take an example of the application called StubHub’s app whose incident happened on the day of opening the major basketball league season. The traffic was higher than expected. The StubHub’s application crashed due to the high demand stress. This resulted in frustrations from the fans, and the application lost sales to the other competitor applications. It is wiser for an app developer and business owner have a solid plan ahead of time. If the application owner had planned ahead of the popularity of his app, he would save the ticket sellers, the basketball fans and a lot of stress.

It’s not enough to simply create an app, send it out into the world, and then retire to the comfort of an office corner desk; app developers and business owners need to constantly reevaluate the performance of the app once it has been released. An app that has the capability to contain peaks and increased user performance will ultimately scale. By adding or removing resources when traffic levels change is necessary to protect against sudden jumps using cloud technology. This model is advantageous to business app owners pay for the extra computing resource cost to enable the app to realize extensive experience. The owner can set scaling rules that automatically run behind the scenes to cut down the costs and save on resource.

Building an app business is much more about designing an app

Challenge In The Unavailability Of Mobile Analytics

Most websites today allow you to measure their performance by using numerous analytical tools, to check out on the areas they need to improve on. This is however not the case with the mobile application development business owners. They find it hard for them to do something like this. Typically speaking, there is no cross-platform/cross app and mobile web analytic software available at the moment. It is a shocking truth. For instance, it is not possible for a mobile enterprise solution provider to get more details about app users, what other apps they are using or even what other content the user might be browsing on the device (unless done illegally by placing a tracker on the device).

The situation might be gradually changing but has not yet reached the expected pace. Major companies have now started investing in mobile analytic strategies and app developer business owners should emulate this. These analytics can provide solid foundations for enhancements, improvements and decision on the next course of actions.

2015 12 Blog 4

Challenge Of Integration

Integrating applications both new and existing is the most prominent challenge mobile application development business owners, as well as the enterprise mobility solution providers, are facing today. Upgrading the traditional systems to integrate them with the newer mobile technologies in the many platforms is a big task that is time and energy consuming. Most mobile solutions have gone out of time and budget. They have failed to integrate the existing database structures and other setups. A business owner by now should be looking at solving this challenge to increase his app download in other platforms to make more profits.

Will your app business be going up up and away

App Performance Reigns Supreme

In history, users have had no patience with web pages that take too much time to load. 46% of users abandon a website that takes more than two seconds to load. This trend has been transferred to the mobile app landscape. For app developers and business owners, this can be a daunting challenge to overcome.

It often doesn’t matter to consumers whether the app loads using more or lesser data. What they simply want is fast load times. 40% of users will abandon an app that takes more than 40 seconds to load. To improve on speed and load times, app developers should look at data usage. For many applications, this is still a challenge that needs to be addressed.

There are many factors that mobile developers and business owners need to act upon to ensure optimal application performance for their applications. This is the primary goal of business, to create demand, satisfy demand and make good and lasting business. They should continually monitor their aps and release updates to provide the best possible user experience and take advantage of the market.

 

2015 12 Lindsey PattersonLindsey Patterson is a freelance writer who specializes in technology and the latest social trends, specifically involving social media. She is currently a social media advisor.

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Did you know, as per the report by Localytics, there has been a drop in app retention from 39% in 2014 to 34% in 2015? Though, there are many factors that are playing a role in this drop; increasing number of apps is one of the reasons. Your customer has alternatives to your product and would switch the moment they get bored from your application

by Shoeb Ahmad

2015 11 02 Guest blog_1
We know that app market is getting competitive and it is becoming difficult to strike a monetary balance. However, there are some easy and effective ways that could help you retain customers. Following are those 10 trusted and best ways that every app owner should know.

#1 Gamify your app

This might sound strange but it’s true. Users are hooked to games. Gaming apps come as stress busters and they spend maximum time on them. So, add some gaming element to your app. This could be in terms of rewards and some challenges. Seek assistance of your app developer and add game features to your application, if possible.

#2 Social Media Marketing

Social media can be used wisely to retain customers. Create social media communities and invite your users to share their valuable feedback and reviews. During the development process, through this medium, you can easily get in touch with your users and get a direct feedback on your app.

This would help you solve the issues quickly and gain user’s loyalty. Look at the Angry Bird social media platforms to learn some effective marketing strategies.

#3 Personalize your App

With the help of the latest software, you can get informative customer behavior report. You can know how much time a user spends on your application, where he/she is clicking on page and taking an exit.

A thorough analysis of this report would help you add personalized features like push notification, based on their interests. Also, it would help you have a conversation even when they’re offline. These small features would make them feel special and loyal.

#4 Keep Updating

In this evolving world, updating your app is equally important. This would help you survive the cut-throat market. Keep on adding interactive and engaging features whenever required. It would help you to be in the competition and would show your care about user experience.

However, restrain yourself from too much updates as the user would lose interest and you would lose the battle to your competitor.

2015 11 02 Guest blog_2

#5 Push Notifications

Push notifications are widely used by app owners. It is because it grabs quick attention. For better results, correlate it with user behavior. Consult your developer regarding this feature.

In most cases, this feature is highly abused thus turning the results otherwise. Wise use of this feature can maintain user engagement of your app and could increase the possibility of user loyalty.

#6 Fast is better

Look around you! People appreciate that’s fast and quick. The same rule applies to your users as well. They would love an app which is quick to launch and functions smoothly.

In order to improve user experience, app makers add more graphics without realizing that it may further affect the app speed. Thus, speak to your developer and try to make your app appealing yet faster.

#7 Brilliant content

Apps of all sorts, mostly e-commerce and content apps, can benefit from brilliant and engaging content. They can put their latest blogs and posts on their applications, thus allowing users to come back, every time there’s something new for them.

For instance The Guardian App and Flipboard Apps. This is a newspaper application that uses push notification with appealing content. This way, it not only informs its users, but also encourages them to read the news through their app.

#8 Free from distractions and bugs

Your user would uninstall your app if they get distracted by ads, too many tweets, emails and unnecessary push notifications. Thus, to keep them hooked to your app, keep your app free from such distractions.

#9 Give rewards

Users mostly use application to get rewards or discounts. It was observed that discounts not only increase the first user experience, but also boost up the brand loyalty. Thus, use this feature wisely to attract users and increase the loyalty.

Take shopping apps as an example. They use push notification to inform their users about daily rewards and discounts. Users use that information and shop through their application to enjoy that reward.

#10 Integrated social media

People are active on social media. If you integrate social media in your app, there is a huge chance of app retention. For instance, Instagram allows you to create an account through your social media account. Besides, it also allows you to share your latest photographs on your all social media account easily.

The competitive app market is making it difficult for app owners to sustain. The aforementioned effective and quick app retention strategies would help you to have loyal customers. Use these strategies wisely, as per your requirement, and see the changes, yourself.

 

Author Bio:

2015 11 02 Headshot Image_AutorShoeb Ahmad, with an experience of 15+ years in Digital World, heads Digital Marketing at Mobisoft Infotech. He has a rich experience in SEM, SEO, Social Media & other verticals of Digital Media. He also has been a consultant for a variety of industries, enterprises & startups. He loves reading & traveling. He often writes on various forums since he believes ‘Knowledge increases by sharing.’ Follow him @shoeb_ahmad

 

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Services like CodeNgo are one way to get you a few steps ahead of your competition. You’ll maximize the numbers of eyeballs that potentially see and download your app. Something is still missing though in your worldwide equation. It’s time to give back to the community who likely made your iPhone or Android phone and release your app in China.

by Max, MakeThatApp.com

Making money in China with apps

We’ve listed out 5 things you should know to embark on publishing your apps in China:

1)      App Size Is Crucial

Tons of the users in China only have access to 2G at the most, so your bloated 50mb+ apps would not be a great fit. Android drives over 80% of the revenue, so focus on getting that apk really tiny.

2)      Register a Hong Kong Corporation

This is the easiest way for you to get a license to do business with the different app stores and payment processors that you will need without having to expose your business too much.  There are services that will allow your company to register a Hong Kong company online.

3)      Intellectual Property Theft

If your app is popular, your IP might already be in China. You’ll need to be aggressive with the stores in order to get them to take down your apps. We’ve read a better strategy is to send them the legal documents required to prove that you own the app and have them re-route all traffic and rankings (if positive) to your new listing.

4)      Focus on the 10 Biggest App Stores

We’ve put together a List of Chinese App Stores (China) to help you focus your publishing efforts.

5)      Use a Publisher

If you’re not willing to open up 10 separate accounts + payment processing, check out services like Appigniter, AppInChina, Yodo1, Chukong, or Dreamsky. They might cost a lot , but they’ll help you your app into China and take care of all the payment processing headaches.

 

About the Author:

Max from MakeThatApp has a curated list of app development tools to help mobile developers create better apps. He can be contacted at http://www.twitter.com/MakeThatApp with any questions.

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With over 1 billion downloads across web and mobile, Angry Birds is no doubt as big as they get.  But what is also fairly well known is Rovio’s ability to merchandise the brand very quickly.  Now Amazon is out to help developers do the same, with ‘merch’ by Amazon.

Amazon is not first on merchandising in-app items. In fact, we had a guest post from French company Fabzat some time ago.  Fabzat has a thing or two up their sleeve in terms of the items you can create, with cool 3D printing of characters and more. But Amazon is of course the biggest, and as a merchandising entity goes, something that would certainly provide a welcome revenue stream for many developers.

merch by Amazon

So exactly how important is merchandising?  Well, for the movie and TV industry, merchandising hit $51.3 billion in 2013. Compare this to a total estimated revenue for filmed entertainment of about $90 billion that year, merchandising is staggeringly important.  For Rovio, merchandising was about one quarter of the revenue for 2014.

So what is Amazon merch all about?  Well for starters, it is vastly different from Fabzat as it is not in-app. It relies on you as a developer creating artwork and selling t-shirts. And that’s kind of it. Yep, pretty simple, and you’ll still have to drive traffic to Amazon to sell it (which is what they want), but it can surely be a way to capitalize on cute characters and more. Still, we kind of believe in the Fabzat model more, where you capitalize on the interest in the game while the user is playing it, in order to get them to buy merchandise. Having Amazon jump on the bandwagon puts some muscle on the business model, and we look forward to following the development of this business model for developers.

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Arturo Galván, CEO of Naranya – a Mexico based mobile internet specialist, points out in a recent article in gamesindustry.biz that “The Latin American mobile market is huge. It’s half of the size of the Chinese market – both are a massive opportunity.”  Thanks to smartphones, the population is rapidly coming online and becoming an attractive market for apps distribution. But don’t think Google Play will get you there.

Google’s issues are first and foremost related to payment options. Google offers primarily payments through credit or debit cards. But card billing will not get you far in Latin America – while carrier billing will:
LatAm Banking penetration (World Bank Financial Inclusion)Source: World Bank Financial Inclusion

Despite recent efforts by Google’s partner, Bango, they are still short of the network of payments a player like Naranya can offer (the two Mexican operators covered by Bango only have 12% market share).

The growth in mobile in Latin America is phenomenal, and the two most interesting markets from a revenue standpoint are Brazil and Mexico.  The markets not only vary in culture, but also in terms of purchasing power and how you should structure your pricing:

LatAm IAP (Fortumo)

Source: Fortumo

Keep in mind that prepaid subscriptions is very popular in the region, thus you want to make sure your charging does not drain too much of the users balance (i.e. charge less and more often instead if you can). And if your app is text heavy, and you have not invested in localization – forget it, English simply will not cut it:

LatAm English (Fortumo)

Source: Fortumo

However, if your app does not rely much on text, you can concentrate your efforts around your marketing assets. Translating your text from English to Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese should cost you on average no more than $75-$150. Of course it depends on the length of your text, but if you use partners like Tethras.com (who are also integrated with CodeNgo – you can order your translations directly), you are sure to get it professionally and correctly presented (yes, we do not like automated translations. Not at all).  This is well worth the investment in order for your app to succeed in this huge market.

We are happy to announce that we will soon be supporting the Naranya market in our suite of stores.  Stay tuned!

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Vision Mobile’s latest State of the Developer Nation paints a grim picture for female developers, with less than 10% of developers in the survey were women. So are mobile app developers like what Silicon Valley has often been criticized for? A frat like club for boys, mostly fresh out of college, that seem to want to hold on to that frat experience waaay too long into their professional careers?  What is the problem in that you may ask?

First, let’s look at the extent of the problem across geographies:

Developer Nation - Gender bias

 

Based on the Vision Mobile data, the gender bias is actually worse as you get outside the US. If you are a female in Latin America for instance, you are almost guaranteed not to be a developer. What does that mean for a business, or for the tech industry as a whole?

The main problem is obvious: When you effectively exclude/freeze out 50% of the working population, you miss out on key talent to grow your business and you ensure salaries are artificially inflated due to lack of supply of software engineers.  That is a lose-lose situation.

Fixing the problem is easier said than done.  First, there are clearly more male graduates in computer science, so from the pool of developers to pick from, the choice is slimmer. But that’s not the whole story. It can explain a lower percentage, but nearly NO representation as the Vision Mobile study shows there has to be a different reason, as at least 25% of graduates with a computer science degree are female.  Once in the workplace, gender biases feed of each other, making it even more difficult for women to rise through the ranks and get treated and paid fairly, and only defined action plans can help this. It is naïve to think that an industry will solve this by itself, but of course therein lies the opportunity for companies who recognize the importance of bringing on talented female engineers as a competitive advantage. They need to understand that the ‘brogramming’ culture needs to be changed (no, not everyone loves foosball, beer pong on Fridays, and playing basketball at lunch – not even among guys) and they need to ensure equality, fairness and flexibility should be the cornerstones of the company culture.

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India is a big country. Very big. But did you know that they are now approaching the level of internet penetration that led to things exploding in the US and China? With 232 million internet users, it is the 3rd largest online market, and adds over 60 million users per year. And of course the action is on mobile. But Google Play is certainly not your only bet in this market.

Evidence certainly indicates India is at the verge of taking off:

Internet user penetration curve - US China India (Source: KPCB)

Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2015

If history is any indication, India is set to become a giant in online. China has officially surpassed the US in ecommerce, which really only took 7 years from hitting the catalyst threshold, and India may reach this point equally fast.  The catalyst driving this is of course mobile:

2Mobile as percent of internet traffic (Source: KPCB)

Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2015

Despite Android’s dominant presence (over 90% market share), you may think Google Play is the only game in town – but think again. Mobango, an app store focusing on the Indian market but with a global audience, passed 1 billion downloaded apps already in 2012. They claimed to have 37% market share of the game downloads in 2013, and when considering games is the biggest category in apps, is quite impressive.  There are also plenty of other app stores with traction in India, such as www.9apps.com and www.mobogenie.com.

Recent research from Deloitte suggests that India will hit 9 billion app downloads this year.  According to the Deloitte report, “the biggest bet is in the youth in the 16-30 bracket who form a substantial part of the mobile subscriber base in the country.”

Not to be outdone, consulting firm KPMG points out that India is #7 on the list in terms of the # of downloaded apps. Each subscriber will average 17 downloads during the year, of which 4 will be paid apps. And if you plan to advertise for your app, it pays if it has something to do with cricket:

People interested in cricket on Facebook (Source: Facebook)

Source: Facebook

So there you have it. Your 16-30 year old cricket fan could be your ticket to become an app kingpin. Either way, it’s time to rethink your product marketing strategy!

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Do you have an app that targets a specific consumer segment? Then you should make sure your app gets distributed on app stores that target this segment!  It’s easier than you think.

Today smartphones are a commodity, and many handset manufacturers have realized that launching their device with bundled content offerings matched to their consumer segment is a key differentiator.

Let us give you one example:

The Cat Phone is a rugged smartphone which targets customer segments consisting of people with an affinity for the outdoors, plumbers, farmers, blue-collar workers etc. The phone comes with a dedicated, pre-loaded App Store with some hundreds of carefully selected apps relevant for that customer segment. This offering makes the phone more attractive to the customer segment. They will find apps they did not realize that they actually needed as an outdoor person or a blue-collar worker.

The Cat phone - for the tough ones!

The concept is a fully managed service from Appland (www.applandinc.com), who delivers hosting, app store platform and apps, and also has responsibility for the continuous operation of the store. There are more than 350 apps in the store, from both well-known apps like Skype and TuneIn, to more niche apps like CHECK-D. It is all about creating a compelling app offering for the specific consumer segment.

Appland works with many smartphone manufacturers across the globe, targeting different specific consumer segments from photo enthusiasms to e-learning students and hard core gamers.  If you publish your app through CodeNgo, it will automatically get published on Appland.  Of course, there is no guarantee your app will be launched in stores like the Cat store – your app needs to be relevant for the segment and be a high quality app. But if you do get published, you will not find a better, more targeted audience for your app – hopefully providing you with great analytics and a nice boost to your install base.

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From BlackBerry’s newsletter

Increasing App Discoverability within BlackBerry World
 

If you plan on increasing discoverablilty of your application choosing an application name is very important. Not because of your app but because of everyone else’s. For instance, a search for calculator displays almost 5,000 results! The app name must stand out to grab a user’s attention and should follow these basics:

  • Don’t Duplicate: Do a quick search (outside of BlackBerry World) to ensure other entities are not already using the name of your app, or even worse, have it trademarked!
  • Be Authentic: Adding Insta or Flappy to your app name denotes a certain phoniness to the app. Original is better.
  • Be Clear: It should be obvious what the app does.
  • Pronounceability: Users should be able to easily repeat the name of your app. Use caution when creating new words to ensure they are not difficult to say.
  • Typography: Stick to CamelCase, such as BlackBerry. Avoid lowercase or ALL CAPS.
  • Compound Words: use to pair the function of an app with a word that enhances it. Think of Evernote, Dropbox and PicStory

Visual recognition is also an important factor. The Application Icon is the image that appears on the BlackBerry World Storefront and is the first visual of the app. If app functionality is unclear from its name, users will depend on the icon and short description for this information.

Short descriptions appear when the product displays in a list, category or search result. It should quickly outline the basic functionality of the app. Now that your app has finally been selected it is time to tell the apps story through its screenshots and description. Screenshots: Note the Device Screen Sizes and follow these guidelines:

  • Place the best screenshot first. Entice the user to scroll forward.
  • Don’t place a screenshot inside a BlackBerry device
  • Take screenshots from the target device whenever possible
  • Avoid screenshots filled with text or marketing materials
  • Only add graphic overlays when necessary to explain the image
  • Don’t reference pricing: local currency prices can be misleading

Long Description: The description is the final selling point of your app. It should be clear, concise, and appealing to your target audience. The description should focus on content rather than keywords.

  • Optimize the first lines before “More Description” with what your app does and why it will benefit the user. Use adjectives such as awesome, or addicting. Already have a large user base? Call it out here!
  • Be honest. Talk about the benefits but be factual of the app’s capabilities. Do not mislead users.
  • Details: List achievements and features in bullet form. If it’s going to be long, break it down into sub-headings with proper spacing. Leave out anything that is unnecessary.

Keywords:

  • Choose your keywords wisely. You are limited to 10 keywords, which can be up to 3 words each (i.e. BBM Connected Apps).
  • Avoid overused keywords. Think of synonyms or other ways users may search for their content. It’s better to be in the top 10 of average searches than 100th in common searches.
  • Don’t use third-party trademarks.

Featured Image:

  • The featured image for your product displays on the Featured Items screen in BlackBerry World, known as the Carousel.
  • The image must be a 1920×1186 pixel .PNG file.
  • Similar to the icon, the Featured Image is the first visual of an app. Ensure images are vibrant and display functionality of the app.
  • Similar to screenshots, avoid use of a BlackBerry device.

Featuring on BlackBerry World

 

Featured applications are applications available on the forefront of BlackBerry World. Whether on mobile or desktop, these apps appear when a user launches BlackBerry World. This featuring leads to great front-of-the-line exposure for applications and their developers.

The obvious feature spotlight is the BlackBerry Carousel. This large banner at the top of BlackBerry World provides a great first-look at individually featured apps.

Next, we have Grouped Featuring. Found only on mobile, directly under the carousel, this section allows for similar apps to be featured together. This includes Apps for Business, Travel, Games, Sports, Utilities, Globally Relevant Events (New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Summer, Christmas) and so much more!

For more information, please see: Getting Your App on the BlackBerry World Carousel