How to Monetize Your Free Apps?

Having a vision of a mobile app and then turning it into a mobile app is still a business half finished. You might have turned the idea into a mobile app, but you haven’t yet thought about adding monetization  tools to your free app.

Let’s face it and be realistic, you haven’t really invested loads of money just to impress users with unique features. You also need to make profit by figuring out what ways can help you generate constant revenue.

Monetization thus is an essential part of conception, planning and development. Your newly launched app can also support monetization if you wish and plan to do so.

Since the post-launch monetization process might get a little complicated, you need skilled players to suggest what sorts of monetization work and how to implement them.

The following guide presents top methods to help you monetize your free app the right way.

Third-Party Advertising

In the service-oriented mobile apps, it is difficult to notice users who will fall for in-app purchases or subscription services added by developers. Most users expect free service – which is why there is a need to inject ad mechanism.

Users will be persuaded that they will enjoy high-quality content in exchange of seeing relevant ads on the screen now and then. But be careful about the how frequently ads are displayed and what types.

The best approach would be adding diversified ad content units of different sizes. This is viable for industries like ecommerce, travel, photo editing, gaming and entertainment.

You can easily couple these ads with supporting analytics to gain access to customer data such as behavior, location and preferences. This is a magnetic idea for users who seek free apps. Your app makes money by flashing relevant user-friendly ad products.

E-mails and Lead Generation

This might strike as simplistic, but having a newsletter in your app to send customers back to your website is a surefire way to monetize your efforts.

This may not be as easy as it sounds, and there are certain challenges to measure and track the transition. But in the end it works efficaciously.

Apps of this kind are meant to act as an essential part of the overall brand marketing, lead generation and customer acquisition strategy and focus on collecting as many emails and footprints as you can from customer interactions.

They are standalone solution but still seem to add value to the conversion funnel.

Engaging Content Dynamics

Having great content is something many app developers forget to consider. It is admissible that developing a mobile demands a lot of efforts and dedication, but you should be as much worried about whether or not it will create momentum for your business.

You are not done yet just after releasing the app. A good app populated with engaging content and features becomes great. Tale Calm for instance.

The meditation app is booming in the mind health domain, inspiring lots of people to subscribe to its meditation services and expert content. This app is the best example of how systematically you can encourage the users to opt for your premium services at a small fee.

Profitable Partnerships

A bunch of successful CEOs and market analysts also emphasize the idea of partnering with companies whose products or customers match with yours. The partnership works by integrating their offerings into your app as a third-party service in exchange for a fixed referral fee.

The company you have partnered with can eventually benefit your customers who will enjoy a smooth, integrated experience without switching between two apps. By successfully building a profitable partnership, this can turn out to be a massive revenue generator.

Freemium Levels

While content could take a little longer to interest the audience, what would save time is having different levels and versions of your app. Many entrepreneurs and app developers prefer to launch both free version and paid/premium version.

Either free versions will have customers exploring the app content with ads or it will give them a brief taste of what it is going to be. You can think of it as giving a trial period until users are all thorough with your app’s capabilities and potential.

By doing this, your customers will initially test-drive and integrate apps in their lives, eventually realizing they can’t resist using it. Thus, you can encourage them to upgrade to premium version to add more value.

Paid Downloads

Most iOS apps run on this monetization mechanism. Each time users download an app, they will pay an upfront fee as a monthly/yearly subscription or one-time charge.

Here, what you charge becomes the key to how much you can monetize and gain revenue. However, paid downloads should better be regulated by a poised, thoughtfully selected price structure.

Attach a price tag based on what your app promises to deliver and you are all set to earn from your app. Here the biggest pro is that there is no wait time, if your app is good you start generating profits the moment they download the app.

Expect more loyalty since they will interact with an app with clutter-free, ad-free UI.

Multiple Pricing and Subscription Options

Even your monetization methods don’t need to be workaday and boring. Treat your customers with multiple subscription and in-app purchases options, each including different benefits altogether.

Include at least one of many that is highly viable and more appealing to users. The combo subscription offer here seems to work, the one that seemingly adds value to customers.

You may divide them based on web and mobile experience with mobile app version bringing obviously more merits in terms of discount and savings. You can customize your own pricing strategy for this monetization to work.

Blend of Multiple Approaches

In-app purchases and advertising may appear to be the best options of monetizing your free app. However, a holistic approach would be more effective and attractive for today’s evolved app users.

If you want to appeal to the enormous audience out there, make sure you build several solutions that entice diverse set of users to make purchase.

Read also : Most Downloaded Apps in 2018

Some appreciate subscriptions packages while others are smitten by fancy in-app purchases. Therefore, instead of focusing on merely in-app purchases options or advertising won’t do much good.

Create a perfect blend of multiple monetization approaches to match the taste of various users including a few ad units, purchasable merchandizes or upgrades, priced features and more. This will set in place something-for-everyone attitude.

Data-Driven user Engagement

Mobile app owners and marketers are often so occupied with user acquisition they neglect how important it is to retain and reengage existing user base.

The best way to keep up with monetization drive which comes from that small percentage of loyal users. For instance, only a small percentage of total mobile gamers are generous, enthusiastic spenders who love to buy expensive features for more thrilling experience.

These users give you a major portion of total app’s revenue. Make sure you monitor the minute behavior of the loyal users and use the data to engage and retain them better. Leverage right messages for such data-driven monetization.

License Your App Code

Have you thought about patenting the app code after observing some success after the launch? It is great to think about licensing your code after building an awesome free model of your app and seeing satisfying traction.

Create a licensed code ownership system for other developers who will pay some fixed charge if they want to imitate the app design.

Read also : How To Create an App and Make Money

This will not disrupt the experience of your existing users because they won’t see any obtrusive ads or clutter features. You can think of Uber for this example.

Make your app powerful and usable enough to attract massive number of users and entice other developers who wish to save heap of time and efforts in writing code.

Conclusion

Building an app seems like a relatively easier job compared to what comes after that. The number of mobile apps in online stores is high and competition is intense.

You must stand out if you want to earn from your newly launched app. Your potential users naturally gravitate to free app services.

However, with mobile app market opening countless opportunities, you will find many diverse ways to engage users and monetize your app content. Depicted above are a few effective ways to introduce monetization in your free apps.

11 Common Myths of Enterprise Mobile App Development

Despite facing a lot many challenges while developing Enterprise mobile apps, corporate companies and startup entrepreneurs are all zealous about the idea of building diverse mobile apps to boost business growth and reach maximum customers.

The famous fact that mobile apps are perfectly integrated into human life as an integral part has inspired myriad of organizations to shift to enterprise mobility.

There is a lot to leverage when an enterprise considers developing a mobile app. For once, these apps are keys to creating a brand and spreading brand awareness. If built strategically, they can even bring repeat business, earning great amount of ROI.

Still, there is a few that shows sincere interest in having a dedicated mobile app for business engagement. The reason is numerous misconceptions surrounding the concept of enterprise mobile app development.

To help organizations focus on mobile-first approach, here are 11 common myths that can be debunked for business success.

1. Enterprise mobility apps consume a lot of time to develop

There is a pseudo buzz in the app industry that mobile apps intended for enterprise mobility has much larger time span for development than normal apps. Some even harbor this prejudice that the project may take at least half a year.

Enterprise mobility apps consume a lot of time to develop

This is a wrong thought. If you are clear with your mobile app vision and want to create multiple apps dedicated to various business units, the time required to develop them doesn’t necessarily exceed expectations.

All they need is a right mobile app development partner and accurate decisions on highly integrated platforms that help accelerate the process.

If everything falls in the right place and resources are utilized smartly, you can build high-quality business app in as little as 90 days.

2. Cost and intricacy are the biggest barriers

Enterprise companies who are emerging to be on top are often concerned about whether or not to juggle with investment.

Worries about cost of mobile app development daunt them and they eventually give up on the idea or settle instead for a mediocre build.

Another element is the involvement of complexities. Though it is true that more intricate the app is, more it may cost.

Read also : How Much Does it Cost to Market an App?

However, there are many Venture Capitalists and online crowd fund sources available to give your projects a little better push.

The return acquired in terms of growth and customer acquisition is much bigger than investment made, which indicated satisfying ROI.

growth and customer acquisition

3. It is all about coding, nothing else

This is not true at all. People outside the domain of app development happens to believe that developing an enterprise mobile app just involves coding and the app success revolves around how better you code.

But this is not just what is needed, coding is a basic requirement; however the approach takes a lot more efforts and considerations for fulfillment of the project.

Other than this you also need talented resources, technologies, an  idea, design evaluation and graphics, and of course, not to forget, exceptional user experience.

4. Mobile cloud apps are not a pragmatic choice from business perspective

Mobile cloud is the approach in enterprise app development that often confronted strong criticism believing that it is not feasible or achievable.

Apps and cloud do not fit perfectly well due to undesirable reason of compatibility as said by mobile app strategists. However, in reality, this is opposed to the actual scenario.

In fact, a lot of organizations will implement mobile cloud applications tailor-made for businesses.

Cloud provides assurance that developers can dispense without concerns of physical data storage, which means mobile cloud is actually quite a pragmatic choice especially for enterprises.

5. End users should not be considered thoroughly during the development process

This is a typical misconception that end users do not play a significant role in the core app development process.

Businesses develop apps usually to simplify the operational processes and serve end users at different level better.

Read also : How To Market an App Successfully

Thinking that these end users only come to play a part at the end of the process will be a catastrophic fallacy. Hence, it is important to keep them in loop during the process.

After all, considering and incorporating user expectations is the best way to make your app thrive and be usable.

6. Enterprise apps do not ensure uncompromised security

Another prevalent mythical thought across enterprise mobility industry is increasing the danger of safety by establishing collaboration among employees through mobile apps.

The question of security irrationally intimidates enterprise companies, making them deterred for opting mobility solutions.

The fear of security has a lot to do with the early days of mobile app development when building or using mobile apps meant opening your personal data to malicious hackers.

Nowadays security standards for mobile app companies have evolved and become more sophisticated and immune to vulnerability.

7. Enterprise app development can be done in-house

Companies longing to build mobile apps for their business fall for the idea of being able to manage the entire development process in-house. However, when it comes to handling heterogeneous aspects of the project, they would fall short.

Mobile app development is more than just conceptualization, visualization and wireframe. The process often gets complicated as it contains a lot many challenges especially while implementing thoughts into action.

It requires thorough market knowledge, powerful acumen, utilization of mature skills and experience needed to leverage precious data specific to existing mobile apps.

The job is so responsible you may come across a point where a thought of giving up midway overwhelms. This is why hiring development specialists outside the organization makes great sense.

8. Mobile apps may not synchronize with legacy systems

Though it is fair to think about whether or not legacy systems can be accessed by mobile apps, the doubt proves mythical against the evolution of business-specific technologies.

Companies that make large investments in legacy software such as ERP, CRM and several others often look to developing mobile apps with a hesitation believing that it will not fit into existing group of software techs.

In reality, enterprise apps can connect with multiple backend systems using APIs like SharePoint, MySQL, Oracle, etc. enterprise-grade development services with robust API structure enables legacy system to be seamlessly accessed by mobile devices.

9. Mobility for Enterprise just means a device

In the era of cutting edge digital revolutions, there are organizations who conceive mobility as a smart device in itself that works as a tool or a gadget. The device has a few good details that stand no chance of connecting with business outcome.

Mobility for Enterprise

That is not true. Mobility is perceived as much more than a physical tool and is an indispensable need to achieve business goals from any location anytime.

Enterprise mobility puts multiple operations into a context thereby streamlining different units to deliver business efficiency and growth.

10. Selecting a right platform is not that important

This is quite a noxious myth and can spoil the whole strategy of developing a high-quality business-specific mobile app. Considering a right platform is crucial to app success and its ability to resonate with users.

Choosing the perfect platform is important if you are planning to monetize in iOS store that enforces stringent rules. Before planning, conduct an indepth research that manifests potential target user requirements that in turn help pick the right platform (iOS and Android).

11. Enterprise apps lack compatibility with Mobile Apps infrastructure

A myth like this discourages enterprise companies to consider having a mobile app in place. They are stuck on a misconception that their back-end structure lacks compatibility with mobile apps, but that is not the case.

Organizations, in order to gain excellent results from mobile app, need to be positive about upgrading their infrastructure to dovetail seamlessly with the mobile app backend.

For instance, bank apps allow customers to peek into their account status many times a day, creating a perfectly compatible system through a flawless API implementation to handle gigantic traffic rush.

Conclusion

While a few of myths discussed above are shallow, there are a few others that may raise relevant skepticism. However, not eliminating them from your vision can hurt your business potential by annihilating the entire process of enterprise app development.

With IT giants successfully integrating futuristic solutions, it is time to renounce these myths and smash other barriers that stymie the growth ahead.

Agile methodology, collaborative DevOps culture and trust in cloud solutions can eradicate these baseless notions, transform business processes and drive profitable revenue streams.

How To Market an App Successfully

The basic strategy of mobile app marketing revolves around the truth that Apple App Store ad Google Play is laden with nearly 3 million apps, and that the number is still climbing up.

Therefore, for your mobile app to be a successful digital authority in the stifling competition of the digital market, you must need proven caliber. And by caliber, we mean extraordinary features and a solid marketing strategy.

But how would prospect users know your app has something that only you can offer in terms of value, engagement and novelty? This is where implementing a competitive and effective marketing techniques become inevitable.

Based on our market research and mobile app expertise, we have narrated a few strategies to successfully market an app.

1) Dedicate More Resources

There are a lot of diverse opinions coming from marketers when deciding whether or not spending more on mobile app marketing yields great effects.

The study by Mobile Marketing Association suggests that dedicating 7-9% of total marketing budget on mobile is wise.

While reserving good part of budget for app marketing is important, it is also equally important to efficiently use that budget on planning mobile resources.

Nearly 80% of customers seek location-specific service alerts on their mobile devices, which require you to invest in technology for push notification, geo-fencing and multilingual support.

With so much on stack, without planning your budget for creative advertisements and engaging content, you could flip out in the nick of time.

Your budget must cover different aspects of marketing to enhance your app’s visibility in key online marketplaces.

2) Burst Campaign For Organic Users

The ultimate goal of any app marketing campaign is to boost app’s rank through ad spend, app store optimization and organic downloads.

Media ads help drive more downloads which further heightens app ranks and visibility in app stores. The paid installs is a viable short-term formula that falls under “Burst Campaigns” and triggers the peak volume of organic downloads.

The technique of Burst campaign used by mobile app marketers today revolves around generating a burst of paid media exposure over a brief period depending on budget limit.

Burst campaign

The approach not only helps you climb app store ranks and improves app discover ability, but you also see a rush of organic users downloading your app. After attaining desired success, your ad budget can be scaled down back to minimum later.

If you still wish to maintain this high ranking and steady downloads from organic users, you can keep the momentum of paid advertising alive even after the burst campaign concludes.

The best example of capitalizing on a successful short-term ad spend would probably be Nike that enviously drives burst campaign tactic.

3) App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization (ASO) process helps your app appear at higher rank in online app stores and boosts its visibility to potential users.

As Nielsen report reveals, 63% of Android and iOS users depend on the search within app stores to discover the desired app – which is the primary reason why ASO strategies stand as a sturdy pillar to the app marketing endeavors. The three target points of ASO are:

a) Optimizing the Title:

To optimize the title perfectly, you need a thoughtful mindset and a distinctive name that reflects brand value, business goal and easily discoverable search terms. Adding the specific functionality also adds a marketing edge to the title.

b)  Optimizing Keywords:

Keywords are the key to app finding process and keyword optimization should be done within 100 characters with main focus on search volume, competitor’s practices and relevance. Try to test the effectiveness of keywords before decide to keep or even change them.

c) Optimizing the Description:

Intrigue users by creating an ad appeal in the initial lines of app description since these are the first 2-3 lines of text users are likely to see before they choose ‘more’ button. You can also highlight the update section to reengage with the new updates, fixes, offers and more.

4) Market the Great Experience

Because customer experience greatly affects the overall app success, business could count delivering awesome experience as main ingredient to effective marketing strategy.

This is especially critical in order to combat the raging competition and meet the highest stature of modern app standards.

The story of businesses building the apps to for customers to use is long buried in the past. As audiences have different expectations now, your app must survive on the unique experience it creates.

Hence, when you market the app, you bear in mind that only your app has power to please customers with the experience not found anywhere else in the market.

Also as 86% of consumers appreciate keep-it-simple approach, brands that believe in simplified experience instead of stupefying information can have more purchasers. From description to inside content, keep everything relevant and specific to customers’ life.

5) Build a Microsite

When you build a microsite, you add one more opportunity to market your app outside the app store and drive the traffic there via organic SEO techniques.

The site of such unique sort can be leveraged to exhibit your app to the widest audience and create a huge buzz on and before the launch.

Build a Microsite

Microsite is your minimalist site, a landing page with call-to-actions and a brief contact form to collect prospect emails with which to engage with the interested audience.

The microsite not only makes you more visible, but also improves its credibility. Additionally, as you connect your own blog with the landing page of the microsite, you can discuss the app features and ongoing progress to better promote the app.

6) Capitalize on Social Media

Marketing your product on social media platforms drives big public interest and hype needed to steer traffic to pre-launch microsite and the app store where it belongs.

Invest your efforts and resources on social channels and blogs to keep the buzz alive and intense and build a sincere community of prospect users.

Capitalize on Social Media

Create a Facebook page or spread a word about it on Twitter using various hash tags as it will promote your app among target users. You can even run a contest and encourage Tweeters audience to make a tweet, re-tweet and share it on other online networks.

To smoothly maintain the ongoing campaigns and engagement with creative content, you should remain active on social channels or alternatively hire an expert Social Media Manager.

7) Create Engaging Promotional Videos

Promotional videos can play both a quintessential part of the app launch strategy and an effective marketing tool to flaunt app’s actual interface, UX features and core capabilities.

To successfully market an app, apply constructive creative to the video that can be a powerful voice and bring value to your brand.

Create Engaging Promotional Videos

Make a demo video that allows prospects to sneak a peek into app’s attractive features while also telling an engaging story on how it impacts their life.

It is also great to share and promote the video on socials. If done well, the video visuals will encourage users to visit the app store and download your app.

8) Feedback, Performance Testing and Analytics

With numerous marketing channels toughening the competition, applying conventional marketing metrics to measure the content performance (classic ads, posts and email campaigns) would not suffice.

This is why it is important to update your current research and creative practices, and to choose the ones that are invariably productive.

Feedback, Performance Testing and Analytics

Enables users to contact you and provide their honest feedback and reviews based on their experience. Satisfied and happy customers will readily evangelize your app; hence, keeping them happy is your religious priority.

Read also : How to Market an App on Social Media?

Keep a sharp watch on most loved features, disliked/least visited sections and frequency of use. Measuring these key metrics via analytics tools (including that of social media channels) helps you understand user’s interactive pattern based on which you can decide what needs to be improved.

9) Online Networking and influencers

Building a power network through promoting brand awareness is surefire key to app marketing success. Reach out to eminent bloggers, journalists and reporters whose influential words elicit ample impact on the target audience.

Online Networking and influencers

Visit forums where you can engage with a community. Have an article published on a famous tech blog to generate more traffic.

Also, reach out to the popular app review publications that cover apps like yours. Send them a professional pitch and a detailed demo in an email with:

  • Your app logo and price
  • Features explainer video
  • App store link

These sites can foster a gigantic buzz around your app by writing informative content.

Conclusion

From the discussion so far, one can easily guess how mobile a critical component for app marketing is. Also, it is clear that having an app drives incredible impact for brand awareness and ROI.

Successful app marketing tactics will have marketers exploring the depth of customer engagement methods and developing the functional environment for app’s popularity on all virtually available marketing channels.

9 Reasons Why Adding AI to Your Mobile App is a Must in 2019

The past chaotic decade is the testament to how technologies are changing the paradigm of business executions across the globe. Every now and then, we hear a whole new perspective on how Artificial Intelligence can not only transform but bolster your prospects about business growth. AI is obtrusively, and incessantly, creating new virtual land of opportunities for companies to leverage.

With AI chatbots, virtual assistants and automation constantly making the headlines, we can debunk that AI is no longer a transient wave.

As mobile apps are etched forever on the minds of busy users, adding AI to mobile apps could be a surefire way to stay relevant and intact in the business.

If you still wondering if AI will uplift your business in 2019, we give you 9 good reasons why adding it to your mobile apps is must.

1. AI is a Habit of Convenience

Mobile apps added much convenience already in our life, but users desire to taste more of novel technologies for solving their lifestyle challenges.

Users are therefore welcoming the change driven by AI so much that relying on mundane intelligence has almost become their habit by now.

AI is a Habit of Convenience

Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri are a few predominant examples of how users are addicted to depending on AI for things they are likely to forget.

This means your mobile app with AI features will have greater chance to align with user expectations than those without intelligent power.

2. AI is Quite a Trend

It goes without saying that a new technology always enters the vibrant world of young generation. Intelligent technologies with deep learning capabilities make for a hot trend and AI is most likely to be a technology worth every penny of your investment in 2019.

Numerous investors especially from finance, healthcare, gaming and education have already looked to investing in AI with optimistic eye as studies confirm. As more and more apps are joining AI revolution, the technology has found its raging momentum.

3. Value Addition

What is business without value? We live in time when product quality is as important as services offered. In many ways, AI integrated mobile apps help your business add great value to your business proposition, which ultimately boosts brand value and helps market your products via AI-powered service standards.

For instance, it would bring immense value if you have most generic customer queries resolved by the means of AI bots.

4. Data Management and Monetization

 

 

AI even creates creative revenue channels through proper utilization of piles of data. Your app not only looks better with intelligent solutions in place but its ability to gather more data from app users also results in tempting more investors for ads.

This means the wealth of data processed by AI software can be monetized in several ways to generate an additional stream of revenues.

5. User experience getting even better

User experience shares equal influence on customer behavior as much as customer service does. Your smart business apps can offer personalized experience to people while they cope with their daily tasks.

Modern users appreciate apps that can suggest choices, remind forgettable routines or place Starbucks orders on your behalf. Enhanced UX in a way means getting a sharp edge over competitors.

6. AI means smart decisions

Apart from monetization, user data from AI can also help analyze what users exactly like, dislike and explore on inside your mobile app.

The insights you gain from the data analytics can help you decide what features and pages of your app are least visited or used and therefore can be eliminated.

In the same way you will know what may charm users more often and hence can be retained.

7. AI supports your economy

 

AI supports your economy

 

AI does not place massive burden on your financial capacity since you can always have a choice to keep those functions you need most in your app.

Being intelligent does not mean drilling a huge hole in your budget especially when you decide to develop AI-enabled features at the beginning of app development phase.

This way, it doesn’t turn out expensive. Additionally, as your app looks unique among others with its outstanding capability, it becomes more remarkable and marketable, bringing you handsome ROI.

8. Voice capability

What makes your mobile app more popular and valuable is adding voice-enabled services. Voice feature sets users free from typing and excessive hassle as they can simply use their voice command to get the job done. These days, apps with voice capability are high in demand.

9. AI embraces IoT

 

AI embraces IoT

 

As Internet of Things and AI come together, you can expect high-grade solutions with auto-sensing power.

Today Chromecast apps, fitness apps, Smart home appliances are all run by the apps that are designed with the combination of AI and IoT.

With seamless voice control and IoT- connected devices, users will be able to enjoy multiple integrated apps with more power and automation.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is not just here to take the world by storm with its massive caliber, but it also empowers your business to do, create and deliver more.

You should opt for AI integration in mobile apps, not because the trend is forcing you to do so, but solely because AI is a change welcome heartily by end users and loyal customers.

As the ripples rising in digital market suggests, world’s largest companies have made a pact to develop intelligent apps next year. This could be a great positive inspiration for SMBs to follow the footprints of established leaders and dive smartly into the pool of intelligent solutions.

How to Market an App on Social Media?

Right before your mobile app is launched, you must ponder over how you are going to generate public interest and drive frenzy among prospect users for downloading it.

It is time to try effective ways to attract more users and create a huge drive around your app. However, with more than 5 million mobile apps vying for users’ attention, making your app visible is rather daunting.

Choices are more, options are endless, and hence marketing your app is definitely not that simple and straight. Also, what adds more dismay is knowing that 25% of apps downloaded by users are abandoned after installation.

The thought of social media marketing therefore sounds convincing especially when 50% of folks are likely to discover mobile apps via family, friends and colleagues. The platform afforded by virtual socials is immensely influential and drives great buzz for your digital creation.

On that note, check out these powerful tactics to successfully market your app on social media:

1) The Clever investment in Paid Ads

Paid advertisements on social media help reach more audience and attain strong presence. Sponsored ads especially boosts your marketing momentum and drives more downloads especially when it is difficult to fetch the audience through organic reach across different platforms.

 

 

Nowadays social platforms have evolved to display advertisement with app install options. In fact, social media ads are accountable for almost 49% of app downloads. Hence, more visible your app is in your social paid ads, more is the chance you have to convert target users.

For paid ads on social media to be effective, you also need to choose the platform most preferred by your prospect app users. To optimize the marketing budget while also boosting downloads, minute targeting and riveting content are basic essentials.

Read Also : 24 Best Social Media Apps 2021

2) Influencer Marketing for Faster Results

The real effect of influencer marketing is drawn from the fact that social influencers have already mastered the art of persuading their fans and followers and can give you the ready base of receptive audience. Influencers and micro-influencers own deep knowledge about what excites and appeals to their audience/followers.

Hence, as you pair with active influencers on social media, your app is likely to appear conspicuously to the audience already engaged and connected.

Instagram and Twitter have emerged as the most effective channels where recommendations of influencers work miraculously on purchase decisions. In fact, 40% of users active on Twitter have made purchase decisions influenced greatly by influencer’s recommendations.

On the other hand, Bloglovin Global Influencer Survey of 2016 states that 59% of influencers recommend Instagram as the most effective engagement channel. However, it is momentous to discuss app promotion tactics with influencers for exact results.

3) Expect from Reviews and Ratings

The reviews and ratings of a product share direct correlation with brand reputation and user acquisition. Keep a close watch on the best of user reviews that you can be smart enough to share on social platforms to spur the downloading spirit.

People appreciate reviews and 60% of them actually base their critical decisions about downloading the app on its online ratings and reviews. The public words about your app not only help others understand the app’s motive and importance, but it also generates value as a social proof.

Since 40% of mobile app users discover app from the app store, it makes sense to feature outstanding positive views to get users to notice the app. It is therefore crucial to make sure you post your praise received from a third-party beta tester on social media to amplify the app’s visibility.

Apart from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, YouTube also provides a robust video marketing platform where you can find opportunity to host your app on channels like Daily App Show and receive strong response and ratings.

4) Encourage User-Generated Content 

If you are determined to work on delivering value, why not show it by encouraging User-generated content, aka UGC. The idea of value creation among users focuses on illustrating importance and efficacy of your app by means of user experiments with your app. The best way to connect with the future audience is showing them how your app does own potential to improve lives.

UGC works best where ads fail. Nielsen’s market research confirms that 90% of customers consider peer recommendations while 33% listen to ads. Encourage users who have already benefitted from your app to submit the photos and videos demonstrating how the app is practically useful.

You can run a contest, post interactive UGC and feature video tutorials to maximize engagement and create opportunities to acquire new users from existing ones.

5) Realizing the unique potential of various Social Media Platforms

In 2019, with great many innovations and breakthrough capabilities, social media platforms have become far more evolves and advanced than we ever imagined in the embryonic phase of the technology.

Each social platform at present offers unmatched potential and business advantages for luring and interesting more users towards your app.

Facebook For building active Community

Facebook’s rich content-driven platform comes handy for creating dedicated pages that offer a promising scope of building a broad active community.

Also, you can collaborate with many interesting Facebook groups where your app can reach and connect with the target audience. As you feed value and proactively respond to group members on Facebook, you can easily convince them to download.

Make sure you remain active and:

  • Post HQ images, videos and Gif of apps
  • Bring engaging contests and blogs
  • Share giveaways or freebies for trials and installs
  • Feature promotional offers, discounts or vouchers
  • Introduce gifts for referrals

Your active cooperation and comments on Facebook shows your helping spirit and earns appreciation from users, priming them for app downloads.

Instagram for app Elaboration

Instagram aesthetically eradicates what usually scourges today’s brand marketers – the challenges of engagement and app promotion.

Perfect for well-crafted visuals, Instagram lets you present your app features in an elaborate, creative fashion. Here you can post Sneak peeks in form of enthralling visuals like:

  • HQ photos and Gifs
  • How-to videos
  • App screenshots
  • Website or Influencer content
  • Entertaining creatives
  • Contests and gifts

Instagram users feel deeply excited and intrigued by what is not available but is soon to be in near future. Thus, you can unobtrusively foster much hype around your app on the platform.

The use of proper, popular Hashtags in posts done twice or thrice a day makes your Instagram app marketing meaningful.

The key to seizing great number of Instagram followers is making the most out of visual platform with right mix of content and good aesthetics.

Twitter appeals to marketing and customer service

Twitter has risen as the most dynamic and magnetic marketing platform that latches on tweet, retweet, hashtags, videos, impressions and GIFs. Best for interactions, Twitter helps you spread the word faster and engage with more target users.

You can share pictures, blog contents, videos, news and more. It also allows you to run public polls for active feedback session or contests. You can also ask for user’s personal experiences or privately send message via inbox for propagating brand value.

The platform Twitter provides is quite credible and potent for sincere market executives and can be used for customer service. Positive customer service means positive word of mouth which enhances your app’s status.

Leverage the influence of images

Pictures as they say talk louder than words whether it is for blogs, App screenshots or social media posts. Pictures help express what a description text can’t.

Make the post vivid and more influential by using attractive picture of your app. If there are a few users already using it, you can post screenshots of them using it with a supportive CTA like Download the App.

It is also great to create a post with a message showing the countdown of your app as the release date approaches. Pick a different feature or benefit every time you post. This will keep users clung to your app and let them remember it until it is finally released in the app store.

Read Also : 24 Best Video Chat Apps 2021

Your Final Takeaway

Modern digital media marketing savors the idea of crafting most memorable, interesting and relatable content on app features and benefits. Your social media marketing strategy must revolve around acquiring more users and creating authentic value.

Combine your robust marketing strategy with user psychology as you attempt to know what community would love about your app and encourage them to download naturally. Don’t forget to post regularly on social media to maintain strong presence and reach maximum people.

Questions To Ask an App Developer Before Hiring Them

Finding a perfect mobile app development partner is a cumbersome job given that the landscape of IT companies is infused with numerous companies claiming to offer value for money. However, believing that all of them will bring your vision into reality by delivering the expected quality would be too much of a fantasy. It is important to probe into what all they can offer and whether or not you can entrust them with mobile app project responsibilities.

hire mobile app developers

To make sure you have made pact with a right solution provider, you must know what questions to ask developers before taking a final plunge. Based on answers, you can develop transparent understanding of their expertise, specialization, professionalism and capabilities. To make it worthwhile, here are the most critical questions you should be asking before hiring an app developer:

1) Can I check a few finest examples of mobile apps you have built?

This is the most fundamental question that must strike your mind before you finalize a deal with a mobile app development company. You can solicit a set of mobile apps that might be exhibited on their online website as case studies. The portfolio is an undeniable testament to substantial experience in the respective domain.

If the company has done something in the past, they will be gladly share a few finest examples of the kind of app they have built earlier. Studying them will help you determine ROI you may get out of the deal.

In case, the prospective agency hesitates or does not have testimonials to show, you can quit going further. If they do have impressive achievements to flaunt along with positive ratings and reviews from other clients or in the App store, you have got something to rely on.

2) Do you understand our business model?

Another vital consideration before hiring mobile app developers is asking if they have some insight into what your business revolves around. The company you have approached should be aware of your business model and its target audience in order to build the app with a design and features that actually appeal to users.

Failing to create an app that does not align with your business strategy and customer requirements will not be a good omen. This is why you should emphasize hiring developers who have worked for clients in relevant niche.

Relevant experience means they understand the type of business and have complete grip on what your customers seek. Talk to the agency about your customers, vision and expected results in order to build strong architecture of UX.

3) Can you list a few clients who share the same business industry as mine?

Appfutura, Clutch, Good firms are a few great business listing portals where top companies are listed for their capabilities, success and power to transform their clients’ businesses. You can alternatively ask the agency to share some clients they have worked with so that you can tell if they can do it for you, too.

The answer to this important question will lead you to gaining an honest look into the actual performance of the agency for similar apps. Apart from that, as you talk to their past clients, you will be able to get the realistic feedback on agency’s development methods, deadlines and pressure management and communication power.

4) What is your team strength and overall capability?

The app development process is dynamic and contains a lot many components. For instance, when prototype changes, the key features also need to changed or improved. This requires a flexible development system with dedicated professionals ready for the massive commitment. The company must provide dedicated manpower who are extensively available to implement changes in their everyday strategy.

To evaluate their team strength and capability, you must investigate what all ongoing projects they have and whether there will be a couple of developers reserved exclusively for your job. A vague response to this approach might influence your decision to hire them for the project.

5) How do you usually approach App Development Process?

Speak a realistic language with an intent to seek a reliable promise from the agency while you ask them to tell you about their development methods and how they operate in critical situations. You must learn the time they take for similar mobile apps and the way they tackle suddenly arrived problems during the phase.

Agile methodology is much preferred nowadays. The knowledge about these things will keep you alert and informed about company’s practical responses in the face of sudden challenges. Always demand agile process of development as it enhances project completion efficiency and ensures speedy delivery of MVP.

6) Tell me about the skill level of your app developers

The agency’s developers should be skilled enough to deliver features and functionality within the app. To build a powerful, smooth structure of app’s backend, developers should be keen on telling you how they would approach it. They would tell you what frameworks and tools are needed to sculpt it to perfection. Ask them to mention similar apps with same features and functionality.

When it comes testing skills of app developers, look for:

  • Personal bio with professional details of work history, education and hobbies
  • Resume
  • Contact information of developers
  • Portfolio highlights with past projects
  • Social media profiles
  • Project-specific skillset
  • Awards and accolades
  • Github links of documentation

7) What all technology services you offer? Are you versatile or have proven specialization?

To avoid controversy later, it is imperative to know if the agency offers entire package of services including Beta testing, Quality Assurance and even launch.

Getting a complete array of services in one pact would lead to confident, hassle-free fruition of the project. Inquire for the following services offered by the agency:

  • Conceptualization
  • UI/UX design creation
  • App Development
  • ROI analysis
  • QA testing
  • Launch and App store optimization
  • Post-launch marketing and maintenance

You need a solid, robust confirmation on this question failing which you might get ripped off. To make sure your mobile app is in the right hands, the agency should:

  • Provide flexible conditions with no rigid outline of limiting the project to fixed resolutions
  • Be open to fluid and agile development process
  • Possess versatile knowledge about technologies and specializations
  • Be clear about upfront charges and hidden fees
  • Offer sustainable time frame

8) What design practices and approach you have for app development?

Ask the agency about their precise approach and practices they adopt for delivering memorable user experience along with stunning features. Without a splendid interface design quality and UX, your app will fail to connect with users. When the apps are designed for popular native platforms like iOS and Android, the design must be unique and superior. App stores also recognize mobile apps with outstanding UX elements and aesthetic appeal. A good mobile app development company will never compromise on design factor.

9) What services you offer after the app launch?

App store optimization is the blazing need of the moment for a finished app to be apparently visible in an app store. To get success in making the app discoverable for users, you need to follow a tedious, grueling path. A good agency knows and often offers the ways of app submission to get it featured in the marketplace.

App release strategy also forms a good part of app marketing. Hire an agency that has mastered launching the app successfully for previous clients and gets actively involved in constant monitoring of app’s performance and user engagement after publishing it. Placing the app in the marketplace is still a job half done. Your app still requires a watch periodically for

  • Regular maintenance
  • Bug detection and fixes
  • Monetization
  • Fresh updates with new features and content

Constant maintenance and updates make sure your app remains on top of user preferences and keeps engaging them for a long time. Ask your agency for clear hourly rates or fixed fees for regular support and maintenance.

Conclusion:

The sensible investment of time, efforts and resources is a critical driver of flawless mobile app development process. The questions described above are key to making a right and clever decision for choosing a prospective app development agency you will never regret later. Of course, in addition to cost and time, there is a lot more to consider when it comes judging the talent and capabilities of mobile app developers.

Always emphasize on getting familiar with their technical know how, communication skills, work history, professional attitude, development methods and accountability towards the project. Also check for code ownership rights after the app is developed. Asking these details puts you in a safe spot.

Impact of IoT on Mobile App Development

It is no wonder that mobile app market is on fire lately. A study of Smart Insights says that over 90 percent of the people who spent time on mobile devices was actually spent on mobile applications. Mobile apps have come a long way over the past decade and now they have begun to influence the growth of the IoT as well.

As a matter of fact, mobile applications have been acting as a connecting bridge between next-gen thinking enterprises which are trying to bring much smarter devices that can improve every aspect of our lives and customers.

As a result, not only could we say that mobile apps have successfully laid the foundation for the rise of Internet of Things (IoT), but also that IoT and mobile applications go hand in hand.

Considering this great shift, mobile application developers found their score making some effective changes to the mobile app development.

But how did mobile apps help IoT rise?

As of now, mobile applications are utilized as end gamers that are used to do or perform a particular task such as streaming music, playing games, messaging apps, etc. But the thing is that the mobile applications can do much more than just being the end gamers such as serving as gateways.

In general, IoT is much simpler in terms of architecture when compared to smartphones and hence they would require an endpoint in order to send data.

Ultimately, these endpoints are allowed to monitor events such as the temperature in the different rooms before they transmit the data to services so that it can be utilized to analyze trends. As a perfect instance of the above-mentioned type of IoT and mobile application integration is a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat.

Now, in this case, the mobile application is the remote which has complete control over the device while thermostat being the IoT endpoint.

Impact of IoT on mobile application development

In a way, IoT has transformed the face of mobile applications, and to accomplish the goal of making everyone’s life simpler, mobile app developers should first go through the pain of building a flexible infrastructure and platform. In fact, building mobile applications is pretty much similar to building a web application using conventional software development.

Nevertheless, there will be one vital differentiating factor which mobile applications can take advantage of creative features which a smartphone could provide. For example, gaming applications could take leverage of iPhone’s accelerometer.

As Internet of Things continues to grow, the concept of smart appliances, smart homes, smart cities, etc. would come more into existence. In such an environment, smartphones function as the main interface via which users will be able to interact with IoT-enabled gadgets. In the current state, smartphones already have efficient sensors and apps which provide excellent info related to users.

Apart from this, smartphones are also capable of tracking the condition if light, the orientation of gadget, and many other things. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. are some of the variety of functions that enable the devices to interact with the other sensors and devices.

A mobile phone can communicate with fitness equipment and smartwatch to improve the user experience. In the same way, Internet of Things let operate the office system remotely and allow you keep an eye on your office from anywhere.

In short, IoT has developed an immense market demand for the development of applications for them. The same connectivity let the best app developers cooperate with each other easier than ever before.

Industries that are benefiting from IoT app development

When it comes to IoT app development, not just one or two, there are various industries that are truly getting benefited from IoT app development as mobile app developers are trying to make use of IoT solutions in very domain and field.

Healthcare

We can see a hell of a lot of difference in the healthcare industry after it has been subjected to the creative IoT solutions. With the execution of IoT in healthcare applications, people have become more health conscious than before and are keeping a track of their health in much easier ways.

“87 percent of healthcare organizations are planning to adopt IoT technology by the year 2019.” Healthcarenews.com

Read also :Top IoT App Development Tools 2018

The foremost objective of implementing IoT technology solutions in the healthcare system is to make it easier for the users to monitor their health. Right from personal healthcare to facilities in the healthcare buildings, it includes all sorts of elements.

Users can easily track their daily routine such as a number of miles walked, diet plan, etc. and on the other side, healthcare organizations can store this info of the patients in these applications for future references.

Energy

An average American spends nearly 3 hours on their smartphone every day. With IoT technology, app developers are able to generate better customer engagement in their applications.

By utilizing applications which support IoT, users can literally manage their smart appliances at home such as Air conditioner, refrigerator, etc by sitting somewhere far away.

There will be more than 1.5 billion devices managed by utility companies by the year 2020.

Retail

As far as logistics and transportation are concerned, IoT offers better assistance by providing exact location tracking so that the customers can easily track their orders in the application right from the moment of shipping to the successful delivery.

One fine instance of this sort of app of IoT in the retail industry is Amazon Go. It is a tech-based shopping store by Amazon.

Almost 87 percent of retail owners will deploy MPOS (Mobile point-of-sales) devices by the year 2021 allowing them to scan and accept payments through debit or credit cards anywhere in the store — Retail Vision Study

Are you ready for the change?

Mobile applications and Internet of Things will be going on the same track and in case you haven’t given any thoughts on the influence of IoT on mobile application development then let me tell you that you will certainly lag behind. This whole idea of smart devices thrives more on the idea of IoT more evolves where smartphones will be functioning as the main interface to communicate with IoT enabled devices.

Internet of Things could add an excellent value to our lives. Right now, there are various open source platforms that are providing helpful tools to build IoT-friendly applications and this contributes a lot to the growth of IoT environment.

With the consistent development in Internet of Things, mobile applications are stepping toward a better, smart, and well-connected world. It’s time for app developers to develop IoT-based applications where data will be transmitted by objects via sensors and received by the mobile application in real time.

Closing thoughts

For sure, we can say that IoT is a huge breakthrough in the app development field. The growth of IoT-enabled devices will have a great impact on the way we look at them. Currently, data security, computing performance, power consumption, etc. are some of the major areas of concern.

No doubt that IoT will open more opportunities for mobile application developers. Nevertheless, the change and growth are quite challenging and exhilarating at the same time.

How Much Does it Cost to Create an App like Byju’s

These days the sphere of education is greatly transformed by the welcoming changes driven by smart phone technology. Byju’s success in India has disrupted the educational process, making us consider the power of innovative, more progressive m-learning solutions real life.

E-learning App Cost

By making the learning process more interactive, engaging and addictive, Byju’s has surprisingly emerged as India’s top online coaching and school education system. The mobile app offers comprehensive standard of learning with much ease, simplicity and effectiveness.  The app already has 8 million users and thousands of paid subscribers with unbelievable user retention rate.

If you are willing to build such a high-quality, admirable and rich mobile app of Byju’s standard, we will help you reach the estimate for developing such app. Here we are going to reveal how much t possibly costs to develop a trendsetting e-learning app like Byju’s. First, let’s gather more about how Byju’s came about and why it is so glorious an app.

Outstanding Facts and Traits of Byju’s App

Founded in 2008, Byju’s is a subsidiary brand of Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd and offers interactive, comprehensive and highly absorbable coaching classes for variety of examinations such as GMAT, CAT, GRE, Civil services and Grade school education from 4 to 12. Byju’s has its offices in 8 cities across India.

Being a remarkable creator of world-class sophisticated education system, Byju’s has won the prestigious Crisil Emerging India, and Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards. Due to its unusual online education capability, Byju’s is funded by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and big investment firms such as Aarin Capital, and Sequoia Venture Capital India.

With 8 million users addicted to learning with the app, Byju’s makes learning times more interactive, effective and classroom-like. Available for iOS, Windows, Android and BlackBerry platforms, the compelling trendsetter Byju’s has inspired hundreds of entrepreneurs to positively consider developing such astonishing mobile-oriented digital learning apps.

Byju’s has its major focus on two leading subjects: Mathematics and science. Students developed their subject knowledge from visual explanation of various concepts delivered using modern digital animations and illustrations.

Byju has so far received great response and immense appreciation from parents who can analyze and monitor the students’ performance in learning activities and tests via Class Mentor app (which is at top rank in Apple’s App Store). Byju’s has reportedly helped improve children’s academic performance to a significant extent.

Core Features From User’s Side

  • Easy registration/login with minimal steps using email ID, social media or mobile-driven OTP
  • Video testimonials for lessons on general knowledge, mathematics visualization, current affair, science and more
  • Interactive live classes for high-school pupils on competitive public exam preparation like JEE, UPSC, AIPMT, CAT & IAS
  • Flexible subscription options to select the interesting courses
  • Frequent weekly/monthly tests to strengthen memory and use of latest technologies, history etc.
  • Knowledge sharing capabilities and FAQs
  • In-app chat window to get instant answers for course-related fees and subject-specific queries, etc
  • Social sharing options to make your score known to other learners

Admin Panel

  • User data management
  • User analytics and monitoring
  • Crash report analysis
  • Intercom support
  • Report sharing

Other Distinctive Features

  • Third party SDK for payments integration
  • Geolocation
  • In-app camera
  • Data sync
  • Push notification
  • Parental interaction
  • Discounts/vouchers

Factors Critical To Development Cost

Before building a strategy about technology used and components needed, the first thing to mull over would be doing the heavy guesswork on how much budget one needs to allocate for project accomplishment. Developing a full-fledge learning app like Byju’s requires a lot of consideration that eventually leads to close cost estimation. The overall development cost of Byju’s-like m-learning app is often determined by the following critical parameters without which it is unfeasible to move ahead:

App Operating Platforms

With a thought of appealing to broad user audience, you may consider building the app like Byju’s for both Android and iOS platforms. However, if you want to attempt to deliver an MVP of the app, it might be a good idea to test the success on iOS platform since iOS offers less number of devices to test the app on unlike Android platform. Also, iOS development tools offer more refined and sophisticated approach for the app development.

App Design

Since online learning apps like Byju’s must offer an interactive and user-friendly design, the UI/UX design is of great value in the m-learning app development process. Learners are going to leverage its power for extensive sessions. Hence, better the design, greater will be the engagement and attention from students. Honestly, having a good design that captures user interest will levy some cost though it will leave you with handsome returns.

Libraries and Tools

The type of technology and tools developers use can also contribute to defining the cost to an extent. While developing, some libraries offer open-source components and tools whereas others are paid with subscription charges. The e-learning mobile app development company you choose can consult with you for more accurate details on this factor.

App Features & Functionalities

The total app size will depend on the number of features and functionalities built in the app. It can be video lessons, ebook testimonials, chat function or payment facilities. What you choose as its main features or additional premium elements may add to development cost. For instance, if you wish to integrate an in-app wallet to ease payment challenges and improve CX, it will charge you more.

To confine the initial cost and investment, you can build limited core features for its first release.

App Developers or Development Company

The cost of developing an app like Byju’s also depends on the geographic location, conditions and experience level of the app development company. If developers you work with are truly versed in the game, you are sure to get a high-quality app but at a little higher price.

Post-Development Services

There are certain app development firms that offer the mature, complete package of services including post-development maintenance, updates as well as marketing. Hence, if you find the proposal pricey, you may ask your technology service provider if they also offer any or all of these post-development services.

Conclusion

Based on the features and functionalities described above, the basic replica of Byju’s educational app can be prepared for about $25000 if outsourced to Indian app development company. If you want it to work across both iOS and Android platforms alike, the overall cost of an ideal app like Byju’s would touch somewhere between $30000 to $35000. However, the ultimate cost may vary slightly from the mentioned amount, depending on the number of additional premium features you expect the developers to build. The investment would be worth it as we can see the amount of success Byju’s has achieved.

Based on different zones, here we have outlined the cost to develop a featured m-learning care app.

  • In US: $100 to $250 per hour
  • In Europe-based developers: $80 to $180 per hour
  • In India: $25 to $50 per hour

According to the stages of development, the cost of development of an app like Byju’s is given below:

  • Documentation (40-45 hours – $1000 to $2000)
  • UI/UX design (60 Hours – $1500 to $3000)
  • Front-end and Back-end Development (400 Hours – $10,000 to $ 20,000)
  • Testing & Debugging (80 Hours – $2000 to $4000)

Therefore, the average cost of a learning app can cost up to $8,000 to $25,000 for a single platform and the charges can extend up to $35,000 in case, the app is loaded with features and is driven by high quality standards.

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Samsung Galaxy Fold: Everything You Need To Know

The year 2019 is just warming up for new smartphones models and mobile technologies hitting the tech market. Samsung has just made an explosive breakthrough this year as it unveiled its highly anticipated Galaxy Fold at Unpacked 2019 in San Francisco along with its Galaxy S10 devices. The sensational Samsung Galaxy Fold is the first foldable smartphone which made news last year has showed up at the event with more details and deeper look.

Apparently packed with incredible features, the phone is described as Quite good by DJ Koh, Samsung CEO, who also confirmed that it comes with a little higher price tag. Unprecedented and carving its unique category in smartphone devices, Galaxy Fold is prepared to take the world of mobile users by surprise and give tough competition to its rivals. It is quite in buzz due to its original design, display, foldable screen, software and other offerings.

Let’s check out in details all that the phone offers. Here is everything you need to know about phenomenal Samsung Galaxy Fold:

1) Tablet-like structure:

Samsung Galaxy takes to tablet when unfolded from the center and gives you a look and feel of a smartphone structure when folded again at the central spine, which adds to a surreal experience for users. From its sides, it reflects signature Samsung design when opened, and as you fold it back, its size doubles in thickness compared to regular smartphone.

This fold-unfold mechanism – which is located at the hinge of the back – affects the normal size like it is a foldable tablet and not a phone. The unique arrangement, according to Samsung, is something that can survive repeated open-close operations.

2) Range of colors for screen and spine:

Samsung has decided to give you a range of adorable colors to play with the style. Users will be able to customize the phone design and choose a different spine color for more personalized experience.

Made with interlocked gears, the hinge at the back allows users to open and close the device and makes the process unbelievably smooth and easy. Users can customize hinge colors and will be able to enjoy the device in four different colors.

3) Galaxy Fold display:

Galaxy Fold has a Dynamic 7.3 inch AMOLED internal display known as Infinity Flex. Its aspect ratio comes as 4.2:3. As it is fitted on the inside of the device, when folded up, the displays remain unusable.

It has an AMOLED exterior display that works as a second screen measuring 4.6 inches in a diagonal fashion. This makes it stand out among other Samsung phones and does not conform to modern standards as it is tiny. The display screen reposes on the device’s center in contrast with surrounding bezel, which creates unique feel.

As Samsung says, the internal 7.3-inch display comes with a WXGA+ resolution though it is hard to define the exact pixels.

Galaxy Fold Hardware

  • 7nm 64-bit Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
  • 12GB RAM
  • 512GB UFS 3.0 storage capacity
  • No Micro SD support
  • 4380mAh battery

Samsung reveals that the device operation is powered by a high-speed 7nm Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with gigantic memory storage support of 12GB RAM and 512GB ROM. The huge storage justifies the huge price here. It does not have microSD, which is almost anomalous if we consider other Samsung devices offering SD card convenience.

Galaxy Fold also has 4380mAh battery provision, bigger than other Samsung devices of this caliber, but not that big for modern device battery capacity. The battery is split for both sides of device, each half fitting either side of the device. It contains both wired and wireless fast charging support.

Galaxy Fold software

Galaxy Fold supports multitasking and allows users to work on three apps simultaneously when opened on the larger screen. So you can explore Google Maps, messenger, and a browser simultaneously.

The device is quite adaptive to the software format you are using. If you have opened a browser on its smartphone display, upon unfolding the device you will see it will automatically transfer the browser app to the larger display for better viewing.

Samsung Galaxy Fold cameras

Samsung has perhaps worked miraculously on enhancing camera details in Samsung Galaxy Fold. Users can get the best experience from as many as six total cameras loaded with more modes of use.

  • External Front camera: 10MP, f/2.2
  • External Rear cameras: 16MP ultra wide, f/2.2; 12MP main, f/1.5 & f/2.4; 12MP 2x zoom
  • Front dual cameras (internal): 10MP Camera, f/2.2; 8MP RGB depth, f/1.9

Lying on the outside of the device is the incredible triple-camera arrangement which is comparable with what new Samsung Galaxy S10 has done. Samsung Galaxy Fold allows users to enjoy having a 12MP dual aperture main camera, a 16 MP ultra-wide camera and a 12 MP 2x zoom camera on rear side.

Fold also has a Front camera on the outside which works as a selfie camera when the device is folded up, more like Galaxy S10.

You can also revel in its dual camera arrangement, internal cameras as you open up the phone. This is an 8MP selfie with sensor for depth. Plus, you have 10MP main internal camera to take your photo capturing to another level. Samsung Galaxy Fold has focused massively on the depth of camera.

Release Date

Although the Samsung Galaxy fold release is made official as announced on 20th February 2019, the new devices will only be available in US on 26th April. In Europe, 3rd May is chosen for its availability.

In November 2018, Samsung previewed the device with Infinity Flex display at its developer conference and was eager and enthusiastic to become the first to bring unique foldable smartphone model to market.

Read also : Everything You Need To Know About Apple’s Latest Devices

Price anticipation

It might be a little disappointing for people who expect affordable models for Samsung Galaxy Fold. On the contrary, the smartphone is likely to hit retail shops with a price of $1980 in US and €2000 in EU.

Even though you expect the price to be a little higher than straight-designed model, the expensiveness of Fold is justifiable since this is a first-gen piece of hardware design. Samsung proudly boasts being world’s first ever title in Foldable consumer-friendly phone category as DJ Koh says.

Conclusion

Form last year’s teaser to this year’s official announcement on release, Samsung Galaxy Fold has created quite a wave in mobile device market. The main enticing element of Galaxy Fold is the expansive capability of its screen as it moves from the smaller shape to the bigger one. Samsung has especially worked with Google Android developers to develop this flawless feature also known as App Continuity.

Apart from its unconventional design, Samsung Galaxy Fold will continue to create pandemonium in the smartphone market for its outstanding camera provisions, multitasking software support and monstrous memory storage capacity. It is said to be out in May 2019 but we are still anxiously waiting for Samsung to release this phenomenal device in other regions.

Difference Between iOS and Android App Development

We are all engaged in using powerful mobile apps that have dominated our everyday world like never before. Mobile apps have become so ubiquitous it is almost impossible to imagine our life without fiddling with our smartphones. All credit goes to well-designed and furnished social networking apps such as Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as well as ecommerce lifestyle apps.

On a digital landscape, iOS and Android apps especially have captured the huge chunk of global audience. It is not exaggeration to believe that the mobile app users across the globe are split between iOS and Android. However, we should never forget what iOS and Android developers invest as they build gorgeous mobile apps. It is therefore important to discriminate between iOS and Android app development from developers’ perspective.

Here we are going to see it all from the eyes of developers. Check out a few distinctive technical differences and disparities between iOS and Android app development process.

Which is Harder iOS or Android Development?

Answering this question is not quite simple as it seems. Importantly, there will be different perspectives to consider before we could choose one over the other.

The major fundamental difference between iOS and Android is that Android has Java for building apps whereas iOS programmers depend on Objective-C and Swift to create software and mobile apps.

The language does not place much pressure on developers since both have enormous size of active community ready to assist whenever a difficulty in development hinders the progress.

However, in case of iOS development, users must have an original Apple MacBook to gain perfect understanding of iOS programming.

On a different perspective, developers claim that Android takes a development time of at least 30 to 40% longer when compared to iOS. Programming languages used for Android development usually come with high readability whereas that of iOS is easy to get around. That may be the reason why some beginners go for iOS development that usually comes with a shorter learning curve.

Difference between iOS and Android App Design

Simplicity, compactness, and minimalism are three major pillars of mobile app design, and both iOS and Android offer incredible features that seem to fulfill the typical expectations of UI appearance.

Apple’s elements (icons, buttons, and pictograms) flow is generally minimal and concise. Android designers also practice almost similar design structures with peculiar icons, massive buttons, and lines.

  • Basically, iOS is inclined to Human Interface guidelines and Android follows the Material Design language. In case of units, the Android application is designed in dp and iOS application in pt.
  • In iOS, the multitask windows are kept separate and diminutive whereas Android prefers interchangeable tabs that cover a major portion of the device screen.
  • Both platforms contain a variety of button styles: Android has floating buttons whereas iOS comes with a simple, controlled yet aesthetically elegant, and modern design with lines that are kept quite thin.
  • The visual styling of components and interaction patterns are the other key difference. Android titles are always towards the left and iOS titles are designed to be in the center.

iOS vs Android Security

Security and privacy are two pillars every user will look for when installing an app on their device. The initial versions of both iOS and Android had limitations on security aspects and both have corrected and improved it over the period.

  • At this point, one could undoubtedly say that iOS platform is the most secure as Apple have extremely strict policies in place regarding this. Data is always encrypted in iOS and Apple never reads user data.
  • Even the security aspect is much better in Android now, privacy is still on compromise mode. Google digs user data to present more personalized ads while using apps which can always result in a security and privacy breach. With an open-source code, there is no strict regulations over Android apps.

iOS and Android App Development Software

Android Studio is undeniably fresh, more sophisticated, and efficient development environment though it is often labelled as being the least mature mobile app development tool among available IDEs.

Areas where Android Studio may need certain improvements boil down to:

  • Platform performance
  • Testing
  • Editor
  • Languages

Even in gaming, Android Studio has room for improvement. XCode on the other hand surpasses in the game, scoring a little higher than Android.

App Development Environment

It is a combination of software, hardware, and/or computing resources that is necessary to build software applications. It is meant to offer an application development or interface, integration, troubleshooting, testing, deployment, and maintenance services.

When it comes to the mobile app development environment, both iOS and Android utilize different tools. Google’s Android has launched a more powerful multifunctional Android Studio, the IDE which is superior and more accessible than the old Eclipse ADT. Android Studio is highly capable of optimizing the platform-specific development processes.

Apple’s XCode on the other hand has proven its consistency over years, helping iOS developers extract the best out of its frequently updated versions. Apple’s latest supports the most advanced iOS coding language Swift.

Processing Delay in Distribution

After successful completion of the development, the next crucial step is to publish the product and launch it in the online market. In the case of iOS app, you will be compelled to wait for at least a few days before the approval.

But the delay is worthy as it minimizes the scope of errors, bugs, and offensive content if any that might spoil your app and App Store reputation.

In case of Android app, it takes only a few hours for your product to get uploaded to the Play store. Though it seems to favour Android developers and app creators, it is precarious, less assuring, and risky, especially to Android users.

However, Google has recently brought in place a special automatic bouncer system that searches and removes Android software that is likely to potentially harm or invade user’s system when accessed.

Platform-Specific Registration Fees

It may come as an unexpected blow for independent developers as they need to pay some money to successfully upload the app to a distribution platform such as Google Play Store or Apple Store, even if the app looks promising. Google Play Store usually demands $25 towards registration fee for Android developers.

Apple on the other hand levies as much as $99 for your iOS app to be recognized by the world of iPhone users. So arguably, iOS app development seems a little less economical compared to Android platform as you need to be ready with $99 and a dedicated Mac system to develop apps for iOS platform.

Updating Online Mediums

Releasing updates seem tough and time-consuming if you are fond of building iOS apps. The standard process may impregnate strategic plans of creators and developers, ultimately delaying the update launch date.

There are hardly any beneficent frameworks for software development that help expedite the process and evade Apple’s stringent policies.

On the other hand, Android’s ecosystem allows developers to update their software products in a matter of a few good hours. The team with seasoned Android testers can therefore gain more favours from Android app development.

Difference Between Android and iOS Application Testing

Mobile application testing is one of the very crucial stages in the development stage to make sure that there are no bugs. Unlike in the past, testing is now getting tougher as assessment must be done with diverse hardware and software platforms and a range of network connectivity conditions.

  • Being a closed-source OS, testing is comparatively easy in iOS than Android with an open-source operating system.
  • Regarding types of devices, iOS products are from a single manufacturer whereas Android mobile phones are designed by several manufacturers across the globe making the deployment process lengthy.
  • Even though Google play store is the official place to download Android apps, they could be downloaded from other websites, as well. On the other hand, there is restricted access to iOS apps as they can be downloaded from the Apple store only.

How To Make an App for Both iPhone And Android?

Both iOS and Android platforms have their own merits and demerits. To take advantage of the plus points of both platforms, it would be a great idea to make an app for both iPhone and Android.

  • The simultaneous design process is always complicated and therefore the skill set of the developer is the key here.
  • Firstly, find the commonalities and differences to build the core structure of the app for iOS and Android which will simplify the transition process.
  • Enough testing time should be planned in addition to design and development phase as it will be crucial to test its efficiency on both platforms.
  • In addition to writing codes for both, updates with new features must be made simultaneously on both platforms.

However, now there are possibilities of developing a cross-platform app through a single code base through amazing frameworks like Xamarin and Flutter.

For instance, Xamarin apps are developed in C# which eliminates the need to write separate codes for iOS and Android. Still, it gives the feel and looks of the real native apps. This puts forward the scope of being a cross-platform developer.

Read also : Top 11 Challenges Faced By Mobile App Developers

iOS vs Android Developer Demand

Interesting reports have noted that out of every 11 minutes of mobile time, most people engage with mobile apps for about 10 minutes. Almost 200 billion mobile apps were downloaded each year recently and close to US$120 billion were spent for apps and related purchases annually.

This clearly shows the demand for mobile apps and thus the developers. iOS and Android apps being dominant over other platforms, the major chunk of the demand reaches iOS and Android developers.

However, assessing which one among the two has more demand is quite a difficult task. Since Android devices hold almost 80% of the market share while iOS holds only 15%, one may blindly say Android developers are more in demand.

But considering the demand and supply, i.e., the Android and iOS developers who applied for a job and those who got placed, we can see that the figures are more or less the same. So, we could say that it is a win-win situation for both.

Do Developers Prefer Android or iPhone?

This is a very tough question to answer in a simple straightforward sentence. Still, there are a few crucial factors that gives an edge to iOS. Let us have a look.

  • Earning the potential of iOS is far better when compared to Android
  • In most cases, new apps are released first on iOS and later only on Android.
  • The chances of getting caught up with a bug after release is very minimal as it undergoes stringent assessment before it is approved
  • Users opting for paid apps is a common phenomenon in iOS platform unlike Android OS and thus impacts the revenue
  • As there are limited Apple products and almost the same screen sizes, developing apps and updating them is comparatively an easy job.

iOS vs Android Development Future

With many numbers of Android and iOS apps already in the store, developing a mobile app that is successful and collecting millions needs a lot of effort. But with the exponentially growing industry, it is indispensable to keep your sleeves up and make an impact.

As mentioned earlier, with about 85% market share at present, Android is always in the game, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.4%.

With 10% more users making in-app purchases, the revenue per user is almost 45% more for iOS apps that make it equally important. If you are going for game apps, going for iOS and Android is always going to be profitable in comparison to web design & development.

With the emergence of 5G technology, expansion of AR, AI and VR Technology, IoT Applications, possibilities of M-Commerce, Custom Android App Development, and Blockchain Technology, Android developers can expect a greatly satisfying career with a competitive income.

iOS developers can also eye for a great future with many plans of improvements and innovations in the portfolio. Apps for foldable phones, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, Wearable apps, IOT-Enabled mobile apps, AR&VR, Beacons Technology and Swift5 Programming are a few to name.

Android Developer or iOS Developer, Who Will Have More Scope?

When you assess the scope of developers, one of the important aspects lies around monetization options and profitability. iOS app developers tend to generate more revenue out of their investment and end up receiving regular income flow, unlike Android developers. This is mainly because iOS device users mostly belong to the group whose living standards are defined by a strong economy.

Android solutions creators can also have an opportunity to earn steady revenue from their applications as there are a great many numbers of Android device users scattered across Asian countries which contributes to higher Android smartphone sales.

Mobile companies like Vivo and Samsung are releasing new gadgets every year with new updates which improve the scope for Android development. Being an open-source platform, Android can attract a huge market and get high returns with low investment.

Asian economy has immense power to impact the app downloads in Google Play and Apple Store. However, it is true that common people in developing countries do not have a proclivity to eye on slightly expensive iOS apps.

Google is now focusing on rich markets like Europe, UK, and the USA to benefit from their extravagant mobile app users and reap more profit. This opens a great opportunity for Android developers to explore more global markets and thus enhance their scope of job opportunities and income

Final Words

Although there is a constant intense race between iOS and Android apps, mobile app developers have equal opportunities for learning and monetization on both platforms. The above briefing of the key differences can help you to choose what would work best for you, depending on your goal, vision, and future career prospect.

Going by many survey reports, it is more likely for developers to make the choice by considering the key factors of technical challenges, process ease and availability of resources. Being a developer is really challenging as one needs to keep themselves updated and upgraded based on the constant changes in the digital arena and bring in key strategies to stay in the game.

What all mobile app users seek is an excellent, well-conceived and perfectly designed mobile app they will never regret using. So, more than their career scope, it is an added responsibility for developers to design amazing apps to meet the expectations of end-users and make them crave more.