Category: Mobile App Development

Mobile Apps Play a Large Role in Our Connected Lives

We are now focused a lot more on our mobile device apps than the Internet itself. Mobile apps are important and as a business, you need a mobile app. There are many factors which will go into your mobile app strategy such as security, the skills of your development team, the functionality of the app, the offline capability and so on, so you have a lot to think about. You have to decide how everything is going to come together.

Native Applications
A native app one that provides the best features, usability, and the best experience for mobile users. There are several things which you can only get with native apps:

  • Multi touch – This includes compound UI gestures such as pinch-spread and double taps.
  • Fast Graphics API – You get the fastest graphics which is important is you’re using a lot of data and need a fast refresh.
  • Components which are built-in – your geolocation, address book, and camera which are native to your device can be built into your mobile app. You’ll also want to have encrypted storage.
  • Animations which are fluid – You want to have fluid animations. You need this for interactive reports, gaming, or for anything that needs highly computational algorithms.
  • Easy to use – A native platform is easy to use as people are used to this. If this is included in the app, then they have an easy time using your app.
  • Documentation – There are many books for Android and iOS development. There’s tons of blog posts, articles and other content that you can take advantage of to help you

The integrated development environment or IDE, is used to develop native apps. The IDEs provide you with tools for project management, debugging, version controls, and other tools that you need as a professional developer. Android and iOS are developed with different IDEs, but the development environments have a lot of parity. There’s no need to discuss the differences here as you’ll simply use the tools that are required by your device for development.

Native apps are more difficult to create, so you need the right tools. You also need more experience when compared with other development. Things don’t just work with a cut-and paste. You need to have a development team with some technical knowledge. If you’re a skilled Android or iOS developer, then you have can make a lot of demands and don’t have to do things in one set way.
The end user is critical in the development process. It’s the end user that will find the app in the store so build from their perspective. They need one that starts quickly and has fast performance when using that app. The app needs to have consistent feel and look to it. When the app be updated, the end user needs to notified within the app. A native app has to as good as the apps that come with a device when you buy it. It’s like your app has to seems like a critical part of the device the end user owns.

Some thoughts on mobile app development

If you own a small, medium, or large-scale business or you are simply an individual looking to gain more attention and direction aimed at your specific cause, charity, product, service, or individual persona, then you might want to think about mobile app development.

As of late, mobile technology has taken over as the easiest and quickest way for anyone to get their voice across to millions of individuals from around the world. And with perfected mobile app development, anyone from anywhere is able to create their own personal app that will be able to speak to legions of potential customers instantly.

The great thing about mobile app development is that the opportunities for creativity and ingenuity are endless. No matter what your idea is, no matter what your strategy happens to be, you can make it happen with mobile app development. It could be that you have a unique sales pitch bubbling inside you, or an artistic focus that is geared towards your passion or cause, if you envision it, it can definitely become reality. You can customize the look of your app, what you would like the app to do, and what you want the app to say. And, when it comes to android app development and ios app development, the secret truly lies in working with the right company to create your app that speaks to people in a way that they can understand and respond to no matter where they happen to be in the world.

The reality is that practically everyone has their smart phones on them at all times these days, and these are the people who are constantly on the search for new and innovative apps that are interesting to use, fun to engage with, and tickle their fancy just a bit.

Do yourself a favor and try your luck today by having the right company create your personalized app that you have envisioned, you will see that what you want to promote and sell will fly off the shelves instantly and it will be all because of this little app that anyone can access anytime.

Contact me for more information on how to create your customized mobile app today!

Increasing Customer Engagement with a Mobile App: How Does It Work?

The sales made through mobile apps in the UK account for a third of all retail spending made via mobile devices. This is just one piece of data showing how important the applications are for doing business in the digital world. Now you can engage consumers even more effectively to increase your sales with the help of your company’s mobile app. Let me take you through the features, tools and methods necessary for this.

Unique Functionalities
The main purpose of having a mobile app for your business is to use secure yet another distribution and/or marketing channel. It should build up on your website. That is why it has to offer an even richer user experience. This can be easily achieved with a native application which is designed to take advantage of the functionalities of smartphones and tablets.
For example, users can get the opportunity to make voice searches to find content, products and services more easily and quickly. If you are in fashion retail or another business for which images sell, you can have the app integrated with the camera of the smart device enabling users to share photos or to see how they look with different garments and accessories. The sky is the limit.

Attractive and Valuable Content
While some app users are ready to convert and become your customers, others simply want to gather information in a pleasant way. Target all of these segments by offering high-quality content via your mobile app. Having written content, images and video will enable you to engage the largest possible number of users.
How do you make content valuable? Use demographics and data on user behaviour and preferences to give customers what they want, be it entertaining content, practical advice related to your products and services or both. As long as your app has integrated analytics, you will receive accurate consumer data in real time and have all the tools necessary for analysing it and optimising your content and overall marketing strategy.

Easy Social Media Sharing
You know that the social media are among the most effective digital marketing channels. Around 33% of businesses in the UK generate significant lead and sales volume via them, according to a recent survey. Then why don’t you integrate your mobile app with the social media? Enabling users to share content with just one click of a button will increase your brand’s exposure without additional investment on your part. This is how you can engage new consumers interested in your products and services and in your application too.

Target Marketing
A well-built mobile up must come with a system for push notifications. These are among the most valuable tools for target marketing which you can use in the digital world, even though they have been around for a fairly short time. These notifications are automatically generated on the mobile device even if the user isn’t engaged with the app at the moment. They are useful not only for making people open your app, but for distributing powerful marketing messages. You can make announcements about new products and send promotional offers. The key to success is to segment the audience and to target them with the right message at the right time. Use your app’s analytics to help you with this.

Count on me and my team to give you a mobile app equipped with everything necessary for consumer engagement.

Planning on getting a mobile app for your business? Contact me to share your vision.

How Will Mobile Apps Change in 2016?

The number of mobile app users in the UK is estimated to go over 43.2 million in 2016. It has become customary for most people to check their email, the weather and the news, to have fun and to keep up with their friends via apps. But can you expect to get more and better mobile experiences this year? Will the importance of apps for marketing and sales increase? As a mobile app development consultant, let me take you through the major trends predicted for this year and beyond.

Growing Shift from Websites to Apps
This trend has been around for some time and although it may not have reversed the situation completely, it is growing strong. It is much easier for users to just tap on the app icon than to use a browser to find essential information and services which they need. As brands realise the necessity of having an app (49% of UK businesses participating in a recent survey plan investing in one this year), the competition for finding a permanent place on the smartphones and tablets of consumers becomes more severe. This will drive innovation in mobile technology further.

Increased Visibility
Google is already offering opportunities for using APIs to enable the showing of app content in the results from mobile searches. This allows apps to reach more people more quickly. They key to success is high-quality content matching user’s interests. Mobile applications will also enable direct access to the websites of businesses. This results in shortening of the sales funnel and leads to higher revenues.

Greater Personalisation
Innovative tools allow apps to collect data about the activity, preferences and location of users. With advanced and accurate analytics and well-developed functionalities, personalisation is easily achievable and highly effective. Each user receives unique content and recommendations, which are tailored especially to his/her needs. This makes all marketing strategies more effective and helps to bring sales up.

Well-Rounded Functionalities
Do you have one hundred or more apps on your phone? Are you using all of them fully? As the market for iOS and especially for Android apps becomes ever more competitive, businesses will benefit from integrating a larger array of functionalities to win customers. A weather app, for instance, can help the users with scheduling or vice versa.

Retail Apps Growing Bigger
More and more apps will take the mobile shopping experience one step further. Instead of just marketing products with content and engagement-based programs, applications can offer consumers the opportunity to go over complete catalogues and compare products based on features and prices. This is a successful strategy for increasing sales, especially when the functionalities can be used offline.

Basic Services Going Mobile
More and more traditional services such as utility bill payment and health insurance management will go mobile. This will make the life of consumers easier and increase mobile usage. The level of cross-platform integration will go up. Important information and services will be available across all devices of the user.

What’s the conclusion? Mobile apps become fundamental for marketing and sales in more and more industries. They are still fairly new tools for promotion, lead generation and building loyalty, but they offer fantastic new opportunities which businesses can exploit.

Want a high-quality mobile app for your business? Let’s talk.

Mobile App Development: Planning Is Key

With more than half of Google searches being made via smartphones and tablets and mobile sales experiencing double-digit growth, it becomes essential for businesses of all types and sizes to have their own mobile app. The big question is how to go about this project. You will need a clear strategy and a precise plan for action. As a mobile app consultant with solid experience, let me tell you more about the preparation and the development process.

Native Is Fundamental
What’s all the hype about native mobile apps? It’s true that they require a greater investment compared to their hybrid counterparts, but they have several major advantages. This is because they are developed in the native language of the platform which they are for, be it Android or iOS. This gives them direct access to the mobile device’s hardware for seamless interaction. All graphic features including multimedia are flawless. Easy navigation, attractive and functional interface and fast and hassle-free performance are other major benefits. Simply put, if you want to engage your customers and to have effective marketing, you need to go native.

Features and Functionalities
These are the factors which planning is primarily focused on. The first step of the process is to outline your goals clearly. What do you want to achieve with the mobile app for your business? The more specific you are about your marketing objectives, the better. The app can be a fantastic tool for engagement-based programs and building loyalty as well as for product promotion.
The next question to ask is: what should your app give to your customers? The age, gender, interests and habits of your target audience will help you find the answer. The user interaction patterns on your website are also helpful. When my team and I work on building a mobile app for a business, we research and analyse the behaviour of the target audience and their expectations in detail. The research on competitors enables us to come up with features and functionalities that will make your app stand out.
Once the plan for action is in place, our job is to create a prototype for structuring the app’s content and interface. The development of the beta version is followed by strict quality control for perfecting every feature. This is how we create the final version, which is ready for publishing.

Launch and Marketing
The mobile app’s promotion is also something that you need to plan in advance. In order to use it as a powerful marketing tool and for delivering better services to your customers, you have to ensure that they will have it on their smartphones and tablets in the first place. My team will create an attractive icon and provide a set of graphics for capturing the interest of mobile users.
It pays off to develop a complete strategy for promoting your app with the use of all fundamental digital marketing tools. Optimising the application’s presentation for app store searches, creating special blog articles and social network posts about it and creating buttons which take visitors to your website to the app’s page in the store are among the fundamental and most effective ways to grab the attention of your target audience.

Since mobile competition is rising quickly and mobile app building isn’t an overnight project, it’s time for you to take action.

Want a native mobile app for your business? Share your vision with me.