Reach Almost Everyone with Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development has paved a new and effective horizon where individuals as well as business community can reach and tap wider spectrum. Today, the field of Mobile App development has expanded with new features and tools offered to the mobile users.

Mobile application development has paved a new and effective horizon where individuals as well as business community can reach and tap wider spectrum. Today, the field of Mobile App development has expanded with new features and tools offered to the mobile users. These smart mobile communication tools and features and tools have made the very process of communication easy and put it on the fast tract. There are increasing numbers of mobile app development services offered by several mobile development companies.

How mobile app development companies work?

These mobile app development companies provide customized mobile apps so that mobile users have robust communication technologies right in their hands. It is the sheer hard work of mobile application developer that the process of mobile communication has become of high quality and reached to global mobile users. Today, with the smart and new mobile apps development procedures there is absolutely no looking behind and every mobile user is able to connect to friends in fast manner.

Just like choosing the right mobile application development is necessary, similarly making a choice of best apps Development Company also becomes instrumental here. You ought to have the awareness of features and tools, which the mobile application development company has integrated into the mobile. It is significant because if the features and tools are effective, only then the communication can take place conductively.

You just cannot have mobile communication start automatically without effective communication set up. Therefore, it becomes quite necessary that practical and user friendly mobile applications should be set up by the mobile apps development company. If the mobile apps development offers effective and most practical mobile communication tools, your problem of communicating across the globe is automatically settled.

When you are buying the mobile, make sure that the mobile apps loaded in your mobile set are fully functional and user friendly. Do not just get swayed away by the designs of mobile phones as designs can be deceptive and will not be able to bring any effective mobile communication. It is only smart mobile application that ultimately helps in communicating with rest of the world in the quickest and finest manner. Effective communication through smart mobile apps development will create all the real time difference to the process of communication.

The world of mobile application development is huge and it is growing as new mobile development platforms are being created every now and then. Customized communication tools in the mobile phones have made it far easier to reach out to individuals anywhere across the globe.

What are the Key Advantages of Mobile Apps for Businesses?

Apps excel in working consistently to increase customer loyalty and retention, specially in the mCommerce and retail industry. Companies, of course, tend to maximize the efficiency of their resources to get the most out of them. In tandem with the growing trend of using smartphones, the use of mobile application by companies and businesses has become a strategy to produce a host of benefits for them.

Increases Brand Value and Revenue

Apps have the possible to create unique opportunities for businesses and brands. Users are getting encouraged to download free versions of the applications allowing them to customize their preferences in order to fit the specific needs of the customers.

Improves Visibility and Brand Recognition

Users are increasing constantly due to the ease and greater availability of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store. Nowadays, users don't want to waste time in signing up into a mobile website because mobile websites are crafted for information sharing, readability, and navigation, instead of flawless process management. Ever since inception, apps are allowing users to have flawless, easy and functional access to the information, products, navigation, services, and processes. They are designed considering the real-time needs of the users and are closely optimized for their hands-on experience.

Increases Sell-through

Latest analysis and reports recommend that mobile users usually spend more time on apps than they invest in websites.

As we are continuously evolving into a mobile-centric and market-centric society, it's no surprise that apps play a key role in any industry's growth. So, by getting an app developed, it is possible to definitely tap into a new variety of customers, which in turn, will lead to enterprise success and reaching brand new heights.

For more information on mobile app development, write to us at sales.sg@hokuapps.com or call us on +65 8813 8839. We are HokuApps, one of the fastest growing mobile app development platform (MADP) that empower organizations to develop innovative technology solutions incredibly fast.

Six Factors You Should Outsource Mobile App Development

I think it goes without saying, and In my opinion we truly do not need a backing survey, that users all across the world have turned to their digital devices like women to fashion. In a space pervaded with compact mobile phones, innovations drive mobile users towards a legal digital predilection. On an average, mobile users spend as little as 2 hours a day interacting with their mobile screens. On this time, they tend to dedicate some 30 minutes fiddling with mobile apps.

If there are more and more unique apps coming to flood the mobile app store, the reason is the fact that mobile app lovers are rising in leaps and bounds. Among all kinds of mobile apps, what has dominated the leading portion of the app market is gaming, ecommerce, social networking, education and lifestyle apps.

However, with a market filled with both hyped rumors and excitement of challenges, many marketers occur to foster the notion that outsourcing mobile app development process leads to technical mistakes, waiting times in app releases, miscommunication and limited life cycle of final product.

Such misconception might lead to many hurried decisions about mobile app development, which will ultimately cost you a number of pain. To debunk this myth lets review the top 6 reasons for outsourcing mobile app development process.

Stronger focused knowledge

Usually, App development process covers many critical stages that require intense attention, greater care and precise knowledge. With each component screaming for best digital tactics and utilization of latest resources, the process needs best mobile app developers that have extensive experience in this area. You should outsource to a location that is a hub of outsourcing companies and that have mastered the art of creating remarkable apps with high usability, life cycle and excellent UI. They should have specialized in special genre of mobile apps and consist of best knowledge in industry matters and latest technologies.

Flexibility of App Development Product

Having reliable knowledge in special area of app development process allows companies to choose which part of mobile app process they can outsource. For instance, if an app development agency has credible expertise in the QA section of App development, it becomes easy for mobile app development companies to outsource the high quality assurance part to receive the best results and a product that they know will achieve highest standard of quality. Such flexible model is only possible with Outsourcing mobile app agencies.

Time-saving alternative

Time is of precious value for any business, and the app development process involves heavy components from building the app, scaling up the features, utilizing the right technology to focusing on its UI, deploying and testing it. All of it takes a good chunk of your time before the product is finally ready to launch in the app store. Outsourcing the app development process will save you from all the tedious elements involved in the creation of an app, so that you can focus on its post-product marketing tactics and other essentials.

Capability to Explore the Depth

With information becoming key to any business success, different set of information compiled tactically works like a miracle in this business. Database collected by mobile app creators helps drive any mobile app project towards its final fruition. What is digital industry without highly beneficial data applied during the development process? A programmer needs to be a meticulous researcher who culls and harnesses data as a strong resource to transform the conceptual idea into substantial mobile app.

Financial Comfort and Affordability

It doesn't swoop since a shock when a business person emphasizes on reducing the development cost to keep their overall budget to optimal level. Companies indeed look for alternatives that offer great mobile app solution in return for affordable investment. There is nothing wrong in expecting low-cost solutions. Usually, app development cost stops at 6 numbers which can be kept at certain level only by outsourcing the entire project. By doing so, you don't have to typically spend time and money developing infrastructure, hiring a skilled team and hiring healthy resources. You can easily find app developers that cost you not more than 5 figures for the same expensive-looking project.

The full range of high quality service

If you collaborate well with an agency that provides entire service fit of end-to-end mobile application development services, you will definitely get to enjoy the process hassle-free. From ideation, conceptualization, discovery, development, testing, deployment and support, you will receive entire package so that in the end all you have to do is to wait for the finest result to come your way. So what's stopping you from outsourcing app development?

Top Ten Mobile Application Development Platforms For 2018

A wide range of mobile application development platforms is available in the market. This article enlists the top ten that you can select per your requirements.

Mobile application development continues to gain traction due to the increasing popularity of mobility amongst enterprises and individuals alike. Today, you can start a full-scale business with little or no physical presence. There are numerous instances of custom-built apps being leveraged to run businesses - from attracting customers to sustaining growth. Developing an enterprise app in-house has been found to be more cost-efficient than outsourcing the development process to a third-party. Thankfully, options are abundant when it comes to mobile application development platforms MADP. Below is a selection of the top 10 platforms to help you choose the best for your requirement.

Appcelerator

Appcelerator is a platform that lets you develop mobile apps very fast with only a single JavaScript codebase. In addition to the two leading mobile OS (Android and iOS), it also supports Blackberry and Windows Phone. It is an open-source offering and supports over 5,000 OS APIs and devices.

Codename One

Codename One offers to you a mobile app development platform that works across mobile OS. It is compatible with Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and other popular IDEs, while the supported coding language is only Java. The remarkable feature of this platform is that you do not need a Windows machine to develop a Windows app or a Mac machine to develop a Mac app.

HokuApps

HokuApps offers an end-to-end mobile app development platform on the low-code model. It helps you build native and custom apps up to 10 times faster. It is a low-code app builder that enables you to significantly improve cost-efficiency and time-to-market, which directly reflects on the ROI. With cloud capability and full lifecycle support, HokuApps MADP is known to meet enterprise expectations without fail.

Kony

Kony is a versatile mobile application development resource that lets you make cross-platform apps. It boasts automatic coding capability, seamless API connections, and app preview feature. It also offers pre-designed apps to make the job a tad easier for novice developers.

Monocross

Monocross is also a cross-platform and ideal for building interactive and user-friendly apps for smartphones and tablets. It leverages the Mono framework and.Net and C# to facilitate multi-platform app development.

NativeScript

NativeScript facilitates the creation of mobile apps with cross-platform compatibility. The open-source platform supports Angular, JavaScript, and TypeScript. It allows you to reuse packages from CocoaPods, Gradle, and NPM, allowing to build feature-rich applications or enhance your existing apps’ features.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is an open source MADP that allows you to build apps for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even Blackberry. A product of Adobe, it can be used to translate code from JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5 with ease. It works best for developing mobile apps that do not depend on the platform’s native features to function smoothly.

RhoMobile

RhoMobile facilitates the development of enterprise, native, and multi-platform mobile apps. Offering Eclipse plug-in for free, it allows you to design, develop, test, and debug applications without an emulator or other hardware. You can also access offline data with the help of Rho Connects.

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch is an app building platform that is great for building mobile web apps. Facilitating the cross-platform development, it allows you to create apps for all major mobile OS. It has a comprehensive backend data package supporting myriad data sources. Sencha Touch integrates seamlessly with Cordova/PhoneGap for native API packaging and access.

Xamarin

Xamarin provides you with the tools to develop native and multi-platform apps using only C# codebase, eliminating dependence on Java, Swift, or Objective-C. You can use the same APIs, IDE, and language everywhere. Xamarin has been adopted by big names like Microsoft, Foursquare, Dow Jones, and IBM.

That’s as far as the Top Ten of mobile app development platforms are concerned. All you need to do is identify and specify your requirements exhaustively, and evaluate the options to make the best choice.

Step-by-Step Guide To Building Your First Mobile App

Why do you want to build a mobile app? Do you want to ride the wave of other entrepreneurs, or did you come across a problem that you feel you can resolve? The answer to this question will determine whether your app will be successful or not.

Here is a guide to get you started, but note it may not work for everyone. This is drawn from my experience working for more than three years with entrepreneurs, helping them build and market their mobile apps. Take from it what suits your strategy best, or follow it to the hilt. The important part is to get started.

Step 1: Get an idea or a problem. If you already have an app idea, move onto step two. If not, read on. Want to build an app but don’t have an app idea? What you really need are problems, and they’re everywhere!

Successful entrepreneurs solve problems in a way that we could not have imagined. When you look around you, every product and service you use were all created to solve a problem. You wanted to get from one place to another faster, you got a car. You wanted to get from one country to another faster, you got planes.

So look for problems in your daily life and list each one of them. Once you have an exhaustive list, then start to think on how you can resolve them and shortlist the ones that make most sense.

Step 2: Identify the need. Validation will prove that a demand exists for your app. You can validate your idea by using the Google Keyword Planner tool to look for the number of people seeking out what you’re trying to do. You could also build a landing page that broadly highlights your app idea and seek user interest through an email signup.

Step 3: Lay out the flow and features. Validation of your app idea means that you’ve got something that people want to use. Now is the time to detail your product onto a document, or if you want to go the extra mile, use a wireframing tool.

When putting your idea down on paper, remember to be as detailed as possible. Include the flow of how the user will navigate the app as well as all the features envisioned. This will help your developer to clearly understand your expectations.

Step 4: Remove non-core features. From the flow and features document you prepared, start looking closely at features that you can remove. Offer only the core value of your app idea. Do not build features in the first version that are "nice to have" and can always be added later as an update. This will help keep the initial costs of development down and also help you get to market quicker.

Step 5: Put design first. I have heard many entrepreneurs saying they want a very basic design and want to focus on just developing an app. They are so wrong! Design is not just about how your app looks, but it’s about how a user will experience the app. Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures best explains it: “Design is a way of making technology useful.” So look for a developer who puts design (user experience and graphics) first.

Step 6: Hire a designer/developer. Seek a mobile app development company that has great design talent and a solid development team. While hiring a developer, go online to check on their credibility and the apps that they have created. If you really liked an app they created from their portfolio, chances are, they could be the right one for your product.

Step 7: Create developer accounts. You must register for a developer account with the respective app stores to be able to sell your app through their MADP platforms. Google’s Android charges $25 a year and Apple charges $99 annually. You have the option of registering as an individual or as a company, if you already have one formed.

Step 8: Integrate analytics. Analytics help you track downloads, user engagement and retention for your mobile app. Make sure you use tools such as Flurry, which is available for free, and Localytics, that has a free and paid version.

Step 9: Get feedback quickly and improvise. Once your app goes live on the app store, the first set of customers' usage and behavior will give you insight into how to improve and enhance your app. Enhancements and changes are constant, so keep an eye on user feedback and keep building.

Step 10: Introduce features. You built version one with limited features and only the core offering. Now is the time to evaluate and introduce the remaining features that were left out in the initial version. You will know through analytics and feedback whether the features are relevant anymore.

These steps are not sacrosanct, but rather a guideline to building your app in the most effective manner based on my experience. Once you’re ready to start, you must also know that building a mobile app is the easiest part. Getting customers is where the challenge lies.

Blog Originally Published Here-->https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231145

Cost-Effective Technologies for Mobile App Development

Currently, businesses are moving towards app development rapidly. Applications are the biggest profit-generating mobility products and cannot be overlooked by anyone. No matter what is the size of your business, you must take mobile application development seriously in order to make your growth effective. In any business, customers are primarily important and offering a well functional app to them is a serious business strategy.  But the biggest hack arrives when you actually plan for it. The set of questions comes in front of you are like – what are best Cost-Effective Technologies for Mobile App Development to develop great mobile applications, what kind of app it must be, and what will be the cost of developing it.

You will need a strong brainstorming session to understand the technical feasibility, implementation of concepts and many more. Even a development firm needs everything in order; they discuss everything during the phase of prototyping.

One should spend a quality time to analyze the needs of an app before putting steps into development. Whatever the features are required like application architecture, platforms, frameworks, tools, technologies and the monetization decisions must be discussed in depth.

As per the recent report by WSS services – Global Smartphone user penetration forecast by 88 countries: Smartphone penetration rate of the population got increased to 44% worldwide in 2017, up from 39% in 2016. This penetration rate will further increase to 59% by 2022.

If we talk about business functions such as marketing, sales or distribution, a well functional app will do all for you. You can drive better sales, a greater number of customers to your services, good brand advocates and many more. There is no task remaining which couldn’t be performed with mobile apps. You can book a cab, edit your photos, save your documents securely, read the instant news, make online payments, and track your health records etc.

Read More-->https://theninehertz.com/blog/cost-effective-technologies-for-mobile-app-development/

Leverage App Monetization to the Fullest: Use Mobile App Development Platforms

Did you know US adults used 21 apps per month, on an average, in 2016? These figures published by eMarketer indicate the growing use of mobile apps. Another report by Flurry states that app session activity increased by 6% in 2017 while stating that people spent more than five hours per day using new and old apps on their smartphones.

So, whether you are planning on offering a paid or subscription-based mobile app to make money or are part of a company that wants to boost its profits by launching a mobility strategy, the recent trends of smartphone and app usage bode well for you.

Trends in Money Making

Global revenues generated by mobile apps available in app stores are expected to cross $110 billion in 2018, according to projections released by App Annie. Added to this is the impact of higher sales and increased productivity on the bottom line of enterprises. This has also been on the rise.

However, when measuring the profitability impact of a mobility strategy, it’s important to consider the cost of development. Most companies opt for custom mobile app development, incurring huge costs and waiting for months to launch the solution. Companies need to explore options like mobile app development platforms, which can significantly lower costs and get the app ready within weeks.

By doing so, MADP platforms offer businesses much higher ROI from app development. Mobile app development platforms provide companies access to several workflow specific modules that can be chosen based on existing processes and the goals of app deployment. MADP platforms also ensure a bug-free experience.

Other trends that are currently taking shape are related to the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and apps for wearables. Mobile application development platforms would continue to boost ROI even with these latest developments.

People are increasingly embracing neatly packaged apps with little icons on their smartphones. Did you know that on an average, smartphone users had installed and accessed as many as 21 apps per month in 2016? These figures published in a report by eMarketer underline our love for the utility and ease of use that mobile apps bring. The report also stated that US adults were estimated to have spent more than two hours per day using mobile apps in 2017, representing an increase of 10.3% versus the time spent in 2016. And, this isn’t a passing fad that will vanish in some time. On the contrary, the time spent on using apps is expected to increase to almost three hours per day by 2019.

And while website owners complain about our short attention span while browsing, app session activity grew 6% in 2017, according to an article published on Flurry’s Analytics Blog. The article also mentioned that people spent over five hours a day on their smartphones in 2017, using both new and old apps.

Trends such as this bode well for those planning on developing a mobile app either to earn directly from it or to use it within the company to boost productivity, sales, and customer engagement. Worldwide revenue from app stores is expected to exceed $110 billion in 2018, says a report by App Annie. And, this figure does not even cover the monetary benefits of app usage to enterprises, which has also recorded an uptrend.

Weighing in the Budget Impact

To understand the complete benefit, it’s important to weigh it against the cost of development. And, costs have reduced dramatically with the use of mobile app development platforms.

Budget is the highest impact on app profitability. MADP platforms offer businesses a significantly higher ROI. This is because mobile app development platforms provide access to workflow specific modules that are already developed, tested and ready for use. Companies simply need to determine which processes are part of their mobility strategy and what goals they wish to achieve. The modules being predeveloped and readily available on MADP platforms reduces the time of custom app development from several months to a few weeks.

Higher Productivity = Improved Bottom Line

Companies continuously strive to improve productivity because this has a direct impact on profitability. Several studies have indicated that companies following a BYOD (bring your own device) approach and encouraging workplace mobility have experienced an increase in worker productivity.

A survey conducted in 2016 by CITO Research highlights some important trends in enterprise mobility. As many as 91% corporate employees use mobile apps to make their work smoother. Companies are driving app adoption because they’re aware of the positive impact on productivity and profitability. Among bigger enterprises, employing more than 10K people, 45% provided apps to at least half of their workforce. Many of these companies found app usage beneficial even after spending huge amounts on custom development, simply because they were unaware of the cost benefits of using MADP platforms.

The report also stated that apps were considered as tools that improved business processes, saved time and smoothened the workflow.

Higher Sales = Higher Revenues

There is also a distinct uptrend in the direct money-making ability of mobile apps. The two leading verticals for enterprise app adoption are the marketing and sales department and m-commerce. An increase in sales has a direct impact on revenue generation. The use of payment and banking related apps has surged. Other than these, health, fitness and telemedicine mobile apps are proven to be highly profitable for businesses. According to data published by Statista, them-health market is expected to grow to almost $60 billion by 2020.

The other trends that would boost the money-making capability of mobile apps include IoT, apps for wearables, blockchain-based apps as well as apps that support augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Whatever the industry or app features needed, mobileapplication development platforms would continue to boost ROI.