Tag: iPhone app developer

5 New Year Resolutions for You & Your Mobile App

Posted on by Dave Bell

Last year brought some huge changes to the App Store. With shorter title limits and Search Ads, the App Store is nearly unrecognizable compared to early in 2016. This year, don’t get swept up in the changes. Instead, take these steps to be proactive with your app.

5. Optimize Your App Listing

One of the most important things you can do for your app is to optimize its title, keywords, and description (and on Google Play, your short description). Optimizing your app listing will help it rank for important search terms that your users may be looking for, placing your app in front of more eyes.

Optimize Your App Listing

The process of optimizing your app differs between Apple and Google Play. On Apple, the optimization process starts at your title and keyword bank. These are the perfect spots to place relevant search terms that you wish to rank for.

From there, you build relevance for those terms in your description and screenshots. Explain or show to users (and to any Apple employees who may review your app listing) why your app deserves to rank for the terms you’ve outlined.

Optimizing for Google Play differs because there is no dedicated keyword bank. Instead, Google crawls your app description to seek out terms that may be relevant to your app. Because Google’s algorithm weighs words at the front of sentences more heavily, try structuring your app’s features in a list, with related terms grouped together.

With your app listing optimized, you will have a great foundation for the rest of the year.

4. Optimize Creative for Conversion

Now that your app listing has been optimized, it’s time to do the same with your creative assets. Often overlooked, creative is actually one of the most important aspects of the app listing when it comes to App Store Optimization.

Your app’s creative consists of its screenshots and its icon. Both of these must be optimized to quickly and easily show users what your app is about.

Begin with your app’s icon. Think of your icon as a sort of logo for your app. The icon should quickly summarize to users the general functionality of your app, and should be immediately recognizable as it will be one of the first things users see in search results. Like a good logo, your icon shouldn’t be too complex or contain too many different color schemes. Also keep in mind that users will look at your icon on their Home screen, so your visuals should stand out from other apps in the store.

Optimize Creative for Conversion

Your screenshots, on the other hand, are more like advertising posters for your app. The first two screenshots will be visible to users in App Store search results, so they hold the heaviest burden.

Your first two screenshots should always call out the core features of your app and make it clear to users how your app will work. With 65% of app downloads originating from search, many users won’t even see your other screenshots before making their decision.

Crafting your creative is essential for optimization because it serves as the primary driver of conversion and branding. Your creative helps users (and Apple) understand why your app is relevant for your requested search terms, and makes your app recognizable and appealing from search.

After all, it doesn’t matter how many users you drive to your app if the listing itself isn’t appealing.

3. Take Out Search Ads

Search Ads have provided a new way for developers to propel their apps to the top of search results. Like many search advertising platforms, Apple’s Search Ads are keyword-based. That means you can target specific keywords, and appear at the top of search results for those words.

It is important that your app listing and creative already be optimized when you take out your Search Ad. When determining whether or not to place your app for a Search Ad, Apple leans heavily upon relevance. This relevance is largely established through your app’s description.

Your icon and screenshots are also incredibly important in your Search Ad. While ads come in multiple configurations, certain Search Ads can have up to three screenshots included.

Take Out Search Ads

With your creative already optimized, you can let your screenshots do the talking in the ad. Similarly, your icon remains one of the first elements of your app that users will see. Again, placing your app listing in front of thousands of users won’t help unless the icon and screenshots are appealing.

2. Track Market Trends

Both the App Store and Google Play are constantly changing. Popular search terms fluctuate as new apps come out and new events occur around the world. Certain times are best for certain app types. For example, Valentine’s Day is a great time for dating apps, and the holiday season is perfect for shopping apps.

As you see new trends emerging on mobile, update your app’s keywords, description and screenshots to reflect those trends.

1. Update Often

Both users and the app stores themselves like to see developers update their apps. It’s a great opportunity to show everyone that your app is still vibrant, alive and updating. It also represents a good chance to keep up with trends and adapt your app to emerging market strategies.

Update Often

This has been a guest blog post by Dave Bell from Gummicube.

 

How to Generate a Great Mobile App Idea

Posted on by Teresa Pham

The beginning of a great journey

If you’re thinking about trying your hand at entrepreneurship by cracking into the mobile app market, there’s never been a better time to do so. With every man, woman and child with access to smart devices, your reach has never been so widespread. However, we’re not saying this will be an easy road. With such a saturated market, you’ll have to make the right decisions when creating your mobile app. We’ve developed over 300 apps to know what works and what doesn’t.

The first step to building the perfect mobile app is to hatch the right idea. This step involves taking that little seed of an idea that might be in your brain and fleshing it out to make sure that it is the right idea to catapult you into success. However, we always believe that ideas don’t mean anything without execution, so make sure you’ve got this front of mind going into this process.

Where to begin?

Businesses exist to offer solutions to customers’ existing problems. The more pervading the problem, the more customers will be flock to your app to solve that problem. Therefore, the first questions you should ask are:

What problem are you trying to solve?

  • Commonly, you find that there are myriad of problems that you face on a daily basis and you may be able to think of ways a mobile app can be harnessed to make your life easier.

How will you solve the problem?

  • What is solution are you proposing for the problem you have? How is it different to what is currently out there?

Why is it an important problem to solve?

  • Tap into the intrinsic motivations you have for embarking on this project. Why is it important to solve the problem you are solving? Check out Simon Sinek’s TED Talk for some inspiration!

Brainstorm your heart out

In order to answer these questions, brainstorming is the best way to go. Effective brainstorming is simply the dumping of all the ideas you have in your head out on paper. You may want to whiteboard, mindmap, post-it or list the ideas you have. From here, it’s easy to organise and toss ideas that come to mind. Essentially, what you’re making room for good ideas to form when you’re moving ideas from your brain to paper.

To answer these questions is not a simple exercise, but it shouldn’t be. Take a few hours of uninterrupted time to flesh out the initial ideas you may have. The most important thing to keep in mind for this process is to create a no judgement zone for your thoughts and the thoughts of others. Write down everything you can think of.

In the idea generation phase, you may want to talk to families and friends, who may also face the problem you are planning to solve. When talking to them, listen with a grain of salt, as their opinion may be biased towards validating your idea (you’ll conduct proper market research in the next phase – blog coming for that one very soon!).

Formalising Your Ideas – Lean Business Canvas Business Plan

After brainstorming the answers to the questions above, it’s time to prepare for idea validation. This involves organising the ideas you had and forming a coherent scaffold.

At this stage, it may be worthwhile to narrow down each of your answers to the previous What, How and Why questions to 1-2 sentences. From these sentences, you should cut this down further to a simple sentence. We know it might be difficult to cut down these already short statements, but what you are trying to essentially achieve is an encapsulating sentence, acting as the ‘elevator pitch’ for your business.

You’d probably also want to start the preparation of your business plan. One scaffold that might be of interest to you is the Lean Business Canvas Business Plan. Drawing from the ‘lean startup’ manifesto, this template has dual focuses – product and market.

Lean Canvas for App Ideas

Drawing this out will help you refine your ideas and you’ll have an excellent foundation for the aspects you’ll want to test in the idea validation phase.

 

Is UberEATS the next big thing?

Posted on by Brian Lam

Delivery has always been an established part of the food industry. However, with the increasing popularity of online platforms such as Delivery Hero and Menulog to help bring an improved delivery experience, people are finding a more efficient and aggregated way to order food online.

food delivery nearby graph

Uber, a major player in the ridesharing space has also jumped into this market launching their UberEATS platform first in several parts of the U.S and then more recently moving to Melbourne and Sydney to compete with established players in the area. According to TechCrunch, the current market potential for food delivery in Australia and New Zealand is about 1.6 billion pounds, with an online penetration rate of 22%.

According to Uber, UberX have serviced over 1 million rides in Sydney alone with a driver base of about 12,000+ driver partners across Australia. With Uber’s large existing network of drivers and ridesharing customers in Australia, they can leverage their existing supply and demand base and bring their platform up to scale to compete with the likes of Foodora, Delivery Hero, Deliveroo and Menulog.

Older companies, such as Domino’s Pizza have also taken steps to innovate in the food delivery space, launching their much anticipated DRU – Domino’s Robotic Unit, a four-wheeled robot that has compartments to deliver pizza and drinks to customers. Also, 7-11 recently partnered with Sydney-based drone delivery startup, Flirtey, to do a first ever FAA-approved drone delivery of slurpees and chicken sandwiches to a local customer’s house. Many companies are exploring the use of robotics to do automated food deliveries, that may one day remove the need for manual deliveries done by humans.

Having market share in the food delivery industry is extremely important and this “billion dollar war” will only get tougher as saturation increases. With more startups emerging in the space that will either assist or compete with the existing companies, there will be more rounds of funding and acquisitions that will help drive down delivery prices, provide a better experience and increase the number of options available for consumers. Only time will tell which companies will come out on top. 

At EB, we are really keen to work on such state-of-art project, our mobile app development team is one of the best in Australia.

 

5 Ways Agencies Can Deliver More Value to Clients

Posted on by Teresa Pham

Your clients are incredibly important, they are the backbone of your business, without them you have no business. This means that it is incredibly important to make sure that they are happy with your service. Offering seamless service means less stress for you and the possibility of future business from them again or referrals. To keep them coming, here are some things you can do to offer more to your clients!

 

Underpromise and Overdeliver

 

This classic sales line is a classic for a reason, it makes your clients absolutely fall in love with you, but, it is definitely easier said than done. You definitely won’t be able to overdeliver for your client every time. But if you’re always aiming for simple satisfaction, you will only ever achieve just that, or you’ll perform under the belt. Making your goal overachievement, means you’ll produce over or perfectly, but never mediocre.

 

Always make sure they’re in the loop

 

The importance of communication can not be understated. Clients are putting their brand in your hands, trusting you to deliver more for their business. They will always want to know how their project is doing. Thus, it is very important to always be available to answer calls or emails. Always let them know of different milestone progress. Something like a weekly report definitely goes a long way. Clients with peace of mind, means you have peace of mind.

 

Don’t be late

 

“Early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable.”

Make sure you stick to the timeline you give to your client (or be ahead of schedule). Handing in milestones late means that clients lose faith in you, and if you’re late enough times, you will definitely be out of favour. You lose a lot if this happens:

  • Ability to take on future projects they want you to
  • Referral work from client’s connections
  • Positive testimonial for featuring to future clients

 

To make sure this doesn’t happen, make sure you keep track of all client projects, don’t drop the ball on any. You may also want to include some extra ‘padding time’ to any time estimations your give, so allow for any problems that arise. If you finish early, you’ve overdelivered and your clients are even happier!

 

Make sure your employees are happy too

 

Your employees are the ones who are doing the work for the clients. In many cases, they are interacting directly with your clients, representing your company. Making sure that employees are satisfied doing their work, deriving value from their jobs, this will translate to the client. It is amazing how far good client relations and services will go in terms of bolstering your business.

 

Take their projects further

 

You might be able to deliver stunning designs to your clients, but they have to take this design to some other agency to develop them. Why not give them this option directly from you? Outsourcing technical work has become a popular move digital agencies are making to deliver more to their clients. There are many benefits, including, but not limited to lower cost, versatile skills, time-saving and high quality.

 

Deliver more to your clients by taking your business to the next level by providing development services without having to hire anyone. Contact one of EB Pearls’ representatives here to find out more about how!

 

Are In-House Developers the Only Answer For Agency Growth?

Posted on by Akash Shakya

It’s very exciting when you start to grow your agency, and it’s very important to be able to sustain this growth, so business expansion is definitely on your mind. One of the most logical growth strategies seems to be offering development services alongside your design expertise. That’s all well and good, but the recruitment of an in-house developer is time-consuming and hiring them is very costly.

According to payscale.com, a developer can cost upwards of $100 000 in salary compensations a year.

But hiring in-house is definitely not the only solution available. You can still expand your business without wasting your time unnecessarily or breaking the bank.

Have you considered outsourcing?

Many businesses, including many agencies have turned to outsourcing for their development work. The advantages of outsourcing are direct solutions to the disadvantages of hiring in-house. Here’s the proof:

Low Price

Partnering with an outsourcing partner means taking advantage of the lower wage rates overseas to complete work. You might be suspicious of the quality delivered by these outsourcing firms, given the low price.

The easy way to check the legitimacy of these firms is by finding (or requesting) their portfolio and past client testimonials. Check for the functionality of their websites and apps, and take note of how many they have provided. In this case, quantity is a good indicator of quality!

Save Time

You’re good at what you do, designing beautiful solutions for your clients. Taking time out of your already busy work schedule to hire a new developer is definitely not ideal. Not only that, but who’s the say that you’ll get the right person for the job.

You don’t have to go through any of this with outsourcing. If you are able to find a reputable outsourcing partner, they will already have qualified developers available for your projects. This means you’ve got access to a pool of talent, just from one firm.

Versatile Skills

Clients are always wanting different solutions to their business problems. These are exciting to take on, as they present different challenges and offer variety. However, if you’re thinking of expanding your operations to include an in-house developer, this may present problems.

There aren’t many individual developers who are able to work in different technologies seamlessly, and if they do, they come at a hefty cost. Hiring more developers in different technologies just adds more stress to your life and uses up more of your already finite time and money resources.

Partnering with an outsourcing firm means that when you get projects with different requirements, outsourcing businesses will be able to provide you with the talent required to move the project forward.  

Want to find out about outsourcing development? Our EB Pearls representatives are experts! Contact us to find out how you can take advantage of outsourcing in your agency.

 

The Ultimate App Launch Checklist Before Going Live

Posted on by Akash Shakya

As easy as it may seem to be, the launch of a mobile app takes bucket loads of time and serious commitment to put all the pieces together in a organised fashion. App development is only the beginning of the story!

Did you know: The average number of monthly launches for mobile apps worldwide in June 2015, with a per month launch, was as follows:

  • Gaming – 8.8
  • E-commerce/Retail – 9.2
  • Technology – 10.5
  • Media Entertainment – 12.3
  • Travel/Lifestyle – 12.7

 

Considering the fact that having an app marketing plan in place is crucial to the success of every app out there, app developers and business owners need to make sure they have the right tools technology for a successful launch.

With that in mind… here is a guideline to the things you need to check off of your list before releasing your app

1. Do your market research

When you research the key competitors from your app category, you have the chance of receiving great insight as to what your target audience values in an app.

Always be prepared to have an answer to the following questions:

  • How are other apps named?
  • Are they memorable?
  • Which categories are they targeting?
  • Which keywords are they ranking high for?

 

Another great way to tap into the market is to look at the reviews of competing apps and make a list of all of the good and bad comments. This will help you have a better understanding of what matters to your customers the most and what turns them away.

 

2. The power of positive feedback

The question you need to ask yourself here is, who are the real target customers of your app? What usually happens after developing a couple of great app features is that the team sends in their feedback afterwards. However satisfying their reviews may be, they do not represent your target audience.

What you can do instead is to identify your target customer, find out which channels will help you reach them and recruit beta testers.

Beta testers represent your first opportunity of getting some unbiased first-hand feedback from your target audience.

 

3. Planning the marketing activities for your app

Unfortunately, planning the entire marketing activity for an app is one of the most neglected areas of app development. But the marketing team is the one responsible for planning the go-to-market strategies for your app and understanding every built-in feature.

Take a look at this pre-launch activity checklist that should be included into your marketing plan:

  1. Find out the USP of your app
  2. Optimise for the App Store
  3. Choose an app name
  4. Choose relevant keywords – one of the most important aspects that help people discover your app
  5. A description to indicate your key message
  6. Create a preview trailer
  7. Blog about the development process on your website
  8. Plan your beta test
  9. Create a promotional channel list
  10. Shortlist forums
  11. Outreach plan
  12. Create a press kit
  13. Promotional deadlines

 

4. Planning the app release date in advance

The most important reason for planning a release date in advance is to ensure it gets press coverage. The reason for this is that marketers usually have to deal with delays in the project deadline and are later faced with an unplanned release date as soon as the app is ready.

 

Going through every phase of the checklist will help you prepare for the launch of your mobile app accordingly. If you want to have a professional pre-launch campaign for your mobile app, get in touch with one of our representatives and be ready to experience the work of world class app developers Sydney and Melbourne, today!

How App Development Can Change Australia’s Real Estate

Posted on by Akash Shakya

In the real estate business, buying or selling a home is not only a complex transaction, but it can also be a time-consuming process. There are a lot of important decisions one needs to take in order to make the right choice and avoid expensive mistakes along the way.

The basic tools to start your housing project require plenty of information and knowledge, so make sure you:

  • research the market value of property
  • educate yourself about building terms
  • attend auctions and monitor results

Did you know: House prices rose by 6.8% in Australia’s eight major cities in 2014 after a rise of 9.48% during 2013? 

But the economy and customer demand are not the only factors that dictate the course for real estate in Australia. App development has made a huge impact on the way buyers and sellers view the property market business and the strategies they use to interact with one another.

 

Reshaping the real estate industry landscape

It is safe to say property apps are reshaping the housing market in Australia by giving buyers and sellers complete access to a wealth of information. Moreover, with apps becoming indispensable tools for the majority of the population, the industry revenue for 2016 is forecast to grow significantly. In 2015, for example, mobile ad spending generated an estimated $29 billion and could double the amount by the year 2018.

There are plenty of property apps on the market right now and each one of them is assessed to deliver certain information and facilitate the buying process for the parties involved. In fact, they are usually the first resource people consult when they need to compare prices or calculate mortgage payment.

 

What are the most relevant features of a successful property app?

Here are some elements you should consider including in a property app:

  1. The ability to view auction results and detailed insights such as median prices, rental yields, population and demographics.
  2. The possibility to calculate mortgage payments, the stamp duty, including transfer fees, first home concessions and the registration of a mortgage and show links to home loans and house valuation services,
  3. The ability to calculate loan repayments, shows summaries and repayments.
  4. The ability of searching for properties to buy or rent and view them via a map or a list and getting directions for the properties as well.

All in all, it is important to keep in mind that a successful property app makes everything real-time and instantly accessible. This is what drives buyers and sellers to shift their focus from traditional market research and project implementation to the ever-growing property app business sector.

The potential for app development to provide property insight does not stop here! From getting interior design inspiration ideas to sharing listings on social media and contacting agents from within the app, the possibilities are endless.

 

What is the future of property app marketing in Australia?

Past statistics have shown that, with price and consumer demand being extremely high in recent years, 2016 is estimated to be a great year for property sellers in Australia.

In 2016, the rate of economic growth will get back on track creating strong conditions for those who wish to sell their homes. More so, with prices growth slowing down, some sellers will also be in a position to trade out of their current home and into a new home, as predicted by realestate.com.au.

This is all the more reason start developing a property app. Who knows? You might become the number one most influential tool for buyers and sellers throughout the country!

 

If you need professional assistance and support in managing your real estate business app, do not hesitate to contact us here. We can provide you with optimised solutions to cater to your every professional need.

A guide to the Perfect Business Process for Mobile Applications

Posted on by Akash Shakya

According to recent statistics, the winning strategy to any type of business is developing a professional and efficient mobile app for your organisation. Search Engine Journal stated that there were 224 million monthly active app users in the US alone, in 2015.

The amount of potential profitability that lies within this marketing niche continues to grow higher each year. Therefore, taking the right approach towards your app development is vital for the successful outcome of your business.

Here are some quick facts indicating how mobile app development is thriving:

  • Mobile apps now account for more than half of all time spent on Digital Media
  • Smartphone users spent 89% of their mobile media time using mobile apps
  • 42% of all mobile sales generated by the leading 500 merchants came from mobile apps

(Source)

There are several ways you can go about creating the perfect mobile app for your business, but there are some considerations you will have to take into account: among the most important ones – cost, time and, of course, quality.

Key elements to consider when hiring a mobile app agency  

You need to have a full understanding of what your app development project should look like at the end of the day. Before contacting any mobile app agency for implementation and support, establish exactly how you measure the success of your app development project and set your final goals.

Make sure you have an answer to these three questions below, before you think about commissioning an agency:

  • Is the app designed to create new revenue streams for my business?
  • Is the app designed to engage users or promote my brand?
  • Is the app going to replace or enhance an existing business process?

Take into account several situations, for example which platforms will your app run on, what type of data will your app store or what level of app security will you require?

A results-driven mobile app to transform your business process into a successful product

Companies seeking premium development services should gravitate towards agencies that promote winning strategies as the core of their business operation. Winning strategies are achieved through valuable expertise and a long-term experience in the field of mobile marketing.

Search for proof of quality resources, cutting-edge graphics, intuitive Content Management Systems and web service connections.

Mobile app agencies approach customer care and client assistance from an objective point of view. In order to enhance the business process at the highest level, a reputable mobile app development company is able to implement a relevant and customised business process, with regards to the customer’s industry and expectations.

The marketing strategies that make your mobile app go viral

Full-scale marketing plans include: responsive website design, content marketing services, search engine marketing, social marketing services, and more. A qualitative mobile app agency focuses on specific and tailored marketing steps in order to deliver projects on time and exceed clients’ expectations:

A Digital strategy

Introducing a strategy that turns your idea into a successful product requires the guidance and support of a true UI expert, well-tuned to the working of the consumer’s psyche. In other words, transforming your innovative ideas into a real business plan is the first step mobile agency experts take in order to establish your own marketing approach and deliver qualitative results.

Project scoping

This step requires the ability to handle complex app requirements and create a solid foundation for any successful mobile app, prior to developing more complex process entails.

User Experience

In the age of seamless user experience processes, a professional mobile app needs to be, first and foremost, intuitive and user-friendly. These are necessary steps that need to be taken in order to generate measurable profits for your company.

User interface design

An interface that is both functional and visually appealing will always stand out from the crowd.

Development

The proper development of any mobile app project is tailored to the specific needs of each business in particular. Among the most important parts of a successful development process is:

  • API implementation
  • Database design
  • Bespoke application development
  • Configuration management

Testing

This step ensures your mobile app works perfectly across all devices before taking it to production. In order to identify the areas that need improvement, a mobile app agency will have to run tests at every step of the process.

Optimisation

When optimizing a mobile app product, experts look for characteristics such as: safety and security, fast upload, and intuitive design. The process identifies and eliminates potential errors in a timely manner.

Maintenance and support

Look for mobile app development agencies that offer customer support during the pre- and post-launch phases of your mobile project.

Digital Marketing

This final step includes well versed mobile app development skills and strategies. Every successful mobile app agency needs to have a detailed business plan, with a marketing strategy that is 100% customised and tailored to the specific target audience and industry of each organisation.

If you are looking to transform your business process with a results-driven mobile app and enjoy the benefits of having a customised business plan for your company, feel free to contact us here.

App Development Predictions for 2016

Posted on by Akash Shakya

When referring to app development, the best way to predict what future trends are going to look like is to figure out the right combination of what people want, what people need, and what is possible with today’s mobile technology advances.

While statistics show there is no argue to the fact that mobile app technology is a key insight to the successful outcome of any business today, mobile app development is still on the rise. With approximately worldwide mobile app revenues of 45 billion dollars in 2015 alone, it is estimated that the industry’s numbers will reach 58 billion by 2016. (Source)

How can app development influence the profitability of your business? Although it may be hard to know exactly what app features are best suited to your company needs, mobile marketing technological advancements indicate that app development should be on your top priority list.

Did you know: Almost a billion smartphones have been sold in 2015 and the number is expected to go over 10 billion mobile internet devices in use by 2016, according to techinasia.com. If you are thinking about developing a mobile app for your business, contact one of the representatives at EB Pearls for a quote.

 

What are the current mobile app development trends that the market is focusing on?

  • Social networking mobile app – the fastest growing and most demanded apps among users.
  • Context marketing that is improving user experience through mobile app frontend usage.
  • Location-based services. A multi-billion niche for mobile app markets.
  • Mobile search for e-commerce – makes consumer experience easier while looking for products or comparing prices between vendors.
  • Standalone and moving objects recognition. This refers to those apps featured with sensor and processing capabilities.

 

Bonus Tip: According to statistics, 46% of mobile app users paid for their apps and the number is expected to reach over 268 billion downloads by the end of 2016.

With that in mind, here are some of the most influential app development trends for 2016:

Demand for enterprise apps continues to grow: This means that organisations need to keep their employees more connected to a specific end goal in order to meet their demands. Whether it refers to design, integration or security, every developer will have to synchronise their capabilities to the increasing enterprise app demand.

A better user experience: The most important thing for a superior client experience is the communication that exists between developers and designers. As end users are increasingly demanding a better user experience, app development no longer looks at keeping individuals in a certain app for as long as possible, but rather looks at enabling an intuitive user experience.

The fascination with Big Data: Did you know that only 1% of all apps are using cognitive services today? The hype around Big Data has been present in the marketing industry for years, however, it is still a work in progress. For 2016, you can expect updates in machine learning, real-time data-as-a-service, algorithm markets, Spark, and more.

Size matters: Not only are there plenty of devices and screen sizes available on the market right now, but developers also have to find a solution to figuring out how an app will look like and how it will work on various devices (for example, smart watches).

A new world to be discovered: In other words…IoT, also known as the Internet of Things. As more and more things are getting connected, apps will be required to track or manage them. It is very probable that these apps will have a lot to say about the selling process, too!

Bonus Tip: 34% of IoT developers today are building apps that require real-time data analysis and processing 50% or more of the time, according to the Evans Data’s Internet of Things Study from 2015.

 

Are you interested in adopting new ideas for your mobile app development plans for 2016? Get in touch with us here for an obligation-free consultation.

Swift: Future of iOS app development

Posted on by Akash Shakya

Our iOS research team presented benefits of using Swift to develop iOS applications.

Background: Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for iOS, OS X, and watchOS. Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next project — or addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C. Copied from http://developer.apple.com/swift/

In this presentation, Roshan from iOS team also explains the key differences between objective C and Swift. These slides may be too technical for you. However, if you are looking to build an app – do not forget to ask us about swift and its advantage.

Swift – the future of iOS app development from Roshan at EB Pearls research team

10 Ways to Develop a Successful Mobile App Idea

Posted on by Akash Shakya

10 ways to create a successful app that people will use
Nowadays, as everything is focused on the online environment, having an app that spreads the word about your business and makes consumers’ lives easier is a must-have. Although there are numerous apps created just for fun or for helping users, building an app that people will use time and time again remains a tough job.

The app must be easy to use, with a compelling design and the right features so that your customers will enjoy using it. In today’s article we’re going to walk you through the process of creating a successful app that people will use.

1. Build a strategy

Forget about what your app should look like. First things first: you need to create a strategy around it: why are you creating this app? Who will use it? What features will the app have? How can you combine all these features in an app that people will use?

To get the best results it is always better to create a list of your priorities, then ask a professional company for help. Someone who lives, eats and breathes this thing will surely know how to put a sparkle on your brand new app!

2. Value

In order to build a successful app you need to know how it will help your clients. Successful apps provide answers and solutions to a problem so acerb that customers are willing to pay their hard earned money if the app can solve it.

But for your app to be successful it needs to provide the best solution to that problem.

 

Because there are so many apps out there, people already have a list of their top favourite apps. For them to change their preferences, the newcomer app has to stand out through a unique, better approach.

3. Design is important!

We, humans, are all about the visual element. If it looks good and it’s intuitive, we’ll buy it. Your app must be fascinating in the sense of being super-easy to use. Remember those User Manuals you get whenever you buy a piece of technology? It doesn’t work the same with apps – the user either intuitively knows how to use an app, or they’ll ditch it and look for something else.

As Steve Jobs said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”.

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A fascinating design is a simple and clear design. Colours are a very important player, but so are shapes and page layout. All these elements are gathered together in what is known as UI or UX (User Interface and User Experience).

Clarity is also a key factor to consider. Your app is being created for small screens; don’t put too many buttons that are difficult to read, but instead choose just a few big buttons and fonts.

Although smartphones don’t have the largest screens, people love quality, so investing in your app’s pixels is a smart move. Don’t forget about the icons, they make a real improvement in your app’s design, as they are the first things that your customers see.

After you’ve made up your mind on the features you are going to use, an important next step is to make it easy to navigate from a feature to another and from a screen to another.

4. Scalability

The feedback you get from your customers is very important and you should not ignore it. Feedback shows how your app improves your customers’ lives but at the same time it indicates the areas that still need improvement.

Scalability is about your ability adapt to and understand your customers’ feedback.

Tip: Choose a group of friends and friends of friends to test your app before launching it. Don’t pick random people; instead, pick those people who would use the app on a daily basis – those people who need your app.

Bonus Tip: At EB Pearls we organise focus groups where we test all the apps we create for our customers. You get to try it in beta mode 2 weeks prior to its launch date, just to make sure everything works according to plan.

5. Built-In Virality

Your app is successful if more and more people use it continuously. One way of attracting new customers to your app is by having a mechanism which allows users to invite their friends. Take the example WhatsApp or Instagram. Those apps would not be so fun for users if they couldn’t invite their friends to use it too.

6. Android & iOS friendly

This is also an important factor if you want your app to reach a wide audience. It must be available both on Android and iOS.

Although apps were first available on iOS, more than 50% of people in Australia have Android smartphones, so your app has to be available on both systems. Nonetheless, start with iOS, as it was proven to bring more revenue to businesses than Android.

7. Reach

Now that you have created your app, in order to make it successful you need to consider how to overcome your competition and determine users to purchase your app to the detriment of others.

For your app to sell, it must have an interesting and compelling story. You can choose something short and simple but emotional enough to connect with your customers.

For example, Instagram’s motto is “Capture and share the world’s moments”.

8. Product Description

Besides reaching to your customer through emotional words and stories, videos are another piece of compelling content. People are more interested in videos and they are more likely to watch a video than read several sentences in where you explain how your product works.

Video are more interesting and they make people better understand how your app works, plus it is a smart way of promoting your app.

9. Maintenance & updates

Software updates are booming nowadays, and from time to time you will need to upgrade, update, or improve your app. To ensure that everything runs smoothly, you will need to take care of app maintenance. One of the key factors to build customers’ trust in your app is by having a maintenance team available at all times. This way, if your app is an in-purchase one, users are reassured that they are investing their finances in a high quality product; even if it is a free app customers are more likely to keep and use it.

Updates are important too, as everyday there is something new to see and learn. But don’t make updates without a reason or too often, because no one likes too many updates. Check for when your ratings, and numbers of users are starting to drop and then you can work on new updates.

10. Keeping a trusted relationship with your customers

After gaining your customers’ trust in your app, the next step is to maintain that trust. If you started your app with something simple, keep it that way.

Also try to maintain a balance regarding your ads and monetization. For example if your app was quite affordable at the beginning, changing the price into something more expensive may stir away your customers. And that goes for ads too. No one likes too many ads popping all the time into their screens.  

Are you planning on creating an app for your business? What are the main goals of this app? Do you want it to improve your internal business systems or do you want to use it as a marketing tool?

Have a look at our portfolio to see some of our most successful apps, or contact us today and one of our app development experts will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

 

Health Synergy: A Mobile App Development Case Study

Posted on by Akash Shakya

Do you know the process and the challenges in creating an Mobile app? In today’s article we talk about how we create a successful apps for our clients, and how we can do it for you too.

Meet Health Synergy

Health Synergy is a nutrition company ran by mother and daughter,Jennifer Murrant and Hannah Singleton. Jennifer has been working as nutritionist and naturopath for more than 10 years. Hannah is a student at University of Sydney where she studies Media and Communications.

While Jennifer was already working in the health industry, Hannah discovered her passion for nutrition while she was in her HSC year. That year, she understood how important it is to live a healthy life in order to be successful.

“You are what you eat” goes the saying. And since both Jennifer and Hanna were aware that food is a vital thing to one’s health, they decided to form a company focused on sharing with people the right information on healthy living and nutrition. By the time they contacted EB Pearls, they were already sharing a wide variety of recipes and blog posts with their audiences, and they also offered consultations.

“We need an easy-to-use nutrition app” they said…

Why would you need an App for your business? It is the accessibility for your customers to reach you and use your services. In short, apps can be a goldmine for businesses to connect with customers.

Hannah and Jennifer realized the benefits of having a mobile app when they received constant encouragement and positive feedback of their Instagram followers.
So they got in touch with EB Pearls. Although Jen and Hannah had some clear ideas of what they wanted for the app, including nutritional information for the receipes, we helped them develop these ideas further and made other suggestions such as the inclusion of a very useful shopping list with a link back to the particular recipe. They loved this idea and we went ahead with this feature…

 

Setting the budget

One of the most important things we pointed out with Hannah and Jennifer was their budget. We needed to know how much they were willing to invest so we could know what we were working with.

Useful Tip:

You want to increase your business and we want to help you do that. You don’t need to overspend or underspend; we want to make the app specifically suitable to your unique type of business.

Finding the right audience for the app

“What is your target audience?” was our next question. They wanted to cater their app towards anyone who would like to live a healthier life.

That day in December was a fruitful day for gathering information. At the end of it we understood that Jennifer and Hannah were in need for an app which would be easy to use, accessible to everyone, and useful for Health Synergy from a ROI perspective: Jennifer and Hannah were looking for a better way to get in touch with their consumers.

What could be done…?

Our team at EB Pearls has an increased emphasis on the importance of working closely with the client, and Health Synergy made no exception. Thus, we developed the creative process together, as a united team.

Useful Tip:

When you manage to develop a trustful relationship with your service provider, you know for sure that you are on the right path. The Health Synergy team were very passionate about their app and thus we had an amazing collaboration with them.

Creating the app sketch

The first step was setting up 1:1 session with Hannah and Jennifer to pick their brains. We then gathered together a team of expert app developers, project managers, and designers. It was time for brainstorming. The creative process was on!

What is the creative process like? Imagine a bunch of super-geeks getting together with a handful of creative-s and trying to come up with mobile app development ideas that would make our client go “Wow! You read my mind!”

This is how the app’s first sketch was created: with a lot of passion and desire for innovation.

We checked with Hannah and Jennifer to make sure they liked our ideas, and once we had their approval we moved on to the next step.

Designing the app

We knew the app had to be simple and easy to use, but also unique. Our specialist designers created the color pallets, style guide and layout.

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Bonus Tip:

Whenever you employ a specialized company to create a unique app for your business, make sure that they always keep you in the loop with every detail regarding your project. It’s important that you know exactly where you app is heading, and how it’s going to look like when it’s ready to launch.

Developing & Testing the Health Synergy app

Again, the app was coded, tested, and re-tested time and time again to ensure quality of output. It was working perfectly on all devices! Still, the team wanted to go one step further: have the app tested by a user.

So we organized a focus group where we asked people to use the app and give us their feedback on it. Was it working as expected? Was it intuitive? Was it easy to use?
Not to mention, Hannah and Jennifer had their way with the app for 2 weeks. Their feedback was the cherry on top. Now everything was ready for the big launch…
On May 28, 2015 the app was launched online.

We included a variety of useful features in the app, such as a shopping list, a recipes section, as well as a direct link to the Health Synergy website. This increased the website’s traffic while giving users what they were looking for: a full list of recipes, as well as a quick access list to the recipe’s required ingredients.
Plus, we included an option for Jennifer and Hannah to add nutritional information for each recipe, as well as special recipe categories: recipes which are nut free, sugar free, vegetarian, or gluten free.
Health Synergy users benefit from an easy to navigate interface, free updates.
And the best thing about it, it’s available on both iPhone and Android!

How did the app perform online?

Only one month since its launch, Health Synergy app is listed among iPhone app’s top food and drinks apps. It is also highly successful on Android App, having well over 100 downloads. Even better, users are thrilled with using it, and this is seen in the 5 stars reviews they used to rate the app.

The collaboration we had with Health Synergy was extremely rewarding. To their passion for a healthier life we added a pinch of our expertise and dedication to technology. Thus, we managed to create an app that is accessible, intuitive, and useful so people everywhere can cook delicious, healthy meals at home.

Now back to you!

Do you need an app? What challenges have you faced when trying to come up with a creative solution to your unique business needs?

Get in touch or call us at 1800 857 679 if you need a successful app to help you grow your business or check out our portfolio if you want to see more of the apps we created.

iOS 6: Apple’s Strategic Move to Rule the Market

Posted on by Akash Shakya

ios6

Hello iPhone 5 fans, as of ABC Action News, the news has been confirmed from the Apple side that you will be using an iPhone without the Google’s YouTube app as its default application. Apple has decided to remove its default YouTube feature from its iOS 6 version. It means Apple’s all the upcoming gadgets such as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch will exclude the YouTube app. But of course, alternate app of the YouTube will be provided.

Apple is in the line of Google free ecosystem.

As the Apple has claimed that “iOS 6…will take your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch in entirely new directions”, with its improved version iOS 6, Apple is in the line of denying other’s presence within their territory as well.

Continue reading “iOS 6: Apple’s Strategic Move to Rule the Market”

iPad Mini Is The Upcoming Avatar of Apple

Posted on by Michael Signal

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iPad Mini: For the Sake of Loyal Users and in Search of Marginal Users

From different sources the news are coming up that Apple is working on its iPad mini to ignite the iPad market again. If the New York Times is to be believed, Apple is on its way to bring iPad with 7.85 inch screen, with ‘significantly less’ in price compared to its $499 iPad. However no official statement has come up, so far.
Why smaller iPad? In order to safeguard their ecosystem. Because, for the first time iPad has got a potential rival for which the public acceptance throughout the globe is such overwhelming that it might soon change the equation of global tablet market share.

Nexus7 has stirred up the tablet giants’ think tanks to make strategies seriously on the 7 inch option. Though creativity has no end, at the moment the number 7-inch may have overwhelmed the iPad producers.

Surely iPad doesn’t want to loosen its grip from its loyal users, plus approaching the marginal users. So, it will be no wonder if the iPad lovers hear of Apple bringing the mini iPad with the technical perfection for which it is recognized.

Currently iPad has covered 62.8% of the global tablet market share.

Size Matters: Light on hand, easy in purse and fit in pocket

Since the Nexus7 has shown the depth of willingness of people carrying their gadget with them all the time, definitely the 9.56 inch tall market king will again come with all its features and application armies to re-confirm its undisputed empire of the global iPad market share.

Now men want it in their pocket and women in their purse. However comfortable size with smart functionality is what tablet users prefer.

Users who wanted it to be as lighter as they could hold hours without feeling its weight got their answer in Nexus7. People who were using iPad, who had tried Kindle Fire and couldn’t shift their heart from iPad to Kindle Fire also got their answer in Nexus7. They got the feel of technical sophistication of iPad and innovative size in it.

Being undisputed king of the tablet world, iPad will certainly harness this new corner which they have not tried yet. That is why speculation of iPad mini version sized 7.85-inch screen is pretty high.

Price Tag: users expect it to be ‘significantly reduced’

iPad can’t afford to enter the market without considering price tag hugely. Otherwise people will not find any reason to buy $499 instead of $199 with almost same level of utility.

Before this, it was not much worried about the price because no one could counter iPad in its functionality. However this time users have tasted the low price with equally sophisticated and user friendly fun box.

Through your own application grow your business and approach the new frontiers of your potential consumers. If you want app development for your business on Android or iPhone and iPad platforms, for professional help you can contact us: https://ebpearls.com.au/mobile-app/