Making Your App Faster – The 9 Must Knows

User experience drives in engagement and a lot depends on how fast users can access your app. While it’s important that the app is of the right size – nobody like to download an app of hundreds of MB’s unless it’s something they know they really need – you need to focus on another aspect as well. How well does your app run for users?

In order to engage your users and ensure that your app’s charm stays intact, it is important that you release app updates from time to time. Even if the update is just removing bugs or solving problems, the users and the app store feel that you are committed to stay current and you easily win the users trust.

Here are 9 ways that can help you make your app updates matter.

1. Be clear – When it comes to discussing the benefits, try to stay clear and non-technical as much as you can as unlike old users, new users will not understand the technicalities.
2. Excite the users – Be it a bug fix or a simple update, try to excite the user by either using humor or explaining the benefits that the user will get with the bug fix offered.
3. Check for bugs – In order to check for any bugs in the update itself, release the update to a few users with the help of beta testing before releasing to all the users
4. Don’t overdo it – If you overdo the features and add on tons of them, you might just end up losing the original concept making users dissatisfied and the app difficult to use.
5. Be precise – No one likes to read lengthy pointers especially if it is related to app updates. Stay crisp, to-the-point and use bullets if need be.
6. Support email – If you haven’t done this yet, do it today! Add a support email in the app description to help users reach out to your for any kind of help.
7. Focus on reviews and feedback – The reviews and feedback from your users help you understand what they want updated and what kind of style to own when writing updates.
8. Redesign the app – If you feel that it is time to give the app a new look, redesign the app and make it look a little more stylish in the next update.
9. Take in new features – Many a times, your app might benefit from the new features released by a 3^rd party company. Take in these features to offer added value to the users and keep them happy.

It’s really important that you can the right app updates to drive in performance and increase engagement. mobile app development company like mindinventory can help you to design apps that work great and are just perfect for your business.

4 Amazing Ways to Cut Development and Maintenance Costs

Organizations need to cut down costs to spur growth. With increasing competition, there often isnt any space left to splurge and your company will do well to cut down where it can. The money saved can also be gone onto research or improved employee salaries that can help boost productivity and sales.

IT organizations can yield major savings with a fixed-fee outsourcing model for developing applications and maintaining them. If the delivery contract for app development and maintenance is well-planned, it can yield up to 25 to 45 percent cost reductions in the starting year and go as high as 50 to 70 percent in the coming five years according to Steven Kirz, managing director of Pace Harmon which is an outsourcing company.

Why Do Costs Increase?

Due to the client not spending enough effort or time on figuring what is actually going to be built, most development projects are not fixed-fee and the cost increases tremendously. By actively managing the four factors mentioned below, IT leaders can reduce outsourcing rates and reduce costs easily.

1. Roles – It is quite essential to standardize roles when adopting a staff augmentation model. Kriz says that the same roles with different nomenclature is referred to by different companies and parts of the same IT organizations and this helps establish a benchmark and baseline on these roles and even rates across all boards.
2. Location – Geography plays a vital role in deciding how much money is to be paid for a resource and is defined generically as offshore or onshore. A company should examine the rates being offered for all location delivering services for a project as rates can differ by as much as 15 to 20 % within the country.
3. Experience – The more experienced an IT professional is, the higher the rates he commands. Kirz suggests that IT outsourcing companies should state 3 or 4 bands of experience levels for all the roles to help avoid overpaying for resources.
4. Technology expertise – Every role needs special knowledge, skills and training. Hard-to-find experts often command high market rates while standard rate levels are applicable when expertise is easily available in the market. The rates should also be inclusive of the continuum of technology expertise to ensure that the right price is being paid for any specific role.

Focusing on these areas will help you to cut down on maintenance costs and build better organizational infrastructure.

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Top 6 Business Models That Makes Mobile App Developers Work Easy

The two terms, ‘invest’ and ‘waste’ differ from each other. The former one returns something in lieu of investment, while, in case of the latter, you do not expect to make any profits. App developers need to know whether they are investing their resources or not, and the following business models will help them identify which strategy they should opt for.

1. E-Commerce Applications

Users are making their mind order everything online and as a result, E-Commerce business model is a pioneer today. The current trend proves the success of this model and experts say that this is going to continue. Selling of the inventory is the basic idea behind this model, and the profit is earned in the term of margins. While implementing this model, the back end should be very strong (Flipkart faced many problems due to its back end).

2. Commissioned Applications

Folks interested in contract works should opt for this model. In such applications, the client is charged on an hourly basis by developers. Many a times, a less time-consuming task is completed in the larger interval of time, and this helps the developer to fetch more bucks from the client.

3. Royalty/Licensing Apps

One of the best ways of earning is royalty and developers are making plenty of money through it. Developers make a deal with the mobile companies to facilitate the users with their app by keeping it pre-installed on their device. Now, whenever that pre-installed app is explored by the user, developers earn the royalty (as decided in the deal).

4. In-App Adds

This model does not make sense until your app gets downloaded by millions of users. The advertising companies offers profit in the terms of CPM i.e. Cost Per Million or cost per thousand impression. The rates are as low as $3 CPM, which means that developer will get only $3 for thousand impressions and hence, this model is not useful for apps expecting download in thousands or tens of thousands.

5. Paid Downloads

Gone are the days. Developers thinking to earn through paid download should get out of this idea asap. Generally, games and utility apps fall into this category, but certain third parties provide free download of same apps (cracked versions) and hence, the idea of paid downloads is not so worthy until your app has a good reputation in market.

6. Freemium Model

Using freemium model is a good approach for those developers who want to provide some of the features of the app for free use and believe that their app would attract the users to get the premium version. The majority of applications implement these model and users don’t hesitate to buy the premium version of the app if the app is worthy. This model is a great stuff for those users who do not rely easily on the apps. As they test the free version, it gets easy for them to buy the pro version.

Mindinventory is a premier mobile app development company delivering services across the world. The company is blessed with experienced, talented and creative team of iPhone app developers who put all their skills in building a masterpiece.

How Much Time Does Your iPhone App Take to Get Ready?

Are you looking to develop an app for Android, iOS or Windows? One of the first questions for developers is to understand when your app would be ready. The quicker your app is ready, the lower the development cost would be and the potential benefits would be more too. So, what is the right time period for developing the app.

You need to consider these issues before working on your application.

1. Know the target audience
The first thing is the target audience. Different people prefer a different type of interface, and is a considerable point to develop a popular app.

2. Understand the device
Then next comes the type of device, if it is for a phone or a tablet. This point is important because each device has a resolution and thus that needs to be followed by the application.

3. Understand how the app is going to be played
The orientation of the display (portrait or landscape) differs because each application has a different preferable orientation.

4. What is the OS you’re looking to build on?
The version of the OS can make a different. If your app uses specific functions that are available only in that version, then they must be programmed as per that environment. This is because they may not be functional on the other interfaces.

The next issue is of the resources. These may relate to time, finance or intellectual properties. Do you own the intellectual resources or do you need to get licenses? You need to factor in the time factor too – the less time it would take, the higher would be the cost.

The time required to develop the app is influenced by some factors, including the following.

1. Type of application
If it is a business app, it may require permissions and payment getaways. This can require more time to be developed and may add up to the cost.

If it is a game or entertainment application, then depending on the story or conceptual study the app is developed

2. Graphics and interface
Every user looks for a friendly, easy to use and an attractive interface. So the developer is required to undertake some study or survey to analyze the target audience, and this decides the time required for the app to get ready.

3. Testing of application
This is a crucial part of the development process. Here all the flaws and errors are to be rectified, and compatibility of the device hardware needs to be analyzed. If the application uses certain sensors or additional driver or device, the application must handle such issues and respond accordingly.

4. Interruption in application
Instants like incoming call, message, little battery, background app notifications and other errors can interrupt the running app or may cause some unusual behavior. The application is to be programmed accordingly to overcome the issues.

After all these considerations, here is what can be the right time period for developing an app.
Simple app (games) – 2 weeks
Medium app (games and business) – 1-2 months
Complex app (high graphic games or e—commerce) – 3-4 months
Extreme interface integration – 6 months or more

How much time is it taking for you to develop your app?

Choose Well! Choose MindInventory !

Turning Your App idea into A Money Making Machine

Is an idea everything? An idea might help you make something new, but you need to carry it out well. Most successful business starts with good idea. However, it did not magically start creating money for them. Rather, it was good planning and execution, that made the idea a money making machine. So how you can turn your app idea into a money making machine?

Before you can understand how you can make money from free apps, you want learn something about the idea. When the wife of Billion Elon Musk, founder of PayPal and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, was asked if can anyone become a billionaire, here’s what she said, “You are determined. So what? You have not been racing naked through water filled with shark yet.”

You need to shift your focus. Decide on what you want and get involved in what your audience needs and want. Offer something that is unique. Develop your unique skill. You need to develop something that’s relevant and yet never been thought of before. Remember Temple Run – it raked in the money because it was different in those times. Yes, we have those endless running games in the plenty these days but it wasn’t so back then. It was just a genuine idea that deserved the success.

To make any idea successful, you have to become master of two worlds and bring them together in a way, which is delightful and amazing.

1. Introduce new ideas. Mixing of the ideas will create a new idea that is different.

2. Introduce a competitive advantage so that you can move up; you must be the best person to know the idea and no one else.

Starting out

Once you have a good idea, you can be offered money in exchange for something that’s different. You can ask for funding in or try to create your own crowdsourcing project if you need money. Remember, your app needs to be useful – usability, user engagement and concepts play an important role.

You will have to work alone until you develop credibility and the charisma to attract more talent to join you in the quest. Make sure you learn how to take a risk and for that you need to have courage. Good luck will also play a role so learn to understand the opportunities.

If you are in the app development to just become rich, you must think it again. All your focus must be to create something valuable that helps. Hire mobile app development company Now.

The 10 tips to Find You An Amazing Developer

What do you do when you’re out there scourging for the right talented developer who can make the right app? While you might have a great app idea, it is the developer who can advise you on the feasibility and the costs involved.

There are few things impossible for a top developer and if you’ve an ambitious project lined up, you need to get hold of a top developer.

The biggest assets for any entrepreneur are their employees. Raising huge capital and having great idea won’t make you the best in the business. It is the highly qualified and creative team of developers will make the successful product and ultimately the best company. Here are 10 tips for finding and hiring top developers.

1. Understand the skills involved

Create an outline of the skills and culture specifics for every position in the company. For instance, an iOS developer must have skills like objective C, swift, multi-threading, and story boarding; among others. Hire iPhone app developers India

2. How is the job market doing?

Know the job market to know the right price of the talent. Though you want talent at discounted price, demand and supply will decide the price of the candidate.

3. Is your developer a team player?

No matter how talented a candidate is, if they are not a team player it will affect various other team members and ultimately productivity will go down.

4. How quick is the developer?

For optimum software development cycle, you need someone who can deliver the required work on time and can work under deadline.

5. Check the standards

You must determine the developer’s standard when coding to know how efficiently he will develop a project with minimum bugs and crashes.

6. Is the developer responsive and adaptive?

The big factor that will allow you grow to have team that is coachable. Individuals must be able to take feedback, under training and coaching to upgrade herself or himself.

7. Check the portfolio

A big list of project should not impress you. You must always check the product has developed in the past to judge the ability of the candidate.

8. Get hold of the prototype

You must use the popular developers’ rapid prototype feature to learn. This helps you know his or her process.

9. Play it steady

Never rush to appoint someone. Take time to test the individual through various tests and interview until you are assured he is the right candidate.

10. Check leadership qualities

Know how good is their network. If the developer can convince other developers in his network to join your team, it shows great leadership potential.

Don’t just rely on these 10 tips! Use your good judgment to know which developer will be suitable for your team.

The Five Amazing Steps to Create a Usable App

Don’t focus solely on user engagement and marketing. Instead, give a thought on app viability as well. How do you see the app taking off? Is the app built on a principle and idea that has been widely exploited before? The more the popular your app theme is, the more difficult it can get to let users be attracted to it. Think of those endless running games like Temple Run – they exist by the plenty but you have to think of something really different today to make a mark in that arena.

Using an app may seem easy but building a viable app is not that easy. One of the biggest brands, Instagram took over 3 year to get their app right. Even today, they are working hard to improve it. Before you start making money, there is lot work that needs to be done. To make your work easier, here are the five steps to guide you when it comes to building a usable app.

1. Plan out its features and functionality
Do not worry if do not have any idea on functionality or features. Start by solving a problem that users face in daily life. See your app as a solution. Before you define its features, check out your competition and try to give something unique. Make them engaging for users.

2. Design Specifications
Begin this step by hiring the best UX/UI specialist designers, as they know how to design websites, advertisements, logos, etc. UI designers bring beautiful graphics they highlight important information on your app. Moreover, hire a user experience analysts to design logical flow to give your users seamless app experience.

3. Functional Prototype
Once you have complete first three steps, implement all you resource to create the prototype that has basic functionalities and features you wanted.

4. Test the prototype
The test must include real users that you want to target for business and not your family and friends. Take their feedback and learn how the in-app experience was. Try to learn their body language when they are using the app. This feedback will be the basis of the full version of your app.

5. Create the application
Most of the things in this process are based on your thoughts and feeling about your app. You yet do not know how the user will react to your finished product. Therefore, stick to the things that you have planned and build the app accordingly. If try to make changes now, you may end up making a bad or messed up product.
The first reactions often tell the story. Once you have released the app, try to know the user reaction and take feedbacks. Try to update the app regularly keeping in mind user feedback – respond to user feedbacks on the Store whenever possible.

The 5 Most Important Strategies to Create an Addictive App

What do you need to create an app that gets downloaded a million times?

According to research firm Gartner, less than .01 percent of mobile apps will achieve financial success through 2018. Even with such small number, developers strive to achieve the success. The key to developing a successful app is to offer addictive mobile application. You may not be next WhatsApp or Snapchat but if you can consider these five tips, you can develop a stand out app.

1. Understand the competition

Even before you create your won app, understand where it would fit into a highly competitive market. Try to find, what will be different in your app. You can find similar apps in the market, and meet like-minded developers to discover inspirations and ideas. Most importantly, understand your competition to differentiate your won brilliant concept.

2. Understand the context of use

When you plan to create an app, know how it will be used. Will it be used on the go or for leisure? The place where the user might use this app will determine if two hand or one hand interface is required. Leisure apps include games, videos, and social networking integration, which are mostly opened in the comfort of sofa, and users can afford to use two hands. While in public on the go app like messaging, news, etc. require only one-handed app.

3. Understand design is the key

When you are working on your idea, take it slow. Never stop the search for new ideas and inspiration. It is good idea to keep a sketchbook with you note ideas. Initially, try to keep things simple and open to allow any new additions.

4. Test your app

Once you build the first prototype, test it with innovative subjects – you can let drunk people or even babies try the app – just to see how much they enjoy engaging with the app. Observe them working through the interface and note the difficulties and skills required to use the app. Also ask the people to use the apps in various scenarios. This helps you learn more about your app.

5. Distribute it and take survey

Give the app to your friends, family and colleagues. Track them with analytic software and also take a short survey. Take a break from the app development do something else. Now look at the statistics and data from the survey. This will give a much better picture of the app.

As developer try to give a useful app to users that solves their problem or adds to their skills.