What Intel XDK IDE brings to Mobile Development

         

Mobile app development and Intel? Well, we know Intel isn’t really synonymous with mobile app development and is more in the processor and chip design realm. Also Intel’s forays in this space (mobile) have not been very successful as you can see from the reception that the Intel Atom chip has got. But of course, Intel is Intel and they’re not going to go back.

So, they’ve come back to mobile development with something seemingly new up their sleeve again. Yes, we’re talking about the Intel XDK IDE. Developers today need a development environment that allows them to work with multiple technologies and devices. XDK IDENTITY gives you precisely that. It lets you write applications using HTML5, Javascript and CSS 3 and test them against multiple devices. But go a little deeper and there is more to it than merely this.

No Native apps

Intel XDK IDENTITY will not allow you to create native apps. When you build a native app, you build it so that it will have access to more APIs than that are available when you use just HTML5 and Javascript. But that’s just a small bargain for the rest you get.

The advantage with XDK is that you get to develop the app with technologies that you are familiar with, and you can then deploy them in multiple platforms.

The XDK Editor

This is the most important part of any tool where you write the bulk of your code that forms the design of your application. The best part is that the Intel XDK delivers here. With solid syntax highlighting, easy usability, reducing the amount of text, it has got all that a code could possibly ask for. XDK’s code completion stands at par with any commercial editor that you can find.

The only grudge that the coder could have here is that it doesn't come with the ability to install plugins. Poor that.

Emulation

With XDK, you can also define the positioning of the device, for when you wish to test out code which makes use of the devices accelerometer, as well as changing the screen orientation of the device itself. This is handy for testing your code across multiple devices without having to spend thousands of pounds. Cool!

Top 5 Platforms To Build Your Mobile App

                            

Building an app involves quite an investment of both time and money. So it is essential that you carefully plan your app strategy and find the right tools to execute your plan to perfection. But one of the advantages of mobile app development today is that it doesn't require thousands of dollars or long months of planning. With mobile app platforms that allow you to build an app within a month (that too, on a small budget) your work is much reduced. This article takes a look at 5 of the best mobile app development platforms today.

1. Appery

Well, you knew it, didn’t you? Appery is an enterprise cloud-based mobile app builder that allows you to create apps rapidly and in a cost-effective manner. Integrated with Apache Cordova, Appery allows you to build apps with Android, iOS and Windows. Appery.io, for all its functionality, requires remarkably little in terms of code knowledge from you as the bulk of the work is done by the drag-and-drop visual editor itself.

2. The App Builder

The App Builder is a perfect platform to create multi-platform apps. The objective behind this ‘tool’ itself was to allow just anyone to build mobile apps, the way Wordpress allows anyone (meaning the ones without any technical knowledge) to build a website. Much of The App Builder involves just selection of templates. For example, if you want to create an app for fitness, you have the fitness template with all the related tabs. You can then customize this for your requirement.

3. App Machine

App Machine allows you to build native apps for both Android and iOS. App Machine too, has a drag and drop interface that gives you a variety of features with more than 30 pre-coded building blocks. Easy to use and exciting to design, App Machine is a mobile development platform that promises much more in the future..

4. Appy Pie

As the name suggests, make an app as easy as a pie. Appy Pie is a cloud-based DIN mobile app development platform that allows users with little or no technical knowledge to build apps in Android, iOS, and Windows. With its latest product app builder 2.0 Snappy, built as a single platform application, you can create apps ‘ultra-fast’ and codeless. The new release also comes with lots of customization features that you wouldn’t want to let go of.

5. Mobile roadie

You must be wondering why this didn’t come up earlier. As the rest of the tools in this list, Mobile Roadie too allows you to create apps in iOS, Android and Windows. The advantage with the Mobile Roadie is that it supports all media types with automatic importing of Twitter, RSS or Google News keywords. With formatting and customization options too available in plenty, Mobile Roadie is a tool that’s here to stay.

Common Pitfalls When You Develop a Mobile App

How does one popularise a killer idea? Well, the best way to do it today would be to build a mobile app to implement it. Not only will it be actionable, it will be used by millions all over the world. All you need is a level-headed strategy with proper design and implementation. And of course, some spunk. But why doesn't everyone succeed. Well , there’s no paucity of pitfalls. We’ll look at some of them here:

1. Get your platform right

For all practical purposes, it’s two platforms in mobile now: Android and iOS. Decide which way you’re going to go. If it’s the global market that you’re targeting, Android must be your choice. If you are looking at a US centric market, you could go for iOS. If you want to go for both, the costs could outweigh the benefits (if any).

2. Mobile is NOT the same as web

A majority of website owners do not focus on developing a mobile application that is optimized for all mobile platforms. All that they do is rely on responsive website features or consider that mobile app development should be done with just few necessary elements and features of a website.

3. Designer vs Developer

Remember that design is for development. This means you need to ensure the design follows the functionality since we often find that apps where design dictates functionality fail inevitably.

For instance, if you plan to include a search box in your app, and the designer envisions one with a type-ahead search, it would mean considerable effort on the part of the developer.

4. User experience trumps all

When you say what comes to their mind first? Well, it’s not difficult to guess. The reply would be its elegance/user experience. So, it’s important to know that a mobile user is more demanding and intuitive when it comes to UX. This is borne by the fact that 26% of the apps are opened only to be never used again and 48% are opened less than 10 times. Make sure you test your app with Craigslist or better find early beta testers.

What we’ve mentioned are just some of the pitfalls that mobile designers encounter when they set out to develop an app. For more, keep watching this space!

The Path To a Mobile-Friendly Ecommerce Website

                  

Ecommerce has undergone a sharp shift over the past few years to mcommerce with users not diffident to make payments on their mobile as well. To leverage this advantage though, you need to optimize your mobile ecommerce website. In this article, we look what you need to do to make sure you maximise the mobile potential.

The first thing you notice when you search anything on the net on your mobile is the look and feel of the website. But this alone will not ensure visibility. The site needs to have good content, navigation, check-in and check-out processes and show robust performance in order to get to the top. In case you wanted a bullet list of what to do, we have a checklist ready for you.

1. Keywords - The first thing that comes to the mind of any consumer when he/she searches for content on the internet is the keyword. All important keywords need to be covered during the first phase of writing itself so that it becomes easy to search related material. Also try and make use of the keywords with the help of hyperlinks to attract more traffic to your website. 

2. SiteMap – Just as the contents page of a novel helps the reader easily find the page, so does site-map with links help a user navigate web pages on a mobile website the user is looking for.

3. Social Media - Promotion of websites, blogs, groups, forums, etc. by linking online communities in social media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. )

4. Advertisements – This involves hard-selling your website through advertisements, pay per click ads and updating relevant content on the website.

5. Email Signatures – Here, the customer gets in touch with the owner of the website through the designated signature format used at the end of the emails. 

Here, you need to ensure that your mobile website is appropriate in all respects, i.e. in terms of images, icons,content, tools and more. All said and done, your web pages should not crash or hang as it ensures all the good work gets lost. With a majority of people accessing e-commerce websites through mobile phones, it is important to ensure proper backup of the website during server downtimes as well. Lastly, get the best developer in town to design it for you!

Does Your Mobile Development Ensure Quality?

Your mobile developers have to give you quality in development and delivery. Now that comes only with knowledge sharpened by years of experience. With over 18 years of experience in developing mobile apps for businesses across sectors and an ISO 27001:2013 certification for our security systems, this comes naturally to Openwave.

It’s time your apps go responsive

Are your apps responsive? Being responsive is all about being multi-device compatible and dynamic both in terms of content and presentation. Non-responsive not only fail with the customers today, they are not even indexed in searches by Google. If you’re looking for the right partners to develop your next-gen mobile app, you’ve found the right partner in Openwave!

Have you got the right Android developers?

Android development is exciting, it is also great fun to work with. But it is also fraught with competition. This means there is little scope for errors. That’s why you need to hire the best of developers who combine competence with experience to give you the best Android app that fits your business. So, does your app reflect your business? Come, get the Openwave advantage.

Integrating payment systems with your app!

When it comes to integrating payment solutions with your mobile app, it’s all about being simple and secure. With Openwave providing you with White-label solutions, Push notification services, IVR payments and MPI integration services that are PCI-DSS compliant, what more can you ask for! Come, get the Openwave advantage!

Have a problem rebranding your app?

You can put paid to any worries regarding rebranding your payment solutions with Openwave giving you the freedom of White label solutions which allow you to rebrand and repackage the solution however and how many ever times you want! Once the solution is delivered to you, it is all yours to use and sell!

Is Your Mobile Application Simple and Quality Enough?

For a mobile app to be successful, its design needs to be simple, interactive and effective. Along with this, it also needs to stand up to the quality the user expects. And who better than Openwave, with its ISO 27001:2013 certification? If it’s mobile, it has to be Openwave!

Have you maximised your Android mobile UI impact?

Your Android mobile application’s use interface is the door to unlock your organization’s growth potential. A good UI is the first step towards ensuring a good user experience. Openwave, with its team of experienced mobile app designers knows what it takes to tailor a responsive mobile app to suit your business.

Worried about budget figures for your mobile app?

Want to build a quality mobile app but put off by the numbers that are shown by people? Well, it’s time to cast your doubts aside as Openwave gives you quality, responsive and user-centric mobile apps that are well-within your budget. Openwave does this with its ISO 27001:2013 certified quality delivery process!

To succeed, your Focus must be on quality!

There are many Open Source tools available today like Pttrns, Unsplash, Ios fonts etc. to develop the best design for your mobile app. But given the fact that everyone uses them, how does yours make a difference? This is where the developer’s quality come into focus. Take a look at Openwave’s portfolio and what our clients have to say about our quality to get an idea!

Ios has evolved, have you?

iOS has come a long way from its start by delving deeper and deeper into newer technologies and making them its own. With Swift and iOS 8, it has set the bar higher and this needs a new development approach too! Have you hired the right development partner to help you do this for you? Openwave, with its result-oriented delivery and ISO 27001:2013 certified quality process, is the right choice for you!  

How Effective Is Mcommerce?

         
Mcommerce is not just the latest fad in the mobile world, it is also the avenue of the greatest growth in the future.In this challenging market where marketing is as important you need to take the right approach. You may also face bottlenecks in the implementation of M-Commerce.

The use of M-commerce is a valuable tool to be used as a good marketing strategy In order for your business to be successful, it is necessary for your business to make people know about your brand or services that you offer.In this article we discuss some of the most effective strategies which increases reach & frequency of the visibility of your business to your target audience.

 Mobile commerce help in online transactions and promotes the buying and selling of wide range of goods and services through online banking, bill payment, information delivery and also known as m-commerce through making its way into purses or shirt pockets with some human touches.

What is the area of efficacy of mobile commerce applications?

Storefront modules 

This is the place where catalogs are categorized and compiled to facilitate easy browsing sessions for customers for collection of information.

Advertising module

This element enhances the merchants to extend their marketing channels to spread maximum awareness through targeted, direct marketing campaigns.
Ticketing module

This element enables the vendors to distribute vouchers, coupons and tickets and grab more customers.

Customer support module 

Customer support services are the entry point where a customer gathers information, offerings and deals, updates and latest information about the company, current discounts, shop locations and others.

Mobile banking 

Payments are the vital part of the whole process which make mobile billing, payments via sms, credit card payments and at physical POS terminals with NFC technology possible.

What are the benefits of Mcommerce?

Easy execution 

M-campaigns are easy to form and process and spread very fast.

Popular & inexpensive method 

Very cheap method to run a business & market the products/brands or services to reach people on a global range.

Effective and Higher response rate 

This is the most effective medium where the response rate is higher than any other media.

Greater  interactivity

Reaches more customers the place where they are due to their highly effective two-way communication.