Mobile Apps Development

Welcome to the Era of Wearable Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:28:00 +0000

Welcome to the Era of Wearable Computing: (Article Source: http://news.thomasnet.com)

If you’re a bit of a futurist (and still waiting for your jetpack), you’re probably more than a little excited about wearable computer technology—and if you’re in the device production industry, you might already be eyeing the many opportunities for entering this new market.

There’s good reason for the excitement. A new report from IMS Researchon the world market for wearable technology found that 14 million wearable high-tech devices were shipped in 2011; by 2016, the market will present a minimum revenue opportunity of $6 billion. In addition, Juniper Researchestimates that there will be nearly 70 million smart wearable devices sold in 2017.

Google’s new “augmented reality” head-mounted display is one of the most prominent examples of wearable technology. Nicknamed “Project Glass,” it is a prototype pair of computerized glasses that displays information in smartphone-like format before the user’s eyes, allowing for voice command navigation of mobile apps and the Internet.

The glasses could help you navigate the streets, display your messages, check the weather, identify stars in the night sky, manage your music and videos, and many other tasks. While the glasses aren’t yet available to the public, rumors abound that they may appear in the first half of 2013 and become available for public purchase by the end of the year.

Yet “Project Glass” isn’t the only wearable technology causing a stir. While personal health monitoring devices have been available for a long time, they generally rely on manual user input, which makes them prone to user error. The market is already flooded with wearable devices such as wristbands and watches that help measure fitness levels, but newer devices are far more body-integrated.

Sensors on the body in the form of clothing or patches (or even implants inside the body) allow wearable computing devices to act as advanced biomonitors that keep track of a variety of metrics: pulse and respiration, blood flow, oxygen saturation, blood sugar, disease markers, brain wave activity, and many other indicators that can help patients and health care professionals monitor and treat chronic disease.

These health care devices can do more than just monitor, however. The Zoll LifeVest is a wearable defibrillator that monitors patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. If a dangerous arrhythmia is detected, the device can deliver a shock to restore normal heart rhythm.

GENTAG has a portfolio of patents for “smart” disposable wireless skin patches that can test blood sugar or deliver critical drugs. They work in conjunction with smartphones with near field communication (NFC) technology.

California-based Pancreum sells a wearable artificial pancreas that monitors blood glucose levels and acts as an insulin pump to maintain proper sugar levels for severely diabetic patients.

Given the market potential for wearable technology in the medical device industry, it’s safe to say that nearly every major health care company already has plans for harnessing this new product category.

The less practical (and one might say more exciting) aspect of wearable technology is in the augmented reality market. In addition to Google, eyewear manufacturer Oakley is reportedly working on a heads-up display (HUD) technology that would project data onto lenses. Oakley already produces ski goggles that visually deliver information about speed, “jump time,” height, and airtime, thanks to built-in GPS technology. The goggles, priced at $600, come with a companion Apple iOS app.

A little farther afield is wearable technology integrated into textiles to make “smart cloth.” The challenge is in finding a way to combine electronics into soft interfaces, and these efforts are still largely in the research phase. While a major application for smart clothing would be health and fitness monitoring, there is also the potential for fun: being able to turn down the volume on a music player by brushing a sleeve, changing the color of a garment while wearing it, or even displaying changeable text and images on a shirt.

There are already a few smart clothing items on the market. The Locked ON Proximity Sensing T-Shirt, available at ThinkGeek, features a “radar screen” that scans the area for other Locked ON shirts. ThinkGeek also offers a WiFi-sensing t-shirt that will let the wearer know when he or she is in a WiFi hotspot.

In the near future, we can also expect to see a smart glove, something that Google is already reportedly working on, according to a recently filed patent. The prototype includes cameras on the fingertips, a compass, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and other motion detectors along with a processor, memory storage, and wireless communication capabilities.

The potential for apps for such a glove are nearly endless: computer interface navigation, enhanced visuals, GPS-based directions, magnification, remote physical examination by health care workers, virtual keyboarding just by moving the fingers, and much more.

As new gadgets (and apps that make them useful) begin to crowd the marketplace, many analysts wonder how the wearable computing economy will develop and mature. The future of wearable technology will be heavily influenced by the platform developers, and be guided by investments from giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.

Developers of new wearable devices and applications will need to “pick a platform,” or consider producing their solutions on multiple operating systems. As was the case with smartphone apps, developers will need to hedge their bets and decide which platforms have the most potential.

We at Agicent Technologies (www.agicent.com) have already started creating custom Apps for wearable computing devices, started with creating Apps for wearable scanners, and Sports/ athelete monitoring device. Email to sales@agicent.com to know more about our Expertise in Apps Development for wearable computing devices, and iPhone Apps development, Android Apps development; and check how can we help you in your projects as an expert third-party app developers.

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AppBooker | Find a mobile app developer | Agicent Technologies | Public

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:36:00 +0000

AppBooker | Find a mobile app developer | Agicent Technologies | Public

HTML5 vs. Native: What's a Mobile Developer to Do? - Application Development - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:49:00 +0000

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company's biggest mistake was using HTML5 for mobile development it sent a wave across the development landscape, re-igniting the conversation over whether to go native or HTML5, Web-standards based when building mobile apps.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 conference, Zuckerberg said Facebook's biggest strategic mistake was in adopting HTML5 for building its mobile app for devices and said that a recent rewrite of the app delivered better performance.

"We burned through two years on that," Zuckerberg said. "It probably was the biggest strategic mistake we made." Read more here at - HTML5 vs. Native: What's a Mobile Developer to Do? - Application Development - News & Reviews - eWeek.com:

'via Blog this'

noreply@blogger.com (iOSdevChamps) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:59:00 +0000

How much does it cost to build an iOS App?

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:29:00 +0000

Well, writing this post after a long gap, I was busy contributing on Quora, mashable, or mobilecrunch pertinent to the Mobile business for long. And during my time spent there, I realized that the most common question early stage Mobile start-ups or established companies who are looking to expand their Mobile strategy ask is "How much does it cost to build my first Mobile App", or "How much does it cost to build an App like Instagram or Angry birds etc.".

It is however true that one can't derive a potential development cost of a project (be it an App or any other software for that matter) unless business requirements (Target devices, OS versions, target demography etc.), and Functional requirements (App features, USP feature, Server backed or static app, and much more!), and Level of QA you want; and also "Geography of development" is a factor. :)

But we need to have at least some spread (be it too wide) for the cost, so in this post, we are going to discuss the Question given in bold only, and not the one related to Instagram or Angry birds, since I personally feel that is vague and like asking "how much does it cost to build a movie like Twilight" Huh...so let us focus on reality and forget hypothetical scenarios.

So if you have this question in mind, then it means you have a business plan in place or is in progress. And, then we need to assume some scenarios to nail down on the costing part. Here are the assumptions:

1. We are going to talk about cost on one OS platform only, in this case let us take iOS (iPhone/ iPad/ iPod).
2. We assume that development will be done in phases, so we'll talk about launch version 1.0; and not the cost of evolving the product since it is subjective and depends upon the success.
3. We assume that development will be done by a Third-party Mobile App Developers, mostly located in hot outsourcing destinations like India.
4. We are Not Including the cost for "Marketing/ promotional activities" here. It is strictly for development front.
5. We are Not Including the cost for the development of "creatives/ artwork" here. It is strictly for programming efforts. However, cost of creatives/ artwork is usually lesser for most of the apps, unless it is a 3D game, an e-Book, or high graphic oriented App.
And finally, we need to categorize the Apps (not on the basis of their business type, but in terms of their features/ size etc.) to derive out a cost spread; so here we go (The numbers could be more or less due to inflation and other economic factors) :)

1. A simple App with no backend (and no algorithm!), but just static functionality, with 5-6 screens - should be between 5 to 6K USD. An example could be a simple 'diet planner App", "photo frame app", "calculator app/ budget planner", "Simple grocery list" and so on. These kind of Apps ideas usually come from Individual mobile enthusiasts, with a hope to gain some market (and some have gained huge too), and at I and Agicent appreciate them a lot. It is worth trying instead of sitting and thinking that you had an idea which could’ve done wonders, but you just couldn’t dare!

2. A bit heavier App with a DB/ server (Exchanges data via API), with backend dependent functionality, search/ data inputs/ result screens, with content being exchanged back and forth between client side and server, using device's resource like camera/ gps/ bluetooth functionality etc or more, should be costing between 14 K to 20K (for launch version) (QA and Performance optimization are also a bigger job in such projects). Some examples are - Map based Apps, Event search Apps, News/ Press Center Apps, small sales demo apps for enterprise, consumer-oriented apps, corporate identity apps, City guides/ restro-bar finding apps, taxi apps and so on). Please note that most of the utility apps fall in this category; and this is a competitive slot to be in; but it has gotten an active/ app lover user-base as well, so high competition and high returns. :)

3. A complex App with a decent server side component (with lots of functionality, frequent content management, intelligent algorithms, religious QA/ Testing, using almost all resources of device including camera, gps, accelerometer; and then having features pertinent to iAds, inApp purchase, Video streaming lite/ premium versions, State-of-the art backend CMS panel and much more); such App (or better we call it complete mobile solution) should be costing starting from 25 K USD (for launch version with only core features) to beyond 50K (for advanced versions after achieving good user base).

Some examples could be - a fully fledged "social media app", An Enterprise App (probably mobile CRM thing or so), niche-targeting e-commerce App, Healthcare/ EMR Apps, Location-tracking apps and so on.

4. And if it is a high-graphics oriented game (2D/ 3D etc.)- Then it should be starting from minimum 20 K, and you can then go beyond 100 K (as you'd keep on increasing the features, stages, graphics, of the game; utilizing social media/ game center as well). Take any good game as an example, it must not have been done in price lesser than 20 K.

Bottom line is again the same, pricing depends upon: what kind of app you want to build and what kind of market you are looking to target, and how much concerned you are regarding the quality/ stand-out capability of your App!

And as all experienced software product companies say and share their experience, Note that the development of commercial level software covers only 25-35 % of the overall business-budget that you have, and rest of the money should be utilized to promote/ market your product, and for future upgrades/ updates and support & maintenance. The ideas/ feedback you get from your user base are most valuable and should be catered if one needs growth. So consider this overall cost too, unless you believe that your App idea is "unique" and will become a Holy hit just after you'd submit it. Sorry for the bit of pun, but even to achieve a "word of mouth" you've to invest a lot (and intelligently!) in the beginning!

Another trivial cost is, enrolment to iTunes store should be costing you around 199 $ or so annually to build/ test/ submit/ and sustain your product on the store; so add this too in the “App Development” front only.

Just to recap, I didn't cover the "fee for artwork/ creative work" here and the “cost of marketing”; and in any of the slots given above except games - cost of artwork should be ranging between 10 to 25 % of the overall price. In case of Game, that could be more than 50 % sometimes. ;)

Feel free to let the questions and discussions flow, you can either comment on this post, or write me an Email at sales@agicent.com, or fill out our contact us form here. http://www.agicent.com/contact_us.html. I’ll be prompt in answering genuine feedback/ questions.

If you want to see what how we assist our visionary customers in Mobile Apps Development business, then download and see a detailed presentation here - http://www.agicent.com/mobile_excellence_center.ppsx.

And if you wish to follow myself/ or Agicent Technologies; then here are our social contact points:

• Quora: http://www.quora.com/Sudeep-Bhatnagar/answers.
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Agicent-Technologies/130272320328111
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sudeep117.
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/iPhoneDevChamps
• Mashable: http://mashable.com/follow/iphonedevchamps/

You may google more, and land up on more profiles of ours, even I don’t remember all of those handy. :)

I await your Emails, Let the knowledge flow…always!

Warmest Regards
-Sudeep Bhatnagar
Director of Business
Agicent Technologies
www.agicent.com

PS: I am thinking to cover the topics of “How to successfully manage and get executed your software project”, and “What are my ROIs in Mobile App business”. Let me know if these sounds interesting, or Email me with what you want me to write.

Reaching 10M Downloads, And The Guerrilla Marketing Tactics We Used To Get There | TechCrunch

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:25:00 +0000

It's a very nice article and experience share on Techcrunch for everyone who is interested in Mobile Apps business or doing that - Click on the link and read on!!

Reaching 10M Downloads, And The Guerrilla Marketing Tactics We Used To Get There | TechCrunch:

'via Blog this'

And to know how can we assist you in developing a quality Mobile App, or enhance your existing ones; feel free to drop a note at sales@agicent.com. We provide Mobility Consulting, Software Development, Testing/ QA, and R&D Services to Start ups to mid size Software Product Companies and also to mid to large size enterprises.

Chrome Releases: Stable Channel Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Chrome Releases: Stable Channel Update

Should we build our Mobile App (iPhone, Android) in html5 or go with native applications? - Quora

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:12:00 +0000

Should we build our startup iPhone/Android apps in html5 or go with native applications? - Quora:

Anyone having similar question may get benefited by following post in Quora - Click here for the post.

Let me know if you have any questions, the post is pretty descriptive and informative.

Best ways to find out a great iPhone App Developer/ Mobile App developer for your project?

noreply@blogger.com (Sdeep Agicent) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:38:00 +0000

So you've a million dollar App Idea and now looking for a suitable and professional mobile apps developer company to turn your idea into an high quality mobile app, but confused which way to go about? If that is what you are stuck at right now, then keep reading on...

Let me first of all mention here that any Mobile Apps Development or the buzzword iPhone Apps development is a typical Software Development task only, the only difference can be the comparatively short duration of the project development and testing wrt an Enterprise level software development. But in either case, Quality, Time-to-market, User Experience, Usability, and Price of product are of top significance. So whether it is iPhone Apps development company or an Android Apps development one, it is a Software Development Company at the first place and hence it requires a great degree of expertise, capabilities, processes/ methodologies, and Quality standards to develop an Mobile Application!

So coming back to the best ways to find out a great iPhone/ Android Apps development company, here we go step by step:

Step 1. Do your homework, get your idea on paper and well documented, and try to have wire-frames (even pen-sketched would do) handy beforehand.

This is the most important base of any successful App development venture. Get ready with your idea done on paper, it should be well documented with all the features and functionality requirements of the app, covering details of any backend/ server side information (if, any pertinent), and MUST BE showcasing the flow of your app, either in a diagram format, or sketched by pen, or a .PSD file, or on a PPTX, or using some tools like this - Keynote kungoo template, or OmniGraffle, or just go through some posts on Quora here for more information on this - http://www.quora.com/Should-iPhone-and-Android-apps-be-wireframed-separately, http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-methods-for-wireframing-iPhone-apps.

Again, I personally recommend having a pen-paper App flow first before anything else. And then you've liberty to either use these tools, or hiring a designer, or thinking on outsourcing design work as well along with the coding of the app.

Note: If you are targeting two or more platforms i.e Android and iPhone, then try to have separate app flow wireframes for each, despite the fact that app will be similar, but still both devices are different for applications behavior in few ways, so better to treat these different. This is just recommended, and a good Mobile Apps Development company can iterate one for another easily, with a couple of discussions and back and forth review sessions. :)

Step 2. Clear with what you want? Start hunting for development company, create a raw list of potential development companies!

Now you have all the information and stuff with you and know what you are looking for, so you should take all or any of the steps given below to create a raw list of potential software development companies:

Option 1. Spread the word in your contact circle about your requirements (if you are comfortable doing that, most are not though) and see if you get any references of professional Mobile Apps Development companies (Not part-timers or freelancers please, they have least accountability of the work they do), that have good expertise, experience, and reasonable rates for you.

Well, this doesn't work always due to one reason or another. May be developers in your location (for ex. USA) are too costly, or difficult to be found out, or are too busy to take up your project, or may be you don't have any expert in your direct/ indirect circle. So, you can't only rely on this, because time is significant and you just shouldn't wait for a developer to come up from your contacts first, and then only you kick off. Not recommended as the sole option!

Option 2. Do a google search with right keywords, or search via social networks like Quora, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and then browse through search pages, quickly check out websites of potential development companies, and contact all that look promising and professional at first look! (This mostly works, and is a recommended step)

You can do a google search with keywords like "iPhone Apps Developers", "Iphone Apps Development Companies", "Mobile Apps Development Companies", "Mobile Apps Developers India", "Top custom Mobile Apps developers", "Android Apps Development Companies" and so on.

Once you get results as per these keywords, search through first 4-5 pages or more, and keep on clicking on websites listed there, and start contacting the ones which look more professional, stable, and corporate level websites (recommending - consider the ones which look lesser flashy, more professional, lesser jazzy and more corporate, they are anyways custom software development companies and not Product/ App publishing companies for God's sake so the ones giving you to-the-point and relevant information about their services should be good).

Generally, services companies have online contact us forms to be filled up by you, or a sales ID given, so use any option and contact them, with your name/ contact details and about a brief about what are you looking for (for example you can simply write: "Hi, John here from NY and I'm looking for skilled iPhone Apps developers for my Location based social App project and Backend, revert to my E-mail ID if you are interested, thanks"), and wait for the responses.

Option 3. Post your project on freelancing/ online markeplaces sites like vworker.com, Elance, oDesk as a commodity and wait for responses. (Least recommended option if you are an enterprise seeking for long term accountable relationship and quality development, and even if you are an individual with no or lesser experience of outsourcing work via these portals)

Well, I'm sorry to say this option as least recommended, but it is unfortunately true to much extent. Of course there are success stories of projects done via these portals, but there are equal or more number of flop stories as well.

Even I've my company's profile on these portals, but we are hardly active on any, except one vworker.com (and that too because of some emotional reasons, and successful big ventures in the past via the same) and I won't recommend you to post and auction your project as a commodity in the market full of part-timers, non genuine players, insanely low cost providers and with lowest quality who promise you the world but give you pain in reality, blind bidders and so on).

You'll ofcourse receive many bids on your project in few days, and widely ranging from USD 500 to USD 10,000 for the same piece of work. Isn't it bit funny? It will take a lot of pain out of you to weed out the non-genuine, non promising bidders from the list, and then talking to 3-4 potential ones and choosing one.

Also, these portals have least human touch, which is I believe is really required for any software outsourcing relationship. These portals facilitate work on standard protocol and processes, and although it turns out to be great sometimes, but still lacks what you can have while directly dealing with professional software development companies. It is hard to explain this in words, but if you've experienced that you'd know it (I've an experience of working with 3 freelancers in the past, and it was almost a pain for me to keep telling them what was their responsibility, duties, and that my project should've been on their priority), but since most of them are part timers and working for extra money, they don't treat you as valuable customer as a professional company would do. Think about it.

Anyways, we are done with the steps of creating a raw short list of potential developers. Now take the next step.

Step 3. Check out responses coming via any of the medium/ source mentioned above and start screening/ further shortlisting.

You are getting responses and great interests for your project, good! Now, sit with a cool head and count how many different developer companies and freelancers have responded to your web inquiry, or freelancer site's project post, or contacted you via direct reaching (where companies like us mostly reach their target customers via E-mail and introducing respective services).

If these are more than 10, then do an initial level screening at your end, weed out Freelancers right away, weed out the ones that have sent you an automated/ or template response (it should be specific and by a thoughtful individual) and consider the ones which are specific, asking you for further details, and suggesting you next steps for the sales process. Share the specific project requirements with short listed vendors after signing an NDA/ confidentiality agreement.

Step 4. Create your vendor selection criteria (keep it flexible as it gets and should get modified as along with the purchase process, because you gain some knowledge during that), and start screening.

A recommended Vendor Selection Criteria should have following major parameters:

1. Responsiveness during the process. (Just think that the ones who are having a lazy sales team are unlikely to have a robust development team, exceptions are there though) :)

2. Stability and Size of the company.

3. Expertise and skill-sets level, Previous experience & references, and Mobile domain knowledge. (most important, anyone can say they are one of the best, but it is you who'll decide if they are best-matching to your needs or not).

4. Quality of questions they ask you about your project, and their attitude towards you (are they supportive and suggestive and act as consultants, or they just treat you as a mere lead).

5. Pricing and reasoning behind the pricing they are offering, and payment terms. Companies usually take some percentage of total amount as kick-off fee (in advance) and which is a standard practice.

6. Transparency - How transparently they share the estimation with low-level task break up, the reasons of the final price, calculations, sharing of genuine CVs of resources, facilitating interview with the proposed developer and team lead and so on.

7. Quality and Project Execution processes - ask them to share some details about how they execute the project, and what quality standards they follow; and compare the answers/ information coming from each company. Just note that promising world is easy to win a customer, but consider what seems worthy in practical terms.

8. Your overall experience and comfort level with each potential company during the decision-making process: that may sound kiddish but is most important. Ultimately, you'll be working closely with them for next 2 to 6 months (depending upon the duration of the project) so it is really important for you to figure out with whom you are getting a Team-work feeling and a comfort/ transparent atmosphere.
9. Proposed Agreements, terms & conditions, accountability clauses, and post delivery support.

You can list down all these parameters in the left hand column of a matrix, give them percentage weight age out of 100 (for ex. pricing may be having 15 % weight and quality of questions may have 12 % and so on) then create corresponding rows for each company head and its total score. Score each company against each parameter on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being least and 10 being best), then multiply the score with the weight-age of corresponding parameter, and do the total of each company's score at the bottom.

Let me try to explain it with an example table:

		Score Company A		Score Company B		Score Company C
Parameter	Weight-age (out of 100)	Individual Score	Weighted Score	Individual Score	Weighted Score	Individual Score	Weighted Score
Responsiveness during the process.	20 %	5	20*5
Stability and years in business of the company.	10 %	7	10*7
Expertise and skill-sets level, and Mobile domain knowledge.	X %	2	X*2
Previous Work Experience, References	Y %	6	Y*6
Total	100 Percent		Total A		Total B		Total C

Please note that the total given in blue highlight/ white color text are the decisive scores. It seems to be a bit theoretical method, but you can try using it, it really works, because you've all the scoring on one single paper, and based on the total scores, you can further weed out the non-matching players. I don't say that go ahead with the total scoring only, but it will atleast give you some solid base for decision-making.

Step 4. Share your intent to work with the selected vendor, finalize on development plan, payment modes and milestones, agreement, and kick off!

I'll try to explain one of the best and optimized ways to a successful project completion, and how to achieve a mutually comfortable and long term relationship with your Software development partner in my next blog.

Alternatively, for any kind of Mobile App development project, or enterprise software development services requirements of yours, you can contact me directly via Email, or fill out our Contact Us form and get a quote. We provide high quality development services at affordable rates, and act as your true technology partner by leveraging our deep Mobile domain expertise and consulting.

Will appreciate your comments!

Best Regards
SDeep

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