How To Build Your Own Mobile Application

Today it is valuable for a business or service to be a player in the mobile application game. It is valuable in generating buzz about your business, and gives customers the ability to have an interactive relationship with you. It is possible you are simply a person who has the creative ideas to design an app of your own. Doing this does not have to be as difficult or expensive as you may think. In just a few simple steps, you can be on your way to designing and selling your own applications.

Getting your application built by an experienced developer will be the most important step. Prior to hiring a developer you should lay down some simple creative plans about what it is you want. You can base your app ideas on the type of business or service you run, and how best to target your specific audience. Interaction is the key, so be sure to figure out what it is about your company that your consumers are most interested in. Expert developers will help implement your ideas by writing programs and codes, and building the technological part of your app. If you don't know where to find an expert, or how to determine who will work best for you and your budget, you can post your project ideas on the internet, and receive bids on the project. Sites like GetAppsDone and Elance are good pages to start.

Once the basics of your application have been created, you will want to do some mobile app testing. Mobile app testing and load testing will help ensure that your finished app works and uploads exactly as you need it to. Finding out the issues with performance testing before you put your app on the market is crucial. An unusable application will do nothing but waste your time and finances. Testing of your product will save you money and time in the long run.

Once your application is developed, and all the kinks have been worked out, it will be time to try to sell it. Then you will upload your products to locations like The App Store and the Android Market. You can advertise your app and spread the word about it once your app is ready to download. Insert word about your application in whatever format of advertising your business is already using.

If the most important element of your mobile app development is saving money, there are a couple ways you can skimp on your budget. PhoneGap is a website that your developer can use for help. PhoneGap is a web service of pre-made modules. This saves a ton of days when it comes to coding and programming. You can find out if your developer would agree to being paid after the app starts to make money. This gives your developer a chance to make a larger amount of dollars in the end.

How to Build an iPhone App

Do you really want to build an iPhone app?

This might sound like a daft question at first. But I want to make sure that you have fully explored your target audience and considered whether it would be more suitable to launch an app on the Blackberry or Android platform.

If you have your mind set on an iPhone app, then I urge you to also consider what happens when it is a success? Yes, I am assuming that your iPhone application will be a success because they are growing so rapidly. Will the agency you use be able to launch a similar app on the other platforms so as not to alienate consumers? Will you choose to combine your iPhone app with perhaps a mobile website that would allow all other smartphone users to access your content?

Search out the iPhone apps you like!

I have managed many website and iPhone application projects and one of the mistakes I regularly come across is managers that are too reliant on the designers. I suggest that as part of your initial brief you really look into all the different types of iPhone apps that are within your market. If there are no iPhone apps then simply look at what you like. Consider why one flows better than another, what elements frustrate you and what ideas could you use to build your iPhone app.

Understanding Apple Connect for your iPhone Application

Apple Connect is a website used by your iPhone application developer. It is basically a website that holds the details of your app and is used to send your iPhone app binary code to Apple for them to approve... if you are lucky (I'll get to that in a moment)

It is also the place where everything you see on iTunes is managed. So those screen shots you see for each app, you guessed it, they are uploaded through connect. You may want to go through connect with your iPhone app developer just to get used to what you can and cannot do.

Pricing your iPhone Application

Apple operates a tiered pricing structure so all you have to do is select a pricing tier from 1-10 to set your price around the world i.e if it is 59p in the UK then it will automatically be 99 cents in the US. Again, you can access this with your iPhone developer by visiting Apple Connect.

Planning your iPhone app layout

Bespoke apps will be much less expensive if you do the ground work. By this I mean work out exactly what you want and create a 'work flow' diagram. Basically start with a blank picture of an iPhone and sketch in your iPhone app splash screen and homepage. Work out what buttons will go along the bottom of your iPhone app to create the menu - you can have five buttons.

Next, using lots of blank iPhone images, create a hierarchical structure of your iPhone application. By doing this, you can literally show your designer how you want it all to work i.e. click here and it shows this screen or searches this item. Don't worry too much about whether it is technically possible as your iPhone app designer will undoubtedly suggest some options for improvement. Once the iPhone app workflow is complete then you and your designer know exactly how the app should work.

Bespoke iPhone Apps V's Online App Builders

Only about 12 months ago, if you wanted to build an iPhone app then you had to look for a bespoke answer. Today things are rapidly changing and there are a number of US based companies and one UK company offering a build your app online service.

The fundamental difference between bespoke iPhone application development and online app builders is cost and flexibility. So it all comes down to 'what do you want your iPhone app to do?' and how much do you want to pay?

With bespoke iPhone applications you really can create just about anything and there are companies or individuals very skilled in this area. So ask yourself what you are trying to achieve. Is it brand building through clever entertainment or are you trying to get content to your customers in order to a) interact with them and build your brand or b) help them through to the final purchase of your product or service?

Think back a few years to the use of flash in website design. I was lucky enough to be part of a website pitch to Disney and guess what; we went over the top with flash. Incidentally we won the contract, however soon there were full flash websites everywhere. Today it is very much a different story, for most websites the number one objective is to get content across quickly and efficiently and in a manner that customers are used to, so for example, having the menu on the top or the left hand side of your webpage. Flash is now used predominantly in other areas to add to the overall user experience.

So for what might be classed as 'utility iPhone apps' stick to the rules and always think about the content you are trying to deliver.

Online iPhone App Builder

The main thing that you need to consider when using an online app builder is will it deliver what your customer needs? Can an online iPhone app builder offer your customer everything that they require without you having to spend anywhere between £3000 and £20000 plus, building a bespoke iPhone application!

Most online app builders allow you try them for free for either a set time or until you publish your app.

iPhone App Download Restraints

Your iPhone application needs to be less than 10mb's if you want users to be able to download it from their phone via a standard connection i.e. not wi-fi.

If you are developing an iPhone game application of sorts then you are likely to go over this limit, however for an iPhone business application, then ideally try to keep it under 10mb's

iPhone Content

If you read only one piece of text in this whole document, make sure you read this next part which looks at iPhone app content and the importance it has in getting your iPhone application signed off by Apple.

When you set about building your iPhone application the first thing you need to realise is that content is vital. Let's take entertainment and games out of the equation for a moment because by their very nature they are highly likely to get signed off. So let's concentrate on building a utility or business iPhone application.

Whatever you do, don't build it just because everyone else is. Build it with your customer in mind. Do your customers already view your products online, are they interested in your news, do they visit your website to access content that is not available elsewhere, can you help your customers with a problem, do you want to find out what your customers think? These are just some of the questions you should consider when building your iPhone application.

Like any marketing or communication tool...building an iPhone application only works as an entertainment gimmick on rare occasions. For 99% of us, it has to serve a real purpose.

What we do know however is that your customers want information, news, products or promotions in the palm of their hand and with an iPhone app you have the perfect marketing tool from them to access your content and interact with your company.

The Cost to build an iPhone Application

A bespoke app can cost anywhere from £3000 to £20000 upwards. The price of bespoke iPhone application development is decreasing as more and more as iPhone application developers enter the market.

Building an iPhone app online costs anywhere from between $10 -$100 per month rental in the US an around £45 per month in the UK.

Submitting your iPhone App

When your iPhone app is submitted to Apple for approval you can expect to hear whether it has been approved or rejected after 1 or 2 weeks. If it has been rejected than Apple will give you some indication as to what needs to be improved before you can submit your app again.

You will have to work with your developer to asses and fix the problem.

I hope that you find some of the information useful and good luck.

How to Build a Mobile Marketing App

People are using their smartphones to access more and more information and knowing how to build a mobile marketing app means that you can take advantage of this growing trend and put your business and services in the pockets and purses of the people living in your community.

While having a website may be important, until now getting your website in front of people living in your local community has often meant having to spend a great deal on website optimization. Now you can put all your details onto the phones of your town or city inhabitants quickly and effectively and can even make use of these great marketing tools to increase your website trade and improve your website optimization.

So How Does It Work?

A local business App is very similar to a mobile website, but is far more interactive and intuitive. Not only can you include interactive features such as having customers email photos taken with their devices right to your email box with the touch of a single button, but you can also reward them for doing just that. One of the most effective uses of an App include rewarding your loyal customers with discounts, specials and new products or services. While having a mobile website is like watching a movie, Apps are more like acting in it! Your customers can add comments on your App fan wall, they can make recordings and send them to your mailbox or can even scan your QR codes to reveal rewards.

Once your customers have downloaded your App onto their phones, you can then send them unlimited push notifications telling them about your discount offers & promotions. Push notifications are 100% permission based and are completely free of charge, so you can communicate with your customers without having to spend another dime. You can also build your mailing list through the App and can add your shopping cart if you want to offer that service. In addition, you'll be able to add all your social media sites and have instant updates as they appear and unlike your mobile website, your App can go viral and can be sent from one person to another through the integrated tell a friend feature. Now your happy customers can pass the word on in a way that makes sense - with just the touch of a single button.

How to Build a Mobile Marketing App?

If you don't have any technical skills, fear not! There are a wide range of app building softwares available online. Some softwares work only with the Apple operating system, while others will allow you to build Apps for both Apple and Android. Many of these app building softwares have easy to navigate back offices where you will be required to cut and paste information and upload graphics of a particular size. It is important to check the features included by each of these companies and find the ones that will best suit your business needs and requirements.

Package prices will depend on the number of features included, how much pre-build work is done for you and how much work is required by yourself to complete the App. You will also want to ensure that there are no hidden costs such as having to open a developers account for the Apple store, or having limited push notifications. Where possible it is best to find a platform that includes guaranteed acceptance in the App stores, or you may find yourself submitting and re-submitting resulting in multiple costs just to get your App live.

What Should it Cost You?

If you are going to be building your own App from the ground up on an App building software, then consider the cost of submitting it, the developers account costs and the time that it will take to complete the task. It is possible to get a pre-built App including a certain number of features to ensure its acceptance into the App stores for less than $500 and with a growing number of companies offering these services, you can even find them for less than $400. For this price you should also be able to get both an Apple and Android App built - there are a number of two for the price of one specials online.

It is important to remember that you will be charged a monthly hosting fee. Things to look at when calculating a good hosting price are:-

- Are unlimited graphics and pages included?

- Are unlimited push notifications included?

- Are there additional features which you can add later?

- Is the hosting per platform or is a hosting bundle?

Limited hosting packages can be found online for as little as $8-$10 per platform, and an unlimited hosting bundle including Android, Apple and HTML 5 shouldn't have to cost you more than $50 per month.

Knowing how to build a mobile marketing App will ensure that you get the product you want for a price you can afford and will ensure that you too can take advantage of this innovative and cost-effective marketing tool.

Smarter Ways to Build Smartphone Applications

Mobile applications have become popular among various users. There are apps for preparing bar exams, checking heartbeat (used as stethoscope), prepare recipes, guide you on tour, etc. There are also business apps like CRM, ERP and BI solutions used for sales and business level of people. Among the usage and popularity of these apps iPhone & iPad comes first in the list, where android apps market has competed with the equal amount, but it comes second for Business apps. Windows mobile apps comes third.

Many of the companies and individuals have developed variety of free and paid apps. There are also expensive iPhone apps of cost $1000. But are the developers or developing companies taking right decision to develop these applications. The complexities of the apps vary from simple calculator app (which takes a day) to an enterprise ERP or BI app (which may take months to build). But most of the app developers follow the traditional way of developing these applications for iPhone, iPad or android.

Most of the companies are focusing only on native apps, which can be made easier in different ways. Developing an iPhone app in xcode is the traditional way of developing the iPhone or iPad applications. There are also frameworks available like Rhodes and Titanium, which makes the work easier for many of the apps. These frameworks have been developed to create the native iPhone, iPad, android or windows apps, with only single level of coding. These frameworks works with commonly known and easier languages like Ruby and Python. The developer who is familiar with these languages and interested in developing Smartphone applications doesn't need to start with objective-C or Java. It is enough for him to know how these frameworks works. Also these are open source frameworks available for free.

We have seen the advantages of using the frameworks to develop multi platform mobile apps above. These frameworks also have its limits on certain cases of performance. It's the developer who need to analyze the complexity and performance to be addressed for the app he is going to develop. If the apps' functionality is going to be simple and involves lot of coding when using native SDK he can prefer the frameworks to build the app, which takes lesser time to develop. Or if the app really needs to be addressed on performance and other issues, which is very well supported by native SDK, he can go with it. So any app developers should be able to adapt him dynamically in choosing the way to build an app. There are only few iPhone development companies in India, who also works on multi-platform frameworks like Rhodes & Titanium to build the apps in lesser time and can adapt them based on the complexity of apps. Adapt the smarter way to build the smart apps.

Contact us for more information: contactus@innoppl.com

iPhone - 7 Rules to Build Killer iPhone Apps

Bet you never thought the iPhone would grow so alarmingly popular. But it has, and we cannot simply ignore it or the millions of applications that float in the Apple App Store.

From funny to unique, unique to unusual and bizarre, diverse kinds of applications rule the App Store. Hundreds of more such are launched everyday. With the App Store growing bigger and bigger everyday, the lifetime of an ordinary app denigrates to less than a week. Making a breakthrough iPhone app is indeed a challenge all iPhone application developers face.

To launch a top-selling iPhone app is no easy job and requires a lot of racking your brain. Though there is no exact science to build a killer iPhone app, you can launch a near-perfect top seller if you follow these 7 rules of the thumb:

1. Innovate: Try something novel. Does your iPhone app have the "wow" factor? Is it innovative, out of the ordinary? Is it the only one in its kind? If yes, your app will definitely get due recognition in the App Store.

2. Make it usable: Your apps can be extraordinarily creative and startlingly new. But users are going to keep it idle if it is not usable. Build an app which has utility value. Fancy apps are good, but they don't get you anywhere. A usability specialist says that one should follow Apple's sterling virtue of "intuitive and consistent usability" while building apps for the iPhone.

3. Keep it Simple: Keeping it simple is a golden rule in mobile application development. No one wants an app that confuses or complicates things for them. The more difficult you make your app for usage, the less recognition it is going to receive from users.

4. Pricing: Anything sells if given for free in the Internet world. This does not mean you need to give your killer app for free. You can price it anywhere between $0.99 to $20. But, act prudently. Your app will get more exposure when given for free than when launched with a price tag. Maybe you can try different strategies. You can give your beta version for free and put a price on newer versions.

5. Provide Support: Be responsive to how your app performs in the store. If users are having difficulty in handling some feature, try to change it or post guides on how to handle your app.

6. Upgrades: Anything left idle grows stale. Never leave your app in beta. Keep upgrading new features. Listen to your users and add as many new features as possible. People who failed notice your app during its launch may notice its upgraded version and start using it.

7. Marketing is must: Yes, without doubt, this is important in killer-app making. You cannot create a killer app if you fail to market it. The more your app is marketed, the more it gets noticed by users. Instead of aggressive marketing, engage in useful, result-oriented marketing. You'll definitely hit the road to success.

iPhone - 7 Rules to Build Killer iPhone Apps

Bet you never thought the iPhone would grow so alarmingly popular. But it has, and we cannot simply ignore it or the millions of applications that float in the Apple App Store.

From funny to unique, unique to unusual and bizarre, diverse kinds of applications rule the App Store. Hundreds of more such are launched everyday. With the App Store growing bigger and bigger everyday, the lifetime of an ordinary app denigrates to less than a week. Making a breakthrough iPhone app is indeed a challenge all iPhone application developers face.

To launch a top-selling iPhone app is no easy job and requires a lot of racking your brain. Though there is no exact science to build a killer iPhone app, you can launch a near-perfect top seller if you follow these 7 rules of the thumb:

1. Innovate: Try something novel. Does your iPhone app have the "wow" factor? Is it innovative, out of the ordinary? Is it the only one in its kind? If yes, your app will definitely get due recognition in the App Store.

2. Make it usable: Your apps can be extraordinarily creative and startlingly new. But users are going to keep it idle if it is not usable. Build an app which has utility value. Fancy apps are good, but they don't get you anywhere. A usability specialist says that one should follow Apple's sterling virtue of "intuitive and consistent usability" while building apps for the iPhone.

3. Keep it Simple: Keeping it simple is a golden rule in mobile application development. No one wants an app that confuses or complicates things for them. The more difficult you make your app for usage, the less recognition it is going to receive from users.

4. Pricing: Anything sells if given for free in the Internet world. This does not mean you need to give your killer app for free. You can price it anywhere between $0.99 to $20. But, act prudently. Your app will get more exposure when given for free than when launched with a price tag. Maybe you can try different strategies. You can give your beta version for free and put a price on newer versions.

5. Provide Support: Be responsive to how your app performs in the store. If users are having difficulty in handling some feature, try to change it or post guides on how to handle your app.

6. Upgrades: Anything left idle grows stale. Never leave your app in beta. Keep upgrading new features. Listen to your users and add as many new features as possible. People who failed notice your app during its launch may notice its upgraded version and start using it.

7. Marketing is must: Yes, without doubt, this is important in killer-app making. You cannot create a killer app if you fail to market it. The more your app is marketed, the more it gets noticed by users. Instead of aggressive marketing, engage in useful, result-oriented marketing. You'll definitely hit the road to success.