Seven Free Android Apps For Small Business Owners

Running a small business is never easy. There are network contacts to manage, meetings to attend, and expenses to track. Small business owners often wear many hats and perform multiple tasks in order to operate a business on a daily basis. Fortunately, there are ways to make these tasks simpler and the smartphone is a perfect device to get the job done. Many free applications are available for the Android phone that are designed to make life easier for anyone who manages or operates a business.

CamCard Lite - This free version of the highly rated CamCard app that makes it easy to share and save business cards in one location. It is the epitome of a digital rolodex. Business cards are captured through the phone camera and the contact data is saved in the phone address book and are searchable, making it easy to organize and find the right contact for your business needs. The lite version allows users to capture 10 cards during the first week and then 2 cards per week after that. For heavy networkers who are collecting many cards per week, there is the full upgrade for $11.99 with no limitations.

Google Voice - Google Voice has transformed the way many use and manage their communications. With one Google Voice number, you can forward your calls to all your numbers including your cell phone, land line and business office number. Voicemails are transcribed and can be sent via email or text. The service also lets you make free calls and text messages within the United States and Canada both from your phone and your desktop computer. International calls are much cheaper than the traditional counterparts.

Barcode Scanner - Although not specifically a business app, Barcode Scanner allows you to scan product barcodes and QR codes on the fly. From QR codes, you can save contact information, calendar events, text messages and URLs and show the information on a map. You can also create your own QR codes to share with colleagues who can scan them directly from your phone.

Bump - This novelty info sharing application lets you share data or contact information with someone else's phone with a fist bump. By selecting the item you want to share, simply hold your phone and gently tap your fist with another Bump user.

PDANet - Have you ever been out to a meeting with a client only to discover that your internet connection was bad or non-existent? PDANet comes in handy during these situations. This app is a great utility that lets you share the internet connection from your phone with your computer without having to have root access on your phone. Your connection speed with be the same as that of your phone's.

CamScanner - This useful app turns your phone into a document scanner. Save business expense receipts or capture the whiteboard notes in your office to reference while on the go. CamScanner allows you to scan multi page documents and do batch processing. Scanned files are converted to PDF format and can be shared through 3rd party services like Dropbox or Google Docs.

Astro File Manager - This app is a multi purpose tool for managing all your files on your Android. It lets you copy, rename, move, delete and send file attachments through email with ease. You can also extract zipped or tarred file. In additions, this app monitors your memory and CPU usage, allows you to see what processes are running and lets you backup your files and applications to a memory card.

In this age of mobile devices, the smartphone has become the small business owner's best friend. As the Android application development market continues to grow, more advanced tools will be at our fingertips and continue the way people do business.

What's Better for Business - iPhone or Android Apps?

The popularity of mobile applications, or apps, has caused businesses of all types to try their hand at the mobile market. Creating a mobile app that ties in with your business can be a smart move, but it's not without some risk. Not only that, but knowing which of the two most popular mobile platforms to develop for can be a tricky decision to make.

Developing a Mobile App - Pros & Cons

Before creating an app for your business, it's important to make sure it's a good investment by weighing the benefits versus the drawbacks.

Pros:

- Provides better customer service, allowing users to access your business directly from their phone.

- Shows your business is modern

- Provides your business with more exposure by essentially advertising your company to anyone that browses the app store on their phone.

Cons:

- Requires a significant investment that may offer your business no additional revenue.

- Highly competitive app market means your app may not be downloaded.

- Very difficult to develop a mobile app that perfectly fits your business.

The iPhone

Once you've determined that a mobile app is a right fit, you'll have to choose which platform you want to release it on. The iPhone, due to its massive popularity, may seem like an obvious choice. For one, it has a huge install base that loves to download apps. Secondly, your app can be developed to work on any iPhone since they all have the same specifications. It does have its share of problems, however. For one, the iPhone app store is very competitive. The iPhone app store is significantly larger than the Android market, meaning you have less of a chance at competing. Secondly, while growth is high now for the iPhone, the market for Android-based phones is just beginning and growing at an exponential rate.

Android Phones

The main reason to choose to develop an app for the Android market is due to its growing user base. It has a huge install base of potential customers that continues to grow. Secondly, there is less competition in the Android market, giving your app a better chance to shine. Conversely, while the Android market share is widening, it is spread across hundreds of different phones. Making an app that works with all of them can therefore be tricky. Secondly, despite a large market share, the overall number of apps downloaded to Android phones is dwarfed by that of those downloaded to the iPhone. Even with no competition, your app still might not get downloaded.

Conclusion

If you are sure you want to develop a mobile app for your business, you're currently better off developing for the iPhone. It's overall simpler to develop for, it has a large install base, and its users are known to download a lot of apps. If your iPhone app is a success, however, consider creating an Android app to match. It's a growing market for website development that shouldn't be ignored.

Give Wings to Your Mobile Application Development Business

A report which was published by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2008 stated that there are more than 5 billion mobile phone users.It also stated that 1.9 billion people are using mobile internet. Recent statistics state that Apple has sold out more than one billion applications from their iTunes store. When compared to mobile applications, traditional web applications and enterprise software solutions consume very high bandwidths. In order to save on bandwidth and also to function effectively, mobile solutions are being more accepted in recent times. This is the driving force for all software companies to come up with better mobile applications.

Mobile applications can be built for different business verticals like healthcare, banking, insurance and many others. These applications can be built on different mobile platforms like iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and BREW. These applications can be stored at their respective mobile app store. As a matter of fact the revenue of an individual or company increases by downloading the application which is in the app store by the users.

In today's scenario the common applications from where the revenue flow is high are Games, geo-tagging, music applications, currency converters, online libraries and offers in popular showrooms.

Games Applications: Mobile gaming is an addiction in the recent times irrespective of age or status of the mobile users. The majority of downloads taking place for mobile game applications is not only by the kids or teenagers but also the adults. The secret of generating a buzz in the app market is to build an application that is compatible with major mobile platforms like iPhone and Android. As these two mobile platforms are reigning in the mobile space, it is important that any application developed should work successfully on these platforms.

Geo-tagging Applications: These applications are used by people as they travel to reach their destinations with a proper direction guide. These applications are also used as navigation system for vehicles.

Music Applications: This is one the major domains where major interest is shown. The success rate is very high for these applications. Downloading free music applications that allow not only streaming but also online storage of songs are very popular applications.

Currency Converters: These applications are mainly used for stocks, Forex and by international travelers.

To achieve high standard mobile applications for your business requirements make sure that the applications are developed by an expert developer or an organization that concentrates and possess skilled mobile computing resources.