Introduction to Xcode cloud for iOS developers 

The Platform first made its appearance in the market during WWDC in June 2021. Ever since, Apple has been gradually disseminating it to more and more developers. The good thing is that it is now free for anyone to sign up. Xcode cloud for iOS developers comes in various tiers that are paid for, the cheapest being $14.99 per month for 25 hours. This option will be free as from 2023 throughout the year for the iOS developers.

What is Xcode? 

This is an integrated development environment (IDE) that was designed by Apple for creating software and apps for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It can be viewed as the sole tool that is officially supported for developing and publishing software and apps to the Apple’s app store. One of the advantages that comes with this platform is that it is user-friendly, making it easier for beginner developers as well as the veterans.

It also contains various tools that assist the developers to design and develop their apps. Some of these tools include a compiler, a text editor and a build system for building and running your code. Simply put, with this platform, you get to write, compile and debug your software. It is also very beneficial since it offers you the chance to deploy it to the Apple app store once you are done developing it.

This platform exists to make the life of veteran developers as well as beginners easier, enabling them to design apps bullet fast and experience minimal obstacles and confusion when creating software. This as an editor supports several programming languages such as Objective C, C, C++, Objective C++, AppleScript, Java, Ruby, Python, Swift and ResEdit. It makes use of programming models such as Carbon, Cocoa and Java.

What is Xcode cloud? 

Xcode cloud intro

In this intro, we intend to provide an overview of what this is and what features and tools it contains.

This cloud platform can best be defined as a progressive integration and delivery service that was integrated and particularly designed to suit apple or iOS developers. The cloud platform for iOS developers poses as a catalyst for the development and delivery process of top-notch apps by offering a wide variety of cloud-based tools that aid you develop apps and perform automated tests. It also provides developers with the tools to deliver the apps to the testers and to enable the developers to view the feedback from the users as well as manage it.

This is in no way to suggest that it is the sole CI/CD solution for Apple developers. However, it provides more sophisticated and easier integration with the existing Apple tools. This platform is built within the IDE and provide an integrated environment that enables the developing of iPad, mobile and Mac apps. This platform also works with TestFlight directly, thus giving the developers a chance to deploy their apps to users for pre-release testing.

This platform has been designed to ensure that you as a developer have a single window to work with. It also boasts of features like autocomplete feature and a source code checker that smoothens the process of writing code. These features are essential as they give new developers an easy time as they learn. Developers who are veterans will find that these features will increase the speed in which they develop their applications.

Why Xcode cloud? 

This is currently the only way to design apps by Apple. Therefore, supposing you are a developer who is interested in developing macOS and iOS apps, you will find this tool very handy. As much there are other solutions that don’t necessarily need you to use this tool, they tend to develop issues in the long run since they are not supported by Apple.

This tool has various excellent debugging tools that will allow you as a developer to find solutions to your problems, and bugs in your applications way faster. Additionally, they also have project management tools that provide the environment where you can control your code files and image assets in an orderly manner.

Advantages of Xcode cloud over Xcode standalone IDE 

Aside from the standalone IDE that only lets you write code and offers limited features; the cloud platform is an additional effort by Apple to improve the developers experience while creating apps while offering the tools necessary to maintain the apps in the App store. This also offers enhanced security that guarantees developers of safety and confidentiality of their projects and applications. This is achieved through the two-factor authentication that has been implemented by Apple in this platform to encrypt the data.

This cloud platform has several other advantages, such as the following:

• Automated workflow: it tailors your workflows to align with your development process, or use the workflow that is built in to get you started.
• Provides parallel testing: it allows you to create configurations to test one or two devices to determine the health of your project. It also distributes the resources in parallel to hasten the testing process while you keep coding.
• Integrated into the IDE: This tool in embedded inside the IDE in such a way that all your builds and tests results are presented inside the IDE platform. It also lets you sieve your build tasks as the actual build takes place in the cloud.
• Works with TestFlight: this platform works in parallel with TestFlight to allow developers to test their codes and share specific branches of your app to external testers as you work on other concepts.

The post Xcode cloud for iOS developers – A Quick introduction first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

The 3 steps for your business to the mobile bandwagon:

1. Consult with the Core Business Team

The statistics though mind-boggling and lucrative, to be truly successful and to see ROI, you need to tread with care in the field of Mobile apps. Since we are developing mobile apps since 2009, what we have identified is, not all Mobile Apps are successful. When we drill deep into the reason, for most of the cases, we find that not all the Mobile Apps aligned with the core business functionality – causing more woes, including loss of money, than before. Hence the very first step to see your business move into the Mobile Bandwagon is to identify your core business functionality. Towards this, call for a meeting with the key people who understand and know your business thoroughly and begin charting out a Mobile Strategy for your business.

2. Consult with the Sales & Marketing Team

Once you have successfully identified your core business functionality, the next step would be to find the current feel of your customers and the pulse in the market. This is critical because they are the final users and your success in ROI would lie in identifying this correctly. This answer lies in your sales and marketing team, who are knowledgeable about the following

• What is the current Marketing pitch used
• What Ticks the sales and the accompanying nuances
• Who are your competitors
• A SWOT analysis

Why do you need to do these exercises with your team? Read on…

3. Consult an expert Mobile App Dev Team

Now, you have done your homework. You are ready to approach the Mobile App industry experts. A good Mobile App development team will elicit details from you, which the core business team and the Sales and marketing team have given even before they agreed to the development for you. This is a good yardstick for you to keep while deciding whom you can trust this work with.

Such an app development team will be able to bring in the apt Mobile App features as they understand your core business and along with it use appropriate UI and UX  features, as they understand your customers and the competitors and the industry standards. Having taken all the pain at your side, a bad job at the end can completely spoil your efforts. Hence, this is an extremely critical step which will help your business to become successful and giving entry into the Mobile Bandwagon, even disrupting the industry.

In Conclusion:

Remember – Mobile Apps do not guarantee earnings unless enough planning and care taken. Added to it, the right App Developer (I do not mind pointing us as one of them :-))  is the key to seeing this get fleshed out.

Want more advice on how to do this. Talk to us. We are glad to help.

The post How your business can enter into mobile app bandwagon? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

You have customers. Hard earned!

After spending plenty of time and $$$ you finally have earned customers. And yes, you want them to be with you forever. Any sensible business leader would have this strong desire. Moreover, no businesses want their customers to be one-and-only-one-time customers. They would surely want to see customers come back. But, how do you do this? Convert them into Loyal Customers for your business.

But How? A quick answer is Mobile Apps!

Customer Loyalty – The Thin Line:

A simplistic thinking goes like this. As long as we give satisfactory service, we can keep customers coming back again and again. Well, we hate to say this. But here you are “Times have changed and this no longer works”. There are scores of companies giving good, excellent services. What makes you think that they have to come back to ‘you’ again? Why not choose another equally good service provider like you? Maybe there are even better ones out there!

The lesson we learn here is that repetitive customers need not be loyal customers. But the vice versa is and has always been true – Loyal customers will be repetitive customers.

Customer Attrition – You need to Fix it! :

In the face of customer demands and thick competition in almost all industry verticals, time and again the leaders seem to be the ones who are “available for the customer in the time of need”. But remember this timely availability which made someone a leader, resulted in customer attrition for someone else. The interesting fact is, the attrition was not felt on day 1, but over a period. How do you know if this is not happening to you? Are you finding yourself in the same boat where you are also losing customers? If yes, read on…

How to work on Customer Retention:

How have people been successful in retaining customers? Mobile Apps is the answer. If you do not have a mobile app for your customers, take it for granted, you are facing customer attrition over to your competitor who has a mobile app released for use.

Let’s face it – Gone are the days where people used to queue up with a ticketing agent or a booking office for travel or for movies. Mobile apps have revolutionized the way business is done. It is beyond a shadow of the doubt, people choose to do business with an agent having a mobile app rather than physically. Well, though the end result is the same – The customer gets his or her tickets – “the mobile app was available for the customer in a time of need.”

Why not you be the first service provider and beat the competition. Act Quick and build a Mobile App! To know more on building a mobile app for your business go here.

A word of caution: Trying to tweak an existing web app to be used in a mobile phone will be the worst strategy that you can take. This can lead you to a drastic customer loss! We have explained why this is a bad strategy here.

How to Build Customer Loyalty:

Timely help is priceless. The person who helped is remembered forever! Who wouldn’t love to have information, especially valuable ones, on their fingertips whenever they wanted and only when they wanted? Nothing does better than a Mobile App. You can empower your customers with that needy, useful information with your mobile app. Trust me when I say this. They will love you for this and more importantly remember you for this. Yes, they tend to be loyal.

From just making timely information, help or facility available, go beyond. With the scores of offers and announcements given by apps like Uber, why not work out an offer in your own industry vertical and announce them through these mobile apps. The add-on-value that they see through these announcements, would convert any customer to a loyal one!

In Conclusion:

Initiatives like these ease the pain off from the customers and, guess what, they will not only be your Loyal customers but even become a strong evangelist for your business. All because you gave them a mobile app!

We would like to hear more on the strategies that you have adopted to build customer loyalty.

PS: If you are interested in developing your first mobile app for your business, OR if you like to analyze how the mobile app that you have already built can be revised or modified to help retaining customers, feel free to write us or read more about us.

The post Mobile apps and Customer loyalty – How your brand can use Mobile apps for customer retention? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

With the rapid emergence of technological innovations, there has been a dramatic rise in the demand for high-end technological solutions for web application development. Traditional technologies have taken a backseat, and application developers are constantly looking out for the latest development models.

So what’s new and exciting in the tech landscape?

It has to be BaaS or ‘Backend as a Service’.

What is BaaS?

Also termed as Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS), this particular application development model helps developers in linking their applications to backend cloud storage. By offering increased number of services to your potential clients, BaaS emerges as one of the effective alternatives to conventional application development.

Moreover, with the presence of some popular and leading BaaS service providers in the market; this particular service is gaining solid ground amongst enterprise customers.

Interested to know about 4 leading BaaS service providers for your iOS apps? Then read on…

1. Firebase

The first name in this list is California-based Firebase. As one of the pioneering BaaS companies across the globe, Firebase offers a range of products for software application developers. The company offers static web hosting and real-time database service as part of its BaaS portfolio.

With the help of this service,

1. Application developers can easily synchronize application data across clients.
2. Developers can ensure this data synchronization with the help of an API, which also offers data storage on Firebase’s cloud.
3. A REST API also offers access to the database.

2. Couchbase

Another noteworthy mention is Couchbase, the result of a merger of CouchOne Inc. and Membase Inc. resulted in the formation of Couchbase. The company also offers a document-oriented database offering indexing and querying.

Couchbase comes with a pretty strong benefits set

1. The firm offers highly scalable backend resources and tools.
2. Some of the common services offered by the company are:

• file sharing and storage,
• push notifications,
• social network integration,
• user management,
• chat and messaging functions,
• location services, and
• usage analysis tools

3. io

As a JavaScript library, Socket.io proves to be highly beneficial for real-time web application development projects. By enabling bi-directional and real-time communication between servers and web clients, it proves to be helpful in real-time web applications.

It works actively across platforms and is highly reliable and speedy. With a client-side library for running in browsers and a server-end library for node, it happens to be of paramount significance for both servers and web clients.

4. Parse

With easy-to-understand documentation and helpful BaaS, Parse offers unsurpassed convenience to first-time developers. The company provides beginners with sample projects along with custom UI views. Additionally, the services offered by Parse come equipped with a diverse range of 3rd-party libraries.

Perhaps, the only issue with Parse’s policy is that once you exceed the free allocation limit, the prices scale up quite high.

BaaS is rapidly emerging as the standard of the future in cloud-based data storage. It helps iOS development agencies in promoting their value to clients as a feasible alternative to setting up an expensive in-house team for storage and backup. Do let us know if BaaS will be on your database strategy for 2016-17.

The post 4 iOS Backend as a Service (BaaS) Providers for Mobile app development first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

It is no surprise that today, mobile users are doing more on mobile than on desktops. This calls for a committed focus specifically on the mobile user and not a desktop user. However, developers who make the transition from desktops to mobile to cater to this segment often make the mistake of treating the UI/UX of mobile similar to desktops. It is essential to understand that screen size, form factor, hardware limitations, internet connectivity, native apps, user attention span, and UI control limitations, play out totally differently from a traditional desktop application. Let’s explore what is UX and then check out a few handy tips to elevate your UX and brand experience on the mobile.

The mobile user experience (UX) defines the end user’s feelings and perception about an app, before, during and after they have interacted with the app (and your brand presence). Good UX is what separates the brilliant apps from the average ones. Good UX is what allows emerging players to compete better with bigger giants with a compelling mobile app.

Here are 5 practical tips for anyone looking to integrate a successful mobile experience into their applications:

1. Using tap regions wisely

You need to enable the user to complete an action in 3 taps or less. It is critical to understand this formula because, with each tap, the screen is changing, bandwidth is being consumed and more time spent to complete an action. When we know that competition business is just one tap away from the user, the 3-tap rule becomes all the more critical and relevant.

2. Make navigation easy to understand

For any strong app, the first thing is to consider the best use of availability and limited screen space. Hence content and navigation should be evenly balanced on the screen. Putting up hotspots on menu launcher screen of most popular items or products will help you in this regard. You can use Google Analytics to understand most visited or popular areas (essential topics, most visited categories etc.). These can be put up on the hotspots. Using bigger hotspot will also bring down erroneous page load due to incorrect finger taps.

3. Do not expect the user to use their imagination

As already suggested, the modern mobile user has less time to think. There’s a lot to be done and multitasking has become the key to living. With mobile UX too, interfaces and designs need to be simple, minimalistic, and convenient. Designing a complicated app will make you lose your clients in the competition.

4. Use standards – think twice before you deviate

Always prioritize your features by making them the focal point of your application. Though uniqueness of application can win you the battle, there are some set standard rules to follow when creating the UX. Ensure that all the fundamental features are well optimized for the mobile device. It’s good to have a bright and bold looking interface but it shouldn’t be at the cost of easy use and faster action.

5. Use Human Interface guidelines wisely

Ultimately, UX is meant for actual people like you and me. There is little room for flabby feature sets and layouts. Statistics say that 80% of users (of any application) will be using just 20% of the functionality. Human interface guidelines will help you create a better-targeted app.

Do write to us and let us know which of these points dictate the UX design protocols within your company.

The post 5 UX tips for Rich user experience in your Mobile App first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

In today’s world, developing the perfect mobile app is not enough. You need to have the right measures in place so that you can track the progress of your app post-release, make necessary decisions about follow-ups and updates, and remain informed about how well your app is doing in the market. Here are six great analytics tools you can use to keep a handle on the usage of your mobile app –

Localytics

A paid analytics platform that is packed with features and used by many big names in the business, Localytics gives you a neat workspace where you can look at usage broken down by location, device type, carrier, and even app version. Extra features include funnels, A/B testing, value tracking and support for in-app and push messaging for maximum penetration. The service works on all major mobile platforms and supports native, hybrid and web-based apps.

Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite

Formerly known as Flurry, this popular analytics platform is free and offers rudimentary analytics. You get detailed information on user acquisition, including data on demographics, audience persona, retention, session length and active users. While the service does not provide real-time analytics, the simple, clean and easy to use user interface has brought the service a large following over the years. The fact that it is a free tool adds further to its appeal.

Liquid

Bringing you all the analytics data you need under one head, Liquid makes tracking your app usage a lot easier by offering multiple filtering and sorting options while also allowing you to keep a handle on user interactions and patterns of navigation. You can also use this service to send tailored push notifications and identify key areas in your target audience where you can convert more leads through promotions.

Upsight
An excellent, feature-rich analytics tool for mobile apps which can be tailored to fit your particular needs. The intuitive interface gives you access to insight about important business areas like acquisition, revenue metrics and engagement. The inbuilt tunnel analysis feature lets you find new ways to improve the performance of your app. You can look at daily or weekly revisit rates to get a handle on user behavior patterns. There is also an intelligent cohort analyzer which predicts user investment into your app over time.

Personagraph

A powerful, new-age tool that gives you the option of classifying your user base intelligently into various pre-configured types according to their mobile activity. The system takes into account diverse factors like social habits, purchasing decisions, and interest to create detailed profiles about users, enabling you to market your app in a more targeted fashion. Apart from this, there are other usual features like locations, age-wise break-up, and funnels.

FlightRecorder.io
An advanced analytics tool, FlightRecorder.io provides you some elaborate app analytics features. One of the most interesting features is screen recording, which lets you clearly see app interactions in the exact fashion like they occur. With detailed analytics, segmentation, crash reporting, and push notification, this is a comprehensive analytics solution that can be of major help with tweaking and fine-tuning your app promotions and features.

With these utilities, it is possible for you to have an advantage when it comes to making your app better, more accessible and more attractive to your target market. Using these tools, you can constantly keep fine-tuning your strategies and plans and come up with new ideas to make the most of the immense potential that the huge mobile market has to offer. If you want to engage better with your target audience through your mobile app, use one of these tools and get measurable insights on your app’s performance.

The post 6 Mobile Application Analytics to Track the Usage of your Mobile App first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

iBeacon is a technology by Apple that helps Businesses engage more effectively with potential customers on real-world.

Let us imagine a scenario:
I am a passionate canvas painting artist and a businessman. I have a shop named “Picasa” in the local mall. I have a collection of great paintings from some of the best artists across the world. I look out constantly to have a better and more effective engagement with my prospects and customers and delight them.

The following ways are what I would come up with:

• When a prospect enters the premises of the mall, I would like to engage with him by saying “Wall Hangings up to 50% off, Check out at Picasa, 203, Level 2, Phoenix Mall
• When a prospect is outside my shop, looking at the paintings on the display, I would like to engage with him by saying “Hello Chris, how are you doing today? May I show you some of the best pieces of art that I have
• When a prospect is inside my shop and looks at my exclusive spotlight painting – I would like to engage with him by saying “Do you know the history of this painting
• When a prospect selects a painting and at the Point of Sale, I would like to engage with him by saying “Would you like to buy these accessories that are on sale today
• When a customer moves out through the exit – I would like to engage with him by saying “Thank you, Have a nice day!!”

By now, it is obvious that the level of engagement is limited by my creativity, though the possibilities are numerous.

How iBeacon makes the difference?
iBeacon utilizes the Bluetooth low energy technology to establish a seamless connection with your Customer’s smartphone. Indoor positioning and iBeacon compliment each other to provide more accurate and efficient location awareness indoor when compared to any other technologies out there like GPS, Cellular triangulation, or wifi. iBeacons can tell the application whether the Customer has entered its region, far zone, near zone or is in the immediate zone.

The beacons are available as small sticker tags powered by coin size battery that can broadcast the signals to the smartphones. You can stick these iBeacons to the walls or to objects.

Create contexts around the messages and deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. This is the key success criterion. However, if this fails the customer is annoyed and if it succeeds the customers are delighted.

Using the customers’ location awareness your iPhone/ iPad apps can have a rich digital interaction in the form of location-based marketing campaigns, enabling contactless payments, and performing customer in-shop analytics. Domains including retail, healthcare, logistics, fitness centers, event venues, museums, and much more are utilizing this technology.

iBeacon has the capability to ensure a reliable and consistent experience for customers. For more information about deploying devices read Getting Started with iBeacon .

Give your iPhone and iPad apps the power of Location Awareness with iBeacons and delight your customers. Good Luck!!

For further reading:

1. BEACONS: What They Are, How They Work, And Why They’re Important

2. Over 100 use cases and examples for iBeacon technology

3. Like to get your iBeacon app done for your business? We at Macronimous can help.

The post Leverage the power of iBeacon in your iOS apps first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

As a mobile developer you should be hearing this kind of vibrant stats each day:

• Mobile internet has now overtaken fixed internet access!
• Mobile ad spending accounts for almost half of total digital ad spending in 2015
• Consumers spend 89% of the total mobile media access time on mobile apps!

If you are a mobile app development agency then these stats are a treat for sore eyes.

But wait!

Given the massive penetration of mobile into our everyday lives, certainly, there has to be a method to this madness of crazy revenue generation opportunities presented by mobility in general and smartphones in particular.

We call this ‘method’ – Mobile App Marketing. OR Marketing your Mobile app or with the popular term App Store Optimization.

Is Mobile App Marketing needed?

You believe your app deserves users. Users would love your app. But you should make it visible to the audience. There’s a coordinated and uniform omnichannel effort needed before and after you have successfully developed your app.

How else will you ensure that millions of smartphone users know that you have come up with a new app?

How else will you ensure that you stand apart from a million other apps all vying for the users’ attention?

Mobile app Marketing helps you ensure this. Got you hooked? Well, read on.

Step by step strategy

The below outlines the various stages of app development and deployment and what works well at that stage.

A. Pre-launch

Many might not know, but the mobile app marketing process starts well before your app is released on the app store i.e. during the development stage itself. Getting to know your intended audience, knowing how they can discover you, is the first step that lays a strong foundation for the success of your app. The below are a few steps that help you out here

1.App store optimization (ASO)

1. 1. Your app either has to be a pioneer or re-hash an existing app but with solid new features/ functionalizes that appeal to the users to download it. In the absence of either of these, it is very difficult to catch the user’s short attention span.
   2. Pick and select the right keywords with the help of tools to have a greater chance of connecting with the right type of users.
   3. Get a good name finalized for the app.
   4. Finalize which category of the app store your app will feature in, and make sure you get it right.
   5. Do a competitor analysis to know what makes the successful ones (lots of 5-star ratings and lots of positive reviews) tick on the app store. Know about what keywords or feature sets appeal to the target audience.
   6. Your app icon matters. Don’t just get it designed as an afterthought but put effort to ensure that the icon resonates with the app’s feature/ functionality or theme.
   7. Put up enthralling screenshots that users simply can’t get their eyes off.

Check out why ASO is important and basics on ASO.

2. User-oriented strategy

1. Create a buzz in the social media with a ‘coming soon’ experience within a landing page, peppered with trivia about why the app just cannot be ignored.
2. Collect a beta test group to do meticulous testing before its release.
3. Ensure a smooth and seamless UI/UX experience for the user.
4. Social media integration is essential so that users can share it once they start using it.

Appolicious Advisor Alex Ahlund says that the average app development cost comes to $6400+. Imagine if you don’t make sufficient provision beforehand for enhancing the app’s visibility. What you will have is a great app, but no takers for it. Thus, it becomes important to take time out in the development phase itself to focus on marketing.

B. Post-launch

Congratulations! Months of labor have finally paid off with the release of your much-beloved app.

But wait… there’s still much to be done for its marketing, as shown below.

Here we divide our energies into two phases – organic marketing and paid marketing.

1. Organic Marketing – Get free traction on your promotional efforts with these tips –

• First of all sign up for an app analysis tool. This helps you to monitor your app’s performance on the app store across multiple parameters.
• Reach out to influential media channels (tech site, review sites, online news media). Their coverage will drive a significant amount of traffic to the app store comprising of visitors curious about your app.
• Going viral on social media is one of the easiest ways to gain a burst of traffic to your app. Two ways to drive this are
  • Provide social sharing buttons prominently to allow users to share the app
  • Increase the shareability of the content within the app
• Ask for users to review and provide ratings. The more 4 or 5-star ratings, the more are the chances of further downloads. However, the trick here is to be subtle without being overbearing. Take the example of Move the Box app. When you run out of tokens in this game, you need to rate the app in order to gain more tokens, a pretty neat way of getting ratings!
• Optimize the app based on reviews, opinions, thoughts, and feedback from the initial set of users.

2. Paid Marketing – Put in efforts to get bursts of paid traffic with the help of paid marketing. Some steps are as below –

• Get your app marketing performance monitoring up and running with the help of Tune. This lets you know the revenue performance of different marketing platform such as TapJoy.
• Run bursts of a paid ad campaign to move quickly to ‘Top’ of the charts. Here you will see an increase in the volume of downloads, reviews, and ratings which will propel it higher to the charts. Now cool down on the ad spend and let organic marketing do its trick. This tip not only helps you optimize your overall ad spend but also helps continue the cycle of organic growth of the app.

3. General marketing tips

• Set up a professional review mechanism by signing up on app review websites to receive unbiased feedback from critics. Ensure that the feedback comes directly to you rather than being published on the App Store.
• Have a strong plan in place to respond in near real-time to optimize the app based on their reviews and feedback.
• Set up a chain of motion on social media to build buzz around your intended audience. Keeping users engaged daily helps keep the interest level higher for longer.
• Keep an eye on app monetization and aim to optimize it periodically. Read here on how to choose the right app monetization gameplan
• Whatever you do, read the warning from Apple for developers who try to game the ranking systems. Once you have read, it steers clear of all the ways and means that can negatively impact your app ranking.

To wrap up
Mobile and mobile apps have provided the definitive watershed moment in the technology ecosystem. As an app developer, you need to use all the channels as possible while executing a consistent and coherent marketing campaign. This guide will serve you well to get the max out of your mobile app marketing efforts and ensure greater visibility for your app in the saturated app store of today’s times.

Write to us and let us know a bit about your mobile marketing strategy.

The post Profitable Marketing Strategies for Your Mobile App with ASO first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

You need an app.

Who hates Mobile phones? 

We have reached a point in time today where there is no denying that the smartphone boom has taken over the world. A large proportion of internet content consumption, browsing and purchases now happen on mobile devices. They also form a brand opinion and respond to call to action, based on their mobile usage experience.

Wait. It’s not about the phones!

It’s not just the Mobile phones, but the Mobile apps that we have in our mobiles phones which make them “Smart” phones.

In such a scenario, businesses have no choice but to consider the option of encapsulating their brand, products and services within a mobile app to maximize their online reach and business potential.

Studies have shown that businesses which have already made the transition are growing at a rapid rate, showing better returns and leveraging their brand image in a more productive way.

OK. You need one:

As a business owner, if you are still wondering whether you should jump on the mobile app bandwagon, here are a few compelling factors and some associated instances which you should consider before making an informed decision about the small screen –

Customer Loyalty – Keeping the customer closer to you and farther from competition

It has been proven time and again that investing in a mobile app does wonder for customer loyalty. For your business, it is important to have long-term customer engagement to get repeat business and to bring down customer acquisition costs. With a mobile app, you have the perfect way to hold the interest of individual customers with personalized service and deploying useful information. These compelling factors can keep the customer hooked for longer durations leading to sales closure eventually. The outcome is a long-term boost for your business as you can concentrate on acquiring new customers and keep a high level of engagement with the existing ones.

Take for instance, if you have a legal service business. By getting an app developed, your business and your logo stay permanently on your customers’ mind, thus giving a much higher chance of sales conversion. Here is a couple of a good example of how a Mobile app can build a relationship between you and your long-term customer.

Kevin law- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tseg.android.kurgis

HWB Chartered Accountant – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.myfirmsapp.hwb

Your Brand in the Mobility Marketplace

Running a business always involves substantial investment in brand building and positioning. Creating brand awareness and ensuring a firm position for your brand in a competitive market can be a difficult task to achieve. With a mobile app, however, you can achieve this quickly and efficiently. There are many different ways in which you can incorporate your branding in mobile app user experience. As customers keep using your app, the constant brush with your brand will help create brand awareness and with time, this can create the perfect place for your brand in the mobility marketplace.

Cab/Taxi booking apps are some amazing instances that help promote your Brand’s presence in the customer’s mobile, hence in their mind. Uber is a great example. The app remains in your clients’ pockets and continues drawing their attention to your service offerings 24 X 7.

Uber – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubercab

Even if you are a small business running locally, an app will help your brand reachable to your customers around the region. Take for instance the local florist app that gives customers immense convenience when they want to order flowers for their loved ones.

Jenny Florist is a good example of how a local small business can take the power of mobility: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=biz.app4mobile.app_2a4dbcfb925146a28bd5e16355dd441a.app

Engage your Customer Quickly

Gone are the days of expensive and often laborious marketing campaigns as a means to reach and engage your customers. With a growing user base for mobile devices, you have a mode of communication that enables you to quickly capture the attention of customers and hold it effectively for long durations. Mobile devices are meant for daily intimate use and present a golden opportunity for you to provide your customers with a value-adding experience, thereby driving engagement and involvement.

Share broking apps are good examples for an engaging customer through Mobile. Here is an app, which Kotak (a Bank in India) uses to engage their customers.

Kotak Stock trader: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.msf.kotak

Another example is – SC Ford, a Ford dealer uses an app to engage with their customers by providing them detailed service history, reminders etc. for their vehicles.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myaccessbox.scford

Your Competitors do it too

No matter which niche or area of business you are in, you can be sure that some of the companies you are competing with have already started leveraging the mobile platform for furthering their business interests. The mobile app experience is something that customers enjoy, and having your own app puts you in a position to stay neck and neck in the competition. You can even study the strategy and strong points from your competitors’ efforts, and use the information and insight to your advantage.

You can simply search for your competitors online in the Google Play Store and in iTunes. And then find the type of apps that they provide, assess their development approach. But, try to stay different by giving something unique and different to your customers.

Another Viable Marketing Channel

Having a mobile app puts you in touch with every single customer in an intimate way. You can interact one-on-one and provide relevant information based on user demographics and preferences. This makes the mobile platform a viable and effective marketing channel where you can deploy your marketing efforts in a targeted manner. This approach increases efficiency and provides you with more bang for your buck when it comes to marketing expenses.

Connect with your Employees with your own App

Many companies are in the process of developing and using mobile apps which focus on their employees. The advantage of mobile apps is that you can simplify and speed up certain aspects of business workflow which are otherwise cumbersome and tedious, and employees can derive great benefit out of this. It also allows your workforce to multitask and stay in touch with each other and the management constantly, improving communication and overall coordination.

Any business can have a mobile app for their employees to facilitate administrative tasks or operations such as login, check their pay, leaves, apply for any privileges, read a corporate news, stock details etc. You can keep your employees connected and provide consistent UI/UX experience with simple HR mobile app that extends the convenience of mobility.

So instead of asking “whether your business should join the mobile app bandwagon?”, a correct question would be to ask “when can your business join the mobile app bandwagon?”

The post Big Decision about Small Screens: Does your Business Need a Mobile App? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

App Developers require the UDID (Unique Device Identifier) from their clients or team members in order to allow them to test the app on their devices. UDID is the Apple way of authorizing a device to install apps out of iTunes. This is necessary for development teams especially when multiple team members like to test the apps on their approved devices.

In order to approve a device to run an app, we need UDID.

Now, After iOS 7 Apple is not allowing  UDID to be accessed with all public APIs.

The quickest way to locate your UDID is by opening the website http://get.udid.io/ in your Safari iOS browser. With your quick acceptance for installing the OTA certificate, in no time you can see the DID, IMEI, and also the Serial Number of your iOS device appearing within your browser window – It’s just two clicks away. You can also scan this QR code to locate the site.

But as a Mobile developer who repeatedly works on several apps, I know you would like to make your own app and distribute it among your devices. There is a detailed set of instruction at StackOverflow.

The post How to find UDID of an iOS device instantly? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.