Due to fanatical use of mobiles among city dwellers, mobile has become a powerful instrument for customer engagement, sales and business growth. In the era where every smallest need is satisfied online, businesses (start-ups or established) must understand that the best way to reach out to customers and push brand recognition is to go mobile.

Although mobile app development is a Midas-touch strategy, a good number of enterprises hesitate to give it a go. Hence, they must understand the process of mobile app development and all the cost-effective ways to keep the cost to optimal level. To start with the facts pertaining to app development cost.

Here are the most comprehensive list of effective tips to help you reduce app development cost:

1. DevOps

Speed of the process ultimately has a lot to do with the overall cost of mobile app development. More efficient mobile app development services helps a company to economize their resources. With the new approach called DevOps, a good number of IT companies have joined the revolution to synchronize and juxtapose together, its different departments: application development, system programmers, network and operation specialists.

When you break the walls and come united, the dream of achieving better and more through combined efforts come true. As diversity of IT disciplines group together to form one prolific project team of brilliant professionals, applications are rapidly deployed and resources are put to highest results. One can resort to RMAD (rapid mobile app development tool) which surprisingly supports drag-and-drop efforts to construct variety of high-scale functionalities without wasting time of writing code. The benefit you gain is abundant savings on development process in the long run.

2. Pre-Built Readymade Solutions

These solutions can practically add a significant value to mobile app development cost reduction as it helps avoid the need to create template from scratch. Pre-built templates provide ready structure where a few good modifications and changes can lead you to development of required functionality. For this mobile app developers turn to project-related third-party softwares that are readily available at affordable cost.

Today, through the dedicated efforts of global community of mobile app developers, many plug-ins are published online that address common business requirements. For instance, you can look for third party plug-in for push notification on Android or iOS. Google in this area assists developers with cloud services allowing them to ease their burden and utilize certain open-source frameworks to rapid-build mobile apps.

3. Avoiding Outsourcing mistakes

The word ‘Outsourcing’ has become more than familiar now in 21st century. In IT markets where cross-border collaborations are heavily practised and produce countless profit, outsourcing the development job to an IT hub could be a promising choice.

Some of the development companies offer hourly rate while the rest continue with fixed price model. What would work best for your depends on the type of business idea, volume of scope involved, product vision and resourcefulness of associated work flow.

In any case, the company you hire must be capable, certified and qualified enough to fulfil all the milestones and final goal of successful deployment. If it is hourly rate you choose, make sure they are bound to a stringent schedule and make no compromise on their deadlines, responsibilities, compliance standards, technical experience.

4. Agile Process of Iterations

Whatever fragment of developmental piece you make, make sure it is perfect, flawless and fulfils all the conditions. This is called the iterative approach for mobile app development, aka Agile methodology. In conventional development, each feature once made is tested before release, which might get tedious, exhausting and impractical. Instead, break it into well-planned strategic iterations. When you develop it in stages, you have a better chance to make necessary changes on time, saving resources and unexpected consequences.

This shapes up a stage-wise process where gradually achieved short segments of work achieves end goals by implementing possible fixes with assurance of test. Hence, opt for a split-project method and divide the entire job into easily manageable iterative cycles. The best part is that the development team can respond and adapt swiftly to the changing needs during the project without reconstituting it, which saves substantial time and money.

5. Custom add-ons for consumer apps

If it is customer-centric apps where cost is a concern, the solution is to incorporate handy add-ons that target both traffic and revenue. These tools significantly boost your app’s ROI and the weight of traffic to your mobile app.

One of the best options to acquire more number of users is to encourage them to share your content on social media. Social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and online blogging tools create a massive platform for you to foster considerable mass of users.

As for ROI, you can capitalize on this terrific rush of regular app users and develop amazing in-app purchasing strategy.

These add-ons are preferable ways to compensate for the overall cost invested in development process thereby whittling it down to a fair extent.

6. MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

This is a repeated solution recommended by highly experienced mobile app development experts and service providers. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a prototype of your application in progress that contains its major attractions: functionality, design architecture and features. This is the extract of the entire product that helps you test your app’s future health, its impression on users and whether or not it looks viable in long term. One can develop it at a small cost to check if it has good traction and resilience, and it is a best (perhaps the only) way to liberate you from rebuilding the entire app in case it needs improvements.

MVP tells you whether or not your app idea will cause thrill among customers and make them pay for it. Upon seeing demand for your product, you can think of going ahead and developing secondary set of detailed features. This strategy not only controls development cost but also safeguards your future investment.

7. After-Deployment Support, Fixes and Enhancements

One of the simplistic myths about mobile app development is that it is often thought to be just one-time go. The cost and the journey of app development do not come to an end at the point of deployment. The real challenges often begin after that stage as users share their feedback and disapprove some unacceptable attributes of your mobile app.

To avoid the struggle and unnecessary involvement of further cost, it is a good approach to retain the development team who could respond quickly to feedbacks and implement immediately. This helps maintain the users’ loyalty and your business reputation as users are assured of constant updates and fresh enhancements in the app.

Final remarks:

If in a course of a few good years, mobile development has advanced in our life to this degree, you can imagine what more mobile apps will surprisingly transform.

If mobile affords a sumptuous opportunity to shape and retain your brand image, you can, without a hesitation think of going mobile. For this, there are certain cost effective solutions and engagement models where your business priorities perfectly fit into and the tips above can assist you when it comes to opting for budget-friendly mobile app development strategies.

Working with Xamarin and client target platform evokes mixed reactions. Both of them have their own pros and cons. The former is compiled into the native code and uses the common interface. Mobile App Development Company uses either of them; however, as mentioned above, there are some trade-offs that we’ll analyze here in detail.

Advantages over the native platform:

Sharing of code:

Using Xamarin, you can share the code between the iOS and Android platforms. Various attributes such as networking logic, parsing and navigation logic can be easily reused across the different apps on the platform. They help the developers to streamline the coding process and to identify the bugs easily. In fact, the consistency of the code makes the platform more efficient for the developers. All they have to do is to make corrections at a single place and to let the changes propagate through the app.

Usage of C#:

One of the most important advantages of the Xamarin platform is that it allows coding in C# language in all the applications. It is quite capable when compared to objective-C because of the type safety attribute. Some other capabilities include implicit typing, extension methods and other closure that make C# an amazing tool for development. Due to inbuilt error handling mechanism, the codes are clean clear and reliable. They are scalable as well as fully capable of handling large amount of data.

mobile app development company

Net and C# libraries:

Using C# language provides complete freedom to the developers as they can use window libraries right from the old ones to relicensed versions. Xamarin Cross-Platform Development plays an important role in enhancing the capabilities of the applications. In fact, PCLS support is also available in C# language.

Disadvantages of Xamarin:

Compatibility issues:

Xamarin supports new APIs; however, in recent versions, it is incompatible with TV OS2 and “watch OS” in stable channels and cannot bind to Swift only libraries. In short, it is not possible to use the advanced features using the Xamarin platform.

Third party support:

iOS and Android provide third party applications that can be seamlessly used; however, they are not able to work with Xamarin interface. The workaround is way too complex as developers have to write the binding code from the scratch.

Platform specific .net libraries:

If you are using Xamarin, it is not possible to utilize PCL core library. In addition, the .NET library doesn’t offer a required interface to the developers. As a result, the capabilities of the applications on the platform get hampered. Even highly popular Google APIs face lots of issues when used with Xamarin; therefore, it is better to use the native platform in such cases.

mobile app development company

Conclusion:

You should use Xamarin only when the app is equipped with lots of complex front end logic. Since coding is minimal, you do not have to spend a huge amount of money to create the application. If your team is highly experienced in C#, usage of latest offerings of Xamarin Development Company would go a long way in making the app efficient and robust. Even it can be used to support multiple windows devices without any technical glitches.

There are more than a million apps in the Android community and there is a virtual Android app development community that is earning through downloads and also helping users with a variety of tasks. Nevertheless, Android app development is not something that everybody can do. It requires good knowledge of Java, installation of some Android specific software, software development kit, an integrated development environment such as Android Studio, and a virtual device to test your app on. You also need an ample time and perseverance. And these are just prerequisites. After installation of all these software you need API levels, screen size etc. It is a long way process to go from conception to delivery of your app.

Android apps are changing our lifestyles

We are using Android apps in nearly all activities that we engage in our day to day life. Learning, reading, shopping, commuting, playing, recollecting things, collecting information, writing and the list goes on. In fact, there are very few facets of life that are not facilitated by apps in some way or the other. The community of Android app developers is changing the way we live. You name a field and there are a number of apps involved in it, be it health, education, services, sports or anything else.

Myths about Android App Development

1) A great app does not need selling:

Every newbie developer thinks that if he or she can come up with a great app it will sell by itself; it does not need marketing. However, this is far from the truth. If the app is for a targeted segment or community there is a chance that it will get downloads organically, i.e. without putting up ads, once you put it up in app store, share it in social media and some professional or other niche platforms. However, if the targeted audience is fairly large then you need ads to promote the app.

2) Download starts and money starts to flow:

If you are under the impression that your product is initially going to make you a millionaire just with downloads, then think again. It is not that simple. Thousands of people may download an app, but it starts paying the developer only when the user starts paying money for using the app. It is any body’s guess that the road from development to customers paying to use an app is long.

3) B2C market has a better yield for Android apps compared to B2B:

B2B market is nothing but a strategy that targets other businesses with an advantage of being scalable and structured. It is a common perception driven by the idea that B2C is a vast market. However, it is because of this vast market that the competition is also extreme. B2C apps are comparatively less expensive compared to B2B apps, but the ROI of B2B apps is much higher in comparison to B2C apps.

It is also seen that B2B apps have a large loyal customer retention compared to the B2C market. So if you are already on your way to develop a B2C app, the chances are it’s already on the play store.

4) App development is expensive:

Yes, its true, but only when you are employing a developer or outsourcing the job to an app development company. This is because the major expenditure is in paying the developer for his expertise and knowledge. So if you do it yourself it is not at all expensive.

Secondly, unless the project is complex and involves complex requirements, the project can expect you to spend a little extra due to several developers asking for a partial payments per month until the development completes. Therefore, major of the cost is expedited towards employing the expertise of an agency

5) Android apps don’t help developers earn money:

This myth has come about mainly because of the maze of apps in the android community. Sometimes there are four or five or more apps for the same job. In fact android is better suited for developers for earning money compared to other mobile OS. This is because of the sheer number of android users worldwide. In fact, more than 50% of smart phones throughout the world are android phones. However, this is also true that it is the android users who have the most reservations about paying for an app. In that perspective the developers are right. However, it is also true that a virtual community is sustained by this mobile operating system.

6) Google is all that we need:

Neither Google nor any social media can get you app at top for no reason. There’s always a competition between the Android app developers to personalize the app experience to the users and the app development approaches. People considering Google as their medium to the competition should stop their expectations right now. But that doesn’t mean you cannot get your app to the top. It’s never a big deal to achieve your desired ROI.

7) Native is the need of the hour:

Every app on the Play Store list, be it hybrid, native or web, possess their own pros and cons. Though native apps are known for giving us the best UI experience, it doesn’t always. It’s all about the user’s requirements. Nowadays, many cross-platform tools like Sencha and Codename give the same experience as a native app would.

Final thoughts

Android app development has revolutionized the way technology developers create an application. There might be many more Android app development myths that have crossed the app development industry, but it is recommended to research well to know behind-the-scenes story and plan accordingly. For any industry built on technology and science, myths do prevail making its way to new ideas.

Smartphones and tablets are used by us as normally as the habit of drinking water. Arguably, people don’t just use these smart devices just to perform intelligent actions and satisfy personal needs, but also to get entertained. One of the pleasant distractions for them is to play mobile games. Because of incessant interest in games, the process of mobile game development has become an industry niche in the digital market.

Unlike PC games and console games, mobile games do not take years before it is finally launched. Mobile game industry has evolved rapidly because of many sophisticated mobile game development tools. Any concept of game comes to life on the screen of mobile users because of these intelligent game creation tools.The-Rise-Of-Mobile-Game-Industry (1)

To fulfil your dreams of developing spectacular mobile games, here is the list of gaming tools usually preferred by mobile game developers:

1. Corona SDK

Corona SDK is a software development kit that is available on Windows and OS X and uses Lua as a scripting language. Using Corona, one can develop mobile games for free. However, to create a game or app with more elaborate features, you need to opt for enterprise model that offers native libraries and APIs.

Top 13 Mobile Game Development Tools Preferred by Developers-ad banner

Corona SDK uses its rendering engine called OpenGL. Its built-in scene management and transition library helps adjust and modify your game’s graphical qualities. To make the game development easier, Corona Labs offers a Corona Editor and Text plugin. You can create a graphical environment to design different levels and understand the interaction between the objects.

The tool is the best mobile game development solution if you want to develop a cross-platform game.

2. SpriteKit

Available on iOS and OS X, SpriteKit is Apple’s proprietary 2D game development framework that supports both Swift and Objective-C languages.

SpriteKIt offers great convenience to developers. With SKView, scene management is made easy. SKAction class can be leveraged to move, scale or rotate various game objects. It also supports sound and developing custom codes. SpriteKit offers scene editor that enables designing of levels. Particle editor helps with developing different particle systems.

SpriteKit has Box2D for its physics engine, and a built-in camera through SkCameraNode class which makes navigation easy. SpriteKit is an excellent mobile game development choice for developers who are familiar with Apple ecosystem.

3. Unity

Unity is a mobile game development engine that supports C# and UnityScript which is Unity’s own language like JavaScript. It comes with free as well as professional editions. It is a cross-platform tool and is deployable to many platforms. Like other tools, its built-in editor allows you to edit images and organize animations from animator window. You can also design particle system in Unity editor.

It uses its own physics engine and has built in camera to simplify navigation in the game world. Unity’s user interface system has different components for easy viewing of its features. Unity is a reliable choice if you want to design a game for wide range of devices. The Unity also offers the asset store where you can various assets for the game.

4. Cocos2D

Cocos2D is an open-source framework that game developers can use for free. It works with both Swift and Objective-C and supports iOS and OS X. If coding is done in Objective-C, it supports Android through Spritebuilder Android plug-in. SpriteBuilder is used for creating projects and provides a graphical design environment where you can prototype and build games

With the help of CCDirector class and CCTransition class, you can perform scene management. To find animations, CCAnimation class comes handy. For actions like move, rotate and scale, CCAction class can be used. Cocos2D also offers CCParticleSystem to support particle systems, and CCTiledMap class for tile maps.
Like many mobile game development tools, Cocos2D also has OpenGL as rendering engine. So if you want to develop for multiple platforms and like working on Objective-C and Swift, Cocos2D is the ultimate framework.

5. Marmalade

Marmalade offers free suite of tools that enable easy game development and porting processes. It is a fast, high-performance cross-platform engine for creation of 2D and 3D games. The SDK can be used to code in C++. Marmalade Quick version supports app development using Lua scripting language whereas Marmalade Web facilitates creating hybrid apps using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

Marmalade is an award winning platform that is popular among top game developers for its ability to build native games for both mobile and desktop. Marmalade Juice is another mobile game development tool that supports easy porting of iOS games to Android ecosystem.

Some of the remarkable games developed using Marmalade engine are Doddle Jump, Metal Gear Solid Mobile, Worms, Cut the Rope, Need for Speed: Shift, Lara Croft, Bejeweled Blitz and Guardina of Light.

6. Amazon Lumberyard

Based on the CryEngine architecture, Lumberyard is a free AAA game development engine by Amazon. It provides a lot of free tools and cross-platform functionality to develop high-quality games. The amazing benefit of using Lumberyard is that you don’t have to share revenues with Amazon. You can even host your multiplayer games on AWS cloud infrastructure as it is integrated with Amazon web services.

Lumberyard integrated with Twitch offers live video game streaming capabilities with wide user base every month. Because of this, it is a crucial tool for marketing mobile and video games. Developers can even engage with gaming community using Twitch. For developing social gaming features, Twitch provides Twitch ChatPlay, Twitch Metastream, TwitchJoinIn.

Amazon Lumberyard engine has helped create games like Crucible, New World, Breakaway, Star Citizen, etc.

7. CryEngine

Developed by German based company Crytek, CryEngine is a mobile game development engine used to create 3D games for Console and Window PC. You can create first person shooter games with CryEngine, and other advanced games using C++, ActionScript, Lua script and Visual Studio.

CryEngine offers some of the incredible features like: Voxel-Based Global Illumination, Per-Object Shadow Maps, Motion Blur and Depth of Field, Volumetric Fog Shadows, Level Design, Flowgraph, Real-Time Dynamic Water Caustics, Multi-Layer Navigation Mesh, Parametric Skeletal Animation, Advanced AI System, and many more.

It has both paid and free model to develop different game assets and it covers large gaming market. Games like Cry Series, Enemy Front, Crysis, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 are developed using CryEngine.

8. NextPeer

NextPeer is a Multiplayer social SDK that addresses the issue of multiplayer gaming on mobile. It supports both types of gameplay: synchronous and asynchronous.

NextPeer enhances the quality of gaming experience and player engagement, and helps developers achieve maximum user retention. It facilitates real-time interactions and live rankings in order to make it more interesting and real. It has a delayed synchronous technology which enables users to play the past sessions of other players. This feature makes NextPeer a competitive mobile game development tool in the market.

It helps design games on native iOS and Android, and supports Unity and Cocos2D-X.

9. Haxe

Haxe is an open source, multi-platform programming language that equally supports iOS and Android. The programming language of this toolset is easy to learn especially for those developers who are quite familiar or has experience with Java, C++, PHP or AS3 languages. Haxe is a dependable tool when it comes to designing cross-platform games with smooth development process.

Top 13 Mobile Game Development Tools Preferred by Developers-ad banner

Haxe compiler produces cross-platform native code and swiftly compiles thousands of classes to enable speedy game development. Its toolkit also includes Haxe standard library that provides a good set of APIs and more raw frameworks from which further additional tools can be developed when needed.

10. Gideros

Gideros is another free, open-source game developer that uses Lua as a scripting language just like Corona. It supports and can import to iOS, Android, Windows Phone, OS X, Windows, and Windows RT. The great quality of Gideros is that, unlike Lua – which is not a class-based system – it provides a class-based API so that developers can functions with ease and can write clean and reusable code.

It has a whole set of features required for mobile game development including, scene manager, MovieClip class and GTween library that helps move, scale and rotate objects inside the game. It also uses Box2D for physics and contains other important tools like texture packer and a font creator. It enables instant testing of game projects through Wi-Fi connection on mobile device.

If you are good with Lua script, Gideros is worth consideration for cross-platform development.

11. Titanium

Titanium is a free framework for developers to build applications using JavaScript as programming language. It can also be effectively used as a strong game development platform. Developers can use it free while developing the game. However, if you wish to publish it, you need a paid license.

With Titanium, you can easily change and animate views and images using native controls from iOS and Android. Games can be treated with outstanding effects using the framework. One can download custom modules from its marketplace, for example Box2D plugin.

Titanium may not be an ideal mobile game development tool. But if you are to build a game with simple features and less fancy objects in motion, Titanium is a viable choice.

12. PowerVR Graphics SDK

PowerVR Graphics SDK is a framework for developing cross-platform graphics applications. It is a complete set of SDK made up of PVRShell. It helps streamline the whole process of writing the applications and also offers PVRTools – which is a library of most commonly used 3D graphics application functionality. Its free SDK supports iOS and Android.

The tool is preferred most when it comes to simplifying the large number of objects in complex game scenes. It renders simple, functional shapes to intricacy of animations, shader effects and dynamic objects. To prime and train developers for using the tool, the SDK comes with various manuals, handy whitepapers and materials for training.

13. Project Anarchy

Created by Havok, Project Anarchy is an end-to-end mobile game engine using which developers can build fully fledged games for mobile devices. Developers don’t have to pay as it offers free license for importing games on iOS, Android and Tizen.

Its suite of tools is complete with Havok Vision Engine, and other essential development tools like Physics, Animation Studio and AI. You can add FBX files to asset manager in its new updated version. It supports Automatic script validation, particle lighting and integration for Scaleform and FMOD.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored and learned some of the popular mobile game development tools, engines and framework as preferred by today’s developers. You can now compare and have better insight about which gaming solution suits best your development requirements. Hope this guidance will be useful for your next game development plan.

Let’s begin with an important question. Do you still wait to reach home and turn on TV to catch-up the latest scores, updates, news, TV shows? Or do you still rush to stores to do shopping, go to the bank to make transactions? Perhaps, we all hardly perform any of these actions and that’s because mobile apps can deliver all that you want on the go.

In this era of competitive business, all industries need to include latest technologies. As technology plays a vital role in promoting businesses, no matter whether you are associated with a start-up, medium/big sized enterprise, its important to promote business in a better way to get more reach. Therefore companies are looking to lift up their brand name and revenue graph by using mobile apps.

If you don’t advertise your business properly, then it would be difficult to survive in the market with tough competitors. With a highly-interactive mobile apps, you can always stay connected with clients and provide users, complete information about your services.

mobile app benefits in different industries

A well-developed mobile app contributes to the revenue of a business by increasing customer engagement. However, multiple operation systems, development platforms and devices in the market make mobile app development company a confusing task. Therefore, mobile app development companies look forward to develop apps that work across different operation systems and devices uniformly, with the help of cross-platform app development platforms like Xamarin App Development.

Launched in 2011, Xamarin helps to build a robust mobile app that works across different platforms. However, using Xamarin to develop cross-platform apps has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s have a look:

Pros

Development cycle speed-up

According to Xamarin cross-platform development experts, 90% of the Xamarin code can be recycled or reused in the development of other applications for different platforms. Xamarin mobile app development coding is based on C# and native .Net libraries. Maximum part of the code can be reused, which saves developers of their time and efforts and helps to speed-up the development cycle while developing applications for various platforms.

Near to Native App performance

Applications created on Xamarin platform can be considered very close to native application. Xamarin is consistently evolving to reach the level of native app creating technologies. The performance metrics which developers derive from the codes of Objective-C, Java, Swift etc. can be expected from Xamarin platform coding. This platform also offers tracking and testing of the performance of the app. Before publishing an app, developers can run automated UI tests through the Test Cloud paired with Test Recorder tool.

Client’s Native App experience

User experience reviews reveal that the applications created using Xamarin platform remain impeccable and absolutely flawless. For platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows, simple applications can be developed using Xamarin platform. At application run-time, Xamarin. Form tool converts the components of UI into the platform-specific user-interface elements. This is especially beneficial for business-oriented projects.

Hardware Compatibility 

Applications can be created using Xamarin through many plug-ins and APIs which provide native-level support of device hardware and therefore, all hardware compatibility issues get eliminated. The developers can develop applications with common device functionalities which can run smoothly on various platforms. They can also do better app customization by linking with native libraries.

Cons

Large Operational Software overheads

Developing mobile applications using Xamarin involves linking of codes and referencing between target operating systems of various devices and .Net frameworks. In simple words, this linking and referencing increases startup and download timings of the application.

UI or User-Interface Development is time-consuming

Even though a major portion of Xamarin coding can be reused cross various platforms, the core user-interface creation is not portable. Therefore, developers are required to do some part of the coding for each platform which is very time-consuming.

Limited outside coding support

The code developed in Xamarin App Development cannot be reused or transferred for HTML5 or native applications for iOS or Android. The availability of Xamarin professionals is also quite limited. Those who develop the app for you using Xamarin should have knowledge of .NET along with mobile development, and platform-specific frameworks and, architecture that makes use of Objective-C and Java languages.

Unanticipated risk of cross- platforms

Many cross-platforms carry an unanticipated risk or a possibility of extra work. Xamarin’s framework libraries cause unreasonable app file size to be downloaded from Google Play or iOS App Store may be because of high usage of Xamarin App Development core library functionality in the app. The app size difference can range between 3MB to 15MB.

With Redbytes, you’ll find it easy to explore the potential of latest technology and have a well-developed mobile app of your own. We are one of the leading Xamarin Cross-Platform Development Companies. Feel free to call us or request a quote and learn how our services can prove beneficial for your business.

An educational app is a powerful learning tool. But, it is very unfortunate that most educational app development companies don’t consider the importance of participating those people who understand students and the ways they learn better – Teachers. Good graphics, programming and design are not enough to satisfy the purposes behind educational app development. Taking expert guidance from educators during app development would be very beneficial in meeting the goals set.

Teachers are educational psychologists in themselves. They are in a direct position to evaluate and influence students.Utilizing the experience and knowledge of the teachers are very vital in planning, designing, and creating educational materials appropriate for the student’s ability at a definite age.

Here are 12 major areas where engaging educators can help to re-create the conditions favourable for learning.

1. Ensuring the app is Curriculum Based

The instructional design should follow all the particulars specified under the state’s school curriculum standards. Teachers know best about what the curriculum looks like.

So development companies should work side by side with school faculties in an attempt to apply the various curriculum specifications into educational apps.

2. Deciding Objectives

Teachers should be the ones who decide what skill sets need to be developed through the learning app.

They can set goals for developing and honing skills including cognitive, verbal, motor etc.

3. Deciding the Quantity, Modes, and Methods of Providing information

Teachers can help to obtain suitable contents for the app. They will give you a fine idea about what was learned before and what continues from the previous years that has to be recalled since acquiring new skill sets will be based on previously acquired skills.

They can suggest the right mix of illustrations, examples, audios, videos and other forms of supplements and reinforcements. They can propose what needs a repetition and what needs to be just mentioned.

4. Ensuring the Content is apt For the user’s Cognitive Ability

Cognitive development is progressive with age and occurs in four different stages. It is very important to pick the right educational activities that facilitate learning processes appropriate to the age.

There might be also special education requirements. Teachers can regulate the degree of complexity adequately and simplify concepts for better understanding.

5. Deciding the Time Allocation and Importance given to Each Concept

The time allotted for mastery of each individual concept should be analogous to the priority given to the specific subject matter. There should be the right mix of learning and entertainment in educational apps.

6. Selecting Appropriate Content that Respects the Individuality and Beliefs of the User

The app’s content should not hurt the beliefs and values of the user. It is a very difficult job, since these features vary by locality, religion, social class and even between individuals.

Teachers can have a better insight about the various customs and beliefs of their pupil. So they are in a better place to decide the content of the app.

7. Ensuring Adherence to School and Classroom Rules

The rules and regulations in each school are different. The educational settings, faculties, tools, and facilities available varies a great deal.

Proper communication with the school departments and staffs is inevitable to tune the app to abide by the particular directives of a school.

8. Deciding the Pace at Which Instructions are Given

Students will be familiar with particular teaching strategies, learning styles and instructional pace that depends on various factors such as the curriculum, schools attended, country of schooling etc.

All these factors should be accommodated into the designing criteria of the app by discussing with the concerned staff members of each subject.

9. Ensuring Social Skills and Life Skills are also Developed

Education should involve enabling students to acquire the social and life skills that are valuable in life. Co-operation, socializing, manners, participation, involvement etc. are some key skills that need to be focused.

Must read: How much does it Cost to Build an Educational App for Kids?

10. Cultivating Moral Values and Ensuring Character Development

Emotional and behavioral development are also fields, posing a challenge to educational app development where a teacher’s direction can be of great help.

The characters, themes, music and every other element that goes into the app should not be disturbing or unethical in nature. It shouldn’t hurt the moral values and induce deviant behaviour in children.

11. Deciding Testing and Evaluation Methods

In the educational process, apart from the instructional theories, and teaching strategies there is also something else that is of core importance- the right assessment method. The learning outcomes should be properly tested and evaluated for meeting its objectives.

Since teachers are experienced hands in assessing hundreds of students with individual differences in intelligence, they can guide towards implementing a proper assessment method for applications too.

12. Deciding the Feedback Method

Teachers can advise how to give effective feedback to students. They can figure out what types of feedback and rewards will motivate students and will keep them interested in the app.

mobile app development

Also Check: Latest Updated Educational Apps Directory List

Whether its enterprises or mobile app fanatics, they all wish to have unique mobile apps that are innovative and built with superior technology. They would like to tap into the apps that have impeccable user interface, rich features and exceptional user experience. Apps that support intelligent features like geo-location sensing, real-time notification, video, data synchronization are more and more in demand.

However, businesses today find it challenging to discover the right mobile app development company who comprehend their requirements perfectly. India is thought to be a largest hub for mobile app developers all over the globe in 2017, which means it is tough to select a single best company with proven experience, market reputation and impressive ratings.

Hence, to help you further, here is the shortlist of top mobile app development companies in India 2017:

1. Redbytes

With proven technical approach and industry-grade expertise, RedBytes is entrenched asv an innovative mobile app development company that can be put in positive light. Their ability to think creatively about each project and discover tailored solutions is the outstanding hallmark of this mobile app development company. The most commendable part about Redbytes as a mobile app development leader is their bright portfolio that reflects the success of delivering numerous highly usable mobile apps. Apart from their research and viable efforts products, Redbytes is also a wise choice for clients who seek seamless development process and a responsive team.

2. Openxcell Technolabs

Openxcell has gained reputation of catering to most respectable clients around the globe. It is an ISO 9001:2009 certified mobile app development company dedicated to building excellent software products. Located in India and US, Openxcell is proud of having the best team of design artists, software development specialists, and technically sound experts who have satisfied requirements of many clients by making brilliant apps for iPhones, iPads, Blackberry, Android and web domain. They are always determined to serve the best quality and deliver the world-class products under any circumstances.

3. Konstant Infosolutions

Konstant Infosolutions is a well-known name in the domain of web and mobile solutions. Innovative and successful, Konstant has stretched its services to 40+ countries with offices in various worldwide locations. With strong and impressive client base, it has achieved global footprints when it comes to manipulating the power of advanced technology to develop lean, fit and smart solutions. They believe in client-oriented attitude and efficiently attend special requirements of business customers. Some of their specialities include Enterprise mobility solutions, Wearable technology, iPhone/iPad apps, Custom web apps and Android apps development.

4. Appster

With active services in US and Australia, Appster is another consideration for finding the exemplary mobile app developers India. They possess a skilled team with professional mastery in developing for iOS and Android platforms. Their approach of work is open and unique and has served successful start-ups as a reliable technology performance partner. They are on a constant rise, and opening new offices all over the world. They have plans to expand exponentially and join designers, creative visionaries, and business bodies. Their belief in their technical team and experience has boosted their reputation as a talented mobile app development company.

5. Affle AppStudioz

Affle AppStudioz is an expert mobile app development and engineering company headquartered in Singapore. They have specialized in UX, design and mobility solutions and have investing partners like Microsoft, D2C, Itochu, Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. (BCCL), Centurion Private Equity, etc. Driven by research, it has a strength of 300+ professionals who efficiently use Agile Scrum methodology for mobile app development. Their domain of expertise includes Entertainment, Healthcare, Augmented Reality, Retail, Enterprise mobility, Media and Finance. They have developed their own unique library of features that help increase efficiency, speed and productivity across various facets of development process. This Mobile App Developers India is capable of developing apps for Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Windows.

6. QBurst

QBurst is another leader in mobile app development and has great belief in the power of new generation technology platforms. With ability to serve global customers, QBurst is proud to have staggering 1200+ professionals who are skilled in various domains including UX, app designing, analytics, Quality support and project management. Their portfolio speaks of their wide service capabilities such as Mobile and web app development, CRM, UX design, Quality & testing, Big data & analytics and modern cloud based solutions. The mobile app development company has its offices in USA, UK and India and is known for delivering cost-effective, high-quality, enterprise-grade solutions over a decade.

7. Hyperlink Infosystems

Headquartered in India, Hyperlink Infosystems is one of the sterling mobile app development companies with an impressive track history of successfully serving many countries across the globe. The company has versatile experience in crafting comprehensive solutions and different types of apps. Hyperlink Infosystems has mastered building apps across almost available platforms including iOS, Android and Windows. The company pride itself on having a pool of talented designers, program developers, testers and team leaders and project managers. They all work in great synchronicity to ensure their business clients enjoy the exceptional product in the end. The mobile app development company has delivered 2000+ successful applications and has 800+ satisfied clients, which speaks volume of their success story.

Final Words:

As the internet power has transcended the expectations of human mind, businesses must consider the idea of making apps to engage their target audience and retain maximum customers. Whether you are into eCommerce or need apps for your office productivity, India has got the widest community of world class developers at your disposal. The list above is meditated carefully based on modern mobile app development market trends. Hopefully, this list of top 7 Mobile App Developers India will broaden your insight into hiring the most suitable development partner from the entire Indian IT market. Make sure you choose the one that perfectly understands your business requirements and deliver the most competitive result.

Building a hybrid mobile application to serve the cross-platform needs is the main focus on which many companies are diverting their time and money. Most of the professional mobile app development companies are making use of Xamarin, the perfect cross-platform to develop, test, and finally, deploy an application across Android and iOS devices. These companies amalgamate their coding experience on various platforms with Xamarin’s Native API Access to explore the software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by Apple and Google.

There are a few important reasons why you should consider hiring a Xamarin App Development Company –

Xamarin Mobile App Development Company

1) Cover huge client base – The Portable Class Libraries (PCL) in Xamarin allows software engineers to develop and share code on cross-platforms like Windows Phone, Xamarin Android, and Xamarin iOS. The applications developed using Xamarin platform can target huge client base who are working with Android, Windows, and iOS frameworks.

2) Gizmos and gadgets compatibility – Most of the people prefer to hire Xamarin App Development Company to develop applications using Xamarin cross-platform for its versatility and to use on multiple gadgets like cell phones, tablets, and wearable technologies. In addition to running on and supporting various platforms, Xamarin applications are popular for supporting different gizmos and gadgets.

3) Security of the Information – Xamarin applications collaborate with outside applications like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Azure etc., to offer high levels of information security. The access to the procedures and venture information will be secured over all platforms through Xamarin cross-platform development applications.

4) Native User -Interface UI across Android, Windows and iOS platforms –The Xamarin app development firm holds the in-depth expertise to design and develop the best mobile applications for multiple platforms while retaining the native traits of different platforms. With Xamarin’s Native UI, the company tries to offer performance and unaltered UX to their large user base.

5) Evolving with time and updates – In order to provide the best native experience, Xamarin keeps on evolving with time and so does the professional apps development companies by adopting the trending native API’s as soon they are released.

6) Testing before deploying – To provide an impeccable native application to the clients, Xamarin’s Test Cloud offers an extra layer of testing. Automatic Testing Assist allows developers to test the application from all angles through gestures like pinches, swipes etc.

7) Various operating system SDK integrations– Mobile App Development Companies, through Xamarin, offer the services of creating and developing applications for multiple platforms and devices under the roof of a single platform. Applications convey local like execution on various platforms. Developing multiple applications on different platforms through Xamarin utilities is one of technical function which demands the knowledge and team of an expert development company.

8) Component store– Xamarin Component Store consists of a huge group of paid and free segments like cross-platform libraries, UI or User-Interface controls, and third-party web administrations which are used by the developers as part of their coding. This sharing development environment of Xamarin is infused with Xamarin’s Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio.

As world is fast switching to technologically innovative and advanced means of digital marketing and this is why more than 70% of mobile app development companies in the world has started to seek out services of efficient and reliable Xamarin Development.

The mobile app development process streams through a variety of phases from market study to development to deployment and support. It should be noted that many of these phases are often overlapping.

Here is a close look into the major steps of the development process of an app.

1. Project Proposal

Before the proposal of your project, there should be a great deal of homework done to determine the purpose and validity of your idea. This is a very difficult task requiring expertise, experience, and exposure. The right knowledge of business, audience preferences, user stories, market trends, risks etc are critical to accurately predict the success or failure of an idea. The clients could draw conclusions themselves if they have enough knowledge about the field or could approach a number of mobile app development companies with their project to get a clear picture.

mobile app development

There are several things that you should discuss before committing to a project like your requirements, budget, time availability etc. A lot consultation with your mobile app development company is to be made before signing the contract.

2. Sketching Your Idea

Handrawn or otherwise sketches should be created that could depict your idea roughly. This would be your inceptive step in the documentation process and it lays the foundation for future UX designing. The sketch should include the approximate features that you want to include in your final product.

3. Developing a Strategy

This step is the planning phase, which forms the backbone of the entire procedure. The process is given a compact framework and implementational directions are set. You should schedule each phase in the project by allocating time and resources. Decisions about the approach, focus, and business model are taken during strategy development.

4. Prototype Building

During wireframing, the architecture of each single page is defined. Prototypes are created using wireframing tools like Balsamiq and Visio. This serves as a neat mock-up of what you have to develop in the end, along with visualizing user interaction by various demonstrations.

5. Defining the Back-end

The backend services that could support your app by linking them to the cloud storage, backend application APIs and a lot of other features are defined in this step.

6. Testing the Prototype

Once the prototype is finished, testing should be done. You can approach your friends, colleagues, family members, and other experts that you may know, as well as attend an event or festival and meet strangers who have similar interests to test run the prototype and find any working defects or dead ends. Ask them for their honest feedback and suggestions for improvement. Based on these information, you could streamline the features and functionalities of your app before beginning to code.

7. Starting with the Initial Steps of Marketing and Collection of Maximum Feedback

Actively attending events and festivals also has another major advantage. You can meet your potential customers, publishers, and other professionals like you. If lucky, you may even get a chance for media exposure.

Marketing early will help you to improve your app’s visibility. You could start marketing by building a landing page, advertising through social media, blogging, video promotions etc. If you do not concentrate on finding your place in the market from the beginning itself, you may have to deal with a tough job later on.

8. Building the Back-end

The back-end generally handles data storage, and security. Most of the apps rely on certain features that uses back-end. Usage analytics, push notifications, extended security, communication and monetizing the app through ads are the most common examples that use a back-end service.

9. Building the Designs for Your App

Here, you are stepping on to the visual designing stage, where you actually flesh out your app. You have to fashion the different skins for your app in terms of color scheme, style, layout, fonts etc. The graphic designers’ expertise will determine the perfection of the user interface.

10. Testing the UX

Testing the UX is unavoidable because, user happiness is very important for the success of any app. For success, it is not just enough for your app to acquire customers. You should know how to keep your customers engaged and continue using your app, once you’ve acquired them. Apps that undervalue UX design, often end as a failure.

11. Continue with Development

This is where the actual coding of the app begin. The client will be frequently updated about the progress made by the mobile app development company. This is because, coding is an expensive process and efforts should be taken in order to minimize the possibility of mistakes. The tools and SDKs used will depend upon factors such as the platform for development and programmers’ skills.

During the coding phase itself, quality assurance testing will be initiated to remove all the major bugs present and avoid crashes. For e.g., testing will be done to detect issues arising due to the particular hardware, network availability or the application components itself. Testing is also done to ensure that the required specifications, feedback suggestions etc. are included.

12. Test an App

Finally, when your app is built, the next step is testing. The main purpose of testing is to validate end to end business flow. There are two ways to test your app:

UAT testing (User Acceptance Testing): This step of testing falls on the final phase before moving on to the marketing or production of the app. It is done to clarify whether all the necessary things are added within the app

BETA Testing: Allow the beta users to test your app either via an open solicitation for participants or enrolment of groups identified previously. Their feedback will help you figure out whether your app’s functionality operates well or not

13. App Security

Most of the app development companies now spend immense amount of money and time to protect their systems from hackers and online risks. Mobile apps are the most susceptible area in a system. Besides the lack of protection, such damages can also happen through insider targets. Therefore, it is important to identify the cyber threats at the start and implement necessary counter measures.

14. Release to the Market

Once your app development has completed, and you’re happy with the final product that you have in hand, it’s time for you to launch your app into any digital app repository of your choice, if it is not meant for in-house deployment alone. This process can be time consuming depending on the stores that you opt for your app’s release.

mobile app development

Regardless of the stores, it is important for your app to have interesting screenshots, description, app title, and logo so that it will catch your customers’ attention. After all, you spent all this time waiting for your app’s release and getting people to click the download button. For that, you should also continue with your marketing efforts even after the release.

15. Maintenance

You’re thoroughly mistaken if you think that your job is over, immediately after you release your app into the market. Apart from marketing help, there are other services that every app owner needs to take from the mobile app development company viz., post-launch support and optimization. Based on the user reviews that you get, you would have to optimize your app’s features and functions. You should incorporate platform updates and release newer versions, if you want to survive the competition and retain the audience base.

Conclusion

The process of making a mobile app/mobile app development process  i.e, from concept to its launch undergoes many crucial steps. So it’s important for developers, organizations and project heads to understand all the stages before getting started.