Category: App Entrepreneurs

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After the news-making Freedom 251, another smartphone has now claims to be the world’s cheapest smartphone at just Rs 99/-. This phone is named ‘Acche Din’ and is launched by Namotel.

The company is obviously something we have not heard of before. Is this another fake news? We cannot be sure. But it’d be clever not to spend your money on this.

The phone claims the following specs

  • 4-inch Display
  • 1GB RAM
  • Android 5.1 Lollipop
  • 1.3GHz quadcore processor
  • 1325 mAh battery
  • Camera – 2MP REAR + .3MP FRONT
  • Dual SIM Card

The company has promised the phone to be available for booking from May 17th to 25th May 2016. According to company promoter Madhava Reddy, this could be the cheapest phone ever, and would revolutionise the mobile phone market. Mr.Reddy has previously been working in the Home Loans department for Axis Bank, as a Relationship Manager. It evidently points his inexperience with the smartphone industry.

Looking at the news, its hardly believable. The news raises a lot of suspicion. Lets hope people do not fall for such campaigns.

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A lot of businesses are at the advantage of setting up their own mobile app development team and starting off with application development. But there are several possible stumbling blocks that you may have to face when building your apps in-house. In such cases you might have to consider outsourcing.

Companies that are providing full time development services may also have to consider outsourcing at a certain point of time. For e.g., imagine that you are an app development company focusing primarily on Android and iOS development and one of your existing project needs a Windows phone based app. In situations like these, it is better for you to opt outsourcing, rather than hiring windows app developers.

Here are those key reasons that you should consider outsourcing for:

Lack of experience in the field

Even though you are a very successful business owner and have good experience managing various business processes, or is somehow related to the application development industry, there are high chances that you might fail at your venture, if you step into mobile app development without any prior experience.

Read also: The 14 Crucial Steps of Mobile App Development

All mobile application development companies invest a lot of their time in self evaluation and assessing the risks and favours from the outside environment, that contributed to their successes or failures. They learn from their mistakes and re-draw their plans and strategies based on the experience from each of their individual projects.

You can’t provide enough work force

At times, you can have an overwhelming number of projects in hand and will not be able to allot your resources including your work force to all of them. These cases demand that several of your less important projects should be handed over to other companies in order to maintain the velocity of work.

Improvements to existing projects

Often, you may need to make improvements to your existing projects; be it adding an additional feature on to your app or be it building an improved UI design. You might have allotted all your resources and your employees might be in the middle of a crucial project. It is not advisable for you to assemble a new team for this purpose. If you outsource such works, you could save cost and invest your time and energy in more fruitful and newer projects.

Recommended read: First Steps to Successful Mobile App Development – Define a Purpose and Validate Your Idea

Global economic differences

The average income for a particular job in developing countries will be far below that of any developed country. You will be able to hire an entire team in countries like India and China with the amount of money you hire two or three developers in countries like America or Germany. So, picking an outsource company’s service can earn you benefits in this sense.

Outsourcing for expertise

Your project can be faced with development limitations at times by the inability to acquire the required talent from your local area. For example, you may need to incorporate a new technology into your project, and at the same time that particular technology may not be popular in your area. Or maybe, you might have already tried developing, but failed to reach its completion. Further, several companies might not have all the aspects of mobile app development such as testing, marketing etc.

By outsourcing you are extending your search globally to meet the right candidate for your specific job. Outsourcing will also help you to complete the projects on time and on budget.

 Prioritization of tasks

In order to increase work efficiency and managing time for the major activities of your business, you may sometimes need to do prioritization of various tasks. Several steps like marketing and other management processes could become crucial to your businesse’s success. Under such circumstances, it will be imperative to seek outsourcing.

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The rate at which information gets shared in the present day is outrageous. You don’t lazily sip a cup of tea and go through the newspaper every morning. Newspaper news is stale to you as you’ve already read it from your smartphone.

Read also: 10 Common Features of Good Learning Apps for Kids

As a publisher, your present might be dull, and the future, even more so. But you have a way out – convert books to mobile apps. Why should you do it? Here are 12 reasons for you:-

Offer Fresh Content to the Digital Generation: – You have to be where your customer is. And currently the biggest consumers of digital content is the digital generation. A number of them wouldn’t have read books. And they do have a voracious appetite for new content.

So, your traditional books would be new content to them, and chances are they would love it. Most of them are more comfortable with digital content than traditional books.

No Printing Cost – Unlike doing a new edition, creating a mobile app does not involve the cost of printing. One of the major investment you require for traditional books is printing cost. So, creating an app would cost you a lot lesser.

Storage Space Required – With an app, you need next to no physical storage space. So, that godown you used to have earlier to store books are not required anymore.

No Transportation cost – If you do not have anything to print and store, you don’t have anything to transport as well. So, no transportation cost – another reason for you to convert books to apps.

Easily Portable – The process of setting up your own account in the popular app stores such as Google Play and Apple App Store are no big deal. Probably your mobile app developer himself would get it done for you. There is no need to carry it around by any means of transportation.

Recommended read: 5 Smart Tips for Parents to Buy Learning Apps for Kids

Easy to Market and Distribute – Its very simple to distribute as well. With the right App Store Optimization (Why Use App Store Optimization Services?) and digital marketing techniques, you can reach out to a massive number of audience. Distributing is simple as sharing the link to the app.

Customizable – Unlike physical books, e-books in apps can be easily customized and updated. So, adding a few design changes or correcting a few pages or typos wouldn’t be a big deal. You can change the fonts, colors, etc and just upload the update

Environmental Benefits – Obviously, paper is not required for publishing your content as mobile apps. Leading to lesser trees being cut down, which is a huge positive for the environment.

User Benefits of Converting Books To Mobile Apps

Can Be Interactive – Traditional books are not much interactive. They are just plain, fixed text. So, it is that much more difficult to keep modern readers engaged. But in the case of apps, you can show a variety of content, such as videos, social media integration, ability to search, annotate, etc.

Easily Accessible Alternate Resources – As mentioned above, apps can be interactive, which offers you an opportunity to cross link between your resources, allowing them more exposure.

You can link to other e-books, videos or even a product you want to sell. This offers a good experience to the readers as well. Because, unlike with a traditional book, they don’t have to search for a book mentioned in the bibliography among stacks of library books.

Easy access and simple to use – Apps are very easy to install. They are just a click away, in fact. People don’t have to neither go to book store nor wait for it to arrive after ordering.

Search Feature – The modern generation is so accustomed to Google, that they expect the search feature in everything. And traditional books cannot beat the ability of e-books or apps to search. It makes finding particular information very simple.

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” What’s the purpose of your app? ” This should be the first and foremost question that should creep into your mind when you think mobile app development. There should be a solidly defined purpose for every app created. Candy Crush is for entertainment, Skype is for communication, and eBay is for shopping online. Developing an app without a purpose would only be a waste of money and time.

Okay, now that you’ve got a purpose for app creation, you can move on to the next step – Finalizing the app idea.

You may also: Why Complex Designs May Hurt Mobile App Development

There is every reason for you to be excited once you get hold of an apparently plausible list of app ideas. You will be eager to continue with the initial steps of mobile app development by choosing the most promising one among them. But, before jumping heads first into the development process, it is worth validating the concepts you have in hand, in order to know whether they could stand a chance in the competitive market and gain enough ROI.

The mobile app development process is quite expensive. Validation helps to save your money, time, and effort. There is a trend of copying the already successful apps in the market. But you should remember that, something that works for others may not work for you every time.

Proper planning and research is important in app development like in every other business. You should take effort to generate maximum feedback from the public. But that’s not an easy job. How could you generate any feedback for an unfinished app that is still in its conception phase? This topic gives you information about the different ways that you can use to validate your app.

Research Your Market Well

It is very important that you thoroughly check if your app can satisfy an existing demand in the market or create a new one. Google has got its own tools to determine the number of searches made all over the world. Keyword tool, Google trends, etc. will help you to analyze where the public demand heads. It also gives a more focused, niche based search option that allows you to obtain the preferences of people concentrated over a particular geographical area.

Recommended read: How do Mobile Applications Benefit the Education Sector?

The best app idea to choose could be the one that returns a total number of searches and that could come inside of a low competition area. The total searches made should be somewhat consistent round the year.

Study App Stats from App Charts

Use websites such as App Annie that track app market statistics to get an idea about the top apps and download stats of particular genre of apps. Also, do not forget to browse in popular app stores and get a record of the popular apps in them. This will help you to know about the possible competitors and will give you a glance into the existing market gap for different products.

Build Your Own Landing Page

Right when you have finally decided to stick on with an idea, you could start creating a landing page for your app. The landing pages should be simple with easy to grasp information and digestible designs. It should give the viewers a general idea about what your app exactly is, complete with graphics and the main functions.

This is a sure way of generating a much realistic estimation on the possibility of your app’s success. As a general rule, the number of clicks that you get will be directly proportional to the conversion rates. If whatever you get is a bit unsatisfactory, you should consider revising the design, text, color and other features of your app.

Apart from these major three, there are still other ways that could give you a chance to know if your app will hold up well. These includes social media campaigns through twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc., creating promotional videos, blogging and so on.

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Prabhat Ranjan, Police Commissioner launched a new website and a mobile app on behalf of Mumbai Police.

The website of Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate and the mobile app- “Citizen Cop” are for the safety of citizens, mainly women.

“Our official website, navimumbaipolice.org, will act as a medium for interaction between the police and the citizens. The citizens can now obtain online information about the police permissions, types of licences, legal aspects, safety related information among others. Now, the citizens will not require to physically visit the police station for submitting mandatory documents such as rental agreement, domestic help employed, etc. Instead, they can do it online now by clicking on the option of ‘Inform Police”, Police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan said.

Recap: Delhi Police to Introduce Three New Mobile Apps

He asked the citizens to help in upgrading the website.

Ranjan added, “The key feature of Citizen Cop app is SOS facility for women in distress. If a woman travelling alone in a taxi or an auto finds the driver suspicious, she can click on the option and send distress messages to three mobile numbers of her family members and one message to the police control room.”

The app provides relevant information about the Traffic Police Department.

The website and app will be very helpful for the citizens regarding their safety.

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Delhi police to introduce three more new mobile apps each for Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Special Police Unit for Women and Children (SPUWAC) and Vigilance wing.

“We have initiated the process and are currently in the process of developing and then carrying out the trial runs. The launch would take at least two to three months after which public access could be made possible,” said the Delhi Police officer.

The officer said that these apps are well structured so that detailed complaints would mostly come for actionable calls.

Read Also: NHAI to Introduce Mobile App to Check Traffic Trespassers

“The app will alert the complainants and save them the effort of going to the police station and filing a complaint or to find out the mandate of the EOW. The cyber crime cases also come there and financial matters often have the scope of mediation with digital documentation would further facilitate,” said the officer.

For the others, too, it was in tune with Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi’s efforts reducing public inconvenience and better monitoring of performance, he added.

New apps will be added to the apps that are currently running including an integrated app called “Suraksha” and many more.

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National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to introduce mobile app for the public to file complaints against those who are involved in rash driving or violating traffic rules.

This will take a month or two to create it. It will be soon available for the citizens so that they can even take a photograph of the vehicle, which is speeding or violating any structures relating to transport and press a button to register a complaint against that vehicle, Mr. Chandra said.

“All the complaints will get registered in the ledger pertaining to that vehicle whereupon the police/transport department can take further action about it,” he added.

Recap: Western Railway to Introduce Paperless Unreserved Tickets

“In the days to come, I hope to be able to introduce reforms to bring about better management, control, policing of our highways network, I feel with more physical intermediation we should be able to bring about something like patrolling to improve the physical management on roads and I think that will have a significant improvement on road safety,” he said.

NHAI was working towards building up complete information of bank of each and every highway, known as the Road Asset Management System (RAMS).

“Within the next one year we should have information of the entire 1,00,000 kms of highway network on its every aspect, including the encroachment on both sides, quality of the road, width of the road, width of the right of way, issues concerning with junctions and so on,” he added.

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Thiruvananthapuram: “Proud Chengannur”, a new mobile-based app launched by the Kerala Legislator for public to share their suggestions and to submit their complaints.

This app describes the complete history of Chengannur including detailed information of various development programmes done by the constituency.

“It is for the first time that a constituency-based mobile application is launched in the state by an MLA. It is designed in a user-friendly manner. Anybody from the constituency can easily download it and submit their complaints and suggestions from anywhere in the world,” Mr Vishnunath told Press Trust of India, PTI.

Read Also: Amazing! Mobile App to Help People Facing Autism

Android user can download this app easily from Google Play Store.

“The app would give people an easy access to their legislator and ensure transparency in his activities”, said two-time MLA.

“If the NRKs want to lodge a complaint or bring any issue related to the constituency to the notice of the MLA, they can easily alert me through the app. They can even send pictures or other documents through it,” he said.

Users can get the phone numbers of health, transport and police departments across the state through this app.

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Redbytes Software was reviewed by Young Turks, one of the most popular shows on CNBC TV-18 channel about entrepreneurs. It was a proud moment for Redbytes and the team. Here is the video.

With almost 50% of our population below the age of 25, the education industry is poised to be one of the fastest growing sectors. As per latest survey conducted by industry body Assocham, private equity and venture capitalist firms are likely to invest a whooping Rs 4,500 crore into the sector over the next three years. Infact over 40 Indian education companies have successfully managed to raise funds in the last two years and new start-ups are being registered everyday.

For investors, innovation holds the key. Education start-ups that can accommodate affordable technology into their products and services is what investors are placing their bets on. This is where players like 39 years old Altaf Rehmani have an advantage point.

Remember, the good old days, when your school life was all about books, notebooks, pencils and pens. If Altaf Rehmani of Redbytes Software has his way, these could be things of the past. This Pune-based serial entrepreneur offers educational applications from mobile devices which cater to kids in the age group of two-six.

Now, Redbytes is hoping to revolutionise the way children start out their educational years. Redbytes was a finalist in the hunt for India’s best product startups. Here is a look at Altaf’s tablet for success.

Nothing prepares us for success like failure. Third time lucky, Altaf Rehmani returned to India from Hong Kong in 2009 to start Redbytes Software. With 15 years of corporate experience under his belt, Altaf started Redbytes after tough lessons learnt from previous ventures like ushops, an online market place and a testapart.com, an online website for technical testing. Not one to give up, Rehmani zeroed in on the idea of making learning fun for kids using interacted mobile educational applications.

Altaf says, “We are big believers in early education. Mobile devices are here to stay. Also, we know that by research, a lot of brain development takes place in the first five years of a child’s growth. Three, we were all inspired by our own kids growing up with these new generation of devices. For example, I was just amazed at how my two-year old daughter could quickly use the ipad, navigate through the ipad and really learn through what the apps had to offer on that device. Within a span of six months, she started teaching her mom, she started teaching her grandmother how to use and navigate these apps. So, it was simply amazing how quickly kids learn through these devices. And that really inspired us to turn the entire company around and start doing mobile application for kids.”

And kids are keen to bite into Rehmani’s idea and curious about how it works. Redbytes has developed more than 28 educational apps across iOS and Android platforms and claims to have recorded more than 120,000 downloads.

Redbytes helps kids colour and draw, have fun with numbers, learn about animals and nature and understand the world around them.

Rehmani says, “We are one of the very few companies who are focused in creating a complete curriculum for toddlers. There are over 30,000 apps in the app-store, but very few companies are doing the kind of curriculum that we are doing. That’s first and foremost very unique to us. Secondly, we are trying to get the concept of games and educational learning into our apps. So, what we are trying to do is really make education fun by making it more interactive so that the child is truly engaged while using our apps.”

Redbytes makes most of its money from the sale of its apps like ikids, a program in which Redbytes partners with schools to create customised content for mobiles. With a large chunk of business coming in from schools and Middle East, Altaf has managed to clock revenues of more than Rs 50 lakh annually and in confident of breaking even in six months.

Rehmani says, “We generate revenue from our apps which we sell in the app-stores worldwide. We also work with international publishers where we take their content and package their content so that it becomes monetisable on the mobile platform. We also partner and tie-up with device manufacturer. So, there are number of players in India and abroad who are selling mobile tablets out in the market. We are partnering with some of these names, with some of these companies and trying to pre-package our content onto their devices. That is also a fantastic distribution and marketing channel for us.”

Inspired by his kids, Rehmani uses his experience as a dad to refine Redbytes offering and stay ahead in the game. With an eye on growth, he is keen to team up with international publishers to give Redbytes access to newer markets.