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There are always high expectations associated with new mobile product development. Whether it is an organization or mobile users, the news of a new product launch attracts everyone’s focus towards it. While the organizations are focused on the technology of the upcoming product, mobile users expect an even better experience with the company. However, many products fail to meet these expectations and thus, flounder at launch. Every company wants its product to be a success but to achieve this milestone, there are certain criteria that they first need to follow. There are no magic spells just four basic factors that determine the new mobile product’s success.

1.      Support from Senior Management

Before developing and launching new mobile products seek support from the senior management of the organization. It is essential for the project as senior management should have detailed knowledge about the products such as budget, resources, and project targets. It’s them who will have a final call, depending on the product’s innovation, research, and testing the prototypes therefore, try to take them in confidence from the beginning. They hold quite an experience and knows about user feedback. Getting their support also ensures confident resource management throughout the product development process.

If you want to seek senior management’s support, then make sure that the idea of your product is proved. The product can be validated by getting tested by a few real users as this helps in shrinking the probability of uncertainties. The management will have a clear picture of your idea the product and its functionality.

2.      Presentation of Concept of the Product

Getting an idea approved, depends on how well it is presented. If the presentation is poor then it will probably fail to impress the management therefore, effective communication and conveyance of the concept and its details and knowledge play a major role in the success of the mobile product.

However, this risk of mismanagement of knowledge can be reduced with the help of cross-functional teams at the time of product development. This also improves inter-team communication skills resulting in apt knowledge of all the team members regarding the product. Having more teams means having more knowledge, experience, and ideas that can come in handy while trouble-shooting as you will have many shoulders to rely on.

3.      Agile development process

The agile development process holds great significance when comes to mobile product success. This process has a great impact on managing the development costs of the products. It also makes sure to meet the targets especially, return on investment (ROI). Three fields need to be efficiently handled during the development process.

• Pre-development work or the design thinking process
• Specific requirements definition
• Iterative development

To meet the mobile users’ expectations, it is of utmost need to meticulously focus on the three fields of the product’s development phase. By efficiently managing these areas, the development costs of the product can also be saved while keeping up the goals and objectives of the concept.

4.      Market Orientation

Last but not least, it works best to opt for a market-oriented approach. It means that the company which is launching the product is adapting the design and concept that meet users’ need. Many companies ignore it however when it comes to introducing a new mobile product, leaving the market research for later is a huge mistake that you should not make.

The success of mobile apps and products heavily relies on market trends and researches. Therefore, instead of doing the research later, do it even before the development process. Try to make every decision related to the product based on market research, highlighting the needs and aspirations of mobile users.

Wrapping Up: 

If you want your upcoming mobile app a success story then be vigilant of these four essential criteria. Instead of just going with the flow, try to have detailed research on these factors even before the product’s launch. All of these four essentials will make a significant impact on the development process and the mobile product’s success.

The phone you are having in your hands can do anything from ordering your food to deliver the work emails, anytime from anywhere. If you are an iPhone or iPad user, these tasks become more secure and simple with apps available for everything, be it about work or managing your lifestyle.

Apple applications have got some news and updates in the month of November 2020 that you must know about. Let us see what they are:

Availability of new subscription server notifications in production

You can create customized user experiences as App Store server notifications facilitate real-time updates on a subscriber’s status. Now you can find the following notifications in production:

• DID_RENEW tells you when the auto-renewal is done by the subscriber successfully.
• PRICE_INCREASE_CONSENT tells you when the users have been asked to agree to your subscription by Apple Store, this helps you in reminding them that your service has a greater value and they need to stick to your app.

Tax and price changes for apps and in-app purchases

With the rate change in taxes and foreign exchange, the App Store has also updated the prices. In the upcoming days, these prices will increase (except on the renewable subscription) in some countries that eventually reflect the following tax changes:

• In India, new equalization of 2% will be imposed (with a tax of 18% in addition to the existing goods and services).
• In Indonesia, 10% of value-added tax for developers based outside of Indonesia.

Apple entrepreneur camp application for underrepresented founders and developers

As black founders and developers are building cutting-edge apps for next-generation and forming a global network to encourage the entrepreneurs in technology, Apple Entrepreneurs Camp fully supports them in the execution and longevity. The first cohort is about to begin and run from February 16 to 25, 2021, and the applications are now open for all the black founders and developers. Attendees will be facilitated by the code-level guidance, inspiration, and mentorship with extraordinary experiences and access to the leaders and engineers at Apple. November 20, 2020 is the closing date for submitting applications.

Your apps can be pre-ordered earlier than before

You can now give your customers the opportunity to pre-order your app up to 180 days for download before its release on the App Store. This is the huge time to work on more features, enhancement services, and adding more content according to the interest you are getting to encourage more people to come forward and make a pre-order. After the release of your app, customers will get a notification and the automatic download will start on their devices within 24 hours.

UIWebView extended the deadline for updates in apps

WKWebView was designed in 2014 so you can quickly integrate web content into your app across iOS and macOS. Since then, we have recommended you migrate to WKWebView instead of UIWebView as App Store is no longer accepting the apps on these frameworks.

However, the deadline for app updates has been extended surpassing the end of 2020. This additional time is provided for you to move on WKWebView and understand the features that developers generally requested. The new date of the deadline will be confirmed soon.

Addition in App Store Marketing Tools

New marketing resources have been introduced to take advantage of promoting your apps around the world. Now you can generate embeddable code or short links that directly land the customers on your App Store product page and show them the icon of your app, a QR code, or an App Store badge. You can download the localized app store badges, your app icon, and more.

Review Guideline updates are now available on App Store

App Store is place that is great for developers as well as safe for the customers to discover new applications and download them. The guideline changes on App Store clarify the support over new features in upcoming releases to protect customers and help you in having a smooth review process over your apps.

There are many more news and updates that have been made for apps and Apple is continuously making more. Stay connected to learn them in the future.

This year Adobe Max 2020 was showcased virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. An update in all the recognized products of Adobe including Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro has been announced. Not only this but a California-based company, San Jose, has also announced new adobe products including Illustrators and Fresco with upgraded UI & features. One major update which was a buzz last year, the launch of Adobe design app, will be launching this year around. Adobe will be launching design app illustrator for the iPad and drawing app Fresco for iPhone. This update didn’t come as a surprise as it was already available as a private beta as well as on pre-order. But still, it is good news for a lot of illustrator users.

The Adobe illustrator app on iPad has come with the support of Apple Pencil that will enable the illustrator users to get fine-tuned control on the designs. Moreover, the users of iPad will also get the most demanded features of Adobe desktop version, including grid, radial and mirror repeat. This newly launched illustrator app for iPads includes the feature of zoom in & out with simple pinch gesture; objects can be selected by tapping them and more.

The new update in the Illustrator will be supporting 18,000 fonts and also allows the users to upload their own designs and customize them. In other words, Adobe illustrator has ported the app to a touch-interface that will not only improve user experience, but will also give them space for creativity in their designs.

Adobe has also announced the new Recolour Artwork feature for the desktop users of illustrators. With this update, users will be able to change the color themes of their design in just a single click. Additionally, some optimizations have been announced by Adobe for the users who are willing to switch between their desktop and iPad in order to improve their cross-device experience.

Meanwhile, Adobe’s drawing app, Fresco, which was only available on the iPad and Windows, will also be available on iPhone after this recent update along with upgraded version 2.0. Adobe is trying making Fresco a go-to app for the artist so they can use it on-the-go when inspiration strikes them. Adobe has also announced that the Fresco app for iPhone will be having all the features of the iPad app with additional changes in the design in order to accommodate the app I n the small screen of the iPhone. Not only in iPhone, but Fresco has also announced updates on iPad and Widows version that will be bringing new features supporting text, brushes, smudge tool and pressure sensitivity controls.

The app is available for download with a monthly fee of $9.99. Good news for the Adobe’s Creative Cloud plan subscribers as this app is available free of cost for them. Adobe’s approach with recent updates is to maximize its reach and usage by enhancing as well as promoting creativity among mobile phone users.

Other than this, the virtual conference also covered the preview of content attribution tool prototype under the Content Authenticity Initiative that was launched at previous year’s Max conference.

Integration of Adobe Sensei is among the most significant updates that will bring a profound Artificial Intelligence experience across all the apps of Adobe. Furthermore, users will now be getting augmented focused reality updates in Adobe Aero and XD. The Sensei integration in Adobe Photoshop has brought a new feature of Sky Replacement that enable the users to separate the sky from the foreground and make relevant changes in the image.

Adobe Photoshop also has the neural filters that are based on machine learning algorithms for providing next-level image manipulation. The discover panel has also been upgraded to utilize AI for providing personalized recommendations based on the user’s work.  Not only this, but Adobe has also introduced an Object Aware Refine Edge and Refine Hair option that is based on AI and enable the users to improve their images.

Recently, Facebook officially announced an upgrade in Messenger API that enabled its integration with Instagram Direct.  It is further improved with the update to include support for the Instagram Direct. This update has not only changed the logo of Facebook Messenger, but will also be facilitating the businesses with new connection possibilities.

Facebook has been trying to unite its different platforms, including Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. This will not only help Facebook have the most extensive customer share but can facilitate businesses with innovate marketing opportunities. The latest API upgrade will help Facebook put Instagram in the way of business communication platforms.

“The new API features enable businesses to integrate Instagram messaging with their preferred business applications and workflows; helping drive more meaningful conversations, increase customer satisfaction and grow sales”, Facebook explained.

This new updated API has changed the scope of Messenger for businesses by enabling them to build additional procedures on the back of the Messenger infrastructure. This way, companies can have advanced utilization of Facebook messaging engines to attain their corporate and marketing goals.

Moreover, through this integration, business owners, as well as third-party messaging service providers, can develop new customized workflows for maximizing the use of Instagram Direct in their messaging process.

Since its launch, the color of Facebook Messenger had become iconic blue. But after this expansion, its color has been merged with the color of the Instagram logo in order to reflect the merger of two platforms. And honestly, it looks cool and amusing. Also, the upgrade includes new updated chat themes which offers the accessibility to customize chat themes.

According to Facebook VP, 10 million people customize their chat themes on a daily basis.

Actual reason behind this new expansion

If we see the current situation, this Facebook upgrade has taken place when Instagram is already pushing ‘shopping’ as its core activity by launching Instagram shops and making visual changes, thus promoting the shopping features.

Facebook also said, “It will be possible for businesses to use the information from core business systems right alongside Instagram messaging, enabling more personal conversations that drive better outcomes. For example, businesses integrating with a CRM system can give agents a holistic view of customer loyalty. This update will also bring Facebook Shops messaging features to the Messenger API so businesses can create a more engaging and connected customer experience.”

Furthermore, this new integration has enabled automation of Instagram Direct responses which means that businesses can effectively engage their potential customers even without being physically present to attend them all the time. In other words, this new update will improve overall customer experience with the brand.

Additionally, Facebook has stated that “over last year, total daily conversations between people and businesses on Messenger and Instagram grew over 40%. For businesses, the opportunity to drive sales and improve customer satisfaction by having meaningful interactions with people on Instagram messaging is huge”.

This new upgraded API is still in beta testing phase having top businesses on the list including H&M, Michael Kors, Sephora, Adidas, Nars, and more.  This beta is also available to limited developer partners. As per Facebook, recent data suggests that new Instagram opportunities are growing fast. Therefore, this update can be a big thing for brands that are effectively utilizing Instagram for their businesses. If other companies wish to have the API post-beta, then they have to join the waitlist for requesting the accesses.

Currently, the messages are appearing on the Brand’s Messenger and Instagram tab depending on the platform on which customer has sent the message. Furthermore, Facebook has shared its plan of bringing the cross-app communications to businesses as well as developers in future updates.

Hashtags are a single word or group of words after the symbol ‘#’, known as a hash. Introduced in Internet Relay Chats for messaging and live chats, hashtags were initially used for tweet chats on Twitter for open group discussions around a specific topic. Its popularity started from Twitter where people used it for tweet chats. Here are some useful tips for using common hashtags:

• Checking the common hashtags used by followers, competitors, and product partners

• Engaging with users using common hashtags that are related through retweets, likes, and comments

• Refraining from spamming your post with tons of common hashtags which may not impart trust in your consumer

Different types of hashtags are used for various purposes, e.g., brand and campaign specific, content-specific, and trending hashtags. Let us dive into each of them in detail and talk about its use.

Brand and Campaign Hashtags

Brand hashtags are made specifically for your own business to promote and market your brand. It can be your brand name or the tagline of your company. It should be unique that defines your business and can be used as your signature tag.

For the marketing of your brand, you should get people to use your unique hashtags. Detailed research for the hashtags you are thinking about is to be done by using Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Pinterest before implementing. The brand hashtag should be short and easy to spell so that your customers can remember it and use it correctly.

Campaign hashtags are made uniquely for every marketing campaign of your business such as if you are having a summer sale at your store; a unique hashtag can be used for further promotion. As people use your campaign hashtag, an extended reach will be acquired. You can use the name of your current marketing campaign as the campaign hashtag, which will be unique and different to engage your customers. Some of the useful tips on using business and campaign hashtags are as follows:

• It should be unique and consistent

• It should generate awareness and more engagement of the marketing efforts of your brand

• It should be small, easy to remember and spell for your consumers

• It should be monitored so that you can respond to people easily

Trending Hashtags

Trending hashtags are very popular nowadays as people are usually referring to hashtags that are trending and most talked about. They are continuously changing in real-time; a top 10 trend can come and go within a period of merely a few minutes. A trending hashtag can be used when it is related to your business or content. Using a trending hashtag can get your message to reach a massive audience.

However, avoid spam hashtags in your posts particularly if they are irrelevant to your content or business. This could be viewed as a poor etiquette and in some cases, your account may be suspended.

Content Hashtags

These types of hashtags are being used in daily posts. They do not define your marketing campaigns or business or are trending but they are related to your posts. They mainly improve the SEO of your posts by making the consumers see your updates who are searching for, using the hashtag words.

The main categories or content hashtags are product hashtags, event hashtags, lifestyle hashtags, and location hashtags. Product hashtags are the ones that people search for common products that they use. These hashtags help to connect the product to its market. Lifestyle hashtags are used for people who have common lifestyles to market their demographics and hobbies.

Event-based hashtags can be used for specific content updates such as well-known global celebration or product launch. The use of geo-targeted hashtags can help locally-based businesses connect with their local customers.

Now that you have learned the details and use of different types of hashtags, make your content or brands stand out by using these amazing hashtags.

There is a specific way in which developers make codes these days, but usually the outcome is that they end up having bugs and numerous errors. Containerization enables developers to deploy and create better application quickly and safely.

What is Containerization?

For those looking for an alternative to virtualization, containerization is the answer. The general idea or concept of this technique involves packaging or encapsulating the code along with all dependencies, to ensure that it runs smoothly on any infrastructure or platform without issues.

This new technique is showing great potential and maturing quickly. The effectiveness it offers is making is very popular among developers. It also offers numerous benefits. It also helps prevent these issues by bundling the software code with related dependencies, libraries, and files that support it to run smoothly. This approach enables developers to pack everything into a “container” that can run over the cloud or any other platform, without bugs and errors. One important thing to keep in mind is that it depends on stored data.

Importance of Using Containers

Containers are an important and advanced technology that is necessary for cloud computing. Most companies worldwide, small or large, are using containers to improve their software that enables better management. This approach offers continuous integration and delivery, which is beneficial for companies to operate smoothly.

It is right to say that containers are the backbone of private cloud storage systems. In the early days, cloud computing was a major game changer in terms of better control on data storage and sharing, and security. It simultaneously supported the use of multiple cloud-based services. This proved an important development in companies that require uploading new applications and existing applications to the cloud for operation and access.

There are three major reasons why containers are important:

1. They are a modern approach to using applications
2. They create cloud-native applications for enterprises to use at a large scale
3. They support opening a data center that works via the cloud

History and Future of Containerization

This technique has been around for decades, but is gaining traction only recently. The reason for this new development is the emergence of Docker Engine, which was developed in 2013. Docker Engine is an open-source software.

Gartner, a well-known research firm, projected that as many as 50% of companies would turn to Containerization by 2020. This is happening.

Moreover, results from a survey conducted by IBM in 2017 show that this adoption has happened even faster than predicted. The research suggested that 59% of companies had already adopted containerization to reduce the defects in the new apps developed to facilitate businesses.

Benefits of Containerization

Portability      

Containerization offers a container, in which all executable files are tied together to ensure that the software launches on OS (operating system). Rather, it is more portable and can run across any cloud or platform there is. Developers will not have a problem building new code for every platform to avoid bugs and errors. Rather they would use containerization and solve all their problems.

Speed

Containerized containers are also known as “lightweight.” They can share the operating system of the machine without causing other technical glitches. This results in the servers being more efficient and productive. Moreover, it is cost effective in terms of licensing and server management. It also increases the speed of operations.

Fault isolation

Each container is not dependent upon any other container in containerization. If one container were having a problem, it would not disturb the other containers. The developers can work on a specific part of an application while not ruining the whole application at the same time. This is great for developer teams, as they do not have the hassle of rewriting code, repeatedly, a thousand times.

Efficiency

As we already know, containers can share the OS of the machine. Containers can share information with other containers, which can result in a faster and efficient time to carry out a specific task. This will make sure that fewer numbers of containers are bought, resulting in less amount of licensing and server expenses.

Easy management

There are special platforms that support the execution of containerized files. This enables easy management of the containerized apps, and rolling out of the apps. Generally, this provides ease in debugging, monitoring, and debugging.

One such platform that is quite popular for orchestration of container systems is Kubernetes. It is an open-source platform or technology, which Google owned previously. It originally automated Linux containerized functions. Now it works with other container engines like Docker and others that comply with the OCI (Open Container Initiative) standards.

Security

As data is stored in containers and is isolated, this prevents any mischievous code from entering the application and resulting in shutting down the whole process. Containerization security may be compromised. When people have applications that contain sensitive information or data, it becomes mandatory to use robust and additional security measures. IT professionals can integrate these measures into the containers for effective security of data. Many security measures can be taken such as any unwanted code entering the containers that can be automatically blocked and not allowed to enter the containers.

Drawbacks of Containerization

Site constraints

As containers require loads of space, most sites do not have that much server space to allocate to containers. This is why many sites are hesitant in this new technology. If they implement this new technology, they would have to buy loads of server space so more server cost.

Limitations in running on bare-metal speed

Generally, compared to virtualization, containers tend to consume more resources and that too efficiently. However, it is common for containers to lack in performance due to the lack of networking infrastructure, and poor interfacing between the host system and the containers. Other similar issues tend to exist. To achieve 100% bare-metal speed, you must use bare metal.

Fractured container ecosystem

Due to a huge competition between container companies, some container products do not work on every other container. For example, containers by Red Hat like OpenShift only work on Kubernetes Orchestrators, and not on other platforms.

Complicated data storage

Superficially, once the container shuts down, all the data inside the container vanishes; unless you have, a backup stored somewhere. You can save data persistently in Docker Data Volumes, which is a complicated thing to do, and most people are not yet familiar with it.

Poor performance of graphical applications

You may be aware that some character systems organize server applications. They do not need a graphic interface. Likewise, some creative strategies like X11 video forwarding allow you to run GUI apps inside the container. These solutions are difficult to use, and seldom work.

Containers do not benefit all apps

Although containers seem to be a great development, and tend to make things better for most IT professionals, they may not always be useful. Applications designed to operate as microservices tend to benefit from containers. The main benefit of using containers is that the applications provide an easy packaging mechanism.

Types of popular Containerization technologies

Container runtimes

·         Docker Enterprise

·         CRI-O

·         rktlet

·         containerd

·         Microsoft Containers

Cluster management and deployment

·         Kubernetes

·         Istio and Envoy

·         Apache Mesos

·         Docker Swarm

·         Docker Datacenter

Storage containers

·         BlockBridge

·         EMC / libstorage

Container security

·         Twistlock

·         Aqua Container Security

·         StackRox

·         Aporeto

Operating systems 

·         Alpine Linux

·         RancherOS

·         CoreOS Container Linux

·         Ubuntu Core

·         Red Hat Atomic Host

·         Microsoft Nano Server

·         VMware Photon

A Comparison of Virtualization & Containerization

Many people compare both of these techniques because they are similar in the types of software they allow to run. However, the containerization approach is proving more beneficial than the other and becoming a favorite among IT professionals.

Compared to Virtualization, Containerization uses less resources, and enables better use of computing resources.

The use of virtualization allows IT Professionals to use multiple OS and Software at the same time, and even share the available resources on a single computer. This means that IT companies can run Linux, Windows, and multiple versions on OS and multiple apps on a single server.

The entire data (the OS, libraries, related files, dependencies) are packed into a container forming a virtual machine. Having multiple virtual machines running on a single server increases savings by reducing operational, energy, and other costs.

On the other hand, containerization uses the resources in a more efficient manner. It creates a single package of the entire application, bundling it into a code. It configures all related dependencies, files, and libraries that are necessary for the application to run smoothly.

Unlike Virtualization, containers do not bundle a copy of the operating system, but rather, it installs the runtime engine on the operating system of the host system or server. Thereby making it a shared server system for all containers.

Some improvements that can be made to Containerization

• Designing and maintaining templates for the containers

• Adapting/expanding existing governance models and practices

• Conforming to security policies and standards

• Integrating with the existing DevOps environment

• Selecting the right open-source tools from the hundreds available

• New skills or knowledge to manage the new containerized environment

Found this article useful? Share it and let us know your experience and thoughts on Containerization.

In the current digital age, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. Its dynamics keep changing, making it essential to keep up with this amazing platform. As Instagram has created a huge record by having active users over one billion per month, its demand for influencer marking has grown twofold. Instagram started as a platform where people share images, but it has now become a primary source of revenue and leads to many businesses. An effective strategy and execution can help you build a community that can improve your brand identity and audience engagement.

What is Instagram Marketing?

Businesses use the platform of Instagram to achieve their marketing as well as business goals by setting some goals, processes, and actions. Instagram marking is a part of social media marketing and is associated with its processes and goals. Over 25 million businesses on Instagram have their profile and use it as a source to promote their services, product, employee engagement, and brand. A huge competition is ongoing on this platform among the sellers who are trying to beat their rivals by producing innovative, reliable, and relevant content. The main goal of the marketers on Instagram is to form a community, produce leads, develop customer service, escalate brand awareness, and allow conversions.

Let us have a look at some of the tips for effective Instagram marketing that can help you gain maximum benefits for your business.

1. Optimization of Instagram Bio

The first thing that people see when they visit your profile is your Instagram bio. It is a small information area underneath the username of your profile to share details about your brand. It should be engaging, informative, and captivating to engage the users. Your Instagram bio should have a proper and concise description of your brand, product, or service. The main key features of it should include the following:

• A short description of the content you intend to make and share
• Using emoticons that are relatable to the language of your brand and content
• Adding hashtags and a URL link can play a big part in driving traffic to your profile

2. Incorporation of Relevant Hashtags

The Instagram algorithm works according to the hashtags as it allows search of content based on the search of hashtags query. Users can follow the hashtags just like Instagram profiles that show up on their feed. The use of hashtags can increase engagement making its use critical for business profiles. A hashtag strategy should be built that has a well-adjusted combination of self-made hashtags, highly popular hashtags, low search volume hashtags, and industry-relevant hashtags.

3. Leveraging Instagram Stories

The stories feature on Instagram has one of the greatest engagement rates on all social media platforms. It is a short video clip or image with a link, gifs, or text that users can view directly from the top of their app within 24 hours. This tool has such a power to connect, engage, and influence the audience in just a few seconds. Instagram stories can be a great way to promote your brand or content with the audience in several ways such as by ‘ask my anything’ feature, hosting a poll, using filters, mentions, and stickers to make them unique and engaging.

4. Responding to DMs and comments

The main key to constructing an interactive community is to build engagement within it. These types of engagement are built by communicating with your followers through direct messages (DMs) and comments. These are the best ways to get in touch with your users and prospects. It should be ensured that DMs are turned on and each of them should be replied, as they are the source of possible leads. Replies can be automated by setting up custom responses, as this will help in liaising with the prospects and follow up with customer needs.

If you want to stay ahead and maximize the benefits of your brand on Instagram in 2020, it is important to ensure maximum engagement. Implementing these tips will surely help you in the success of your Instagram marketing in 2020.