All posts by [x]cube LABS

[x]cube LABS is a leading digital strategy and solution provider specializing in enterprise mobility space. Over the years, we have delivered numerous digital innovations and mobile solutions, creating over $ 2 billion for startups and enterprises. Broad spectrum of services ranging from mobile app development to enterprise digital strategy makes us the partner of choice for leading brands.
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The Android Story

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The entry of Android and its subsequent growth has completely altered the smartphone landscape in the last few years. In a short span of time, it became one of the leading smartphone OS, preferred by many mobile handset manufacturers and a choice of millions of users. A success story of the decade, Android, according to many, is poised to occupy the #1 position in the OS market. So, as a tribute, we attempted to trace the footprints of Android’s fascinating journey and provide you with a visual account of the Android history. “The Android Story” traces the origin of Android, how it evolved with different versions and how it grew on popularity and market share over the years.

To view the full infographic click here.

Our other infographics-

The smartphone app-o-graphic.

The evolution of mobile operating systems.

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NFC- A Close Enough Future

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Imagine this, if you were to walk into a store and instead of paying with a credit card, you could simply “tap” your NFC-enabled-phone with that of the retailer and walk out with your purchase.

Or Imagine this. You buy a new bed that arrives in a box and not assembled. You tap your NFC smartphone on a tag that is on the box and immediately a video plays and shows you how to put the bed together.

Or how about this? You are at an automobile dealer, looking at a new car and decide to buy one. You pull out your NFC-enabled-smartphone, your bank identifies you, with your location and offers you a 5 year personal loan or an option to lease the car.

Fantastic? Futuristic? Fairy Tale like? “Fair”y enough!

O.K, so what is this NFC?

NFC or Near Field Communication is a standards based connectivity technology that tries to harness today’s wireless, contactless technologies. It allows for simplified transactions, data exchange and connections with a touch or perhaps even mere proximity.

NFC is a set of short-range wireless technologies, requiring a distance of 4 cms or less. It is built on the universally implemented ISO, ECMA and ETSI standards.

However NFC alone does not ensure secure communications.

NFC does not offer protection against “eavesdropping” and is vulnerable to data modifications. Apps will have to use cryptographic protocols, perhaps even the industry’s best. Ensuring security of NFC data will require a holistic effort from device providers, customers, application providers and transaction parties. Device providers will have to safeguard NFC enabled phones with better and more powerful cryptography and authentication protocols.

NFC vs. BlueTooth

Though, it may not appear so, it is quite evident after careful study of the specifications, that it is pointless to compare NFC and BlueTooth.

NFC is designed for limited data transfer (max of 424 Kb/s) and a very quick handshake (which we termed as a “tap” in our examples) of 0.1 second. BlueTooth on the other hand has a range of 5 or more meters, operates at 2.1 Mb/s with a longer handshake time, the longest of which can last unto 4-5 minutes.

The difference lies in the simplicity of the solution. With BlueTooth, the pairing dance often fails and is undoubtedly, painful. In case of NFC, the pairing is instant, in less than a tenth of a second. Secondly the distance over which BlueTooth devices typically communicate ranges around 10 meters. NFC can be used only in the “cm” range, even less than 10 cm! And the amount of data that can be transferred is largely limited and can be tightly controlled, using security algorithms.

The way ahead for NFC

PayPal has demonstrated Android-to-Android NFC Payments, in the MobileBeat 2011 event at San Francisco. Clearly indicates that the industry’s best brains are working at it.

It is not hard to imagine how NFC can be integrated into our daily lives. Already millions of people are using NFC to do their day-to-day transactions.

Does it not seem logical, that the folks who offer you discount coupons and QR codes, also accept the redemption of the same, via the “same” device? Doesn’t it make the solution simple and elegant?

In Austria, people are using NFC-enabled-devices for Payments on Public Transport. In France, services ranging from Museum entry fees to Loyalty programs and Event Ticketing are taken care of by NFC. Netherlands even does Employee payments via NFC. And guess what? In Sweden, your Hotel Keys are your NFC-enabled-Smartphones.

Want proof that NFC is catching on in the gaming world? Matthew Wilson of Rovio Mobile claims that there is a great potential to make NFC cool. Rovio Mobile has integrated NFC tags into Angry Birds plush toys. Reading the tag with an NFC mobile device can unlock levels in the game or give you Facebook credits.

Integrating NFC tags into toys is yet another way retailers can drive people to retailers, leading to better sales. Perhaps, retailers can boost their sales, by allowing customers to touch their NFC phone to their displays. Rovio has already taken the first step towards it.

Combining NFC with check-in apps like Foursquare or Gowalla can multiply the sales potential for retailers. Just like how businesses can track the effectiveness of their NFC kiosks, they can also track the “social” effect and the path of their campaigns, like how a specific coupon was redeemed, and how close or far the NFC retailer was from the user’s location, among other data.

NFC devices are absolutely fantastic to play “treasure-hunt” like games, as seen in the Sundance Film Festival held earlier this year. And going by the response, we can be sure, that NFC Devices are going to catch on “like wildfire”.

But, NFC is not without its own concerns.

The first major issue that comes to one’s mind considering NFC is the fact that the “phone” itself is a target for thieves. Let’s take a simple scenario, where you lose your Debit/Credit Card. It would take you, on an average, half an hour to get to customer care and explain your predicament. And then, another half an hour in sorting out the formalities, all the while hoping that the thief hasn’t siphoned off your account. With NFC in place, imagine the mayhem it will cause. By the time you are done with your formalities, your bank-balance will be a thing of the past, by the time you finish blocking your NFC payment system.

The biggest challenge for NFC is that in every single interaction, there are stakeholders and processes that govern it, and the goal of all of them is to minimize the process to a singular action by the end-user.

Standardization, Compatibility and Interoperability are just not the answers. Behind NFC lies a series of interconnections, all of which need to happen with clockwork precision for processes to be streamlined. NFC will require many parties to trust and eventually may become liable for their actions. Who takes the liability when the wrong person gets hold of the NFC-enabled-smartphone? Do I need to trust everybody else involved?

It all boils down to the comfort and convenience of the end-user ultimately. Convenience is pushing all the unpleasant interactions and details into the background, and comfort is the act of showing the user, how to achieve what he wants with the minimum number of key-presses.

Is there a silver bullet? Let’s wait and watch.

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Did Google Make Changes to Android Market Ranking Algorithm Once Again?

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Google has always been more sophisticated than Apple when it comes to app store ranking algorithms and they did a major change towards the end of March when a lot of apps lost their rankings and some apps jumped on to the top spots overnight. A quick analysis of those movements showed that the Android Market ranking algorithm was rewarding apps with higher user engagement compared to the ones that had huge volume of downloads but poor user retention and engagement. In fact a “sticky factor” was generating a lot of buzz among Android developers which was calculated as a ratio of daily active users to monthly active users.

While developers were just settling to that it seem Google might be rolling out another major updated to the ranking algorithm, especially for keyword searches in Android market.

Two of our client’s apps for which we offer app marketing seem to have gone through extraordinary ranking changes for their targeted keyword searches in the Android Market. For some of the keywords where these apps were ranked in top 5 has now slipped to positions between 11 to 21. The biggest move however, has been one of the keywords that was in position 12 and now slipped to 120. We also saw some positive movement where another keyword moved from position 78 to position 17.

At this point we have just observed the changes and the nature of the changes tell us that this is not one of those regular ups and downs but probably a new Android Market ranking algorithm that we will now have to figure. We would need a lot more data to substantiate the assumption and have a better understanding of what these changes might be.

While this updates are targeted towards improving the overall experience in the Android Market and rewarding truly good apps it will make life difficult for app marketers and also developers who have utility apps that are not required so often or cater to a very small niche.

 

Announcements

[x]cube LABS Wins Notable Award at Core 77 Design Awards

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Awards and appreciations keep us going. We not only take it as a ‘pat on the back’ for our work but also take great inspiration from it in the future. Our design team, over the years, has been doing some great work – coming up with highly creative and ingenious designs, which are not only well-appreciated by our clients but has also been recognized in various platforms, across the globe. Recently we won the Bronze Award at Dallas Show for one of our apps and the story continues.

This time, the [x]cube LABS design team has brought home the “Notable” award in INTERACTIVE / WEB / MOBILE category at the Core 77 Design Awards. Core77 Design Awards celebrates outstanding design and designers across a wide array of disciplines and provides a global platform that honors the best and most impactful work on an annual basis. Our entry to the contest was bodybuggSP, an iPhone and iPod application developed for our client 24 Hour Fitness.

Developed for 24 Hour Fitness, the bodybuggSP keeps an accurate daily count of calories burned and provides the ability to keep track of what you eat. So, as to keep you informed, make decisions, and more effectively manage your weight.

Announcements

[X]cited for Core77 Design Awards

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We always make concentrated efforts to deliver the best and of global standards to our clients. Apart from rich appreciation from our clients, we also love to showcase our work and being recognized in various global platforms- just like our work was appreciated at Dallas Show. This time, we are happy to participate in the inaugural Core77 Design Awards, an event that celebrates outstanding design and designers across a wide array of disciplines and provides a global platform that honors the best and most impactful work on an annual basis. We are proud to be selected as finalists in such a major platform and keenly awaiting for the results!

Announcements

[x]cube LABS sponsors DFW SEM- A Panel Discussion on Mobile Marketing Techniques

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At [x]cube LABS, it has always been our endeavor to keep ourselves updated with changing landscape in the mobile computing industry so that we can think ahead of the curve and be well-prepared for the future. Meeting various stakeholders in the mobile computing ecosystem, engaging with them in meaningful contemplations and deriving mutual benefits out of it is a part of our ‘Think Ahead’ strategy. As part of our endeavor, [x]cube LABS is sponsoring “DFW SEM- A Panel Discussion on Mobile Marketing Techniques and Technologies” this Wednesday, July 13, 2011.

The DFW SEM will focus on understanding more about mobile marketing with a panel discussion of the industry, how businesses can make the most of mobile marketing to reach and connect with their target audience and even some lessons learned from experienced

mobile professionals. The panel will feature moderator and experienced mobile strategist Dan Sturdivant from WrightIMC, Brian Teague, President & Co-Founder at Pocketstop, Chris Hershberger, Manager of Marketing Technology at Michael’s Stores, and Michael Griffith, Creative Director at Bottle Rocket Apps. Combined, these panelists have worked with the best in the industry including FINA, BET, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, AARP, Choctaw Casinos, and many others.

*The event will take place Wednesday, July 13 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson.

Do join us there!

Announcements

[x]cube LABS to sponsor Big(D)ESIGN 2011

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We will be participating in Big(D)ESIGN 2011, July 14-16, where we have a keynote address in the conference on Saturday, July 16, 2011. Mobile is a newly charted territory for game developers and to be competitive and further extend their consumer base, intuitive UX/UI will be one of the key differentiators.  Our company will focus on Gaming and how developers must slightly re-calibrate their thinking about traditional UI and UX experiences. Why designers must leave room to expand features that stem forward (updates, App purchasing, etc.) and designers approach to UX must focus on user intuition, not purely aesthetics.

Meet us there!

big-design

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Asia – The new game changer in iPhone app development

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In the first quarter of 2011, the Asia Pacific region, led by China, contributed staggeringly to iPhone sales volumes. In the second quarter of 2011, iPhone sales in Greater China skyrocketed by nearly 250 percent when compared to Q2, 2010.  In revenues, the region accounted for a little under $5 billion (increase of four times from that of 2010) in the first fiscal half. The trends, at that time, were suggesting that the smartphone battle was heating up in Asia Pacific markets.  And, Apple’s iPhone was significantly increasing its reach in the region.

iPhone app distribution, majorly influenced by the reach of devices, till now was mostly concentrated on North America and Europe owing to iPhone’s popularity in the region. But that is set to change as market trends suggest a gradual shift in power centre of app business to Asia as iPhones penetrate wide and deep into the emerging markets of the region. The shift of power to Asia will impact iPhone developers who now have to gaze the app market dynamics of Asia and accordingly sync their app development efforts.

Recently we came across a paper published by Distimo on app distribution and on a little analysis there were some very critical business information found, that would be of interest to any app developer. Here are some of the key findings…

Time for iPhone Developers to Reconsider Asia–

(The download volume in the top 300 apps is illustrated in the world map on a logarithmic scale from dark blue to pink with pink representing the highest number of downloads. The largest country is the United States while the smallest country is Uganda.)

  • Most iPhone developers’ currently concentrate on North America and Europe, but it may be time for them to revisit Asia. The United States was and is the prime market for iPhone applications; however China pips ahead of other countries in download volumes to become the second largest market. In addition, a surge in download volumes has been witnessed in Asia alongside a dip in volumes in France and Germany since December.
  • South Korea tells a remarkable story. The app download volume in South Korea is higher than Germany and France. In comparison to countries with larger populations like Japan and China, the download volumes in South Korea stands out even more. Moreover, Games which are the most popular apps in many countries are not available in South Korea, implying South Korea can be a profitable ground for non-Games iPhone developers.

Asia Shows Strong Preference for Free Apps-

  • The proportion of paid downloads versus the total number of free and paid downloads is markedly lower in Asia than U.S. or European countries. Asia appears to be more price-sensitive, with strong preference for free apps than paid ones.
  • App revenue in Asia is about two-thirds of the revenue in U.S. and Japan accounts for greater part in Asia.

Monetizing App, Tad Difficult in Asia –

Proportional revenue from in-app purchases from 200 top selling iPhone applications for Singapore, and Malaysia is higher than in the United States. In China only 34% of the revenue from the 200 top applications is generated from apps with in-app purchase feature.  This indicates that iPhone developers will find monetizing their apps a tad difficult in Asia. However, there is hope for developers, as evidenced in the United States where revenue from in-app purchases rose from 39% to 68% over the last year.

SAME CATEGORIES OF APPS ARE POPULAR IN US & ASIA-

The category breakdown of 300 popular applications reveal that there is no major difference between the United States and Asia market in the popularity of categories of applications.

LOCALIZE CONTENT TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN ASIA-

The regional concentration of applications in Asian countries, with an average of 34% of the top applications are only popular within the region whereas in the US and Europe, only 20% of the applications are regionally popular. The differences become even larger in Asia when observed at the individual country level. Users in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan particularly have strong preference local apps. So, iPhone developers must localize content in order to be successful in Asia.

Announcements

[x]cube LABS Wins Bronze Award at The Dallas Show

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Dallas, TX., June 14, 2011- Leading mobile technology company, [x]cube LABS, has won the prestigious Bronze award at The Dallas Show 2011 organized by DSVC ( The Dallas Society of Visual Communications). The company won the award for Interactive category for “Mobile + Experience” for its mobile application LoyalTree Rewards. The Bronze award was presented to Mr. Justin Pocta, design team member, [x]cube LABS in a well-attended award ceremony at Dallas Contemporary Museum.

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Commenting on this accolade Brock Bergman CEO of LoyalTree said, “When we were looking for a partner to help us bring the LoyalTree vision to life we literally scoured the country. What we ended up finding in [x]cube LABS was an organization that not only understood our goals immediately, but they also made it very clear that every single detail was important to them.” He also added, “After long, tedious efforts, we found a design that truly spoke to us, and [x]cube helped make this possible. I would recommend their design team to anyone and look forward to working with them well into the future of our company.”

The Dallas Show—an annual professional awards show for regional studios is organized by DSVC (The Dallas Society of Visual Communications). The DSVC Professional Show is one of the preeminent creative competitions in the country, showcasing the very best of the past year’s accomplishments in design, advertising, photography, and illustration.

Two of [x]cube’s designs, LoyalTree and Zephyr were nominated for the final round of the competition, where the Jury adjudged LoyalTree Rewards as one of the medal winners.

“The DSVC award recognizes the significant efforts made by [x]cube LABS in mobile app design and development, and is a tribute to the creative artistes of our organization, who think out of the box and come with innovative and ingenious designs to provide the best mobile experience to a user.” said Mr. Ravi Korukonda, COO of [x]cube LABS.

The award winning ‘LoyalTree Rewards’ is an application for iPhone, iPad and iPod that offers users a brand new way to save money and earn rewards at favorite local destinations in their city.

Blog

Insights and Analysis on Mobile App Development

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A latest research report-The Developer Economics 2011- by VisionMobile, conducted between January and April 2011, among the 900+ developers, reveals key insights and analysis on mobile app development.

Some of the key takeaways from the report are-

Developer mindshare

iOS and Android continue to maintain their dominance with 67% of developers presently using Android and 59% using iOS. Windows is not yet emerged as a commercially viable platform whereas Symbian and Java ME are the platforms with the highest developer abandonment rates.

App-o-nomics

Large market penetration is the key reason in platform selection followed by the ability to make money, low cost development tools and the ability to quickly code and prototype.

Not every developer is making money. About a third of mobile app developers make less than $1,000 USD per app. Moreover 50% of the developers make money through a salary or commission highlighting the importance of corporate monetization.

Pay-per-download is the top revenue model for developers who aim to make money directly from apps followed by advertising and freemium model where users download an app free and then pay to upgrade.

In terms of platform revenue potential, there are huge discrepancies across platforms. iOS topped the chart, followed by Java ME and BlackBerry. Android and mobile web were the weakest performing platforms in terms of revenue potential.

App stores

For 45% of app developers, app stores are the major go-to-market channel with once dominating operator portals losing significance. The ability to reach users is the most important reason behind developers’ inclination for 50% of developers.

Developers see app store fragmentations as a major challenge with each of the app stores having its own procedures and regulations for app submission, revenue model and payment terms.

App Development

Mobile web due to complex stack of languages and technology frameworks aren’t an easy platform to learn.

Contrary to popular belief, Google is managing Android fragmentation relatively well whereas BlackBerry and Java ME developers suffer more from platform fragmentation needing to produce almost twice the number of app versions when compared to Android developers.

As distributing apps globally and developing apps regionally becomes easier, Localisation will become a primary issue for developers in the near future.

iOS, Android and mobile web developers were found to be the most active users of cloud APIs, while BlackBerry and Java developers were late adopters.

Smartphone App Developers are also gearing up for a multi-screen future with close to 50% of them also developing apps for mid-range feature phones. Close to 25% of developers are thinking of developing apps for TV and set-top boxes in the future.

Global brands are playing an active role in the app economy. While mobile app developers and platform vendors have kick-started the apps phenomenon, it’s the global brands and local businesses that are fuelling the mobile app economy.

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Mobile App Industry Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]

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The first mobile application store-Apple App Store- was launched on 10th July, 2008. Nearly 3 years after the launch of the first app store, and with app market or store for every major platform and several third party stores, the app ecosystem has steadily grown to become a world in its own. ‘The smartphone App-o-graphic’ intends to showcase the current state of the app ecosystem and also attempts to look into the future to measure the smartphone app store growth trajectory.

For complete infographic and high resolution image click here.

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Evolution of Mobile Operating Systems

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[x]cube has been in the mobile app development space for almost 3 years now and we have worked with almost all the smart phone platforms. Looking back at the days gone by is often fun and it gives a feeling of excitement to think of how technology has evolved so fast.  While discussing the evolution of mobile operating systems and how we moved from the good old days of Palm OS 1.0 to the recent iPhone 4 and Android HoneyComb, we decided to put up this information in a more interesting and graphical manner that would not just interest geeks like us but also the everyday mobile user. Check out the info graphics on Evolution of Mobile operating system here.

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5 Common Mistakes That Android Developers Do

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Android Application development is a professional process which needs a lot of expertise. However, there are few key areas where in even expert Android app developers tend to compromise. Here are some of the common mistakes that you must avoid with your Android app development.

1. Version Compatibility – a Pain for Android Developers
Android has seen frequent updates and there are too many versions of the OS in the market now. While most users do upgrade there are still many Android devices which runs on Android 1.0. If an application is developed with any one specific version of the OS in mind then the app might not do well or might even crash when run on earlier versions of Android.  It is extremely important for android developers to do proper testing across multiple OS versions and ensure that the application runs smoothly across versions.

2. Managing Different Devices – The UI Challenge for Android Developers
User interface design is very crucial in Android application development and also often the most neglected. There are innumerable devices with a wide variety of screen sizes that runs Android making it a major challenge for developers to ensure that the app looks good in all screen sizes and resolutions.

3. Android Developer Really Don’t Care About Battery Life of a Device
One issue which Larry Page reported earlier that badly coded applications cause battery of Smartphones to drain very quickly. Developers should take a clue from this that clean coding is not just an accessory but also it is a must. If your application takes a toll on the phone’s battery life then chances of using the application is very less. Another major flaw seen in many Android applications is that developers create bulky widget which often refreshes itself again and again. This cause higher load time and also drains the battery faster. Another often forgotten issue is that applications when not active should be automatically dimmed in order to save battery life.

4. User Experience – Often Low in Priority for Android Developers
One thing which even awesomely coded applications often lack is a good UI design. A bad user experience can be a real turn off and one has to be very careful regarding this. If an app is not usable then the possibility of application usage are pretty less which would mean all the hard work go worth less.

5. No Proper Memory Resource Management
Most applications don’t effectively use the available memory resources. A memory when not in use should be terminated and an application when running should use as minimum memory as possible. This is important as poor memory management can lead to sluggishness in the device and will bring down its efficiency.

Does your Andorid app take care of all these points? Need some help with Android development? Speak to our experts today.

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5 Things You Should Know About iPhone Application Development

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At [x]cube we get frequent queries from aspiring developers who wants to start with iPhone app development. Here in this blog post we put together five basic points that you must be aware of if you aspire to be an iPhone app developer.

Since the advent of the first iPhone and the announcement of the launch of the App Store, iPhone application development got the attention of developers around the world. Many budding and professional developers feel that there is an immense possibility for both fame and money once you are able to establish a successful brand in iPhone app development industry. But before venturing into this business developers need to know few basic facts pertaining to iPhone application development so that one starts on a high note.

1. iPhone Application Development is laid on Cocoa framework

Cocoa is Apple owned native object-oriented application program environment earlier built for Mac OS X operating system. The cocoa originated from the NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP programming environments which later became Apple’s property after they acquired the company NeXT. All iPhone applications are developed on this framework hence a thorough understanding of this framework is a must for every aspiring developer.

2. Apple doesn’t allow cross-platform code in AppStore

 

3. Good iPhone Apps need good designer

iPhone application development is not just about complex coding logic. Instead an app should have proper graphics and have good user interface design in order that the applications appeal to a user. An iPhone developer should be aware that he has to make visually appealing graphics within the limited dimensions of the screen.

4. Apple iPhone / iPad doesn’t support Flash

An important thing to remember for all aspiring iPhone developers and especially for the ones who  plan to move from web to iPhone,  is that iPhone doesn’t support Flash. This would mean one has to be proficient in HTML 5 and other potential flash replacement techniques.

5. Thorough understanding of Apple T&C

Apple closely monitors submitted applications before App Store approval so a developer has to be thorough with Apple’s terms and conditions and ensure that their apps abide by all the terms before submitting the app to App Store.