Forrester Analyst Shares Benefits of Visual Mobile Dev Tools

I was very pleased to see Forrester Analyst Michael Facemire's blog post on December 4th. In his blog, Michael shared the "Three visual tooling changes that will make your life better in 2013."

In setting up the value of visual tooling, Michael summed up the current development process in place by saying "the majority of web and mobile apps are written by developers manually writing source code in text editors or IDEs." He takes his look forward by saying "tomorrow's tooling is becoming much more visual in nature." Here are the three tooling areas that excite Michael as he looks forward to 2013.

1. Wireframing/visual requirements. 
2. Visual development tools. The reach of development tools now extends beyond developers. While prototyping tools allow business analysts and designers to work together, new visual development tools allow these same individuals to go beyond simple prototyping activities and actually create the base framework for an app, including some connection to back-end services. 
3. Visual test tools.                                                                                                                                      

    Visual development and, specifically, Snappii's visual WYSIWYG drag and drop editor really sets us apart from anyone else in the Mobile Application Development Platform. Not only does Snappii offer visual development; you are also able to fully test your applications before releasing them into any public app stores or out for enterprise use within your own personnel.

I strongly agree with Michael that visual development for mobile apps is ideal
for the following reasons:

1. It broadens the universe of people who are able to participate in app creation
2. It accelerates the entire app development process
3. It improves the usability of apps because those working on the development get to test it before it is released.

4. You receive all of the needs from every member of the development team before an app is finally released.


I encourage you to read all of Michael's blog, then go to www.snappii.com and see for yourself why developing your app with a visual development tool like Snappii's Enterprise App Development Platform is so much easier, inexpensive and rapidly shortens the development cycle, while tremendously improving the app's quality  before it is released to the public.


Alex

Businesses Can Profit from the Snappii Mobile Enterprise Solution

The mobile market continues to see explosive growth. There are new iOS and Android apps released monthly, with many coming out weekly. More and more companies need to support at least these two operating systems as employees continue to bring their own devices into the workplace and insist on using them for work. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is a spreading practice gaining increasing popularity among office and field workers.

In Michael Fauscette's article called "The Mobile Enterprise", he mentions employees regularly told him what they wanted from mobile devices, and it was really not that complicated to understand. They just wanted to be able to do most or all of what they could do at work from any connected device.  It's "any device, any time", but there's more to it than that. Employees need the real time connectivity that these devices offer and mobile apps installed on them that will offer them this level of access to their work applications.

The more functionality becomes available in apps, the more working people are interested in getting them for their work and personal use. Most consumers want to check emails when they are not at work and perform some tasks which need immediate attention using their mobile devices.  As the line between work and personal grows more and more blurry, it will become even more important to offer access to enterprise systems and support across any device employees may seek to utilize successfully for corporate business.

As I mentioned in my previous post,  building mobile apps is not an easy task for enterprise companies. They must cut out the existing they've come to rely on institutionally in order to become able to support mobile optimized platforms. That quickly becomes expensive when choosing a time consuming outsourcing option, or when you try to reteach your current programmers to become "mobile" programmers in languages they may have never learned or at least not used in years.The Snappii mobile enterprise platform solution fits most every company perfectly. Not wanting to overwhelm you, I will only list a portion of the features The Snappii visual WYSIWYG Drag and Drop Editor Platform provides:

- Nearby functionality using Google Maps
- Ability to create databases and connect them to already existing web services
- QR codes and QR code scanner
- PayPal integration
- Social Channels support
- HTML tab/button to add code to an app, increase its functionality
- YouTube videos
- Digital forms to be filled out and various calculators
- Digital signature
- More

Together with its intuitive, user friendly layout, The Snappii Platform appearance makes it the best solution for making apps ever for businesses of all sizes. Just to add a little more of The Snappii Platform benefit, you have the ability to simultaneously create and test apps. Need to make a change in the app you are working on? Simply save it and you can immediately see the update on your device using Snappii Live Preview App. No more multi-level and long app development process, which is often common among typical program development processes. Using The Snappii Platform, no coding knowledge is required to make mobile apps here.

Moreover, The Snappii Platform supports the most popular mobile platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Android and HTML5 web apps. Create an app and run it on all available devices to address the needs of most, if not all of your potential clients.

Visit Snappii website today to understand why mobile app development doesn't need to be difficult when it's created in The Snappii Platform.

Go Mobile With the Snappii Enterprise Solution

Mobile devices have never been as popular as they are now. Most people use them to fulfill a lot of daily tasks at work, as well as at home. Recently, the majority of bank clients were afraid to use the online functionality of some bank's Apps to check their accounts, make money transfers, pay bills and send checks because of wide spread apprehension of becoming a victim of fraud and fishing. However, experience has shown mobile systems to be as secure and accurate as if you went to the bank yourself. It is a concern to most industries that mobile devices and applications are managed to ensure they will make peoples' lives easier and less stressful. Why go somewhere to get something, if you can easily make payments online, book rooms, call and order a taxi, look through your favorite magazines and newspapers, watch videos, check weather forecasts and more, all with a small gadget in your palm.  

Big corporations are certainly aware of the growing popularity of mobility and certainly intend to find a mobile solution for their software. No doubt, this task is a high priority. However, it is not so simple to achieve. As the population becomes more mobile, businesses must hone their mobile offerings.  Often, these offerings appear to be enterprise mobile apps. Large companies have have people on their staff who are capable of writing code. However, it is difficult for them to quickly switch from writing in other programming languages, to mobile App languages like Objective C or Java they may have no background in or haven't used in years. On average, it takes even experienced programmers more than half a year to accurately learn them. Retraining an existing team to code for mobile apps will not only create additional expenses from the  time it takes the developer to become effective with the new coding languages, but there is the loss of work on other projects which would likely offer a more crucial meaning for the business than even the app. Hiring third-party developers is not a reasonable solution to the problem as there are not many of them that have the experience and availability. Because they are in such high demand, they are able to charge rates that are likely to put the app development budget overly excessive. That leads to the issue some companies are facing now. How can I meet the urgent necessity to go mobile and meet the needs and demands of my clients and customers?

There is a great solution for every company asking this question. It's the Snappii enterprise app development platform. Snappii offers excellent opportunities for businesses to build their own apps. Using the platform's  visual WYSIWYG visual drag and drop editor, mobile apps are quick and easy to build. All important app platforms are supported, including iOS, Android and HTML5 web apps. You can utilize your existing staff to create apps and solve the problem of retraining your own staff or hiring overpriced or unavailable experienced mobile app programmers. Most amazing, it isn't even necessary to have programming skills to successfully design an app using the Snappii platform. And, it's not only basic, simple apps that can be made using the Snappii Platform. The list of new and powerful features is always growing. In December, the features will become even greater when Snappii will release its new Web Service feature. This will make it possible to connect any of your apps to different web services, draw upon them using the app, then be able to display and use the required data in the app. With Snappii, mobile enterprises will save significant time and money - one single Enterprise fee will include all of the platforms, white label and dashboard options as well as allowing you to create an unlimited number of apps through your Enterprise account. The Enterprise account will free businesses to create all of the apps they need and design them to fit any specific needs a department may have. If you are a savvy, budget conscious CEO looking to ensure your corporation doesn't get swept under by the wave of apps on the market, visit Snappii website today and check all of the benefits your could be taking advantage of while increasing your market share.

As companies work to tighten up their mobile strategies, customers and enterprises alike will go on reaping the benefits.  Thanks to mobile enterprise apps, organizations can streamline business processes, and connect with a wider range of clients, whether they are at home, the office, or just on the road.  The mobile era is here, and enterprises are seeing the rewards if their they're investing in their mobile-facing efforts.

Alex

Recent Research Shows Apps Are Becoming More Popular Than PCs and Nearly TV

Simon Khalaf, of Flurry, posted a blog on December the 5th titled, "Mobile Apps: We Interrupt This Broadcast."

In his story, Mr. Khalaf shares the results of a study on Mobile App Growth Flurry conducted in November. Among the results, Flurry "measured over a trillion events from over 250,000 applications created by more than 85,000 developers.  Events are actions completed by consumers inside apps such as completing a game level, making a restaurant reservation or tagging a song.  In November, we also measured over 60 billion sessions, which is the start and a stop of an application on a mobile smart device."

"The chart to the right updates Flurry’s analysis comparing time spent in mobile apps on smartphones and tablets to time spent on the web using a browser.  For web usage on desktops, laptops and smart devices, we build a model using publicly available data from comScore and Alexa.  For mobile applications, we use Flurry Analytics data, now gathering data from over 250,000 applications.  This time around, we add time spent on television using data released by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010 and 2011.  Note that the bureau hasn’t yet released their 2012 numbers, but given the maturity of the TV market, we assume that time spent on TV is flat year-over-year."

"Between December 2011 and December 2012, the average time spent inside mobile apps by a U.S. consumer grew 35%, from 94 minutes to 127 minutes.  By comparison, the average time spent on the web declined 2.4%, from 72 minutes to 70 minutes.  By our measurement, U.S. consumers are spending 1.8 times more time in apps than on the web."  

I honestly have not see an analysis that captures the growth of APP use greater than these. What caught me a bit by surprise is the clear separation in the popularity of Mobile Applications over standard web browsing from a PC or a laptop. Clearly, we're in a very mobile society, as well as a society that wants to be able to access every social activity, from phone calls and texting, to accessing all of the personal social networks, videos, and games.  Needless to say, the idea that mobile apps may soon become used greater than television only seems sensible once you see all the references to social media throughout most television shows today, whether news or entertainment. 

When you look at the scope of these numbers, then add the growth in the time spent daily using APPs, it makes it even clearer that every business, every organization, and even every home based occupation requires an app for customers and employees to use.  The Snappii Platform is truly the right fit for any size company and organization. With no programming, a free WYSIWYG Visible Drag and Drop Editor, designing an APP that will work on Apple, Android and HTML5 devices will never be easier and the result will never be achieved in a shorter amount of time. Go to www.snappii.com and give it a try. Watch our "how to" presentation on You Tube, refer to our FAQ section if you get stoke, or our support team is always available to chat when you select the help flag on our main page at www.snappii.com. If you need further help, don't hesitate to click on my name below and send me an e-mail. I'd be glad to respond or ensure a member of our development team responds promptly to help you.

Alex

What's On Your APP Store Wish List?

I was talking to one of developers the other day and he was working with a customer to develop a very interesting APP.  The APP would allow citizens to take pictures of pot holes around their town and send them through the APP directly to the public work's department. Certainly a unique APP that will give the citizen the satisfaction of a way to ensure the need to fill the pot hole directly to the branch of city government that can take care of it. Meanwhile, the transportation department can use the help of the citizens to identify the pot holes and go directly out to fix them rather than having to drive around just trying to spot them.

In our home, the morning and sometimes the evening
beverage of choice is often a nice, warm cup of tea. Often, I've heard the question arise, "how long should I let it steap?"  Often, to get the best flavor from the tea leaves, it is important to ensure you've allowed it to sit in the hot water long enough to get all of the flavor out of it.  That's why I thought it was ingenious when I downloaded the Teavana APP. As you might expect, it has a listing of all its teas, how to order them, and any other valuable information about that tea. But, for every tea, it also has a timer on the listing for each tea that counts down the precise amount of time that tea should steap. I couldn't think of a more brilliant feature to add to a Tea Company's APP that customer's would find to be a great benefit.

This feature really got me wondering what APPS and APP features might be on your APP Store Wish List for this holiday season or even for 2013.

Just for fun, I thought I'd see whether others had expressed their wishes for us to see. Thomas Fuchs would like to see these 10 APPS. Chris Pirillo has a special interest in weather APPS. Here are his top 10 requests. From Tara-Nicholle Nelson of Inman News, here are the four real estate APPS she'd like to see. Finally, Evonne Lack would like to see these three parenting APPS.

Needless to say, there are APPS desired for personal and professional use. What are the APPS you'd like to see?  What are the APPS you can't do without and why?  I'd love to see your answers.

Meanwhile, the Snappii WYSIWYG Visible Editing Platform can help you easily create any of the APPS you'd like to see. It's drag and drop technology makes it easy to make an APP for Apple, Android, and HTML5 without having to write any code. Watch this video and you'll quickly understand how easily you can become an APP maker. Start your own APP design business or surprise your boss with your new found skill when you show him the APP you created for advancing your business.

Contact me today or leave a note with your APP Wish List or your favorite APPS and why.
Alex

Police Departments Finding Benefits of APP Use

One of the more intriguing parts of designing Apps for individuals, businesses, government organization, and non-profit organizations is the growing uses people are discovering for APPS and how they improve their ability to do their jobs for effectively and efficiently.

As I watched the news the other night, there was a story of two police forces who had created apps for their departments. According to Auburn Deputy Chief Jason Moen, "When we have computers in the cars for our officers to be able to access real time information to getting out information to the public. Facebook, Twitter, those tools have really changed the way we do police work". Moen went on to say, "Its about putting the technology right at people's fingertips. As society changes and technology become more sophisticated people are expecting that information right at their fingertips".

A story on PoliceOne.com by Brian Fraga of the Las Cruces Sun-News highlights a "New anti-DWI smartphone app" has hit the market.  Mr. Fraga describes how he met recently with Alvin C. Dominguez, the cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Transportation."It's extremely easy to navigate and get through," Dominguez said during an interview at the Department of Transportation's offices in Las Cruces, Dominguez took out his smartphone Friday to show how a new application, called ENDWI, could help educate New Mexicans about responsible drinking and keeping the roadways safe. As of Friday, 1,009 people had downloaded the ENDWI app since state officials unveiled it at a Sept. 5 press conference in Santa Fe.

While there are companies that specialize in creating apps for police departments, they tend to be very generic and aren't specialized to the individual department and their community's potential needs. A major city like Los Angeles or New York will not have the same needs as the one's referenced in this story. Snappii.com can work with any department or development team to develop an APP that meets all of your needs using our WYSIWYG Visual Editor. We also have many rich templates that you can use to begin your development process. Best of all, the development time is 30 times faster than if you needed to hire developers to code your APP from scratch. The Snappii technology can help you develop an APP for Apple, Android and HTML5 devices commonly in under a week. You can see a proof in 48 hours working with our development team.

Visit today and we'll be pleased to built an APP you and your force can use to help protect the community you serve.

Alex

The New Snappii User Interface and Design

Snappii mobil app development platform allows people without programming skills to create iOS, Android and HTML5 web apps in hours. That is possible due to specially designed WYSIWYG editor with "Drag and Drop" functionality. Coding from scratch is not required, just drag and drop already available tabs and buttons, enter necessary content and build your own app.

Snappii developers and designers have updated App Gallery and now you can search and find templates according to your requirements. Snappii team has improved the templates and integrated all the latest features supported by Snappii into them. Just select any and modify it as you prefer.

Snappii does its best to ensure a great user activity. Excellent user interface makes app development process easy and pleasant. Snappii has changed its design greatly and looks even more attractive and professional. All the necessary information is at hand now: easy to find and use. The editor has undergone positive changes as well. They are the following:

- HTML5 web app settings are put into a separate category
- Collapsable left panel which opens more free space for app creation, no need to scroll tabs and fields, they are all visible now
- "My Apps" button is placed in the editor 
- Better perfomance and no "Saving" issues in various browsers
- The new editor fits most frequently used screen dimensions
- Easy access to Live Help and Webinar trainings if users get stuck
- Additional box for Android Live app id to set up Paypal account integrated in Snappii apps

Both current Snappii users and new comers will find the new design more intuitive and convenient. That all means that app development is becoming quicker and more simple. Snappii will continue improving its editor based on customers' feedback and ideas. The WYSIWYG editor is a valuable solution for DIY and Enterprise clients. Make apps and test them on your device right away.  All are welcome to try the enhanced Snappii editor and enjoy creating their apps there.