ANDROID APP MARKET VS THE IPHONE APP MARKET

In the year 2005, Google acquired Android, a startup company in California (CA). Android has a vast community of developers writing applications called “apps” that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 550,000+ apps available for Android. Android Market is the online application store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from multiple third-party sites.

The Android application store’s growth rate has been accelerating since its launch, and even though it was anticipated that Android App Market will at some point in the mid of 2011 offer more applications for download and/or purchase than Apple’s iTune Store hasn’t happened yet. Apple’s iPhone Apps still rule the smartphone applications roaster. An app store analytics company, Distimo, forecasted that Android would surpass the App Store in size before the end of July 2011 along with another research firm, Germany-based, research2guidance. In reality, the forecasts have gone wrong and there is still a close contest going between the Apple’s iPhone/iPad apps and Android apps.

Apple has really taken the market like a storm in last two years with frequent launches of its various innovative products with amazing features, of course, the latest iPad/iPhone versions rule the charts. On the other hand, Android market is also galloping like a warrior’s best horse especially in the developing nations markets with many mobile companies moving to Android operating system. Samsung’s Android mobile phones, of course, are giving tough competition to Apple’s iPhones/iPads in countries in Asia Pacific such as India. On the contrary, the success of an Android/iPhone app stores is short-lived. All data from an app store including both the Android App Market and the Iphone App Markets shows that the download figures decrease drastically post the first months or even weeks after the launch of the app. And the reality is the long tail is getting longer while the top 10% gets richer!!

The latest buzz in the Android market is- Google is taking some great steps forward to get the better of the competition and recently launched "Google Play”. Now using “Google Play”, you can listen to your favorite music, read your favorite books, watch your most enjoyable movies, play astonishing apps, and games all in one place that are accessible from the Web and any Android device. In Google’s own words- “Discover, buy and share like never before”. I think it’s a great move by Google, I strongly believe it will be highly beneficial to the Android App market. For the developers and companies that publish Android Apps on the Android app store, there will be all new App Stats. App Stats show app’s installation performance across key areas such as countries, versions, device models, and others. Going forward it will be even more powerful for publishers with new metrics and ways to analyze data, and a redesigned user interface.

So, it is anticipated that Android App Marketing is going to rise so will be the businesses associated with Android Apps. Without any surprise, Android app testing, being such an important part of Android app market, will also flourish. Having said that not every Android App Testing company can harness business out of the opportunities and it requires huge efforts in terms of customer satisfaction and quality of services being delivered. I happen to meet one of such top performing Android App Testing companies- Testing4Success. Testing4Success is offering Android Application Testing/QA services for many years now and has established itself as one of the best Android App Testing/QA services business. Testing4Success makes sure that not once the customer needs to worry about the quality of application testing by performing exhaustive Android Apps Testing. Sure, this company knows the magic of launching perfectly adorable Android Apps in the market. Great !! So, in case you are looking for professional Android Application Testing/QA services, you know where to go- Testing4Success.

Testing4Success is one of the leading Testing/QA providers in North America. Besides the Android App Testing/QA, it provides following testing solutions- Application Testing/QA, Web Application Testing/QA, Mobile Application Testing/QA, and online ISTQB certification trainings.

My prediction about the Android App Market Vs the Iphone/iPad App Market is- the competition is going to get stiffer, and, Google and Apple will be implementing strategies one after the other to jolt the market. In case, I see more apps coming into the market, and of course that will lead to more choices for consumers to pick from. Whatever may be the case, it is going to be one truly exciting times in the smartphone’s (mobile) application market. Android Vs iPhone/iPad,  the game is on !!

Read more »

NOMINEE SYSTEM FOR GMAIL, PICASA, FACEBOOK, TWITTER ACCOUNTS ?

Amidst the Internet Era there are a lot of things that we upload over the internet, what if one day we die. How to retrieve the access to Email and Social Media Accounts of a deceased person? What can be done more in this direction?

Check out this video and share your thoughts about it-

Read more »

PHOTOGRAPHY THEMED E-STORE: PHOTOVATIKA.COM

Photovatika.com is an India based Online Photography Store offering unique Photo Gifts for everyone whosoever is interested in photography. You can find wide varieties of camera accessories, cameras and lenses across the famous well known brands, photo paintings, photo books, an i-corner and anything you can think of related to photography :-)

Techzik took this opportunity to meet Photovatika.com and created this fantastic review video. Check out everything about Photovatika.com in the video- 

Thinking of buying anything related to Photography, think PhotoVatika.Com !!

Read more »

IPHONE APPS: A BUSINESS INSIGHT FOR DUMMIES

With the popularity of iPhone (for that matter Apple’s all other products such as iPad and iPod Touch) in the global market, the iPhone application market has evolved like never before. There are thousands and thousands of iPhone applications in the market these days. The iPhone apps market has become an ocean of all sorts of apps. Yet, it’s very easy to distinguish a good iPhone app from a bad one. Yes, I’m claiming that not all iPhone apps are up to the mark or as desirable as the hi-tech iPhone/iPad users would want to have.

I thought about this massive explosion of iPhone apps into the market and for no doubt whatsoever it’s the Apple’s well laid strategy to allow anyone or everyone to develop iPhone apps at will. As a result, not only Apple made a significant progress in spreading the iPhone/iPad businesses but also gained a fresh insight into its products from the hi-tech and developers community. What came next was the keen interest of the corporate world, mostly in mobile industry, to develop apps on the Apple’s platform. Certainly, this was a win-win situation for both the Apple Inc. and the developers of the iPhone apps.       

Yet, I would want to highlight the negative side of the iPhone apps evolution. There are iPhone developers and iPhone app developing companies (few startups, few big ones) everyone is trying its very own ideas, few with some vision and others just like that. End result is market with flooded with the iPhone apps.

From a business point of view, the competition is intense, and it takes a lot to turn an iPhone app into a real success. For a company to cope up within the iPhone apps market it is just not about developing a good iPhone app but also about making it available to the target audiences; And if you are thinking it’s just about marketing than you are wrong. It is really important for the developer’s community to first be ultra clear about what app it is trying to develop, who will be using it and what you expect to do about the iPhone app in the future (one time app or any updates in future??) . Market research is so very important aspect of iPhone app business, be it identifying what app you want to develop or what niche domain you are trying to get in, everything has to be clearly defined before any development starts. In fact, Market research also identifies the target audiences and marketing strategy beforehand in order to avoid clueless strategy for selling the app later in the game.

One start-up that has a clear vision of where it’s going and where it wants to be is Faqden labs. I got this rare and invaluable opportunity to review the firstiPhone application that Faqden labs developed. The iPhone app that I reviewed was named “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT”. I predicted it to be an instance winner with its excellent user interface and even better analytics for learning the GRE/GMAT EnglishVocabulary, and I’m glad it simply produced the results the way I thought it would. It became an instant hit, and is among the top 5 apps in Educational apps today of Apple iTune Store. I have no doubt whatsoever that “INTELLIVOCABfor GRE GMAT” is the best vocabulary building iPhone app in the market at the moment. Recently, Faqden labs launched a similar product with specific focus of SAT students called “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT”. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” has a superb UI and analytics just as “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT” has. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” certainly looks the better improved version of Faqden’s first iPhone app. For SAT students take my world “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” is the best vocabulary building app.

From a user point of view, there is a swamp of iPhone applications out there and buying an iPhone app is one thing but identifying the app that he wants to buy has become an extremely challenging activity on its own. This has evolved a business of another kind i.e. companies like Appolicious who are maintaining the directory for iPhone apps and help users narrow down on their choices. Basically, such businesses are weeding out the unwanted apps on the choices of users and their own intelligent logic. Amazing!! Now we have got software to churn out iPhone apps, it is like having an app for sorting out the apps, what a vicious circle :) :) ..........

Read more »

Tracking Individual Performances in Scrum

A question I've heard often is: Is it correct, in Scrum methodology, to track an individual's performance? This question has only one answer: No. Tracking and measuring the productivity of a single member of an Agile team is against the spirit of Scrum. The real question should be: If you were able to calculate such a metric, what would you do with the data? I suspect the answer is that you would use it to reward or punish on the basis of productivity, and this is something you don't want happening within a Scrum environment.

The Scrum framework doesn't prevent you from measuring whatever you want to measure. However, you'd be missing the spirit of Scrum if you measured the work of a single team member. Productivity metrics for knowledge workers are generally flawed, studies show, so you'd likely end up playing with incorrect data. The fundamental point is that if a Scrum team member is not able to contribute, then this points to a team problem. The Scrum spirit means that everyone jumps in to help; ideally, all team members work together on all of the stories. Different skill levels or types contribute to the best of their abilities. To create metrics for individuals, besides being inaccurate, would probably cause competition and division within the team. Individuals should work as a unit, be tracked as a unit, and succeed or fail as a unit.

It's unfortunate that Scrum tools have an "assigned to" field. Members should volunteer for stories and tasks; they should not be assigned work. It's better to think of this field as merely naming the primary person working on a task or story. I strongly feel that any team member who only does his own stories or tasks and doesn't help others in the team is a poor Scrum team member. Such behavior should not be rewarded, especially not in some kind of performance review. The best teammates are helpful and collaborative, and you can't measure their personal contribution to the team's velocity. You can only measure the entire team's velocity.

My conclusion is that tracking an individual's performance constitutes crime in the Scrum world. The fundamental idea of Scrum is team collaboration, and team members "volunteer" for tasks rather than having them assigned. One of the core values of Scrum is courage, and it's not a bad practice to announce at the daily stand-up, "I missed my task timeline today." If that's the case, the Scrum team collaboratively aligns itself to meet the sprint backlog, at least enough to result in a shippable product when the sprint ends. It's certainly possible that not all tasks in the sprint backlog get completed at the end of the sprint, but the Scrum team should be smart enough to plan the next sprint in a way that avoids a similar pitfall.

The keys, then, are accurate sprint planning and a "must-do" sprint retrospective. Most important, don't wreck the Scrum by measuring an individual's work items.

PS. I'm a Certified Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance and this article was featured on the Scrum Alliance website on 23 Jan 2012.

Read more »