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Apple Benefitting Small Businesses-How?

Posted on 07/06/202005/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

From barter systems and centralized banks to digital banking institutions; there are still many marvels of technology the Fintech domain is yet to behold. Since the inception of digital wallets and digital transactions in general, many curious startups and companies have come forward to contribute their innovative share of amazingness, including the financial domain. And Apple, being a pioneer and the epitome of inventions, has yet again swept the world off its feet.

From the first touchscreen iPhones to Macs, they have been killing every game it enters. And to the dismay of traditional financial providers, it has now unleashed its financial products “Apple Pay” and “Apple Card” to capture this market as well.

It seems like they had it planned long ago – to offer all the services to the users at one place – their iPhone.

Apple Pay released back in 2014, is now followed by Apple Card that was released only in August 2019.

So, while the debate of how these products benefit users has been doing the rounds, it will be interesting to speculate its positive effects on businesses around the world. More specifically, what will businesses gain by integrating Apple Card and Apple Pay into their mobility solutions?

The fact that experts believe 90% of the smartphone users will land on mobile payment method by the end of this year, is enough for startups and businesses that have invested in mobile app development to rethink about more payment gateways, Apple Credit Card integrated into Apple Pay being one of them.

Since they have not officially shared its views in this direction, we take it upon ourselves to unravel the truth.

Let’s cover the whole ground starting from the basics and then work our way up to the crux of the discussion – How is Apple Credit Card/Apple Pay for small businesses an asset to cherish. After all, one must have crucial information about the product before taking dynamic decisions.

What is an Apple Card and how it works?

“There’s never been a credit card this smart” – Apple

Apple Credit Card, or simply Apple Card is like any other credit card (digital and physical) only better. This product is a result of the collaboration between Apple and Goldman Sachs.

For users, they first need to apply for an Apple Credit Card via the Wallet app. It only takes a few days in approval. This digital card can be used to make payments across multiple platforms. To apply for this Credit Card’s physical version, the process remains the same.

Apple Card “practically lives on your iPhone” and “lets you do things you simply couldn’t do before” – What does this mean? You must be wondering.

Well, the reason why this product has bagged such hype in many such Credit Card reviews, is all due to its brilliant money management feature of the whole experience. Although most of the credit cards now show transactions and other important numbers, Apple Cards exceeds those common expectations.

The card can be managed with the help of the Wallet app, which is also used for applying for the card. It gives users updated data on their spending patterns and helps them track. The Apple team yet again did it differently. The app color-codes recurring items you spend on and can track your weekly or monthly transactions with respect to locations they were transacted at.

What are Apple Credit Card benefits?

These benefits will give a clear idea of why users are using Apple Cards to such a great extent and why many small businesses are integrating it into their products.

Security

If there is one thing that they hailed for is, you know, security. Be it the security of its hardware devices or software. This is something that also stands true for the Apple Card and Pay. Apple Pay purchases are highly secure.

When signing up for an Apple Credit Card for your small business, you will be provided with a unique number in real-time which gets stored in the secure element of your iPhone. So, that code is needed whenever a purchase takes place along with a dynamically generated transaction ID. Further things that may require are Face ID.

Moreover, one of the best Apple Credit Card benefits is that the company keeps all the data private by prohibiting Goldman Sachs from sharing or selling the data.

Apple says “No fees”

The reason why Apple Card poses as an ideal choice for small business financing and personal use, of course, is it’s free. Yes, there are no Apple credit card fees whatsoever. No foreign transaction, annual, late, etc. charges are imposed on cardholders – something that your business can benefit from since users would be more inclined to use this option.

And one more fact that may skyrocket the popularity of their card after the COVID-19 pandemic is that the company had offered temporary relief for payments for March and April to its users.

Apple Card Cash-back rewards

It is not a new concept. Nevertheless, Apple has still managed to leave its watermark. Their Card rewards users 1% cashback on everything to users on Apple Card payment and 2% if they use Apple Pay.

Maps of purchased made

Pretty much the most interesting Apple Credit Card benefit is it allows users to see on the map where they made the purchase, no merchant codes, only the store name on the map. This eliminates the problem that credit cards often showed minimal location information, up until now. Something that banks can learn a lot from.

How does Apple Card help businesses?

Online transaction is the new black

If you own an E-commerce/M-Commerce business, then your business model relies on online sales. Here, Apple Pay for small businesses is a must-grab deal. Users can easily pay for their purchases with their Apple Card using Apple Pay -something that can help avoid the abandoned cart situation.

Without restricting to the commerce domain, thier card as a payment option will work wonders for gaming applications, subscription-based applications such as entertainment and music, and of course on-demand mobility solutions, just to name a few.

Security that sprouts user trust

As we have discussed above, Apple Pay is a trusted and highly secure medium to perform online transactions. Allowing users to use Apple Card for your business will terminate any trust issues or any unfavorable preconceived notions they might have.

And to be forward, this is not just a one-time thing, rather it has the potential to turn your one-time user/customer into a loyal one. The security promise is not just a point of relief to users but also the businesses, imparting assurance of protected transactions.

Must-have to target younger demographics

As we are rolling towards the concept of a cashless economy, a majority of the participants in this notion are believed to be the millennials and younger demographic.

Since the iPhone is indisputably the most popular smartphone among younger audiences, integrating Apple Card via Apple Pay into your mobile app might just be the push towards the success you were lacking. Moreover, offering multiple online payment gateway options will only add to your benefit. If you skip on this opportunity, there is a high probability of your probable customers going to your alternatives.

Cashback rewards = increased sales

One of the benefits of Apple Card for businesses (indirectly) is the cashback rewards to the users. Since it offers a fair percentage of cashback on transactions made through Apple Card (via Apple Pay), this will encourage users to purchase from your mobile application or business if you have this option to offer.

Conversion boost

The advantages of streamlined and easy transactions ripple down to many deeper levels. One of them being increased conversion rates. Consequently, as your sales graphs rise upwards, your short and long-term profits will definitely take off too.

After all, the mantra for businesses is to offer what’s in demand, and this is, without a doubt, something of a need of the hour. In fact, according to a few industry experts, we might move on from cash and physical cards completely by 2030. Better start catching up, right?

Mobile applications using Apple Card via Apple pay

I have figured that having examples always helps in making an informed decision. So, here are a few renowned companies that identified the opportunities Apple Card has to offer and integrated it into their mobile applications.

Nike

The company has integrated the Apple Card as a payment method in its Nike app, Nike.com, SNKRS, Nike Training Club, and so on. The move is the brand’s another step towards bettering customer experience – one that was strengthened with Nike’s acquisition of Celect for predicting users’ shopping behaviour.

T-mobile

T-mobile is a mobile communication subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. The company has enabled Apple Pay and payment through their card on its mobile app as well as website.

Uber

Uber is a company that placed the on-demand model on the map. From ride-sharing to rental helicopter services to establishing JUMP, a rental e-scooter service, Uber has captured various domains. It has also incorporated Apple Card into its Uber mobile application and web apps

UberEats

Another extended effort of Uber to capture the on-demand food delivery market, UberEats was invented. And guess what? This application is also using an Apply Card as a medium of payments.

{Also read: How Much Does it Cost to Build a Food-Delivery App like UberEats or GrubHub?}

Walgreens

Walgreens is one of the largest US-based pharmacy chains. To cater better services to its users via its mobile app and website, the company offers the option to pay via their card using the their Pay app.

Let us help you integrate Apple Card into your app

This section is creative to give you a brief overview of Anteelo’s process for integrating payment gateways like Apple Pay and Card into existing applications.

To offer excellent mobile payment experience in iOS apps, we use Stripe iOS SDK. It is a great tool known for its impeccable features like rich UI elements, powerful, protected interface, and customization.

The process is as follows –

We start by installing and configuring the SDK. The tools that we employ and are supported by Stripe are CocoaPods, Carthage, Fabric, Dynamic Framework, and Static Framework.
The next step involves configuring Stripe integration in the App Delegate. To configure our Stripe API keys, we use programming languages like Swift (which is the official language for iOS) and Objective, which is considered the next best.

Although this was just a sneak peek into the diligent efforts our team invests in the process. We test rigorously to make sure the application is performing its best with the new integrations.

If you want to know the cost of integrating this Card into your app, I suggest you browse through our detailed article – Payment Gateway Integration: The Process and What’s Next.

After discussing everything, it is pretty clear to see the opportunities that any business can grab for the long term just by adding this simple service into their business model. As we are leaning towards a cashless world, it’s better to at least keep up with the pace, if not staying ahead of the curve.

Finance App Ideas For Startups to Consider in 2021

Posted on 06/06/202007/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Okay, let’s admit. The adoption of technology in the banking and finance industry has changed the landscape by 180 degrees. Fintech, aka the amalgamation of finance and technology, has not solely added convenience to the ecosystem, but has also made it more secure, quick, and profitable. It has offered a new set of opportunities, cater to the needs of the unprivileged audience, and even bring a significant effect on other businesses.

With all such benefits and opportunities, the global fintech market is predicted to grow exponentially and be of worth $ 309.98 Bn by 2022.

This has not just given an indication that the financial global economy is heading towards fintech, but has also attracted various Entrepreneurs and traditional investors to become a part of this space.

[Since we have made a statement here that the global finance economy is heading towards fintech and not TechFin, you can check our blog on Fintech vs TechFin to find the justification of the same.]

Assuming that you are also an Entrepreneur who also wants to be a part of this mushrooming market, but are clueless about what fintech business ideas will rule the space, here we will be discussing 12 different opportunities.

So, sit on a comfortable couch and start scrolling down.

12 Profitable Fintech Development Fields For Starting A Business

1. Digital Banking

The foremost and most important fintech app idea you can invest in is digital banking.

In the past few years, a dramatic shift has been found in the way people interact with their banks and relish banking services. Users no longer appreciate the need to visit their local banks or ATMs for money transfer and other purposes. They rather are enjoying different advantages of digital banking like the ease of making transactions, investing, opening accounts and deposits, blocking cards, adding beneficiaries, and much more with a few taps on their devices.

With these facilities, the concept of investing in digital banking app ideas have grown a huge momentum in the market. The sector was catering only 9% of the online audience in 2011. But, in just 6 years, it became a part of 69% of the online audience. And what’s more interesting is that it is just the beginning! Various factors like Coronavirus are acting as a catalyst for the market growth.

2. P2P Payment solutions

Seeing the rise in the peer-to-peer payment market, looking ahead to how to develop a P2P payment application is also a nice idea.

The P2P payment apps like Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, and PayPal are providing consumers with an unmatchable facility to transfer money between bank holders instantly – even when registered with different banks and payment systems. They are cutting down the need for any third-party intermediaries or pay any commission fee for performing any transaction.

Also, these fintech mobility solutions are using the latest technologies like NFC and face and voice biometric technology to streamline the POS processing, enhance risk management, and deliver an optimal customer experience.

3. Personal finance management app

Personal finance management application is again one of the best financial app ideas to consider for diving into this market effortlessly.

With consumers getting more conscious about their earnings and savings, these applications are gaining traction in the market;making both investors and startups look ahead to developing a personal finance app.

These applications are acting as a weapon by which app users can categorize their expenses and incomes, and track them in real-time to get a better understanding of how to manage their finance smartly and effectively. These apps, built on the rulebook of how to develop effective personal finance apps, are also offering them an ease to connect all bank and credit card accounts to automatically get the data updated, along with payment reminders. And the best part, the data is displayed in a visually appealing format, which adds to their convenience.

4. Robo advising software

Robo-advising, which is one of the proven ways fintech is attracting millennials, is also a great area for making an investment in the financial application development economy.

These machine-learning driven software are serving users with the finest of personalized and future-centric financial advice at lower costs. They are also analyzing their expenditures and investments to aid them in increasing their after-tax returns. In addition to this, they are adding convenience to the process with minimal-to-no human intervention.

What’s more interesting is that as per a Business Insider Intelligence report, they will be managing about $1 trillion of funds this year and nearly $4.6 trillion by 2022. Something that’s a clear indication that one must pick this among the ample of fintech startup ideas to rule the market in 2020 and beyond.

5. Loan Lending app

Creating a finance app for P2P lending is also one of the trending app ideas that are getting popular in the fintech market.

A loan lending app (also called P2P lending app) acts as a marketplace where lenders and borrowers can connect and cater to each others’ needs without using the product discovery services of any financial institution. On one side, these applications enable borrowers to set the maximum loan rates they can manage. While, on the other side, they let lenders bargain with each other to offer funds at the lowest rate. And this way, get more customers or borrowers.

6. RegTech App

RegTech applications also come into the category of best mobile app ideas for fintech startups.

These mobility solutions help financial companies comply with all the local and global standards. They enable organizations in automating a major fraction of their processes, including customer identity verification, reports compilation and submissions, transaction monitoring and reporting, etc., and increasing the customer retention rates.

A ripple effect of which is that Regtech apps have landed among the top fintech trends for 2020 and are expected to make a market of $53Bn by the end of this year.

7. Investment and trading app

Putting efforts into the process of app development for investment and trading is yet another decision that can make you enjoy limelight in the marketplace.

Users, these days, are showering love on platforms that let them get a comprehensive knowledge of shares, stocks, forex, and funds, and invest in them efficiently. They are paying more attention to applications that gather investment data from different sources and empower them to calculate the asset valuation and make the right decision.

Considering this, if you are eager to invest in stock trading app development, it is advisable that you firstly get a clear idea of the budget requirements. This is so because shortage of money can halt your project, compel you to remove the must-have fintech app development features, delay your app launch plan, and much more.

8. Digital wallets

Since digital wallets are giving users an escape from carrying physical wallets or credit/debit cards, their market is also rising significantly. These applications are offering users the ability to make payment in a few taps or using biometrics, while getting lucrative coupons and offers in return.

It has been forecasted that the digital wallet market will be worth $7,581.91 Bn by the year 2024. Something that is enough to let you know why to pick this among various innovative app ideas for entrepreneurs to step into the financial market.

9. Blockchain applications

Seeing the growing impact of blockchain in fintech , embracing this technology for starting a business is also an undeniably profitable idea.

Currently, various fintech startups and establishments like We.trade, Circle, LAToken, Veem, and PayStand are relying upon this technology to offer a myriad of options to their targeted user base. This includes:

Performing transactions using cryptocurrencies,
Paying for transportation only once they receive an information that the cargo has reached to the port,
Acting as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), where members work as per the programmatically defined rules that tells who their members can be, what business or activity is allowed, and how tokens or funds can be exchanged.

10. Crowdfunding solutions

Crowdfunding is also emerging as one of the most successful fintech startups ideas to go with.

These digital solutions are proving to be one of the best alternate funding models for Entrepreneurs. They are helping them with raising funds for their new or existing enterprises via collective efforts from different individual contributors and venture capitalists.

Currently, there are a limited number of crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter and the concept itself is popular across the US and UK regions only. However, it has been found that these digital solutions are getting traction in the market, and are predicted to have a market of USD 28.8 Bn by the year 2025.

11. Insurtech solution

As you might be familiar with, insurance has always been a co-running business with banking in the finance sector. They have operated in synchronization with each other in various cases. And now, when finance has turned into ‘fintech’, insurance has also come up with its upgraded solution version – Insurtech.

This subdomain, with the incorporation of latest technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain, Open API, and Machine learning, is enabling insurance companies in delivering impeccable customer experience by analyzing a heap of user data, checking the market trends, understanding user emotions and needs, offering customized yet quick policy comparison options, managing risks, and much more. And that too, without relying upon any third party insurance broker.

Because of this the global insurtech market, which was valued USD 1.5 Bn in 2018, is anticipated to flourish with a CAGR of 43.0% between 2019-2025. Also, many insurtech firms are gaining significant fundings – a real example of which is that WeFox raised $110M in Series B extension funding round.

It is safe to assume that to bring all the technologies and innovations together, the insurance sector will start deep-diving into insurtech mobile app development guides hand-holding them towards digitalization.

12. Crypto exchange platform

Last but not least, developing a crypto exchange platform like Coinbase is also one of the best finance startup ideas to work on.

These platforms are giving users an opportunity to step into the decentralized market by trading crypto currencies for other assets like fiat money or other digital currencies. In other words, they are letting users exchange one crypto currency for another, get crypto tokens in return of fiat money, and even buy/sell their crypto coins. All while enjoying perks like transparency, lower fees, higher security, and faster processing.

Now as you know the types of finance app ideas you can work on, it is quite obvious that you would be eager to learn where to start with. Considering the same, here we have picked up some crucial steps that you must follow to be a part of the future of the fintech industry.

Things To Consider While Launching Your Fintech Startup

1. Define your niche market

As hinted earlier, fintech is a big sphere to explore. Striving to rule the complete finance world at once can be tricky and nearly impossible. So, it is advisable to pick a particular niche among the different subcategories of the market, which are as follows:

Payment and international money transfer,
Mobile banking,
Personal finance management,
Insuretech,
Trading and lending,
Crowdfunding, and
Data analysis and financial decision making.

Once the niche market is decided, do market research to determine the specific audience your product/service will target, i.e, based on age, gender, occupation, and country. This will help you to launch your fintech startup locally first and then, enter the global market with better success ratios.

2. Learn about compliances

When it comes to the banking and fintech industry, they are highly regulated. So, it is must for one to be familiar with all the specifications and characteristics of this highly complex sphere, which includes legal regulations, limitations, laws, and requirements.

3. Find your startup USP

Due to the increasing set of opportunities and profits, the fintech market is becoming competitive day by day. In such a scenario, it has become even more important for anyone coming up with a new finance app development idea to be sure that his idea beats the existing ones. Aka, the idea they formulate is not something generic; it offers a functionality that is better than ever existed before. Something that could become their brand’s USP.

Now, while doing customer surveys and going through different reports would help, it is a profitable decision to invest your effort in competitive analysis. This approach will help you with finding the common success factor among all the top players, their business and revenue model, the pain points they fail to see, and thus, refine your idea.

4. Raise fundings

While you might have some savings with you, there are various fundraising ways like bootstrapping, crowdfunding, venture capital, and angel investment that are prevalent in the market. So, look forward to these methods for raising enough money to make your fintech app idea financially-backed.

5. Hire the right fintech developers

Believe it or not, even the finest idea can’t survive the market without the right team of financial app developers. So, do not keep your app idea confined to you and look around giving it a shape on your own. Rather, look ahead to hiring a reputed fintech software development company.

A team of professionals who have an expertise in app development and have prior experience in your niche subdomain can help you with choosing the right technology stack, revamping your business strategies, coping up with the hidden barriers, and scaling up your fintech app idea. And that without making a hole in your pocket

6. Get familiar with business and technical challenges

Like that in the case of any other startup, there are various challenges associated with establishing a fintech business, especially those associated with the transformative nature of digital technologies. For instance:

Cybersecurity
Integration of AI and Blockchain
Big data usage

So, it is advisable to gather comprehensive information about these challenges as well as connect with the financial app development companies that aid in mitigating them efficiently and effectively.

7. Launch an MVP

Last but not least, do not feel tempted to develop a full-fledged fintech mobile application. Rather, look ahead to testing water with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) first.

An MVP not only gives you the privilege to enter the market at a cheaper and faster rate, but also helps to raise fundings.

The Fintech market is mushrooming at a staggering rate. Various fintech app business ideas are entering the market. However, not all startups are enjoying the same set of opportunities and benefits of developing financial apps. The pressure to deliver the finest combination of expertise, creativity, trust, and technology is making their journey tougher than expected.

However, by following the aforementioned steps, you can cut down hassles in your path and get into the list of top fintech startups in no time. So, keep implementing them.

Augmented Reality is Transforming the Retail Industry

Posted on 05/06/202005/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

The Augmented Reality market has grown so colossal that predictions estimate its value to reach $61.4 billion by 2023. AR has permeated into (almost) every field which includes healthcare, gaming, entertainment, retail, digital marketing, education, utilities, et al.

When we narrow it down to Augmented Reality in retail, Wikitude approximates that 32% of shoppers are regular users of AR and 73% of smartphone AR users are highly contented with the experiences. Such Augmented Reality retail statistics prove how the market has accepted the technology and is exponentially growing with its help.

But before we move on to that, let’s have a basic understanding of what the disruptive technology constitutes.

A quick explanation of what AR is
The problem with traditional retail marketing
How augmented retail solutions changed the game
Brands that are innovating with AR
What is the future of AR in Retail

Explanation of what AR is

If you haven’t heard of Augmented Reality or AR by now, then this article should help you to creep out of the rock you’ve been resting under. Keeping aside technical nerd talks, the best way to understand AR and what are its benefits by examples.

You might have seen people picking up their phones and walking in search of funny li’l creatures via the Pokemon Go app or making themselves dogs, ghouls, fairies, superheroes and whatnot with TikTok? Yes, that’s AR. It’s basically a superimposition of CGI (Augment) on your phone screens which appear lifelike hence, the term Reality is used.

The problem with traditional retail marketing

Earlier marketing forms needed a makeover with time as so many technological developments and demand and supply for goods were increasing. Retail shops grew bigger, more people flogged in and the system became more organized. Here are some points that highlight the overall issue:

1. Travelling- The latest impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the retail is a ubiquitous example. While in this lockdown phase, people have to stay put and only go out to buy necessary items, there is always a threat of coming in contact with an affected person.

2. Compartmentalization- Although, this isn’t a problem but it can pose as one. Continuing with the above example, the more time you spend going through various compartments for production, time is wasted and the risk of contracting the disease increases.

3. Insufficient items- One recurring limitation of traditional retail business that you constantly face is items not in stock and you don’t find that out unless you visit it. In times like these with limited resources and mass hoarding, the problem has become fourfold.

4. Money to setup- A brick and mortar retail store is always a costly investment. For SMEs, it may mean risking everything that they have. Therefore, no consumer means loss in businesses which results in winding up of the business.

5. Limited working hours– Unlike online shopping, shops have fixed business hours. And during stressful times like these, policies have become stricter. There may be times when you have to search (properly) and choose which item(s) should be on your cart but you don’t get that much time always.

How augmented retail solutions changed the game

The impact of Augmented Reality on retail has been monumental and has added a lot of benefits to the industry. From streamlining the process to making shopping easier for people (both online and offline), AR in retail is a different ball game altogether. Below are the major advantages of augmented reality in shopping that have been commonly observed by consumers.

Benefits of augmented reality in retail

Personalization of user content

Retailers often customize content to meet the best expectations of the customer. You might’ve seen retailing stores filtering out content for you so that you look for relatable items without wasting time. This has been done in numerous ways. Another technology called VR or Virtual Reality is also rendered for enhancement. Together they provide comprehensive AR VR retail solutions.

Ease of trials/tryouts

Waiting for your turn outside the trial rooms can be highly boring and time-consuming. Therefore, there are virtual mirrors where you can simply find out the size of the dresses you like and in a digital screen in front of you, you can see how that apparel is looking and fitting your body.

This is an amazing role of augmented reality in retail. You can also do this in online shopping too. Suppose while shopping for a pair of glasses, the app will scan your face to place the pair on your digital reflection. These types of gamification techniques play a huge role in driving retail sales.

Combines traditional retailing and online shopping

Shopping is considered a fun activity. Now with so many retail stores and a huge population, it becomes jarring at times to shop for the right things. One of the key benefits of AR in Ecommerce is that it replicates the same ‘fun’ feeling of traditional shopping methods minus inventory costs and never ending lines.

Connecting shoppers with printed content

Printed products will not disappear in the future as they comprise a big chunk in marketing. It’s one of the masterstrokes of augmented reality marketing strategy. Have you ever observed how just by holding your phone over a particular picture you get all the information related to it and also similar items of interest? The augmented reality in retail applications helps you do it. Many companies have adopted this. The New Yorker provides quirky animations on the front and back covers of its magazines.

Increasing brand presence and awareness

AR is an amazing tool to enhance a company’s brand awareness to wider audiences. Mobile apps with state-of-the-art AR features will help a brand provide unique experiences to users. The use of AR for retailer marketing strategies gives a lot of leverage to brands to find ingenious ways for interactions creating a tunnel for instant feedback.

Dissipates barriers of language

Although with so many languages around the world, there are still certain barriers but that’s just momentary. With Google Translate AR mode, you can see any of the 40 foreign languages as your native one. Features of AR based shopping apps channelize language(s) in such a manner that it either is region-specific or, with the help of AR and AI tools, helps you understand its services. Even if you use printed catalogues, the AR content in it will guide you to choose the language of your convenience.

Earn better ROI

AR is modern-day technology which undergoes changes frequently, therefore an e-commerce or m-commerce retailer which provides such facilities will definitely earn much higher than the ones who aren’t using it. Integration of AR in the retail sector has become a mandatory trend these days. And nowadays making an AR app is easy and cost-effective.

Improve the shopping experience

This is like the summation of all advantages and one of the biggest AR/VR trends of modern retail. Whether you’re shopping online or offline, a retailer should provide the most interactive means so that you have worthy experience of shopping and would prefer to visit the shop/store/portal/app again and again. Advanced In-Store Experience with digital/virtual mirrors is an important addition which is improving with the passage of time.

Brands that are innovating with AR

Big names in the corporate world are doing pretty impressive work when it comes to business transformation with the help of AR. Augmented Reality benefits for shopping online and offline have been devised quite convincingly by brands to suit the fancies of a user. Below you’ll find a few companies that have etched their names in AR-based applications.

IKEA

When it comes to shopping for furniture and electricals, IKEA is probably the most synonymous name to reckon with. Its AR technology in retail is really helpful for users as it allows them to take their phones and scan a particular furniture piece and then superimpose that into your room’s image. You can do it for your bedroom, kitchen, lavatory, hall, foyer, lawn, etc. This helps you save a lot of time and energy.

Vespa

After downloading the app, you just need to hover your phone over the magazine as shown in the video and a scooter will automatically pop-up. You can customise the vehicle as per your choice. You can change the colours, add/remove accessories, look for different styles, etc. Isn’t this a quirky use of AR marketing?

Topshop

The clothing giant Topshop is a spitting example of creativity with AR. The company in its retail stores has set up kiosks where shoppers will see a digital reflection of themselves and can try out each individual clothing through the reflective image. Via hand gestures, the dresses can be changed one after the other. The whole process uplifts not just an individual shopper’s mood but also people nearby.

Adidas

Since technology is all about innovation, Adidas testifies the statement with its use case of AR in ecommerce. A while ago, it changed the game with the launch of a new pair of sneakers. At ComplexCon CA 2018, the new AR feature made its debut. Users had to download the ComplexCon app on their smartphones, where it would guide them to head towards a destination in order to buy him/herself new kicks. In certain locations there were AR powered signs and the users needed to just point their phone towards it and follow the instructions. This helped them to buy shoes even without contacting any Adidas Originals employee in person.

What is the future of AR in Retail

Augmented Reality is often termed as a futuristic technology, but it is not true. AR has already made its way into all sectors of the retail market. The time is not too far when you will be sitting in the comfort of your sofa or sipping a cup of coffee in the kitchen, wearing AR-enabled glasses or browsing through the Augmented Reality Mobile Apps, shopping for everything you need. Yes, all this without even stepping out from your home!

The challenges in Augmented Reality Ecommerce also need to be worked upon to reach out to a wider range of audiences and retain existing ones. And whether it’s AR in online shopping or offline, there are certain things that need special attention. Aspects such as advertising, localization, incentives and discounts, personal approach, interaction, discoverability, privacy and UX.

An interesting fact about retail is that despite online shopping and M-commerce getting more precedence day by day, 71% of the consumers (buyers in this case) would like to experience VR in a store than in their smart devices. That’s what Augmented Reality does, keep people of both worlds happy.

Continue reading “Augmented Reality is Transforming the Retail Industry”

Dark Mode Designing: A 2020 Guide for Mobile App Designers

Posted on 03/06/202004/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

While operating in the market for a long time, the talks and then the official launch of Android 10 and iOS 13 brought Dark theme User Interface in the limelight. Both Apple and Google have been dedicating their resources and attention to the dark mode since the past one year.

With several ophthalmologists too getting on board with the dark mode initiative, the general user perception is also now inclined towards the adoption of the theme in their digital experiences.

Delivering the users what has now become a norm for them is something that the mobile app designers has to keep up with.

In this article, we are going to look into how the mobile app designers can get started with delivering a dark mode UI design experience to their users.

Table Of Content:

Why should you pay attention to dark mode?
What makes up for an unhealthy dark mode?
How to design dark theme for Android app?
How to design an app for iOS in dark mode ?
Tips for efficient dark theme design

Why should you pay attention to dark mode?

1. An In-demand Trend

Any trend-focused mobile app design company would tell you that for an app to be in trend, it is necessary that it is designed according to the recent market demands. Dark UI is the one design element that has been in-demand since the past one year. And seeing the present situation, it is only going to grow.

2. Health & Wellness

We all have in one or the other point in our life faced the shock of opening an app in a pitch dark night. The light that is emitted is too high and too sudden for eyes. Prolonged use of these apps have resulted in several instances of dry and itchy eyes among users.

Benefits of the dark mode comes into the picture by making it relaxing for users’ eyes to open and work on apps in the dark. It helps solve these persistent health and wellness issues, thus answering why is dark mode popular.

3. Saves Battery

Dark mode app design helps in prolonging the device’s battery life. Google confirmed that dark mode on OLED screens has been a game changer for the device’s battery life. YouTube, at its 50% brightness saves upto 15% more battery life in dark mode compared to flat background.

The benefits surrounding the holy dark mode are too popularized now to be ignored. But what is less talked about are the ill effects of dark mode UI – one that is UNHEALTHY.

What makes up for an unhealthy dark mode?

When reading a white text on black background, iris opens up more and gets in more light and lens deformation develops a fuzzier focus at eyes. This is called Halation or Fuzzing Effect, a.k.a one of the biggest dark mode app design challenges.

Unhealthy dark mode tends to be very harsh on the eyes because of the high contrast and can strain them very quickly.

If your phone or laptop is on highest brightness, you would have felt how straining it is to read the text on the left image.

But isn’t dark mode supposed to help with extending the battery life? Well, to some extent, Yes. However, it only impacts the devices having OLED and not ones with LCD.

In OLED, every pixel gives out its own illumination meaning to show darkness, the pixel must not light up at all. But since most of the OLED panels are limited to 60Hz refresh rate, scrolling makes the pixels light up and because of the slow refresh rate, a jiggly effect is caused.

Users, when exposed to this effect, end up feeling tired and worn out of their digital experience very soon. This event is what brings in the need and prevalence of design for dark themes.

How to design dark theme for Android app?

Google comes with an extensive documentation support that helps designers get started with understanding how dark theme operates on the Android ecosystem.

The tech giant has established four principles that defines the dark UI design and gives a starting point for how to design dark mode –

1. Dark with grey

When designing a dark mode, use grey color instead of solid black for showing space and elevation in an environment with wide depth range.

2. Color with accents

Apply limited color accents in dark theme UIs, so the majority of space is dedicated to dark surfaces.

3. Save energy

When designing the dark mode in products that require efficiency (such as devices with OLED screens), conserve battery life by reducing the use of light pixels.

4. Enhance accessibility

Accommodate regular dark theme users (such as those with low vision), by meeting accessibility color contrast standards.

There are different properties they have fixed in the Google Material Design Guidelines for Dark color scheme and overall mode –

Elevation: In the process of designing dark theme, the components retain the same default shadow components and elevation levels as in case of the light theme. What differs is the illumination of the surface of elevation levels.

The higher a surface elevation, the lighter would be the surface. The lightness is shown through a semi-transparent overlays’ application. Overlays also make it possible to differentiate between the components and see the shadows.

Accessibility & contrast: The background in dark theme UI design should be dark enough to show white text. They must use a contrast of a minimum of 15.8:1 between the background and text. Doin this ensures that the body text passes the WCAG’s AA standard of 4.5:5:1 when added to surfaces at highest elevation.Colors: The dark theme UI must avoid saturated colors for the induce eye strain. Instead, designers should focus on using desaturated colors for they increase legibility. The choice of primary and secondary colors must also depend upon the consideration of both light and dark UI themes.

Light text on dark backgrounds: When a light text comes on dark background, it must use these opacity levels:

High-emphasis text has an opacity of 87%
Medium-emphasis text and hint text have opacities of 60%
Disabled text has an opacity of 38%

States: States communicate the status of interactive elements for dark theme layouts or components by using the overlays. In dark theme, states must use the same overlay values as the default light theme. There are two containers which inherit the state overlays: Surface and Primary.

Surface containers which use the Surface color must apply an overlay which match the color of text or icon. For the surface containers which use the Primary color, the state overlay must be white.

How to design an app for iOS in dark mode?

With dark mode, Apple has revisited the meaning of UI styling and colors in iOS. Let’s look into the changes that Apple has brought to help you with designing for dark mode on iOS 13.

Semantic colors

For standardising the look and feel of the iOS apps in both dark and light mode, Apple has come up with semantic colors for the commonly applied UI elements. These colors do not come with an absolute RGB value, they directly adapt to iOS interface style.

They have also introduced semantic colors for handling the text and overlay color in the dark mode.

System colors

In addition to the semantic colors, Apple has also come up with 9 predefined system colors which are dynamic and supportive of dark system-wide appearance. This means that these colors adapt to selected interface styles like the semantic colors.

Vibrancy and Blur Effects

With iOS 13, Apple has introduced 4 blur effects and 8 vibrancy effects, which automatically adapts to the iOS interface style.

Here are the blur effects in the dark and light mode:

Apple has also introduced 4 vibrancy effects in iOS dark mode typography suite, 3 in overlay and 1 for separator. Here they are:

SF Symbols

Apple, in their Human Interface Guidelines, offers a collection of more than 1500 symbols for Product developers and designers to use in their applications. They automatically look amazing in the Dark Mode for they have been optimized for both light and dark UI.

Tips for effective mobile app dark theme design

As you must have reckoned, the preparations to provide the users a healthy UI experience is something that both Apple and Google is focusing on through their dark mode design principles.

But as shared above, not giving dark mode design theme its fair share of attention can do more harm than good.

And thus, it is important to know the effective tips for dark theme design.

1. Avoid the pure black color

A dark theme must not be of white text on black background. In fact, it can be difficult to look into a high contrast screen.

When you add dark mode to your app, it is safest to use dark grey as the primary color for the dark mode components, as it lowers the eye strain and also it is a lot easier to look at shadows on a grey surface compared to black.

2. Avoid the use of saturated colors on the dark themes

The saturated colors that look great on the light surfaces can vibrate against the dark background, making the text extremely difficult to read.

You should use light tones for they have better readability and they don’t make the UI unnecessarily expressive, which saves unnecessary eye strain.

3. Consider the emotional side of your app design

When you design a dark theme for your app, chances are that you must be aiming for translating the same emotional feel of your light theme design in the dark theme as well.

But it is unwise to do so. Because, ultimately different colors project different emotions. As a result, your dark mode colors will evoke a different feeling. This is why it is necessary to find a common ground emotional set for both your theme UIs.

4. Test the design in both the appearances

Just like how your users would toggle between both the theme UIs at different times of the day, it is necessary to test the app two times of the day to see how it is functioning in different light conditions. And to ensure it meets your criteria.

5. Incorporate dark theme into animations and illustrations

If your app contains animations or heavy graphical elements, you will have to prepare for their adoption in dark theme as well. In case the illustration contains a subject and a background, it would be good to fully desaturate the background colors to help keep the attention on the subject.

With this, you now know everything there’s to know about designing the dark mode version of your app. The next actionable step is to talk to a team of experts who have implemented the UI in applications. You should see this as a way of getting closer to achieving your intent to offer a healthy experience to your end users.

JVM Language for 2020- Choose Kotlin vs Scala

Posted on 02/06/202004/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

“One man’s misery is the fortune of another”. This saying has become true for the JVM world. With the fall of Java – the programming language that entered the market in 1995 and changed the complete story, various other languages are gaining huge momentum. Developers have not only started using those JVM programming languages, but have also proposed them as the right Java’s alternative for app development.

Three of such programming languages that are enjoying limelight in the market are Kotlin, Clojure, and Scala.

While we will talk about Clojure some other day, let’s focus on the ‘Kotlin vs Scala’ battle today.

Here, in this article, I’m going to paint a picture of ‘What’s what’ scenario to help you make a smart and profitable decision of switching from Java to other JVM language on yourself.

TABLE OF CONTENT

What is Kotlin Programming Language?
A Concise Introduction to Scala
Kotlin versus Scala: A Detailed Comparison of Java Alternatives
Kotlin vs. Scala: Which is Right JVM for 2020?

So, Let’s dive into the Kotlin world first.

What is Kotlin Programming Language?

Kotlin is an open-source, cross-platform, statically-typed programming language developed by JetBrains in 2011. It was recognized as an official Android programming language by Google back in 2019 and has reached the latest version, Kotlin 1.4.

[As we have mentioned about cross-platform nature of Kotlin above, you can learn about it in detail here – Kotlin Vs Flutter: Who Will Rule the Cross-platform App Market? ]

The language offers developers with ample benefits as an answer to Is Kotlin better than Java. A few of which are as follows:-

Benefits of Kotlin Programming Language

1. More Reliable

Unlike other conventional languages like Swift, Kotlin has undergone various Alpha and Beta stages before entering into the market. Because of this, the latest version of Kotlin is highly mature, compatible and reliable to operate with.

2. Kotlin’s Higher Development Speed

Kotlin encourages developers to perform any functionality by writing a less number of code lines. This not only enhances productivity but also speed up the app development process.

3. Fail-fast System

Another advantage of going with Kotlin language is that it avails a built-in fail-fast system which reduces the risk of errors in coding.

4. Easy to Maintain

The language offers extensive support for various IDEs including Android Studio. This makes it possible for developers to build solutions on different platforms and maintain them timely.

Because of such advantages, Kotlin programming language has received support from various recognised brands. A list of which is as follows:

Limitations of Kotlin Language

1. Less Kotlin Developer Experts Available

Despite the sky-high popularity of Kotlin, there are only a few programmers with expertise in Kotlin development in the market. This is the prime limitation of considering Kotlin for JVM based application development.

Now, before you find yourself inclined towards Kotlin language, let’s jump to Scala.

An Overview of Scala Programming Language

Designed by Martin Odersky back in 2004, Scala is an open-source language that facilitates a perfect blend of object-oriented and functional coding in a statically typed programming environment. The language was devised to address the cons of Java programming language in terms of general-purpose and thus, can be an ideal Java alternative.

Scala, whose latest version is 2.13.1, is highly appreciated by various reputed brands, including:-

And the prime reason behind this is the following set of benefits it avail.

Pros of Going with Scala

1. Statically Typed

Scala comes with a highly expressive typing system that demands application of statistical abstraction in a particularly consistent and secure manner. Primarily, the type system supports:

General Classes
Upper and Lower typing limit
Clearly written self-references
Polymorphic methods
As a member of internal class and abstract type items
Variable Annotations

2. Concise Coding

One of the prime reasons why Scala is gaining a huge momentum these days is because it is highly concise. The language, when compared to other programming languages like Java, requires less number of code lines to perform the same activity.

3. Highly Scalable

Another advantage of Scala-based development is that it is highly scalable. Developers can merge different paradigms and introduce a vast range of features into the development environment while working with this JVM language.

4. Typesafed Language

Scala emerges as a good resource in terms of type safety. Besides, it enables you to create your own data types on the top of primitive ones and write a DSL for your project.

5. Enhanced Quality

Since a minimum number of code lines are written in Scala environment, it becomes easier for developers to deliver a bug-free experience, a.k.a, get better results from the Quality assurance process.

6. Multi-Platform Presence

Though Scala primarily targets JVM platforms, it can be a good option for creating software that runs on multiple platforms.

Cons of Preferring Scala

1. Difficult to Understand

Since Scala codes are an amalgamation of functional and object-oriented concepts, the information sometimes gets a bit hard to comprehend.

2. Slow Compilation Speed

Another disadvantage of Scala is that it takes a longer time to compile complex codes. This results into slow compilation speed when compared to what is observed in the case of Java or Kotlin.

3. Issues with Binary Compilation

It is not binary compatible with a few versions. For example, a code that is compiled with Scala 2.1 might not compile with Scala 2.11. This is yet another limitation of picking Scala language.

With this, you have gained all-inclusive information about the two JVM titans. Which implies you might be curious to hop over to the difference between Kotlin and Scala to see which one wins the JVM war.

But, wait.

Before we move on to the section where we compare Kotlin and Scala, let’s have a quick look at how Kotlin’s an improvement over Scala, and vice-versa.

Kotlin versus Scala: A No-Nonsense Comparison of Java Alternatives

1. Market Popularity

Kotlin, with support of Google, has achieved success in making its presence dominant in the market much faster than expected. As per Google trends, there’s a surge in searches related to Kotlin when compared to Scala. This gives a clear indication that Kotlin is more in trend than Scala.

But, if you focus entirely on the job posting platform, you will come across the fact that Kotlin is behind Scala with significant numbers.

Likewise, if you check for the developers’ salary for distinguishing Kotlin vs Scala, you will realize that the values are much uniform.

This, as a whole, concludes that both the languages are far popular and liked by the developer community in one way or the other.

2. Ease of Learning

Scala is a powerful language with highly-advantages features and flexible syntax. So, it is quite difficult for newbies to get their hands on this JVM programming language.

But, it is not in the case of Kotlin.

As reported by Java developers in various organizations, one can easily understand basic Kotlin syntax in just a few hours and start coding within 1-3 days. Also, Google introduced free Kotlin courses for Android developers, which again streamlines their journey in the Kotlin market.

So, the winner of Kotlin and Scala war is the former, if the entire focus is on ‘learning curve’.

3. Functional Programming of Kotlin and Scala

It’s true that both languages are known for their functional programming paradigm. But, when it comes to looking into Scala vs Kotlin comparison in terms of functional programming, the former wins.

Scala is more swayed by functional programming languages like Haskell than Kotlin. It encourages the use of functional coding along with some additional features like pattern matching and currying. Besides, the attempt of possible functional programming is more considerable in the Scala environment.

4. Pattern Matching

As already unveiled above, Scala offers better opportunities for pattern matching than Kotlin. Its match statement enables developers to match any type of data, including its own. Also, it shows full support for higher-end and macros types.

A result of which is that Scala is termed as “Java’s switch on steroids” and is considered as a good fit for Big Data processing tasks.

5. App Performance

Though app performance depends highly on the nature of the app, let’s consider an Android application for comparison of JVM languages.

Scala is a good option for employing highly scalable Android app development services. Whereas, a Kotlin-based application will be easy to code and debug. As a consequence, app performance will be higher in the case of Kotlin when compared to the other JVM language.

6. Inline

In the case of Scala, you are required to request the compiler to inline a method by annotating it with @inline. For example:-

@inline final def f1(x: Int) = x

Here, the compiler has the choice to see if the function is actually inlined or not.

But, in the case of Kotlin, the compiler will automatically consider functions with ‘inline’ keyword as inline. It is the developers’ responsibility to be careful with manual inlining to prevent the risk of inlining duplicates. Something that makes developers favour Scala over Kotlin for using inlines.

7. Null Safety Management Efficiency

One of the prime reasons why developers are showing an interest in other JVM languages is that they offer a better facility to handle hate-bound NPEs (Null Pointer Exceptions). So, it is again the main factor to consider while deciding the right Java alternative.

When comparing Kotlin with Scala, the latter’s approach is quite incompetent. One has to introduce null values with the option in Scala programming, which further adds to code complexity.

So, clearly, the winner of the battle here is Kotlin.

8. Operator Overloading

Though Java does not support Operator overloading, both Kotlin and Scala come loaded with this functionality. So, it is again important to consider this factor to know whether to choose Scala or Kotlin for JVM-based development needs.

Kotlin focuses on making a balance between power and readability. It empowers developers to overload the basic operators, but refrain them from defining new ones. This makes it easier for one to understand Kotlin operators (even to novice developers), but reduces the flexibility.

Scala, in contrast to Kotlin, goes with quite a lenient approach to operator overloading. This makes it easier for developers to write more human-readable codes, and thus, makes it a good fit while creating internal domain-specific languages. But, at the same time, it can result in confusion if used incorrectly.

9. Java Interoperability

Though both Kotlin and Scala are interoperable with Java, Kotlin leads the show if you wish to maintain full compatibility with existing Java-based projects and technologies.

Kotlin is designed to be 100% interoperable with Java. So, you can easily call Kotlin code from Java and vice-versa effortlessly. Likewise, you can employ existing Java-based frameworks like Java Server Faces (JSF), and ‘Vert.x’ framework while considering Kotlin for server-side development.

Whereas, when it comes to Scala, accessing Java classes in the development environment is easy. But, it is not possible to call Scala classes in the Java environment, especially when working with advanced features of Scala as they might lack Java equivalent.

10. Libraries and Frameworks

When talking about libraries and frameworks, both JVM languages are doing wonders in the market.

On one hand, Scala – taking advantage of its long span in the market – facilitates developers with a wide range of libraries and frameworks to work effortlessly with APIs and applications. This includes Cats, Slick, Shapeless, Akka, and Play Framework.

While, on the other side, Kotlin has also come up with a lot of offerings in terms of community libraries & frameworks. A few of which are Ktor, Exposed, and Arrow.

11. Documentation

When talking about Scala, its API documentation is simple, straightforward, and well-structured. It offers search functionality and an option to restrict the number of displayed elements with a filter. However, sometimes you might find it tough to search for pages on a particular topic.

Whereas, using the Kotlin API documentation is a bit tiresome. There’s no search function or filter option. However, it comes with a reference which explains all the concepts in a detailed manner (with examples). This helps Kotlin remain in the competition to Scala in terms of documentation.

12. Use Cases

Though both Scala and Kotlin prove to be good alternatives to Java in the JVM world, they come with different unique use cases.

Kotlin, besides Android app development, can be used for web development and server-side development. Whereas, Scala is a good fit for projects requiring a blend of OOPs and functional programming concepts, for Big Data-based solutions, or for operating with complex Machine learning patterns.

13. Community Support

Being in the market for the past 15 years, Scala has a bigger community than that of Kotlin. This makes it easier for app developers to find tutorials, solutions, and other resources related to Scala over Kotlin.

In fact, if you check in Q&A site Stack Overflow, you’ll find nearly 3.8K questions related to Kotlin and 68.5K tagged with Scala.

So, when focusing on community support, Scala beats Kotlin in the JVM war.

Threats and Opportunities in Travel and Transportation from Digital Transformation

Posted on 01/06/202004/06/2021 by Blogs

In travel and transportation most companies today don’t look at customer journeys as a collaborative exercise. They consider their job done when passengers are delivered safely to their appointed destination for their segment. A railway, for example, may only care that it has moved passengers safely from station A to station B. It ignores the fact station B is an airport, and the passengers it dropped off are actually headed to dozens of different destinations.

To deliver real value to customers, companies need to surmount the cultural and technical obstacles to data sharing to create a true transportation ecosystem. The idea of bridging systems, breaking down silos and sharing data with others raises the fear of companies losing their individual value propositions. The reality, however, is that being part of a connected transportation platform will generate more value than it destroys and will create entirely new opportunities for companies that never before existed. What’s needed is a digital enablement strategy.

Looking across a chain of events

Digital transformation is built around an information architecture that enables companies to look across a chain of travel events for an individual customer or package to identify problems, predict the impact, and automatically develop and execute solutions that keep passengers and freight moving.

New services can be built around a platform like this that help companies differentiate their offerings or add value in new ways, through mobile tracking solutions, or by using analytics to improve warehousing fulfillment and distribution. For examples, sensors in a refrigerated freight car that can sense an elevation in temperature could trigger a maintenance request to repair a problem or move cargo to another car before it spoils.

Passenger transportation companies can tap into these same tools to find ways to extend their brands and expand into the multiple modes of transportation available to passengers. Digital enablement helps companies understand the full passenger journey and allows for a seamless approach, even if the company is not part of the entire chain of events. A hotel notified that incoming guests are experiencing delays could offer weary travelers an added comfort or convenience as a way to differentiate their customer service.

Capabilities like this don’t require wholesale integration. They can be developed and delivered through loosely connected systems that share selected data, understand the most important attributes of a customer’s journey, and have the awareness to detect issues, the context to recognize the impact and the intelligence to take action.

IoT in Manufacturing: Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Posted on 21/05/202008/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Smart factories are now a reality. IoT is building a new manufacturing landscape by connecting automated production technologies and smart manufacturing processes.

With every passing year, advanced methods and equipment enter the manufacturing space to take production capabilities to the next level. This year-on-year maturing of technological advancement is what has brought us from the first industrial revolution to the 4th industrial revolution.

The current revolution that industries are operating in, comes with its own unique set of methodologies and technologies. It is redefining operational efficiency.

While the previous revolutions worked around the specific areas of the industrial sector, the fourth industrial revolution comes powered by the ability of connectivity. In this article, we are going to look into the many aspects of how is IoT transforming manufacturing and the many challenges the sector will have to overcome to become a part of the future of IoT in manufacturing.

Welcoming the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In order to understand the true Internet of Things applications in manufacturing industry, it is necessary to look back at the industrial revolutions. Ever since the 1700s, there have been 4 revolutionary shifts in the manufacturing sector.

The first – water power was introduced for increasing efficiency of steam engine based machinery like cotton gins, loom, and conveyor, etc.

The second – emerging in the 1870s, the second industrial revolution brought us electricity. The invention of the power stations and bulbs powered factories’ automation and gave birth to the concept of mass production.

The third – emerging somewhere around the 1960s, the third revolution introduced digital technology and computers, replacing analog technologies. The phase opened the world to globalization and increased trade.

The fourth – this is the era of cognitive manufacturing. In the ongoing phase, big data, IoT sensors, robotics, and predictive analytics will merge to form a brand new definition of IoT in industrial manufacturing operations.

The fourth industrial revolution presents a glorious age for manufacturing and industrial space. Businesses are beginning to understand the massive impact of IoT in the production process, they have started initiating talks with every sound IoT development company to figure out the way to harness the IoT use cases in manufacturing. As a result of their interest, the technology is reciprocating with a number of use cases of IoT solutions in manufacturing.

How is IoT in Manufacturing Changing the Sector’s Landscape?

With IoT implementations in manufacturing becoming a new norm, there are a number of benefits manufacturers are looking to derive from the combination. Let us list down some of the most promising benefits of IoT for manufacturers.

1. Inventory management

Through the linking of equipment like smart totes, smart shelves, forklifts, etc with wireless communication and RFID, sensors, manufacturers would be able to maintain a real-time view of an inventory. On the production level, sensors linked to bins and machines will be able to provide real-time data on inventory consumption and notify the need for re-ordering or automatic refill.

2. Predictive maintenance of assets

Another impact of IoT in manufacturing industry can be seen through the role of technology in asset maintenance. With the help of sensors and RFID, IoT can monitor tools, smart machines, and vehicles, etc for equipment health and then schedule their maintenance on the basis of usage.

There are a number of IoT-based alerts driven systems that provide insight into mechanical problems that could warrant replacement or repair. It doesn’t just improve asset utilization but also helps avoid expensive downtime maintenance expenses.

3. Field Service

IoT enables manufacturers to better their capabilities as a service provider. Through sensors and connected devices, businesses can perform proactive servicing of appliances, equipment, and devices while planning field service in a more cost-effective manner. IoT solutions in manufacturing also offer visibility in the supply chain for monitoring locations, the state of products in transit, and the delivery schedules.

4. Workforce management

Information from assets, machines, and mobile devices can help businesses measure the employees’ productivity. Managers will no longer have to walk the factory floor and see how their workers are performing, they will be able to get a dashboard view of productivity measures created automatically and updated in real-time.

An example of the workforce management specific manufacturing IoT use cases can be seen in the COREIoT Workforce Management solution. It’s a turnkey project which comes with a 4G IoT gateway, wireless sensors, and a web portal that includes data analytics. The platform offers an advanced tracking facility with dwell time detection offering complete workforce visibility.

5. Quality assurance

An active role of IoT in manufacturing can be seen in the ways quality initiatives get added to the operational processes. The technology can help highlight variation in product flow and in the pre-decided guidelines set for measuring product specifications.

The result lies in improved efficiency on an overall level since products are developed according to specifications, defective production is stopped in real-time, and repairs are conducted to prevent system and equipment downtime.

6. Cognitive operations and processes

The idea of cognitive operations lies in the ability to take present data and analyze it for driving decisions around better operations, safety, and quality. A system linking technology like IoT can help analyze both structured and unstructured data like video or photos, bringing greater certainty to business operations and decision-making. Here are the different ways that help –

Better productivity of production line
Speedy repair and service call which lowers warranty costs
Improved quality.

7. Optimization and smarter resources

The last point in our list of benefits of IoT in manufacturing revolves around optimizing resources – energy, people, knowledge, and equipment. It is essential to follow the best optimization practices for keeping the cost low and bettering the overall productivity and engagement levels. With the combination of cognitive insights and IoT, it becomes possible to use data like usage, geolocation, environmental conditions, etc. for:

Better worker safety and effective workforce management
Improved worker productivity and expertise
Reduction of energy consumption by equipment and buildings.

Even amidst the growing use of IoT in manufacturing, there are some challenges that manufacturers face when it comes to the adoption of IoT solutions in their processes.

Let us look into some of those challenges that every IoT application development company has to overcome.

The Barriers to IoT Adoption in Manufacturing Sector

Interoperability of data

One of the biggest barriers that IoT app developers face is in terms of data interoperability. In the traditional manufacturing setup, the environment data are siloed according to functional or department areas. This makes it difficult for production, scheduling, engineering, and quality to be linked or be compatible for analysis. Noting the situation which nullifies the essence of IoT, it becomes very important for IoT application development services to take care of the migration of legacy systems.

Lack of IoT Skillsets

IoT is still at a developing stage, meaning employing someone with the expertise in leveraging IoT and performing its successful deployment remains a challenge. What makes the matters worse is that when we look into IoT adoption in the manufacturing space, it is not just the technology’s skillset which is required but also experience in analytics, big data, embedded software development, and electronics, and IT security, etc.

Instances of data breach

With IoT devices and software becoming common across a range of different industries and manufacturing there are growing concerns around their security proofing. Noting how IoT in manufacturing case studies works around business-crucial data and equipment, it is essential that every IoT app development company follows a security-first approach and abides by all the app security best practices to ensure a breach-proof service.

Initiate Your IoT in Manufacturing Journey With Us

Entering the sector which still has one leg dug deep in the traditional methodologies can be a challenge. As a tech-forward entrepreneur, you would need help from IoT developers who have worked with manufacturing industry stakeholders. We are here to help you.

We can help you identify the use cases that apply to your reformative idea, the process you will have to follow to counter migration issues, and how to find the best product-market fit. If you are a manufacturer struggling with similar issues or something new, reach out to us.

The 10 Steps to a Painless Website Migration

Posted on 18/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

Migrating your website can be a technically challenging process and not without risk. Here, we’ll look at the potential risks involved and explain the process you need to go through to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Why migrate a website?

There are several reasons for migrating a website, the main ones being that you are upgrading to a better form of hosting, for example from shared hosting to VPS, or that you are moving to a new web host. Regardless of the reason, it will mean moving your website from one server to another and this is where the challenges and risks are to be found.

What are the risks of website migration?

The biggest risk is that the migration will not be carried out properly and that the website won’t function correctly after the move. There’s also the risk of losing data during the move so that elements of the website are missing. Moving to a different server can also affect your performance on search engines if not handled correctly and there’s the potential for your site to be offline while you fix any issues.

Here are the steps to ensure your migration goes smoothly.

1. Do not take down your existing website

Until you are 100% sure your new site is working, keep your existing site online. This way, if there are any issues, they won’t affect your users.

2. Make a copy of your website

The first stage of the migration is to copy your existing website and upload it to your new server. This will enable you to test how well it performs in its new hosting environment and give you an indication of any changes you will need to make.

As you will want to keep your existing website in operation during this time, you’ll need to do this on a different domain or subdomain.

3. Block search engines from indexing your test site

You don’t want the test site to be accessed by users until its finished and this means preventing it from appearing in search engine results. You can block search engine crawlers in a number of ways, for example, using a robots.txt file, password protecting your site or by using a no-indexing tag.

4. Test the new site

Once you have reached this stage, you are in a position to test your website on the new server to make sure it does not have any technical errors and performs as expected. Testing should make sure that users can carry out all the interactions offered by the site, including searches, navigation, signing into user areas and making purchases. You should also make sure that all pages, posts, links, etc., display and perform properly. These tests should be carried out on both desktop and mobile versions of the website and on different types of browser.

5. Test if your new site can be crawled by Google

Although you blocked access to search engines earlier on in the process, you will need to give it temporary access just to make sure that once the new site goes live, it can still be indexed. If it can’t, then post-migration, you will lose your website ranking. To do this, temporarily add the test site to Google Search Console and check the site can be found. Once this has been successfully achieved, you can block the access once again.

6. Check site speed

It’s a good job to test the speed of the new site in comparison with the existing site before launch. You want your new site to be crawled and indexed quickly by Google and this will happen swifter if the server is performing well. It will also enable you to implement other speed enhancements, such as compression, CDN, minification and image optimisation. All of these can accelerate site speed, giving a better user experience and improving overall website ranking. You can check the speed of both the mobile and desktop versions of your site using Google’s PageSpeed Insight’s tool.

7. Update DNS settings

Once you are happy with the performance of your new website, it will be time to start sending users to it. To do this, you will need to change your DNS settings so that they point to your new IP address. You will need to contact your hosting company to ask for this change.

8. Unblock search engines

As soon as the DNS settings have been changed, it is important that you remove the blocks that prevent search engine crawlers accessing your site. This will enable search engines to continue to crawl and index all your pages and ensure that they don’t go missing in search queries. Double-check this is working by using the Google Search Console Coverage report.

9. Test redirects

If you have any redirects enabled on your website, test they are still working on the new server and that there are no 404 errors.

10. Retest

Finally, carry out all the steps in point 4 above, once again. This will ensure that now the site is live, it is still working as expected.

Conclusion

Migration from one server to another can be a daunting experience for many. Hopefully, the steps discussed here will make it less traumatic and help ensure that things go smoothly.

Why is CX important for websites, and how can it be improved?

Posted on 17/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

According to a recent survey from SuperOffice, customer experience (CX) is the biggest priority of businesses over the next five years, more important than finding better products or selling them at the right price. Why? Because customers are flocking to brands that provide them with better CX and 86% of consumers said they would pay more for it. Whether you just sell online or have both a website and a bricks and mortar store, improving CX could transform your business. Here are some of the things that customers are looking for from brands today.

Personalisation

What makes Amazon the world’s most successful online retailer? The key ingredient in its success is personalisation. Its collection of user data ensures it knows its customers exceptionally well and this means that whenever they sign into the website, use its app or open an email, every product or offer provided for them is tailored around their wants and needs. It knows their shopping and browsing histories, the things on their wish lists, when they shop, what they shop for and how much they are likely to spend.

This level of insight means that Amazon’s product recommendations are much more likely to be a match for what the customer wants. This not only results in higher sales for Amazon; it also makes it highly attractive to customers who want to find the right products quickly and simply. This is why Amazon has become, for millions of shoppers, the default search engine for products.

The success of Amazon has led personalisation to become commonplace on the internet. Businesses everywhere are collecting user data to provide similar customer experiences (CX). For small businesses to remain attractive to modern shoppers, they too will need to start collecting user data to make personalised recommendations to customers. Today, it is easier than ever to implement. There are numerous specialist companies offering recommendation engines as a service and if that is out of your budget, try the AI-enabled, PRZ Recommendation Engine plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce.

Simple shopping

While product recommendation engines are beneficial, they can’t predict everything that a shopper wants to buy and they are not much use at all for new visitors for whom you have no historical data. Customers in these situations seek websites that offer simpler ways to shop. They want to be able to find products quickly, have all the essential product data given clearly (description, images, price, specifications, etc.) without ‘information overload’ and they want to be able to pay and leave without a fuss.

This starts with simple site navigation and the ability to search for products. Product search has evolved and customers expect to be able to easily narrow down searches by applying numerous filters: price, customer ratings, size, shape, colour, brand, etc. This can easily be implemented using plugins, indeed many store building platforms come with the functionality built-in.

Providing the right information can be a balancing act. Customers will want to know everything essential about a product, including other purchasers’ ratings, but without being overloaded. They may want to compare products side by side before making a decision, save the product in a wish list if they can’t make up their minds and be shown similar products that they might not yet have come across.

Once a decision is made, they’ll want to buy and go as quickly as possible. This means providing a streamlined checkout process, including guest checkouts for non-members and one-click checkouts for those who have saved payment details with you.

Omnichannel shopping

Though the growth in online shopping has led most bricks and mortar stores to build an online store, many retailers keep those two elements of their business distinct. Technology, however, has blurred the lines between online and on-premises shopping and this has provided yet another experience that customers want – omnichannel shopping.

The modern customer likes the flexibility of click and collect. They want to be able to purchase online and pick the product up from the store. Indeed, this business model stopped many bricks and mortar stores going bust during the pandemic as it enabled them to offer drive-through shopping. While shops were compulsorily closed, customers could order items from their phones in the car park and staff would take them to the car.

For single store businesses that have all their inventory under one roof, putting this system into place is easy to do on your website as it just means linking your store software to your inventory data, a feature available in plugins like WooCommerce. It is more complicated for businesses with multiple stores and separate warehouses as they will need to unify inventory data from across all their stores and warehouses. However, once in place, a customer can remotely buy from a physical store using the website or app.

Omnichannel communications

Modern technology has hugely expanded the number of ways that customers and companies communicate. The difficulty for brands is that consumers have their own preferences for how they like to stay in touch. Indeed, they have different preferences for different purposes. If communication is important, they may want the company to send a printed letter or email, if it’s a special offer they may prefer an SMS or WhatsApp message. When consumers want to get in touch, they usually want a quick response and may use phone, chatbot or, increasingly, a voice assistant or smart speaker.

Providing a great customer experience (CX) means communicating via the channels that consumers prefer. The advantage for businesses is that it enables them to send the right messages at the right time with a greater chance that they will be seen and acted upon.

The challenge here is, again, one of data. Not only does the company need to know which channel each customer prefers but it also needs to unify data to provide a complete overview of the customer journey. This way, whoever is communicating with the customer (human or AI) will have access to all the information needed to send out the right correspondence or deal with enquiries seamlessly when customers move from one channel to another.

This is the level of sophistication that many businesses have managed to achieve and which customers now expect from retailers. If they send a message on social media and phone up later, they’ll expect whoever is answering the call to have access to the social media message. Just as importantly, if they have used a smartphone app to add a product to their shopping cart, they’ll expect to see it still there if they visit your website on a laptop or try to order it using a voice assistant. Everything has to link up.

Conclusion

As you can see, customer experience (CX) is essential to staying relevant in an ever more competitive market and this is forcing brands to adopt new business models and the advanced technologies needed to implement them. For websites, the collection of data needed for personalisation, omnichannel shopping and omnichannel communications often require much more disk space and processing power than shared hosting packages provide. Upgrading to VPS or the cloud provides far more capacity to deploy the new technologies that CX relies on and is your first step to transforming your site.

Best Practices To Ensure a Hack-Proof App: Mobile App Security

Posted on 13/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

Building a revolutionary mobile application is only the first step in mobile app development. Once you’ve built an app, there are thousands of mandatory processes that follow app development. One of those many crucial steps in mobile app security.

In this article, we will explore what are the essential mobile app security practices that you ought to implement after the development is finalized.

Over the last decade, we all have witnessed how the mobile app development industry has grown but so have cybercrimes. And these crimes have led us to a stage where it is not possible to submit an app to Play Store or App Store without taking certain measures to secure it.

However, getting towards what the security measures entail, we first need to understand why there is a need for taking these actions and what are the potential app security issues that plague the mobile app development industry. For a real-life estimate, let us look at the facts:

There is still more to mobile app security than safeguarding them against malware and threats. Let us first identify some of the OWASP mobile app security threats to understand the security measures better.

Why do we need Mobile App Security: Potential Threats & Their Solutions

The threats that present themselves in the app development world although are malicious, can be solved with simple steps to securing a mobile application. Let us take a look at what are the major mobile app security issues.

1. Faulty server controls:

The communications that take place between the app and user outside the mobile phone device happen via servers. And such servers are primary targets of hackers throughout the world. The main reason behind the vulnerability of a server is because sometimes developers overlook the necessary server-side security into account. This may happen due to a lack of knowledge about security considerations for mobile applications, small budgets for security purposes, or the vulnerabilities caused due to cross-platform development.

Solution:

The most crucial step in safeguarding your servers is to scan your apps with the help of automated scanners. These scanners can, otherwise, be used by hackers to dig out vulnerabilities in your apps and exploit them. Automated scanners will surface the common issues and bugs which are easy to resolve.

2. The absence of Binary protection:

This is also one of the prime OWASP app security issues to address because if there is a lack of Binary protection for a mobile app, any hacker or an adversary can easily reverse engineer the app code to introduce malware. They can also redistribute a pirated application of the same and inject it with a threat also. All of this can lead to critical issues such as data theft and damage to brand image and resultantly revenue loss.

Solution:

To safeguard Binary files, it is important to deploy binary hardening procedures. As a part of this procedure, binary files are analyzed and accordingly modified to protect them against common mobile app security threats. This procedure fixes the legacy code without involving the source code at all. It is crucial to ensure security coding for the detection of jailbreaks, checksum controls, debugger detection control, and certificate pinning while working on mobile app security processes.

3. Data Storage Insecurity:

Another big loophole that is common in Mobile app security is the absence of a safe data storage system. In fact, it is common for mobile app developers to rely upon client storage for internal data. However, during the possession of a mobile device by a rival, this internal data can be very easily accessed and used or manipulated. This can lead to several crimes like identity theft or PCI (external policy violation).

Solution:

One of the app security measures to consider here is to build an additional encryption layer over the OS’s base-level encryption. This gives a tremendous boost to data security.

4. Inadequate protection for Transport layer:

The transport layer is the pathway through which data transfer takes place between the client and the server. If the right mobile app security standards are not introduced at this point, any hacker can gain access to internal data to steal or modify it. This leads to severe crimes like identity thefts and frauds.

Solution:

To reinforce transport layer security, you should incorporate SSL Pinning in iOS and Android apps. Along with this, you can use industry-standard cipher suites instead of regular ones. Additionally, avoiding the exposure of user’s session ID because of mixed SSL sessions, alerting the user in case of an invalid certificate, using SSL versions of third-party analytics are common practices that can savethe users from a dangerous breach of security.

5. Unintended Leakage of data:

Unintended data leakage happens when critical mobile applications are stored in vulnerable locations on the mobile device. For example, an app is stored where it can easily get accessed by other apps or devices which ultimately results in the data breach of your app and unauthorized data usage.

Solution:

Monitoring common data leakage points such as logging, app background, caching, Browser cookie objects, and HTML5 data storage.

Besides these 5 mobile development security threats, there are some other commonly occurring roadblocks in the way of building secure mobile apps. Here they are:

Absence of multi-factor authentication – The process provides multiple layers of security before letting a person inside the application. It could be answering a personal question, OTP, SMS configuration, or other measures. The absence of multifactor authentication can lead to several issues which makes it a crucial part of answering how to make an app secure.
Inability to encrypt properly – A important element of mobile application security best practices is ensuring proper encryption. The inability of it can lead to code theft, intellectual property theft, privacy violation, among multiple other issues.
Malicious code Injection – User-generated content such as forms is often overlooked as a threat. Suppose a user adds in their id and password, the app then communicated with the server-side data to authenticate the information. Now the apps which do not restrict the character a user inputs open themselves to the risk of injecting code to access the server.
Reverse engineering – It is every secure mobile application development nightmare. The approach can be used to show how an app works in the backend and reveal the encryption algorithms while modifying the source code, etc.
Insecure data storage – insecure data storage can happen in multiple places inside an app – cookies, binary data store, SQL database, etc. If a hacker gets access to the database or device, they can alter legitimate apps to take out information to the machines.

After seeing the general threats which plague all the mobile applications and some of the Best mobile app security practices to follow for avoiding these issues, let us move on to the specifics about the Android and iOS mobile application security.

How to Make Android Apps Secure?

Some of the effective Android app security best practices to opt are:-

Encryption of data on External Storage –

Generally, the internal storage capacity of a device is limited. And this drawback often coerces users to use external devices such as hard disk and flash drives for safekeeping of the data. And this data, at times, consists of sensitive and confidential data as well. Since the data stored on the external storage device is easily accessible by all the apps of the device, it is very important to save the data in an encrypted format. One of the most widely used encryption algorithms by mobile app developers is AES or Advanced Encryption Standard.

Using Internal Storage for Sensitive Data –

All the Android Applications have an internal storage directory. And the files stored in this directory are extremely secure because they use MODE_PRIVATE mode for file creation. Simply put, this mode ensures that the files of one particular app cannot be accessed by other applications saved on the device. Thus, it is one of the mobile app authentication best practices to focus upon.

Using HTTPS –

The communications that take place between the app and the server ought to be over an HTTPS connection. Numerous Android Users often are connected to several open WiFi networks in public areas and using HTTP instead of HTTPS can leave the device vulnerable to many malicious hotspots which can easily alter the contents of HTTP traffic and make the device’s apps behave unexpectedly.

Using GCM instead of SMS –

In the time when Google Cloud Messaging or GCM did not exist, SMS was used in order to push data from servers to apps but today, GCM is used largely. But if you still have not made the switch from SMS to GCM, you must. This is because SMS protocol is neither safe nor encrypted. On top of it, SMS can be accessed and read by any other app on the user’s device. GCM communications are authenticated by registration tokens which are regularly refreshed on the client-side and they are authenticated using a unique API key on the server-side.

Other major mobile app development security best practices can include, Validation of User input, Avoiding the need for personal data, and usage of ProGuard before publishing the app. The Idea is to secure app users from as much malware as possible.

How to Make iOS Apps Secure?

Some of the iOS app security best practices to follow are:-

Storage of Data –

To greatly simplify your app’s architecture and improve its security, the best way is to store app data in memory instead of writing it on a disk or sending it to a remote server. Although if storing the data locally is your sole option, there are multiple ways to go:-

Keychain:

The best place to store small amounts of sensitive data which doesn’t need frequent access is Keychain. Data that is stored in keychains is managed by the OS but is not accessible by any other application. – Caches: If your data does not need to be backed up on iCloud or iTunes then you can store the data in the Caches directory of the application sandbox. – Defaults system: The defaults system is a convenient method for storing large amounts of data.

Networking security :

Apple is known for its security and privacy policies and for years, it has worked to reach this level. A few years ago, Apple had introduced App Transport Security which enforces third-party mobile apps to send network requests over a more secure connection, i.e., HTTPS.

Security of Sensitive Information –

The majority of mobile apps use sensitive user data such as address book, location, etc. But as a developer, you need to make sure that all the information that you’re asking the user for is, in fact, necessary to access and more importantly, to store. So, if the information you require can be accessed through a native framework, then it is redundant to duplicate and store that information.

We have now seen both Android and iOS mobile app security Practices for a Hack-Proof App. But no development can be so easy as it is written about. There are always certain challenges that are faced during a process. Let’s move forward and learn about the challenges which are faced and solved by almost every top app development companies in USA.

Challenges Associated With Mobile App Security

There is a proven record of how vulnerable mobile apps can be if not enough measures are taken for their security from external malware. Following are the challenges that can arise anytime if the mobile app security testing is not completed as per the requirement.

Device Fragmentation –

There are essential processes to be followed before the release of an application on the app stores. It is necessary to diversity of devices that cover different resolutions, functionalities, features, and limitations into your mobile app testing strategies. Detection of Device specific vulnerabilities can put the app developers one step ahead in app security measures. Not only devices but different versions of popular OS’s is an important step to cover before the app release to cover all the possible loopholes.

Weak Encryptions –

In the case of weak encryption, a mobile device is vulnerable to accepting data from any available device. Attackers with malware are in constant search for an open-end in public mobile devices and your app can be that open end if you do not follow a strong suit of the encryption process. So, investing your efforts into strong encryption is also one of the finest ways to make a hack-proof mobile app.

Weaker hosting controls –

It happens mostly during the development of a business’s first mobile app, which usually leaves the data exposed to the server-side systems. Therefore, the servers which are being used to host your app must have enough app security measures to avoid any unauthorized users from accessing important data.

Checklist for Mobile Application Security Guidelines

There are a number of things that every mobile app development company follows when they build secure applications. Here is a checklist that we commonly follow –

Use server-side authentication
Use cryptographic algorithms
Ensure user inputs meet check standards
Create threat algorithms to back data
Obsfucation to stop reverse engineering

There are many ways to make a hack proof mobile app, through a mobile app security audit, against the attacks from unknown sources and no amount of security measures can ever be enough. Looking into mobile app development security best practices is one way to go about it. Today, the digital world is out in the open for everyone’s use and no user is ever safe enough from malware and security breaches but these measures ensure that your personal data is safe in your digital devices.