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Apple Arcade: A Way To Revolutionize The Mobile Gaming Industry

Posted on 25/02/201921/06/2021 by Tushar

Apple finally released its most-awaited iOS 13 yesterday only.

From the myriad of features, it is loaded with, we couldn’t help but notice one of the significant contributions it made to the app world – Apple Arcade.

Apple Arcade is a full-fledged gaming hub that is entirely going to change the way how apps are developed and how users buy them. Based on a subscription-based business model, Apple Arcade is an avenue for indie game developers to create impeccable games worth discovering and playing.

The subscription priced at $5 per month will provide the users with access to 100+ new games which are no cast-offs, whereas more games might be available at the launch. The games offered in the subscription plan are high-quality fare from renowned and established studios like Annapurna Interactive and Ustwo Games of Monument Valley fame. The games belong to genres ranging from strategy and fantasy to absurdist golf.

The wild thing about Apple Arcade is that at such low priced subscription, you get facilities like playing unlimited games, syncing of your games between Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, and download the games to play offline. In fact, the one subscription plan can be shared among five family members. If this isn’t the full value of your money, we don’t know what is.

Besides everything, the one that has made Apple Arcade revolutionary, without a doubt, is the elimination of elements like ads and in-app purchases – the very backbone and major contributors to the gaming app economy. Though the notion of one subscription to play all games may sound preposterous to other organizations, it can be seen as a positive nudge to direct the gaming industry towards something more salutary rather than just cash draws.

Pay once and Play Many Games

If you look at the top-performing apps in the App Store, you will find that 50 grossing games have in-app purchases: out of 50 most downloaded free games, forty-one have them. In fact, among the games, you pay for upfront, the top 50 still try to accumulate more money as you play the games.

The in-app purchases are a major source of revenue for the app economy, and has been for decades. The free-to-downloads games also entice users to spend money on the app be it in the forms of Pokéballs in Pokémon Go or other digital widgets. This buying of rewards and digital widgets have come under scrutiny as critics have started to consider this trade as gambling.

Apple had been a major part of all this as it has been taking 30% cut from all in-app purchases. However, Apple has also been active in promoting apps that do not offer in-app purchases. This is evident from the fact that in 2015, Apple dedicated a whole section of the App Store to the games that were “Pay Once and Play”. Apart from this one generous act, these games had to face a lot of competition as their freemium contenders seemed more promising to the users, though they later started to ask for in-app purchases.

Ryan Cash, the founder of Snowman, the indie studio behind the popular Alto’s Adventure series said that “There was this wave of indie games in the last five to 10 years that had a bit of a surge, but it seemed like in the last two or three years that market was starting to fall apart a little bit,” and “It just became harder and harder for those indie developers to make money doing experimental things. There are many developers I heard say they’ll never make a mobile game again, or if I do it’s going to be free to play.”

This exodus is now low in numbers. As per SensorTower, in August 2014, 37% of the App Store games were paid. This amount dropped to 13% last month. The amount of paid games released on the App Store this August was as low as 5.5%. In fact, last month, the revenue generated by the paid apps was only 1.4% of the total App Store game revenue. This shift might be considered as a reaction to the changed Apple guidelines on in-app purchases.

However, the biggest publishers won’t give up on in-app purchases instantly. Sensor Tower cofounder Alex Malafeev said- “Free-to-play will continue to be the dominant model by which the majority of mobile game revenue is generated,” and “It has proven to be the ideal method of monetizing the type of ‘drop-in, drop-out’ experiences the majority of casual players want from their mobile devices.”

Nevertheless, Apple Arcade will definitely help indie developers in developing original and ambitious games that will get the deserved recognition. Moreover, it rewards games that are originally developed keeping the iOS platform in focus, rather than knock-offs and extended versions of games originally created for other platforms, increasing the UX.

Arcade Fire

An Apple Arcade launch game named “Where Cards Fall”, had been in the making for a decade. Sam Rosenthal, the creator, first thought of it as a student project at the University of Southern California. He initially thought of the puzzle game as an iPad-only encounter, which can still be sensed even from the trailer.

Rosenthal created Snowman almost four years ago, expanding his vision to the iPhone and Apple TV.

Cash remarked- “The last few years, we’ve been thinking about this dilemma where we want everyone to experience it, but it’s certainly not a free-to-play game. It would be absolutely destroyed with ads,” and “We knew it was going to be a premium game. And the problem there is that Where Cards Fall is the kind of game that would probably be $20. Or if we made the game 99 cents, for example, it cheapens the value of it, and we’re still not going to reach the kind of people you would reach with a free-to-play game.”

Apple Arcade for both Cash and Rosenthal is a boon, for they can now launch their game “ Where Cards Fall” on it, as it poses as a sustainable business model for the game. In fact, on Apple Arcade the game has a higher possibility of being found by a broader audience.

Cash further says “Apple Arcade may get them in with a golfing game or another action game or a racing game, and then stumble upon Where Cards Fall and try it, whereas they wouldn’t necessarily have spent that money upfront on their own,” and that “It’s a new way for people to discover gaming.”

Nonetheless, Apple Arcade comes with its own pitfalls. It is a curated experience which means that developers may feel left out. Because the subscription is so affordable, it makes users question the quality of games or at least stops them from spending any extra money in the app.

After considering everything, what can be surmised is this – Apple Arcade will encourage developers to create fun and more engaging games in their own right along with exploring structures that are different from the free-to-play category.

Well, there is no saying that every developer will do so, for they may be paid out in part based on the time spent on their games. This means that they will try to keep the users on their apps for as long as they can. This is the strategy that Apple follows in its News Subscription. The only difference is that the users will not have to pay any extra buck outside their subscription, no matter how long they play the games for.

Besides, not only indie but big hitters like Ubisoft, Konami, Square Enix have also contributed and played their part in the Apple Arcade launch lineup. As far as we can see, Apple Arcade is going to be a positive influence on the gaming industry and who knows, might inspire other major providers to follow its example.

A Quick Guide to Successful Mobile App Launch

Posted on 24/02/201921/06/2021 by gunjan

The mobile market has gone so competitive that there are endless apps offering the same functionality. In such a scenario, waiting for users to come to your application on their own, rather than putting efforts into an app launch strategy is a sin.To ensure that you do not commit this mistake and get no outcome from your investment in terms of cost to make an app, we will be discussing the right way to launch your application here.

1000 downloads, $100 millions of revenue – All such metrics pop in our mind, whenever we think of taking our months of hard work to the final stage, i.e, mobile app launch. We expect some miracle to happen that makes our app go viral, and get into the list of TikTok, Uber, and Pokemon Go.But alas, not everyone lives this moment.

[In case you haven’t decided when to take this big step, check the blog: What is the right time to launch your mobile app? ]

But, before we look into the right way of launching an app, it is necessary to be familiar with the fact that mobile app launch strategy does not come into play when you release your app. Instead, it comes into being right from the day you take the first step to make an app.

So, to get higher success numbers and earn more money from your app, here are the list of steps to take – categorized under Pre-launch and Post-launch strategy.

What Pre launch marketing ideas you should consider?

Any application who has not prepared a market for its launch can’t drive higher revenue. So, it’s imperative to invest in pre launch mobile app marketing. Something that can be possible effectively by following the pointers given below:

1. A thorough mobile app market research

When you launch an app without knowing who your target audience is, it is likely that you end up making an application that no one likes and face other potential threats. So, one thing you need to do before starting with different stages of building an app is market research.

By doing so your app will be prepared for whatever situations arise post-launch.

2. Market your app now

Marketing of the app is done way before the actual launch app. Some app owners start the app promotion even before the mobile app development is finished. Early marketing creates a positive image for the app and also creates awareness about the app.

So, how to market an app successfully? To muster support for your mobile app reach out to friends, communities, influencers, or create product videos and share online. You can also create a blog or a website which will act as the landing page for your app.

[To know other such methods, refer to our comprehensive guide to promote a mobile app.]

3. Create a buzz with social media

Social media can blow up things faster than a bomb. So many apps have gone viral and all the credit goes to social media. Reddit, Facebook and Instagram are great platforms for promotion before you actually launch mobile apps.

4. A press kit

A press kit is basically a resource for journalists and publishing houses to convince them to review your app. The kit includes all the information about the app such as screenshots, images and other details. You can also include videos by uploading it on YouTube.

5. Reach out to beta testers

Beta testers are registered testers for apps on the App Store or Play Store. They can be the best source for honest feedback for your app. Make sure you take the advice from the testers and use it to improve your app further.

Now you may ask how to come across these beta testers to execute a perfect mobile app launch. For that, you can find many websites that provide beta testers. Make a choice as per your requirements.

6. Focus on a better App store listing

Your app store page is also your landing page which means it’s the first place your customers visit.

Including images, videos and screenshots of your app will showcase the app quite well. Getting featured in the Play Store or the App Store is a big hit for any app. The aim is to get more downloads from all these factors. The key focusing points are:

The name of the app
App description
App visuals (images, videos, etc.)
Targeted keywords

So this is all about how to prepare your app before you submit an app to the app store.

Now you might be thinking, “What to do once the app is launched?” and the answer follows in the next section which has all the steps of post-mobile app launch.

How to Plan Post-launch App strategy?

1. Ask for referrals such as word of mouth

The best practices of launching an app involves word of mouth promotion. It is said that word of mouth is the most effective form of promotion and brings in genuine users. Reaching out to your friends, communities, colleagues and family members to spread a good word about the app would create awareness among a large group.

2. Link your app

Vigorously linking your app everywhere is another strategy that you can follow. When you launch an app, link the app on your email, comment sections, other blogs or social media. This way the link will become visible all over the internet and would bring in some curious users who might even stay forever.

3. Go for the paid ads

Once you’ve gone as per the app launch timeline, the next thing to go for is to consider paid ads on Facebook, Instagram or any other online platform. These ads, when reflecting on the news feed of every person present on that platform, increases the chances of getting clicks on the application and drive higher revenue, alongside app awareness.

4. Approach to Apple’s editorial team

If you have partnered with qualified iOS mobile app developers to enter the Apple market, pitching the Apple’s editorial team and that of App review sites will also be helpful. When listed in the Top lists, your application will get more attention from the users looking for such apps, which will ultimately result in better outcomes.

5. Map user journey

Another thing to look for after mobile app launch is to keep an eye on user journey. When you, with the help of some metrics, identify what users are liking the most on your platform, what is irritating them, why and who are abandoning your app, etc., you can easily plan your perfect mobile app retention strategy and drive higher profits.

6. Maintain real-time communication

Communicating with end users is not something that ends up while you reach the final stage of the mobile app release process. It must be continued even after the launch of the application. This is because when you maintain a real-time communication with your customers, they feel heard and share their pain points as well as leisure pointers, which makes it easier for you to plan the next app update.

Now, while these were some of the strategies to consider before and after mobile app launch, let’s wrap up this article by looking into some of the mistakes you should avoid committing.

Pitfalls to avoid when you launch a mobile app

A poor working app can be the cause of the failure of a company. Once the app is launched in the market, there is hardly any chance to undo mistakes immediately. You will have to wait until the first app update is launched but by then the app would have lost too many users.

You can totally prevent this scary situation by avoiding these common mistakes made during app launch.

1. Generalizing

Many businesspeople consider the whole world as their market. They hope that this practice will enable them to get the attention of a wider audience and reap higher benefits. However, the reverse happens.

When your application is installed by the wrong target audience, they feel confused and irritated while using it and leave a negative feedback. This prevents various right users from tapping on the ‘download’ button as well as prompt developers to introduce various unnecessary functionalities.

So, rather than generalizing the market, one should run a survey, accumulate market data, and target potential customers to drive better results.

2. Poor onboarding

Another common mistake made by app enthusiasts while app launch planning is overlooking the essence of an effective onboarding.

A mobile app onboarding is not simply a way of introducing the app to the users, but it is the method to create an unforgettable first impression of the app. Meaning, if you create one without following the right app onboarding practices, you might fail to touch the hearts of the target audience and encourage them to go further.

3. Launch full-fledged app

Last but not the least, launching a complete application at once is yet another mistake that can lower down the benefits of mobile presence.

When you design and launch a full-fledged app at once, it demands higher time, effort, and cost. Also, the risk of failing entertaining the right audience due to change in their needs and market trends is also high.

But, when you develop an MVP(Minimal Viable Product) instead, it not only saves the time and money associated with the development plan. But, also helps in validating your app idea, gather adequate user data, and make the best of the mobile app launch. So, look ahead to it.

A 2020 list of the best local databases for developing React Native apps.

Posted on 23/02/201921/06/2021 by gunjan

React Native has established itself as a prime choice of startups and establishments looking for a mode to enter the app domain in a cost and time-efficient manner. And with this establishment, the focus has once again shifted on the incorporation of the platform in the app development process, especially when entrepreneurs are looking to build cross-platform applications.Increasing with this full-grown demand for React Native app development is the pressure on React Native developers to develop high-performing offline first apps that can be scaled whenever required.

This, in turn, has led them to look back at the technology stack and choice of platform to build React Native applications off of. Especially the backbone of the application – React Native database.

In this article, we are going to look into names that are fit for React Native app development today and are worthy of being in the list of top React Native databases for 2020.

Let us start in a full disclosure mode, though.

Let’s highlight the factors we looked into when curating the list of the top react native databases for 2020 and for some more years to come.

Table Of Content:

Factors to Consider When Choosing React Native Databases for Your Project
The Best React Native Databases for App Development
Realm
Firebase
SQLite
PouchDB
Async Storage
Watermelon DB
Vasern
BerkeleyDB

Factors to Consider When Choosing React Native Databases for Your Project

Complexity of the Data

A key-value storage is default option for a number of server-side and client-side scripting languages. Mainly, both – values and keys – have to be serialized in strings, either by a React Native developer or through the library itself. Now although necessary, serialization can bring serious halts and issues in how your application performs, especially when it operates in a limited resources environment of smartphones.

So, ideally a react native development company chooses a database which helps you store more complex data compared to the key-value pairs like full documents and objects and comes with complex data types.

Number of Line of Codes

If you take more than 20 lines of code to write a simple CRUD operations, any advanced database should be your last choice. Because, not only an advanced DB would make coding complicated but it would even affect the database performance heavily and the overall React Native app development cost. Additionally, processing of so many code lines would slow down the application greatly.

So do not make use of a database that comes with advanced functionality if it carries the chances to lower your app’s user experience and delay the release speed.

Synching of the Offline Data

If you are developing a low complexity application which does not offer multiple-user collaboration, you can use a simple database that would work well with a simplified synchronization functionality. These app types can sync with server whenever an internet connection is established.

With collaboration being the primal feature of an application, syncing functionality demands the database to be complex. Applications like Trello, which cannot show different versions of a document or project, however, requires a react native app development company to achieve perfect synching even when the network conditions are patchy.

Handling Data Conflicts and Concurrency

The more collaboration related features you add inside your application, the more would be the possibility of data conflicts.

You should look for databases, which share the conflict-handling policies on website or the repository pages. Dig into the database documents to get aware of how they handle syncing and conflicts or look into the trade-offs that are made and the effect it would make on the application.

Memory Management

Inefficient database memory handling practices can lead to app crashes.

Compaction is one of the proactive processes of memory management in which the documents or data that are not going to be of use are deleted from the memory.

The process is like the ‘garbage collection’ part of programming, which ensures there is free memory available at any given point in time.

On the basis of these five factors we have identified the local React Native database options which would be best suited for your react native application development process.

The Best React Native Databases for App Development

Realm

The Realm database has been brought into existence for development of real-time and offline applications which run on both wearable and mobile devices. The database has proved to be equally beneficial when you create React Native mobile apps for iOS and Android. It is not built on ORM or on top of SQLite, so it comes with own database engine and does not rely on the key value stores.

This is one of the reasons why React native developers use Realm as one of the chosen local react native database options to handle large data or for the development of high performance applications.

While there are other databases for simple apps, the combination of Realm and React native is best suited for large sized apps.

Benefits of Realm and React Native:

Realm Sync – the sync services operate in the background and records, saves all the user interactions and the service requests locally.
Offline friendliness through Redux Offline – for those looking for a solution to implement offline-first architecture through Realm for React native apps, Redux offline can be a great option.
Security – It uses multiple encryption standard for every different mobile platform.

Pricing:

The Realm is a local database in react native app that is completely open-source and free. The pro version, though comes with a cost. But if you purchase the platform for creating react native apps it would cost $1750 per month.

Firebase

Firebase supports the real-time NoSQL database for the development of react native applications. It is chosen mainly for its offline data change and data synchronization practices. The reason why Firebase for Startups is such an in thing is because it is completely capable of handling the requirements of the M and C of the MVC needed for react native based applications.

Benefits of Firebase for React Native App Development

Real-time syncing of data – with Firebase for React Native, the data is synced in real time for all clients, at the same time. This becomes very important for when an app goes offline unannounced because of the unavailability of internet connection.
Low setup efforts – Firebase offers a cross-platform API which calls for minimal setup when it is being used inside an application. Additionally, you won’t need an application server for accessing the data as it can directly be accessed through a mobile phone.
Offline persistence – the combination of Firebase and React Native gives the developers an ability to develop real-time apps with offline persistence capabilities. This consists of marking users’ presence online or offline and storing timestamp whenever users get disconnected.

Pricing:

Firebase is free to upto 1GB data storage. However, it does offer a $25 for 2.5 GB data storage minimal price in addition to a pay as you use package.

SQLite

It was designed to offer local storage to mobile applications. The prominence of the word Lite in the database name implies that it is a lightweight library and that it requires minimal setup. It can also be directly integrated within the mobile application for directly accessing the database.

Benefits of SQLite for React Native based Application Development

ACID compliance – it is an ACID compliant database which implements SQL standards with some omissions. The architecture of the library is file-based and there are some tools that can handle all the data types with simplicity and ease.
Offline persistence – In order to enable the offline persistence via SQLite, developers can use a react-native-SQLite-storage plugin for managing data within application.

Pricing:

SQLite, being in the public domain is free to use and open source. However, if you want to obtain license for copyright infringement, you would have to pay one time fees of $6000.

PouchDB

PouchDB is an open source Javascript database that stores data in JSON format and enables developers to take advantage of using React Native in the easiest manner: by developing, reading, updating, querying, and deleting queries with a single JavaScript API. The database is compatible with MySQL, CouchDB, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

Benefits of PouchDB for React Native App Development

Because the PouchDB stays inside a browser, the need to perform queries over network is not there. This, as a whole, leads to faster queries’ execution.
Developers can sync data with any supported server and thus can run the applications both offline and online.

Async Storage

Async storage is a local storage system that gives developers the capability to store data locally and persist data between the app reboots. The database comes in-built with React native so it can be used without any additional deployment.

Benefit of Async Storage for React Native Apps:

It comes in handy when you have to save the data which the app need to use even after the user has closed the app or the device.

Watermelon DB

Built on SQLite, it is a high-performance reactive database for React Native which comes with the potential of scaling hundreds to thousands of records without losing its speed. The database has been well optimized for building complex applications in React Native with a focus on real-world performance.

Benefits of Watermelon DB for React Native App Development:

In addition to scaling over 100 – 10000 records, Watermelon DB also supports developers to take full advantage of using react native through:

Offline first system
Static typing with Flow
Building apps on SQLite foundation

Vasern

It is one of the most lightweight, fast, and open-source databases for app development using react native. The Vasern API is used not just for local data storage but also for cloud storage and syncing across the app’s clients. Vasern’s design and structures are inspired by various open source databases.

The Benefits of this Inspiration from Multiple Open Source Database Include:

It is open source
Developer friendly end-to-end database syncing
Focus on consistency and performance
Fast operation

BerkeleyDB

Berkeley DB is an open source, high performance backend for React Native which allows developers to handle data in multiple ways. It offers an API for multiple languages which includes iOS and Android.

It can handle data in multiple ways: a relational way like how SQLite does or through the Key/Value pair data as byte arrays and supports multiple data items for a single key.

While these are the top React native databases of the current and the speculated time there are a number of other backend tools that developers and react native app development companies use to create their application.

Blockchain Consensus Method: What You Need to Know

Posted on 22/02/201921/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Blockchain consensus is a decentralized distributed network that offers higher transparency, security, and immutability.

We all know that.

But, have you ever wondered how it is able to achieve all this?

Who governs this network and verifies every transaction, provided there is no centralized authority?

Well it’s Blockchain consensus algorithms – The core part of Blockchain development world that we will be talking about in this comprehensive guide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Definition of Blockchain Consensus Algorithm
Objectives of a Consensus Mechanism
Properties of a Good Blockchain Consensus Mechanism
Consequences of Relying Upon a Bad Consensus Protocol
Blockchain Consensus Algorithms that are Popular in the Market
1. Proof of Work (PoW)
2. Proof of Stake (PoS) and Its Variations
3. Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) and Its Derivatives
4. Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG)
5. Proof of Capacity (PoC)
6. Proof of Burn (PoB)
7. Proof of Identity (PoI)
8. Proof of Activity (PoA)
9. Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET)
10. Proof of Importance (PoI)

What is Blockchain Consensus Algorithm?

The simplest answer to what is Blockchain consensus algorithm is that it is a procedure via which all the peers of a Blockchain network reaches to a common acceptance or consensus about the real-time state of the distributed ledger.

A consensus mechanism enables the blockchain network to attain reliability and build a level of trust between different nodes, while ensuring security in the environment. This is the reason why it is one of the vital parts of every Blockchain app development guide and every dApp project in the distributed ledger environment.

These algorithms operate on the ground of different objectives, a few of which we will be covering in the next section of this article.

Objectives of Blockchain Consensus Mechanism

1. Unified Agreement

One of the prime objectives of consensus mechanisms is attaining unified agreement.

Unlike centralized systems where having a trust on the authority is necessary, users can operate even without building trustin on each other in a decentralized manner. The protocols embedded in the Distributed blockchain network ensures that the data involved in the process is true and accurate, and the status of the public ledger is up-to-date.

2. Align Economic Incentive

When it comes to building a trustless system that regulates on its own, aligning the interests of participants in the network is a must.

A blockchain consensus protocol, in this situation, offers rewards for good behavior and punish the bad actors. This way, it ensures regulating economic incentive too.

3. Fair & Equitable

Consensus mechanisms enable anyone to participate in the network and using the same basics. This way, it justifies the open-source and decentralization property of the blockchain system.

4. Prevent Double Spending

Consensus mechanisms works on the basis of certain algorithms that ensures that only those transactions are included in the public transparent ledger which are verified and valid. This solves the traditional problem of double-spending, i.e, the problem of spending a digital currency twice.

5. Fault Tolerant

Another characteristic of Consensus method is that it ensures that the blockchain is fault-tolerant, consistent, and reliable. That means, the governed system would work indefinite times even in the case of failures and threats.

Currently, there are a plethora of Blockchain consensus algorithms in the ecosystem and many more are heading to enter the marketplace. This makes it imperative for every Blockchain development company and enthusiastic Entrepreneur to be familiar with the factors that defines a good consensus protocol, and the possible effect of going with a poor one.

So, let’s begin with determining what makes a Blockchain consensus a good one.

Properties of a Good Blockchain Consensus Mechanism

1. Safety

In a good consensus mechanism, all the nodes are capable of generating results that are valid according to the rules of protocol.

2. Inclusive

A good consensus mechanism ensures that every particular node of the network participates in the process of voting.

3. Participatory

A consensus mechanism where all the nodes actively participate and contribute to updating database on Blockchain is called a Good consensus model.

4. Egalitarian

Another trait of a good mechanism is that it gives equal value and weightage to every vote received from the node.

With this attended to, let’s find out what happens when you do not consider these factors and introduce a poor consensus model to your development process.

Consequences of Choosing a Bad Consensus Protocol

1. Blockchain Forks

Choosing a poor blockchain consensus method increases the vulnerability of the chain. One such vulnerability that is faced by the blockchain enthusiasts and developers is Blockchain Forks.

Blockchain forks, in a layman language, is a situation or circumstances under which a single chain diverges into two or more. A detailed explanation about Blockchain fork and its types is available in the video embedded below.

When a Blockchain fork occurs, the application begins operating in an unpredictable manner, creating two or more diverged nodes ahead.

2. Poor Performance

When a bad consensus mechanism is considered, either the node gets malfunctioned or suffer from network partition. This delays the process of exchanging messages between nodes and increases the latency of the application, which ultimately lowers down the performance level.

3. Consensus Failure

Another effect of incorporating a bad consensus mechanism to your business model is consensus failure. In this situation, a fraction of nodes fails to participate in any process and thus, in the absence of their votes, the consensus fails to deliver accurate and desired outcomes.

With the basics of Blockchain consensus methods now covered, let’s dive deeper into the topic and look at the popular types of consensus mechanism.

Blockchain Consensus Algorithms that are Popular in the Market

1. Proof of Work (PoW)

Developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, Proof of Work is the oldest consensus mechanism used in the Blockchain domain. It is also known as mining where the participating nodes are called miners.

In this mechanism, the miners have to solve complex mathematical puzzles using comprehensive computation power. They use different forms of mining methods, such as GPU mining, CPU mining, ASIC mining, and FPGA mining. And the one that solves the problem at the earliest gets a block as a reward.

However, the process is not that easy. A puzzle can be solved only via trial and error method. Additionally, the level of complexity of the puzzle increases with the speed at which blocks are mined. So, it becomes mandatory for one to create a new block within a certain time frame to cope up with the difficulty level.

The Proof of Work mechanism is used by multiple cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, ZCash, Primecoin, Monero, and Vertcoin to name a few.

In terms of its implementations, the Proof of Work (PoW) has not only influenced the financial industry, but also healthcare, governance, management and more. It has, in fact, offered the opportunity of multichannel payments and multi-signature transaction over an address for enhancing security.

2. Proof of Stake (PoS)

Proof of Stake is the most basic and environmentally-friendly alternative of PoW consensus protocol.

In this blockchain method, the block producers are not miners, but they act like validators. They get the opportunity to create a block over everyone which saves energy and reduces the time. However, for them to become a validator, they are supposed to invest some amount of money or stake.

Also, unlike that in the case of PoW, miners are provided with a privilege to take their transaction fees in this algorithm for there is no reward system in this consensus model.

This, as a whole, encouraged brands like Ethereum to upgrade their model from PoW to PoS in their Ethereum 2.0 update. Also, it helped various Blockchain ecosystem like Dash, Peercoin, Decred, Reddcoin, and PivX to function properly.

Now, while PoS solved various issues earlier associated with PoW, there were many challenges still undusted in the market. To mitigate those challenges and deliver an enhanced blockchain environment, several variations of PoS came into existence.

The two popular variations of Proof of Stake (PoS) are DPoS and LPoS.

Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)

In the case of Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), the participants stake their coin and vote for a certain number of delegates such that the more they invest, the more weightage they receive. For example: if user A spends 10 coins for a delegate and user B invests 5 coins, A’s vote gets more weightage than that of B.

The delegates also get rewarded in the form of transaction fees or certain amount of coins.

Because of this stake-weighted voting mechanism, DPoS is one of the fastest blockchain consensus models and highly preferred as a digital democracy. Some of the real-life use cases of this blockchain consensus mechanism are Steem, EOS, and BitShares.

Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS)

LPoS is an enhanced version of PoS consensus mechanism that operates on the Waves platform.

Unlike the regular Proof-of-Stake method where each node with some amount of cryptocurrency is entitled to add the next blockchain, users can lease their balance to full nodes in this consensus algorithm. And the one that leases the bigger amount to the full node have a higher probability of generating the next block. Also, the leaser is then rewarded with a percentage of transaction fee that has been collected by the complete node.

This PoS variant is an efficient and safe option for the development of public cryptocurrencies.

3. Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance, as the name suggests, is used to deal with Byzantine fault (also called Byzantine Generals Problem) – a situation where the system’s actors have to agree on an effective strategy so as to circumvent catastrophic failure of the system, but some of them are dubious.

Learn more about the Byzantine Generals Problem through this video:-

The two variations of BFT consensus model that are prime in the Blockchain arena are PBFT and DBFT.

Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT)

PBFT is a lightweight algorithm that solves the Byzantine General’s problems by letting users confirm the messages that have been delivered to them by performing a computation to evaluate the decision about the message’s validity.

The party then announces its decision to other nodes who ultimately process a decision over it. This way, the final decision relies upon the decisions retrieved from the other nodes.

Stellar, Ripple, and Hyperledger Fabric are some of use cases of this blockchain consensus mechanism.

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (DBFT)

Introduced by NEO, the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance mechanism is similar to DPoS consensus model. Here also, the NEO token holders get the opportunity to vote for the delegates.

However, this is independent of the amount of currency they invest. Anyone who fulfills the basic requirements, i.e, a verified identity, right equipment, and 1,000 GAS, can become a delegate. One among those delegates is then chosen as speaker randomly.

The speaker creates a new block from the transaction that is waiting to be validated. Also, he sends a proposal to the voted delegates who have the responsibility to supervise all the transactions and record them on the network. These delegates have the freedom to share and analyze the proposals to check the accuracy of data and honesty of the speaker. If, then, 2/3rd of the delegates validates it, the block is added to the blockchain.

This type of Blockchain consensus protocol is also called ‘Ethereum of China’ and can be a helpful resource in building a ‘smart economy’ by digitising assets and offering smart contracts on the blockchain.

4. Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG)

Another basic yet prime blockchain consensus model that every mobile app development services company working with Blockchain must be familiar with is DAG.

In this type of Blockchain consensus protocol, every node itself prepares to become the ‘miners’. Now, when miners are eradicated and transactions are validated by users itself, the associated fee reduces to zero. It becomes easier to validate transactions between any two closest nodes, which makes the whole process lightweight, faster, and secure.

The two best examples of DAG algorithm are IOTA and Hedera Hashgraph.

Though these are the prime consensus models in the development environment, many different blockchain consensus mechanisms have slowly and gradually starting gaining momentum, such as:-

5. Proof of Capacity (PoC)

In the Proof of Capacity (PoC) mechanism, solutions for every complex mathematical puzzle is accumulated in digital storages like Hard disks. Users can use these hard disks to produce blocks, in a way that those who are fastest in evaluating the solutions get better chances for creating blocks.

The process it follows is called Plotting. The two cryptocurrencies that relies on PoC blockchain consensus protocol are Burstcoin and SpaceMint.

6. Proof of Burn (PoB)

Considered an alternate solution to PoW and PoS in terms of energy consumption, Proof of Burn (PoB) consensus model works on the principle of letting miners ‘burn’ or ‘ruin’ the virtual cryptocurrency tokens, which further provides them with a privilege to write blocks in proportion to the coins. The more coins they burn, the more are the chances of picking the new block for every coin they get.

But, in order to burn coins, they are required to send it to the address where it couldn’t be spent for verifying the block.

This is widely employed in the case of distributed consensus. And the finest example of this consensus mechanism is the Slim coin.

7. Proof of Identity (PoI)

The concept of PoI (Proof of Identity) is just like that of the authorized identity. It is a piece of cryptographic confirmation for a users’ private key that is being attached to each particular transaction. Each identified user can create and manage a block of data that can be presented to others in the network.

This blockchain consensus model ensures authenticity and integrity of the created data. And thus, is a good choice for introducing in smart cities.

8. Proof of Activity (PoA)

PoA is basically a hybrid approach designed through the convergence of PoW and PoS blockchain consensus models.

In the case of PoA mechanism, miners race to solve a cryptographic puzzle at the earliest using special hardware and electric energy, just like in PoW. However, the blocks they come across holds only the information about the identity of block winner and reward transaction. This is where the mechanism switches to PoS.

The validators (shareholders appointed to validate transactions) test and ensure the correctness of the block. If the block was checked many times, the validators activate to a complete block. This confirms that open transactions are processes and are finally integrated into the found block containers.

Besides, the block reward is divided so that validators gain shares of it.

The two real-world implementation of this mechanism are Espers and Decred coins.

9. Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET)

PoET was introduced by Intel with an intent to take over cryptographic puzzles involved in PoW mechanism by considering the fact that the CPU architecture and the quantity of mining hardware knows when and at what frequency does a miner win the block.

It is based on the idea of fairly distributing and expanding the odds for a bigger fraction of participants. And so, every participating node is asked to wait for a particular time to participate in the next mining process. The member with the shortest hold-up time is asked to offer a block.

At the same time, every node also come up with their own waiting time, after which they go into sleep mode.

So, as soon as a node gets active and a block is available, that node is considered as the ‘lucky winner’. This node can then spread the information throughout the network, while maintaining the property of decentralization and receiving the reward.

10. Proof of Importance (PoI)

Introduced by NEM, PoI is a variation of PoS protocol that considers the role of shareholders and validators for its operation. However, this is not only influenced by the size and chance of their shares; various other factors like reputation, overall balance, and no. of transactions made through any particular address also plays a role in it.

The networks based on POI consensus model are expensive to attack on and rewards users for contributing to the network’s security.

The information shared so far would have helped you in differentiating the varied Blockchain consensus protocols.

However, to simplify it for you, here’s a blockchain consensus algorithms comparison table.

How Can Mobile Apps Help Your Company’s Digital Transformation?

Posted on 20/02/201921/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Irrespective of which industry you look at, you will find entrepreneurs hustling to kickstart their digital transformation efforts which have been lying in the backdrop since several business years. While a considerably easy move when you have to alter your digital offering according to the customers’ needs, things become a little difficult when you start planning digital transformation for your business. A difficulty that mobile applications can solve.

There are two prime elements which businesses need to focus on when planning to digitally transform their workflow and workforce: adaptability and portability. And by bringing their processes and communications on mobile apps, they are able to hit both the targets in one go.

Here are some statistics looking into why enterprises need to count mobile application in, in their digital transformation strategy –

Although the above graph should be a reason enough to take mobile apps seriously, there are some other numbers as well.

57% of the digital media use comes in through apps.
On an average, any smartphone user has over 80 apps out of which they use 40 apps every month.
21% of millennials visit a mobile application 50+ times everyday.

While the statistics establish the rising growth of mobile apps, what we intend to cover in the article is the pivotal role mobile applications play in digital business transformation. To understand it from the entirety, we will first have to look into what is digital transformation and what it entails.

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation means using digital technologies for changing how a business operates, fundamentally. It offers businesses a chance to reimagine how they engage with the customers, how they create new processes, and ultimately how they deliver value.

The true capabilities of introducing digital transformation in business lies in making a company more agile, lean, and competitive. The end of the long term commitment results in several benefits.

Benefits of digital transformation for a business

Greater efficiency – leveraging new technologies for automating processes leads to greater efficiency, which in turn, lowers the workforce requirements and cost-saving processes.
Better decision making – through digitalized information, businesses can tap in the insights present in data. This, in turn, helps management make informed decisions on the basis of quality intelligence.
Greater reach – digitalization opens you to omni-channel presence which enables your customers to access your services or products from across the globe.
Intuitive customer experience – digital transformation gives you the access to use data for understanding your customers better enabling you to know their needs and delivering them a personalized experience.

Merging mobile app capabilities with digital transformation outcomes

The role of mobile applications can be introduced in all the areas which are also often the key areas of digital transformation challenges that an enterprise faces.

Technology integration
Better customer experience
Improved operations
Changed organizational structure

When you partner with a digital transformation consulting firm that holds an expertise in enterprise app development, they work around all these above-mentioned areas in addition to shaping their digital transformation roadmap around technology, process, and people.

In addition to a seamless integration with the digital transformation strategy of an enterprise, there are a number of reasons behind the growing need to adopt digital transformation across sectors. Ones that encompasses and expands beyond the reasons to invest in enterprise mobility solutions.

The multitude of reasons, cumulatively, makes mobility a prime solution offering of the US digital transformation market.

How are mobile apps playing a role in advancing businesses’ internal digital transformation efforts?

1. By utilizing AI in mobile apps

The benefits of using AI for bettering customer experience is uncontested. Through digital transformation, businesses have started using AI for developing intuitive mobile apps using technologies like natural language processing, natural language generation, speech recognition technology, chatbots, and biometrics.

AI doesn’t just help with automation of processes and with predictive, preventative analysis but also with serving customers in a way they want to be served.

2. An onset of IoT mobile apps

The time when IoT was used for displaying products and sharing information is sliding by. The use cases of mobile apps in the IoT domain is constantly expanding.

Enterprises are using IoT mobile apps to operate smart equipment in their offices and making the supply chains efficient, transparent. While still a new entrant in the enterprise sector, IoT mobile apps are finding ways to strengthen their position in the business world.

3. Making informed decisions via real-time analytics

In the current business world, access to real-time analytics can give you a strong competitive advantage. Mobile applications are a great way for businesses to collect users’ data and engage with them through marketing transformation messages designed around the analytics based on their app journey.

You can use real-time analytics to know how your teams are performing, analyze their productivity, and get a first-hand view into the problems they are facing in performing a task and how it’s impacting the overall business value.

4. Greater portability

Portability in an enterprise ecosystem enables employees to work as per their convenience. While it shows less impact in the short term, in the long run, it plays a huge role in how productive a team is.

By giving employees the space to work as per the time and location of their choice, you give them the space to boost their creativity fuel and in turn productivity. One of the results of using software that enabled our employees to work according to their terms and conveniences for us was greater business expansion ideas and an increase in overall productivity of the workforce.

Tips to consider when making mobile apps a part of the digital transformation strategy

If at this stage, you are convinced that mobile applications are a key part of digital transformation efforts, here are some tips that can help your strategies for increasing the ROI on your enterprise app –

Adopt mobile-first approach – the key factor that separates enterprise apps that are winning is how they don’t treat apps as the extension of their websites. Their software development process is strictly mobile-only. This in turn shapes their entire design, development, and testing processes.

Identifying the scope of mobility – the next tip that digital transformation consulting firms would give you is analyzing the operations and workflows for understanding which teams, departments, or functions would benefit from mobility the most. You should not start reinventing a process which works okay, you should look for areas which can be streamlined, automated, or valued through mobility.

Outsourcing digital transformation efforts – when we were preparing An Entrepreneur’s Guide on Outsourcing Digital Transformation article, we looked into several benefits of outsourcing digitalization to a digital transformation strategy consulting agency. But the prime benefit revolved around saving businesses’ efforts and time which goes into solving challenges like – absence of digital skillset, limitations of the agile transformation process, or the inability to let go of the legacy systems.

Organizational Online Security: Brand Protection

Posted on 19/02/201921/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

A Brief on ‘What is Brand Protection?’

Just like Rome was not built in a day, successful business takes days of hard work and challenges to reach a paramount height. Many enterprises that fall under Fortune companies today, took years to build their business and create an eminent brand image in the market. However, the reputation of any organization relies upon its brand and its presence on various platforms. One of the biggest platforms that majorly impacts an organization’s reputation is the ‘online platform’. A brand is a valuable asset of an organization, especially over the digital landscape. Therefore, organizations must ensure brand protection online in the same fashion as they protect their other valuable assets. Failure to do so may not only reduce the value of your brand in the market but also can completely damage the reputation of your business.

A brand is more than just a front face of an organization. It is an intangible perception in the mindsets of consumers that concerns the quality and attributes of a product or service of the business. Moreover, developing any brand requires significant time and investment, but it would take only a matter of some time for cyber threat actors to destroy a brand’s image completely online. Hence, due to the widespread usage of the internet in the business world today, it has become essential highly to protect your brand. Brand protection is basically the act of preventing the brand against counterfeiting and copyright infringement activities. It is the process of securing a company’s intellectual property (IP) and their associated brand from copyright pirates or imitators from violating trademark rights, legitimate website content, designs, patents, etc. In short, brand protection prevents the brand from being abused in the digital landscape.

Why Does Your Brand Reputation Matter Online?

Today people are bombarded with various online advertisements of ubiquitous brand names. Even though renowned brands are easily recognizable, there are several other websites or applications present online that counterfeit brand names for malicious use. There are many reasons for the importance of brand protection. For instance, imagine your potential customer searching online for a service or product of your business. But rather than coming across the legitimate website of your company, your customer happens to fall for a fake website that has impersonated the content of your website and looks highly convincing. What would be your take on this? Without your knowing, your customer would fall for it and there would be a high possibility that after finding out the illegitimacy of the fake websites, a major bad impact on your brand reputation would arise. While it is just a scenario of one customer, imagine the number of other customers who might unknowingly fall victim to such websites that are impersonating your business online!

Follow the image below to understand the problem more clearly:

From the above image, it can be clearly seen that phishers can easily trick users with fake websites using convincing content and make it look like the original one. Although this practice of brand infringing comes in various forms such as copyright piracy, social media impersonation, trademark squatting, etc., the phishing of website and application tops among them all. The malicious motive of phishers to create an impersonated website or application is to get most of the traffic redirected from official to fake platform. By doing this, they get to trick customers into submitting their personal information and later these cybercrooks misuse the provided information. In fact, recently in the two weeks of the survey, it was discovered that 94% of COVID-19 related cyberattacks were phishing attacks and it included fake websites with domain names as “Corona” or “COVID”. Also, it was reported that 51,000 Coronavirus-themed domains were registered at the beginning of 2020, between January and March!

Moreover, in February 2020, the banking sector was used as a bait in the phishing attack campaign. The cyber attackers targeted mobile banking users by sending phishing links that redirect users to fake websites impersonating well-known banks in North America. Nearly 4,000 users fell victim to the phishing attack where the cyber threat actors were able to capture their sensitive information and login credentials. In a threat research report, it was discovered that in every 20 seconds a new phishing website goes live! This means that 3 new websites per minute are specifically designed to target users to steal their personal information. These statistics are the call for organizations to understand how vulnerable their brands are online. Today, organizations without online brand protection hold higher chances of having phished pages of their legitimate website online.

Brand impersonation

No matter what kind of industry your business comes under, be it manufacturing, healthcare, food, or BFSI, phishers won’t spare you if they find your brand vulnerable online. They would not only create a fake website but would also get the power of risking your business’ brand reputation in phishing scams, including other malicious activities. This is why brand protection is the most critical aspect of every industry today.

What Types of Brand Protection Strategies Should Organizations Follow?

An organization must implement proper and adequate brand protection strategies to keep a watch on the online activities taking place against their brand. Amidst the complexity of evolving online threats, stringent monitoring, and security measures are highly recommended for every firm. Knowing how cyber threat actors can infringe your brand and forge your company’s website, it is necessary to enforce your rights to maintain the integrity of your brand. Here are the best brand protection strategies that every CISO and CIO must implement in the organization:

Stringent Brand Monitoring:

Regular and stringent brand monitoring ensures that your brand is not being negatively publicized on the internet by phishing web pages or applications. It is the best way to identify fraudulent practices taking place against your brand and maintaining the brand’s reputation in the digital landscape. With proactive brand monitoring, it becomes easier to detect website forgery and manage the domain.

Instant Take-down Tool:

Implementing brand protection software not only detects counterfeiting of websites and applications effectively but also ensures to instantly take-down phishing domains present online in the name of your brand. Only regular tracking won’t stop cybercriminals from impersonating your website but implementing an instant take-down tool will help in removing all phishing domains within a matter of seconds from the web browser.

Dark Web Monitoring:

Hackers can go beyond the regular surface web to exploit an organization’s brand reputation while creating phishing websites or applications. You may never know how your brand is being misused in the other hidden world of the web called the dark web. The dark web is an infamous part of the web where the confidentiality and legitimacy of brands is exploited. By implementing and using dark monitoring techniques, organizations can detect the copyright infringement activities taking place on the dark web.

Implementing these above-mentioned following types of brand protection strategies, organizations can secure their brand online and mitigate the chances of website forgery.

How Does the Price of Cryptocurrency Change in the Market?

Posted on 18/02/201921/06/2021 by Tushar

If we had to make a list of some of the top volatile elements of the world, the one name that would top even Mercury is Cryptocurrencies.

Ever since their launch in 2009, cryptocurrencies have found themselves being counted as one of the most fluctuating and volatile topics of the world seeking to get to the bottom of what is cryptocurrency.

There is hardly any investment enthusiast who has not tried to crack the code of why cryptocurrencies fluctuate and how to take that understanding and convert it into insights that would make the investment successful.

While the industry has managed to make itself one that is extremely difficult to gauge in terms of cryptocurrency price movement, let us try to decipher how the price of cryptocurrency changes in the market by understanding how and why the cryptocurrencies move.

But let us first start by drawing parallels between Cryptocurrencies and Fiat Money.

Cryptocurrency vs Fiat Currency: How the Two Compare Against Each Other

The biggest comparative factor that stands between the cryptocurrency vs fiat currency debate is their backing. The fiat currencies are backed by the central governments and its value are derived from the fact that central government states it has value and then the parties transacting in the value are putting their trust in them. In the case of fiat currency, central banks control the entire supply of money and thus inflation.

Cryptocurrencies, on the other side, was brought into existence to not let central government have the autonomy to regulate the funds of an individual. And because they have a fixed supply, the devaluation through inflation is next to nonexistent.

Apart from this, both cryptocurrency and fiat currency come with similar characteristics: they both can be used as the medium to exchange services and products and they can store value.

Why Does Cryptocurrency Prices Fluctuate So Much?

A single statement answer to the question of what drives cryptocurrency price movement would be – because it is still a nascent stage.

Being a market that is yet to find its set of logical use cases, cryptocurrencies are still at a very nascent stage. And the result of this newness is the high volatility in the industry, which is majorly driven by the heightened experiments that investors make to get a sense of how the prices fluctuate.

Factors That Affect The Changing Cryptocurrency Values

The factors affecting price of cryptocurrency could range from the scope of cryptocurrency application in the present day to the future uses of cryptocurrency coin and a series of other linked elements falling in the development of the cryptocurrency space. Here are some of those reasons that bring about a cryptocurrency price movement in the market

1. Utility of the Coins

Any sound Blockchain development company would tell you that a cryptocurrency should have a strong use case in order to incentivize people to hold the coins.

Let us look at Ethereum as an example to explain it further. For executing the commands and developing applications on the Ethereum blockchain, one would need to have ETH to convert into gas and represent the ‘fuel’ of Ethereum.

Thus, the more the people who execute transactions and develop applications, the more would be the demand for ETH and greater would be the prices. In short, the bigger role of cryptocurrencies, the greater would be the cryptocurrency market cap.

2. Scarcity

Scarcity denotes the finite mechanism of cryptocurrencies.

In economics, a stable supply of any item increases its value in the long term for it is assumed that the demand would also increase. This, in turn, creates a scarcity for there are only a few coins in circulation. Some brands even use a burning mechanism, which means destroying a part of the coin supply. This in turn, increases the coin value for there is lesser coin supply.

3. Assumed Value

A cryptocurrency can only be as valuable as the market deem fit and the market values it on the basis of factors which are at the center of the project development. Here are some factors that determine the value of projects –

One that constantly achieve the milestones mentioned in its whitepaper
Partnership and collaboration with credible companies
Launch of MVP or beta version
The growth of the cryptocurrency market

4. Deflation of Fiat Currency

When the price of fiat currency declines, the price of cryptocurrency would automatically go up with respect to that currency. This happens because you would be able to get more currencies with your cryptocurrencies.

5. Mass Adoption

Driven by the sentiment that the more a product is demand, the greater would be its cost, the cryptocurrency price movement goes up with greater adoption that it sees in the market. This one formula has been the core reason behind the rise in prices of Bitcoin. So the more use cases a coin will see (like in case of Bitcoin) the greater would be its overall cost.

6. Whales

As the term denotes, Whales are those Bitcoin wallets that have around $1 billion in them. They make it very difficult to put any price target on the cryptocurrency. Per Wimmer, the founder of Wimmer Financial LLP, explains: “The crypto market is dominated mainly by ten big whales or privates. They are massive in the market and take up a lot space and volume so if you take the top 10 or even 50 you will have a lot of the volume covered already. It is too easy to manipulate the market so far”.

One way these ‘whales’ fuel price manipulations is through the rinse and repeat trading technique. Under this approach, a whale carrying huge crypto holdings begins selling them at lower than the market rate, which in turn causes a panic situation where small-time traders start selling off their holdings. The whale, meanwhile, waits through the panic state till the cryptocurrency value reaches rock bottom. And just when the price is low, they swoop in and buy more cryptocurrencies.

Besides these factors, if there is one thing that is and would continue to affect the cryptocurrency price fluctuations greatly is the regulations’ set. Presently, the speed at which governments are passing out regulations are limited to a huge extent, thus keeping cryptocurrencies reaching their mass adoption potential. But the more regulations, the greater would be the adoption and thus the rise in cryptocurrency prices.

How much does it cost to create an app for event ticket booking?

Posted on 16/02/201921/06/2021 by Tushar

Revenue in the Event Tickets segment amounts to US$73,424m in 2019.
Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2019-2023) of 9.4%, resulting in a market volume of US$105,359m by 2023.
The market’s largest segment is Music Events with a market volume of US$34,410m in 2019.
In global comparison, most revenue is generated in the United States (US$30,579m in 2019).

These are the two factualities that the events planning and specifically event ticket booking market is based on.

People love going out and having fun. Not everyone can afford a weekend trip out of station.

The factualities that are single-handedly holding the uprising demand for online event ticket booking market on applications and websites.

Let’s talk about the industry in detail in this piece, specifically from the front of technicalities and the event management and ticket booking app development cost.

The statistics that we saw at the beginning of the article, powered by statista are only a peek into the high demand of the flourishing market.

In a way, the demand that the online event management applications are witnessing in the market are drawn by a few companies that have emerged as the leader of the domain.

These brands have not just helped maintain the constant demand that the sector is witnessing. They also have set a growth tangent that a number of entrepreneurs are willing to be a part of.

Now that we have peeked into the event industry on a digital capacity and the top players who have entered the space, the next thing to attend to is a lot more technical.

We are now going to look into the ground level of how ticket booking app development services work.

Starting with the must-have features list first.

The Must-Have Features of Event Management and Ticket Booking App

The feature set that entrepreneurs work around to develop event planning and ticket booking apps like Eventbrite or Ticketmaster while different on the most intricate level contains elements which are not common but also must-haves.

The starting point of all the features is that when you develop an event planning application, you don’t develop one but two versions of the application –

1. For the users

2. For the App Admin.

Let us look at both of them individually.

1. Filter

The functionality surrounds giving the users’ filter events or movie according to their varied preferences like location, timing, ratings, etc.

2. Event Listing

The screen would contain the list of all the events and movies happening or showing in a particular city or state.

3. Details of Event

For all the individual events there would be screens containing the details – the details of the event, the price of the ticket, terms and conditions, etc.

4. Rating

This is the section of the event page where users can give a rating to the event after having attended it. This is also where they can see what people are talking about the event.

5. eTicket and mTicket

Every event planning and ticket booking app gives users the functionality to enter their mobile number and email addresses where the ticket gets sent automatically after they have purchased it.

6. Download Ticket

In addition to the automatic generation of tickets in the face of SMS and emails, users are also given the ease to download the ticket for a much quicker find.

7. GPS

Using the feature users are easily able to locate the venue and also see the distance between their current location and the venue.

8. Booking History

Using this feature user will be able to view the history of their bookings from inside their application.

9. Settings

The option that is mainly present in the menu option enables the users to view and modify their profile details, check the option of whether they want to be sent a notification or not and also select their preferred ticket type.

10. Booking Screen

The ticket booking app solution should also factor in a booking screen that would help them select a seat of their choice.

1. Dashboard

The dashboard feature gives the admin the ease to get a comprehensive look of how the application is performing – the download rate, engagement count, events genre that are getting maximum hits, etc.

2. User Management

This part of the admin side of the app deals with managing the users base. It shows the business what issues users are sharing with the support team and the individual ways they are interacting with the application.

3. Shows Management

One of the most important elements that answer how much does it cost to build event management and ticket booking app is the management of shows. Through the feature, admins are able to add in events and modify their details.

4. Venue Management

The one thing your partnered mobile event app experts should specialize in creating a provision for the admins to keep the venue details updated in real-time.

5. Booking Manager

The next crucial part of ticket booking app development on the admin side is booking management. This is the feature that helps keep admin updated with the number of bookings happening on the application and the timing of them.

6. Content Management

This part of the admin app deals with the management of all the content that is live in the application – details of the event, ensuring terms and conditions are updated, etc.

7. Push Notification

This is the section wherein admins enter the notification content and schedule the timing of when it will go out.

Now that we have looked into the must-have feature set that goes into answering how much does it cost to build an event management and ticket booking app, it is time to look into the next functional element.

Toolset to Follow to Answer How to Build an Event App like Eventbrite or Similar Apps

The tool set or tech stack that we follow to offer Eventbrite like app development services include a range of robust backend tools and intuitive frontend stack. In addition to those, we add APIs that are designed to offer your users a seamless experience throughout.

All of these tool sets that we use add up to answer how do you build an event planning app.

Well now that you have looked at all the must-have features and the ways to create an app for your events using the right tech stack, it is time to get down to what we majorly came here for. To answer how much does it cost to build event management and ticket booking app.

Well, let us get down to answering how much event app builders in USA and India charge for Eventbrite like app development services.

So here’s the section that answers development cost of apps like Eventbrite and similar event planning and ticket booking apps.

How Much Does it Cost to Build an Event Management and Ticket Booking App?

The most honest answer to cost to make a mobile app like Eventbrite, which looks into both management and ticket booking is dependent on a number of factors. Just like your usual mobile app development cost estimate.

But with that said, if you are looking for an event management app that works around the exact list of features that we enlisted above, the cost range can be estimated.

Even if it’s an approximate level.

Now without beating around the bush, let’s give you a clear answer.

The event management and ticket booking app development cost range will fall somewhere in the range of USD 50K and USD 80K Considering you are creating the application in the lines of the technology and feature set that we shared.

This cost range is one that includes everything from design to development and maintenance of your mobile app.

Now that we have looked at the event planning software features and prices, it is time to delve into the ways you can earn back the invested amount.

How to Make Money On Your Event Ticket Booking App?

After spending a whopping range as the one we estimated above, it becomes a little obvious for entrepreneurs to look for ways to make the money back and then grow it.

But how do you go about it?

What are the different ways to make money off of your event booking application app?

Well, there are multiple methods that you can apply to earn back the invested money and that too at a much greater valuation. Methods that are followed by a number of event management industry’s entrepreneurs are following.

A. Commission on Ticket:

You can add an additional commission charge on the price of the ticket that your users pay – an amount that the partnered event organizers or cinema halls’ managers would have to pay.

This is one of the most stable ways to make a profit on your event booking application for organizers and hall managers are always willing to invest in ways to fill in the seats.

B. Advertisement:

You can introduce an advertising model inside the app which would allow you to earn money in return for showing videos or event ads to the customers. You can even introduce an additional mode of in-app advertising payment based on the clicks that the app gets.

C. Event Management Charges:

Although not very common but many businesses offer event management services to their partnered organizers in return of an amount. The idea behind this is that they will deploy their in-house team to manage the event for their partners. Also, they give the option to promote the event for their clients as well

D. Merchandise Distribution:

While this would require expansion on your front, but it can prove to be a great option when you have partnered with organizers who have established themselves immensely in the market.

The way it works is that the official merchandise is put in to be promoted and sold inside your application. The money that the businesses make is on the basis of the commission that they make on every sale.

So here were the four commonly used ways you can earn money at the back of all the efforts and money that your partnered event management app development company and you have put in.

And it doesn’t end here.

There are a number of other direct and indirect channels for you to make money off your application. Get in touch with our team of app builders for events & conferences to know what they are.

Well, with this you are now officially ready to enter the market of event booking software with the knowledge of how much does it cost to build an event app and the ways you can earn back the invested amount.

In 2019-2020, here are 10 ways to develop an Uber-like app.

Posted on 15/02/201921/06/2021 by Tushar

What separates Uber from the many other ride-sharing entities in the world is not the feature set.

Because the feature set that Uber entails is one that almost every other Uber clone app contains – Reason they are called Uber Clone.

No, what separates Uber from other similarly operative businesses is Experience.

An experience that the rider and driver share from the moment they take out their phone to book an Uber.

The result of this Uber app design trick that has come to be associated with the essence of how the brand operates is Brand Resonance. Something that you can experience today itself.

What you will have to do is get consciously active when it’s time to head home from work. That’s it.

See how people around you take their phone out to book a ride and no matter which platform they are on, the majority of them will say they are booking an Uber.

Isn’t this level of brand resonance something that every business aims for? Especially when they operate in a highly crowded mobile app domain?

What if I told you that the secret of how to redesign an app to get its brand resonance lies in the Uber app itself.

Well, it does.

And we will spend the next 8 Minutes in exploring exactly what Uber does in name of user experience that you too can follow to achieve every greatness that the ride-sharing mogul has. A complete disclaimer: Uber is not the only brand which gives serious design goals, Hulu app redesign also has been giving designing goals to businesses.

However, for the sake of this article, we will be concentrating on Uber app design principles.

The elements that we are going to delve into now are ones that can be integrated into your app, no matter what background your application belongs to.

Understanding the UX Principles That Work For Uber (and Can Work For Your Business too)

1. Focus on Localization

One of the main answers of how to redesign an app like Uber’s lies in Localization.

The UX designer team at Uber gives a special focus to ensure that no matter what geographical background location their drivers come from, the experience that they get is all same.

This way, the whole onboarding becomes a breeze and the app learnability curve gets down to an absolute low.

By learning how to do app localization, you too will be able to offer a uniform experience to your users, no matter where they are located. An additional thing to understand here that there is a difference in localization and globalization.

The simple formula is that you should provide for localization if your business caters to multiple ethnicities in the same country and globalization if your business extends to multiple nations.

Here are some things you should take care of:

See that the app content can be changed to a different language
Give the users the ability to message in their regional language
Hire a team of customer support who are bi-lingual.

2. Shed the Belief that Customers are King

You will find millions of articles aimed at methods to drive mobile app engagement among your paying customers. All of them focusing on how important it is for businesses to keep their ultimate customers pleased.

But it is rare to find pieces on how to keep the other stakeholders – the service providers – happy.

Uber is one of those few companies that pay equal attention to the customers who make the final payment AND the drivers who give them a comfortable ride. Uber drivers, in general, are pretty happy with the way they are treated by the agency.

Everything from remuneration to leave policy is devised keeping drivers in mind.

For you to be a brand as appreciated as Uber it is important to give equal attention and benefits to all the stakeholders and not just the customers.

It is the only thing that would help you get a clear answer to how to increase mobile app engagement.

There are multiple ways to go about it

Give your service provider the freedom to reject the service
Make it easy for your backend stakeholders to connect with your team
Make a separate profile for them and show them the ratings that they have received

3. Give Attention to the Journey

If you spent any elongated time in the Uber app, you would know that there is a lot to explore even during the ride.

You can watch the driver’s story video or order something from Uber Eats which is rightly advertised inside the application.

With elements like these, Uber proves that it is not just the interaction points that are important but during part as well.

No matter what your app idea is, until and unless it is something that requires users to be inside the application the whole time like in case of Netflix App, you will have to find ways to improve your app’s user experience after ux review to build that connection.

Some ways to work on your app engagement with the help of your mobile app UX design company can be –

Add gamification in the application
Give your users media to interact with – music, videos, etc.

4. Loved Businesses Make Empowered Customers

Gone is the time of Baby Boomers.

The present-day belongs to Millennials. And millennials don’t appreciate hand-holding.

Millennials want to feel empowered. And Uber understands this.

In fact, this understanding is what answers ‘How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to engage more users’.

Uber gives multiple queries to the end users to choose from when they face an issue. And these queries do not involve them contacting the support till a much later time – something that holds the secret of how to make your app go viral.

You can follow the route by:

Having a detailed FAQ screen
Giving answers to all things that are in customers’ hands to solve
Placing your support email in a place that is easy to approach but not the first option

5. Promote Related Services Non-Intrusively

How to design app like Uber? Be non-intrusive

Uber does an amazing job with showing dishes that you can offer through UberEats on the main screens of the application.

While you cannot order from UberEats from inside the ride-sharing application, it does a great job of sending you to the play store to install their other app.

The placement which they have set for their other service is so articulate that you will only click on it when you need to but its presence won’t bother you still.

Now, it is not necessary that you should also have another service to follow this Uber app design pattern. You can even follow this principle even when you follow the Advertisement based monetization model.

And also if you offer a subscription to the users to get access to other features of your application.

A few ways to achieve an Uber level of non-intrusiveness *pun intended* are:

Set an icon to show elements that are accessible through the premium account, without sending a pop-up to users mid-app interaction
Have a reward section inside your hamburger menu list and mention that the way to get the reward is through viewing videos
If yours is a gaming application, add the option of ‘view ads to’ or ‘install the app to’ feature after at least one successful round.

6. Uber UX design guidelines for on-demand apps: Treat Paying and Non-Paying Users Alike

A bit in continuation with our Customer is not King point, is the factoring of how you should treat your free and paid customers alike. A key to how to redesign an app like Uber’s

While there is no concept of free customers in case of Uber, the ride-sharing mogul does not discriminate between riders booking a Sedan or those taking the Pool ride.

The only difference that is between the rides is in terms of car type and money. And that’s just about it.

It is a given that the premium customers would get extra features, it might be something as simple as no-ads while viewing videos or something major as unlimited content access.

But what is uncool is keeping a big difference in terms of feature set and giving your free/less-paying customers MVP like features.

In the end, the feeling of true accomplishment should be the same between both classes of your users.

Here are a few ways you can achieve this –

Make the premium set of features an upgrade of your present features and not a completely new set
Be honest about what users would get if they choose to go Premium and let them decide
Don’t ask them to join the premium class until they have used up all the free benefits

7. Constant Feedback – an Integral Part of the Uber UX Strategy

The whole of the Uber driver app redesign was based on feedback.

The brand’s team of UX designers didn’t take a single step without getting a consensus of all the drivers in their community. An act that defines the meaning of community.

When you constantly ask for feedback and not for ratings, the attitude of your users change. Which then has a direct impact on your user retention rate.

Because, at the end of the day, users want to feel that they are a part of your business. A valued part.

Uber makes them feel this way by asking for constant feedback. You can make them feel this way by designing apps that drive user engagement and retention –

Asking your app’s improvement area on the email they have shared
Adding ‘Send Feedback’ option in the menu list
Give them the option to leave feedback when they rate your app low

8. Be Only a Few Clicks Away

Being approachable is Uber’s forte.

The company has made it easy for the stakeholders to approach the customer care both on email and telephone.

Users only follow a few steps to reach out to the customer support team – it’s that easy.

As an app entrepreneur, you too should make it extremely easy for your users to get in touch with you.

All the customer touch points should be visibly present everywhere inside the application – inside the menu list, in the support section, in the settings page and so on. Basically, everywhere your customers might get stuck.

9. Impose Accountability on All Your Stakeholders

What makes Uber special is the fact that the brand breaks the social stigma.

There is a social stigma that drivers are seen as inferior beings and they should be treated as such. But Uber changes the mindset.

Uber enables the drivers to reject a ride if the user rating is low. Thus giving a reason for the riders to behave well with the drivers.

This level of accountability is what you should aim to introduce in your app. Give ways to your customers to connect with the service personnel with respect and integrity.

A few ways with which you can achieve this are –

By sharing stories about the service people – telling customers their aspirations
Prompting customers to tip them or say good things about them
By making it known in the Disclaimer section that the attitude your customers will keep will have an impact on their ratings.

10. Give Security its Fair Share of Focus

Although it was a journey full of scandals for Uber to understand the importance of security, but the brand has come to know of its importance.

And it is not just in the backend. Security has found its place in a number of places inside the application. Uber even gives the option to the users to share their rides with people whom they know – thus seeping security deeper in their life.

A few ways you can give the same secure feeling to the users include –

A badge of security on the app home screen
Multiple authentication options

So here were the ten Uber UX design principles that you should copy in your app, today.

Need help from Product design and development company? Fill the form below and our team of UI/UX experts will get in touch with you.

The UX Deliverables Timeless List

Posted on 14/02/201921/06/2021 by Tushar

The efforts of the UI/UX team can be translated and measured into a whole list of UX deliverables. The deliverables which are then passed on to the stakeholders, both internal and external to get an idea of what the app’s users would experience.

Being the leading mobile app design agency that has helped brands like Dominos redesign their offering, we often get asked questions in the line of –

What are the deliverables that you provide at the end of the project?
Will the development team be able to convert the design in code and then a functioning app, with the help of the deliverable?

To address all these questions, we have prepared a brief description of the different UX deliverables to help you understand what to expect as an outcome when you partner with a mobile app design agency.

The end result of our UX Design process which is what is shown in the illustration below, are all the deliverables that we are going to read in the section that follows

An Entire List of UX Deliverables

The deliverables that present themselves as an outcome of the Mobile app UX effort is a family that can be divided into four subsets –

User Research

Market Research

Design-Centric

Testing Deliverables

User Research Deliverables

This part of the UX deliverables is concerned with looking into the users’ side of the story – who they are, what they prefer in an application, etc.

User Persona

The first deliverable that app UX designers work towards is the creation of a user persona. It is about drawing out an image of your probable user – who are they, where do they live, what do they like, what irritates them, what is their pain point, how do you prefer solving it, etc.

The study gives designers and the business as a whole the idea of whom their software design process is intended for – above all, whom they are not developing the app for.

The next part of user research specific UX deliverable is knowing how the user would move inside the application, something that helps draw out a customer journey map.

It is a visual representation to show the actions that a user would take to reach the end goal in an app.

Being in a visual form, the deliverable makes it easy to identify the steps needed to redesign or improve the app, thus setting the ground for understanding what counts as the UX for perfect user flow.

Experience Map

This deliverable here is basically a diagram that looks into the many steps that are taken by the users when they engage with the application. It enables the designers to frame users’ needs and motivation in every step of the journey and create a design solution which is appropriate for every step in the customer journey map.

Use Cases

It is the written description of how the software design process would be and how your users would perform tasks inside the application. It showcases the users’ point of view and how the app would behave when their request is responded. Every use case inside the app is shown as the sequence of easy steps, starting with users’ goal and finishing when their goal is achieved.

Storyboard

Inspired from movie industry, this part of the list of UX deliverables deal with creating an outline of users’ action and the motive behind them. The idea behind this stage is to not just show what is the environment that makes users behave the way they do inside the application.

Market Research

This part of the UX deliverable deals with the market part of the elements that are known to help businesses get an idea of how their app market is moving.

Competitive UX Analysis

Designers while researching for the app design will be able to analyze your competitors’ apps – helping you understand the industry standard and find out an opportunity for innovating in a specific segment.

The next part in the list of UX deliverables is specific to the core designing part of the application.

Design Centered UX Deliverable

Moodboards

It is that UX design method where a collection of references and images are found which evolve as the product’s visual guide. It allows the designers to showcase the proposed look for the app to the stakeholders before they put any time, efforts, and money behind it.

Sketches

One of the quickest ways to visualize an idea – Sketching is what is next in the list of design deliverable. Made using nothing but a pen and paper, it is used to validate the concept of products and the approach related to design taken by both users and the team members.

Wireframe

It is the UX design method cum visual guide which showcases the structure of the page along with its key elements and hierarchy. They have proven to be very useful when the designers have to discuss ideas with stakeholders and team members.

Prototype

This part of the UX design process is the simulated version of a semi-final app which is also used for testing purposes before the software is launched. The aim of the prototyping process and answer to What is the role of prototyping in user experience design? is to test the products before developers are involved to move on to the MVP stage.

When it comes to creating them, there are multiple prototyping tools that you can make use of to share a clickable version of your design with the stakeholders, all of which can turn out to be pretty useful when it comes to conducting an A/B test for UX designing.

Once all the market, user, and design related UX deliverables are worked upon, the time comes to look at the deliverables which would help test the design in the market.

Testing Deliverables

Quantitative Survey

The need to prepare questionnaires and surveys that help measure user satisfaction and collect app feedback is what comes under the KRA of app UX designers

Usability Report

These reports rightly summarize the findings related to usability in a descriptive and precise way helping teams identify issues and then work for its solution.

Analysis Report

There is a huge number of insights that analytics tools like Google Analytics fetch and show how users are interacting with the application.

Sitemap

The last UX deliverable, which is also an important part of the UI design methodology that acts as the outcome of the designing efforts is Sitemap. It mainly shows the navigation and hierarchy structure of the application – which helps in giving out the information on how content will get organized in sections or screens.

Which UX Deliverable is For Which Audience?

The stakeholders of your design are not just your users but also your teammates and the company’s board and the clients. So assuming that all the UX deliverables you just read would be intended to explain the concept to any one stakeholder category would be a grave misassumption. Your chosen deliverable will have to vary from your audience to audience.

Let us look at all the different combinations that you should work around.

A. In-house management

When it comes to communicating with the managers or internal stakeholders, the UX deliverables which are mostly deemed ideal is the prototype model and the analytics report.

The prototypes give the stakeholders an experience which is a very close reflection of the final app and thus prove to be a solid tool for showcasing what the users would experience.

On the other hand, usability and analytics reports are also found to be very useful when sharing information with the management, for they present clear evidence of the UX recommendation made.

B. Clients and External Stakeholders

When you have to share the UX designs with the external stakeholders like your client, interactive prototypes and mockups are usually the most opted for deliverables.

The idea behind this is when you work with people who have limited knowledge of UX design and ux review, it is always better to give them deliverables that would place the entire focus on visual design. Doing this will help them see the app’s functionality, its information architecture, and the interaction design which is integrated inside the realistic mockups.

C. Engineers and Mobile App Developers

When we talk about communication the UX idea with the developers, interactive prototypes are once again chosen as the right option. But there are other deliverables as well which come across as ideal – site map, style guide, and flowchart.

Because of their detailed focus on interaction specifics and structural details, these deliverables prove to be very useful when it comes to the actual implementation process.

With this, we have seen everything there is to know about not just the types of UX deliverables to expect as an outcome from the UX/UI designing agency but also which deliverable is best for which stakeholder.

Now that you have the necessary deliverable related information, it is time to get started with working on your own app’s deliverables.