Challenges that Mobile App Developers face nowadays

Mobile users are increasing rapidly, and that’s why software developers are on the pressure to develop responsive applications to handle the increasing demand. Smartphone users are always drawn to digital solutions that enable them to be more updated, informed, and well-connected. Lovers of technology have been using different mobile apps for close to a decade now. This implies that they are well versed in what mobile app developers present to them.

Choosing the right application to develop

Every developer needs to clearly define its relevant target market segment to ensure good market penetration. Apps for business, games, education, and entertainment are some of the most popular.

One of the first top challenges faced by mobile app developers is deciding the type of app to develop.

Not all mobile devices are compatible with all software. Besides, the mobile app industry is so crowded and competitive, making it more challenging to create an app that will be noticed. If developers resort to cross-platform development, they can enlarge their consumer base to iOS, Android, and Windows. Here are questions to start with that can help developers know what app to develop:

• How much will the app cost?
• What is the function of the app?
• Is it an original idea and will stand out?
• Which market and size will the app target?
• Is it an app other developers can imitate easily?
• Is the app easily discoverable and downloadable?

Getting the app funded

You’ll need to attract funding from an investor or a financial institution. Based on the nature of an application, a fully developed app may cost between $3,000 and $150,000. If a developer raises the required funds, they would have to ensure that the amount is enough to finance the app development from start to finish. Finding a source to fund your custom mobile app development is not a walk in a park.

Battery life Vs app performance

To ascertain the result and fix it, developers usually run the check twice. They also tweak the features to make sure battery performance is excellent with the app. Building a bug-free app with high-performance and without any excess power consumption is a challenge.

To counter the problem, developers test battery performance to see how well their app consumes power. Developers also struggle with ensuring that their new app won’t be subject to overheating. Those still using previous versions of device OS, still have battery life issues. They release a Beta version and examine the pace at which the app drains the device to make sure it’s not too quick.

How long a mobile device battery will last when an app is being used deserves a lot of attention and sincerity during development. No app user wants an app that consumes their device battery power beyond normal.

Simplicity and user-friendliness

Users generally appreciate the performance of apps based on how simple and user-friendly they are compared to others. If an app’s mobile design is heavily complex, mobile app fanatics will most often disregard it. Their only solution would be to switch to an alternative app with an easy-to-use design.

Developers have noticed it, and their response is to build simply designed apps that offer an impressive user-friendly experience. This will include customizable features as well as functionalities. So, creating an app with so much focus on simplicity and user-friendliness is very challenging because of the need for competitively advanced functions.

The security of the app

Developers have to deal with how they shall always ensure regular and timely fixes and updates whenever they get user feedback on issues. It is an essential aspect that helps the app company to retain user confidence. Security is a very vital component of the success of all apps and comes at a high cost too, which is challenging. Thinking about how secure an app is, remains a big deal for users and therefore developers too.

Hackers, viruses, malware, software, and hardware fragmentations are some of the most challenging security issues every application must have a real solution for. No one trusts an application vulnerable to security threats. In any mobile app development plan, data and information security are considered pivotal. This aspect always poses a big challenge because hackers are also working day and night to try to break into every digital security barrier.

Volatility and limited lifespan

Like most modern-day technology products, mobile apps evolve pretty quickly. The reason is that user behavior in the mobile app industry doesn’t favor sticking to one product when the latest alternatives are accessible.

This implies that the lifecycle of any web app ideas you create is limited to when another developer creates a superior alternative. Most digital solutions can be everyone’s favorite, but once another latest and more advanced bigger player emerges and gets more appreciation from users, the other one becomes obsolete and forgotten so soon.

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Top 10 best free Blogging Platforms in 2020

A free blogging platform is the perfect way to get yourself set up with your own corner of the web without too much effort. Everyone's focused on social media these days, sure, but there's something about the permanence of a blog.

1. Medium

It's a place to blog if you want your words to be taken seriously, and if you favour a polished, streamlined experience. But if you're big on customisation and control, look elsewhere. Medium is the brainchild of Twitter's founders, and appears to be their attempt to do for 'longreads' what they once did for microblogging. The result is a socially-oriented place that emphasises writing, although within an extremely locked-down set-up.

2. Blogger

You'd hope with a name like 'Blogger' that Blogger would be a decent free blogging service. Fortunately, it is. Sign in with your Google ID, and you can have a blog up and running in seconds, which can then be customised with new themes.

3. Tumblr

Tumblr also has a strong social undercurrent, via a following model combined with notes and favourites. Tumblr feels a bit like a halfway house between WordPress and Twitter. It offers more scope than the latter, but tends to favour rather more succinct output than the former.

4. WordPress

Alternatively, most web hosts provide WordPress as a free single-click install, and more information on what's possible there can be found at WordPress.org. If the folks over at WordPress are to be believed (and they seem suitably trustworthy sorts), the platform now 'powers' almost a third of the internet. It's easy to see why: on WordPress.com, you can rapidly create an entirely free blog, with a reasonable amount of customisation.

5. Jekyll

Making your blog with Jekyll avoids the need to work with technicalities such as databases, upgrades and so on, so there are fewer things to go wrong, and you can build something completely from scratch. Jekyll takes your raw text files, which may be written in markdown, if you like, and turns them into a robust static site to host wherever you want.

6. Contentful

It calls this an 'API-first' approach, so your content is stored on its servers and you can call it into any design or platform as you like. Nobody knows how they're going to want to display their articles a few years down the line, so Contentful provides a way to separate your content from your design.

7. Hubpages

Hubpages is a network of sites that enable bloggers (or Hubbers) to share their story with a vast open community. It has an Arts and Design section, which will be a happy home for creative bloggers, and Hubpages majors on its ability to connect its users with a wide audience and earn revenue from ads and affiliates.

8. Yola

Getting started is easy, with dozens of customisable templates to choose from, a straightforward site builder for putting everything together, flexible layouts and drag-and-drop widgets. Yola limits you a bit if you have grand plans for your blog – you can only have two sites and three web pages with its free plan – but the upside is a healthy 1GB of storage and bandwidth, and your site won't be littered with unsightly third-party ads.

9. Joomla

The Joomla community is much smaller than WordPress community, so there are fewer themes and add-ons than for WordPress. Powerful and flexible, Joomla can be used to build any kind of website or blog, with design features including the ability to create your own template and render HTML for objects/arrays of data. Open source software content management system Joomla is one of the best free blogging platforms around.

10. Wix

You get 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth with a free Wix account. If you want to get started with your free blog, Wix is well worth a look. This drag-and-drop website builder offers over 500 designer-made templates as well as plenty of additional features and apps, along with top-grade hosting so you can rest assured your site will be there when you need it.

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Understanding Cloud Computing

In the past few years, cloud computing has taken the world by storm. In fact, it is expected that by 2021, cloud computing is going to replace traditional data centers almost completely. While the concept of the cloud is no news to anybody who owns a smartphone, cloud computing may need a few clarifications.

What is cloud computing?

A cloud-based approach can be implemented much faster and can be accessed from anywhere, provided the user has access to the Internet. Broadly speaking, cloud computing is defined as the concept of storing and accessing services and programs through the internet, instead of private servers or personal hard drives.

The on-premises approach involves the software product being designed to work with the client’s in-house infrastructure. The traditional method has proven to be inefficient in some situations, being more complicated to upgrade, more demanding and time-consuming. At its core, cloud computing is nothing but a software business model, which has proven to be more efficient than the on-premises model.

Key aspects

As opposed to traditional software methods where the client has full ownership of the infrastructure needed to support the applications when it comes to cloud computing, the infrastructure is owned by a third party and the client, also known as end-user, is paying for the services they need and use on a daily basis.

• Resource pooling: This was often compared to people living in the same apartment complex. Cloud computing allows multiple clients to share the same infrastructure while keeping their privacy and the security of their information.
• Broad network access: all services provided through cloud computing can be accessed through any platform, be it a desktop, a smartphone or a tablet.
• Measured service: This way, end-users can pay exclusively for the resources they used, making it extremely cost-effective. Resources are measured constantly, allowing both users and service providers to keep a record of usage.

Cloud computing services

While there are multiple cloud computing services available for users, they can all be categorized into three main service models:

SaaS (Software as a service)

SaaS application development has gained popularity because it cuts down on operational and maintenance costs. The most common uses of SaaS are emails and CRM (customer relationship management) software. Perhaps the most popular form of cloud computing, SaaS means delivering applications as a service, though the Internet, making it available directly from the browsers, with no need for software installation.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service)

The services are highly scannable and far more cost-effective than traditional storage options, offering a large variety of services, from databases to big data analytics and machine learning incorporation. By using IaaS services, clients can rent servers, networking and storage blocks on a pay-per-use basis.

PaaS (Platform as a service)

Businesses turn to PaaS services, so that their developers have access to the tools they need, without affecting the in-house infrastructure. PaaS is more oriented towards developers, providing a set of services they can use, such as shared tools, database management, as well as operating systems, which help speed up the development and launch of applications.

Benefits

Businesses have tremendous benefits when using cloud computing, depending on the nature of their business:

• Cost-effectiveness: By benefiting from the pay-as-you-go model, businesses will only pay for the services they use, eliminating monetary waste. When migrating to the cloud, businesses may find themselves making quite a significant investment, but the ROI is as significant.
• Reliability: Plus, there will be far fewer service interruptions and downtime issues. An in-house infrastructure is fairly less reliable than the cloud, where service providers offer backup options far more efficient and reliable.
• Mobility: the cloud allows end-users to access the software or data at any time and from any platform, making it easier for employees in a company to communicate with each other and share information whenever needed.

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