Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has launched the Huawei Y9 (2019) smartphone in India. This phone has been launched at an event organized in Delhi. The price of this smartphone, priced at Rs 15,990 with a dual selfie camera. It has been launched in two color variants Midnight Black and Safer Blue.
This phone is being sold exclusively on Amazon. Apart from this, the phone buyer will get the Rokkersports Bluetooth headphone free of $ 2,990. Huawei Y9 (2019) specification
Huawei Y9 (2019) features a 6.5 inch full view display. This phone is equipped with a 3D Wrinkle design. The phone uses the Kirin 710 processor which comes with 7.0 with AI power. Talking about the camera, it has a dual-rear camera setup, with primary sensor 12 megapixels and second to 2 megapixels. Apart from this, a dual camera is also provided in the front, in which there is a sensor of 2 megapikles.
Apart from this, the dual cameras are also available in the front, in
which one sensor is 16 megapixels and the other is 2 megapixels. It is said that both cameras are equipped with AI.
The phone has been launched with 3GB and 4GB RAM variants and has 64GB
of inbuilt storage, which can be increased to 256 GB by memory card. Apart from this, it has a battery of 4000mAh for power.
In Huawei Y9 (2019) you will also find a fingerprint sensor equipped
with 4.0 identification technology and it is claimed that this
smartphone can be unlocked in 0.3 seconds. There is also fingerprint navigation in upgraded fingerprint technology. Which allows the user to manage all the notifications using one key.
Samsung has launched the world's first-ever 4-rear camera smartphone Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018). The phone was launched at an event held in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
The biggest feature of the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) is the launch of
the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) 4 rear camera and has become the world's
first smartphone with 4-rear camera. Let's tell you that the Galaxy A7 was launched with three rear cameras.
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) specification
This phone has the Android Orio 8.1 and 6.3-inch Full HD Plus Super Amoled display with dual SIM support. Apart from this, the phone will have Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, up to 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
Samsung Galaxy A9 is a 4-rear camera in 2019 with a 24-megapixel main
lens, the second lens is a 10-megapixel telephoto with 2x optical zoom. The third lens is a 8-megapixel ultra wide angle lens and a fourth 5-megapixel lens. The four cameras are from the top down from the same line. The front has a 24-megapixel camera.
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) has a 3800 mAh battery that supports fast charging. There will be a fingerprint sensor in the phone's power button.
Price of Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
The price of Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) is 599 euros, which is approximately Rs 51,300. However, there is still no explanation about how much Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) will be worth in India. This phone will be available in Bubblegum Pink, Caver Black and Lemonade Blue Color Variants.
Information Technology major HCL Technologies (HCL) on Friday
announced a fully configurable, flexible 5G and mobile backhaul solution
for Xilinx all programmable Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices.
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices offer the perfect single-chip
platform for both cost-sensitive and high-performance applications using
industry-standard tools.
These devices provide 64-bit processor scalability while combining
real-time control with soft and hard engines for graphics, video,
waveform, and packet processing.
It comes with multiple processor variants, a wide range of
connectivity options and programmable logic capacity, DSP architectural
blocks, and on-chip memory.
The solution targets 5G access and mobile backhaul markets and will
enable telecom OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to meet the
stringent requirements of next-generation networks.
Integrated backhaul and access are among the key technologies needed
to enable ambitious 5G demands. The increase in capacity of the 5G radio
network needs to be supported by faster and wider bandwidth backhaul
that incorporates Gigabit Ethernet, optical fiber, or microwave wired
and wireless point-to-point links.
Xilinx is the leading silicon provider for wireless infrastructure
for digital radio front end, connectivity, baseband acceleration,
fronthaul and backhaul modem and packet processing functions. The
programmability and scalability of Xilinx platforms make them an ideal
fit for these applications, particularly for radio, where a variety of
form factors, frequencies, bandwidths and radio access technologies need
to be supported.
HCL’s solutions provide a range of benefits including enhanced radio
performance, increased flexibility, and portability—along with other
enhanced features. Together, the HCL and Xilinx integrated solution will
provide a highly configurable backhaul modem on an advanced technology
node (covering the spectrum of RF bands and E-bands, to V-bands) that
will result in an overall reduction in bill-of-material (BOM) cost and a
significant reduction in power dissipation compared to current
solutions.
Additionally, the plug and play architecture allows for custom IP to be embedded in the modem.
“Telecommunications OEMs need enhanced capabilities for 5G, which is
expected to power the growth of the mobile broadband, massive IoT, and
mission-critical applications,” HCL Technologies Corporate Vice
President Sukamal Banerjee said.
Technology Generation Every generation is going strong, but India is going back to the 4G LTE issue. This
disclosure has been disclosed by the UK-based open signal, and a new
list has been announced for the availability and speed of the Forge LTE
network in other international markets including India. India's situation has worsened this time compared to the November 2017 report in December last year. The report says that 4G availability in the country has been slow and India has fallen behind from Sweden and Taiwan. According
to the report, according to the availability of 4G signal, India is at
14th position 14th, last year India was in the eleventh position in this
matter. The last year's incremental increase was the impact of geo chronology. With the 4G speed, compared to the 4G speed list, India came down. India stood at the bottom of the list of 77 countries with 6.13 Mbps in 4G LTE Speed. Singapore is at number one with 46.66 Mbps speed in this category. According to the report many countries with a large population have missed out on the list. Both India and Indonesia's 4G download speeds have been recorded below 10 mbps. Looking at Singles, tariff plans in Singapore and South Korea have been expensive this time. When the US and Russia Federation also appeared behind the 4G speed issue. Last year, the download speed of Reliance Jio Network was lower than Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Honor 9 Lite 20 has been made available for sale on Flipkart since February. This is the seventh cell of the smartphone launched in January. If you use Axis Bank's credit or debit card for payment, then customers are given a discount of 5%. Also, customers who purchase handsets from Flipkart for the first time will be given a 10% discount on Fashion Products.
This phone has been launched with two different variants of 3GB / 32GB internal storage and 4GB / 64GB internal storage. Its internal storage can be expanded up to 256 GB. The value of the variant with 3 GB RAM is Rs. 10,999 and a 4 GB RAM variant of Rs. 14,999. The company has launched these two variants in Midnight Black, Blue and Glacier gray color variants.
This smartphone offers you 5.65 inch full HD display and the phone has an Octark Kirin 659 processor. The Honore 9 Lite has a dual rear and dual-front camera. Its rear camera has 13 megapixel dual rear camera with a megapixel +2 megapixel camera with PDAF autofocus and LED flash. Its dual front camera also has 13 megapixels. It also has 3000 mAh battery. The company has claimed that it will give talk time up to 20 hours and standby time of up to 24 hours.
Instagram recently launched many updates like Last Sean, Type, Hashtag Follow. The company has launched a feature that proves useful for business profiles. Users with business profiles can now schedule their posas on Instagram, however no information has been given from the company about when this feature will be launched for the common users.
Instagram explains this feature through its blog. However, you will still be able to schedule a post through a third-party social media manager site.
You can also post a schedule by Facebook Marketing Partners. The company has also said that this feature will also be launched for General Profile in the beginning of 2019.
It is worth mentioning that recently, Instagram launched the new feature called Type Mode. Through this feature, Instagram users can also type text in Stories like WhatsApp users.
Smartphone and feature phone maker company, Mobiels has launched the world's fastest growing mobile network and the largest data network company Reliance Geo together with 4G Volte smartphones in just Rs 699. According to the statement given by the company, Reliance Jio is offering cash back of 2200 rupees under the Geo Football offer on all 4G smartphones of Govi Mobiles. There is also a Brand Revolution TNT 3 from the five brands under this cashback offer, which will be the world's first touch and type smartphone hybrid model for users moving from feature phones to smartphones.
Pankaj Anand, CEO of Jivi Mobiles, said that as a company in Jivi, we believe in the principle of providing opportunities for giving new technology to the asteroids.
He said that considering the 4G technology in rural areas and the growing demand for smartphones, we need to understand the changing needs of our customers and produce the product accordingly. Anand said that RIL is a suitable step towards achieving our goal of delivering communication equipment to Deva till partnership with Geo. With the cashback given by Reliance Geo, we will be able to make our customers available at 4G Volte smartphones at an effective price of Rs 699.
Imagine if you could capitalize on the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies and the power of virtual reality in one investment. Would that be something you’d be interested in? I sure am. That’s why I am buying up all the Voxels I can get, which is currently trading at $.23. Believe me when I say that Voxel will be the OFFICIAL currency of virtual reality. This cryptocurrency has been created by Voxelus, a leading virtual reality world builder and marketplace, AND it’s compatible with Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. As of today, Voxelus is the world’s largest source of virtual reality content, with more than 500 unique assets, 50 working games, and 7,000 additional pieces of content through their partnerships. I can confidently say that in 2020 Voxels could be trading at $1.50 a coin because the team is lead by legendary entrepreneur Halsey Minor,
have strategic partnerships, an upcoming release of their first
standalone game, and several other drivers of growth that I will outline
below.
Basics:
Voxelus is a platform that allows anyone, anywhere to create and play VR games without needing to write a single line of code
The platform consists of the Voxelus Creator, a 3D design app for PC and Mac; Voxelus Viewer, which works on desktop PCs, Oculus Rift, and Samsung VR devices; Voxelus Marketplace, which allows creators to sell and user to buy VR content and games for the Voxelus ecosystem
The only form of payment within this ecosystem is Voxel, the in-game cryptocurrency
Ticker: VOX Price: $.23 Ranking by Market Cap: 70 Market Capitalization: $47,036,640 Circulating Supply: 210,000,000 VOX Max Supply: 210,000,000 VOX Average Trading Volume: $8,316,144 Consensus: PoW
Team:
The Voxels team is lead by no other legendary entrepreneur than Halsey Minor. Mr. Minor was the founder of CNET, co-founder of Google Voice, Salesforce.com, OpenDNS, Uphold, and Rhapsody.
The development team is led by Argentinean software industry veteran Martin Repetto.
Mr. Repetto previously created, Atmosphir, a video game creation tool
that was the runner up on the TechCrunch 50 in 2008. He was also the CEO
of Minor Studios.
The business development and marketing teams are based in Los Angeles. The development and operations teams are located in Rosario, close to Buenos Aires, Argentina
As of 2016, the Voxels team has 10 individuals working on this project full time
Drivers of Growth:
Simply put, the team. Mr. Minor is arguably the most impressive and seasoned leader I have ever come across in the cryptocurrency space. He will squeeze every ounce of value out of this project
The Voxels team is on the verge of launching their first standalone game,
Xtraction Royale. The game will be compatible with Oculus Rift, HTC
Vive, and Steam VR. These are all large VR platforms with a good portion
of the total VR market share
Voxels has engaged in a recent partnership with Flatpyramid.com, which will give Voxels users access to 7,000 digital assets like animated characters and environments
The team established the Voxel Foundation
to help expand Voxel’s ecosystem to a variety of network games, VR
platforms, and various entertainment outlets. The team has dedicated $5 Million Voxel towards this effort, with the option to add an additional $10 million
The team is currently undergoing a rebranding effort that should help boost their market exposure and increase public awareness. They have also alluded to introducing a newly formed partnership once the rebranding has been completed
Voxel has multi-platform wallets for MAC, PC, and Linux
It has been estimated that the market value for VR in 2020 will exceed $40 billion and Voxels will be at the epicenter of that explosive growth. Current market value for VR is about $6 billion
Headwinds:
Both
VR and cryptocurrency are very young, evolving types of technology, so
there will be lots of growing pains as a result. However, this team is
lead by arguably the best leader which will help them navigate through
the turbulent times
Since regulation will always trail innovation, the digital currency space can be subject to new regulations in the future
As
of now, Voxels’s growth has happened purely through word of mouth.
There has currently been no marketing dollars spent on this project
Summary:
Since this project is so unique
we will have to do a little math and make some assumptions to get our
price target. The current market value for VR is about $6 billion and
the price of Voxels is:
As I previously mentioned, it is estimated that the market value for VR will reach $40 billion by 2020. So, if you apply the same growth rate to Voxel’s current price, it would be valued at about $1.50 a coin in
2020. However, this is assuming that Voxels market share stays the same
into 2020, but I will promise you it will only grow from here.
I’ve
switched back-and-forth between iPhone and Android in the past and I’ve
always felt the iPhone edged out any Android phone, but not any more.
I switched to a Galaxy S8 months ago and I don’t see myself going back to iPhone, even the X. The iPhone is dead to me. Here’s why.
iPhones don’t age well
On
my iPhone 6+, most apps crash on first open. Apps freeze for 5–10
seconds whenever launched or switched to. I lose 3–4%/min on my battery
and Apple Support insists that my battery is perfectly healthy. I went
through “apps using significant power” and uninstalled most of them.
On
top of all of this, it was recently discovered that Apple is
intentionally degrading the user experience based on your battery
quality. Yes, they’re releasing a software update to give transparency
to users and reducing the cost of a battery replacement (which is on a
months-long backlog — more on Apple support later), but it feels like
planned obsolescence and they’re just trying to avoid losing a
class-action lawsuit.
The
video app is busted. Many times I record a video and all I see is a
zero-second-long black frame saved. I’ve given up on taking photos
because the camera app takes forever to start up and has seconds of
shutter lag.
This
phone worked just fine three years ago. The minimal benefits of the
previous iOS updates are far outweighed by the horrible user experience
it’s created.
I have the original Moto X (from 2013) and it still runs buttery smooth.
AppleCare and Apple support are incompetent
This isn’t related to my previous iPhone, but it illustrates the lack of quality of Apple.
Recently,
a bottom rubber foot on my MacBook came off. It was still under
AppleCare so I took it into the store, my first time to the Apple Genius
Bar. They told me that AppleCare wouldn’t cover the replacement because
it was cosmetic. How the rubber foot isn’t part of the laptops utility is astonishing. When you typed on it, it would wobble. To fix it, the entirebottom chassis had to be replaced, which would cost $250.
I
told the Apple rep that I was surprised and I’d call Apple Care later. I
asked him to file a ticket for tracking and he replied that he had.
Later,
I called Apple Care and they assured me that the replacement was
covered. They also said they didn’t find a ticket in the system from the
Apple rep that I had spoken to earlier. They told me I would have to go
back into the store to get a rep to look at the physical laptop again
and verify the foot was missing. Frustrated, I asked them to call the
original store I had visited to confirm. They agreed and and eventually
confirmed it.
Before
this, I had asked them to send the part to an Apple store that was
closer to my house and not the original Apple store that I had visited. A
week later, I received a call confirming the part had arrived at the store furthest away.
Surprised, I asked them to send it to the other store (which was ~15
miles away). They said that they’d have to send it back to the warehouse
and then the other store would have to order the part.
A
week later, the other store finally receives the part. I visited the
store, they took my laptop, and I waited a couple of hours to replace
the bottom. The rep came back with the laptop telling me that it’s
ready. I inspected the bottom and the rubber foot was still missing.
Confused, he sent the laptop back. The rep returned five minutes later
with a new chassis, fixing the rubber foot. So not only had they some
how not repaired the bottom originally, in reality it only takes a tech
five minutes to repair it, not hours.
The cascading incompetence at Apple support was mind blowing.
Related
to the battery issue above, if you try to replace your battery you’re
facing months-long delays. On top of that, you have to mail your phone
in or take it into a store, with both options facing the risk that
you’re without a phone for as much as a week. Who can really live
without their phone that long? Is this incompetence or intentionally
meant to drive people away from replacing their batteries?
iPhone’s hardware design feels dated
Even
the iPhone X feels dated compared to the S8. This is much more of a
personal opinion, but the S8 feels damn sexy in your hand. When I watch a
movie, the true blacks of the OLED screen just blend in to the body. It
feels like a bezel-less phone from a science fiction movie. Whereas the
iPhone’s design still separates the screen from the chassis with
bezels.
More
objectively, even thought it was released after the S8, the screen on
the iPhone X isn’t as good. It’s lower resolution and it has more bezel.
Here
are the specs: Galaxy S8–5.8-inch Super AMOLED, 2960 x 1440 pixels (570
ppi pixel density), 1000 nits, 83.6% screen-to-body ratio vs iPhone
X — 5.8-inch 18.5:9 True Tone OLED, 2436 x 1125 pixels (458 ppi), 625
nits, 82.9%, screen-to-body ratio.
Plus,
iPhone X has that notch. As a developer I abhor it. As a user it’s
annoying to have wasted space when, for example, I’m browsing the web.
Price
Not
only is S8 a better phone than iPhone X, it’s significantly cheaper. I
just bought my S8 and a 256GB SD card for less than $700. The equivalent
iPhone X would have cost me $1,252, plus another $10 for a dongle to
use my headphones. That’s nearly the price of two S8s.
Android and S8 has better features
Where to start? Here’s an incomplete list in no particular order.
LastPass
auto-fill. Sure, this is an app feature, but it’s impossible to build
on iPhone. This felt like a game changer when I switched, shaving a ton
of time setting up my phone.
NFC for two-factor auth. You can use a Yubikey on an iPhone but it requires a dongle (like everything else these days).
SD card slot. I ran out of space on my previous iPhone and had no way to deal with it other than buy a new phone or delete apps.
Trusted locations for unlock. It’s a huge time saver to not have to constantly unlock my phone at home or in the office.
Samsung Pay works on any credit card reader, Apple Pay doesn’t, which hamstrings its use case massively.
The notifications are better. Interactions are great, they actually work, and the overall design is better.
I don’t have to buy a dongle for my headphones.
Androids
unlocking mechanisms are generally faster than iPhone X’s facial
recognition. And there are more options. And the fingerprint scanner
feels better on the back.
More battery saving options.
GearVR.
Built-in call spam detection. Call spam has been ramping up in the United States so this is very welcome.
A
free hardware button. Yes, that side hardware button on the S8 that’s
dedicated to Bixby sucks at first. However, with BXActions, you can make
it do whatever you want, like triggering the flashlight. Now I wish
every phone had an extra hardware button.
Google
backs up your data. I’m thrilled not to have to use iTunes any more
(which deserves a completely different post) or be forced to pay for
iCloud.
An option to keep the phone on if you’re looking at it.
iOS is suffocating
On
Android, you can install apps that automatically update your wallpaper,
change your entire app launcher (I’m using Evie) including a dedicated
search bar, start Google Now by swiping up, handle your SMS. Also custom
phone dialers, Facebook Messenger chat heads, Samsung Edge
(surprisingly I like this feature). You can even download apps outside
of the app store.
Did
I mention that Google Photos actually always syncs in the background?
Versus the iPhone, where you need to open it every 10 minutes to make
sure it’s syncing. Custom keyboards are reliable, whereas on iOS they
still crash randomly.
iOS doesn’t offer any of this because they restrict what developers can build.
Even
if you eliminate all of the “power user” features above, I think the
S8, and Android broadly, is a better choice for the average user.
Siri is still next to useless
Google
is just hands down better at search, including things that you would
imagine Siri would be good at by now, like dictation. I think everyone
already agrees with this point, so moving on.
Apple doesn’t feel like Apple
Apple
has generally been a fast-follow copier, perfecting features that that
have already been released. Lately they’ve just felt like a slow
follower that has the same or fewer features.
For example, Samsung devices have had wireless charging for a while now and Apple is just catching up with the same feature set. The charging speed is the same.
Samsung
is also experimenting with fascinating things like VR and DeX. Are they
perfect? No. But I also don’t believe that Apple is capable of swooping
in and perfecting them now.
Apple’s
“new and innovative features” aren’t impressive either. Animoji could
be done with a standard camera, but they’re locked the the iPhone X.
It’s pure marketing to sell more Xs. I’ve had force touch for years now
and have never used it. And the list goes on.
When it comes to building mobile apps, app makers tend to overcomplicate their ideas and strategies.
The
app winds up becoming a clunky Swiss Army knife — one that offers too
many features, is difficult to learn and use, and costly to maintain.
But
when we think about successful apps, it’s often the simplest ones that
come to mind — apps like Dropbox and Evernote that address a pressing
pain point, yet are effortlessly easy to use.
As Steve Jobs famously said:
“Simple
can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking
clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you
get there, you can move mountains.”
Below, I’ll share about tried-and-tested strategies that I’ve used to help startups and entrepreneurs at Appster come up with simple app ideas effectively.
1. Train yourself to become an idea machine:
How do you get better at coming up with app ideas?
The answer, according to entrepreneur, best-selling author and podcaster James Altucher is to become an idea machine.
In
Altucher’s words, it’s akin to being a superhero, where you’re never at
a loss for ideas — regardless of whichever situation you’re in or
whatever questions you’re thrown at.
If
this sounds unrealistic, it isn’t — but it does require plenty of
practice. Here’s a quick roundup of Altucher’s tips for becoming an idea
machine:
How many ideas should you come up with each time?
10.
Why 10 ideas?
Most
of us wouldn’t have much difficulty with conceiving a handful of ideas,
even if it’s centered around topics that we don’t usually ponder about.
But after the fifth idea is just about when it gets challenging — where we find ourselves at a loss for ideas.
The point of the exercise is to break through this stage in order to build up your idea muscle.
How can you assess your ideas?
You can’t, and evaluating your app ideas isn’t the priority at this point in time. Says Altucher:
“You
have to try multiple ideas and see which ones gets the excitement of
customers, employees, and you can see that people are legitimately using
it and excited by it.”
What are topics you can start brainstorming on?
The key here is to have fun with the ideation process, so don’t limit yourself to business-related ideas.
It
helps to think out of the box, and conceptualize ideas around topics
like “10 ridiculous mobile apps I would want”, “10 ways an app can solve
a problem that I’m facing”, “10 mobile apps that I can reinvent” or “10
mobile apps I would improve”.
How long does it take to become an “idea machine”?
Altucher suggests doing this daily for at least six months.
2. Hone your problem-solving skills
How can app makers go about finding the right idea for their startup?
Daniel Kempe, founder of hand-curated content suggestion platform Quuu elaborates in a Forbes article:
“It’s
not about the search for ideas, it’s identifying problems or gaps with
existing products or services. Ideas are tough to come by, at least good
ones are. But problems, they’re everywhere! Almost every product or
service you use on a daily basis was created to solve a problem.”
Here four strategies you can use to hone your problem-solving abilities:
2.1. Review problems you face on a day-to-day basis
The first place to start is by identifying problems that you encounter on a day-to-day basis.
It
can be difficult to come up with ideas in a brainstorming session, so
start by observing any moments of frustration you have throughout the
day — whether it’s an interruption or delay that occurred at work or a
problem that crops up in your personal life.
At
first glance, these issues may appear to be minute or mundane — but
resolving a personal problem has been the launching point for apps like
Dropbox and Summly.
The
idea for Dropbox arose out of co-founder Drew Houston’s frustration
with the absence of a seamless storage solution for his files, while
Summly was conceived when founder Nick D’Aloisio found it inefficient to
click through Google search results while preparing for his exams.
2.2. Pay attention to everyday conversations
Everyday conversations and seemingly banal complains can become a source of inspiration.
Try
carving out a block of time — say five days to a week — where you pay
close attention to and note down problems that crop up in conversations
all around you. “I wish this could be better”, “I hate this…”, “Why does
this keep happening…” are some phrases you’d want to prick your ears up
for.
2.3. Tap on social media
Social
media platforms are a great way to find out about larger scale problems
encountered by individuals and communities all around the world.
There
are different ways of conducting a search via social media: you may
create hashtags around the problems you’ve picked up on through the
above methods, or come up with a list of hashtags around topics or
problems that you’re concerned about.
2.4. Go to where your potential users are at
Blog
articles, blog comments, forums, discussion boards, Quora — apart from
being a useful source of information, these sites are also a great way
to interact with potential users or target audience.
Take
note of common problems and issues that are being discussed, and don’t
hesitate to post comments or start a new thread around any questions you
might have — this could spark off conversations that will shed light on
problems that you weren’t previously aware of.
3. Keep a close watch on your competitors
A
competitive analysis should be carried out at several stages over the
lifetime of a mobile app: during the ideation process, before
significant changes are made to your app or business strategy, and at
regular intervals to keep up with changes in the competitive landscape.
Below, I’ll be focusing on competitive analysis conducted at the ideation stage.
Pay attention to user feedback and comments
User
feedback and comments are a treasure trove of information. Start poring
through reviews and ratings left by users of your competitors’
apps — from app store reviews to social media comments and forum
posts — to obtain a clearer idea of features and strategies that
resonate with your potential users.
If
you’re in the midst of sounding out your ideas with friends and family
or testing your MVP, keep an eye out for remarks like “I’ve tried out
the ABC app, but didn’t like a particular feature they had” or “This
feature reminds me of XYZ app” — you’ll know that these are competitors
to keep track of.
Dig deep into your competitors’ strategies
By
delving deep into the strategies implemented by your competitors, you
can then break these down into simpler elements, and reverse engineer
the processes to replicate their success.
The
objective here isn’t to imitate what your competitors are doing, but to
combine their strategies with your existing ideas to create concepts
and features that work for your app.
Here’s a checklist of questions to help you get started on your research process:
Which strategies have produced the best results for your competitors?
What were unsuccessful strategies implemented?
How can you improve on strategies your competitors implemented?
How can you adapt these strategies to make it work for your mobile app?
Don’t forget about indirect competitors
While
your indirect competitors may not have launched a mobile app, they are
still targeting a similar set of users — so it helps to pay attention to
how they’re attracting your potential users with their products or
services.
Here are key questions to guide you in your analysis of indirect competitors:
In what areas are their products or services similar to yours?
What are successful strategies and ideas that have helped them target and retain their users?
How can these strategies be improved on?
Can you adapt these ideas or concepts to make it work for your mobile app?
4. Stay on top of the latest trends
The ever-changing mobile landscape is a challenging space to navigate.
App makers are up against the intense competition — a 2017 Statista study
indicated that Android users were able to choose between 2.8 million
apps, while the number of apps on the App Store totaled at 2.2 million.
In addition, the emergence of trends like augmented reality, virtual reality and chatbots are revolutionizing the way users engage with mobile apps.
Strategies
and features that are effective now may easily be rendered irrelevant
in a matter of months. Generating ideas that resonate with today’s users
requires a constant pursuit of keeping up with the trends.
Here are a few tools and websites you can use to stay on top of the latest developments:
App Annie:
App market data and insights company producing consumer and competitive
information on downloads, revenue, ratings, usage, search terms and
more. App Annie’s Insights Blog and webinars are also great resources for app makers.
Priori Data: App Store intelligence company providing market data and competitive benchmarking information on the global app economy.
Forrester Research: Market research firm providing advice on existing and potential impacts of technology.
Trendwatching: Independent trend firm scanning the global market for promising consumer trends and insights.
Springwise:
Provides information on innovation intelligence. Springwise sources for
the latest innovation, startup, and business ideas from around the
world.
Trends and mobile apps outside of your industry
Too
often, startups and businesses fall into the trap of living within the
industry bubble. In adopting a myopic focus on industry trends,
benchmarking and best practices, companies eventually wind up providing
run-of-the-mill experiences that fail to stand out.
This
can be prevented by studying and introducing ideas and concepts from
industries, businesses or mobile apps that differ from your own.
Here are key takeaways you can gain from studying mobile apps across different industries:
Zappos:
Zappos is known for delivering stellar customer experiences, and its
mobile app is no different. App makers can learn about providing
top-notch experiences through studying features like Ask Zappos, a
feature that helps users find any product with just a tap of their
camera, and Handover, which enables users to shop seamlessly between
their Apple devices.
JetBlue:
Pesky push notifications are a bane for smartphone users. Learn from
JetBlue’s timely and thoughtful communication, which includes providing
flight check-in reminders 24 hours before a flight is scheduled to take
off, as well as notifications to let passengers review flight
entertainment options in advance.
Venmo:
App makers can learn from the convenience and efficiency that mobile
payment apps like Venmo provides — from the way user information is
saved for easy access, to how a complex process like sending out money
or making purchases can be completed in a few quick taps.
India
has a population of 1.3B with 750M unique mobile users. Approx 350M are
feature phone users with another 400M being smartphone users. With the
data growth over the last 18–24 months we’ve seen the data users grow
tremendously to 200M users. However, a massive gap still remains. Why
aren’t all 400M users using data?
We
asked ourselves. Why are the rest of the people not in this 200 million
bracket? There are still many challenges that exist in the country to
bring the remaining 1B online.
On top of that the entire experience of someone coming online is a very tedious 15–20 step process:
It
was clear that to bring the next billion people online we would have to
do something radically new. Could we take this 15–20 step funnel and
collapse it into a few steps?
We think we’ve done it. Today we’re announcing a brand new product called ‘Total, built by hike’.
‘Total,
built by hike’ is a refined version of Android targeted at simplifying
the smartphone and internet experience for the next billion people. ‘Total’
lets users access essential services such as Messaging, News, Recharge
and more even without an active data connection and paves the way for
them to get on Data by providing packs at as low as Re. 1.
It has 4 key elements to it that combined together make the end to end experience extremely seamless:
1. News, Cricket, Recharge, Wallet & More < 1MB
2. Single Login for All Services
3. Works Without Data
4. Total Data Packs Starting at Re 1. Over 50% Cheaper than Market.
Total Data Pack Pricing vs Market
Over
the last 6 months, Hike has worked extremely closely with telecom
partners to enable the USSD Technology & Data Upsell on Total.
Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel & BSNL are the telecom partners which cover
over 42% of the telecom market.
Intex and Karbonn
are the first Smartphone partners that will carry ‘Total, built by
Hike’. Total will be available on 4 models across Intex & Karbonn.
The devices with Total are:
Intex Aqua Lions N1
Intex Aqua Lions T1
Intex Aqua Lions T1-Lite and
Karbonn A40 Indian.
The devices are scheduled to hit the shelves starting 1st March 2018 starting at a price point of Rs 3,000.
Closing Thoughts
We’re excited by the potential of Total, built by hike
to impact millions of people in India as well as other developing
nations. ‘Total, built by hike’ propels digital inclusion and furthers
the national agenda of financial inclusion as well as socio-economic
progress. It works well for service providers as it gives them access to
millions of people who can use their services offline.
To be one of the first to experience Total, built by Hike,
Mark Zuckerberg on a tractor in Blanchardville, Wis., in April
Mark
Zuckerberg informed us a few days ago that he would be rewiring our
information landscape. Posts from friends and family move up in the
rankings; news and media fall off. He made a few oblique references as
to why and assured us in an insipid 533-word blog post that the changes would mean that the 50 minutes users spend on the platform each day would be “time well spent.”
Anyone
who has been even partially sentient over the past few years has
noticed how we have become shrouded in our filter bubbles, secure like
never before in the complacency of our convictions. This certainty in
the righteousness of our own point of view makes us regard a neighbor
with a yard sign the way a Capulet regards a Montague. It seems to me
that we suddenly hate each other a whole lot more than we ever did
before.
So
it should come as no surprise that the place where filter bubbles are
the thickest, where the self-satisfied certitude that comes from
unchecked power is iron-clad, is at the headquarters of Facebook itself. This was brought home to me when I read an interview with the head of Facebook’s News Feed product, Adam Mosseri, by the savvy tech blogger Ben Thompson.
Mosseri,
who has been at Facebook for nearly a decade (eons in Facebook
chronos), was eager to explain to an interviewer why this change was
rational, normal, good for humanity (the company counts one quarter of
humanity as monthly active users). The interview was quite a get for
Thompson, and he published it in near-verbatim format. In so doing, he
laid bare just how removed from the rest of humanity Facebook management
is, and how blissfully ignorant they are about the consequences of
their actions.
I
refined my outrage into five points Mosseri makes (down from 15
initially) that illustrate the degree to which Facebook executives live
in a world of their own making where the rest of us are expected to
comply.
#1 The changes are for our collective “well-being”
The
most glaring assumption that jumps out of this interview (as well as
official Facebook communiques) is that we are all asked to swallow
Facebook’s incredibly vague gauge of “well-being,” or “meaningful social
interaction.” In fact, these terms are sometimes tossed about
interchangeably. (Zuckerberg uses “well-being” three times in his post.)
Excerpt from interview on Stratechery.com.
In
the excerpt above, Mosseri implies that Facebook is doing this for our
own mental health, and that it’s based on extensive research.
Interactions = good. Passively consuming content = bad.
Aside
from the disturbingly paternalistic assumptions therein, can I ask how
Facebook defines well-being? And, since they have done such extensive
research, can they share it with the public transparently? Mosseri’s
answer: “We’ll certainly consider it…” (Facebook has a blog post that
discusses a few of its conclusions here.)
To
me, this strikes at the heart of the peril posed by Facebook: The
platform has probably more power than any company has ever wielded over
information (and perhaps even our well-being). And yet it engages in
zero public debate about the changes it makes. It simply rolls them out.
We are asked to buy Facebook’s version of meaningful, as in this
Mosseri statement: “So if you and I had a back and forth conversation on
a post from a Page, that would actually count as a meaningful social
interaction.” Hence, it would get a higher rank in the algorithm, etc.
Is
an exchange “meaningful”? I can think of plenty of Facebook exchanges
that merely raised my blood pressure. These are sweeping categories.
Facebook has placed itself as the imperious custodian of our well-being,
but tells us nothing about how it cares for us. And do they care if it
has side effects? Just ask independent journalists in Bolivia
what happens when Facebook starts using them as guinea pigs in an
experiment about their well-being: Their audience drops, the
government’s ability to control public opinion increases. And when they
complain to Facebook, they get an automated reply email.
#2 “This change actually has very little to do with false news…”
Mosseri
actually said that. But that’s not as stunning as what came next: “I
will say that the amount of attention on false news specifically and a
number of other integrity issues, certainly caught us off guard in a number of ways and it’s certainly been something we’ve tried to respond responsibly [to].”
Let’s
unpack this. For more than a year, Facebook has been under scrutiny
because there has been a flood of outright fake and misleading “news”
coursing through its pipes. As studies
have shown, people share fake news on Facebook, often more than the
real stuff. The Pope endorsed Donald Trump? That spreads on Facebook.
People get pissed. When the senior leadership at Facebook says this
caught them “off guard” I have to pick my jaw up off the floor. Inside
the Facebook HQ, the filter bubble is thicker than a security blanket.
They really believe that all they are doing is connecting people and
fostering “meaningful interactions.” They are not playing Russian
roulette with our democratic institutions or selling adds to people who
want to burn Jews.
And
this filter bubble is so impenetrable that they believe one minute that
they have the power to manipulate our mood (they do) and are shocked
the next when they get blowback for allowing people to manipulate our
politics.
Then
the last part: it’s “something we’ve tried to respond responsibly
[to].” No, Facebook, you have not. The only responsible response after
these revelations would be a massive overhaul of your system and a
transparent conversation with the public and Congress about how your
algorithm works. You have produced the information equivalent of a
massive e.coli contamination. Instead, your response has been an
under-funded effort to infuse fact-checking into the News Feed, and a 41% uptick in what you pay your lobbyists.
#3 “Does the scrutiny accelerate the process? It’s really hard to say.”
Yes,
it does and no, it’s not. This statement is in response to Thompson’s
question about the criticism Facebook has received in the past year over
its distribution of fake and misleading news and whether that has
prompted the company to assume greater responsibility over what its
users see. Mosseri’s full response is here:
Excerpt from interview on Stratechery.com
Here’s
another counterfactual: Do you think the revelations about years of
sexual abuse, assault and downright rape in the workplace by powerful
men (Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, etc., etc.) have
accelerated the conversation about women’s rights and equity in the
workplace? I mean, it’s possible.
So
let’s assume that Facebook continues to post $4.7 billion in net income
each quarter and its stock rises another 40% percent over the next 12
months (market cap at this writing is $517 billion), and there is no
public criticism about fake news, targeting voters, and so forth. Absent
any external pressure, do you think that Zuckerberg and the rest of the
boys in senior management (and Sheryl Sandberg) take it upon themselves
to head to a sweat lodge to probe their souls about whether the way
they are redrawing the map of our information economy is good for
humanity? Sure, that’s likely.
#4 Does Facebook have any responsibility toward media companies?
It’s a great question posed by Thompson. And the answer confirms my worst fears.
Mosseri’s
initial response is anodyne enough: “I think we have a number of
responsibilities.” News stories are important to people, he says. But
then, just as quickly, he contorts himself into a pretzel to explain why
it’s also not the case: “…news is a minority of the media content on
Facebook, and media is a minority of the overall content in the News
Feed.” Ergo, it’s not that big of a responsibility.
Two
major fallacies here. The first: If there is less quantity, then there
is less importance. My five-year-old niece’s recent birthday was a big
hit on Facebook, as I imagine many other birthdays were that day. So,
that’s more important to the Facebook community (read: humanity) than
the SNAFU alert sent to all the residents of Hawaii warning of an
imminent missile attack? The numbers tell us it is.
The
second: Reporting, writing and editing a news story of any import takes
time, resources and skill. Hence, there will be many fewer of them than
there are birthday posts. So if it’s a numbers game, news loses. This
is what I’d call self-serving math.
#5 “… there’s understandably going to be a lot of anxiety…”
Here’s some more math: The Pew Research Center
reports that 45% of Americans get news from Facebook, a percentage that
has been increasing sharply. Why? Because that’s the product Facebook
created. It designed itself for that.
As
the algorithm tweaks fall into place, and news publishers stand by as
their audience plummets, Mosseri concedes: “there’s understandably going
to be a lot of anxiety … it’s always a set of trade offs, we do the
best we can with the information at hand.” (You possess ALL the
information, by the way.) These are not words of someone who sees the
news media as partners but as pawns. A post is a post is a post.
But
that’s not how this company has operated. Since it burst on the scene,
not all that many years ago, it has dangled carrot after carrot in front
of news media. Do your headlines this way and you’ll be rewarded. Hey,
pivot to video! No, try our Instant Articles product (or else). And
then, like Lucy yanking the football, it’s gone. Facebook has moved on.
The
heart of the issue is that Facebook wields immense power and is subject
to minimal accountability. Changes come when Zuckerberg decrees them.
Yes, it’s a publicly traded company. Yes, Congress shall make no law …
But the power is real and the accountability is not.
And
with all this heft, and all this research, Facebook seems to understand
so little about the news it serves up. Take for example this notion
that commenting or reacting to news is what makes news valuable. Yes,
that’s true some of the time, but it’s also false some of the time.
Sometimes we read the news to be informed. To catch up. To be better
citizens. Because I didn’t share or like an article about climate change
doesn’t mean that I don’t care about climate change.
To
treat the value of news purely through the lens of whether people have
shared it or had “meaningful interactions” with other members of the
Facebook “community” misses the value entirely.
And
Dear Facebook, sharing and commenting on every piece of news is
actually part of the problem: It is what has thrust news and journalism
into this hyper-partisan shithole we’re in right now.
I
only have one wish for Zuckerberg. In a few short years, he will be the
father of a girl in her tweens. I can only assume that she, too, might
become obsessed with the Instagram posts of her friends, whether they
liked her pic, or that she might discover that everyone is hanging out
without her. And it might drive her to tears. And then her wise parents
will decide (unilaterally) that they need to limit her screen time to 30
minutes. It’s for her own well-being, after all.
Hardik Gandhi is Master of Computer science,blogger,developer,SEO provider,Motivator and writes a Gujarati and Programming books and Advicer of career and all type of guidance.
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