The digital technology has drastically transformed the way travel industry functions. From the traditional paperwork methods to ticket booking and using atlas maps and travel magazines. Today, the travel industry receive thousands of bookings in a day compared to a hundred inquiries coupled with a few bookings a decade ago.
The travel businesses have undergone a metamorphosis, transforming from the conventional selling through travel agents to online selling. This opens up a multitude of options for the tech-savvy customers. Numerous channels such as mobile and the web are integrated on a single platform to provide a seamless user experience regardless of the channel used. Every channel is designed and developed keeping in mind the requirements of the device user. The requirements commonly include ticket booking and mapping options, flight and hotel room deals, local restaurant search and more. Although these features are mandatory while developing custom iPhone applications, there are some other features worth taking a note of. So, check out the following list of must-have features for developing a smart travel mobile app. 10 Features You Should Consider While Developing Travel Mobile Apps: 1. Geolocation: The geolocation services play an important role in helping customers find nearby hotels, café, and other places of their interest. So, geolocation tracking should be taken as a first turn while creating a trip mobile app. 2. Translator: A traveler exploring a foreign land will more likely feel the need of having a language translator. With the translator feature, the traveler can carry a personal interpreter right in his pocket. Certainly, some languages will not be perfectly translated but it can help two foreigners understand each other. 3. Itinerary Builder: Generating itinerary is another crucial feature a travel mobile app must have. It helps the user to arrange routes by accessing the data of current location. In a matter of seconds, they will have a route with tips for the most rational distance covering. 4. Weather Forecasting: The weather check feature will help your users plan their flights in a timely manner. Also, they can dress as per the weather conditions making themselves feel comfortable throughout the trip. 5. World Clock Time Convertor: Different time zones of different countries bring a general perplexity with being oriented in time. This is why a world time converting feature can benefit a traveler during the journey. 6. Currency Convertor: The international travel apps must implement this particular feature. It will help travelers stay aware of exchange rates without having to spend time looking for it in the middle of any station. 7. Local Emergency Services: Emergencies can arise anytime anywhere. If your app has the local emergency phone numbers listed, it will empower the traveler to minimize the consequences. 8. Taxi: While on a trip, a user can anytime encounter a need of using a cab service. This makes including a “find and book a taxi” feature to your mobile app really important. 9. Social Media Integration: If all the popular social media channels are integrated into your app, it will be a great bonus. People love to share their trip experiences and photos with their family and friends online. Including this feature will also give your business a boost. 10. Trip Reviews and Ratings: This feature allow travelers to document their adventures and rate your services. The positive reviews and ratings help in driving more customers for your business. What other features do you think are important while developing a travel mobile app? Please list them in the comments below. No wonder, smartphones are no longer a luxury item today. It has become an essential part of our daily lifestyle since Blackberry introduced Simon, the first smartphone ever. But what surprises the most is the way banking sector has transformed. Those days when we use to stand in long queues to deposit our paychecks when ATMs and direct deposits were rare are long gone. Now we have better days with mobile banking where you instantly pay off your bills, deposit paychecks, transfer funds to your family and friends with a tap. The outburst of smartphones and tablets has made us capable of carrying out these activities without having to visit a bank. The mobile banking apps have given its customers a quicker and complete access to manage their bank accounts online. Even though the banking apps offer a lot of facilities, security remains a major concern. This is why financial institutions opt for custom mobile app development to integrate extra authentication layers and safeguard its data from cyber criminals. According to Juniper Research, “Mobile banking users are expected to exceed 1.75 billion by 2019, representing 32% of the global adult population. This shows that the mobile banking technology is attracting a higher consumer demand and will change the way people do banking. Let us take a look at some important benefits that mobile banking applications offer:
Offers Convenience: Banking apps give you the ability to do most of the banking transactions on the go. Whether you want to send or receive money, check account balance and statement, or make online payments, you can control everything through the banking app. All this can happen without visiting a bank branch, ultimately making your financial life easier. Provides Instant Control: The big banks have been offering mobile banking services since 2007. They offer robust features in their apps which permit you to fully control the bank account at any point of time. For instance, PNC’s mobile banking app offers a virtual wallet to track your spending. In addition, it also offers a savings engine to help you set your savings aside automatically. Basically, you have a quick and easy access to all the financial information you require right at your fingertips. Security is no more a Problem: All the major banks and financial institutions use encryption or advanced authentication techniques that secure and protect the private and financial information as well as our identity. A few mobile banking applications provide a guarantee for securing our data while making our mobile banking experience worry-free. Saves Resources: Usage of mobile banking applications help to save some additional resources. You can save your money and time you spent in traveling to the bank branches and getting into long queues for hours. Banking apps allow you to set up recurring bill payments so you never have to worry about paying a late fee for an overdue bill. Above all, banks offer the mobile banking services at no cost. These are the biggest benefits of using a mobile banking app. Not only have these apps made banking faster but also accessible anytime anywhere. So, install a mobile banking app on your smartphone right away and take full charge of your financial life. Are you using any mobile banking application? What other benefits do you think it provides? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. We are at a stage where technology has also taken over traditional activities such as writing with a pen and paper. Many individuals write and publish articles directly from their tablets and phones. With large screen smartphones and smarter tablets, there hasn't been any better time than now to begin writing. Whether you are a seasoned author or an amateur blogger, we want you to check out this list of the best writing applications for iOS and/or Android users. You'll be sure to thank us later for this list! 1. WordPress: Most of the bloggers will be familiar with this one. And if you are just starting out, you should know about WordPress. It is a very popular, free, blogging app that can host a blog for you or on your own domain. The app is like an extension of the universal WordPress program. So, essentially it has the same functionality that comes with desktop applications. So, you can add, edit, post and remove entries. You can also insert images, categories, tags etc. WordPress app is great for those who need a quick and easy way to publish their written work online. 2. iA Writer: The iA Writer is one of the most well-known writing apps available. With a user friendly interface, it looks and works really well across both Android and iOS. If you want to build an app that works on both these major platforms, you would have to opt for cross platform mobile development. You may even consider opting for PhoneGap development that will facilitate the process of making apps that work on different platforms.
Coming back to the iA Writer, while the Android version may seem a little dated, it is still a good writing application for the platform. The iOS app comes with additional features like syntax highlighting – so you can see the highlighted verbs, nouns, conjunctions etc. in a document. Moreover, the iOS app provides complete support for iOS 9 features such as split screen. The Android app seems more like a beta at the moment but irrespective of the OS you are on, iA Writer is one of the top choices. 3. Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus: As a writer, I can not imagine my life without a dictionary or thesaurus. We need both these tools – delivered via the web or a mobile application. App stores are flooded with apps that promise to help you write well or spell better. However, a good writer knows that Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus can surpass majority of similar apps. Fast speed, a good user interface (UI), and a distinct way of searching for words are some of the attributes of this app. Apart from simply displaying a word you have searched for, the app will also show you words related to the one you looked for. It is highly recommended for anyone who needs a thesaurus and dictionary on the move. 4. JotterPad: A cool app for Android users, it has tons of features that make it a must have. With a Material Design look and export options to Doc or PDF, JotterPad is free to download. If you need more, the Creative Mode can be purchased. However, due to the smooth UI, even the free app works just fine on Android. So, are you ready to try the apps above and get some serious writing done? Let us know about your experience with installing and using writing apps. The mobile world is evolving. When you plan to develop an app for your business, an inevitable question that arises is, would it be cross-platform or native? Needless to say, if you plan to develop your app for just one platform, then native is the way to go. However, the real challenge is making an app for all three major platforms - iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile. You need multiple teams of skilled developers, specializing in each platform to address all your requirements. This is complex and time-consuming, and slows down your development process. One way to cut down this complexity is opting for hybrid mobile app frameworks such as Appcelerator Titanium, Apache Cordova, and Kendo Mobile. However, the easiest and most efficient way to build mobile apps is using Xamarin development environment and C#. Want to know how it can simplify, and speed up your development process? Let's take a look. Why Xamarin? Xamarin is an app development environment that lets you build, test, and monitor applications. Codes can be shared across multiple platforms, and the C# codebase can be used for Android, iOS and even Windows Mobile without any problems. You don’t have to change the coding, APIs, and data structures for each platform. Xamarin uses a single development language for iOS, Windows, Android, and any other compatible OS. Here are some of the features that make Xamarin suitable for custom mobile application development:
How It Works Building the Application: Xamarin automatically converts application code written in C#, into relevant code for iOS, Windows, or Android OS.
Maintaining Apps: Real-time monitoring is feasible with Xamarin and you can get detailed reporting for your apps with a single line of code. Xamarin Insights and mobile app selection enables you to see an overview of crashes and check the warnings and issues generated by your app. You will have access to a full report of affected devices for your complete reference. These features make Xamarin one of the best mobile app development platforms available today. Do your developers use Xamarin? What features do they like the most? Please share your views about the app development platform in the comments below, and thanks for reading! Sharing your location with friends in the past required calling or texting to let them know where you are, with the directions. Nowadays, thanks to our smartphones, location sharing has become very easy. Not only has it become a fun way to share your activities with your peers, location sharing apps have also made it possible for businesses to market their products and services by allowing their customers to geo-tag their location. This also helps them collect location-based content that helps in further refining their marketing campaigns. Astounding Growth in Location-Based Apps A number of companies are investing in development of mobile app based on location to grow their business. The number of location-based applications available on each mobile platform is also increasing considerably. Almost every social application tracks their users’ locations and gives them advertising and marketing content relevant to that place. Location is now embedded in everything an online user does. A trend report by GlobalWebIndex suggests that Tinder, a location-based dating app, is predicted to reach a $1 billion valuation this year, while Momo, a Chinese location-based social app has reported a record-breaking $3 million valuation this year. What originally started as a way to focus on active check-ins, rewards, and recognition has now become one of the strongest tools in location discovery and user interaction. The user’s location has become more than just a wandering blue dot on the street map; it now means the places we go, the people we meet, and the relationships we develop. The Evolution of Location-Based Social Apps The most recent development in location-based apps is the ability to navigate the environment. Locations help in discovering useful information about our friends and colleagues nearby that readily connects us with them and fosters new relationships based on shared locations and likes. Location based apps such as Yik Yak, Twitter, Swarm, Foursquare, and Circle have already been compiling content based on proximity. Last year, Foursquare, one of the earliest location based social apps, announced that they would launch a new platform for discovering nearby friends and seeing who is up to what. The Foursquare app would focus on check-ins, earning badges, and finding a good place to have dinner, but the Swarm app would focus entirely on the social element. As geo-tagged information is becoming more readily available, location-based apps have also entered the realm of journalism. Apps like Banjo, Sonar, and Geofeedia are designed to help journalists find stories, new ideas, develop new sources, and track news events through posts from the scenes. Vyclone, an iPhone app, takes video clips of events and turns them into video footage, covering that event. What's Next? The recent trend in location-based apps highlights the importance of location data for ad-targeting and consumer marketing. This indicates why some large platforms like Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft are rushing to strike licensing deals with smaller, location-based mobile platforms. This year, as more and more predictions by IT Gurus about the trends in location-based apps are coming true, it is expected that location-based, social, and mobile commerce solutions will become even more popular. This would help businesses increase their profitability by letting users know about special discounts, deals, and the availability of limited stock items around them. Based on this, a plethora of new social apps will likely hit the mainstream as the time passes. Is your business using location-based services to communicate special deals to customers? Is your application tapping into the potential that location-based social interaction and mobile commerce can offer? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading! Gone are the days when email marketing, QR codes, or SMS adverts were used for marketing promotions. Now the best time to reach a consumer is when they’re close to you.
In today’s fast-paced world, what’s available at arm’s length is usually what catches a consumer's attention immediately. This is where proximity-based apps help businesses reach the right customers, with the right offer, at the right time, and the right place. Proximity apps notify you when something or someone of interest is nearby. Businesses use consumer location to distribute advertising content to the targeted consumer market and notify them as soon as they enter the target location. Combined with social media marketing, a business can take great advantage of such location-based apps to achieve better results. Let’s take a look at how smaller shops and businesses can tackle the challenges of proximity-based apps, and compete with the giants in the market. Reach Them When They Are Near From browsing products, price comparison to carting and purchasing things from online stores, smartphones have become an integral part of our shopping experience. Studies suggest that 80% of consumers use their mobile phones to have a better in-store shopping experience. The increasing number of smartphone users, and of those, the ones who use mobile apps for a better in-store experience are rising. This trend will only continue to grow with time. Businesses can leverage this upward trend by creating proximity-based apps to woo customers nearby and engage them into browsing things they like. Allow Immediate Purchase Apart from reaching customers within range, proximity-based apps drive people to an immediate purchase as well. This technology gives businesses a way to connect with customers nearby by sending them offers to entice purchase or buy coupons through messages. This increases chances of a successful future purchase. Notify Latest Promotions When The Customer Is Around While a promotional mail to a customer’s house can go unread, a notification that pops up on their phone from an application when they’re nearby gives businesses a better shot at securing successful purchases than any other marketing technique. Analyze and Study Customer Behavior and Preferences Contrary to the common misconception, luring customers within the vicinity is not the sole purpose of these apps. Businesses can also have access to the real-time analytics of consumer behavior, foot traffic, new trends, and a customer’s shopping preferences. These insights are highly useful for businesses to determine which promotion or campaign worked in attracting them, and what areas need more attention. Allow Customers to Check-In to Your Establishment One of the first things most people do nowadays is checking-in on social media as soon as they get to the mall or café. So, when a customer "checks-in" to your business premises, they unwillingly advocate your business to their social media circle. It is widely estimated that most people find it comfortable to go to places they have heard of through friends, over trying out new places. In a world where people look for more meaningful experiences from the brands they are loyal to, businesses can use proximity-based apps to improve their brand equity significantly. They can do this by providing a more personalized and engaging shopping experience to their customers, and ultimately differentiate themselves from the competition. So is your business using proximity-based apps? How has this affected your bottom line? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading! |
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