25
Nov/10

Steps For Publishing Application On Android Market

by Bindu under Tech Tips, android, software, techjini
    Make your application non debuggable
  • Remove the android:debuggable="true" attribute from the <application> element of the manifest.
  • Remove log files, backup files, and other unnecessary files from the application project.
  • Check for private or proprietary data and remove it as necessary.
    Deactivate any calls to Log methods in the source code.
  • Is in your possession
  • Represents the personal, corporate, or organizational entity to be identified with the application
  • Has a validity period that exceeds the expected lifespan of the application or application suite. A validity period of more than 25 years is recommended.
  • If you plan to publish your application(s) on Android Market, note that a validity period ending after 22 October 2033 is a requirement. You can not upload an application if it is signed with a key whose validity expires before that date.
  • Is not the debug key generated by the Android SDK tools.
    Steps for creating the private key

  • Set the following paths for the environmental varialbles JAVA_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20 PATH: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin

    (this value changes depending on where we have stored the jdk)

  • Right click on the project and do the following Androidtools>export signed application>next>select create new keystore>next>next>finish.
  • Open command prompt and type the following.Set the path to where the keystore is stored C:\Documents and Settings\bindu\Desktop>keytool -list -alias [aliasname] -keystore [keystorename]
  • We now have obtained the fingerprint
  • Now open the following link and enter the obtained finger print http://code.google.com/android/maps-api-signup.html
  • Now we have the private key in your google account.
    Register for a Maps API Key,if your application is using Map View element
    If your application uses one or more Mapview elements, you will need to register your application with the Google Maps service and obtain a Maps API Key, before your MapView(s) will be able to retrieve data from Google Maps. To do so, you supply an MD5 fingerprint of your signer certificate to the Maps service.

    Obfuscating the codeWe can use tools like ant and progaurd to obfuscate the code. Detailed steps for this is given in blog. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/

    Licensing the application After we finish all the above steps refer the following link to publish the application in the android market. http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html


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23
Nov/10

Creating a Customized PopOver for MapView

by Meghana under India, Tech Tips, android, software, techjini

The android developers tutorial guides to create an app that shows a map the user can use to zoom and add overlay items that mark points of interest. Suppose the user wants to display the location of the overlay items that were added,as a callout bubble, a customized layout has to be created and added as a subview of the mapView.

Creating a layout:
Create a new xml file in Layout folder,say popOver.xml.

<FrameLayout xmlns:android=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android”

android:id=”@+id/mapBubbleWrap”

android:layout_width=”wrap_content”

android:layout_height=”wrap_content” >

<LinearLayout android:orientation=”horizontal” android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content” android:id=”@+id/bubble_container”>

<FrameLayout android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content”>

<ImageView android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content”

android:id=”@+id/dialogimage” android:src=”@drawable/popup_leftpointer”/>

<ImageView android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content” android:paddingLeft=”10dip” android:paddingTop=”7dip”

android:id=”@+id/dialogimage1″/>

</FrameLayout>

<FrameLayout android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content” android:background=”@drawable/popup_middlebg”>

<TextView android:id=”@+id/mapBubble”

android:layout_width=”wrap_content”

android:layout_height=”wrap_content”

android:gravity=”center” android:paddingTop=”7dip”/>

</FrameLayout>

<ImageView android:layout_width=”wrap_content” android:layout_height=”wrap_content” android:id=”@+id/dialogimage2″

android:src=”@drawable/popup_right” />

</LinearLayout>

</FrameLayout>

The above xml code just contains the image of the popover that is to be displayed onTap of the overlay item. I have 3 images joined together to form a single popover image. One can use a single image and add a text displaying the location inside it. However, 2 images and a text is being displayed in popover so 3 images are being used.

Figure(A)

Figure(B)

Figure(C)

I have used the figure(B) to display the text(location), the left pointer points the top of the item marker.

Figure(D)

Figure(D) shows how the popover will look once we add the above view in the mapview.

Adding the customized view in the MapView

Then,in the MapOverLay class that extends ItemizedOverlay,in the overridden OnTap method, inflate the popOver.xml layout.i.e. protected boolean onTap(int index)

First, we have to get the location of the overlay item. This is done by the getProjection method of the MapView class.

Point point = map.getProjection().toPixels(item.getPoint(), null);

- getProjection() gets a projection for converting between screen-pixel coordinates and latitude/longitude coordinates.

- item is the overlay item (Overlay item = (Overlay) getItem(index);)

Now,we know where we have to place the customized view on the screen. But the point we have got will place the popover on the marker. We need to place it on top of the marker. To get the marker image’s height and width ,use getIntrinsicHeight and getIntrincsicWidth.
height=marker.getIntrinsicHeight();
width=marker.getIntrinsicWidth();

The customized view now has to be moved a few pixels above that corresponds to the marker height and displaced a few pixels in the x-direction that is half the marker’s width.

Set the LayoutParams of the layout that is being inflated.

LayoutParams params = new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, point.x – width/2, point.y
- height, 0);
layout.setLayoutParams(params);

Now,add the view to the mapView.

mapView.addView(layout);

The x and y parameters being set in the LayoutParams depends on the kind of image being used as the popover. The image that I have used has a pointer that has to be displayed in the middle of the marker and it won’t be set in the middle of the marker if I use the above logic of setting the x and y parameters of the LayoutParams to half the width of the marker and the full height of the marker. If I do so,the left corner of the image will be displayed on the marker as shown. So use it according to the image being used.

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11
Nov/10

iPad in Education Industry

by kaustubh under General, India, iPad, iPhone, techjini

iPad has emerged as one of the major inventions in the modern world. Though, it is still new and lots of applications with it are still in primary stage, it has surely captured the eye of the world. The business executives are hoping to use iPad applications in the best possible way they can. Different industries are looking at this invention in different ways, hoping to replace the laptops and make life of their executives easy and smart. That is really a magic this gadget has created. A recent study has revealed that iPad tablet sales may reach 7 million units worldwide in 2010 and 15 million next year and a high of around 20 million in 2012.

This simply means the number of iPad users will keep increasing year on year. In other words, there is a huge demand for different applications based on this platform. Today, iPad applications are in great demand and with this kind of increase in sale of this gadget will demand more such applications.

Many industries are looking for different applications to be customized the way they want creating a need for lot of smart phone application developers worldwide. One such industry is education. Here, I’m talking mainly about the universities and colleges. They always create a huge buzz attracting lots of students from all over the world. These days these educational institutes use different types of systems for different purposes such as student management, admissions, examinations or even library. With the invention of iPad in particular, these universities will be looking to use the gadget at the best.

Let us look at some possible scenarios:

1. There is a possibility of a virtual classroom, which can be accessed by both the students and tutors. This simply means, both the students and/or tutors can access the classroom sitting at any corner of the world.

2. A student can access his examination or even assignments via his iPad, or even submit them with the gadget. Same way, tutor can upload the examinations and/or assignments.

3. A student can take his notes in the class, email them instantly and can access the classwork at any time.

4. Institute (College/University) can easily keep track of his students, tutors, guest lecturers and other staff easily and can publish related information online, which can easily be accessed by the concerned people.

5. Students/tutors can easily access the library online with their iPad.

6. Marketing department of a university can use these applications to showcase more information about the university, especially when it comes to inviting foreign students.

There could be many more such possible scenarios when we consider different activities in an educational setup. The most important thing with all these applications is that one can use these applications even when he is on the go or traveling. He doesn’t need to be in front of computer/laptop accessing the applications. Life will surely be very much convenient, still easy and simple.
KISS…Keep It Simple, Stupid, as they say it.

How important is it for the universities to create applications for iPad?

The sale of iPad is increasing day by day and the numbers says it all time and again. Soon, you will find students carrying their iPad to the classrooms and taking notes on it. There will be a great demand for iPad amongst the students, especially students doing their doctorate and engineering or technology students who always keep themselves well verged with the latest technology available and gadgets in the market.

Today, iPad is a device mostly used by the executives and business class, but it will not take much time for the student community to adopt the best features of this device and make the best use of the same. It will then become mandatory for the educational institutes to create the applications that are easily available and supported on iPad.

Educational institutes can use iPad applications for different departments including administration, admission, laboratories, examination, library, student management, student councils and alumni and many more, also for different set of personnel including the university staff, tutors, students and top university officials as well. iPad applications can be a great help specially for people in marketing department of a university or higher authorities looking to create establishments or tie up with foreign delegates, foreign entities and organizations. In all, lot of university departments and personnel can make use of iPad applications in a different ways to the best of their use.

Mac is already playing a large role in education sector in the US market. The use of Mac Books is increasing day by day, and with universities, tutors and students adopting different technologies, I don’t see a reason why iPAd will not get its share in this particular industry. iPad is here to stay and to grow – not just in numbers but also with its usage and applications that comes with iPad.

The world is changing and surely everyone’s life. The technology has already taken over various industries and education is no different. It’s a boom time of iPads and universities, colleges; educational institutes need to change their strategies, plans to adopt this new device.

TechJini Advantage

TechJini Solutions is Bangalore, India based company working in the areas of software product engineering services and creating next generation software products that bring real business value. We take pride in our philosophy of taking on challenging problems and providing innovative and outstanding solutions. We are proud to develop applications on different mobile/tablet platforms including iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android.

Recently, we have worked with one of the major universities and set up innovation labs for them. This application was developed for iPad as well as iPhone users. There are different departments in this educational institute that takes the advantage of different applications we developed for them.

Why TechJini?

• Global consulting company
• Innovation in every aspect of Application Development Life Cycle
• More than 25 iPhone Apps in the Apple App Store
• Focused and Personalized approach towards each client
• Experience in working with Mobile OEM’s and Fortune 500 companies
• Quality process at zero defect delivery
• Extensive experience of working with education industry
• Flexible engagement model
• 100% delighted customers
• More than 60% of revenue from repeated business
• More than 100% growth YOY

Feel free to email me for more details – kaustubh@techjini.com

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10
Nov/10

Capturing the direct links for google analytics.

by Harsha under Tech Tips, web 2.0

Capturing the direct links for google analytics.

There are many occasions where one wants to know how many clicks were attracted by a direct link . It could be a link to download some app or pdf or any other direct link. It is general assumption that we need to have a page with google analytics code for google to capture the visit to the page.

Often to achieve this, a page with google analytics code is created for all direct links and then that page redirects to the actual target. However, there is a simpler way to achieve this, using javascript.

If the page having the link already has google’s analytics code embedded, then all you have to do is to use onclick event on <a> tag to call pagetracker function, for example,

<a href=”http:\\www.yoursite.com\docs\help.pdf” onclick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘help_pdf’);” >Help</a>

In the snippet above, help_pdf will be your reference to search for when looking over reports in the google analytics admin page.

If you want to do more than just track the link, then you can have a javascript function in the page with your logic and a call to above function, for example,

function trackDirectLinks(linkName) {

	//your logic here

	//if analytics code is not embedded in the page, then paste it here.

	var pageTracker=_gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxx-x");
    	pageTracker._trackPageview(page);
}

And call this function in your links,

<a href=”http:\\www.yoursite.com\docs\help.pdf” onclick=”javascript: trackDirectLinks(‘help_pdf’);” >Help</a>

Check in the analytics if the link is getting captured. The results are almost realtime, for me, I had to wait for 15-20 mins before the results in the analytics got updated.

If you don’t see them, then one probable reason apart from hundred other syntax related errors could be that you are using the older version of google analytics code. Copy the latest version (its been around for quite a while now) of analytics code from analytics page and replace all your old code. The advantage of using newer code is you can place it anywhere in your page not necessarily at the bottom, as it uses asynchronous calls which does not block loading of your page content until the call is finished. All browsers support these calls.

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26
Oct/10

Team Outing to Seagot Banasura Resort

by raksha under General, India, Startup, fun, human factor

It was time for another team outing and this time we headed to Seagot Banasura Resort located in Wayanad district, Kerala. As it is 290 kms away from Bangalore we first planned to leave at 6.30 but Amit suggested we should leave by 6 and guess what happened the next morning….as everyone started gathering in front of the office around 6 on a Saturday morning, Amit and few others who were supposed to be picked up on the way by him came only at 7!!! Grr……By then the bus guy (who did not know the way to reach J.P. Nagar from Banashankari) also arrived along with 3-4  helpers and later we discovered that the driver and his ‘3′ helpers were not of any help as they did not know the way to reach Mysore Road and needed help to reach Mysore and all the way to Banasura. Thanks to his driving skills, we took 2.5 hours to reach Mandya where we stopped for breakfast. Once we stuffed ourselves with Idlis, Dosas and Vadas, we had gathered energy to make some noise in the bus. We first introduced the guests (which included family members and future family members ;-) ) and then played Dumb charades. We took the by pass as we reached Mysore thinking it would be shorter than going through the city but it turned out to be a longer route :-( . Few of us dozed off while Santosh Prakash was trying to play Kannada, Hindi, Telgu songs and movies on the Tv. Finally he played the movie Golmaal and the audio quality was so bad that it just sounded like noise. We crossed Gundalpet and entered the narrow roads of Bandipur/Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary.

The weather seemed to have turned so cool and pleasant with trees on both sides of the road. All the sleepy eyes opened up and we shut off the Tv and opened the windows wide to enjoy the cool breeze and to try spotting animals. We saw plenty of monkeys and were able to spot a herd of young elephants which were grazing among the tall bushes just a little away form the road. We stopped for a good 5 minutes to capture the best shots on our cameras. We drove a few kms ahead to stop at the check post to pay the road tax as we entered the God’s own country – Kerala. We strolled on the road while munching on some tapioca chips and took few group snaps till the driver came back. The scenery from Gundalpet is lovely and once we enter Kerala it is spectacular. We passed through the never ending green fields and then through lovely mansions set amidst the pepper, tea, and cardamom plantations. Greenery and water was in abundance everywhere we looked. We had planned to lunch at the Greengates Hotel in Kalapetta around 1pm but our dear driver took us at 3 when the kitchen was closed :-(   .We were supposed to meet our guide from the Seagot resort at the Greengates and then follow him to the resort…..he had not reached the hotel yet and so there we were walking up and down the road hungry and waiting. There was no food going to be served at the resort either as we had not informed them earlier :-( Thanks to Sumanth (one of our guests who turned out to be the host ;-) ) for coming up with the idea of buying 20 packets of Maggie from Kalpetta town and planned to ask the resort guys to cook that for us. By the time we finished shopping for our solid and liquid items n the town ;-) the resort guide had arrived and we followed his car. We drove up and down the roads with beautiful view and stopped at the bottom of a hill on top of which was ‘Seagot Banasura Resort’.
The road is not motor-able and has twists and turns and ups and downs which our huge bus couldn’t climb.The resort guys had sent jeeps and cars to transfer us from the bottom of the hill to the resort but a bunch of us planned to walk up. The excitement had killed the hunger pangs and instead charged up some of us to walk up the hill all the way.
It was 5pm when we reached the resort. The view is splendid and a real treat to the eyes. One can see water on all four sides and small islands which are naturally formed. There are range of hills and mountains surrounding the resort and is beside Banasura Sagar- India’s largest & Asia’s second largest earth Dam. It was quiet and peaceful up there with only the sound of breeze buzzing around our ears.
We settled down to enjoy the view till the Maggie was cooked. Once we ate the hot maggie which tasted better than ever as we were hungry :-) we went to check out our accommodation which were clean and spacious tents. We gathered together around 6.30pm to have tea, pakodas and decided to play games. We played The Cow and Tiger game in which everybody stands in a circle with 1/2 people who become the cow and stay within the circle and 2/3 people become the tiger who stand outside the circle. The tigers have to catch the cows by trying to break through the circle and the members forming the circle should try not letting the tigers in. It was loads of fun, noisy and also left some of us hurt :-D . We thought of playing the next game which will involve less physical activity as we were little tired but we ended up playing a game suggested by Mayuko which involved a lot of moving and running. For this game Chairs have to be arranged in a circle and the no. of chairs should be one less in number than the no. of people. One person who is not seated would call out something that is common in all or few of the members (Ex:All those wearing red shirts) and all the members who have similarity to what was called out will have to swap chairs with each other. The person who is not seated finally will be the person who will call out the next commonality. This game was also a lot of fun and we played it till the campfire and dinner was ready. Finally, we had a decent meal and gathered around the campfire where dancing and consumption of liquids went on for a long time ;-)
We were able to identify some hidden dancing talents like Vidya and Neha. Special mention for the entertaining show put up by Mayuko,Ajay, Ranjeet and the best couple of the evening—Santosh J and his friend ;-) .Most of us hit the bed by 1am and few of us stayed up chatting.


We had decided to do an early morning trek.After seeing the beautiful sunrise we started the trek at 6.30am and went down to the river and walked on the wall of the island which was extremely slippery because of the loose wet mud and then we had to climb up which was the most difficult part because the soil was extremely slippery and bushes on both sides were not a good support to hold on to. It was great fun to do it together and everyone lent out a helping hand to each other. The waters were calm and so clean that it was reflecting the islands and hills around. We got our hands, legs and shoes completely dirty with mud by the time we reached up. We took a short break and decided to go down again to do bamboo rafting. This was very adventurous as we did not have life jackets, the waters were as deep as 100 feet and not all of us knew swimming :-) . A rope was tied to a tree far by to help us row in that direction and while coming back we had to pull the rope and it would bring us back to the shore. It was getting hot by the day and many who were waiting for their turn to get on the raft jumped into the water to cool their system. (Sapna you missed it).We came back and had breakfast which consisted of bread, butter, jam, omelets, puttu and kadala curry,poori and saggu.
We had decided to gather at 11am to have some group building exercises. The first activity was The Cat and the Mouse in which everyone was divided into six teams. Few came up with names for their teams like HHM (Har har Mahadev) and Wild Hogs :-D .

Two teams will start the game together with one team being the mouse and other the cat team. The Mouse team has to reach the mouse hole without getting caught by the cat team. The first two players in both the teams are blindfolded and the last player in each team has to provide only signals which will be passed through the team members to the first person which will direct him or her to move towards the cat team or the mouse hole in case of the mouse team. This was great trust building exercise and involved huge team effort. Some teams turned out to be aggressive which left a few more hurt :-( . The next activity was Balloon Balancing Act. The same teams continued to play this activity as well. Even this game had two teams who started the race towards the finish line. They formed a straight line and had to balance a balloon between the each team member without the support of their hands and without dropping the balloon. It turned out that this game also left many hurt as each team wanted to reach the finish line before the other team. As we had enough of physical activity in two days we decided not to play anymore games and headed to finish our lunch. We received colorful certificates and gifts were given to the winning teams. All of us received smiley badges for participating and keeping up the good spirit. As we finished lunch we packed our bags and played carom while we were waiting for the jeeps to arrive to take us down to our bus. This time nobody was ready to walk down the hill ;-) . Just before leaving Seagot it started to rain and the weather transformed beautifully and as the wind blew heavily we could see small waves being formed in the river which was a splendid sight to watch. We hopped into the jeep carrying away all the memories and beautiful sights with us and headed back to Bengaluru. After an afternoon nap we stopped for tea at Gundalpet and by then the driver needed no help to get back home. We played Antakshari for almost 2 hours (thankfully we stopped at Maddur for dinner otherwise it would have continued till Blore ;-) ) and everybody except for Neha and Naushad ran out of songs. The aftereffect of this has left Akshi hunting for songs even to till today. :-D

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31
Jul/10

Bangalore Android Developers having fun with Arduino and Amarino

by Amit under General, India, Startup, android, fun

Here are some of the pictures from Bangalore Android Developers / User group’s dev event.

Theme: Have fun with Arduino and Amarino toolkit
Location: TechJini Solutions
Participants: Sudar (Our kit sponsor), Amrita, Krishna, Sandeep (our guide 2), Anil (our guide 1) and Amit

For next event please sign up at http://www.meetup.com/blrdroid/

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8
Jun/10

Mobile Commerce: Retail

by Shiv under BlackBerry, android, iPad, iPhone

When we start talking about smart-phones, there has been a lot of changes: there are lots of smart-phones to choose in the market, retailers have started eying the mobile-friendly sites, applications and consumers are adapting to the idea of shopping on their mobile devices.

Retailers have started having a mobile strategy; “mobile commerce or the m-Commerce”, recognizing the rapid adoption of smart-phones, unlimited data plans and 3G services retailers have to provide the best mobile commerce platform. This provides a uniform smooth experience for searching, shopping and buying items. Mobile sites and applications have to be more user-friendly, and secured.

All this boils down to two important questions,

  • Why retailers should have a native mobile commerce app?
    • The answer to this is very straight forward; smart-phones are currently dominating the mobile internet (the iPhone in particular and the fast catching android based smart-phone). A native app is likely to be appealing and more user friendly.
    • Smart-phones apps will appeal to an audience with more disposable income.
    • Better user experience and consistent user interface which user is comfortable with.
    • Native applications provide faster performance and more responsive application.
    • Using the on device imagery, could provide a high quality visual experience and branding.
    • Can utilize native capabilities of device (e.g., GPS, camera, Bluetooth, contacts)
    • Deliverance of push alerts even when application is not open and provide a real time awareness of time-sensitive communication.
    • Access to native cryptographic libraries for on-device data encryption and decryption.
    • Better integration to other applications on the device like email, messaging, contacts etc.
    • On some platforms, we can even leverage it to provide dashboards on the phone home screens.
  • Why retailers should have m-commerce website?
    • Ability to reach a greater audience, an app restricts the number of customers you can appeal to.
    • Can overcome building multiple applications to support different platforms (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone).
    • According to Taptu Research, the browser based mobile market is the future.

When a retailer wants to reach the vast target audience for its different products and services, the best and effective way would be to start off with a mobile website optimized for all mobile and hand held devices. This would enable the retailer to reach most of his audience by optimizing the mobile website with the help of mobile search engines.

When a retailer has statistics of the different smart-phones and handhelds used by his audience and when there are a good percentage of users using iPhone, Android handhelds and many more upcoming tablet’s and handhelds, then the retailer could decide upon developing a native mobile application for his customers.

The best way a retailer can reach all of his target audience, is to have both the Mobile website and the native mobile application. This is some of the best practices followed by major and successful retail companies, i.e. Amazon, Best Buy, eBay and many more…

With smart-phone sales set to form two thirds of mobile handset sales in the US in 2015, opportunities for mobile commerce are expanding significantly,” says Coda Research (above).

Some of the questions to be answered before a retailer choose a mobile strategy

  • Where should a multichannel retailer start its mobile strategy?
  • What does a mobile strategy built against customer needs look like?
  • How do you overcome the challenges of operating effectively in a new and evolving space?

How retailers can develop an effective mobile channel

  • Leverage existing customer behavior
  • Leverage the largest mobile install base
  • Leverage existing promotions and CRM strategies
  • Allow consumer to reach you directly for product and service information.
  • Make it easy to opt-in
  • Make it free
  • Make it optimized for mobile
  • Make it relevant

Best practices of a Mobile commerce site and application design

  • Clear call to action: Simple and clear display of content, what you are offering and how they can get it.
    • Make sure the terms of the offer are very clear and the user fully understands the cost for the content.
    • Each transaction should take no more than two steps, fulfilling the double opt-in obligation and making for a simple and easy user experience
    • Provide Search functionality
    • Integration into the main website
    • Clear terms and conditions
    • Allow for exclusive content
    • Maintenance and updating
    • Interactive experiences
    • Customer support
    • Protect your brand
    • Ability to have real time clear insights on Analytic

Understanding the mobile audience and strategy

Mobile marketing includes many ways of delivering targeted communications to a mobile device, and each tactic has a predominant audience that requires a specific strategy to maximize reach.

There are four mobile marketing tactics that are currently more widely adopted by marketers, retailers and consumers alike.

  • SMS and MMS
  • Mobile Web
  • Applications: Applications were made famous by the iPhone and the App Store, but other companies are now getting into the act including BlackBerry with its App World, Palm by making its Palm Software Store accessible from its mobile devices, and Google with its Android Market. Applications are fantastic for providing a rich user experience that far exceeds what is possible with a mobile-browser-friendly Web page. However, because applications serve a dedicated audience only, the rich functionality and consumer experience possibilities must be balanced against the relatively limited audience of all mobile devices that can use the application.
  • Mobile advertising

It’s time to start paying attention to mobile Commerce. We at TechJini could help you come up with mobile strategies, which can help to set yourself up for the future right now.

For more details drop a mail on shiv@techjini.com

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25
May/10

Gartner Report on worldwide sales of Mobile phones in Qtr I of 2010

by Zameer under BlackBerry, General, India, Startup, android, iPhone, software

This is a research of Gartner on worldwide mobile phone sales and rankings given to the manufacturers as well as OS. I thought I need to share this with you.

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 314.7 million units in the first quarter of 2010, a 17 per cent increase from the same period in 2009, according to Gartner, Inc. Smarpthone sales to end users reached 54.3 million units, an increase of 48.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2009. Among the most successful vendors were those that controlled an integrated set of operating system (OS), hardware and services.

“In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “This quarter saw RIM, a pure smartphone player, make its debut in the top five mobile devices manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points. Android’s momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707 per cent year-on-year.

Growth in the mobile devices market was driven by double-digit growth of smartphone sales in mature markets, helped by wider product availability as well as mass market price tags. “Increasing sales of white-box products in some emerging regions, in particular India, also drove sales of mobile phones upward. We expect sales of white-box products to remain very healthy for the remainder of 2010, especially outside of China,” said Ms Milanesi.

The first quarter also saw some movement outside the top five mobile handset vendor rankings (see Table 1), Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut into the top 10, grabbing 1.4 per cent of market share in the first quarter of 2010. The rise of white-box manufacturers from Asia has also helped the “others” section, as a proportion of overall sales, increase its market share to 19.20 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, up 2.7 percentage points. “This is having a profound effect on the top five mobile handset manufacturers’ combined share that dropped from 73.3 in the first quarter of 2009 to 70.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2010,” said Ms Milanesi.

Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Company 1Q10

Units

 1Q10 Market Share (%) 1Q09

Units

 1Q09 Market Share (%)
Nokia 110,105.6 35.0 97,398.2 36.2
Samsung 64,897.1 20.6 51,385.4 19.1
LG 27,190.1 8.6 26,546.9 9.9
RIM 10,552.5 3.4 7,233.5 2.7
Sony Ericsson 9,865.6 3.1 14,470.3 5.4
Motorola 9,574.5 3.0 16,587.3 6.2
Apple 8,359.7 2.7 3,938.8 1.5
ZTE 5,375.4 1.7 3,369.6 1.3
G-Five 4,345.0 1.4
Huawei 3,970.0 1.3 3,217.9 1.2
Others 60,418.1 19.2 44,972.2 16.5
Total 314,653.50 100.0 269,120.10 100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2010)

In the first quarter of 2010, Nokia’s mobile phone sales to end users reached 110.1 million units, a 1.2 per cent decline in market share year-on-year. Although Nokia’s midtier products sold well, Nokia lacks a high-volume driver in the high-end. “MeeGo based devices and other high-end products will not rejuvenate Nokia’s premium portfolio until the end of the third quarter of 2010 at the earliest, and Nokia will continue to feel pressure on its average selling price (ASP) from vendors such as HTC, RIM and Samsung,” said Ms Milanesi. The reorganisation announced last week demonstrated that Nokia is trying to streamline the reporting process to deliver results quickly, which we believe shows its recognition of the pressure it faces from investors.

Samsung sold 64.9 million devices in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 26.3 per cent year-on-year. Samsung was one of the five vendors in the top10 vendors ranking to grow its market share, which increased by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year. Samsung saw healthy margins in the first quarter of 2010 and was also able to grow its presence in developing markets such as India and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

RIM’s mobile phone sales reached 10.6 million units in the first quarter of 2010, a 45.9 per cent increase year-on-year. RIM is making its debut into the top five worldwide mobile handset manufacturers ranking. RIM’s focus this quarter was centred on its ecosystem strategy, its tightly integrated control of store, OS and device played to RIM’s strengths.

Sony Ericsson sold enough units to remain in the top five mobile handset manufacturers, but its market share declined 2.3 percentage points in the first quarter of 2010. The channel held some inventory for Sony Ericsson in the first quarter of 2010 as some new products reached the channel late into the quarter. One of Sony Ericsson’s most important future differentiators is its relationship with its parent company, Sony. This partnership, combined with Sony Ericsson’s ownership of the strongest portfolio it has had since 2007, place it well to lead the trend toward increasingly connected consumer devices.

The first quarter of 2010 was Apple’s strongest quarter yet, which placed the company in the No. 7 position with a 112.2 per cent increase in mobile devices sales. “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea,” said Ms Milanesi. “The second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple. We expect that Apple will present its new iPhone in June during its Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be the first to feature the latest release of the iPhone OS that includes welcome improvements for developers and users, such as multitasking.”

In the smartphone OS market, Android and Apple were the winners in the first quarter of 2010 (see Table 2). Android moved to the No. 4 position displacing Microsoft Windows Mobile for the first time. Both Android and Apple were the only two OSs vendors among the top five to increase market share year-on-year. Symbian remained in the No. 1 position but continued to lose as Nokia remains weak in the high-end portfolio.

Smartphones accounted for 17.3 per cent of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.6 per cent in the same period in 2009.

As seen with the iPad and web books based on Google’s Android platform, mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Table 2
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Company 1Q10

Units

 1Q10 Market Share (%) 1Q09

Units

 1Q09 Market Share (%)
Symbian 24,069.8 44.3 17,825.3 48.8
Research In Motion 10,552.6 19.4 7,533.6 20.6
iPhone OS 8,359.7 15.4 3,848.1 10.5
Android 5,214.7 9.6 575.3 1.6
Microsoft Windows Mobile 3,706.0 6.8 3,738.7 10.2
Linux 1,993.9 3.7 2,540.5 7.0
Other OSs 404.8 0.7 445.9 1.2
Total 54,301.4 100.0 36,507.4 100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2010)

Mobile e-mail, rich messaging and social networking will continue to drive demand for smartphones and enhanced phones that feature full qwerty hardware keyboards. “To compete in such a crowded market, manufacturers need to tightly integrate hardware, user interface, and cloud and social networking services if their solutions are to appeal to users,” said Ms Cozza. “Just adding a qwerty keyboard will not make a device fit the communication’s habits of today’s various consumer segments.”

The morale of the research would be to understand the domain of mobile marketing and effectively utilize the advantage to our marketing efforts.

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13
May/10

Smart Phones – A revolutionary evolution

by Zameer under BlackBerry, General, android, iPhone

Earlier, we were using mobiles for making calls and just to stay in touch. It was even luxurious and unaffordable in the mid segment customers. Now, having a mobile is no more a luxury, besides it has become necessity.

Mobile is no more used only for calls, it is being used for more than that. Every consumer wants to have the power of mobility with him. He wants to order pizza on the go, book tickets for a movie on the go, want to Google on the mobile, want to pay his bills from his mobile and what not!!!!!!!!. We want everything on the fly because we lack only one thing now a days and that is time.

Probably this was best understood by the Mobile OEM companies in the right sense who are eagerly looking out for continuous innovation. Yes, then there entered something called business phones which are supposed to be only for the C Level Executives in the early stage of its evolution. You do only business work like  checking only important emails, and open spreadsheets and do numbers of Total revenue and Net profit that bothers them always ( Hope the usage of BlackBerry had no impact on increase of revenue but yes I have to agree that for sales guys it had impacted to identify the person if he is a decision maker or not). As everybody knows that  RIM has best understood this strategy, and BlackBerry has become a luxurious tool for C-Level Executives.

In the continuous evolution process,  when many of the mobile OEM’s are coming up with low price strategy to enter into development markets, some innovative guys like Steve Jobs, whose another name itself is innovation has probably some day woke up and said to himself ” I want to build iPhone “. Hope the letter “i” is very rhythmic in sense with innovation or Steve. If we look at his brands that has brought Apple to a huge limelight the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iStore, iTunes have brought him much more fame than “Mac” ( Of Course outside US). Now a days we have started speaking about iPhone a lot and who knows the better revenue model other than Steve. Even if he opens a App Store we know that there is a revenue  model for Apple and he wants his customers to be loyal to his products because of the abundance of Apps. Hmmm, probably this is the marketing strategy where other OEM’s should focus on.

Whether it’s an individual or an organization, there is a lot of buzz in Smart phones.  iPhone has created a revolution in the market and now Google’s intervention into the segment with Mobile OS.

The possibility look at all the three phones BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, gives us a sense that it is not going to be easy one for Apple and BlackBerry where their presence is limited to only the phones they manufacture, compared to Google’s Android, where there are nearly 18 manufacturers of the handsets. The moral of the story is that it’s not enough to have a single model  phone to rule the market but probably Apple and BlackBerry can look at different initiatives to expand their market presence by collaborating with other manufacturers.

This argument I would definitely support with  Gartner’s latest report headed by the title “Android to grab No. 2 spot by 2012, says Gartner”. I have read it in Computerworld magazine.The below article is courtesy of Computerworld magazine.

“While the Google-backed Android mobile operating system currently runs on less than 2% of all smartphones, Gartner Inc. predicts it will surge to 14% of the global smartphone market in 2012 — ahead of the iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smartphones.

In that year, Gartner forecasts Android will actually rank second globally, behind the Symbian OS, which is used in Nokia devices that are highly popular in Europe and many countries outside the U.S. Symbian now runs on about half of all smartphones, but will fall to 39% in 2012, Gartner says.

The Gartner forecast gives Android such an enormous surge in popularity because of a variety of factors, but chiefly because of Google Inc.’s backing of Android and the range of cloud computing functions and related applications that Google will make available in coming years, Ken Dulaney said in an exclusive interview with Computerworld. And because Android and Google operate in an “integrative and open environment, [they] could easily top … the singular Apple,” he said.

The complete Gartner forecast for smartphone OSes by the end of 2012 puts Symbian on top with 203 million devices sold, and 39% of the market. Android will be second with nearly 76 million units sold, and 14.5% of the market.

Coming in a close third, the iPhone will ship on 71.5 million devices in 2012, giving a 13.7% market share. Windows Mobile will finish fourth, with 66.8 million units sold, or 12.8% of the market.

Very close behind Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry OS will sell on 65.25 million devices in 2012, Gartner forecasts, making it fifth with 12.5% market share.

Android will have moved up the most from 2009 to 2012, from sixth place to second. BlackBerry will have moved down the most, from second to fifth, while iPhone will remain in third position and Windows Mobile will remain in fourth position, Gartner says.”

I still don’t know perfectly how Gartner does future predictions like Astrologers but I strongly support them because I find a strong logic behind their research.

Smart Phone Apps

Thanks to Apple, Google, and BlackBerry. Whatever competition does we don’t mind but we ourselves equip in providing the latest apps on all platforms.  Probably these guys have now created an economy that may be named as “App Economy” which never existed before.

Organizations are looking at Smart Phone Apps as a great movement and Ad agencies are rejoicing the power of new medium for elevating the Brand experience for their customers in a very personalized way. Every one wants to put their strengths in smart phone apps to showcase their creativity and to help their customers in building much more loyal brands.

Still, I understand one thing, probably after Recession, it’s not only customer satisfaction but customer loyalty has also become a very high priority for all the organizations. The Marketing and Branding heads are breaking their heads to use this new medium.  Some use apps for brand elevation and some use it for mobilizing their Enterprise Applications.

What I could suggest is whether you are looking at any of these apps, we need to prioritize, the usage of our customers. We need to look at the ratio of Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry among our customer’s community and then work on building apps.

Why Smart Phone Apps ?

There has been a huge buzz about using latest technologies for marketing. It was facebook, twitter and now the latest is  Smart Phone. Smart Phones are very handy compared to other technologies and they provide the following benefits with a a very personalized and targeted approach to your customers

  • Brand Elevation
  • Improves Customer loyalty
  • Easy way to promote your promotional offers faster
  • On the go mobility to reserve or book
  • Improves Customer Satisfaction
  • Improves Revenue at low TCO
  • Real time data for Customers about the latest happenings

Cnet reports that the number of users who will tap into the App store will be at 100 million by 2013. Just imagine the momentum and let’s grab the opportunity with a well build good looking app that helps in your Brand Elevation.

Why TechJini ?

Whether you need to build only an iPhone App or a BlackBerry or Android App,  TechJini helps you in evaluating your customer base first.

  • Global Consulting Company
  • Innovation in every aspect of Application Development Life cycle
  • More than 25 iPhone Apps in the Apple App Store
  • Focused and personalized approach towards each Client
  • Experience in working with Mobile OEM’s and Fortune 500 companies
  • Quality Process with Zero defect delivery
  • Flexible Engagement Models
  • 100% Delighted Customers
  • More than 60% of annual revenues from repeated business
  • More than 100% growth YoY

Contact us for a World class  Smart Phone App and get your idea conceptualized and take a perfect shape in TechJini. Just Email us always zameer@techjini.com

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5
Apr/10

iPad: A New Business Model for Publishing Houses

by Shiv under BlackBerry, android, iPad, iPhone, software

The iPad marks the emergence of a new business model for Publishing Houses, are you ready to use this opportunity to move into the digital age?

iPad is likely to be a great medium for publishing houses, who have drastically been hit with fast falling revenues (in reference to the year 2009). Newspapers have seen significant decline in print advertising revenues, online versions did not provide many options to monetize. However iPad and mobile apps may have slated to change all these.

Why iPad and Mobile Platforms for Publishing Companies?

 Why choose iPad and Mobile platforms instead of Web, the major problem with digital content on the web are that people expect it to be free. As this is one of the greatest strengths of the web, while free is great for consumers and the World, it does not create any revenue for publishers.

The iPad provides an opportunity to change all that. We’ve already become accustomed to paying for iPhone applications, it seems natural to pay for iPad magazines, books, and news papers provided the experience is significantly better than the dead-tree versions.

Several hundred thousand iPads have been pre-ordered. Analysts expect Apple to sell around 5 million units in 2010. A survey executed by the analysts of comScore indicated that 34 percent of iPad buyers will use it to read newspapers and magazines. 68% of young consumers indicated a willingness to pay for news and magazines specially formatted for e-readers.

The US Audit Bureau of Circulations already revised the definition of digital magazines. Publishers may now report items as E-reader distribution averages, mobile app purchases, etc. in order to reflect the new audience.

The article quoted Chris Anderson of Wired at TED 2010 stating that the iPad “[is] an opportunity to reset the economics,” of digital publishing. “For the first time, people may value this experience so much they’ll pay for it.”

Many Companies adapting to the World of Mobile and iPad World:

Many prominent Publishing houses like McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin, Kaplan, USA Today, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, the Associated Press, Time magazine and many more are looking at iPad apps as a very strategic initiative on a subscription mode. USA Today has been downloaded 175,000.

Statistical details on the applications being downloaded on the “Apple iTunes store” –source O’Reilly Research

We could see from the figure one that 30% of downloads are from the books and rest applications comprise to 70%, as many publishing companies have started publishing multiple titles on the emergence of the iPad.

In reference to the fig 2: Application Downloads

Obviously, a game developer won’t be able to churn out new applications at the same rate as an eBook publisher. Game developers have, on average, 2.3 apps in the store (looking at data from the last week), while a typical eBook vendor is selling almost 18 apps right now.

Books are also currently the fastest growing category in the App Store (285% in the last three months), mostly because vendors can simply pack different texts into separate applications. Compared to other categories, productivity apps are only growing slowly, though the number of apps in this category still grew 58% over the last 12 weeks.

Statistics on the Downloads

Books Applications Approximately 35,000
New Applications Approximately 40 new books daily

Different kinds of eBook application on iPad and iPhone

iPad around 30,000 applications
iPhone around 5,000 applications

Average prices in Top-100 under the category “Books”:

Within all top-100 app $ 2.61
Top 1 to 10 app $ 1.89
Top 51 to 100 app $ 2.69

Distribution of prices in Top-100 under the category “Books”:

Minimum Price $ 0.99
Maximum Price $ 14.99

Portfolio characteristics of the most successful publishers from Top-100 “Books”:

Fig 3: Content uniqueness:


Fig 4: By content

  • Portfolio of the average successful publisher from Top-100(“Books”) has approximately 60 applications.
  • Moreover, there’s one publisher holding 25% of all content of the section “Books”.

Effective models for selling the books:

  • Free Application with free books and In App purchase of books
  • Portfolio of books with SEO of high quality both in iTunes and through search engines (Google etc)

Conclusion:

  • Publishing companies should work on releasing interactive books which started promptly developing last month, especially in light of iPad release (even though the cost for producing such books is much higher as compared with normal books);
  • The segment of medical books has some perspectives (most probably it is also related to iPad release, which allows to operate easier with the graphics etc) and making the students or the readers to have a very good usability.
  • Interactive books for children and comics, which is one of the most stable and quick-growing segments.

Why Techjini?

  • More than 25 iPhone applications in the Apple-app store.
  • Global Consulting Company: We apply innovation into every aspect of application development, be it Project management or Lifecycle Management.
  • Individual and personalized focus on each client of ours.
  • Competitive pricing  for iPad application development services
  • Professional support and maintenance for iPad projects.

For more details or a free quote kindly contact shiv@techjini.com

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