Friday 22 August 2014

All About Android

The competition in the smartphone world these days is among phones running on Android and those made by Apple. Instead of having a bet on the side of Apple, the world's prominent smartphone maker, developers seem to not care much about it; thereby deciding to bet on the green side of Google's Android. This should be one of your attentions when you are pondering about selling your old smartphone. Should you continue with the existing smartphone or should you switch to an iPhone?

But before you go ahead and made a decision, here's a brief overview of Android for those who are used to iPhones.

What is Android? It just happens to be the world's most popular mobile platform. Android is an operating system developed by Google to run on mobile devices. Each version is named after a type of sugary sweet food (for example, the latest version of their OS is the Ice Cream Sandwich). It is based on Linux and is the main competitor of iOS on the market.

The Android is an open source OS, meaning that many firms have created handsets running on Android. In fact, a greater part of mobile devices these days run on Android. Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson are just some of smartphones that run on Android technology. Utilized by several smartphones, such as the Droid, G1, and Nexus One, Android software is open source, meaning it is not associated to a particular cell phone manufacturer or service provider.

Third-party apps  are also supported by the Android OS which are often downloaded from the Android Market, Google's online software store, which has been renamed Google Play. As of the instant, Google Play, regardless of being used by more people for more gadgets, seems to have fewer apps, not to mention that in certain areas, its functionalities are fewer. For example, in Asia and South America, only apps are available, meaning an Android user can source music, eBooks, and video files elsewhere. In the iTunes store, any iPhone user anywhere in the world can buy anything from it, as long as you have an iTunes account. If you are a traveler or love to stay overseas for long periods, you may want to think this in deciding whether or not to sell your used smartphone and switch to an iPhone or not.

What It Does?
Android powers zillions of phones, tablets, and other devices and brings the supremacy of Google and the web within your reach.

By having an remarkably fast browser, multi-tasking capabilities, more convenient ways to connect and share, cloud sync, and the most common Google apps (and thousands of other apps available on the Android Market) your Android powered device is way more than just being 'smart.'
With all of Android's promise, the iPhone still manages to outsell it, though.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Responsive Web Design: The Solution to Higher Sales and Lead Generation

Previously it was enough for IT firms to have a website. Afterward it needed more interactivity, now it needs social networking plugins. Little thought was given, if at all, to how the website would look on the small screens of the latest feature phone. The introduction of the smartphone has changed all that. Today a website needs to be available across a plethora of devices; from tablets to smart phones and everything else's in between.

To tackle this crucial demand developers have adopted a new technology called Responsive Web Design. This is a form of design that has fluid panels that are not bound by pixels but by percentages, thus allowing them to literally transform, in accord to the device that the website is used upon. This in turn permits the browsers of any device to exhibit the website in an optimal fashion with as little panning or scrolling required by the user.

The consequence of designing websites in this unique fashion is undoubtedly immense. However the one aspect it truly affects the most is the number of leads it can generate which leads to a higher sales ratio.

The design of a website in this format all phases out the cost of maintaining a separate website for mobile phone users. It thus proves to be cost effective as well It also lends itself to greater SEO adaptability. A single website across multiple devices can increase the number of hits on a website to a very large extent.

Yet as quoted earlier the greatest advantage is lead and sales generation. In simpler words, the end user of a responsive design website finds themselves in engaged with a rich and interactive device no matter what device he uses to browse it on. This leaves a very encouraging impression on the end user. The website is far more accessible to consumers who may not have access to a personal computer, or those who prefer to use a tablet for browsing. This expansion of reach for the responsive design website is a major reason most designers are switching to this form of web development. Increased viewership may not mean sure immediate sales rise but the propensity to increase sales is definitely heightened by the responsive website design. Since so far less than five percent of the total websites on the internet are using this technology, the ones who have engaged it are already miles ahead of their competitors. Just the fact that a user can access a website across multiple devices may be the reason why they don't even consider looking into the completion.

There is the likelihood that your existing website does not lend itself to being redesigned in the Responsive design style either due to technical obstacles or maybe your business may feel that this style does not really suit you. 

Sales can be a tricky proposition for a website. Window shopping has reached its apex on the World Wide Web. As any marketer will tell you high footfall does not guarantee sales. Yet it has been recorded that, websites that have used responsive website design have a consistently high level of sales for the company the website represents. The elementary reason for this is accessibility. The responsive website does not need a credible customer to park themselves in front of a computer to get the best out of their website. Even the small screen of a feature phone gives them the richest content and display in a format that requires very little of them. Thus they are induced to interact with the website despite the limitations of their device.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

The Disparity Between SEO And SEM

When talking about methods you can promote your business or website, it's difficult to get your head around all the different ways available to you. Pay-Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are some of the most popular approaches to bring your visibility online. However, with so many avenues to take - how do you know what is correct for you and your business? 

If possible you can seek advice from a company which offers all the different services, as they will have experience in the forte and can thus give you a balance view on what is best for you. However, we want to look at the dissimilarities between SEO and SEM, as they both lack different types of marketing and different types of businesses can help from the other more. 

SEO

 SEO is improving the content of your website to suit specific keywords which are there for you to rank for. These keywords are typically researched by an SEO company, to fit in contour with your website and what it aims to create, so that you are competing in an region which you can not only draw great business from, but potentially grow in the future. SEO concentrates on getting your content full to the top with quality. Then, once your content is full of well-linked pages and intended use of the keywords you wish to aim for, you slowly start to move up the rankings. Your traffic is generated as you become one of the highest ranks in Google, but it can take a long time. If you are looking to make a quick boom with a potential project, perhaps a product which is fit for a season, then perhaps SEO is not for you. It can take some time to see the tangible results, but the serious work undertaken to complete the job is there for all to see at the end. There is no real approach to trick the Search Engines, so it is just a case of waiting. The contracts can be a little expensive and SEO tends to be utilized when businesses are already doing well and can cover the costs.
 

SEM

 SEM is using the Search Engines, but in an unusual way. With SEM, you do not have to re-write your website to make it fit with SEO practices and the like; you use the spaces on the singular Search Engines to make sure that you appear as a favored advertisement for the keywords chosen. This means that you can bring in enormous amounts of targeted traffic in a short space of time, and the budgets are not as heavy as the likes of PPC. This means that the budgets are usually fairly reasonably priced; depending of course on what market you are competing in. A intensely competitive market with big budgets already being spent can see costs soaring, so make sure you appreciate the potential costs before entering into an SEM contract. It offers the prospect to build a short-term traffic burst, while making long-term clients in the process. If you keep up the payments on your campaigns, it will carry on to bring you new clients. You just need to make sure you can sell the products to them competently - high traffic is useless with a poor sales copy and cheap website.

Monday 18 August 2014

Should Mobile Developers Choose iOS or Android?

Over the past some months, Google has made noteworthy updates to their Android operating system in an effort to catch the attention of developers who are looking to make high quality applications for the platform. Android-powered phones now make up the mainstream of the smartphone market, but to the surprise of many, lots of developers still desire to create applications for Apple's iOS. Some readers might query how a developer can prefer the more constricted iOS-style development to Android's open market distribution system, however professionally executed surveys and studies by research companies have revealed a selection of different reasons as to why this inclination may arise.

Initially although there are now more smartphones running on Android than on iOS, Apple's iPod Touches and iPads pass the total number of iOS powered devices on the market to nearly 250 million. Despite the recent growth in tablets running Android, there's no means Google's platform will be able to match the number of iOS' widespread users any time soon. A better user base means a better chance at for a developer's application to be downloaded, and that motive alone makes it worth sticking to iOS for many especially those developing applications for which the user has to pay.

Beside with a larger total number of users, Apple has their App Store designed in a way that exposes a great number of different applications to users. Top rated free and paid applications, applications of the week, and staff selected applications are a few of the diverse categories where sets of applications are highlighted. Developers want their application to be revealed, and the open nature of Android leads to many uninteresting applications cluttering the store, meaning users are obtainable to be less likely to find and download the quality applications they're after.

iOS is often chided because of the limited number of devices that run it, but in actuality, this prevents the inequality between devices that Android-powered units often face. Since every Android-powered device is so unusual it's nearly impossible for developers to make their applications run perfectly on every device.

Users are far more eager and likely to pay for applications on the iOS platform compared to the Android OS. Developers are far more contented making applications that don't need to earn their profits from advertisements, because in most cases, an app will look and run better without ads filling up the screen. The better and application looks and runs, the more likely the developer will be praised for the development work. Since many Android applications are uploaded and offered free of charge, developers feel a stronger obligation to release ad-cluttered applications in the Android Store without cost in order to compete for downloads.

There's no question developing an application for iOS comes with a elevated start-up cost than developing one for Android, but in the end, users are far more likely to find and pay for an application released on iOS. This isn't to say Android application development should be dumped by any means since there is still a sizable market for them, and with some hard work, it's very possible to make impressive and influential Android apps. Nevertheless, with the sheer number of iOS-powered devices on the market today, there's no question that any developer should jump if iOS application development as an alternative.