Who don’t love free things? We all do, right? Free things weather be it like free gifts hampers or coupon vouchers or be it an application from an app store. In terms of profit and number of downloads, free apps have outnumbered the paid apps. Is only cost-free is the only factor that makes these apps popular among the users? No, these apps are surely offering high-quality features, seamless user interface and most importantly fulfilling the demands of the users. That’s why they are more popular than paid apps. Both free and paid apps have their own exclusive features and delivering the best services to the users.

But, then how do free apps make money for their business? This question is quite common between the young and aspiring entrepreneurs who are eager to launch their idea into the market. Being given that today digitalization is the key aspect for reaching out to the potential customer quickly and efficiently. It becomes a necessity to have an online presence wither by listing your business on an existing online platform or creating your own web or mobile application.

This article will help the startups or entrepreneurs who want to learn the know-how of creating a mobile app and how to monetize an app.

According to the Statista report, 94.24% of all Android apps were available for free and only 5.76% of all apps were paid apps on the Google Play app store. This shows the enormous and highly capable opportunities that are lying in the free iOS and Android app development market. Thus, it is the more of a right choice to have your own free mobile apps.

Mobile App Monetization Methods

There are a number of app monetization methods that can add value to your business. Methods like Advertising, Pay per Download, Commissioned Apps, Consumable in-app Purchase, Subscriptions, Selling Physical Products, E-commerce Sales (Physical Goods via apps), Licensing Fees, Selling Services to Developers, E-commerce Sales (Digital Goods), and many more. Thus, the scope of earning money from a free app is enormous, just you need to opt the correct authentic path according to your business services.

1. Advertising

The most popular and easiest way to generate revenue via free apps is advertising. In most cases advertising is done through a third-party ad network. In 2017, $107 billion spent on global mobile advertising and Google has generated 32% of the total US mobile ad revenue.

To earn money with in-app advertising it is important to determine your main revenue model. There are two ways main revenue model: Ad Clicks and Display Ads.

For ad click model, have a free user-friendly app that is useful and at the same time keeps user engagement. On the other hand, if you use display ads in your app then the ads should not be intrusive, however, should be bold enough to grabs users’ attention.

Making money from displaying the commercial ads inside your mobile apps is an effective method. Third-party pays you every time a user installs the advertised app, per impression, and per click on the ad.

App providers focus on mainly 4 types of ads for monetization.

• Interstitial Ads

• Banner Ads

• In-app Video Ads

• Native Ads

2. In-App Purchases

Buying extra services or any extra content or subscription refers to in-app purchases. Some free apps offer advanced features on a subscription basis or a one-time purchase.

There are different types of in-app purchases like subscriptions (examples: newspaper, Netflix, games, etc.), consumable (example: Game currency, Game hints, etc.), non-consumable (example: upgrade to pro edition, remove ads, city guide maps, etc.)

Thus, in-app purchases in simple words is an ability to sell a wide variety of virtual items directly from an app. The first step in optimizing your in-app advertising strategy is to create a great user experience and test the ad performance.

3. Selling Merchandise

Many e-commerce businesses approach one of the app development Company present in the market to build their own free apps to sell physical goods like apparels, footwear, toys, etc. For example apps like Amazon, eBay, AJIO and many more.

The worldwide e-commerce site like Amazon even offers SMEs to partner with Amazon to sell their goods and services to their potential clients. Similarly, you can develop your own application to create a common platform where the user can find a diverse variety of services.

4. Subscriptions

Subscription is a very popular practice used by many app publishers to offer free features and content for a specific time period and then charge users for the subscription to continue leveraging the benefits of their services. These days many free app publishers offer a trial period service, ranging from 7-days to 30 days free trial periods after which they charge for their services.

This kind of app monetization model is often used by audio and video streaming, cloud services, etc. The number of users actually opting for a paid subscription are very less but recently, we have seen a growth in the video streaming app subscription like Netflix, Amazon Prime videos, etc.

5. Referral Marketing

Referral marketing means promoting third-party products or services in your mobile application and generating revenue. How does it work? Very simple! App publishers can sell affiliates products or services or can promote third-party products based on either CPC, CPA, CPI, or CPV.

Depending on the type of the referral model you have implemented in your free apps, you can generate revenue. Here are the common referral marketing models:

• Cost per Click (CPC): Based on the number of clicks on a displayed ad, you can generate revenue.
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Also known as Cost per Action is an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays for a particular acquisition. In this pricing model, you can either promote an app, product ads pop-ups, etc.
• Cost per Install (CPI): With every installation of an advertised app in your application, you get paid.
• Cost per View (CPV): Well many users don’t like that their game or movie or any video is interrupted by an ad, but many apps provide a natural break in between the game or video. This pricing model charges based on the number of ad interactions or views.

Take Away

There are many app monetization methods that generate high revenue for the business. However, the prime focus of the free app needs to be user-oriented and not just mere profit making by bulking it with a lot of advertisements. To keep the user engagement persistent the app publishers and the app development companies need to understand the user perspective and requirements.

Thus, while prototyping your mobile application development, you should understand and consider the app structure and target audience seriously.

Remember for succeeding as a user-loved app, quality is important and not quantity. Incorporate the best app monetization model that not degrade the quality of your app and at the same time serve the purpose of profit making.

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Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) seem to be two related terms, but these are different from each other on several grounds. Both AR and VR have a major thing in common –these technologies have the amazing capability of altering the perception of our world. One of the biggest confusions in the current world of augmented reality is the difference that exists between augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Both the technologies are gaining a lot of media attention and are promising potential growth. So what is the difference between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality?

What is Virtual Reality (VR)?

VR (Virtual Reality) is a computer-generated, artificial simulation process or recreation of some real-life situation or environment. It aims at immersing the users by giving them the feel of experiencing the simulated reality, majorly through the stimulation of the hearing and vision senses.

Virtual Reality development basically consists of a headset device like the Facebook’s Oculus that is equipped with the necessary technologies.

VR (Virtual Reality) is primarily used in two different approaches:

• For creating and enhancing some kind of imaginary reality for the purpose of entertainment, gaming, and playing (like the computer and video games, hand-held device, a head-mounted display, and others).
• For enhancing the training for particular real-life environments through the creation of a simulation of some reality wherein individuals are able to practice in advance (like the flight simulators meant for the pilots).

VR (Virtual Reality) development is made possible through the coding language known as the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). This virtual reality development language is used for creating a series of several images and specifying the particular types of interactions that are possible for the given set of images.

What is Augmented Reality (AR)?

AR (Augmented Reality) is another specialized technology that is used for layering the computer-generated and computer-oriented enhancements over some existing reality. This is done for making the given technology more meaningful & functional through the given ability to interact with the same. Most of the high-end simulation technology developers have this question “How to develop augmented reality?”

Augmented Reality development is brought about by developing the same into respective highly interactive apps. As such, this AR app development can be used on mobile devices for blending the digital components into the given real-world scenarios in a manner such that these are able to enhance one another in an effective manner, at the same time can also be differentiated apart quite easily.

The augmented reality app development in the current era is quickly gaining impetus in the mainstream. There are several applications of effective augmented reality development. For instance, it can be used for displaying score overlays on the telecasted sports or games and even for popping up 3D emails, text messages, or photos on mobile devices. The leaders of the mobile application development industry are making use of the AR development technology for implementing amazing & revolutionary applications with the use of motion-activated commands and holograms.

Read More: How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are Transforming the Enterprises

Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

Though both of these might appear the same, there are some points of difference between the two. AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) are considered to be inverse reflections of one in the other technology with respect to what each of the given technologies aims at achieving as well as delivering to the end users. VR aims at offering a high level of digital recreation of some real-life setting. On the other hand, AR is aimed at delivering virtual elements as some kind of an overlay to the real world.

Read More: Augmented Reality VS Virtual Reality | AR VR Infographic

How do AR & VR Differ from Each Other?

There are several points of differences that exist between the given two leading technologies. Here are some points for you to consider:

• Purpose: AR is aimed at enhancing the overall user experiences through the addition of using virtual components like the digital photos, graphics, or even sensations as some new layer of interaction with the real world. On the other hand, VR is aimed at creating its own reality technology that tends to be generated and driven by the computer system completely.
• Method of Delivery: VR is primarily used for being provided to the end users through some hand-held/head-mounted controller. This device is used for connecting people to the technology of virtual reality. As such, it also allows the end users to bring about an effective control as well as the navigation of their respective actions in the given guided environment for stimulating the real world.

On the other hand, the technology of augmented reality (AR) is being utilized for enhancing the services by several mobile devices including smartphones, laptops, and tablets by changing how the real world, as well as the digital forms of images & graphics, interact and intersect with the end users.

How do VR & AR Work Together?

There is not the scenario of AR vs. VR in most of the cases. Sometimes, these technologies are not able to operate independently or free from one another. In fact, these technologies are mostly blended together towards generating an increasingly immersing user experience. For instance, haptic feedback –referred to as the vibration & the sensation that is added to the interaction with high-end graphics –is regarded as the form of augmented reality technology. Similarly, it is also commonly used within a specialized VR setting for making the overall user experience appear more lifelike in touch & sensation.

AR & VR are great instances of amazing interactions and user experiences fueled by the need for becoming greatly immersed in some simulated land for the purpose of entertainment & playing experiences, or towards adding a completely new dimension of user interaction between different digital devices & the given real world. Whether independent or blended together, these high-end technologies are undoubtedly opening up several high-tech scenarios for both the real as well as virtual worlds alike.

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Being fully aware of the dependency, human beings have on the mobile phones and especially on the mobile applications, a large number of businesses/developers around the globe have started to take the full advantage of the mobile apps.

Rise of The Mobile Apps Development

The mobile application market has seen its biggest boom in the last few years, with Google Play and Apple App Store crossing almost 1.5 million applications each.

In this era, we can’t even think of our lives without smartphone applications. We personally feel handicapped without a cell phone in our hand for an hour, let alone spending the entire day without it.

Almost all the businesses, whether small or large prefer to have a mobile app over the website. However, having a website is equally important, but getting a mobile application for the business holds more importance as people spend most of their digital times on mobile phone & applications. Hence, it can be said that smartphone apps are becoming a dominating form of digital interaction.

This massive growth in mobile apps is resulting from a tough competition in the smartphone app development community, which in turn forcing the app developers to be more aware of the latest mobile app development trends as well as the challenges.

What is Offshoring?

Offshoring means to hire another Company in a different location and paying them off for the work done by them. Offshoring is the good solution where one can get quality and quick results with less development cost as well as time.

Benefits Of Offshoring Your Mobile App Projects

Offshoring an application has a ton of benefits, cost and time being the most important one. The major reason why people tend to offshore their mobile app development projects is because of the variety of advantages being offered by it.

How Can Mobile App development Offshoring Save Your Money?

The major advantage of offshoring a mobile application is a money. As offshoring, a mobile application helps to save your money from both the hands. One is the cost of recruitment, and other is the cost of labor. And we must say that both of them have an important role to play.

Now you must be thinking that there is no such cost for recruiting an employee/developer for your Company, but actually, this is not the case. An organization has to incur several different costs to recruit the suitable candidates. Costs involved in searching and screening the most appropriate candidate for the open position, and a couple of other costs which follow post recruitment.

Whilst, in offshore mobile app development, there is no such kind of recruitment cost involved because the Company you are hiring would be already rich in the skilled employees that are needed to get your job done.

The second factor which contributes to saving the major chunk of money is the cost of labor. Labor in Asian countries is comparatively cheaper than labor in the western countries. According to a survey, the Asian countries like India, Vietnam are the cheapest places amongst all the offshore app development destinations. Such countries are the hottest offshore development destinations around the globe. In these countries, companies can hire an entry level app developer at an average annual salary of $3,246 while a manager with about five to eight years of experience can approximately cost you $8,500 per annum, which is very nominal as compared to the salaries being paid to the western developers.

Offshoring the mobile application development also has an added advantage of getting the specialized professionals. It helps you avail the benefits & experience of skilled experts without making any long term commitment with them.

How can Mobile App development Offshoring save your time?

Another important benefit which falls with offshoring the mobile application development is the saving of time.

Offshore developers work with strict deadlines, and have a faster turn around time as compared to the onshore developers, which help you to get your work completed in rapid fashion. The offshore smartphone app developers are clearly aware of the fact that they will be paid as soon as the project is completed.

Another way to look at it is that you will get more time to focus on your core competencies. As you hand over the complete work to the offshore agency, you can get some more time to dedicate on the key issues. The time spent in planning and executing the tasks by your team can be effectively utilized in doing some improvising things on your project.

The Bottom Line

Although you can save numerous amounts of time and money by opting offshore application development, you should always keep the few facts in your mind:

The foremost thing to keep in mind is to hire someone who can be the ideal app developer for your project and whom you can trust easily because offshoring involves hiring people with whom you never worked before.

Most employers prefer to send standard tech questions or set up a one-week trial project to vet potential developers, but that too does not guarantee that the project will be executed properly. In such situation, it is always better to get into a direct communication, either through a video call and if that’s not possible, a phone call is the next best option. These are strong ways of communication and will give a direct flow to people on both the ends and leaves less space for the person at the other end to lie.

The second important tip, which you should follow is to never get attracted to the cheaper rates of labor, as the cheapest may not be the best. If someone is offering the solution at a very low cost, firstly ask yourself a question, why?

Of Course, the cost should be a factor, but not at the verge of quality. At the end, your product should be of a good quality and without any loose ends. So, don’t just look for the cheapest, but the best.

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VP of engineering Android “Dave Burke” declared the availability of developer preview & Google released its beta version to “incorporate developer feedback.”

SVP of Android, “Hiroshi Lockheimer”, Chrome OS at Google, confirmed that Google plans the final Android N release to mobile device makers later this Summer. Google want this Android N up to date with the new Android Beta program.

Here is the timeline that will explain when Android N will be released officially.

What you will get in Android N Developer Preview

Listed below are the features that you can expect with the Android N Developer:

Multi-window mode

The main Android N feature, you will see is a Multi-window mode, Via. Reddit AMA with pixel C team . Andrew Bowers confirmed that “Split screen” is in the progress” & with the release of Android N beta version, you can see how Android 7.0 split screen mode will look.

Compatible apps can be open up side-by-side in Android N & resized with the help of the movable slider. This feature will give you easy drag and drop text between split screen windows & you can directly go to the main screen with the help of the slider.

Mobile app developers will be able to choose the minimum possible size for their app window and multitasking experience will be similar to OEM devices.

Notification Enhancements

Now there is no need to leave your present window to reply your incoming messages. You can just answer within the notification that appears at the top of the screen. Google is opening up notification enhancements beyond hangouts & most popular smartphone applications like Whatsapp could take benefit of this inline messaging feature provided by Android N.

Grouped Notification

You will see bundled notifications in Android N if they are coming from the same smartphone app. For Example: If all notifications are coming from the “Whistle Phone Finder” app then, they will hide under one notification shade. You can see these bundled notifications with help of two finger gestures.

Doze Mode

As per the expectations, android lover’s favorite Marshmallow feature, Doze mode will be available in Android N with some improvements. Now Doze-Mode is available in a two-tier system. Android N doze feature, which allows devices to go into low power   GAge modes when your phone is in the stationary position. You will see updated doze mode that makes it better than before.

System Settings

Android N consists of hamburger menu into the system settings. In which the icon with three lines has set into the system settings. Now users with the help of left side menu can jump into other system options. This menu is already the important option in other Android Apps.

Revamped setting menu will be available in Android N. Upcoming Android version includes drop-down menu section at the top & the individual divider section is removed from it. You will be able to see basic details of the very section in the setting menu.

Redesigned Folders

In Android N, folders have been redesigned to make them look smarter on the home screen. You can manage them easily.

Google Camera Application

This Google camera app is available on Google play store. Google has made some minor changes like visual design to the layout & small changes in buttons and features.

Other features offered by Android N

Google has confirmed the launcher shortcuts feature that will be available in the second beta version for Android N i.e. based on pressure sensitive display technology. Mobile Experts are predicting that Google can delight the user with VR mode in Android phones. The setting menu consists of “VR helper services” section that registered the app as a “VR Helper” & ‘VR Listener”.

Official name of Android N is still a mystery

As you all know that Google is very choosy about Android version names. As per previous Android names Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and 4.4 KitKat, 5.0 Lollipop & 6.0 Marshmallow. You can predict that Google is going to name Google N after a delicious treat, but Google has not revealed anything about it yet.

Google wants you to name official Android N. Yes, It is true!

This time Google is giving the big opportunity to Android lovers, you can give the name to the new member of Google’s Android family i.e. Android N. They launched a website that allows people to suggest names for Android N. If you really want to suggest the name to Android N, you can visit their website.

Android N will merge it with Chrome OS?

It is predicted that Android/chrome OS merger will probably take place with “Android O” in the upcoming year on 29th October 2015, The Wall Street Journal announced that Google is all set to merge the two OS system by 2017. No one can predict, how Android/Chrome OS will look like after getting merged together, but it will enhance the feel & look of the Android device, while it will be able to run on PCs as a full desktop OS. However, this quality is quite difficult in Android N.

Wrapping It Up

I hope this post will help you to understand the basic features of Android N. I am also very excited for the Android N. What new features will see in new Android N? What do you think the Android N name will be? Let me know your expectations to Android N. Feel free to comment below. I would Love to hear from you!!!

Update: Android N name officially released now- “Android Nougat”

After so many rumors & predictions about Android N name, Now Google Android finally released the name of Android’s newest family member “Android Nougat”. Android 7.0 will be highly rich in features and performance. Now I am waiting for Android Nougat to use on my smartphone.

Here is the official tweet of Android that announced the name of Android N:

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Many companies are looking forward to introducing solutions that can cater according to the consumer’s requirements. The companies are launching various mobile apps faster than anyone like College Parrot, Whistle Phone Finder, Revolution, HappenShare & others. Such mobile app development solutions were originated with the intelligent idea of delivering maximum value to the clients at every step while developing their smartphone apps utilizing the key components including rapid launches & quick reach to the market.

From Healthcare to Shopping, mobile applications are increasingly becoming an important part of our daily life. According to the survey report purchase made through mobile devices increased 48 % year by year. At present, mobile devices account for over 22% of all retail e-commerce sales in the world, which is expected to reach 27 percent by 2018. The fact is that almost one-third of e-commerce sales originates from mobile devices & a majority of them are in-app sales.

This year, the average number of applications submitted by developers at the Apple store has consistently been above 1000 per day. Also, the total number of smartphones users worldwide is projected to go beyond 2 billion in 2016.

As per the information, the average US mobile consumers spend almost 89 percent of their “Smartphone time” on Apps. The study reveals the truth that smartphone users spend around 2 hours & 42 minutes on average on mobile devices, out of which time utilized in app   GAge 2 Hours & 19 minutes. Also, almost 11 % of their time spent on media was through the mobile web.

The past couple of years has been very important in terms of innovations in the world of mobile. The app development sector, in particular, is heading towards a great transformation due to various advanced trends. Let us take a look at such trends, which will keep mobile app developers busy in 2016 & beyond.

Top Mobile App Development Trends 2021

Importance Of Cloud Based Development

Mobile Application developers predict that the cloud-based smartphone applications will rule the market in 2016. Booming cloud-based technology is expected to play a significant role in the phone app development field. These ultimate trends make app developer more focused on the ability to synchronize & integrating apps developed for multiple devices.

The cloud approach will help developers in a way that they can build outstanding phone apps that can be easily used on different mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows etc.) with same features & data. Due to the need, there are a large number of organizations has started working on cloud-based app development platforms.

Mobile app developers provided with complete tools for building an app, continuous integration & submission of their app to the application stores. This helps in faster development process without having in-depth technical knowledge of those important activities.

High Security In Apps

There have been so many reports pointing to the concern of users with regard to hacking & as per the prediction, 75% of mobile applications would not be able to pass even basic security tests.

Nowadays, security is very important; hackers will tend to continue the trend of exploiting known security gaps in mobile applications for obtaining important, sensitive & confidential information. Security will still remain a big challenge for developers. It is very important that developers take effective security issues like unintended leakage of data, broken cryptography, insecure data storage & others.

Better User Experience

From the little display of Apple watch to the steadily advanced, increasing screen sizes of the latest Android handsets & iPhones. An app needs to retain its functionality & efficiency across all devices. And the app developers proficient in that will have more chances of success.

Swift – The Brand New Programming Language By Apple

Craig Federighi, the software developer & senior VP at Apple, tell that swift language is the “Better new programming language”. For beginners, iPhone app developers confirm that using the new language is a Quiet easier than working with difficult objective-C, which comes with the entire legacy of the C language. Although it is the nascent stage, app developers are learning the nitty-gritty of the language so that they can easily implement it in watchOS, iOS, OS X & tvOS apps very soon.

Google App Indexing

When Google started favorite mobile- optimized sites a few years back, big brands with responsive designs saw a bigger boost in search results. The similar SERP updates are now starting to happen for apps. In fact, 40% of the total Android searches currently turn up the app- indexing, a number that will grow rapidly in 2016, Bing & Apple are also getting in on the app search game.

HTML 5

HTML 5 & related development tools will gain huge popularity. As this advanced technology will enhance, more & more enterprises will adopt “hybrid” as their primary technology for mobile apps. Unlike native app development, mobile apps also built using hybrid frameworks like ionic, Intel XDK, Sencha touch, Mobile Angular UI can support multiple platforms & reaching a larger user base will get considerably cheaper. From this point of view, developers should keep an eye on hybrid technologies.

Growing Popularity rapidly of enterprise App

It has been predicted that, in the year 2016, almost 35% of big enterprises are expected to have their own app development platform. And, for that reason, the third enterprise app developers are standing to gain the profit in such a scenario.

At present over 42% enterprise app developers have approx. monthly revenue of $ 10000, as because of growing such popularity of enterprise app. So, it is predicted that in 2016, there will a huge opportunity for mobile app developers for developing applications for the enterprise market.

Some of these Mobile Application developers have already gained momentum while others are making great efforts. But there is no doubt that they are going to make remarkable marks in the mobile app development landscape in 2016.

If you are looking to try your hands on these trends, it’s a high time to brace yourself to create the outstanding mobile experiences for your users. And of course, be prepared for all the innovations & changes 2016 is likely to bring along with it.

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