Push Notifications: A feature critical to keep an app alive

User’s frequent engagement with the app can be considered as a key factor in its success ratio. However, snatching user’s attention and making it as one of the most frequently used apps can be a hard task. At an average, a user uses only 1 out of 5 downloaded apps. If your content and app features are assisting to grab user’s attention, the effective way to make user’s most utilized app is by using push notifications.

Push notifications are the catalyst for app marketers to get back the former inactive users.

Using push notifications in apps can fetch diversified benefits with driving traffic; nevertheless, it is vital to use them as customer engagement and shouldn’t be annoying for the customer.

Push notifications notify users on upgraded information related to an app, even when the app is closed. It might be posts on social sites, new update availability or the unlocked levels of your favourite game.

Push notifications can be in form of a banner, alert, badge or a sound.

The vast customer base for most of the apps comprises of inactive users. Their interest on a single app will be lost due to the ocean of apps in the market. They might have downloaded your app, yet the frequency of its usage and replication doesn’t reckon your desired results. In these scenarios, push notifications will be handy for the developers to tap users with updated information, driving engagement and escalating involvement.

ESPN Score center is an example of an app, which has the best reviews from top-notches in the industry. It lets the user to customize their notifications in the most productive way by allowing them to bifurcate the time, when they need notifications and when it’s not required. This leads user to cultivate more likability on the app and will hold a professional respect towards it for not disturbing him.

Push notifications has a lot of pros tagged with it, one of them is that they provide constructive information on user behaviour through tracking of messages and the interaction devices, situations and platforms that generate the  engagement, information on how, why, where and when the app was used by the user. Addition to this invaluable information, push notifications also provide refined analytics with data on engagement, open rate time and delivery receipt.

Push notifications are well organized than emails and can be dealt with them quickly in terms of customer interface. They are user friendly and sum it to be an effective way of communicating your customers with simple and uncomplicated messages that delivers the essential information. For a developer, they are relatively easier to develop and cheaper than SMS. The valuable customer information provided by push notifications is highly directed and specific, which in-turn makes it an effective marketing strategy.

Unlike mobile websites, mobile apps have the potential qualities that can be seen in no other communication channels. It is because of the app developers and their codes that interact with functionality built into device hardware. The most effective attribute of mobile apps is the ability to deliver notifications that can be seen instantly and unlike other marketing messages, it is displayed on the user interface of customer’s smart phone. This makes the push notifications to be opened and read by 97% of app subscribers.

Push notifications are less interruptive than any other forms of customer engagement and can be utilized to draw more traffic to have a better conversion ratio. However, the relevancy must be given high priority, if not push notifications might be intrusive leading to negative perception on your budding app.

How Big Data Technologies Are Changing The World??

As per the reliable statistics, 7 billion searches are done on Google per day; 390 million Tweets a day; 35% of the world’s photograph stored on Facebook and so on and on. The two word terminology for all this data is “Big Data”.

The drive of sharing every small things and trying to get attention of others is increasing rapidly, is the main reason for the requirement of Big Data technologies. Blogging, uploading videos in YouTube etc., make a huge part of the web data. Increasing storage capacity and falling storage costs along with vast enhancements in data analysis have made Big Data available to a variety of new firms and industries.

Let us see the various sectors, where Big Data analytics have been accepted and has been the prime reason for the change.

Improving Business and Strategies

Big Data technologies are employed to understand customers, their behaviours and preferences. The main objective is to create predictive models. The availability of big data has made the telecom companies to predict their customer artifact in an efficient way. 

The vendors are able to optimize their stock based on the data generated from social media and online trends. The delivery route optimization in business processes has been well supported by Big Data technology. Finding a handy candidate for the respective position among the millions in a job search site comes with the support of Big Data technology. The optimization and better strategies that are yielding positive results are just another example for its immense efficiency.

Better health care

While operating a complicated case, the doctors needed experts beside them to handle it. Now, with the evolution of big data technologies, the digitization of records of the patients, the video recording and streaming on cloud at the same time of the operation of a patient helps us to educate other medical practitioners and students around the world.

By using Big Data, the American Society of Clinical Oncology is on a move to find the best possible treatment for cancer. All the observations of individual patients, the similar effects of treatment and medicine on numerous patients are recorded. To make all these data look simple and easily fetchable, Big Data technology is required.

Strong hold security

 Pindrop, a security firm, is using big data analysis to assist banks and other financial institutions to identify callers on the other end of the line and avoids the proxy issue.

Keyrole in R & D

The role of big data technologies in the field of scientific discoveries and innovations is inevitable. To maintain, analyse and process a heap and complex data and equations would have been very time consuming and laborious process, but the Big Data analytics made the job relatively simpler for the scientists. In the present, if we are able to notice the buzzing discoveries in various fields. It simply means that Big Data technologies are running as a background process.

Big data is presenting new opportunities for all the major domains, organizations and individuals. The use of Big Data will become an indispensable basis of competition and growth for the private sector. It will be like a shadow following you at every prospect of the life. When power goes off at your place and you use your smart phone torch light app, you are already enrolled in a DB and you are a part of BIG DATA.

Evolution of Marketing

Marketing – a word, which is the intersection of all the business terminologies, backing up the same meaning and motto of yielding better business.

There are different kinds of marketing. There will be a lot of analysis and analysers with the respective department. Everything has an update and so does the marketing department. The updates are in form of digital and social media marketing. 

Marketing can be beneficial only, when it is manipulated on the right platform. In the real case scenario of visiting work places, door-to-door, face-to-face marketing cannot be considered as marketing itself. It is rather treated as an inhumane behaviour of disturbing public at their relaxing time. 

This made the companies and industry to worry and they found a way to attract customers by advertising their products on television. Television consumes a lot of percentage of viewers, making it as one of the strongest platform for marketing the products.

Later came the era of internet, people slowly started shifting towards the internet more than TV. YouTube, Face book and many social sites made the people to have their eyes caught up with the screens of their computers and smart phones.

People started using social sites more than anything. The addiction is so bad that, even TV and movies are failing to keep people away from mobiles. If there is a single boring shot, user will update a status on his social site with hash tags to increase the humiliation for the makers. When social sites are dominating human’s life, then, one should undoubtedly accept it as the best platform to launch your products, market it and gain a revenue par above your expectations.

Technology is getting better and better and people’s laziness is directly proportional to that. There was a day, where we read all the text in a brochure. Not anymore; we won’t make an effort to read all the textual content. So called readers are decreasing in numbers. A pile of textual content can result in making the reader to switch into another page.

During this kind of scenario, the need of graphics makes it priority crystal clear. If your competent is marketing on a same platform using textual content, you can have upper hand only, if you have a graphic design representing your company, services and products.

A design gives out an impression on your company. It gives the feel of better brand with a better logo. It is very important to gain the trust of people. If you are a very good service provider, you have better products and better team, but you failed to impact people with good designs… You possibly ruined your business. A bad design may not only fail to seize people’s attention, it may also lead them to have a negative impression on your firm.

Once again, these designs are more suitable on social sites. All the literates have a social site account now and the tendency of jumping into those sites are more often. Most of the people will be in state of using FB every min. You have to showcase yourself, where the people are more. The show is running on the social sites now. So, designs are likely to drive better business through social media platforms.

Today, 76% of the businesses have been using social sites as their marketing platform. Retailers have seen 133% increase in their income from social media marketing. Social sites are the new marketing corridors that will take you to your destination of better business.

In and outs of "Operation Blue Star"

“Operation Blue Star”, only the name represented the pleasant color. The result of the Operation Blue Star was the bitter part of the Indian history. Born in the violent year of 1947, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the unfortunate spark of the biggest communal riots seen in India.

 The khalisthan movement for a better and republic state for Punjab was still going on, opposing this were the Indian congress party, which was dominated by Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi. In 1977, Indira asked Sanjay to break the khalidad in the province of Punjab.

Sanjay looked upon someone, who could have set up rival fashion. In the list of 20 names, he was given, the new leader of the Akal Takht, Jarnal Singh Bhindranwale, in fact the strongest of them.

He was a saint, who was dedicated to his religion. When there was political turmoil, he was forced to be a revolutionary and a potential terrorist. He gradually became well known to his community, and people came to see him along with their kids seeking his blessings. He made Amritsar his strong hold and he turned out to be an intractable for the central and state government. The local police force never tried to take an action on him. He was out of their league.

 When his authority was overwhelming, Rajiv Gandhi told him to surrender in an interview. As a reply Bhindranwale challenged Rajiv and government to take any measures possible on him. The reply for Rajiv Gandhi itself indicated that he was well equipped and looking forward for a combat.

The proceedings at Punjab provinces were seemingly dangerous for the Indira’s congress government. She gave the order to Commander General Kuldip Singh Brar to start "Operation Blue Star", which was to neutralize Bhindranwale and his militants. Bhindranwale was accused for storing a huge amount of weapons at Gurudwara in order to start a major armed uprising.

On June 1^st, 1984, the Indian army started its conflict with Bhindranwale and other khalisthan militants. The army was first surprised by the firing from khalisthan militants with machine guns and militants had the upper hand because of the well known architecture of golden temple. The surprise package for Indian army continued when they came to encounter an attack from a rocket propelled grenade. Commander General Mr.Brar, had no idea these militants could have been so well equipped. After the incident, he came up with a dramatic plan and ordered his troop to enter the temple with tanks.

The most historical place for Sikhs was ransomed by both the sides. On 8^th June 1984, Indian army was succeeded in their operation. The potential terrorist Bhindranwale was a martyr for the Sikhs.

The holiest place for Sikhs was wrecked, many innocents lost their lives. For a Sikh, it was an inexcusable incident, which shattered their religious faith and holy place. Beant Singh heard about the disaster. He swore himself to take life of Indira Gandhi. Beant Singh was one of the Gandhi’s favorite guards, whom she had known for ten years.

Despite of the opposition from many leaders of the same party to keep Sikhs as body guards, Indira chose Satwant Singh and Beant Singh to continue as her bodyguards. She wanted to display there was no hatred on Sikhs and somehow wanted to convince the community.

The tables were ready to turndown; Satwant Singh ensured to switch his shift and managed to be with Beant Singh during the assassination of the Indian prime minister.

On 31^st October 1984, Indira was on her way to be interviewed by British Reporter.  In the middle of the walking path, Beant Singh shot her with 3 bullets from his 0.38 pistol and Satwant Singh joined the action with firing 30 bullets from his Sten gun into her.

The series of tragedy didn’t come to an end.  The worst part was about to hit, the revolt against Sikhs all over India started. There were more than 8000 deaths, including 3000 in Delhi. It is also said that Delhi police kept their eyes close, since it was pre-planned. All the Sikh men were killed brutishly.

There are many eye witnesses, who are still alive mourning for losing their family, kids, husbands etc., But, the accused have not got punished. Just for the sake, there has been lot of committees and commissions, which seemed like they were trying to provide justice for the Sikhs.

The CBI recently told the court that during the riot, Sajjan Kumar had said that “not a single Sikh should survive.”  The 2011 WiKiLeaks cable leaks revealed that the United States was convinced about the complicity of the Indian government ruled by the Indian National Congress in the riots, and termed it as “opportunism” and “hatred” of the Congress government against Sikhs.

Let’s pray for all those, who lost their life and for a placid INDIA.

Whats Up with WhatsApp !!!

Smartphone with an internet connection can make you take advantage of a mounting variety of downloadable apps, that allow you to send and receive messages,without incurring carrier charges.

Free text messages are not a big deal for smart phone users. In fact, the network providing companies have been sobbing and grudging about ruining the competition, and they’re even considering giving upon the old charge per usage plans that have long been an industry’s cash flow.

One such app is “WhatsApp”.

WhatsApp was built to be a “better SMS alternative”, according to the company’s website. WhatsApp uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and browsing.No wonder, if you have downloaded the WhatsApp application for free on your smart phone and you didn't have to pay any fee for that. You may be completely addicted to it, just like FB. What will happen after a year of free subscription?

To go on with the usage of app you have to pay them a subscription fee. May be 0.99$ for a year. It is less than a dollar, so most of us wouldn't mind. But when we see the stats, we can know the usage and users of WhatsApp.

Recapitulating the details of a recent Forbes.com post, WhatsApp is worth the price tag, to which it was quoted because: it will help the social network grow globally, it is the new SMS, and it will be desired by other companies and it “is the only app we've ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg.

Let’s have a look at the transaction on a basic level. WhatsApp sold for $19 billion. A few pages of codes, that is said to be an application on ur smart phone was bought for such a huge amount. Many of us give a thought like what all could we buy in $19 billion.

One can own all the Indian Premier League cricket teams. If you’re a football fan, it will make ur eyebrows raise along with goosebumps, because in that amount you can own franchise of Manchester United and Real Madrid together. Isn’t it Awesome???

But how does an app make money?

Just like other products, apps earn money when they are purchased. $.99 per purchase might not sound like a bulky wallet, but it adds up( angry Birds sells for $.99,). Then of course you look at an app like minecraft:pocket edition that sells for $6.99 and made $1 million in iOS app store revenue – on Christmas day alone.

The “freemium” model: even apps that are free to download make money. This freemium model allows users to download the app for free, but will then charge for extra features, lives, power-ups and other in-game resources. The trial-free versions attract you and your addiction is the prime factor for their source of income. When you upgrade the full version with a respective money value, it goes on adding up the revenue for the company.

  

Advertisements: you’ve probably noticed advertisements on your favorite apps. Just like ads in magazines, on TV etc., companies pay for their products and services to be seen with mobile apps.

 WhatsApp earns $.99 per download on iOS and $.99 per year on other platforms. Even with a hefty user base, the company’s revenue might only be hundreds of millions of dollars. There is an immense, unfilled gap between hundreds of millions and $19 billion.

With 500 million users, comes an enormous opportunity for growth. The future forecasts and keeping the “most addicted app” out of the hands of the competitors, makes one of the most remarkable take over, commendable for the Facebook.

How to avoid nervous breakdown during exams ???

Most of us often get tensed and get on to our nerves during exams. The exams may be of a school level or a competitive exam, which might decide one’s job and future also. Getting nervous during the exams makes the situation even worst. Lacks of preparation, anxious about the results, not being in the exam hall in time are the common reason for the nervous breakdown.

Let’s see what all we can do to avoid it

Preparing from the first day...

It may be any kind of examination, but we will be having a gap of at least 4-6 months minimum from the day we take the exam to the actual examination day.

Rather than working our back off on the last moments, from the day 1 , if we spend a specific amount of quality time. We will be able to complete the portion sooner than we expected.

Studying daily at starting few days may be a tough task. When you make it as a routine, as days go on, even if you’re doing any other activities, your mind will drag you to study. In other words, your activity turns into habit. This can be the biggest advantage when you’re studying.

Doing exercises and a regular routine of physical activities.

“All work and no play, makes jack a dull boy”... These lines just cannot be denied. To focus and concentrate your body should allow you to do so. You need more strength to study for more time. If you won’t involve in any physical activity and just keep sitting with books. You will start feeling your muscles being dull and you feel lazy to do anything, which in the worst case you can turn lazy on your studies also. By adding physical activities in your routine, you can relax yourself, you will be stress free, healthy and your concentration increases.

Avoid anxiety

Framing goals is good. But, they have to be proper and definite. Aiming to get good mars is not at all bad, but aiming to get cent % will definitely lead to stairs of downfall. One should come out of “what if’s fantasy first.

What if I read well and won’t score well?

What if the paper is too tough to crack?

What if others score more than me?

What if I won’t get a job?

Rather than answering to the question which appear on the paper, these questions can screw your confidence and everything. Before even trying to make the attempt, thinking of a failure is disgraceful.

Time Table

“If you’re are failing to plan, then you’re planning to fail”. Planning is the first good step towards the exams. Dividing time for the respective subjects, topics etc., is very much important.

If you are good at mathematics and if u keep on solving the problems for the whole day, you are just making fool out of yourself. That is not an efficient way of studying. Dividing the study time equally for each subject, allotting more time for the topic, which u find hard, makes you balanced.

Taking tests in regular interval

Testing our preparation is a key factor before attempting an examination. By facing tests, we will come to know how much we remember, what are the topics we need to focus more?  if you’ve done wrong, you can rectify it before appearing in the examination.

Stop comparing with others

The worst culture in most of the people is comparing. He is the topper; I’m just an above average guy. It can turn bad for the both kind of people. For those who look others as superior, it can destroy the confidence within u. if you are having better marks than your previous attempt you have succeeded and you have every reason to celebrate it.

In the same case, the ones who look others as inferior should be more careful. You may be the topper of ur school or universities. When you are going for the higher level, you will meet the same level of yours, indeed most of them will be better than you.

So, you need to keep preparing and never give up on ur faith and marks.

Be happy with your efforts. When your efforts are sincere, then the results will make u smile. Believe in yourself. Never fear to attempt.

Open Android and Google’s Android ...

The significant dissimilarity that many appear to ignore or they are acknowledging now: Android is an open source. Any person can freely use the open source code to create an Android build and run it on any piece of hardware. If I wanted to implement android platform on an old phone or tablet assuming that, I knew how to do it – I could. So can you. This is exactly what handset makers in china have been doing. Taking the freely available AOSP, or Android Open Source Project, code and selling phones that run on it.

Amazon has been doing this for a few years till date. That Amazon Kindle Fire tablet runs the freely available version of Android. Amazon has built its own interface on top of Android and its own apps as well. We can browse the web with the Silk browser or check our Gmail with the Kindle email app.

But android phones, tablets or the open source android products cannot run Google’s own suite of apps, unless they are licensed. That means paying Google a fee for Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar and access to the Google Play Store. It also means that Google has authority over what devices can have such access through licensing. In other words, it can set minimum device requirements for licensing. Amazon is a perfect example of a company choosing not to license Google’s apps so it enjoys total freedom for its hardware design.

Let’s have a look at the software licensing. In the manner how Google licenses its mobile apps, Microsoft licenses Windows and Windows phone. Microsoft is paid by the companies to put the software on their devices. And Microsoft has minimum requirements for each, just as Google does.  We cannot run Windows Phone 8 on a device with a core processor.Microsoft requires a dual-core chip. The handset must have a GPS radio and a minimum of 512 MB of memory as well.

The reason for Microsoft to do this is identical as Google’s. To create a minimum common hardware denominator that guarantees a certain user experience. If Microsoft were to let budget handset makers put windows phone on cast-off hardware, it would make windows phone itself look like junk.

Android has indeed been open since 2008. And Google has had a licensing program for its android apps since that time. The program may have changed over time as the market matured, but that is to be expected. The major concern now is that reported details of Google Android app licensing is showing up. With irrespective of the reasons, many think that android is not an open source.

In 2010, mobile location company Skyhook accused Google over four patents and claimed that Google was not contending fairly by trying to push its own Wi-Fi location services on hardware partners. Internal documents later emerged showing that a Wi-Fi location database was integral to Google’s own Android strategy.

While incidents such as these do little to answer the question of Google’s own openness, the fact remains that Android itself is open to those who wish to build their own smart phones, tablets, watches or other devices.