Popular Web App Development Frameworks – Front-End & Back-End

Dissecting the Various Layers of Web App Development

A typical web application is conceptually split into three parts, with very well-defined responsibilities, challenges, and strategies in place. Understanding the key concepts of these three subsystems and the infrastructure behind them is important before we dive deeper into the details of the frameworks that are used for web app development.

1. The Client-Side a.k.a The Presentation Tier

The web application which we directly run on our desktop or smartphone browser is typically the client part of the web application. The client-side of the application mostly runs on a browser, but it is not limited to that. Browser applications’ de facto language of implementation is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Implementing an application in these basic techs is difficult for large-scale applications so there exist many frameworks for web app development that makes client-side development easy.

2. The Server Side a.k.a The Logic Tier

In the grand scheme of web app development, the server is a part that is responsible for the logic and data handling. The server gets requests from the client-side and then provides the appropriate response like data or functions as requested. 

3. The Database a.k.a Data Tier

Data is the king. Thus, in the case of many applications, a database is responsible for keeping the data safe and available when it is needed by the applications, Structured Query Language or SQL is one of the popular languages that is used to query these databases. Others are R, C#, Python, etc.

The Overall Infrastructure for Web App Deployment

The backend or the server side has to scale for many client-side applications. The back-end has to sometimes deal with a huge amount of data. Hence, it has to be available, scalable, and resilient. Some of the web applications are used across the world. Thus, the back-end servers are also spread across geographies and have to deal with country-specific policies for both data and feature management. Geo-based governance is an important part of any web application which is deployed across the world. 

Front-End Web App Development Frameworks 

The front-end of the web application is responsible for easy to use and functional interface. Beyond the front-facing design, the front-end is built on a fair amount of logic. It also require an appropriate level of data handling. In principal the front end of a web application is built out of the following units:

• HTML: The content that needs to be shown on the browser is built out of HTML. Thus, it turns into the DOM [document object model] for the browser to render.
• CSS: Cascading style sheets are responsible for the representation of the content. It represents how the content is displayed to the user. 
• JavaScript: The dynamic logic behind a web application that is responsible for the context-specific update of the web application is typically implemented in JavaScript. Therefore, JavaScript is like the language of the web which is understood by pretty much all browsers. However, many languages compile into JavaScript like TypeScript or CoffeeScript.

While the basic building blocks are the above three languages, there’s much more required to build a large and complex web application’s front end. We need to have frameworks in place that make it easier to develop the front-end. Let’s take a look at a few of these:

1. jQuery

jQuery is built on the idea of “do less, get more”, it wraps a lot of commonly used functions by the web applications developers and then provides simple to use APIs for the same. Such high-quality code being readily available to the developers means the difference between getting to concentrate on the task at hand or trying to reinvent the wheel. It also fixes interoperability between browsers

Features and Advantage

• jQuery is a JavaScript library that is lightweight and fast. It requires less time to travel through wire, load, and execute.
• jQuery makes DOM manipulation extremely simple and fast.
• jQuery simplifies AJAX call and DOM manipulation.

2. AngularJS

Angular.js is Google’s framework. It is supported by the tech giant and will be there for years to come. Hence, it is used to build dynamic web apps and SPAs (Single-Page Apps). 

Features and Advantage

• An instruction-based and easy-to-use interface, that makes it easy to build a UI that stays in sync with the updates of the application state.
• Model-View-Controller or (MVC) a software design pattern that gives an outline of how the front-end UI ideas should be organized into actual code.
• High-performance code and the regular update makes it dependable 

3. ReactJS

React.js was developed by Facebook and is known for its high performance. It is one of the most used front-end UI development frameworks and is a preferred choice for web app development.

Features and Advantage

• Virtual DOM (Document Object Model) that makes DOM updates lighting fast and efficient
• JSX allows putting HTML and JavaScript together for UI definitions

Mirror mirror on the wall – which is the fairest framework of them all?

According to a recent developers’ survey jQuery is the most popular front-end framework that is preferred among the developers for front-end development. ReactJS and AngularJS are not far behind. However, in comparison to AngularJS and ReactJS, the latter is the clear preference among developers for the front-end technologies for web applications. The reasons behind the popularity of ReactJS is easy to learn, fast, and heavily supported by the developer community.

With EngineerBabu you can access developers with expertise in all the above frameworks be it AngularJS, ReactJS, Python, and many more. See the range of our services here.

Back-End Web App Development Frameworks 

The technology spectrum for server-side back-end development can largely sub-divided into two parts i.e., the choice of the implementation language and the type of framework used. Both these aspects are related and impact the development and maintenance process of the back-end heavily. 

Let’s take a look at the most common programming languages and their supported frameworks:

• Python is a preferred language when it comes to complex app development – it is powered by the Django, Pylons, Flask frameworks. 
• JavaScript is emerging as another language of choice for the back-end developer because of frameworks like NodeJS.
• Java is a fast, scalable, and secure language. For web application development it generally works with the Spring, Struts, and Hibernate frameworks. J2EE is the widely use standard for enterprise applications in Java.
• Ruby is a programming language with many admirers. However, it has a low barrier to entry and allows you to create powerful apps in days. Ruby on Rails (RoR) is a mature open-source framework that makes development much easier.
• PHP is a widely adopted language. Laravel and Symfony are one of the most popular PHP frameworks.

Now let us take a look at some of these web app development frameworks mentioned above and dig a bit deeper into what makes them popular.

1. Django

Django is an open-source back-end framework based on Python. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. Django is good for sophisticated and feature-heavy data-driven websites. This back-end framework facilitates reduced implementation, reusability, and faster development.

Features and Advantages

• Ease-of-Use – Django is easy to use, and a low learning curve helps developers to speed up the entire development process from start to finish.
• Features – Django provides a wide variety of features to help users take care of some common web development requirements. Tasks such as user authentication, sitemaps, content administration, and much more can be easily implemented with this framework. 
• Security – Django framework has robust security and can easily prevent security issues, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, request forgery, and clickjacking. 
• Scalability – Django offers a high level of scalability that is the reason why many of the world’s leading websites rely on it.

2. Laravel

Lavarel is an open-source PHP web framework for developing web applications. It follows the model–view–controller (MVC) architecture. However, Lavarel also offers modular packaging with a dedicated dependency manager. It also provides ways of accessing relational databases along with maintenance and deployment utilities. It has an MIT license and is hosted on GitHub. 

Features and Advantages

• Authentication: Implementing authentication is quite simple with Laravel as it has simple authorization logic organization and easy control of access resources. 
• MVC Architecture Support: MVC architecture pattern support effectively separates presentation and business logic layers and offers many functions, facilitates better performance, and improves both scalability and security. 
• Cache Backends: Offers support for Redis, Memcached, and other widely-used cache backends. Therefore, tt access the file cache driver, which gets cache object storage in a file system and in-memory cache like APC or Memcached for larger apps.
• Template Engine: Features lightweight built-in templates that can be utilized for generating layouts and seeding contents. Designed for the development of both simple and complex sectioned layouts. 

3. ExpressJS

Express.JS is a Node.js web servlet framework that is open-source and available under the MIT license. Thus, it is used for building APIs and web applications. 

Features and Advantages

• Learning Curve – JavaScript is the most commonly used language for web front-end development. A lot of tutorials, code examples, and developer communities make it easy to start and master.
• Full-Stack JS Features – Node.JS allows the use of JavaScript for both the server-side and client-side applications. As a result, there is no need for separate engineers for front-end and back-end development. Great way to save time and money. 
• High Performance – The V8 JavaScript engine is fast, really fast. The engine has JIT which compiles the code into machine code and makes it run at native speeds. Non-blocking I/O operations speed up the execution as the code is waiting for some execution to end before moving forward. 

4. Spring Boot

Spring Framework is an open-source application framework in Java. Web Applications can use all the core features of this framework. Spring is a counterpart of the Java EE framework. While Java EE is a preferred language for monolithic legacy platforms. Whereas, Spring works great with microservices-based platforms.

Features and Advantages

• Initialization – SpringBoot performs lazy initialization. This drastically reduces the time for application start.
• Fluent Builder API – tools support inbuilt to build APIs from the framework itself.
• Liveness State – An application can notify if its internal state allows it to function or process recovery in case of a failure. 

Conclusion 

The web app development landscape is constantly evolving. Speed, security, and usability are the three critical factors that will determine the success of any web application. Along with this the seamless integration of technologies like voice, AI, AMP, etc. will also play an important role. The web app development teams of any enterprise will need to stay up-to-date with these trends and technologies and choose the right frameworks for web app development. With EngineerBabu building a full-stack development team with expertise in all the latest frameworks. Tell us your requirements.

The post Popular Web App Development Frameworks: Key Features & Benefits appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language developed by Apple Corporation for the products catering to its ecosystem. These include iOS, macOS, Linux, and z/OS platforms. It is designed to run along Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, and the large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple products.
It is built using the open-source LLVM compiler framework and has been included in Xcode since version 6. It utilizes the Objective-C runtime library which allows C, C++, Objective-C,  and Swift code to run within one program.
Swift is exceptionally safe, and interactive and combines the best in modern language thinking, with wisdom from the broader Apple engineering culture and copious contributions from its open-source community.
If you wish to venture into the domain of App Development, then these series of posts could serve as a holy grail for you.
Here’s our guide for beginners to learn Swift. Go through it sincerely, and by the end of it, you’ll acquire a clear and comprehensive understanding of the concepts of Swift 101.

1. Variable and constant

In the entire project life cycle, we need to stock a lot of information. Some data needs to be altered while sometimes it needs to be as is. To achieve this, we have Variables & Constants.

• A variable is a designated memory location which temporarily stores data and can acquire different values while the program is running. One can declare a variable by using the ‘var’ keyword.

• A constant is a designated memory location that briefly stores data and remains the same throughout the execution of the program. If you want to retain a particular value – declare them as constant.If you try and change the value of constant, Xcode will show an error message and won’t proceed further. This helps in code optimization and makes your code run faster.Constant in Swift is declared by using ‘let’ keyword, as was applied in elementary Mathematics.
  

NOTE: It is important to note that we must ALWAYS assign a unique name for constants and variables to avoid a compilation error.

2. Data Types

We have different classifications of data in general, like name, phone number, weight, etc. Now how to represent them in a project using the language of computers?
Here comes into play – Data types. In computer science, including computer programming, a data type or simply type is an attribute of data which tells the compiler and the interpreter how the programmer intends to utilize the data.
i) String: As the name suggests, we can store a sequence of characters in this data type.
For example :

• Any entity: “Engineerbabu”, “India”, etc.
• Any sentence: “How are you?” , “This is a really nice blog.”

Syntax:
import UIKit
let constant : String = "Mitesh"
print (constant)

ii) Int: Int is used to store the whole number, where Int32, Int64 is used to store 32 or 64 bit signed integer and UInt32, UInt64 is used to store bit unsigned integer
For example: Any whole numeric number: 42, 100, 999

Syntax:
var int = 42 
print (int)

iii) Float: This data type is applied to store a 32-Bit floating point number. They are used to store the fractional component.
For example: Any fractional value: 1.343555

Syntax:
var float = 1.343555
print(float)

(iv) Double: This data type is employed to store 64-bit Floating point number. They are also employed to store the fractional component. Double has better accuracy than float.
Any fractional value: 1.34315

Syntax: 
var double = 1.24315
print (double)

v) Bool: Bool stores a Boolean value which can either be true or false. Use this when you require a firm outcome.
For example:

• Do you want to receive push notifications?
• Do you want to allow the user to see your mobile number?

Syntax:
var boolVariable = false
boolVariable = true

Here are the limits of the data type.

iv) Dictionary: Dictionary is employed to store an unsorted list of values of the same Swift 4 puts strict checking which does not allow you to enter a wrong type in a dictionary even by error.

v) Array: Arrays are used to store lists of values of similar type. Swift 4 puts strict checking which does not allow you to enter a wrong type in an array, even by mistake. All the objects of an array ought to be of the same data type, i.e., int string, dictionary, double, etc.

3. Conditional statements

Sometimes we wish to execute code if a specific condition is valid. It is represented primarily by the if and else statements. You give Swift a condition to check, then a block of code to execute if that condition is found true.

4. Loop

When it comes to performing a repetitive task, it is not feasible to type the same code again and again; instead, one can use loops. Loops are simple programming constructs that repeat a block of code for as long as a condition is deemed true.

Example:
a) For loop
for i in0..<5 {
print(i)
}
b) While loop
var index =10
while index <20{
print("Value of index is \(index)")
index = index +1
}

5. Function

Functions are self-contained blocks of code that perform a specific task. You can give a function a name that identifies what it does, and this name is used to call the function to perform its task when needed. Every function in Swift has a particular type, consisting of the function’s parameter type and return type.
Example:
a) Function definition without parameter and return type: This method is not taking any parameter and returning value that needs to be handled.

func student()->String{
return"Ram"
}

b) Function definition with parameter and return type: This is an example of a method taking a string parameter and returning received a string that needs to be handled from where it is called.

func student(name:String)->String{
return name
}

c) Function call without parameter and a returned value

student()

d) A function call with parameter and return value

print(student(name:"Mohan"))

6. Optional

The optional type in Swift 4 handles the absence of a value. Optional means either “there is a value, and it equals some value like “X” or “there isn’t a value at all.”

var string: String?=Nil
if string !=nil{
print(string)
}else{
print("string has nil value")
}

Forced Unwrapping

If you defined a variable as optional, then to acquire value from this variable, you need to unwrap it. This is achieved by placing an exclamation mark at the end of the variable.

var string: String?
string ="Hello!"
if string !=nil{
print(string)   // Optional("Hello!")
}else{
print("string has nil value")
}

Now apply unwrapping to get the correct value of the variable

var string: String?
string ="Hello"
if string !=nil{
print(string!)    // "Hello!"
}else{
print("string has nil value")
}

7. Enumeration

It is an user-defined data type which consists of a set of related values. “enum”Keyword is used to defined enumerated data type. Enum is declared in the class, and it can be accessed throughout the instance of the class. Initial member value is defined using enum initializers, and functionality is also extended by ensuring standard protocol functionality

Example with type:
enum GenderType  : String{
Case Male
Case Female
}
Switch Statement using enums:
var gender = GenderType.Male
switch gender {
case .Male:
case .Female:
}

8. Struct

Structs are basic constructs of a program. In Swift, structs can have properties and functions. The key difference is that structs are value types and classes are reference types. Because of this, let and var behave differently with structs and classes.

structPerson {
var name:String
var gender:String
var age:Int
init(name: String, gender: String, age: Int) {
 
self.name = name
self.gender=gender
self.age = age 
 }
}
let person1 =Dog(name: "Mohit", gender: "male", age: 14)
var person2 =Dog(name: "Ram", gender: "male", age: 25)
person2.name ="Lucy"

9. Class

Classes are the building blocks of flexible constructs and are similar to constants, variables, and functions users use to define class properties and methods. Swift 4 gives us the functionality that while we declaring classes the users need not create interfaces or implementation files which we need to do with Objective C. Swift 4 allows us to create classes as a single file and the external interfaces will be created by default once the classes are initialized.
What are the benefits of having Classes–

1. Inheritance
2. Typecasting
3. Automatic reference counting

There are specific characteristics which are similar to structures

• Properties are defined to store the values
• Subscripts are defined for providing access to values
• Methods are initialized to improve functionality
• Functionality is expanded beyond default values

Example:

class student {
var studname: String
var mark: Int
var mark2: Int
}

Wrapping up…

I hope you enjoyed reading this brief Swift Tutorial. Start practicing on these basics right away, we’ll be creating many more posts for you to clearly comprehend the basics of Swift.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when you consider the vastness of this domain. We’ll be furthering covering various aspect of Swift Programming in the upcoming series of articles. So, stay tuned! 

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The post Swift 101 – Things Every Beginner Should Know! appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

The world today;
Is experiencing a dramatic change in age demographics. Considering America as a prime example, it is estimated – In the year 2019, the group of people of age older than 65 will outnumber the group of those younger than five.As life expectancy increases, the number of people living with different chronic conditions and functional impairments, for instance, dementia, diabetes and the inability to manage household chores with growing age are further increasing.
People belonging to the “old age” group are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases and require more care and attention. In such times, the need of the hour is to discover and develop solutions that ensure people’s healthcare expectations, preferences as well as their needs. This leads us to envision the potential of ‘healthcare at home services’ that can benefit people of all age groups to take care of their medical situations independently with ease.
With rapidly progressing technology, the potential for transforming healthcare at home will also grow tremendously. Healthcare organizations and institutions will be able to provide exceptional levels of patient care along with the comfort of home. This will promote greater patient satisfaction and improvement of cost control in healthcare services. As per M&M, home healthcare is expected to reach $349.8 Billion from $227.5 Billion by 2020 globally, at a CAGR of 9.0% during the forecast period.

Elderly and ailing patients might not have the resources and energy to visit doctors every now and then, which consequently leads them to choose the option of healthcare at home. Due to this, healthcare companies are always competing with each other in the race to adapt to the increasingly digitized world.
Specifically talking about the US, the healthcare organizations are well aware of the issues prevailing such as the need for increased care for home treatments of the aging population, mostly due to mobility and budget issues. The only savior that can aid in such a situation is technology, given that it is implemented correctly.
While working with technology, it is vital for home healthcare organizations to choose the right option to achieve the desired results, such as increasing efficiency while providing patients with the utmost care and affordable solutions.

What Constitutes the Spectrum of Home Healthcare?

Other than providing healthcare services for the elderly, healthcare at home is also useful for patients who need constant medical care and treatment once they get back to their homes from the medical facility or hospital. Home healthcare makes it possible for people to receive a variety of medical services in their homes. Healthcare at home can be beneficial for people dealing with different conditions. Whether the patient is an individual recovering from an illness after a hospital stay or someone who is disabled, old or suffering from a chronic disease, healthcare at home can be the right option in such situations.
Healthcare at home allows people to get any kind of treatment available; be it therapeutic or nursing or even routine medical assistance. According to a survey by Canadian Home Care Association, with the aid of healthcare services at home, there has been a decline of around 72% in emergency department visits, this has also resulted in the reduction of hospital admission rates.

Healthcare at home comprises of the following factors:
• Home Assistance
The primary focus of healthcare at home is for people to get medical support at home rather than spending time in a medical facility. Healthcare at home allows people to get the freedom of staying at their residential facility rather than opting for long-term nursing care at hospitals. With home assistance, medical professionals can assist patients who are incapable of conducting daily activities with help for tasks like food preparation, basic housekeeping, and emergency measures. This can be done until the patient can do all such tasks by themselves.
Home assistance also allows medical professionals to take care of medical and psychological assessments while allowing individuals to learn about pain management, disease education, and physical therapy, etc.
• Home Care Agencies
Home care agencies keep their focus on providing medical expertise in the form of healthcare professionals at a patient’s home. In such cases, medical professionals or doctors are sent to a patient’s house to treat their injuries or illnesses. Once the health condition of the patient is restored, the need for medical professionals end and their services are discontinued thereafter.
• Home Health Care Workers
Other than expert doctors, there are certain cases where other medical professionals are involved in home healthcare programs such as nurses, physiotherapist, nutritionist, occupational therapist, etc. The demand for such professionals is expected to significantly increase in the next decade as people of all age groups are growing more conscious of healthy lifestyles.

Benefits of Healthcare at Home

Healthcare at home can be beneficial for many reasons including but not limited to the following ones. Even when the patient is not in a condition to visit the hospital, home healthcare professionals can be of great help. They are specially trained and qualified to provide treatment while assessing the safety as well as risks at the patient’s home itself. They can also offer simple suggestions and corrections for the patient’s well-being, such as the medicines to keep in handy for emergencies or recommendations for immediate ambulance assistance etc.

1. Activities of daily living are supported in-home care too. These activities can include any basic necessity such as bathing, medicine reminders as well as grooming, etc. Such facilities allow elderly patients to get regular help along with their personal care requirements while maintaining a high quality of life for them.
2. Expert nursing care at home is one of the significant benefits of healthcare services at home. Skilled medical professionals can carry out specific critical medical procedures at home with the help of supervised nurses who are certified and hold knowledge about technically advanced medical equipment. Healthcare at home allows your loved ones to get the personalized care that they need at their doorstep.
   
3. Dietary and nutrition support is a part of home healthcare. Patients who suffer from certain diseases and are discharged from the hospitals after treatments, often grow very weak as they lack nutrition. Their problems can worsen with ageing, illness, and injury. Healthcare at home may include dietary and nutritional counselling along with home-cooked meals that can prevent your loved ones from lack of nutrition.
4. Multiple medical prescriptions can turn to be confusing. Home healthcare experts can help your loved ones to consume the right medicines at the right time to control their medical conditions and prevent the intake of wrong drugs.
5. When home care is provided to patients with chronic health issues such as diabetes or pneumonia, clinical trials have turned out to be better with fewer complications according to researchers. Healthcare at home can result in better health outcomes. Moreover, home healthcare allows patients to get treated in a better manner as it provides one-on-one support for individuals. Such personalized and skilled care strengthens the bond between healthcare professionals and their clients.

What’s Driving this Change in Home Healthcare Services?

Companies focusing on providing home healthcare services rely on automation heavily as it allows to ensure that the technology used in the process remains invisible and will enable them to deliver the best care for the users. Due to this factor, more and more home healthcare providing companies are discovering the potential value of automation and optimization as they need to stay competitive in the field.
Automated appointment scheduling is one of the examples of automated processes that result in increased efficiency. Leading technologies like Artificial Intelligence can help healthcare businesses in providing better organized patient-centric services.

For instance, medicines and equipment required by the patients can be determined in real-time with technology. Along with this AI can allow the feature of predictive caregiver scheduling and appointment duration along with predictive routing for travel in case of emergencies. It can also improve customer service through predictive cancellation to avoid no-show appointment prevention.
The whole purpose of automation in home healthcare is to streamline the overall processes such as scheduling and providing services as and when needed, along with all the necessary equipment, thus, improving the patient care at an accelerating pace. This way, all the hassle of fixing random appointments can be eliminated while increasing the productivity of the overall system.
Recommended Read: Blockchain in Healthcare: Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications

The power of the latest ground-breaking technologies like Blockchain and AI can change a lot in the healthcare sector as by resolving current issues and helping patients to get the best experience when it comes to home healthcare. Healthcare organizations are getting aware of the benefits that technology can provide them such as finishing basic tasks and saving time.

5 Technologies Reforming Home-Healthcare

1. Sensors
According to Kalorama information, sales for remote patient monitoring was estimated to around $29.7 Billion in the year 2014 out of which a good part of the demand was accounted for home healthcare facilities and services. Eldercare providers have picked up interest in the home healthcare treatments rather than shifting people to another treatment facility.
As per the trend, sensor technology could be placed in home premises, around doors, windows as well as the patient’s appliances and equipment. These sensors can provide alerts to caregivers in case of any abnormal activity.
They can also track and send notifications if the patient misses their meals. This can be particularly important for patients dealing with diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Such patients can remain at home, and their activities can be monitored via mobile healthcare apps as well as sensors.
2. GPSIn cases of emergency, such as when senior citizens are away from home for a long time, GPS tracking can help their families, healthcare workers or law enforcement bodies to locate them quickly. Technologies with features such as mobile alert services also allow these devices to follow a hybrid approach that enables people to find the elderly even in places where GPS might not be available such as garage parking and indoors. It can also help by automated calling for assistance in case users fall.
Moreover, in need for emergency health services, there can be a difference of life and death concerning calling the closest emergency squad and rapid dispatching. GPS tracking becomes and much-needed option in emergency business service.
3. Remote Monitoring Tools
Regular health monitoring is not an option but a necessity when it comes to elderly patients. Many devices are available these days which can be connected to smartphones to help reduce the costs as well as the time that is consumed when it comes to doctor visits in endangered health situations.

Technology has enabled different options in the form of fitness bands that can keep a regular track of sleep, diet, number of steps, etc. Along with these, there are many other devices which can be used for the purpose of tracking and measuring glucose and blood pressure levels along with heart rate monitoring and other measurements. Such tools allow the patient’s family members as well as nurses and doctors to keep a detailed track of their daily healthcare needs and eliminate the need of calling a doctor time and again.
4. Big DataHome healthcare relies highly on the data available from multiple resources and its analysis to gain vital insights for the right kind of treatment. Some home health services analyze data in massive amounts and use their outcomes to take preventive measures even before a medical situation can turn into a problem.
Big-data enabled sensor can detect the regular activity levels such as sleep patterns etc. and inform the caretaking authorities to take immediate action concerning any abnormality.
5. TelehealthTelehealth systems are a boon to the healthcare industry as they provide people with the ability to use phones and other digital systems to connect patients with doctors and specialists. Moreover, the promising advances in these systems can help the disabled or elderly citizens from traveling to-and-fro to healthcare facilities. Devices such as smartphones and iPads with a simple internet connection can make it easier for the people to implement telehealth and make results easier to understand. They allow doctors to monitor patients from different places and share the outcomes in real time.

3 Applications Driving Healthcare Innovation

Constantly evolving mobile technology has led us to implement new and improved ideas to reality. Healthcare mobile apps are a big revolution in the industry as they have made our work more accessible and improved the rate of efficiency.
Following is a list of some of the healthcare applications that are rapidly transforming the healthcare industry for good.
1. Doctor-On-Demand:
Doctor-on-demand is a mobile application that allows the patient to get a consultation with their doctors through video calling. The application uses the concept of telemedicine to provide the patients with an on-demand doctor in situations of urgent care.

Certified physicians offer their services for urgent care, chronic conditions, preventive medicines, medical advice, etc for both medical care and mental health.
The app could also be helpful in non-emergency situations like flu and cold, respiratory issues, allergies, back pain, and UTI.
2. HealthTap:

The application allows a patient to fix a virtual medical appointment with a doctor or to get some answers to their questions. It provides a convenient way to access healthcare from real doctors for 24*7, through consultations via video, voice or text. The app also has a knowledge library of around 700,000 topics and articles for people to read and learn about healthcare on their own.
It uses an AI-powered symptom checker for one-to-one recommendations and guidance.
3. Microsoft HealthVault:
Microsoft HealthVault is a digital service as well as a mobile app that offers a patient the freedom to keep their medical records updated and safe. The patients can also share these records with digital professionals securely in the time of need. The system is exceptionally suitable for patients with chronic diseases as they can keep a proper track of their routine health metrics.

It also allows patients to set healthcare goals, track progress, and discover health trends.

Concluding View

Healthcare at home sure has a lot of potential but it can only be leveraged if the technologies are utilized in an effective manner.

Crucial data such as patient history should be managed properly and researched for insights and understanding without compromising its security.

People need to believe in technologies in order to adapt and use them in daily lives. Trending names like Blockchain and Artificial intelligence can bring a revolution in the healthcare industry with emerging use-cases and a proper understanding on how they can be used at their best for patients, doctors as well as the overall healthcare ecosystem.

The post How is Technology Transforming Healthcare at Home appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Why you need a FinTech Company for your business?

Online platforms in financial technology can be driving force for the growth of businesses by leaps and bounds. For instance, FinTechs can help credit unions and banks build a thriving B2B business without any hassles. It can majorly contribute by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs and downtime.  This, in turn, can be directly proportional to increased productivity and better utilization of available resources.
Evaluating the pros and cons can help you make the right choice according to your requirements. The key to choosing the right partner for your business will revolve around measuring certain compliance, risk tolerance, and customer service factors. In short, your FinTech partners should operate under the same high standards so that they can manage your processes without tainting your reputation. Here are a few things you need to know as to why you FinTech partner is indispensable for your business:

•    Minimized risk and maximized positive impact:

First and the foremost factor which you need to consider is an easy identification of what is missing from your current offerings to the customers. It is quite possible that your customers aren’t really looking for a new service or solution. All they yearn for is a better and efficient access to products they already have.  Hence, finding the right partner will help you improve your streamlined processes and existing product line. This, in turn, can significantly impact your approval time and underwriting positively. In this way, the needs of your customers will be fulfilled and result in lowering of your risks.

•    Increased transparency:

Ensure that you choose a FinTech partner who is completely transparent in their offering. Advertisements can often be misleading when very few loans qualify at that rate. Make sure that your lending platform partners are willing to share their actual APR range of loans. Always remember that your customers expect you to be very responsible for the service the partner provides. Thus, never compromise on these intricate details otherwise you might stake your reputation for no positive results.

•    Demand built-in compliance:

With an increase in compliance costs, you should seek FinTech partners which already possess built-compliance technology which can help you mitigate the risks and improve your savings. You can choose those partners which are working under the same banking standards as you, with a regulated protocol and uniform processes. Their ultimate goal should be to help small businesses grow exponentially without ruining their credibility in the market. Built-in compliance technology can thus play an instrumental role in driving down the overhead costs.

Hence, choosing the right FinTech partner can turn out to be a blessing in disguise. You need to stand out in the crowd in the competitive market by improving your efficiency, delivering speed and providing low-cost loans. Technological advancements in the finance sector can help banks accelerate their working processes. But, you need to be cautious as not all FinTech companies will share the same principles, standards, and goals as you. Thus, study the market trends properly before you step out in the market to choose your right FinTech partner.

Top 10 Reputable FinTech Companies For Your Business:

1.  Stripe: 

Valued at a whopping $9.2 billion, this fintech pioneer ‘s mission is to transform the workings of internet business. Founded in the year 2010 by Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collison, Stripe has achieved indefeasible feats by supporting online transactions for various bigwigs like Uber, Google, Spotify and more. Its ultimate goal is to ease out the process of secure and fast payments. It provides APIs to clients so that integration of online payment systems with their websites and apps can be smooth. Apart from that, it aims at building flexible and powerful tools for internet commerce.
Stripe’s unmatched functionality and meticulously designed APIs help create the best possible products for users. Undoubtedly, it is a one-stop destination for the creation of subscription services, crowdfunding platforms, an e-commerce store and more. This technology company builds economic infrastructure for the internet by helping out businesses of every size. It combines a payment platform with applications that put revenue data at the heart of business operations. Millions of world’s innovative technology companies are scaling efficiently by building their businesses on Stripe. No wonder, Stripe has occupied the top positions in the Top 10 list of FinTech Companies.
2.  Sofi:

Sofi has made a mark in the FinTech industry by helping people achieve financial independence. It follows a unique approach to offering lower interest rates and lending to encourage big savings. Sofi has brought the necessary disruption in the US personal banking sector, by putting the consumer first. With student loans mounting up and credit scores going down, acquiring money from a bank became a tedious task at hand.
It established itself in the market by targeting student loan refinancing for Standford MBAs. But, with time, it moved forward with providing personal loans, mortgages and wealth management. Currently valued at $4.3 Billion, the company has grown exponentially in a short span of time. Founded in 2011 by Mike Cagney, Dan Macklin, James Finnigan, and Ian Brady, the company has explored various economical alternatives for students depending on loans to finance their education.
3.  GreenSky:

David Zalik, a child prodigy who began attending college at 14, founded GreenSky in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. GreenSky stands tall in the market among other FinTech companies as it specializes in consumer finance marketplace. Their areas of expertise include Retail and Home Improvement. They have built their customer base in over 50 states of USA. They strive to transform small businesses and consumer credit mechanism by enabling pervasive and affordable access to financing.
GreenSky has funded over 12 billion loans and worked with more than 1.7 million customers. Apart from that, it is in collaboration with over 14 large banking institutions which aim at granting loans to customers through an easily accessible mobile app. GreenSky also financially supports medical procedures that may not be included in insurance such as cosmetic surgeries, dental assistance, visionary care, pet medical services and more. It has emerged to be a sought-after alternative for credit cards. In this internet driven era, where people are used to getting everything done with a single click, the instant lending option by GreenSky is changing lives for the better.
4.   Credit Karma:

Founded in the year 2007 by Kenneth Lin, Nichole Mustard, and Ryan Graciano, this company has proved to be an emerging player in the Financial sector. Its ultimate aim is to provide free access to credit scores and reports to its reliable customers. Also, you can viably make informed financial decisions by seeking the advice of their experts. Credit Karma holds great years of experience in providing financial management and free credit services.
Some other areas of its expertise include monitoring unclaimed property databases, free tax preparation and recognizing and disrupting credit report errors. It receives most of its revenue from targeted advertisements. It generates customers’ credit scores and reports from Transunion and Equifax with weekly updates. This customer credit data is then analyzed by the company in order to recommend financial products to the users. Any purchases of the financial products bought through Credit Karma recommendations generate revenues for them in terms of commissions paid by the banks. Also, its massive social media campaigns have helped it to gain recognition all over the world. In 2015, it began its MyMoneyStory online campaign encouraging people to talk about personal financial problems and issues openly and share stories of their financial woes, a rarely discussed topic in American society. No wonder that it has occupied the top charts in the Top 10 list of FinTech Companies.
5.  Oscar:

Founded in 2012 in New York City, Oscar strives to use technology to humanize health care. Its founders namely Mario Schlosser, Josh Kushner and Kevin Nazemi aimed at establishing health insurance company centered around the patient, engaging members and guiding them to the right care. In an attempt to make healthcare simple, smart and user- friendly, Oscar has hidden all the complexities of the process behind a simple and accessible user interface. It offers all its members free 24/7 telemedicine visits through their Doctor-on-Call Service.
A Concierge Team, comprising of three care guides and a registered nurse capable of handling everything from customer support questions to clinical coordination, is assigned to each of its members. It provides direct appointment scheduling and a clinical dashboard bringing all of the patient’s medical histories on a single platform. Today, Oscar drives the highest levels of engagement in health care, helping over 250,000 individuals and businesses from startups in Brooklyn, New York to bookkeepers in Bouldin Creek, Austin – take charge of their health.
6.  Avant :

Founded in 2012 by Al Goldstein, John Sun and Paul Zhang, it started with the aim of lowering the barriers and costs of borrowing. This Chicago based online money lending company strives to make the process of loan transaction smooth and user-friendly. Its founders Sun and Zhang graduated from the Y Combinator startup program in 2012 and wanted to build their business, Debteye. The application process for the business loan was tedious and, lead to frustration and desolation for them both. They decided to start Avant with the aim of making loan processes easier for other people.
Avant uses custom technology and analyzes customer data to provide personal lending and credit scoring options. While most of the lenders look at the financial history of the customers, Avant focuses on what they can achieve in the future. They study the behavioral and emotional patterns of the customers and not just their financial reports in order to provide them tailor-made lending options.
7.  Zenefits:

Zenefits is a promising American company which was founded by Park Conrad in 2013. It aims at providing cloud-based HR software as a service to its clients. Multiple HR services such as health insurance, payroll compliance, paid leaves, stock management options are taken care of by Zenefits. It follows a hub-and-spoke model for generating revenue. The cloud-based software service(hub) is provided to the customers for free thereby making it easier for the business to import all the employee information in Zenefits. It makes money through the spokes such as Health Insurance and Payroll by acting as a middleman between the companies providing those services and its clients. Therefore, it generates revenues in the form of commission. Zenefits has helped small startups tremendously by automating HR processes for them. Its network is spread in Tempe, Chicago, Atlanta, and Vancouver. Its goal is to bring technological disruption in an industry where usage of dot-matrix printers and fax machines is preferred.
8. Prosper:

Prosper was founded in 2005 as the first peer-to-peer lending marketplace in the United States. Since then, Prosper has facilitated more than $13 billion in loans to more than 850,000 people. It is an online platform which encourages people to invest in a way that is financially and socially rewarding. Borrowers can apply online for a fixed-rate, fixed-term loan between $2,000 and $40,000. Individuals and institutions can invest in loans and earn attractive returns. Prosper handles all loan servicing on behalf of the investors and matched borrowers. Prosper Marketplace is backed by leading investors including Francisco Partners, Sequoia Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Credit Suisse NEXT Fund.
Founded by Chris Larsen and John Witchell, it maintains a full public database of all loans issued through its marketplace on its website. This database and all market statistics can be accessed and evaluated for analysis of loan performance over time. It follows a transaction-based business model, charging customers a nominal fee for each transaction. It verifies the borrower’s identity before processing loans and manages every stage of the process.  For the first three years of its existence, it followed a variable rate model functioning as an E-bay like online auction marketplace. In 2010, it filed a new prospectus at the SEC, altering its business model to use only pre-set rates determined exclusively by a prosper formula. Instead of auctioning for rates in an unmoderated and sometimes unfair auction process, lenders have to just make a simple choice now. They can invest at the rate assigned to the loan by Prosper’s loan pricing algorithm or not invest at all.
9. AvidXchange:

This American FinTech company provides automated payment solutions and account payable options to medium-sized businesses. AvidExchange was founded in 2000 by Micheal Preager. Catering mainly to real estate, financial services, energy, and construction sectors, it aims to make the process paperless and hassle-free. It provides electronic invoice capture, invoice approval workflow, invoice and bill payment reporting, utility bill analytics and payment solutions, centralized invoicing processing, account payable solutions and accounting system integration software solutions. It eliminates the outdated manual processed that lead to fraud, delay in payments and painful audits. Comprised of a family of 800 employees, AvidExchange witnessed a 3-year growth of 285% in the year 2017.
AvidXchange strives to give you the power to reduce processing costs, accelerate approvals and eliminate paper with more transparency into, and control over, spending than what you have ever had. AvidXchange gives you the power to automate manual tasks and spend your time doing more valuable tasks. Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) automation is all about eliminating manual processes and becoming more effective and efficient.P2P Automation streamlines the entire process from purchasing all the way through payment for enhanced reporting, optimal spending and better budgeting for your entire organization. Their leadership team is comprised of a representative from every functional area of our business. Their experts aim at creating strategies that can help your business grow manifold.
10.  Robinhood:

Robinhood is a mobile-application based service allowing an individual to invest in publicly traded companies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. stock exchanges without paying a commission. The billion-dollar enterprise was founded by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. In order to keep the fees down, the company has no storefronts and provides no additional tools. Aptly named after the popular fictional character, it is helping the less economically privileged grow by using and betting on rich people’s money. The fintech app has eliminated all brokerage fees that have traditionally been associated with initiating a buy or sell. It earns money through its Robinhood Gold accounts for premium members and by collecting interest from cash holdings and stocks just like a bank. The app is simple and clutter-free making it easy to use for everyone. Robinhood’s platform has fed directly in the application that links out to some popular free resources such as MarketWatch and Seeking Alpha, providing you all the necessary information you need about the market.

Conclusion

We can expect Fintech start-ups to engage with the established industry contenders and focus more on the customer experience and services in the digital era. In the long run, Fintech will have to invest more in innovation techniques, risk management, and partnerships through collaboration. This will be of great aid to both the banking sector and Fintech companies. It also needs to innovate its business models and find their place in the B2B sector. Furthermore, Smartphone would prove to be an important distribution medium for engaging with customers in the future.
Also, traditional financial contenders can explore the growth opportunities through new monetization models. And banks will have the benefits from the financial technology company ’s knowledge to develop the insights about the needs of their customers. Interpersonal relationships, on-demand, and smooth transactions are what new age customers are looking for. Therefore, the opportunity is huge for Fintechs to add value by employing big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning to the financial services.
Fintech is constantly developing and maturing and many fundamental tasks still need to be explored. NIFA is willing to work together with every country to strengthen communication and cooperation, to learn from each other, and to jointly promote fintech worldwide. With fintech firms, central banking is not an issue as lenders and borrowers are matched with each other to make a more stable credit exchange. It has the potential to completely change the way banking functions. FinTech is taking the age-old method of borrowing and lending without the existence of separate institutions and is challenging the territorial habits of traditional insurance and banking services.

The post Top 10 Fintech Companies Transforming Finance in USA appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

“Go Mobile” seems to be the definitive trend especially in the retail industry with big brands entering the game.
Technology has undergone such a paradigm shift that now buying things on your PC may not even be considered “advanced”.

The Ecommerce sector specifically is rapidly shifting to the handy device realizing the growing need to cut short the lag between impulses and availability. In fact, mobile apps have the lowest cart abandonment rate at 20%, compared to the staggering 68% on websites.
It comes as no surprise then that the world is quickly going to be a finger touch away with over 78% of customers preferring to buy on the go. The app stores are stashed with a staggering number of Ecommerce apps, with new additions every now and then, the key thus is to stand out.

Why does your store need an app?

The most valid proof why your retail store needs an app are the stats relative to mobile penetration. Mobile phones have become a necessity almost next to food, shelter, and clothing.
Mobile users have surpassed desktop internet users. Consumers spend an exceeding and often shocking number of hours on their phones. The global m-commerce business is going to exceed $460 billion in 2018. With most of your customers “going mobile”, its ship not to be missed.
If you think that a mobile responsive website might be the same, think again. Here is some cool info on why to Ecommerce apps stand a better chance:
#1 Enormous Opportunity:
There are 322 million internet users, with an internet penetration of 20% in India compared to 300 million in the US with same being 90%. Standards of living and affordability have risen, with India soon to become the 3rd biggest spender by 2020.
With all this on the rise, life’s have become busier and an increase in urban traffic only leaves lesser time for offline shopping. Brands like Zara too, have been quick to realize the transition.
#2 Preference:
78% of users prefer to use an app to shop rather than the website. Focusing on mobile technology is therefore not an option but a mandate. While strategists debate on the better solution when it comes to mobile app vs responsive websites, an app definitely is more engaging for customers besides being faster, more convenient and more secure.
#3 Improved User Experience:

Looking back what may have seemed like a rather bold move, Myntra’s Mobile app only strategy doesn’t now come forth as completely crazy. The company provides one of the most engaging shopping experiences, which is possible only vis-à-vis an Ecommerce application. Customers spend 3-4 hours more on a mobile app compared to the website.
#4 Increase in Conversions:


Users spend more time on an app, that is to say, they see more products on the app. To be precise 4.2 times more products. The conversion rate, therefore, is higher on apps, and also the average cart value. The personalization that only apps can offer further ensures that customers view similar products spoiling them for choice.
#5 Integrated with In-built features:
An application has permission to access features of the user’s mobile, which means more data on customer’s preferences. This has allowed integrating features like geo-tagging and target marketing. It also eliminates cumbersome procedures like manually entering addresses.
#6 Enhancements in Customer Loyalty:
A customer that downloads your app is already convinced. An icon on the home screen is a subconscious reminder of the go-to place to buy anything that pops up on your head.
The stats indicate that an app user comes back to your store within 30 days of purchase. Now, why do applications have such high customer retention?
– Applications store data on age, sex, and location and also keep a tab on viewed products and purchases, giving personalized suggestions.
– Friendly notifications reminding your customer on the deals they might miss, curating content for them are interactions made possible through mobile apps only.
– Rewards in the form of a discount, a free product or even early access to exclusive collections are great forms of loyalty program that keeps customers coming back.
– Exclusive discounts and offers, sometimes even products that can be accessed via apps are some reasons why customers prefer a mobile app.
Convinced?
Coming down to the ways of getting your Ecommerce app ready, you can choose to hire a development team or you could use an app builder.
While app builder may seem rather convenient and cost-effective, it can significantly harm your business. With poor functionality, unimpressive design and no debugging and support, the automatic app builders are not recommended.
We suggest an experienced ecommerce app development team to work seamlessly with you.

The 5 Essentials of an Ecommerce App:

The next step is building a Minimum Viable Product. Simply speaking, these are the essentials every shopping app must have, without which the app is bound to fail.
Simple Design:


The average attention span of a customer is 8 seconds, that entails a very little time to impress and hence convert a user. A complicated design that has a lot of features, text, and animations is more likely to backfire. The best apps are the ones that are easiest to understand. Design, thus, plays a very important role in how your customers behave.
Security:


A lot of sensitive information is shared by users on the E-commerce platform, it is therefore of utmost importance that such information like credit card details, home or office address is secure from all kinds of cyber threats. With leaks like those of Facebook, security and privacy have become primary concerns.
Content:
‘Content is King’ is especially true for e-commerce apps, in which case it is the images that need to convey the value of your product. Images clicked on mobile phones or images downloaded from the internet will not do justice to the product you’re trying to sell.
Social Media Integration:
People hate filling out lengthy forms. Keeping log-ins and signups as quick and easy as possible is important, thus comes the need to integrate signups through social media logins. This also enables users to share what they are viewing or buying on your store, helping your app gain traction.
Easy Checkouts:
There are a lot of reasons why people abandon their carts on an e-commerce app, do not add to that reason by making cart checkouts complicated and time-consuming. Give many options to complete a transaction and integrating a mobile wallet are some ways that ensure ease in the checkout process.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

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Trends in Ecommerce App Development:

Geofencing:
Geofencing is a new way of marketing products based on the location of a user. Brands have experienced an increase of at least 20% in their sales due to location-based marketing.
How specific can geofencing be? With integrated features like GPS, the location of a user can be tracked every minute. Setting up a criterion like, “within 2 km of Malls” can ensure the app takes advantage of the timing and the buying intent of the customer.
Geofencing works on technologies including WiFi, Beacons, RFID, and GPS. This way it ensures better targeting, increased ROI, enhanced engagement and useful data.
Chatbots:


While acquiring new customers is pressing concern for retail business, retaining existing ones is equally if not more important.
Loyalty programs, offers, promotions and gift certificates are some ways in which they ensure returning customers. Besides quality products and competitive prices, customers also expect unique experiences specifically designed for them and better customer support.
Chatbots have evolved to cater to these needs by providing contextual understanding and resolving queries in an in-app messenger. Chatbots also provide customized offers for customers and assisting them through the entire process of buying.
Several companies like the makeup giant Sephora and the luxury retail company Burberry have worked on building their own messenger applications providing their customers with better service and helping retailers automate operations.
Augmented Reality:
From what will this look like to what does it look like? From bathtubs to blenders, users will be able to view exactly how the product will look like when placed in their homes or offices.
Augmented Reality makes this possible. It is a way of superimposing unreal objects onto the real world using a mobile device. Remember Pokemon Go?
Augmented Reality has grown to be used in more than just the gaming world. It is being used by retailers to provide a better overview of the product and create more engaging content.
This ensures that the customer gets a real-world feel for the product they are buying, this impacts the return rates that are especially high in Indian Ecommerce market.
Big Data:


The e-commerce market has exploded over the past 4 years. Amazon alone had 400 million active users in 2016. More users equal more data. Big Data thus has a big role to play in the e-commerce business.
Big Data algorithms help pull out data and predict fashion trends that are just starting out giving the business a competitive advantage. Big Data can also help determine the right price based on analysis of prices as set by competitors.
Big Data analysis can predict demands and with relevant data on choices of user helping you fill out a store that is customized to the user’s tastes and current trends.
Recommendation Engine:
Recommendation Engine is essentially a complex arena of algorithms that analyze a consumer’s behavior, the google searches, the ads viewed, the people followed on Instagram and Facebook with an end goal to determine the taste and preferences of a user.
The data collected can be useful to provide personalized suggestions and improve the visibility of catalogs. One of the most important things to consider here is to ensure that data collected is anonymized to prevent a breach of privacy.
Cloud Computing:


A slow app is a deal breaker. Use of cloud and mobile computing reduces the time taken by the app to respond to queries, improving the performance of the app. Magento is specially designed for e-commerce platforms to give them the scalability and performance enhancement they need especially during peak seasons.
The companies that have adopted Cloud Computing have a gained significant competitive advantage over those that haven’t.

Securing the Payment Process

A custom e-commerce app will need to establish frameworks that allow in-app payments, capturing payment information and then processing transactions.
To enable this a payment gateway and a payment processor need to be integrated into the app.
A payment gateway is an interface connecting the customer with the payment system. The payment gateway is a critical part of the system as it is at this level that the security is ensured.
All data filed by the customer, like card details and contact information is encrypted by the payment gateway from where the information goes through to the payment processor. The payment processor does the main transaction by sending the encrypted information to the bank.
Once the transaction is completed the information is conveyed to the app and the product is bought.
A payment processor is the heart of an e-commerce transaction and needs to be stable. Errors should be corrected in the developing phase and tested with great care.

The Future of Marketplace

Voice will change SEO:


In 2018, trends show that consumers are going to speak to their devices and use conversational AI to get things done.
Developments like Siri and Alexa are now integrated with a lot of third-party applications and “book an uber” is a reinforcement of the changing scenario. Retailers too need to adapt and change the way they communicate.
This does not allow for the interruption-based ad models that were being followed over the past years.
For e-commerce, it implies that the product information becomes compatible and synchronized with voice optimization. Walmart, for instance, uses Google Express E-commerce Platform to enable ordering by voice.
Several companies like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco and Kohl’s are already working on agreements. Voice-based SEO integration is going to revolutionize the way people shop.

An Image Is Worth a Thousand Words:

For the first time in 2018, consumers will use an image-based search engine. It is predicted that image and voice-based searches will make for over 50% of all searches.
Consumers can then take pictures of the products they wish to buy and find similar ones online.
Retailers integrating image-based search options have a lot to gain as they can also enter new markets with language no longer being a barrier nor the complicity of wrong product names and incorrect search results.
Pinterest has been investing heavily to enable smartphone cameras to be the new search engines. Companies like Target are also set to integrate Pinterest visual search technology.
The Internet-of-things:
Dependency on browsers for traffic generation is already going down and this trend is likely to continue. The browser is no longer the de facto means of accessing products or services online.
The convenience extended by E-commerce apps like fluid checkouts, ease of purchase, customization of suggestions and integration with social media is moving the world towards a browser-less experience.
With an increasing number of internet-connected devices, some being highly ridiculous like smart condoms, toasters, and bathroom fixtures, stating needlessly that not everything can be “smart” but also remind that every newly connected device is another point-of-sale.
It will not be hard to imagine refrigerators and washing machines becoming smart mocking us with ads and offers.
Uber-ization of Delivery:
In 2018, the retailers like Amazon are expected to take their logistics game up a notch with driverless freight technologies being developed and talks of using drones to deliver.
Amazon is undoubtedly the king of logistics in e-commerce, setting unbeatable records like delivering ice-cream within 9 minutes.
Amazon Prime is providing 1-2-day deliveries and Amazon Now is all set to make 1-hour delivery possible. The delivery time game is going to be the bloodiest in the coming year as technologies keep evolving.
ROPO:

Research Online, Purchase Offline – is a growing trend in e-commerce, especially in India. Consumers like to research products online before purchasing even in-store as it is empowering to know the best prices, in fact, 54% of users read customer reviews before buying a product.
By leveraging technology, retailers can now track offline conversions effectively. Geolocation tracking and keeping track of customer’s shopping history and habits through social integration enables retailers to display personalized products and ads.
Matalan is a British clothing company, which after research concluded that for every pound spent on Ads, 46 pounds of Sales revenue was generated. 67% of which was in-store sales. Thus, several previously online stores like Nykaa have opened up their offline stores as well.

Social & Conversational Commerce:

Be where the users are – has been a mantra for survival since the beginning of time. For the past years, it has meant huge social media platforms like Facebook.
Ads on Facebook and Instagram are no doubt effective but messaging apps like messenger and WhatsApp have started to outpace where consumers spend more time.
Online shopping has come to a point where it is not hard to imagine typing on a messaging platform – “I need a blue dress for a dinner party” and getting suggestions with shipping information, payment integration and tracking options without ever leaving the conversation.
Several companies like Walmart and Hyatt are already testing “messenger for business”. WhatsApp too has started integrating chatbots for companies, GoIbibo being one of them. Recently, WhatsApp also started including ads on its application, starting in certain parts of Europe.

Finding A Skilled App Developing Team

Now that process of developing an app is clear, the next step is to find a competitive developer. The e-commerce app development process can be the making or breaking point for a retail business and frankly, the development market is huge and choices aren’t easy.
While, developers are ready to make an app at throwaway prices, comprising on quality is not a good strategy.
Here are points to keep in mind while considering developers for your E-commerce App:
#1 Skills and Experience
Developing an E-commerce app requires a degree of knowledge and expertise, hiring freelancers and newbies is not advisable.
Find people who have a level of experience, check portfolios and ask questions. Knowing the skills of the developing team is a must. A young team tends to work more dynamically and with passion towards the needs of your business.
Check out our case studies to understand the trends in app development.
#2 Quality over Cost
Low-cost options may save a few bucks in the short term but prove to fatal over time. Comprising on quality over cost is not a good business strategy.
Check the developers’ quality assurance procedures, whether apps are tested for compatibility on various devices, screen sizes, and operating systems.
Enquire about their debugging procedures and beta-testing process. Ensure quality.
#3 Portfolio
The portfolio of developers speaks for them. Download apps that have been developed by the company and observe not only the design and performance but also the value the app adds.
Check functionalities on Apple Store and Google Play store. Customer feedbacks also speak a lot about the qualification of the team.
Check what our customers say about us.
#4 Communicate
While offshore developers can provide the same quality at lower cost, it is important to ensure that there are no such obstacles as language and different time zones.
For instance, EB ensures your developing team works the same time zone as you or has at least 4-5 hours of overlapping.
We also have dedicated teams available and working the same shift as you ensure uninterrupted communication.
#5 Long-Term Association
Developing an app is never a one-time project. The app needs regular maintenance, support, re-designing and sometimes re-development.
Thus, it’s very important to have a team that stands by you throughout the lifecycle of an application. At EB, the developing team is always there for the client to solve all the problems that may arise in the App. EB invests itself in the success of its client.
#6 Business Acumen
Technological knowledge is of utmost importance to judge the competency of a team when it comes to developing an app for your retail store. However, acquaintance with your business is a key factor that should not be ignored.
A developer that understands how e-commerce companies work and are in line with trends and consumer behavior analysis, is more likely to develop apps that are user-friendly.
Whether you are an already established brand taking your retail business to online commerce or a startup building the next disruptive business, we are there for you.

Get In Touch!

The post A Definitive Guide to eCommerce App Development appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Android users haven’t forgiven Google yet for that very late release of Clash of Clans. They got a taste of it only after the iPhoners had got tired of it.

And remember how Instagram launched on android store more than a year after its iOS release. Just look at a large number of apps coming out on iOS first or on it exclusively.

While for users, this is just a general wondering, for mobile app developers it poses a big professional call to make! Should you follow the flock and join the iOS app development race? If reasons are what you need to inspire yourself, this post can give you plenty.

CODING — JAVA v SWIFT

Coding is the king, queen, and the entire royal family. If they go down, the entire mobile app development goes down with it. While android developers use Java, iOS developers have warmly welcomed the newly launched Swift.

Java is said to be a very verbose programming language and requires almost 40% more codes than Swift. And with bigger lines of codes comes a bigger possibility of bugs.

Swift, on the other hand, comes with the promise of better results with fewer codes. It acts as an excellent translator between the coder and the computer and helps convey to the computer exactly what you want it to do.

EMULATORS

Android emulators are no match for iOS simulators in terms of both speed and support. It slows down the overall mobile app development and makes it a tougher life for android developers. iOS app development is unquestionably the clear winner here.

TIME CONSUMPTION

It is only basic math that android app development with its longer codes and slow emulators would be more time to consume for developers. While it can be advocated that some of the codes are auto-generated, it still has to be read and debugged.

DEVELOPER TOOLS AND SUPPORT

Apple shows some great commitment to its developers. XCode being better than Android Development Studio is a classic example for this.

FRAGMENTATION

Not convinced with all the above reasons? Well, this one should do the trick then.

Android app development poses the challenge of developing for tons of brands, screen sizes, and platforms. You could do a perfect job but still be showered with emails about undetected bugs spotted on some phone with that unpronounceable Chinese brand name.

Also, you have to develop apps that suit three-year-old Lollypop versions too as 15% of the android users still use that.

iOS app development pretty much uniforms this out with limited devices and versions.

REVENUE

iOS users being more conducive to spending on apps might be a stereotypical myth but is still well supported by some good stats. Apple has paid out billions to its developers and Android isn’t that close a second.

The Bottom Line:

iOS apps earn more revenue and are easier and less time-consuming to build. iOS users spend more on apps and also readily upgrade to higher versions of OS. You can stop working on older versions soon.

Switching to iOS app development is thus definitely worth considering. Do it early enough and beat the rush hour traffic.

The post Why iOS App Development Is the Future? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

1. Overview:

Every day, the technology trends change and thereby changes the way to optimize technological advancements.

The mobile phone markets are booming and so are the apps that are built in thousands of quantities for multiple purpose and agendas, may it be for your business or for your personal use.
So, it’s like where there are apps, there are slow-mobile-speed. Sounds familiar, right? Of course, it’s an everyday story, to be precise, a “complaint” from our cell-phones who run out of space and memory.
Whenever you try downloading an app from the Apple store or Play store, that annoying message pops out saying “You are running out of memory!”.
Or say, whenever you try clicking candid moments with your friends, your phone buzzes you up with this message which says “Sorry, you are running out of space”. It drives you nuts, I’m sure.
Recommended Read: Top 10 Mobile App Development Companies in India

So, to help your cell-phone out of this mess and getting it out of the “I.C.U.” mode, MDoctor app is on a rescue mission.

I am sure you might have tried and tested many junk cleaning apps for these problems and it’s all in vain. But, let me tell you how is our doctor gonna help your cell-phone breathe some fresh air and function properly.

MDoctor is an app which is built dedicated to the core issues a user faces with his mobile phone i.e. cache problems, functioning of your APK files, your cell phones running slower than a snail, optimization issues, RAM issues and many more.

This app will help you scan and remove all these problems in a single go. Let me introduce you to this app along with its functionalities in detail.

2) Challenge:

The main challenge that we faced while building this application was writing the code of “Listing all the applications i.e. both system apps and user apps”.

Also, once the listing was done for all the applications residing in one’s mobile phone, accessing these apps and stopping them was equally challenging.
This was because there are system apps for which permissions are required to be taken from OS or the app itself in order to access them and perform any functions related to the same.

3) Designs:

Features:

1. Junk Cleaning:

MDoctor has this feature of Junk Cleaning which is basically working in two steps. The junk cleaner will help you detect all those cache data, the APK files which are obsolete, the apps which are running and also the background running processes and services.
It also detects the empty files and folders created by your OS. After detection, this moves to the next step which is cleaning of all these detected junks and frees your mobile to an extent. It will also take care that no files are deleted wrongly.
2. Phone Boost:

It detects all the apps which are taking unused space in RAM and kill them to clean your RAM and boost the speed of your phone.

It will significantly increase the speed and response time because these junk uses your memory space, OS and even RAM which slows down your phone and even sometimes lag in responding to the user requests.
Just a single click and you’ll improvise your phone to a greater extent. It will free the RAM’s un-necessary usage by any apps. Just a single tap and voila!
3. App Manager:

This is one of the main features as this app manages to create a list of all the installed apps and APK files too.

With this feature, a user can create a backup of an app, delete the APK file for the same and even can uninstall the application if not required.
Basically, it will help you remove all the unwanted and useless apps that have been feeding-off your phone memory and RAM till now, thereby freeing the phone’s storage space.
4. Battery Optimization:

The battery as we all know is always on our nerves. No matter how hard we try to make an optimized usage of the battery, it always runs out of charge.

The Battery optimization feature detects all those apps which are creating an excess load on RAM usage and consumes a high amount of charging and stops them right away.
This helps a cell-phone to extend the battery life. It even helps your battery from being over-charged or over-heating. It will display the charging status and app’s message on the lock-screen while it is in charging mode.
5. Mobile Statistics:

It shows the current battery percentage, stand-by time, temperature, RAM usage, storage status, download, and upload bytes.

Cools down your phone temperature and reduces CPU usage by stopping apps that cause the device to overheat. As well as extending your battery life!

This app also takes care of all the junk notifications you get and sweeps out of your phone. It prevents all those trash notifications from eating up your cell-phone efficiency and slowing down. Your phone will be free from any such annoying notifications.

So, this is all about an app which will really help your cell-phone to overcome the major issues.
This app is supported on every Android device. It’s been published and deployed on the Google Play store.

Client’s testimonial:

Our clients were extremely delighted by the outcome and showered us with rave reviews!

For more information about the project and its scope, you can contact to our team who will guide you. And if you have ideas that you wish to turn into live projects, shoot us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com, or directly talk to us.

Let us know in the comments section below, about your feedback.

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The post MDoctor The Ultimate Doctor for your Cell Phones -EngineerBabu appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.