News

Starbucks launches mobile app in Japan

Starbucks expanded its digital ecosystem with the launch of its mobile app in Japan, which introduced mobile payment and eGifting to the company's fourth largest market.

With the app, customers can pay for their in-store purchases at more than 1,100 stores across the market simply by scanning a bar code linked to their registered Starbucks card.

The app also provides customers with information on the latest products, redeem special offers and send eGifts in a few easy steps.

Starbucks has a rapidly expanding portfolio of digital innovations across the Asia-Pacific region, including the opening of its first online store on Tmall in China in December 2015, which connects the online Chinese customers with the Starbucks in-store experience.

In 2014, Starbucks also introduced the first mobile ordering service of its kind in the industry with Siren Order in Korea, an app which allows customers to order and pay with their mobile device.

This was followed by the launch of the first Starbucks   app on a wearable device in Asia, which allows customers in Korea to track their My Starbucks Rewards status and pay for Starbucks purchases directly from the wearable device.

"Starbucks is committed to exploring new ways to leverage digital innovations to delight customers and unlock growth opportunities across the country," said John Culver, group president, Starbucks China/Asia-Pacific region.

Nearly 1 in 4 people abandon mobile apps after only one use

Apple’s iTunes App Store is home to over 1.5 million apps and Google Play hosts over 2 million, but the number of apps that actually get installed and used on consumers’ devices is still quite small. We already knew that people only interacted with a small handful of third-party apps on a regular basis, and now, according to a new study on mobile app usage, we learn that about one in four mobile users only use an app once.

Based on data from analytics firm Localytics, and its user base of 37,000 applications, user retention has seen a slight increase year-over-year from 34 percent in 2015 to 38 percent in 2016.

However, just because this figure has recovered a bit, that doesn’t mean the numbers are good. Instead, what this indicates is that 62 percent of users will use an app less than 11 times.

Says the report, “this is not a sustainable business model.”

App-Abandonment

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal’s son Kavin betting big on mobile app Hike

The popularity of mobile applications may be waning overseas but they remain relevant in India, the CEO of an Indian messaging app provider told CNBC on Tuesday.

Speaking at the sidelines of the RISE 2016, a technology conference in Hong Kong, Kavin Bharti Mittal of messaging platform Hike said in a market such as India, where data usage remained relatively expensive, companies that could combine multiple services into a single app can make a big difference.

"This is very powerful because one more app becomes one more contact in your address book," said Mittal.

Founded in 2012, Hike offers a range of services on its app — users can send messages, share photos, videos and music and have an interactive timeline. Other features include sending stickers, a compact feed of the latest news and a hidden mode to protect privacy.

Dice's mobile app aims to add value to your job search

There’s no shortage of apps to help you find a job, but Dice says it wanted to offer something that provided more than job listings and a quick way to apply to postings. It's recently released Dice Careers mobile app is designed specifically for the tech industry to help job seekers feel more in control of the process.

Dice Careers takes a lot of the guess work out of job searching, showing competitive job listings in your area, salary data and even the market value that your tech skills and experience bring to the table. The goal is to give job seekers data will result in more qualified people applying for jobs -- knowing they’re a good fit -- rather than applying to jobs either above or below their pay grade and position.

How Dice Careers works

Once you download the app and register for an account, you can choose different skills that you want to list on your profile. You can also choose your work authorization type as well as whether you are looking for full-time, part-time, contract or third-party work. Under the skills section, you can also adjust a slider bar to indicate how many years of experience you have with each skill listed on your account.

You can also note on your profile what position you are currently seeking, your desired location and years of experience in that area. The app will then automatically generate your estimated salary under the “market value” tab, and below that you will find different skills that you can acquire to boost your net worth. For example, you might see Oracle UPK can net you an additional $18,714 per year, or that Web content management might just boost your overall worth by $575. This is one of the most unique aspects of the Dice Careers app, considering most job board sites don’t offer up this type of information.

Mobile App Ad Blocking Skyrocketing, Forcing Brands To Rethink Advertising

At least 419 million people are blocking ads on smartphones -- including Facebook, but excluding content-blocking apps, in-app ad blockers, and opt-in browser ad blockers, according to a study released Tuesday.

The move will have app makers rethink how they will address search and advertising with mobile applications. PageFair has released a report titled Adblocking Goes Mobile, which estimates there are twice as many mobile ad blockers as desktop ad blockers. Twenty-two percent of the world’s 1.9 billion smartphone users block ads on the mobile Web.

Mobile ad blocking is more popular in emerging markets such as China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, where 36% of smartphone users in Asia-Pacific block ads on the mobile Web.

The biggest issue for search marketers is that browsers can now block in-app ads.

Mobile ad blocking is less developed in North America and Europe. In March 2016 there were 14 million monthly active users of ad-blocking browsers in Europe and North America, where 4.9 million content blocking and in-app ad-blocking apps were downloaded from app stores since September 2014.

How to Monetize a Mobile App Using In-App Surveys

Money makes the world go round and this could not be truer in the mobile app world. Every day, app developers seek more efficient ways to monetize their apps. And the go-to resource for this is advertising. The past year has been a busy one for mobile app marketing with the growth of video advertising and the arrival of rewarded advertising. But what does the future hold for mobile app developers looking to monetize their apps?

So you are an app developer. You have done the easy part: build your app. Now comes the hard bit: turning it into a solid source of revenue. Mobile is a big deal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be a big deal for you. You need to create a sustainable mobile business and think well before you chose which monetization strategy to use. There are a number of bankable app monetization strategies to choose from, and here we will aim to present another option to add to your arsenal.

In-app advertising is the model most frequently used by developers. But over half a decade after the release of the first iPhone and the revolution in mobile hardware and software that followed, the mobile ad world is still stuck with the dreaded, ugly banner ads. Surely there must be something better than that out there. After all, like Steve Jobs said, “Mobile ads suck”! And there are not many that disagree; in fact, it is widely accepted by big brands as true. But since advertising is what was working, this is what most app developers were offered: banner ads, interstitials, video ads, offer walls and such. Developers are usually confused on which to use, but at the end of the day their aim is to strike a balance between their need to retain users with their need to earn revenue.


Read more at http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/monetize-mobile-app-using-app-surveys-01548530#EYByp77c3BbBhC2J.99

What Is the Future of Mobile App Development?

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With the smartphone sales explosion in recent years and smartphones becoming cheap and more affordable, the number of persons on the Internet has been increased exponentially. The increase in volume has resulted in making the mobile app industry very big. By the end of 2016, it is expected that there would be over 10 billion devices on the Internet. There are a few things which developers need to know about future of mobile app development to be up-to-date on the latest trends.

Cross-Platform and Cross-Device Development

Apps are no longer limited to single platforms. Android, due to its pricing, will rule the platform business in terms of sales, and iOS will rule the high-end market. In time, applications will no longer be confined to specific platforms. With the evolution of HTML5, the future of mobile application will see hybrid mobile applications and will work for all platforms.

IoT Applications

Technology has made us all very lazy but the best is still to come. The IoT (Internet of Things) will help us control things around us via applications. Google Glass, Apple Watches, and others are just the beginning. These days we are seeing some great models of IoT Applications such as self driving cars, fridges that read your tweets, and rings that control everything, etc. In time, we will see more of these being used in our daily lives.

1st Minute Mobile App

What is it?

The 1st Minute mobile app allows EMS providers to more easily communicate with patients when a language barrier exists. The app allows providers to communicate with the patient by using translation technology in order to reduce guessing by first responders, which simplifies the process of getting basic details form a foreign language speaker. The app is available for both Android and iOS systems.

How do I use it?

When a language barrier is present between provider and patient, the provider can use the 1st Minute mobile app to help communicate. After downloading the app, providers can give the device to the patient to select a language. Once the language is selected, the patient answers questions in that language including what symptoms they are experiencing, selecting pain location and entering essential medical information. Once that information has been provided, the app translates it back into the language of the provider.

What are the benefits?

The app allows for quick and easy assessment even when a language barrier is present. Because the app has a pre-populated language database, no internet connection is required for use. The goal of the app is to facilitate the entire conversation in less than 60 seconds, so patient care isn’t compromised by clunky conversation. The combination of mobile technology and patient care is forward thinking for the future of EMS.   

Marriott’s CIO Says Mobile Apps Are Changing the Guest Experience

Hotel giant Marriott International Inc. is working to craft a customer experience that is the right mix of high-tech and highly personal.

The company is rolling out many tech-driven amenities, including the ability to skip the front desk at check-in, order room service via a mobile app and log in to Netflix from the hotel-room television.

Bruce Hoffmeister, global chief information officer and an almost 30-year Marriott veteran, says the rise of mobile has given the company more opportunities to interact with customers before, during and after a stay. His teams must make sure the new technology not only works but is easy to use.

As Marriott prepares to merge with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., Mr. Hoffmeister also will be tasked with integrating a new set of hotel technologies.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with him about deploying new mobile offerings and building customer loyalty, among other things. Here are

NERO on the Go: Mobile Apps in NERO Burning ROM

ro Burning ROM is already a powerful utility, but it can be expanded to do even more when you use mobile apps. Nero provides a variety of different apps to extend the capabilities of your mobile devices, allowing you to utilize enhanced features on the go.

Nero Streaming Player App

With the Streaming Player App, you can stream music and other media from your smartphone or other mobile device to your television or other Wi-Fi-enabled players. This is helpful not only because it allows you to stream media wherever you go, but you also don't have to transfer and save media files on all of your devices. This frees up storage and provides the ability to share media with friends and family while away from home. Another advantage to using Nero Streaming App Player is that it can be accessed to become a wireless remote and player on PC.

Nero AirBurn App

In the past, if you wanted to burn media to a disc, that media had to be physically on your PC. When you use Nero AirBurn however, you can burn media from your mobile device to a disc on your PC without having to physically transfer the data. This means that you can not only burn your own media at home, but you can also share media with friends without having to load the songs or videos onto their PCs. All you have to do is load up the Nero AirBurn app, connect to the desired PC, and select the media you want to burn to disc.