Building an App Farm for University Student - Article Example

Computer Science and InformationTechnology Building an App Farm for Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Mobile Apps 3 Abstract 3 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Literature Review 6 2.1 Mobile Apps Development 6 2.2 Reasons for Development 6 2.3 Development Challenges 9 2.4 Demand for Mobile Apps 11 3.0 Success of Mobile Apps 15 4.0 Mobile Apps in Enterprise Application 17 5.0 Conclusion 19 References 21 Mobile Apps Abstract This article describes the development of a pedagogical environment that would like to influence the learning and experiences of university students as mobile app end users, developers, and decision makers. To be more specific, through a shared effort that will include industry sponsors, university technology services, and other more academic units that are involved in information technology education. It will also view on how the demand for mobile apps has increased and what the users want the apps to be developed for. The success of the mobile apps over the years is also a factor that has been emphasized in this article. How mobile apps have been applied in entrepreneurship and its benefits to the entrepreneurs. 1.0 Introduction Mobile apps are software programs that one can download and use on their phones or any other devices that they have like the tablets etc. For one to use the mobile apps they need to have a smart phone, tablet, or another device that can be used to access the internet. But not all the mobile apps that are developed are able to be accessed on all the devices; every operating system has the applications that rhyme with it. Like the Android, Apple, Microsoft and Blackberry mobile operating systems have their own app stores that can be found online where the apps can be downloaded and installed (Stark, 2010). There are also retailers that can be found online that offer the apps too. There are apps that are free but others aren’t free, for the case of those that are not free, one will need to provide a credit card number before they can download an app. Some apps are free because they can make money through other ways: Some of the apps sell advertising space within the app. These ads enable the app developers to earn money through them so for them to get these advertisements they have to offer the app free so that they can reach as many users as possible. Some applications are offered in simple versions, so that when the user likes them, they can want to upgrade it, and this will be done at a fee. Some will make the users free to buy some features within them, most of the time the bill for these features in the in-app purchases through the app store. Though some devices are enabled for users to block the in-app purchases. Some apps are a form of advertising other features that the company can offer so that the user can get interest in them (Castledine, Wheeler & Eftos, 2011). There is a lot of data that apps can access, when you sign in to app stores, or download single apps, you may be asked for a permission to allow the app to get the information on the device you are using. Some apps can be used to access the phone and e-mail contacts, call logs, internet data, data about the device’s location, and the personal device’s identities. Some apps do not do a lot of functions but specifically base on a feature that they need to function to, while others are multipurpose. The users have to be keen with these apps because if information is provided using the device, there is someone that may be collecting them, it could be the feature developer, the app store, advertisers or an ad network, and if data is being collected then it is bound to be shared to other companies. The users are supposed to know the type of data that an app can access and how the app is used. Before downloading any app, it’s the responsibility of each user to know, the developer and its function. This information can be got from the app stores of the apps, and if there is no information about the app, then chances are that it’s a fraud. There are apps that only use the specific information about the location so that it can give the user maps, coupons for stores that may be around, or information about the people that the user might know that are nearby. Some apps give the location data to ad networks so that they can combine with other information in their databases to focus on the ads that are of the user’s interests and their place. If the settings of the user’s location are not changed, then they will continue receiving information basing on the location they have been set. Otherwise, if the user does not want to share information with the advertising networks, then they are free to turn off the location services in the settings of their devices. But there are some devices that do not stop giving the user information about their location even if they switch off the services. Some apps show advertisements after they have been downloaded; this is because the developers of these apps want to provide them in the cheapest way possible, so that many people can use them. They offer the ad spaces so that they can be able to gain the cost that they surrendered to sell the app cheaply unlike if they do not have the ad spaces, the cost of the app could be more costly than it is (Surya, Lee, Ohye & Carff, 2011). The devices that the users have may give show that the apps they have need updates, it is advisable to users that they should update the apps they have when the new versions come. This is an advantage because the updates to these apps may have security information about the app that can be used to secure the device from malware or may have additional features that the older one does not have. The users should beware that there are hackers who have created apps that are used to infect devices with malware. Signs that indicate that a device may be infected are: it starts sending messages or e-mails that the user did not write, or it downloads other apps that the user has not requested it to download. If it happens that the device has malware, the user can: contact the device carrier for help, install a security app to scan and remove apps if malware is detected. Though the security apps for mobile phones are very few on the market and they are new and there are few chances of getting an app that is a free version. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Mobile Apps Development Mobile technologies are increasingly growing and soon they will be reaching maturity, and their deployment promises unprecedented opportunities for new patterns of work, life, and role in both the academic and professional settings. Examples of such benefits is that: there can be access to online mobile lectures which can be beneficial to the students who commute to the university, students will be able to upload assignments, get class announcements, and finish exercises anywhere anytime and while they are anywhere. Therefore, the need for wireless and dispersed computing technology like: Wi-Fi enabled devices like laptops, tablets and phones have picked up in many universities (Ilja van Sprundel, 2011). 2.2 Reasons for Development The developer of a mobile app should be able to have the reason why they would want to develop the mobile app, if they would like to join other mobile app entrepreneurs or they will be developing the app so that they can solve a problem that they will have noticed (Marinacci, 2012). For the developers to create the mobile apps, they should: 1. Get an idea or a problem: if the developer is creating an app for entrepreneurship purposes, the entrepreneurs should be able to solve the problem that they could have imagined. So it will be necessary that the developer should be able to gather day to day problems that are experienced and list them. Once they have created the list, then they can now start looking for methods that may be used to resolve the problems that make sense to them. 2. Identify the need for an app: validation will be able to indicate that a demand exists for the app that the developer wants to create. For the developer to know if the app they want to create then they will have to use the Google Keyword Planner tool to look for how many people are in search for the app that they want to create. The other option is to create a landing page that will highlight their app idea and see the user interest through an e-mail signup. 3. Lay out the flow and features: when writing the idea, the developer of the app should be able to put it as detailed as possible. They should put the flow of how the user will be able to navigate the app as well as the features that they have. This will help the designers and the developer of the app to understand what the creator expects. 4. Remove non-core features: from the flow of documents that has been developed, a close look should now be taken so that the least important features can be removed. The core value of the app idea should be given priority. The features that are put should not have be those that are good to have; those can be omitted during development then added later as updates. This step will help them keep the cost of developing the app low and see how the market is flowing. 5. Put design first: the entrepreneur should be able to know that the design is not only about just a simple basic design that will only help them develop the app. Design is detailed, it should be able to show how the user will use the app. Design is a system of creating technology to be helpful. 6. Hire a designer/developer: Seek a development company that has great design talent and a solid development team. Before hiring a developer, the entrepreneur should be able to check online to value their credibility and the apps that they have created before, then select the best from their portfolio, the ones that could be right for the product the entrepreneur wants developed. 7. Create developer accounts: the entrepreneur should know that they must register for a developer account with the stores they would like to associate their app with for them to sell their app using their platform egg. Android, Apple and should know their charges. They can register as individuals or companies if they already have other registered apps. 8. Integrate analytics: analytics assist the entrepreneur keeps track of the downloads, user engagement and retention of the mobile app the they developed. They should make use of tools like Flurry, which is available for free and Localytics that has both the free and a paid version. 9. Get feedback quickly and improvise: Once the app has been put live on the app store, the first customers to use the app will be able to indicate the insights of where the app will be able to be improved. The entrepreneur should keep watch of the feedback that comes from the users because changes are constant. 10. Introduce features: the feature that the entrepreneur deducted while developing the app, can now be introduced, it can be known from the feedback that comes from the analytics of what features will be useful. 2.3 Development Challenges Even the most experienced IT staff, at times fails to have the experience to create an app in the mobile world. People normally underestimate the difficulty to build a mobile app. Writing a mobile app is easy but the challenge lies in making the app work effectively. Some of the challenges that the developers face re: 1. Moving toward Fragmentation rather than Unification More than half of the participants that were interviewed during surveys mentioned that many mobile platform are moving toward fragmentation rather than unification: Fragmentation across platforms: each mobile platform is always different regarding the user interface, experience, human computer interaction standards, user expectations, and user interaction metaphors, programming languages and supported tools. Fragmentation within the same platform: on a single platform, there are various devices that exist and they have different properties like memory, CPU speed, and graphical resolutions. The developers should be able to address the fragmentation that is possible on each operating system level. An example of fragmentation on Android devices with different sizes and resolutions of the screen. 2. Monitoring, Analysis and Testing Support In the early development of mobile apps, there has been no testing of the apps; however, automated testing support is being used for native mobile apps. Results during survey show that there is need for testing and analyzing support. Tools and emulators that are being used for testing currently do not support important features for mobile testing like mobility, location services, sensors, different gestures and inputs. 3. Open/Closed Development Platforms Open sources are like the Android while the closed sources include: iOS and Windows. There were arguments that Apple and Microsoft need to make their platforms open (Lim & Dey, 2012). For Android is open, each manufacturer modifies the source code to their desire then move it and at times they do not meet the standards. 4. Data Intensive Apps A device cannot store a lot of data so it needs to use another network connection to synchronize it which turns out to be challenging. 5. Keeping up with Frequent Changes Learning several languages and APIs for the different platforms and keeping to date with highly frequent changes within each software development kit. Each platform is different like the marketplaces, languages, tools, design guidelines and the entrepreneur will need to employ experts in each of the platforms. 2.4 Demand for Mobile Apps There is a high demand for the intelligibility and what they can be used for in the design. Therefore a survey was carried out to know the users’ needs on the application platform so that they can be tailored carefully or else they can be detrimental rather than be helpful to the users. The participants aired their views on the applications that they would need and the information about the application, model, and the situation in which the application can be used. The other demands that the users wanted is that the applications should be: Intelligent: the users tend to react negatively when an application behaves in an inappropriate behavior especially when it does not perform the function it is said to perform. The intelligence of the apps are also categorized into: a. High Intelligibility Demand for critical Circumstances: the highly critical cases should be able to be solved with the apps with these features (Freeman & Robson, 2011). b. Awareness of Intelligibility Types Changes Demand: the awareness of the availability of the intelligibility make users prefers some applications to others. The users tend to ask questions like what is the input, output, and the what if, what else questions and certainty. c. Valley of Expectation: when the users demand for intelligibility it is clear that that they need better explanations so the app that is to be developed should be able to meet the user standards (Lim & Dey 2012, p.5) Given the important role that technology is playing today, there is need for developing the mobile devices to become brainy. The factors that will be able to have a significance on the impact of the devices. The software and hardware trends that will significantly improve the performance of the apps are: 1. Displays With the demand for the usage of the devices, there is need for more power-point efficient and flexible displays. AMOLED- a power- efficient, flexible and foldable display technology that will soon reach resolutions that are clear. Manufacturers need to be able to produce this display at scale. 2. Processors Microsoft is putting its support in ARM chipsets on windows 8, which is a convergence across smart phones, tablets and notebooks. ARM processors are ideal because they have a low power consumption and their compact size; these features make it be used in the mobile devices. There will be need for the applications to support this processor to be developed (Zack, 1995). 3. Sensors When it comes to functionality, sensors are continuing to improve significantly. The mobile devices will need to have new sensor types like the biometric, pressure and environmental sensors together with the ones that are already developed. More sensors will be able to will move global sensor shipments to greater units in future. These features will trigger that development of mobile applications that will be adapted to the user behavior and other preferences that they may have. 4. Batteries Today the mobile devices have a lot of usage; this has made the increase in the consumption of power. Therefore, besides the improvement in the battery technology, there is need that applications are developed that will enable these devices to: have a wireless battery charging, faster battery charging, and the management apps for the battery that can be developed too to be considered in the app development (Stark & Jepson, 2012). 5. Web centricity According to Steele & To (2010), web based applications that will move computing power to the cloud need to be developed. Some of them that are already in the market are HTML language and cloud services and they are already gaining traction. Web centricity will enable new innovations of multi-screen experiences and move advertising through providing an ability to get scale devices. 6. User Interfaces There should be a development of gesture and retina tracking, inter-frared keyboard and context aware user interfaces apart from the normal user interface sensors like the touch screen, motion sensing and peripheral input devices and the input recognition. These needs should be able to lead to the generation of applications and form factors. The user’s screen could be adjusted so that it can be able to display work productivity of the user’s location (Jonathan, 2012). 7. Cloud services Cloud services have become a significant element as the users use the computers. This has made users demand for the applications that will help them command ownership of their customers. These applications will have to perform certain functions: Device lick-in model an Apple’s iCloud drives high-margin device sales that will offer seamless multi-device synchronization Advertising model: Google has been able to maintain its major user base to advertise revenues by providing low-cost or free cloud services. Content sales model: Amazon being one of the major companies that drives content sales that are base on the cloud platforms to provide digital content directly to users that have devices that are subsidized. OS lock–in model: just like the way Microsoft with its Sky Drive cloud services has been able to let its users to synchronize their content a feature that has made its customers to depend heavily on Window’s platform and suite of applications (Freeman, 2012) 8. Networks: the usage of the smart devices has increased the usage of data and the demands for the mobile networks that will continue to increase and lead to congestion on the network. There is need for other applications that will be used together with the existing Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks that has been able to increase from 126 commitments in August 2010 to 324 in October 2011. The new application programming interfaces (APIs) will assist in moving the innovations of in mobile applications and data pricing plans for the operators (Clark, 2012). 3.0 Success of Mobile Apps The success of the mobile apps lies in the experience of the users. Therefore it is necessary that the developers explain how their applications can be used effectively so that each user that wants to use their applications can be able to use them maximally. Many mobile apps are being used today to check emails, search for stuff on the web, getting directions to various locations, reading blogs, checking photos, listening to music and also watching videos online. With the developed applications, mobile apps have become preferred computing devices for their users because they are fast to get to the features that the user is looking for some of the examples that are provided as apps are: Flixter: this application is able to provide the user with the movies that they want to see fast. Google Reader: this application takes the user directly to the directories that they want and here they are able to get all their posts that are unread or categorize on how they want to read them using the same app (McGrath, 2012). Pandora: this app is able to resume the application that the user was playing before they exited the app. INRIX Traffic: it’s able to show the user the location that they are and the flow of traffic and also provide the information on incidents that are happening in a location next to them (Stevens, 2011). These are some of the apps that have been developed and have made life easier in the world of technology; however there are some applications that users think they need to be improved. These applications include: LinkedIn: the LinkedIn application has many features from the status, connection, favorites, invitations, themes etc. the entrepreneur behind this application could have informed that developers to design a way that they could use one of the items that they could put the users on first screen. Tripit: this app is also great but according to its users, it should have a feature that puts the user into their current trip instead of producing a whole list of them (Sanderson, 2009). A result of the mobile apps that are not so innovative is that the users thought that maybe the problem was the wired web that has made the developers to recall the much of its content thus they cannot think of new ways. For a successful mobile app model, the developer should be able to integrate their apps with key services and features that the app will be providing. When building an app, the developer should make sure that the users are taken directly to its most compelling features immediately they launch the app (McCreath, Benest & Gray, 2003). It’s not advisable to make users search for the features the app was built for or else they may give up and decide to search for another app that they find easier to use. 4.0 Mobile Apps in Enterprise Application Today no entrepreneur lacks a Smartphone, tablet or any other mobile device that will enable them access information whenever they need it. Today most of the entrepreneurs use the apps especially those that focus on the business owners and their employees, though it’s at times difficult to know which one is necessary to download. But if the apps have been well explained, it will be easier for them to decide whether they need it or not (Segaran, 2007). There are several apps that can be available to the entrepreneurs and are also useful; these apps have the feature to: Enable the entrepreneur to know the number of meetings, talks, seminars and conferences that they have been able to attend in a certain period of time. These apps are able to keep track of what the entrepreneur is doing and what they have said t the places. Some of the applications are able to offer the entrepreneurs with the project management skills and this will be of positive effect to the entrepreneurs. These apps are able to help yield a significant move in productivity and will also help in setting the tone for the business. Besides these, in the previous year’s mobile apps only meant weather look ups and Angry Birds, but today, apps have become an essential client interface to the enterprise, this is to say mobile app development should be recognized that it also requires the sane skills and deliberation to design it just like designing any other type of enterprise portal (Bell, 2009). Mobile apps usually start as simple and then they start to develop as they become more complex. The first purposes of many apps is usually for doing simple functions like submitting timesheets etc. as the demand for these apps goes high, the developers start establishing their bases of expertise and toolsets, and these apps get to be more functional as they are upgraded, some apps grow till they can do more complex things like the field service technicians. Due to this it is necessary that there is need to apply enterprise development approaches to enterprise the mobile apps. There are a number of considerations that have been put to be part of app development. Most of these considerations are familiar to the seasoned enterprise developers: 1. Governance: mobile apps should be bought into the application governance process. The enterprise also needs to know the developers or responsible teams for building the apps, and the guidance and requirements should be published so that they can describe to builders how apps are distributed and upgraded. 2. Development and testing: mobile app testing seems to be more complicated than the normal software testing, because the testing that is done to apps should show the mobile platforms, operating systems, and the devices that the app can be used. Another factor that makes the testing complicated is the rate of testing for mobile apps is higher than that of testing the desktop and laptop apps because of the high expectation of the users and the apps will always be upgraded more frequently. Testing is important because cellular data plans are implicated, and mobile apps could put additional load to incorporate Wi-Fi networks which will need to be improved so that they can maintain the new apps and users. 3. Security: the most important aspect of any organization is to set the security standards and practices, and for the enterprise mobile apps, those that were used in the desktop and laptop apps can be applied. Mobile app though needs additional aspects in their security like containerization which will have the app run in a secure and isolated area in a mobile device’s memory to enable the prevention of loss of data. There is also VPN which enables an approved app to establish its own secure VPN connection to a company computer; this helps the app to isolate from other apps that are installed on the same device. 4. Enterprise app catalog: this is the enterprise app store, that with any application catalog, this shows the apps that are available, and they can also give apps and updates to the employees so that they don’t keep downloading them. 5. User support: as it is in the accordance with enterprise application, there is need for user training and documentation is essential. There should be user manuals, class sessions to FAQ sheets that will be able to give support to the app users. 6. Usage metrics: metrics help show if the app is useful and show the functionality that could be improved or added to the updates that will be done in future. The metrics will also help to monitor if the apps that have been downloaded are being used, how frequent they use it, in what situations do they use it, and the impact that the app has had to its employees (Bakker & Ertman, 2013). 5.0 Conclusion Today there are many wireless campuses and mobile students and faculties that offer several opportunities to experiment new models for teaching and learning. Through these technologies, students are able to develop technical, business and participative skills and knowledge which are essential to the building and usage of mobile apps. The success of the building of apps in the universities depends on willingness to get involved in the mobile app technology. It is evident that the benefits of using mobile apps outweigh the risks that the apps are associated with. The universities should prepare a course that will be used to educate the students so that they are able to know the importance of using the apps and the precautions they should take for the safety of their devices. IT is increasingly becoming a trend in today’s society and therefore the young students should be able to embrace it in academics and entrepreneurship. References Bakker, P. & Ertman, B. (2013). Building Modular Cloud Apps with OSGI, O’Reilly Media, Inc., California, U.S.A. Bell, G. (2009). Building Social web Applications, O’Reilly Media, Inc., California; U.S.A. Castledine, E., Wheeler, M. & Eftos, M. (2011). Build Mobile websites and Apps Smart Devices, SitePoint, Melbourne, Australia. Clark, J. A. (2012). Building Mobile Library Applications, American Library Association, New York, NY; U.S.A. Freeman, A. (2012). Metro revealed: Building Windows 8 Apps with XAML and C, Apress, New York, NY; U.S.A. Freeman, E. & Robson, E. (2011). 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