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The Internet of things is vastly increasing its presence in so many devices day by day and creating a connected world through which we can seamlessly communicate. Statistically speaking it is expected to have more than 30 billion IoT devices within a decade. This advancement is influencing our lifestyle in every space of our lives like offices, cars, homes & cities.

This ensured data speed up to your network from devices outside your network is due to the rapid growth of IoT & Big Data Analytics. This seamless connectivity has assured to complete our tasks, browsing or utilizing it like never before experienced. However, there is a weak spot of this tech which can be easily manipulated by cybercriminals as it is a soft target.

Let’s know how the IoT is a soft target? Compared to other devices IoT’s after one-time authentication or verification are always connected and operating. This attribute makes it exposed and weak to treacherous attacks. As IoT are available in various variants of tech hence they have a different level of security or no security at all. This makes them unprotected and open to infiltration and pretty much many are yet to be discovered or invented. This scenario pretty much calls for a sturdy security tool to be executed on the gateway for the security & safe usage.

According to Forrester’s research mentioned in Forbes,” predicts that the IoT will become the backbone of future customer value, the IoT infrastructure will shift to the edge and to specialized IoT platforms, developers will have a significant impact on platforms and initiatives, and security will remain a key concern.” As with increasing IoT devices used for appliances, home automation, infrastructure systems, medical devices, and smart meters have incompetent security parameters. In such conditions to make this customer efficient and prevent extensive data leak or theft efficient steps are need to be employed to guarantee the privacy of clients and continued performance of the business.

Accordingly mentioned in Forbes for security concerns, it proceeds,” In 2018, we will see significant momentum among firms deploying business processes requiring local data analysis close to the connected devices that enable these processes. The edge IoT devices can act locally based on data they generate, as well as take advantage of the cloud for security, scalability, configuration, deployment, and management.”

The factors due to which IoT adoption is trending:

A fresh scope of business possibilities

IoT creating seamlessly connected world generates numerous business opportunities for various sectors. This technology assists organization to obtain insight the prospect customers interests & requirements.

Revenue increase for business

There is an abundance of shots to improve business growth & economic possibilities by detecting productive ways to utilize IoT tech to gain less expense and more benefit.

Cost decrease of parts

The price of IoT parts has been reduced efficiently directly influencing the pricing of the IoT devices, making it more economical for a larger ratio of people to buy.

Protection and Preservation

Due these IoT techs in devices create an assurance to circumvent physical assault that can happen either in workplace or home.

Challenges in removing IoT security issues

The wide range of devices linked with IoT

IoT environment is rapidly progressing. According to a research, the IoT device providers or manufacturers are not employing even basic security measures. Due to this the safe IoT device bought by consumers became a vulnerable target for criminal activities.

The abundance of data is increased as the number of IoT devices are increasing and now them being unsafe can affect the security of our home, cars, appliances etc. And this is an issue which increasing as many other devices are in the process to be connected by the IoT.

This issues becoming a chronic issue as the companies are focussing on a large scale production of the devices and neglecting the long-term prevention. Due to which many are receiving insecure devices. As many products are old for most of the companies and the situation will become grave with the disposable IoT product.

Steps to be taken enhance IoT security

Security of the network

In comparison to network security, the IoT security is more complex to take care. There are many protocols for communication and functionality standards for devices when it is sandwiched together it gives rise to consequential concerns and complexity.

Verification & Authentication

Permitting the users to verify and authenticate the IoT device along with handling various users of one device which should vary from password or pin to authenticate it.

Everything Encoded

The IoT will continue to reflect its presence in almost every smart connected devices. This creates a great issue to verify each and every device to ensure the reliability. The only solution to guarantee is data encryption. This assures only the users can authenticate with a verified device to access the data.

Security Analytics of IoT

This aspect is only concerned with the accumulation and understanding the data of IoT devices in order to set up an alert mode active for certain activities which will trigger certain set actions for it. This will require the amalgamation of AI, big data, and machine learning to provide accurate prediction and detection of an aberration. However, this kind of process is still in process. This allows the IoT to feel the intrusion or any anomaly to provide security.

API Security of IoT

This feature is concerned with the validating and approves data transfer between IoT device to systems of backend & REST based APIs documented. The API security will provide data transfer safety to ensure that validated devices, apps and developers can communicate and defend against any attacks or infiltration.

IoT becomes an important aspect of our lives and its security is a major issue that should be fulfilled with effective assistance of the whole tech community.

The manner of marketing was revolutionized as the age of mobile commenced, this started first with text message marketing and by every moving year, the strategy became more diverse. Along with it, the overall internet user percentage exceeded 70% of the world population. It can be said that mobile usage has not only increased drastically but everyone is now dependant on it for many.

There are many ways in which it can be utilized to reach your clients. As recently there is an all-new method which is Augmented, Virtual & Beacon Technology for mobile marketing due to the recent surge in these technologies. These technologies are diversifying the and providing a personal touch to provide various experiences in virtual, digital & physical terms. Many mobile apps are developed on the same technology stack to provide specific services based on rising tech to reformulate marketing.

Personalization is taken to next level

Beacon assists to address the targetted audience in a specific area. Take up a scenario if a customer approaches a jacket section can easily receive updates through beacon. As advertisements or any related data on the products will reach through beacon to the customer.

This marketing strategy provides companies a direct access to every client in a personalized manner to engage the clients. Stats also prove that clients are comfortable with this as a means to receive mixed shopping experience. This strategy assists marketers to directly reach clients through personalized sense by providing discounts or sharing new collection update or providing suggested products etc. It has many others options as well like also promoting at live events or exhibits with features like maps, exhibitor info etc.

Assisting to fill gap between Online and Real World

However, Augmented Reality is a very young stage yet marketers are able to retract profitability by utilizing it in a different form. As we all are aware of the success of Pokemon Go, AR has attracted the attention of the mainstream and is preferred by many consumers as well.

IKEA is a major example of a successful utilization. It has a catalog App which has an image-recognition feature that recognizes the digital layer on the print catalog. The usage is very simple and fun as users have to scan catalog pages with their mobile devices. After which users can easily place virtual furniture in different places and choose accordingly.

This feature made IKEA catalog app the most used and downloaded app in the world. Not only this it revolutionized our shopping experience.

There is also one more efficient utilization of AR by NHS as it started an AR billboard campaign to realize the importance of blood donations. This campaign allowed the volunteer to fill up the bag of blood on add screens and the message then displayed thanks to the volunteer and displaying the strength of blood donation.

Implementation of Chatbots

It is a computer program which imitates communications with humans. It basically assists anyone to get answers to the query that are related to the product or company.

Various brands like Uber, Kik etc are utilizing this facility to communicate with their clients & engage. This is a very effective methodology marketing tool for brands.

This feature provides a humanized way for brand engagement with clients.

Implementation of Notifications & Messages:

App Fatigue

The big players are investing a lot of money in developing an app, advertising on mobile etc to engage more clients is becoming more and more difficult and the increasing effect is App fatigue.

Hence new methods are being pursued push notifications and messages. These methods are becoming the main point of every app engagement & retention strategy.

The basic design is of this method is very successful and most popular as they are free for users.

Conclusion

Mobile technology is very popular and majorly opted by marketers to assist companies to improve consumer commitment, understand user response & collect data of their consumers to grow more digitally conscious and make informed choices.

Broad categorization of Mobile Apps can put into three major slabs like native, hybrid and web apps. Native apps benefit all the features of mobile devices including its operating system and whereas web apps are concerned they let you they enable you to reach the targetted audiences across platforms without much development time & cost. However, hybrid app development provides you an ability to create an app to be available for both Android and iOS operating devices.

Native vs Hybrid Apps

When you browse this topic you will come across various discussions on the same. However, I will point you to the facts that will help you in making the decision whether to develop the Hybrid or Native app.

A native app is developed for a particular operating system such as iOS and Android. It is needless as all are aware today that native apps encompass all the features of the operating system including pursuing the guidelines of the operating system and providing optimum performance.

The user communication with the app is steady with other native apps on the device which assists the user to operate the app faster. Native apps also have an advantage like built-in abilities of the user’s device such as GPS, address book, camera and so on.

Hybrid apps are compatible with both Android and iOS operating devices. They are developed utilizing HTML5 & Javascript and gives the native feel. A basic existing code is used to develop hybrid apps in order to give a native-like feel.

Quick Overview of Advantages and Drawbacks

Advantages

They are various positive aspects of hybrid app development as a developer can utilize existing web knowledge and its one code base enables access to multiple platforms. Due to this, it takes less development time and cost. Effectively can be designed for numerous screen types like tablets utilizing responsive web design. It also enables access to device and operating system features along with advanced offline abilities.

Drawbacks

The drawbacks of hybrid app development are the performance issues for apps expecting complex native functionality, cannot support all operating system features and risk of rejection at the app store for the absence of native feel.

The most beneficial aspect of choosing hybrid app development is that it utilizes your web skills. However, exceptional efforts are not required to build a hybrid app if you are already skilled in web development.

Also if you have less timespan hybrid app is the best option as it can be developed in one source code and delivered across different platforms, and development time is fairly less as opposed to that of native applications.

Hybrid App: User Experience

When it comes to development it takes less time also can be deployed on both Android and iOS operating platforms but when it comes to user experience it lacks the native feel. User experience is a major factor for any app success as the hybrid app can give the feel of native but the many features of both platforms operating systems are inaccessible. To basically point out the fact both platforms Android and iOS are very distinct and there is really no alternative to create a mobile app that can cater to users of both operating systems.

As their techniques and composition guidelines are completely distinct, making it challenging to develop a hybrid app with an excellent user experience.

So Does Hybrid App fulfills your objective?

Eventually, everything comes down to your business purposes and aims. It is important to examine your target audience and their inclinations. Based on that analysis, you should base your decision to opt your app requirement to be on both Android and iOS.

Today we celebrated Christmas and rejoiced. The whole team gathered in the Christmas spirit with red Santa hats and Santa masks. The evening was started with a huge cake and three other small cakes to celebrate birthdays. During it, we smudged each other’s faces with cake but the evening was also filled with sadness as it was the last day of one of our teammate.

Then a delicious spread of great snacks and meal was served. Lastly, we had secret Santa which was amazing and everybody received gifts. This evening was a bonding experience for the whole team also everyone had fun to celebrate the end of a busy and successful year.

The digital revolution is changing many industries including travel industry. After observing the changed inclinations and behavioral pattern of travelers the concept mobile app became popular. A travel app is a great and platform for agencies that will enable the prospective travelers to plan various activities which would be one click away.

Features popular for Travel Agency Mobile App

It is critical to know the features to be included in a travel app in order to receive highest returns possible to justify the investment of travel agencies in the mobile app. Below are features listed for a mobile app for travel agencies:

1. Automatic Travel Itinerary Generator

It is noted in a recent report from leading travel companies that people prefer to plan their trips themselves rather than taking up readymade itineraries.

On observing it the travel agencies majorly prefer one specific feature which is an ‘automatic itinerary generator’ for travel mobile app to entice their users. This feature works based on the ‘location’ entered by the user, itinerary generator prepares travel plan in accordance with the number of days desired including details of sightseeing places to visit and activities to be done.

2. Weather Forecast, Offline Site Map and Navigation

It is essential to be aware of the climate of the destination for the travelers. The mobile app by travel agency will enable the users to successfully access the information to users on day and night temperature of any specific place. The app also permits to punch any dates for weather info is favored by users as it allows them to plan future trips.

Maps and navigation and travelers go hand in hand it’s a must feature that should be in the travel mobile app. Hence, this is also one of the required features by travel agencies that too if it available in offline mode the travelers will not have to download and use third-party apps for the same.

Just type the place on the ‘map’ and utilize the navigation to reach the destination at least possible time. Notably in travel mobile apps, keeping in mind the weak cellular networks and internet connection in remote locations offline map and navigation functionality comes in handy.

3. Travel Mobile App Online Booking

One of the essential features for travel mobile apps is online booking. As this feature actually contributes to the main purpose of users and even travel agencies. This makes the business convenient by providing the user’s ability to book the trip themselves without going anywhere or looking through various brochures. And this empowers the users to use the facilities which are just a click away.

4. In-Built Currency Converter and Translator

The features like ‘currency converter’ and ‘language translator’ are one of the highlights of travel app for its users. Just for example if a person is planning a trip to another country or continent altogether these features are going to work like lifesavers as they can convert their currency to that location’s currency or vice-versa. The same comes here for ‘language translator’ feature, one of the most eminent if you traveling to a distant place with another local language in use. It will enable the traveler to communicate with local people.

These features are a must inclusion by travel agencies for their mobile apps as they are user aligned characteristics and improve the usability of travel mobile app drastically.

5. Reviews, Recommendations, and Feedback

Reviews, recommendations, and feedback are the most required and eminent for travel industries by the past users. It is possible that users planning to visit a place that they might have never traveled before. And to finalize their preferences they go through the reviews first of the place and nearby hotels.

There should be a good number of neutral reviews for user’s reference showcased on the mobile app for the travel agency. The mobile apps for travel should have a feature that enables users to post a review and share experience to make the app more dependable.

6. Integration of Payment Gateway in Travel App Development

A secured payment gateway should be integrated into travel mobile apps to make it accessible for travelers to make payments for flight booking or hotel accommodation. Such incorporated features in travel mobile app make it most opted for users as it provides convenience for users to search for tickets or hotel rooms and find the best possible deal to make the reservations.

7. Customer Service through Mobile App

An additional feature can be incorporated such as chat with agents in the travel mobile app. In case even if the agencies do not have enough support staff can implement AI-powered chatbots that offer 24/7 assistance to app users. When an option is available for users to discuss their inquiry with travel agency anytime and anywhere, they feel connected to the brand and this increases their chances of using it again for making reservations.

8. Support for Social Media Sharing

Social media is very strong and influential. The digital age people are more inclined towards sharing their travel experiences with social circle. If this same feature is catered by travel mobile app to share their experience with social media accounts!! There would be a self-advertisement of the travel company on the user end.

What is the Cost to Build a Travel App?

The most evident question, so let me tell you the cost of building a travel app with the above features depends on various factors like complexity, number of features, functionalities, technology, and platform. Just to give you a rough estimate of travel mobile app development will range approximately between $4K & $30K. Building the mobile app for travel agency needs substantial investment, however the results of this investment make app development a reasonable choice.