Blog

Will Google Plus be a success ?

2011-07-15T20:23:57Z

Two weeks after Google Plus has been released, time has come to review it and see what this new social network can bring to an already crowded market. Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Viadeo and many others have been running for a couple of years and all have substantial market share in their respective fields of activity.

The question is: how can Google enter this market successfully ? Needless to say that there is no known magical answer to this, every body has his own theory, based on his own experiences and observations.

At first glance, Google Plus seems to have everything needed to succeed: a quite innovative contact management mechanism (called circles) that permits to sort contacts rather precisely (professional contacts, close friends, acquaintance and so on...), a permission management system that takes advantage of this: so for instance you can publish a feed for your friends only. Also the user profile can be different for contacts in different circles, giving users the ability to fully control who can see what.

An instant messaging service is included, a video conference service, a "Wall" to publish feeds that can also be filtered based on circles, so that you can decide to only see your professional contacts' feeds for instance. Google Plus is also connected to Picasa, so that users can manage their photo album and import their already existing one. It is also connected with Google's search engine, by means of the +1 button appearing on each query result.

From a technical point if view, the site is remarkable as we are used to from Google. Pages load instantly, user interfaces are easy to use, easy to read and uncluttered. The only negative point so far is that you really need a large screen in order to use the circle configuration page decently.

Google Plus is then the perfect competitor of Twitter, Facebook, Viadeo, Flickr and many more which might be its pitfall. Concretely, Twitter is an interest based social network, Facebook is a friendship social network (with a fuzzy definition of friendship, granted), Viadeo is a professional social network. The problem with Google is that it has no strategic positioning in this market. This might make people unwilling to use it just because they don't know what it is made for. They might prefer to stay on their current networks just because they know what each is made for.

Image source

Fall 2011 : iOS 5 release

2011-07-01T00:00:00Z

The new Apple's operating system iOS 5 will be available this fall. According to Apple it « includes more than 200 new features for your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch ». Key features are described on its website.

The major update done by iOS 5 is undoubtedly the «Notification center » that gathers all notifications in one single place. You just have to swipe down from the top of the screen to let it appears (probably inspired from Android).

From a user view point, all notifications will be recorded and accessible: so that new ones will no longer replace the old ones, neither pop up in front of a running application : it will appear unobtrusively at the top of the screen and disappear shortly after. In addition each new notification will be visible from the lock screen to ease the way to get to its apps.

This is a good news for developers since users will certainly be less reluctant to activate their apps notifications. They will also be able to keep track of them all. Developers can be sure that their notifications will be seen.

Another important new feature : iCloud. It will be available with iOS 5 and directly integrated into each apps. iCloud will automatically and freely sync all your Apple devices. In other words, the content of your iPhone will be the same in your iPad, iPod touch or Mac. It will be stored in Apple's cloud. Each user have 5GB of free storage for his custom data (excluding music and apps) which can be extended.

For users iCloud looks useful since it is said that half of iPhone users never sync their phone (except for activation). In case of restoring, your device will recover your apps datas from the cloud.

For developers an API will help them to integrate iCloud into their apps. This means that any iOS/Mac OS developer can now implement synchronization feature for their multi platform applications without spending any money to develop the cloud part.

Taking advantage of social networks in your mobile apps

2011-02-02T00:00:00Z

With an amazingly high amount of users and an ever growing popularity, social networks have become a real asset in many business strategies. How to create a buzz for your brand ? How to provide a better user experience ? These are the questions social networks help answering.

Social networks might look strange if one consider their number, their fast evolution, how different they look from one another and their specific vocabulary. Hopefully for editors and developers, social networks get really interesting when integrated into third party applications and web services, which is why most of them provide libraries to easily interact with them.

The popular Facebook and Twitter allow third party developers to use their authentication mechanism in new application or web services, thus, users won't need anymore to create many account on many different web site, they can use their favorite social network account to login anywhere on the web.

Social networks are also an source of inspiration for new features to include in your product. Some examples are the Arcad Fire's video clip using HTML 5 or the Orange's boule de neige campaign that personalize media contents using information taken from your social network.

Social networks can be a valuable tools for communication. They are the places where "buzzes" happen. For a company, being active on a social network is a very efficient way to manage its own reputation.

Illustration from webdeez.eu

KenaGard settles down in Neuvitec 95

2010-08-30T00:00:00Z

We have the pleasure to announce that we have settled down in Neuvitec 95 a business incubator located in Neuville-sur-Oise, France.

1 mail Gay-Lussac
95000 Neuville-sur-Oise
FRANCE

This is the end of the student company and an opportunity to grow within an ecosystem linked with new technologies.

Agrandir le plan

Apple unveils the iPhone OS 4.0

2010-04-12T00:00:00Z

Apple unveiled this week the new features appearing in the next version of the operating system running on all their portable devices, the iPhone OS 4.0.

This set of features covers all levels of the platform:

For users, many new functionalities in the basic iPhone applications (unified mailbox, among others);
For enterprises, new tools and libraries to help securing data on the iPhone and the possibility to deploy an iPhone fleet easily in a company through wireless networks;
For developers, new libraries to enrich their applications, allowing more interactivity with the iPhone platform and its default applications (Calendar, Photos, Map, Camera);

An exhaustive description would be pointless, so we focus here on three that seems to be the most promising:

Multi-tasking

Apple still doesn't allow full multi-tasking on the iPhone, that is, the ability to run several applications at the same time. However, a couple of new features have been added which are supposed to cover most of the cases where real multi tasking would have been needed. Starting from iPhone OS 4.0, it will be possible to:

Navigate between several applications without closing them: the iPhone can keep in memory the current state of several applications at the same time and show one back to the user instantly. Thus the applications are not technically running at the same time, but the user will feel like they are since the first loading time will be avoided;
Add local notifications on the device itself (like a reminder): A third party application can register events on the iPhone that will pop up as notifications at the desired time. The difference with Push Notification being that everything is done locally;
Play some sound even though the concerned application is closed, which is great for every Skype-like applications, web radio applications and any kind of application using sound to interact with its users);

Unfortunately, multi tasking won't be available for every devices: iPhone 3G, iPod Touch second generation and older devices won't have it.

iAd

Apple has decided to enter the mobile advertisement market. Hence they created an advertisement network for iPhone OS which will allow developers to monetize their application through ads and advertiser to reach any user of an Apple device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) in a rather expressive way. Indeed, advertisements won't simply be text and images, Apple offers the ability to build full web applications and use them as an ad inside third party applications. Apple's homemade demonstrations of the iAd possibilities in terms of interactivity were quite impressive.

We regret that some details on how this advertisement network will work are still missing:

How will prices be fixed?
How does Apple decide of which advertisement to display in each application and for each user, in order to maximize the ads relevance ?
How can a developer wishing to put ads in his application will be able to help by characterizing its potential users, again, in order to improve the advertisement relevance ?

AdHoc Distribution over wireless networks

With iPhone OS 4.0, Apple simplified the deployment process of iPhones fleets and private third party applications in companies. It should be possible to administrate a set of iPhones without having a physical access to them, through a wireless network (Wi-Fi or 3G).

This should help convincing companies to choose the iPhone as a smartphone for their employees since this lack of administrative tools was the main drawback of the platform. A sign that Apple clearly aims this market.

MusicLoop joins music and iPhone

2010-03-18T00:00:00Z

We are proud to introduce you our new iPhone Application : MusicLoop. MusicLoop is inspired by what musicians call a sampler.

It's simple, You record a short piece of music and the application plays it in loop which allows you to record additional tracks on top of it. This in order to create progressively more elaborate music even if you are not a musician. A website, dedicated to the application, presents it and its functionalities, you'll also find a link to the App Store to download it : http://musicloopapp.com

When your composition is done, you can store it as a file and to share it on Twitter and Facebook, or via e-mail. The file is stored on a server and is accessible from anywhere through a web page.

This application has been made in association with CamediaWeb.

The iPad and its consequences on the Flash Platform

2010-02-14T14:43:56Z

Apple finally announced its tablet. It can be summarized as an iPod Touch with a bigger screen which disappointed a lot of people. Among the main drawbacks are those that where made to the iPhone when it was released:

Impossibility to run several applications at the same time;
No Flash Player, hence, no full web experience;
No camera
No standard connectivity.

It is still quite hard to bet on the success of this new device even though a lot of developers have already started developing applications for it. Will this tablet get its own market share, as a big video player, a video game console or a substitute for netbooks ?

Another potential problem is the absence of the Flash Platform. Apple has made a big bet on HTML 5, the new standard for the Web, which could suppress the obligation of running Flash to play video for instance. But Flash is not only about video. With Flex, Flash is still a great platform to build web applications which presents some advantages compared to HTML/JavaScript:

Compatibility with all browsers and Operating Systems: Flex applications can run in any browser and as stand alone application on any Operating System thanks to the AIR runtime;
Better software architecture: ActionScript, the language used to build web applications in Flex is more convenient than JavaScript from this point of view.

We will follow the evolution of this story but it seems unlikely that Apple will ever change its mind and let Flash run on its devices. This would be an opportunity for third party developers to avoid the App Store as a distribution platform which is one of the key elements that made the iPhone what it is today.

Android and security

2010-01-16T00:00:00Z

The problem that arose on jailbreaked iPhones is now appearing on Android devices. That is, the more we make cell phones similar to computers in architecture and capability, the more likely it is that we end up facing the same issues on the former and on the later. In this case, it is security issues.

The most annoying in this is not really the apparition of these problems, rather it is the fact that they appeared first on the Android Market, the official application distribution service for Android devices. The reason for that of course is that as opposed to Apple's App Store, there is no validation process on the Android Market.

The consequence is that application's quality on the store goes from great to not working, and sometimes actually working but with bad intentions. This of course is not a good point for the platform since it decreases user's confidence in the application store. At the end of day, it will make people less likely to pay for an application spontaneously.

Android is an open system, but we think that doesn't mean a distributor should not keep the right to monitor the quality of the applications it makes available.

Smartphones that count

2009-11-26T15:48:43Z

Everybody would like to know how to choose on which plateform we should build our application. That's why everybody should take a look at what AdMob publishes regularly about its internet mobile traffic metrics.

We are often wondering about which plateform should be used or not for our projects. Which one will cover the development expenses and offer an acceptable return on investment ?

Internet's uses metrics are pretty close to what we can imagine as an application's uses metrics. Indeed people browsing the web through their smartphones do not consider it anymore as a 'simple' phone, it's already closer to the computer.

We regret the absence of any detailed numbers about Western Europe and France. Nevertheless, the american market shows two interesting points :

The Droid after few weeks of sales has already taken a good position ;
The market share of Android & iPhone based devices represents 75% of the internet mobile use, Android has overcome RIM and its Blackberry (only 12 %). The other actors are marginalized with only a residual presence (less than 6%).

AdMob's metrics metrics.admob.com

Which positionning for Android ?

2009-10-05T13:19:59Z

Android has been presented as the main iPhone competitor. Nevertheless, the big shark is still a small fish: the independence from constructors and a disappointing finish do not put the iPhone in jeopardy.

Android is trying to reach the App Store's level in application distribution; the new version seems to have taken criticisms into account and enables to preview the application before the installation... One of the main request of developpers is now satisfied, but is it enough to take the market maker position ? Of course it's not.

The open platform might be also an important leverage. Android is spreading, rumors and announcements talk about a lot of devices from a video game console to a media device, one trends that might become a market growth.

If the Android market become big enough in terms of users, it can reach the value of the iPhone one.

Oodoc.com : AIR client is ready

2009-08-20T21:15:49Z

Our customer Oodoc.com has choosen RIA and has its AIR application ready, realised by ourseleves around Oodoc.com's documents selling service.

The widget aims every author publishing documents on the site. It offers :

An easy to access and clear view of the selling stats ;
An easier publication, now accessible through a simple drag'n'drop ;
A notification service in case of new sales.

This widget clearly puts the service closer to its user, giving them a faster access to it.

The application is public, accessible to every Oodoc.com author, signing in is free and a link on the webspace give you an easy install process.

Survey on the iPhone and the way it is used

2009-06-29T15:46:06Z

Considering how many result we got, the survey we did a month ago satisfied us fully. 566 persons answered the questionnaire which is enough to assume a good distribution of the people who participated to the survey.

The typical iPhone user's is a man, single, between 18 and 35 years old that have studied up to a master degree. Considering the income, we noticed that it is evenly distributed among iPhone's owners.

Note that most people who took the survey where Apple's customer before getting an iPhone : 35% of them had a Mac. The Apple's way of designing products seems to satisfy its customers.

Concerning applications, Steve Jobs wanted to put together a phone, an iPod and a computer. Considering video game popularity (82%) on the platform it seems that there is also a portable games console in the bundle. Notice that considering the diversity of profile on the set of people taking the survey, the iPhone is not a games console for hard core gamers but for every one. It is video games that people are the most likely to buy spontaneously (68% of the cases).

Answers concerning the price's threshold under which people buy spontaneously shows how much the pricing policy is important : 0.79 € seems to be the main psychologic threshold.

The document presents graphical representations of the results for each class of users but it's been only released in french.

(3Mo)

To download the survey, right click on the link above then click on "Save as...".

Flex 4 : What is new on the platform ?

2009-06-08T20:31:40Z

Adobe has recently announced the release of Flex 4, the new version of its framework to build Rich Internet Applications. What is new in this version ? Mainly some optimizations and the FXG which is a language using tags, compatible with MXML. It is the standard communication format for graphic components on the Flash Platform.

The most important information is probably the apparition of the brand : Flash Platform is the set of Adobe's product used to build applications for the Flash player. The new version of the development environment to build Flex application is now called Flash Builder (replacing Flex Builder). This choice shows a will to make developers and designers collaborate more efficiently using the platform.

The Flash Platform is an attempt to facilitate team work with Adobe's products : Flash, Flex, Creative Suite and server technology.

Survey on the iPhone and its users

2009-05-25T06:12:44Z

It is quite difficult to have reliable informations on how people uses the iPhone in France... We can get some concerning the amount of sell for applications but it is really scarce.

Our company makes applications for the iPhone, either for ourself, to sell on the AppStore, or as a contractor for some other companies. In order to adapt ourself to the needs of our future clients, it is important for us to understand the application market on the iPhone.

This is why we decided to make a survey to study the iPhone and the way it is used. This survey is composed of three main parts :

Caracterisation of the users: who use the iPhone? Age, sex, social and occupational caracterisation ;
Caracterisation of the uses of the iPhone : What is the iPhone used for? Is it just used as an internet connected device or a real multi task system ?
Caracterisation of the way people buy applications for the iPhone : Particularly the difference of behavior in front of free and not free applications, but also what is the maximum price at which a user buys an application spontaneously.

You can find the questionnaire here

The publication will contail the following elements :

Methodology ;
Raw data analysis ;
Advanced data analysis : concerning user’s behavior on the App Store depending on his profile (The profile is determined by the first set of questions) ;
Conclusion of the study.

Note however that the three last questions are not part of the study, this is because they are supposed to be answered in plain english which makes them hard to analyze formally.

The last question ask for an email address and will not be published.

We chose to publish this study on this blog under the Creative Commons license (by-nc-sa) on the condition that we get enough answer to make it relevant ( 100 is the minimum). The questionnaire will be online until the 10th of june 2009 and the study will be published within the next two weeks.

Our choice might look strange but we chose to publish this study under a free license for many reasons :

We have always found in free software some low cost and reliable solution to answer our need and we want to promote this kind of behavior.
The market of mobile applications is far from reaching maturity, it is still in great expansion which means that competition is not that hard that we have to keep private this kind of informations.
KenaGard is a young company and we need to have people know us, from this point of view, publishing openly this kind of study is clearly in our best interest.

Here is the questionnaire

The picture comes from Flickr

Results are available here (in french only)

Who are our users ?

2009-04-24T22:18:23Z

The purpose of an application is to fulfill its users' needs .. But how to fulfill someone's needs without knowing him ? The answer to this question can be a market study, but once the application is launched and the linked with user's done, could we wait to know a little more ?

Of course some users are very interactive and tells us what they want, do they represent the anonymous majority ? That's not sure.

On the Internet, the solution has been simple : "observe in order to know". That's where came the tracking solutions among which the most known is Google Analytics.

Thus that's with pleasure that we found the interface concept of Google Analytics in the Flurry Analytics service who enables us to do what we already do on websites. A simple installation and then you get a thousand of useful information around the question "who are our users ?" : sessions duration, localization, hardware, everything we need to know better what they need and thus fulfill them.

Image from www.flurry.com

iPhone OS in version 3.0

2009-03-18T14:05:58Z

Yesterday was unveiled for the first time the iPhone OS 3.0, the new version of the iPhone and iPod Touch operating system. In this 3.0 version, a lot of new features have been added, allowing creation of even richer third party application which will allow developer to answer their customer's need much better.

Among these new functionalities the one that seems to be the most interesting is "In App Purchase". This new library allow users to buy content or services directly inside an application. Payment is processed through the user's iTunes account which makes this feature easy to implement and manage for developers and easy to use for customers.

Another functionality we were all waiting : the access to the iPhone's notifications service. It is now possible to notify users of new events or new informations available, even when the application is not running. We will soon see the app that warns you about your sells on eBay or the execution of your trading order.

Android lands in France

2009-03-18T13:35:37Z

Few months after the first Android phone demo, the first Android powered smartphone finally comes to France.

It's Orange (a french major wireless service provider) who is selling the HTC Dream. SFR will soon enter the competition with an enhanced version of the HTC Dream, the HTC Magic.

Android is a huge challenge for its creators (Google being the main) : some other great competitors have been there for a while, namely Apple with the iPhone, Microsoft with Windows Mobile and Rim with the BlackBerry.

Android represent a new opportunity for mobile phone application development and the creation of new smartphone usage in a world where every user is connected everywhere and all the time.