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Google readies launch of Android ‘Cupcake’ update

Google today announced the early look of the much awaited Android ‘Cupcake’ SDK which would now be SDK 1.5

This adds lots of goodies to the Android SDK. One of the best features we like is the ability to target different Android platform versions from within a single SDK installation.

This takes away a lot of our pain.

Smartphone Wars

Walt Mossberg has written a great piece on the on going Smartphone Wars. He describes the various platforms, their strengths and weaknesses.

Why is iPhone such a great development platform?

There is an intense debate going on at Venturebeat as to why developers are preferring Apple iPhone platform over the competing platforms.Here are our thoughts on this debate

Firstly, this is the classic case of a company identifying a specific need in a market, and then launching an offering that successfully fulfills this need. Apple has planned and executed the iPhone strategy to perfection. Others can just watch in awe and try to catch up.

We attribute the success of the iPhone platform to primarily 2 reasons

1. As most Apple offerings, It just works. As a developer, iPhone is probably the most hassle free platform you can develop on. The platform provides some great tools for development. The device and OS experience is consistent with few strings attached. This is an advantage when the company owns the whole widget

2. The power to decide has shifted from the ‘Enterprise’ to the ‘Consumer’. Now this is a huge shift. The consumer’s imagination has been fueled by the pathbreaking features the iPhone provides. Such features had never been seen before, and human imagination simply feeds off such innovation.

Elaboration on point number 2, never before had the user been given so much power to decide what apps they had wanted. The onus was on the handset vendor, the carrier and the software vendor. These organizations are large and bureaucratic, stifling innovation. Rest assured, many an app has died a silent death, due to multiple meetings, approvals and sign off required from a zillion stakeholders.

The iPhone is the world’s greatest ‘live’ market research going on, and the feedback is instantaneous.

Now conceptualizing and monetizing an app is as easy as ‘Develop’, ‘Test’, ‘Distribute’ as advertised in the iPhone Developer portal. Many of the apps we develop,are conceptualized by individuals who have come up with a great idea. Match human ingenuity with innovation and the result is brilliance. Most of our clients have zero development experience, but they know how the features of the iPhone can help find a solution to their needs/their industry’s problems.

Now, what do the other platforms have to offer? Well Android is the closest to the iPhone platform and the most developer friendly. The signup and upload process is easier than the iPhone. RIM Appworld is coming up well, but it still has a long way to go. Win Mo and Symbian have the greatest inertia and the longest legacy to manage.

Now wonder, most of our clients want us to start with iPhone, and then port the app for Android, Blackberry,Symbian, Win Mo and Palm Web OS , mostly in this order.

Will the others catch up, well it is for time to tell, but we are happy with the innovation that is happening all around!

…and we are back

Hi Folks,

Thanks a lot for all your support while we were away. We have been busy working on some great ideas with some really innovative companies. Soon, we would be detailing out the apps we have been working on.

We would also be more active in posting on this blog and bring you the latest updates at New Generation Applications and our take on the happenings in this space!

We are Hiring!

Folks, we are having a great time here at Newgenapps churning out some really cool apps for our clients.

We are growing and we are looking at some really bright and passionate people to join our team.We offer a dynamic work environment, flexi working hours, a great compensation package, and some great surprise offerings!

Application Developer (2 Positions)

If you have a passion for coding then this job is for you. You would be working on the latest game changing technologies, and would be developing some of the coolest applications.

If you are self motivated, passionate and an exceptional programmer, then this is the right job for you. You must meet the following conditions

1. Atleast 4 years of development experience is a must

2. You must have completed atleast a 4 year graduate program

3. Any prior expertise in iPhone SDK development,Cocoa Development, Game development or Java development is a huge advantage

4. You must be ready to take up challenges, and be able to work in a start up environment

If you meet these criteria then send across your updated CV asap to careers at newgenapps.com with the subject as “Opening for Application Developer”

Sales and Marketing Manager (1 Position)

We are looking for a dynamic Sales and Marketing Manager to join us and take us to the next level. If you can think out of the box, define, articulate and implement great sales and marketing strategies, then this job is for you.

You must meet the following requirements

1. Atleast 5 years of Sales and Marketing experience

2. MBA from a premier B-School is a must

3. Prior experience in Web Marketing is a huge advantage

If you meet these criteria then send across your updated CV asap to careers at newgenapps.com with the subject as “Opening for Sales and Marketing Manager”

New Macbook Pictures

New Macbook pictures from a Chinese blog MacX on Gizmodo. Just a bit more than a day to go!

Google Ads on iPhone

According to Adweek Google is readying a platform for advertisers to display ads on iPhone directly. So essentially, the user visiting the website from an iPhone can now be targetted separately from a user visiting from a desktop.

We believe, that this would have a huge impact in the days to come, mostly beneficial for both the companies. As we have already highlited in our earlier post, even though Google and Apple are competing in the mobile platform space, they are are both benefiting from this move towards the smartphone.

The folowing factors would benefit Google

1. Google would be able to create a totally new segment of ads targetted towards the iPhone user, which would result in highly targeted advertising, resulting in organizations willing to pay more for such ads
2. Advertisers would benefit from the ‘Click to Call’ feature that can now be incorporated, thereby resulting in greater probability of sale (this would again result in higher rates for such ads)
3. Participating websites would have a greater incentive to ensure their websites are iPhone friendly
4. Smart iPhone App ideators would be able to quickly think of great apps that could leverage this new ad platform

So let us wait and watch, and see how this pans out. The debate is open for reader comments…would this be mutually beneficial for Apple and Google?

Buzz about the new Macbooks

There is a lot of buzz happening around the new Macbook launch. There are some pretty interesting rumors floating around.

We are really excited about the new Macbook range and can’t wait to get our hands on one!

iPhone vs Android

In his thought provoking article Randall Bennett has compared the iPhone and Android rivalry to Apple vs Microsoft rivalry of the 80’s. The article show the similarity in Apple’s current approach to its approach in the 80’s where it lost out to Microsoft.

This article provides another viewpoint on the hottest rivalry currently going on. The surprising fact is that no commentator has Microsoft even in the frame. Even the venerable New York Times has a post on iPhone vs Android

We think that a major change is happening in the technology space today

• The game is moving away from the Desktop to the Mobile
• Microsoft has been relegated to the background in the mobile wars
• Apple and Google are encouraging a trend (even though as rivals), where more and more productivity apps are coming onto the cloud and the mobile
• A huge chunk of developer community is moving towards the Android and iPhone development platforms. This is expected to provide Google and Apple the same Network Effect advantage, which propelled Microsoft in the 80’s and 90’s
• The Application Delivery channel has become web based (iTunes,Android Marketplace etc). A person with a great application idea in the remotest place on earth can now can sell the applications to millions of users across the globe

So is this really a rivalry? Surely, both the platforms would like to capture as much marketshare as possible, but this rivalry is creating a healthy eco system for both the organizations to benefit.

I will take 2 examples how the mobile platforms are helping the organizations

Apple

Apple iPhone Apps can only be developed on a Macs. With the success of iPhone and the super success of iPhone Apps, a large number of developers have started developing for iPhones. Now this would result in a huge number of Macs being bought, just for development purposes (and the numbers can be really huge in a country like india!). Infact, I think that analysts have not fully factored this phenomena while determining price targets for Apple.

So Apple benefits from Mac sales. But the biggest benefit is that a large number of these developers would also start bulding applications for the Mac. Now this would result in a lot more Mac apps being available and a drastic fall in prices on Mac apps, which would induce consumers sceptical of lifetime owneship costs to jump onto the bandwagon.

Google

I believe Google has a brilliant strategy in place. Sometimes the only way to win a game is to change the rules of the game itself. This is precisely what Google is doing. Can’t compete with Microsoft on Desktop Apps, just make the desktop redundant!

Google has been evolving Google Apps slowly but surely over the years. We ourselves run on Google Apps and can vouch for the tremendous benefits it offers. Google has been adding features to its Google Apps suite. Going forward we see more and more integration between Android based apps and Google Apps. This would in a few years result in a very compelling value proposition for enterprises to move onto this platform.

From our perspective, we believe that this rivalry is just accelerating the move from the desktop to the mobile. People have been blown off their feet by the kind of apps that can be developed leveraging the innovations present in the Android and iPhone platforms, and rest assured, the game has just begun.

We are excited to be at the forefront of this change!

Android Emulator

T-Mobile, the company coming out with the first Google Android platform phone, the HTC G1, has released a G1 Emulator

The website provides a cool 360 degree view of the phone as well as full emulation. The phone looks to be a pretty decent one with a draw out Keyboard (which should please business users). With Google Maps,Compass and Street View it packs the puch as far as software and ‘Cool’ quotient is concerned.

We, as one of the pioneers on the Android platform development are really looking forward to the launch of the phone on 22nd October, and hope it hits the Indian market soon.