3 ways startups can use Big Data to grow faster
It’s a much-noted fact that the majority of startups fail within the first couple of years. The ones that manage to succeed not only have an amazing product or solution, but they find a way to connect deeply with their customers.
One of the keys to going from scrappy startup to next big thing is the proper use and analysis of Big Data. With so much information being collected and available in today’s digital world, there’s never been a better time to be able to know exactly what your customer expects from your product and from you as a company.
The trick to using Big Data for success as a startup is knowing how to analyze it and how to apply that analysis to your particular product and organization. Here are three ways that startups can use Big Data to grow their businesses faster and smarter.
1. Use Big Data to get to know your customer
The #1 key to success in any business environment is to Know Your Customer! With the abundance of Big Data now available thanks to the internet, mobile apps, and social media, there has never been a better time for businesses to be able to know their customers intimately.
Startups can now use Big Data analytics to create highly-detailed buyer personas. Of course, this should be done during the very early stages of development and fine-tuned throughout the lifecycle of the product. Having a 360-degree view of your customer from the very beginning and designing the product with your exact customer needs in mind is a rock-solid plan for success.
Think about the way Amazon uses Big Data to analyze customer preferences and shopping habits. The company collects data as users shop and browse and this data allows them to determine the most appealing products to put in front of that customer, which leads to more items in the shopping cart and higher sales.
Get to know your customer intimately. Know their likes and dislikes. Anticipate their needs. And then give them exactly what they want. By using Big Data, sometimes you will be able to give them what they want before they even know they want it.
2. Use Big Data to fine tune your product
The best place to gain market insight is from your users. Your target audience is a gold mine when it comes to fine-tuning your product or service.
All the information you could possibly want to know about how to make your product a huge success can be gathered from your application itself and how users are interacting with it. Take for example one of our clients, TriPlay. Their eMusic platform allows users to listen their favorite downloads on every phone, computer, tablet and TV – even offline. They are processing terabytes of data for millions of users and using that data to personalize the listening experience through song suggestions, new artist introductions, and more.
Startups would be well-advised to develop a plan to gather as much information at the beginning of development through user and focus groups. The product or application should have built-in analytics that can produce a constant loop of feedback and user-generated suggestions for improvement.
3. Use Big Data as the basis for your startup
Another way to use Big Data to launch a successful startup is to actually make Big Data your product.
There are a number of promising Big Data startups currently on the horizon. Big Data startups in healthcare are leading the way as this tends to be the industry that can benefit the most from information analysis. For example, Flatiron Health is using information from oncologists, academics, hospitals, life science researchers and regulators on their shared technology platform in an effort to cure cancer.
Other Big Data startups that are achieving notable success include Datarobot – a powerful predictive modeling software that uses AI and machine learning, Veriluma – a prescriptive analytics solution, and Social Data Collective – an application that allows customers to monetize their personal data.
Big Data is big business. More and more companies, from startups to small business to enterprise organization, are looking for solutions that help them make sense of all the data available to them. Develop a unique solution that capitalizes on the actionable steps companies can apply from studying Big Data and you’re well on your way to success.
As the scope of technology continues to grow, the amount of information we can collect and analyze grows as well. Big Data is only going to become bigger data. In order to achieve true success as a startup, you need to break through all the noise and laser focus the information you need to provide the best experience for an audience of one: your customer.
Need more help understanding Big Data and how it can work for your organization? We have over 30 data science, machine learning, and Big Data engineers highly skilled in this type of development. Let’s chat!
Every year, the trillion-dollar company has quite a lot to share. Apple’s latest updates in September featured a couple of new devices and showed that new processing, graphics, and AI power can make a difference.
The long-awaited iOS 12 release introduced key features that make the iOS operating system even more reliable and competitive and can make your iPhone and iPad experience even more delightful. These recent technological advancements have spurred iOS app developments that will likely rule 2019. So, what’s the buzz in mobile app development on iOS?
Let’s go into details to see what trends set the tone for the future of the industry.
1. Hey Siri, what about Artificial Intelligence?
Ever since Apple launched AI personal assistant Siri, it has gained broad traction worldwide. No doubt, it’s getting smarter over time.
Apple released its latest SiriKit for iOS developers to enable iOS and watchOS apps to work with Siri just using voice. There are many benefits of integrating SiriKit with your app, including access from the lock screen and hands-free use .
Siri Shortcuts intelligently suggest shortcuts to actions that you may want to perform using an app. Consequently, you can determine which actions in your app are suitable for users and what they’d like to do in the future. Apps tell Siri about these actions by specifying them as relevant shortcuts.
You can also run shortcuts by voice and create your own with the new Shortcuts app.
2 . Machines continue to learn
Artificial Intelligence has been a true game changer in mobile app development, and Apple has the lead when it comes to leveraging machine learning in their chips. The company has unveiled its core processor - the 7-nanometer A12 Bionic - which includes a "Neural Engine" for tasks related to machine learning, such as Face ID and the new customizable Animoji called “Memoji.” This new AI brain will let devices perform multiple tasks, like taking better photos and recognizing unhealthy heartbeat patterns. Just think, the A12's built-in circuitry performs 5 trillion operations per second. That’s a sevenfold increase in comparison with A11.
It is worth mentioning here that recently Apple launched a framework, Core Machine Learning 2 (CoreML 2), that allows for the creation of high-performance and highly responsive applications, as compared to general iOS apps. This framework is also used for analyzing natural language text and deducing its language-specific metadata.
CoreML 2 also covers tasks such as language and script identification, lemmatization, parts-of-speech tagging, and training and deploying custom natural language models.
3. Embracing the power of AR/VR and 3D
During the latest updates, Apple showcased several improvements for ARKit 2, which is the next generation of its augmented reality app development platform coming in the 12th iOS edition. It offers improved face tracking, the ability to measure objects with your iPhone and iPad, and support for 3D object detection.
Also, creating a multi-user AR experience is not a problem anymore. Apple’s AR is now shared, persistent and even more engaging than before. With ARKit 2, users can create a piece of AR art that can be viewed later in the same place by another person. It will enable iOS developers to build multiplayer games and simulations, which was not possible earlier.
So, which apps should you try to test what ARKit has to offer? The best ARkit-enabled apps include Houzz, Dance Reality, and Giphy World.
No doubt, ARKit 2 (for AR/VR app development) and SceneKit (for 3D graphic designing) will dramatically enhance the development of simulated environment apps, inevitably becoming one of the top iOS development trends for 2019.
4. Thinking sensibly about security
While discussing iOS app development trends, it is essential to consider the fact that hackers are evolving faster than technology. Apple has managed to create an enterprise-wide, security-minded culture that can help users maintain a safe working environment.
For the company, it’s vital to continuously improve its security to prevent data breaches and cyber attacks. It’s not just another app development trend, but the company's commitment to upgrading its privacy policy while releasing updates.
Now it’s possible to use the Authentication Services framework to integrate password manager apps with Password AutoFill. ASWebAuthenticationSession is utilized to share persistent cookies and website data between an app and Safari for a single sign-on experience.
5. IoT...Let’s get connected!
According to Statista, 75 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. That’s why this list of iOS development trends would be incomplete without mentioning the Internet of Things.
Apple managed to introduce a highly secure IoT ecosystem called HomeKit, thus unlocking numerous opportunities for developers as it will help easily connect with any IoT devices.
HomeKit apps enable users to communicate with and control connected home automation accessories and to discover compatible accessories and configure them. Users will be able to create actions to control such devices grouping them together as well as managing them with the help of Siri. Sounds groundbreaking, right?
It seems that during the coming year, all these advancements will help to truly unleash the potential of connected solutions in our everyday life.
6. ...for everything else, there's Apple Pay!
After a successful roll-out in America, Apple Pay has spread to many more countries and is becoming more and more popular. Apple Pay is supported by all Apple devices and is good for its security, as you don’t need to save your card details.
Therefore, in the upcoming year, iOS app development will likely follow a cashless policy and developers will continue to adopt Fintech innovations.
7. Swift 5 and cross-platform apps
Apple's Swift is now ranked among the top programming languages and continues to grow rapidly. Currently, there are over 350,000 apps written in Swift on the App Store. Created as a replacement for Objective-C, it has become a go-to language for writing native i OS or Mac OS apps.
This coding language is praised for its numerous advantages such as simplicity, scalability, and safety. No doubt, Swift has a bright future. In early 2019, the updated Swift 5 will be released, giving developers even more opportunities for successful app development.
Conclusion
Development trends change quickly, so everyone involved should stay tuned for the updates. 2019 will definitely be a year that will see iOS app development stretching out into new directions and bringing a lot more innovations to the industry.
Planning to build an iOS-based app? Just give us a shout and we’ll do our best to help you win in today's challenging app development industry.