The lines between digital, mobile, technology and apps are blurring in today’s world. We at Robosoft are keen followers of developments in this arena. Here’s a quick summary of what’s buzzing:
2016: An impressive year for digital games
2016 proved to be a great year for digital games with Pokemon Go, Clash Royale and Super Mario Run being smashing hits at the app stores. According to a report from SuperData Research, digital games have generated $91 billion worldwide in 2016, out of which $41 billion comes from mobile games. The report also notes that the market for mobile games has now started to mature making the games and playable media audience the most valuable and engaged demographics.
Game producers have already noted this change and are keen on exploring more in this segment. After its intense success, Super Mario Run maker Nintendo’s President, TatsumiKimishima, revealed in a recent interview that the company is planning to release two or three games the next year on mobile.
Bots are the new shopping assistants
In an effort to make holiday shopping more personalised and enjoyable, two of the most well known shopping malls, the Mall of America and Fashion Island deployed IBM’s artificial intelligence pilot program. Known as the ELF (Experiential List Formulator) the bot can suggest personalized ways of spending time at the 500 stores and theme parks inside Mall of America based on a series of questions.
Another bot named At Your Service, for Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach can be used by shoppers to enquire about where to buy the items on their list.
Both the bots use Watson’s Conversation and AlchemyLanguage APIs.
Super Mario Run: Early Lessons
Super Mario Run was launched last week and the initial download numbers have been impressive. But, despite that the game received a lot of low ratings at the App Store. What could be the reasons for the app to earn such low ratings? What are the different lessons one can learn from Super Mario Run about app launches and marketing? Our NikunjSanghvi, Head – US Sales and Business Development, throws a light on all this and more in his article – What lessons does Super Mario Run have for your Mobile Initiatives?
Prisma gets location based social feed
Source: TechCrunch
Prisma, the popular app that uses artificial intelligence to apply art-esque filters to photos and videos launched a big update last week. The update brings a social feed to the app with a focus on location-based sharing. This means users can now share their artwork within the app itself and it will be seen in the feeds of people in their vicinity first. And as the post gets more likes it will start showing up to a wider range of users.
Another big update to come to Prisma is the ability to apply effects to a free aspect ratio and full screen camera, which is only available to iOS users as of now.
Here’s one sample image they shared:
Source: Prismaandroid
Source: Chiploco
