10.9 billion Mobile Downloads in 2010

In 2010, over 300,000 applications were downloaded over 10.9 billion times, a figure predicted to rise to 76.9 billion downloads in 2014, generating US$35 billion in revenue (IDC), up on $7.3 billion in 2011 (Canalys).

As the mobile application market continues to grow, so does the need to support the widest number of platforms to ensure applications reach the widest possible audience while giving the maximum return on investment to application owners.

This is not an easy challenge to meet, especially since the mobile application market is still relatively new and is subject to rapid changes between the popularity of platforms.

Gartner predicting that by the end of 2012, Android mobile devices will account for 49.2% of the market share, largely replacing the current Apple iPhone user base. Other sources suggest a dramatic increase in Windows Mobile devices with the launch of Windows 8, thanks to the tight integration with Microsoft cloud technologies, office applications and enterprise level software such as SharePoint and Dynamics. At the same time Apple is continuing to innovate, Blackberry is rethinking its own offerings and as of yet new platforms will likely surface as the revenue potential from this new market continues to be demonstrated.

Red Skies Limited is at the forefront of mobile application development, supporting all platforms while developing processes for maximising code reuse across platforms.

As well as the suite of mobile applications, we also specialise in integration with remote services and applications, from payment portals to corporate SharePoint installations.

As a Microsoft partner and .NET specialist, we are also able to develop the software and infrastructure needed to provide server side processing and storage, whether it's secure WCF or Azure cloud services, new .NET MVC web applications or extensions to corporate systems that need to communicate with distributed applications.

For more detailed information on the above please view our whitepaper here :

View Mobile Apps Whitepaper

Alternatively, we provide a wizard to allow people to quickly create templated mobile applications and upload designs for quick quotations here.

.NET solutions for the web

As a Microsoft partner, employing Chartered and highly experienced Engineers, Red Skies Limited is the ideal partner for developing websites, web applications and web services built on the latest standards and technologies from Microsoft.

Websites and applications

.NET is an enterprise level framework from Microsoft, trusted across industries from banking to online media.

At Red Skies we take the security, reliability and scalability of our clients projects seriously which is why we specialise in the .NET framework over other free open source technologies.

As a trusted Microsoft partner, we have the skills and experience to walk you through the complete development process, cutting out the technical jargon and ensuring you receive a solution that meets your precise needs.

From the initial concept stage through design and development and into hosting and support.

We are highly experienced in the development and hosting of MVC 2 and 3 web applications as well as Web Form applications built using .NET 2 to 4.

MVC provides a highly scalable design pattern which splits apart web pages from controller logic and data sources while web forms provides a familiar code behind approach to web applications.

On the client side we have expertise with Javascript and libraries including JQuery and AJAX to provide a professional and engaging interface to your application.

Silverlight

For more interactive and complex client side functions we have expertise in the provision of Silverlight applications.

Silverlight applications run inside a virtual machine in the browser to allow interactive content similar to Flash but with far more scope for interacting with server side code.

Silverlight applications can also run out of browser allowing users to install the application from the web page directly onto their desktop with updates pulled down on demand from the server.

Some simple interactive Silverlight maps can be here here

Web Services

Web services provide server side processing to clients whether they are websites, mobile applications, desktop software or even embedded applications.

Common examples include payment provider web services, authentication services, services for managing systems such as SharePoint or SalesForce, information feed services or specialised services such as services for carbon calculators or investment management services.

We support and develop web services using Windows Communication Foundations (WCF) to ensure consistency with standards and reliability through the latest Microsoft web service framework.

The Media Monitor web service is one example of a web service solution provided by Red Skies Limited.
Media Monitor is a new service being developed for the media industry for profiling in home media usage. The white paper below provides a brief overview of the project.

View Media Monitor Whitepaper

.NET solutions for the desktop

The desktop remains a vitally important place to run software, a fact reflected by Microsoft's continued investment in new technologies to improve the desktop software experience.

WPF is Microsoft's latest approach to desktop software development, allowing software to be developed that's more flexible and visually unique than was possible with traditional Windows Forms. Starting from a blank canvas, page layouts and styles can be designed that move beyond standard form layouts to include animations, transforms and effects that lift applications from the screen.

Not only does WPF make software look and feel more impressive but thank's to WPF's close relationship to Silverlight, code can be shared more naturally between Silverlight and WPF applications.

Embedded Software

A strength of Red Skies Limited is that our experience goes beyond software for the web, desktop and mobile devices.

We have experience working on many specialised systems including embedded missile guidance systems, robotics software, Kinect for interactive control of real world mechanical devices and device drivers for imaging and printing devices.

What this means is that we can provide highly specialised software built around Microsoft technologies including the lightweight .NET Micro framework for embedded environments and even manage the integration of these specialised systems into your larger software collection.

Whether you plan to use Kinect for controlling a rover on Mars or in a nuclear reactor or whether to plan to embedded logic in a board running the .NET Micro Framework, we have the experience and skills you need.

To learn more about space specific projects managed by our sister company, Red Skies Space, please here.

Cloud Computing

Managing hardware infrastructure is a costly and highly skilled activity, often best avoided when a cloud platform will suffice.

By leveraging the power of a cloud platform such as Microsoft's Azure or Amazon's EC2, it becomes possible to greatly simplify and reduce hardware risks associated with physical servers while benefitting from the flexibility benefits that come with such cloud platforms.

Amazon EC2

Amazon EC2 is a highly flexible and cost effective platform allowing users to stop and start instances dyanamically, create new virtual server environments based on a range of different operating systems and even develop virtual networks and load balanced server farms.

Once a server is running a user can create snapshots and images to start new instances from as well as backup drives, even through to physical backups which Amazon will post out.

Amazon allows servers to be created varying in scale from micro instances for simple server requirements through to large server instances where a high spec server is needed.

Amazon also provides a range of additional cloud based services including raw processing instances for such activities as scientific and engineering simulations, cloud based databases and server monitoring to help ensure servers continue to run reliably.

However, EC2 servers are still fundamentally virtual servers and so a level of expertise is required to manage these servers and networks in much the same way as would be required for physical networks but without the need to manage the physical hardware.

Microsofts Azure

The Azure platform is a second generation environment which removes any concept of a server or virtual network.

Instead the Azure platform allows applications to be developed and published to the cloud directly from Visual Studio with the resulting resource available to the application being scaled up or down dynamically to meet demand.

This flexing of resource can be done in minutes allowing a corporate site to use less resource during quiet time and to then flex up during peak useage times such as during major product launches or holiday periods.

This removes the complication of managing virtual servers and load balancing and allows applications a vast amount of scope to future proof with the environment scaling to meet the needs of the application, not the needs of the server.

Like with EC2, Azure also provides additional services including virtual SQL Server databases to enable complete systems to be managed and hosted within the one Azure cloud.

However, Azure applications need to be packaged and deployed specifically as Azure packages and so some expertise in Azure is needed when developing the application.

Azure solutions typically fit greenfield projects where there is likely a need to scale up to cater for high levels of demand and where a traditional server farm would normally be required.

Off the shelf packages

SharePoint

When constructing a corporate Intranet, one of the most popular systems in use is Microsoft SharePoint.

We are able to manage SharePoint deployments but much more than that, we are able to develop extensions, templates and custom modules to extend the functionality of SharePoint to meet your exact needs.

We have experience developing complex workflows including workflows that integrate with many remote services for managing documents, notifications, OCR and database integration.

We also have experience developing templates for SharePoint to create sites that deliver unique and engaging experiences to users.

Beyond standard templates we have experience developing very unique interfaces including Silverlight interfaces that extend the features of SharePoint to incorporate many additional corporate wide features such as user communitications, video walls and global campaign projects.

A powerful aspect of SharePoint is its set of SharePoint services which allows content to be read from and inserted back into SharePoint from third party systems.

We can integrate SharePoint with new or existing .NET software whether on the web, across a corporate network or using support software on the same server.

Our experience of SharePoint will help to develop and deploy robust SharePoint installations that are moulded to fit your corporate needs.

Sitefinity, Ektron and other Content Management Systems

If you want to manage your own website content then you will be looking for a content management solution.

There are many popular CMS systems in use today but as a .NET specialist we mostly support .NET CMS systems including Sitefinity, Ektron, Composite, Sitecore, Kentico, Orchard and mojo Protal.

We can develop your site using your CMS of choice, style the site to match your corporate brand identity and develop extensions as needed for such activites as Single Sign On (SSO), integration with third party systems, publishing or news and blog feeds, management of users and user roles and management of content.

MS Dynamics, SalesForce, Sage and other third party systems

Many enterprise level systems provide rich API sets to allow communication with your own enterprise level applications.

We can leverage these API's to automate and tightly integrate your own software with these and many other third party systems.

Maybe you want to make automatic transaction entries into Sage or maybe you want to compile activity reports from your company MS Dyanamics CRM. We can work with you to develop such tightly integrated systems to save you time and money and to increase productivity across your business.

Media Technology

Red Skies Limited is actively working with partners in film, music, broadcasting, videogames, electronics and marketing on new technologies and services for the home media market.

Details of these services and technologies are available on request as are demonstration media devices for showcasing specific new technologies and services.

Whitepapers

To learn more about our media technology research and development programs, either as potential partners or investors, please use the links below to open brief whitepapers or contact the office for more information.

View Multi-Option Interaction System Whitepaper

View Multi-Source Media Information System Whitepaper

View Media Usage Monitor Whitepaper