Chapter 1:
Brainstorming Smart Phone App Ideas
Synopsis
It is also a good idea to visit the websites of all the branded phones
available on the market.
Discover Your App
You will notice on these sites that there is a tab for users to comment.
If you click on the tab it will take you to another page where you will
find visitor’s comments and even complaints. You can even view posts
that are archived. There are lots of ideas on new designs, software and
apps for phones to be found. Just spend some time going through
them.
Another avenue to get ideas is through social gatherings. When you
are out with friends and associates, talk to them about their phones.
Anyone who has bought a new phone will be more than willing to
share the great features of their new phone. They also like to compare
the features of different brands. They will tell you what new feature or
apps their new phone has. They will also tell you what is good about
the app, what is lacking in the app and what is not good about the
app. All this info is great to have as it will give you insight into what is
good, what is missing and what to avoid when designing an app for
the mobile market.
Chapter 2:
Perform A Thorough Competitive Market Research
Synopsis
For any type of business, a thorough market research is needed to tell
you if the intended project venture is good or not. There are many
sites that you can obtain market info and on many subjects. One such
site is mobilephone development.com. It has great amounts of market
research just on mobile phones and their apps. The research posted
on this site is mostly done by big corporations which means that the
data found on this site is valid and accurate.
Social Forums
Many ideas on phones and apps as well as complaints about them are
found in social forums that target mobile users and developers. The
complaints and comments from users are great in terms of feedback
as it will tell you what not to do with your app, what not to buy, what
brand is good and so on. Users and developers will also tell you what
you should avoid when creating your app due to design complexity
and programming tool restrictions. Most of these targeted social
forums are free and you only need to register to participate in them.
Another avenue to get ideas is through focus group gatherings. These
groups should be represented by age, gender, profession and other
denominations. The analysis and results from these focus group
gatherings will clearly show where your intended target group market
lies. It will also show what type of app is popular, which brand of
phone is the best with current models, how big is your intended
market and what price level is acceptable. These focus groups will
also tell you what is good about the app, what is lacking in the app
and what is not good about the app. You will now have insight into
what is good, what is missing and what to avoid when designing an
app for the mobile market.
Chapter 3:
Be Different From Your Competitor’s App
Synopsis
When you have performed a thorough market research, it will tell you
what the market wants, what is available on the market and what you
should do to penetrate the market.
Be A Leader Not A Follower
You have to adopt the Japanese mentality of how to penetrate the
intended market. Take for instance, when the Japanese wanted to sell
cars, they bought cars from Europe and the US and studied the cars.
From the analysis, they concluded that they can make cars cheaper
with the same accessories and features. They started manufacturing
their own cars and marketed them worldwide. This is how Toyota,
Honda and other Japanese brands emerged.
The defining factor for the Japanese was that they could give the
same thing at a lesser price. The same can be said for any other
product. If you sell any product that is similar to others in the market
but is cheaper, you will penetrate the market and gain market share.
Conversely, if you sell any product that has more user-demand
features than your competitors, you will penetrate the market and
gain market share. A great example of this is iPad. When it was
launched, it was the first of its kind. It captured the whole tablet
market until competitors caught up with cheaper models. Even now
iPad maintains a large share in the tablet market, together with
Samsung and Blackberry. The same scenario goes for iPod.
If price is constant, product differentiation becomes paramount in
market acceptance. It is the logical choice for most people that when
asked to choose between two cars of the same brand and model but
one has more features, 100% of them will pick the one with more
features.
Chapter 4:
Hiring Programmers With Extensive Experience
Synopsis
Once you have confirmed the design and functionality of your mobile
app but are not qualified to program it, you need to find programmers
with extensive experience to create the features that you want for the
mobile market.
Seek Help When It’s Needed
If your app is targeted for the Android market then the place to look
for these programmers is globalemployees.com where they are a one
stop center for outsourcing needs. They will handle all administrative
functions in selecting experienced programmers that are tailored to
your needs. They will:
• Find competent resources
• Manage infrastructure layout
• Check availability of software and hardware
• Labor & Employment Laws
• Holidays
• Appraisals
When hiring Android developers, you must ensure that they have the
necessary skills to build really rich multimedia flash applications.
They must have:
• Sound Knowledge of Android OS
• Experience in mobile & tab device applications
• The ability to conduct Android Testing
• Android Application Maintenance and Upgrade
India is a good source to get experienced programmers. The biggest
advantage of hiring Android developers from India is that you spend
almost 50% less on the resource as part of their salary, compared to
their offshore western counterparts. Android developers in India are
very versatile and they can provide Android application development
on any platform namely Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. These
developers in India are quite proficient in the English language,
making communication with them easy. It is hard to explain the
concept of the project to most people and even harder when there is a
language barrier. In India the IT infrastructure is quite advanced,
enabling clients to interact with their offshore locations by using the
following options:
• Instant Messaging
• Skype
• Video Conferencing
With the above methods of communication, going through the design
life cycle of the app for enhancements with the programmer on a
constant basis is easy.
Chapter 5:
Building Your Apps For Different Types Of Smart
Phones/OS
Synopsis
Once the design of your app has been decided, you also need to know
which smartphone OS platform you want to integrate your app into.
With so many on the market, it can be quite confusing. The market
currently has the iPhone, the growing Android market, the Blackberry
and Windows market. The logical choice would be to select the largest
market. That would be the iPhone, followed closely by Android with
Blackberry and Windows having small shares. Recent market surveys
show that the Android has taken over the top spot with iPhone second
and Windows a close third.
How to choose an OS
If the app’s functionality is geared towards certain target groups like
healthcare, law or financial services, then Blackberry and Windows
are the logical choice as they have great penetration into these
markets.
If the cost of creating the app for a specific platform is an issue then
the Android platform is the logical choice. It is also the growing trend
to develop apps for the Android platform. There are some problems
on unique implementations with ActiveSync but these are likely to be
ironed out soon.
However, when it comes to the actual development process, there are
some who insist Android has the best development tools, database
access and multitouch capability.
While some others point to Apple’s emphasis on speed and reduced
battery consumption, which means working without the bells and
whistles of java or .net.
It is difficult to develop a corporate app [for iOS] that leverages
external xml-based data repositories due to its lack of xml parsing.
This means that it will take longer to write an app for iPhone than it
will for Android or Windows. Longer programming time means more
costs.
The above factors can assist in your choice of OS.
Chapter 6:
Get Your Legal Stuff Done To Protect Your Apps
Synopsis
Mobile App development is progressively becoming one of the largest
and quickest revenue generators for small and start-up technology
companies globally. A new report pegs the mobile app revenue
growth at $25 billion by 2015 (up from approximately $6.8 billion in
2010). It is estimated that more than 50 million apps will be
downloaded by 2012.
Copyrights And Other Matters
Recently, with the spate of lawsuits and consumer complaints, legal
protection and compliance are becoming important issues for mobile
application development companies. The laws governing apps vary
widely and are dependent upon the consumer base, nature of content,
and the business model utilized for developing the apps.
Intellectual Property Right (IPR)
The IPR in the app software is a copyright that protects its authors
the moment they write the code for the app. If the programming was
done by the owners themselves, there is no issue with the IPR but if
the ownership has been outsourced to a vendor, created through a
joint effort, or derived from an open source software (OSS) then such
copyright of the app might be complicated. Where all or part of the
development of the app has been outsourced, the vendor agreement
should stipulate clearly that the party financing the app development
has acquired all IPRs to the software. It is also important to bind the
vendor with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to ensure strict
confidentiality while your app is being developed or you idea for the
app might be sold to another party.
Where an app is developed through a partnership, each party owns
the IPR only over the part of the app developed by it, in the absence of
an agreement.
Chapter 7:
Selling Your Apps In Different Device Marketplaces
Synopsis
In order to sell your app, you have to define which OS it was
developed to integrate with. There are several OS platforms in the
market. There is the iPhone, the Android, the Windows and
Blackberry. Once you have decided which platform to integrate your
app with, you can only sell your app in the same platform that your
app was programmed for.
Make Some Cash
Let us take a look at the Windows market, assuming that your app
was programmed for this platform.
Once your app is completed, you can now sell it on Windows Phone
Marketplace which deals in Windows phone apps. This marketplace
handles all the billings and payments for you.
There are procedures which must be carried out before selling in the
marketplace. These series of action are:
Register as a Windows Phone Developer – register your
application at App Hub. This is also the place for distribution of
your app.
Develop and Test Your Application – use Windows phone
SDK to build your app. Design and prepare your app icon.
Assemble the Prerequisites for Certification – upload your
app to the marketplace in a .XAP file extension. This is an
executable file.
Submit Your Application for Certification – after
uploading you have to certify your app. For submission, you can
choose automatic publishing which publishes your application
after certification. Your certification details are available on
MSDN.
Link to Your Application – once your application is
published, it appears on Windows Phone Marketplace Catalog
and you can promote the link of your app immediately.
Updating Your Application – to update the version of your
app, you need to update the users and also add your updated
version in your membership account in Windows Phone
Marketplace.
Support – You can find support in App Hub in the form of
community forums.
Chapter 8:
Building Apps With Advertising Opportunities
Synopsis
Since the 1990s, people have been predicting that the following year
was going to be the year of mobile. Whether or not 2013 will turn out
to be the year of mobile is anyone’s guess, but the two things that are
certain are that mobile has definitely gone mainstream and as a
result, it’s therefore an ad medium that any serious marketer has to
take.
Mobile Ad Opportunity
In the US. there is a clear and present opportunity for advertisers to
target mobile users through both mobile search and mobile app ad
networks.
This has made it clear that it’s not a question of whether you should
be investing in mobile advertising. It’s a question of how much you
should be investing in mobiles.
In the US in 2011, Android and iPhones accounted for over 72% of all
smartphones according to Nielsen’s mobile report of which we see
that search portals account for 3 of the 10 top destinations with
Google topping the list for each.
According to Nielsen 49% of mobile consumers say they frequently
use their smartphones while shopping or when they are away from
home. That’s half of mobile users who use their phones while they’re
in a purchasing mindset or commercial environment.
These users are probably looking for reviews and price comparisons
and for the price-competitive retailers, that’s a significant opportunity
to target users who are not only interested in your products, but are
ready to buy if the product’s price is right.
Smartphone users spend more time using apps than on the web.
Nielsen has reported that Android users spent more than twice the
amount of time using apps than they did on the mobile web.
Chapter 9:
Implementing The Free Marketing Model – Create A
Lite(Give For Free) And Full Version(Paid)
Synopsis
The marketing of apps is no more different than any other product.
These days, when any new product is launched, the common
marketing strategy is to get customers to try out the product. Most
users are creatures of habit and familiarity. They usually stick to a
particular brand even though there are another 12 different brands on
the shelf. They have used it and know what it does and are used to it.Free Trials
The marketing of a new app is the same. There are dozens of apps
with similar features on the market. So trying to get users to try them
is a challenge, let alone buy them. An app with a free trial will stand a
better chance of being sold than one that does not have a free trial. A
free trial is also good because it benefits both the user and the app
owner. The user gets to use the app without fear or failure while the
owner of the app has made half a sale. While the user is using the app,
he will find that there are certain limitations to this free version. If he
likes the app and its features then he would probably buy the full
version without hesitation. The user knows that the app suits them
after using the free version. Without a free trial, users are in a state of
hesitation about the unknown. Free versions eliminate product
uncertainty. The owner of the app, on the other hand also benefits.
They know that if their app does what it is supposed to do and that
they have based their app on market research, then the chances of
users buying the full versions are good. No free versions, no sale.
Chapter 10:
Expanding Your App To The Web – Allow Synching/ Social
Platform Or Etc
Synopsis
The Web has changed the way people communicate on a daily basis.
Without the support, resources, and insight of family, friends,
colleagues, mentors and business contacts, our lives would be very
different. There are now more ways than ever to make connections
and stay in contact using your app.
Social Apps
There are many mobile social apps available that are free. The
following are some of the popular ones on the web.
Twitter – Twitter is all about real time reporting or commenting.
People tweet on the spot, what is happening and when it’s happening.
Twitter is the #1 microblogging service app you can have on your
phone. Share and discover what’s happening right now, as it happens,
in world events, private events, or unusual events.
Skype – You can stay in contact with anyone who is also on Skype on
their mobile, computer or tablet.
Fring – This app is similar to Skype with the exception that you can
make calls from a Fring user to another Fring user for free through
the web.
My Space - This started out as a space for bands and their fans to
communicate and has grown to make room for everyone. You can
promote your band, discover new music, meet people, or just express
yourself in any way you choose. MySpace is easy to use, and even
easier when it’s on your phone.
WhatsApp – This app is a free texting service from mobile to mobile
using the web. So that means that there is no charges incurred for the
texts. You can text anyone who has WhatsApp anywhere in the world.
StumbleUpon – This app is a search engine for finding interesting,
amusing websites. You can also make friends while using it.
Wrapping Up
Designing and launching a new mobile app can be difficult, but with
the proper guidance and tips it will be much simpler. Creating a new
app is also a great way to dray in money as the mobile app market is
booming. All you need is a fresh idea and a way to put it out there and
you are sure to tap into this exploding market! What are you waiting
for, get started now! I wish you the best of luck!
Table Of Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1:
Brainstorming Smart Phone App Ideas
Chapter 2:
Perform A Thorough Competitive Market Research
Chapter 3:
Be Different From Your Competitor’s App
Chapter 4:
Hiring Programmers With Extensive Experience
Chapter 5:
Building Your Apps For Different Types Of Smart
Phones/OS
Chapter 6:
Get Your Legal Stuff Done To Protect Your Apps
Chapter 7:
Selling Your Apps In Different Device Marketplaces
Chapter 8:
Building Apps With Advertising Opportunities
Chapter 9:
Implementing The Free Marketing Model – Create A
Lite(Give For Free) And Full Version(Paid)
Chapter 10:
Expanding Your App To The Web – Allow Synching/
Social Platform Or Etc
Wrapping Up
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