From Jim Ellison:

Some mobile apps are written to make money directly. Think iTunes. Amazon. eBay.

But I’ve not found many other companies whose apps have become virtual licenses to print money. Rather than direct sales, mobile apps built to market or brand products and services appear to stand the best chance of justifying their development costs.

In Ireland, Red Oak, a tax refund service, built an app through which people can take photos of medical expenses, deductible in that country, and store the data on Red Oak’s servers. Come tax time, Red Oak could be a familiar name to the handheld’s owner. Moreover, Red Oak uses that info as leads to generate new business.

Oakley, the maker of stylish sunglasses, uses weather and waves to attract the surfing crowd. The Oakley app tells them current surf conditions, including surf height, swell direction, tides and a two-day forecast. REI similarly keeps its name in front of skiers with its ski and snow report.

Drug store photo apps bring in business directly. But the apps are also a response to changing consumer behavior while keeping the brand current. Why should I get in the car and go to the nearest Walgreensor CVS if I can upload my snaps via app and quickly get them back in the mail? Plus, I’ll remember the drug store’s name next time I need to fill a prescription.

Captive audiences will be eager to buy via their handhelds. Pizza chains were ready to deliver during the Super Bowl and though numbers aren’t in yet from the big dough boys, records are expected to be set.

These mobile knickknacks are free. No surprise, as the object is to distribute them as far and wide as possible. Even then, the big boys need ads in the apps to help pay back development costs.

What’s crucial: These apps are a form of utilitarian marketing. They’re not just decorative. They actually do something for the user. The best do it quicker and better than a website. They can even make life a little easier. Even if the task is ordering pizza or hitting the surf.

Jim Ellison is a Roanoke, Virginia-based freelance writer and web developer.  For more from Jim Ellison, read We Need an App.

When I met Jim Ellison at a Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council meeting and learned of his experience, I asked, "Will you think and write about mobile apps for Handshake 2.0?" I'm delighted to share Jim's musings on mobile apps.

From Jim Ellison:

I'd like to have had a ten spot each time I heard someone in an office say, "We need an app."

These people knew a mobile strategy was needed. But how could an app make them money?  Was it worth the time, trouble and expense? 

Consideration of these tactics could have helped them form a mobile strategy:

No question why web portals like Yahoo and MSN always run top 10 lists. People love lists. People understand lists and use them. List apps are relatively easy to develop and can point potential customers in the right direction.

A few apps sell directly or help turn a potential customer into a buyer.

Suppose nobody in the office is helping a daughter sell her Girl Scout Cookies this year? I can use Kellogg's Little Brownie Bakers app to search for sellers in my neighborhood, just in time for the annual mid-winter sale on the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting.

If I wanted to make it convenient for prospects to reach me interactively, I’d  consider a directory app of my sales force with names, photos and contact information.  Coldwell Banker Townside in Blacksburg, Virginia is one of many Realtors who list houses and the agents to move them. Research firm Gartner reports location-based services like these will be “one of the most disruptive in the next few years...because of its perceived high user value and its influence on user loyalty.”

Apps can also work at the point of sale.  I’m able to trace the purity and potency of Gaia’s herbs with their  app, Meet Your Herbs. I type in the ID number on the back of a package to learn an herb’s source, harvest field, lab test details and date of manufacture – far more info than could ever fit on the package: plenty to try to convince me of the herb’s provenance.

Of course, the cost of developing an app varies widely.  Some can be built out of an existing web page. Others can run into the many thousands of dollars.  (Here's Handshake 2.0's post on the costs of mobile app development.)  It’s up to me to weigh that against how much product I think it will move. 

Next time I hear someone say "We need an app," I'll advise him to consider the valuable opportunities that could drift away - even if he's scared off by the price of mobile development. He might save $20,000 by not spending it. He might also forgo the chance to earn twenty grand over and above his investment.

Jim Ellison is a Roanoke, Virginia-based freelance writer and web developer.

Coldwell Banker Townside, REALTORS(R) is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Sponsored by First Bank & Trust Company

From Wil Collins:

Business and physics do not, on the surface, appear to have the common underlying principles needed to create a substantial relationship. However, after reading this thought-provoking post by Richard Hammer, I was left questioning that very assumption.

The path of least resistance is a physics term used to describe a channel through which a desired outcome can be attained with the least amount of opposition. People and businesses are continuously searching for guidance to find the path of least resistance towards their success.

Some see the birth of a new industry as the opening of their path of least resistance – they are allured by the illusion of immediate success and wealth. The first few to flock to a newborn industry can find it remarkably easy to strike it rich with little or no opposition. However, many then enter the market, leaving newcomers scrambling for alternative techniques to mine the remaining riches.

Currently, the mobile sector is becoming a prominent technology and, therefore, appears to hold endless business possibilities. During this week of the anniversary of the 1848 California Gold Rush, it's apt to point out that as a result of the current gold rush for Silicon Valley, there are myriad app developers trying their luck out to become the next millionaire. Unfortunately, most prospectors do not strike it rich with sheer luck, so other, more refined methods must be devised for those seeking the same success.

The influx of entrepreneurs caused by a so-called Gold Rush to a single market creates vast disparity between the supply and demand in that market. On the other hand, it also spurs innovative thinking by those on the cutting edge of that industry. These effects on the software industry have created an environment where every developer has the chance to strike gold with their next app.

Wil Collins is a computer science major at Virginia Tech and an intern with Handshake Media, Incorporated. You're invited to read more from Wil Collins on Handshake 2.0.

This post is sponsored by First Bank & Trust Company, one of the top community banks in the United States, with office locations in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, and the New River and Shenandoah Valleys of Virginia. You're invited to read more from First Bank & Trust Company on Handshake 2.0.

First Bank & Trust Company is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Our client, FurnishWEB, released the equivalent of a handshake app for sales orders and sales reps in the home furnishings industry with its iPad app.  FurnishWEB's online and mobile data management and order system optimize partnerships between manufacturers, dealers, sales representatives, staff, and customers.  The FurnishWEB iPad app is offered through eCat, the iPad-based sales tool from SuperCat Solutions.

I asked Barry Welch, founder of FurnishWEB, how the iPad app is helpful to sales reps.  He made these points:

• Sales reps can prepare sales presentations electronically, eliminating the need for notebooks full of printed photograph "glossies" of product lines.
• Sales reps can maintain flexibility during a presentation.  If a retail owner or a buyer wants to go a different direction than sales reps anticipated, they can adapt and adjust quickly to be of service to the customer by simply tapping within the app on other options.
• "Maybe, Take, No." In the past, sales reps would show printed, glossy photographs of products to buyers and, one-by-one, add them to "Maybe," "Take," and "No" piles.  The rep would ultimately have to transform the "Take" pile, by hand, into an order.  The FurnishWEB iPad app creates those "piles" during the sales presentation process.  A few taps within the app, and the "Take" pile becomes a sales order, already on the way to the supplier.

To learn more about FurnishWEB on the eCat iPad app, please read FurnishWEB Now Available Through iPad App, Home Furnishings Industry iPad App at High Point Market, the press release on Furniture Today, and the announcements on the FurnishWEB Blog and dBusinessNews.

FurnishWEB on eCat is available in the iTunes App Store.

FurnishWEB is an online and mobile data management system for the home furnishings industry featuring an online order, inventory, shipping and tracking system. FurnishWEB expedites and systematizes order processing and product inventory tracking to optimize partnerships between manufacturers, dealers, sales representatives, staff, and customers.  You're invited to read more about FurnishWEB and FurnishWEB's iPad app for sales orders and sales reps in FurnishWEB's category on Handshake 2.0.

For the latest news: FurnishWEB on Twitter, FurnishWEB on Facebook, and the FurnishWEB Blog.

The Handshake App is a corporate mobile application extending the reach of companies and organizations to mobile customers. Please read all about our Handshake App here.

The Handshake(R) App is a Handshake(R) mobile application from Handshake Media, Incorporated.

FurnishWEB is a division of Internet Databases, a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, parent company of Handshake 2.0. Handshake® and Handshake 2.0® are registered trademarks of Handshake Media, Incorporated.

From Robert Geller:

How does one get attention for a mobile application and boost the odds of its success in the marketplace? 

You need to first get it listed in one or more app stores and start to drive impressive download and usage stats.  These show that an app has “legs” and justify a shot at media recognition and a hard launch.  From there, it is a relatively shorter trip to further adoption and achieving the Holy Grail of getting your app bundled with popular devices.

It helps to develop apps for the most widely used platforms and their respective app stores.  For many developers, there is only one that really counts: Apple’s.  People downloaded almost twice as many apps from the Apple iOS store last year than from the Android Market, according to market research firm Ovum (although their analysts predict that Android will soon catch up and surpass Apple).

Once your app has been approved and is available in one or more app stores, there are a variety of tactics you can use to drive downloads and usage.

App Store Optimization (ASO)
It helps to find ways to maximize downloads over short periods of time.  You need to leverage SEO, and consider advertising if budget allows, as outlined on the App Marketing Tips blog.  On MobileDevHQ, Ian Seffernan explains ASO in more detail, including the importance of adding hooks to your app that make it easier for users to share it.

Brute Force Techniques
I am including these here with the caveat that some people – me included – consider these to be gaming the system – but there are some services that make it possible to pay for each download (e.g. Mechanical Turk).

Soft Launch / Early Media Coverage
As I said above, it is easier to get the media to take note of your app after it has already started to gain app store traction; however there are some steps you can take early on to get coverage.  For example, getting your app listed on the app beta testing service TestFlight can drive early interest from reviewers.

I hope these ideas help you "get your apps in gear"!

Robert Geller is President of Fusion Public Relations. He writes the blog Flack's Revenge and is @rgeller on Twitter.

Related posts:
Testing iOS Apps with TestFlight
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk for Blog Post Research

For further reading:
Mobile App Design Infographic
What to Do with a Great Idea for a Mobile App
Getting Started in the Business of Mobile App Development
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?

From Anne Piedmont, Piedmont Research Associates:

It is hard to believe that “apps” - software applications for mobile devices - were non-existent before 2007. Fewer than five years later, about half the mobile phone users in the United States have apps on their phones, according to a Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project report released November 2, 2011.

The Pew number includes users who bought phones with preloaded apps and those that have downloaded them. U.S. adults who’ve downloaded apps doubled from 2009 to 2011, according to the report. Pew’s figures put the percentage of adults with mobile phone apps at 42.

Pew's survey shows that app downloaders skew younger and male, but that the gap is narrowing. Tablet owners who download apps tend to be female.

Handshake Media asked Piedmont Research Associates to help answer the question of what women want in mobile apps. It follows the survey and report we did in the fall of 2010 on how women use their mobile devices, The Apps That Connect Us - A Report on Women, Smart Phones and Mobile Apps.

The 13-question The Apps Women Want Survey ran from October 4 through November 8, 2011. It was distributed virally through social media platforms and emails to members of various networks. Tracking data from the bit.ly link used showed 170 clicks. Seventy-three women actually took the survey, a higher percentage – 42.9 – than the 36 percent of female mobile phone owners who’ve downloaded apps (according to Pew).

The Apps Women Want Report - Conclusions

After we asked women what apps they liked and used, and how – or whether – they spent money on apps, we asked them what apps they wanted.

Some of the mobile apps they described are incredibly well thought-out. Some are pie-in-the-sky dreams. Many speak to women juggling busy lives, wanting easier ways to do the things they do. None listed games or entertainment.

More specifically, they asked for

• better ways to coordinate recipes, ingredients and shopping
• the ability to comparison shop throughout their local areas for gas and products
• ways to bring together the various parts of their lives
• better ways to work.

For the most part, these women wanted to bring clarity and simplicity to the palms of their hands. 

Download the full The Apps Women Want Report (9-page .pdf)

Reports by Piedmont Research Associates for Handshake Media:

The Apps That Connect Us - A Report on Women, Smart Phones and Mobile Apps, December 2010
The Apps That Connect Us - A Report on Women, Smart Phones and Mobile Apps - Survey Results, January 2011
The Apps Women Want - Survey, October 2011
The Apps Women Want Report, November 2011 (this post)

***

Anne Piedmont is the founder of Piedmont Research Associates, an organization specializing in community research and statistics, competitive business intelligence, corporate writing services, and public relations.

For further reading:

Best Mobile Apps for Women
Mobile Apps for Women in Business
Women and Smartphones 2011
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?
Women and Mobile Apps category on Handshake 2.0

Handshake Media, Incorporated released its first Handshake(R) mobile application on August 9, 2010 and its sixth on October 7, 2011.  We'll release the She Chooses(TM) mobile app soon. 

I've now been in the mobile app biz over one year, primarily as an inventor, project manager and producer.  I've been reflecting on the experience and shared my first mobile app mock-up as a mobile app inventor.  If I had known at the start what I know now, these two additional insights would have saved me time, money and strain on valued relationships.

Think of apps as proofs.

Maybe the world didn't have Mrs. Hooper for eighth grade algebra, Miss Helms for trigonometry, or Mrs. Pace for calculus, but I did, and each of them taught me the logic of algebraic and geometric proofs. "If this, then that," "if this is true, then that is true," "because of this, then that," and "how do we get here from there" - all of these are guiding phrases in my mind as I'm now figuring out the way a mobile app will work.

Think of apps in screens.

For the user of a mobile app, the experience flows. For the designer or developer, that experience is comprised of a frame-by-frame, stop-action series of screens with which the user interacts in specific ways.

Breaking an idea down to component parts can feel for the inventor like a violent imposition of simplicity upon something beautifully and perfectly complex. But if the idea can't be "spec'd out" - i.e. described in specifications suitable for building - then drama ensues. The developer tries to guess what the inventor's idea is and codes that in a series of screens. By definition - a phrase used with proofs - those screens are smaller than the vastness of the inventor's imagination and he or she is appalled. The coder doesn't feel valued and the inventor doesn't feel understood.

If mobile app inventors can't - at least in some primitive form - depict the interrelatedness of portions of their ideas in a logical way, and then mock-up those portions as screens, the project can result in frustration and disappointment for all.

Image is very first mock-up via whiteboard, May, 2010, of what has become She Chooses(TM)

Other posts of possible interest:
Mobile App Design Infographic
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?
What to Do with a Great Idea for a Mobile App

This post was sponsored by Coldwell Banker Townside, REALTORS (R). Coldwell Banker Townside specializes in in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Roanoke, and Salem, Virginia real estate and homes and national and global relocation services to the Blacksburg, Virginia and Roanoke, Virginia areas.

• Coldwell Banker Townside App in the iTunes App Store
• Coldwell Banker Townside App in the Android Market

The Coldwell Banker Townside App is a Handshake(R) mobile application.

Coldwell Banker Townside REALTORS is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

I felt very amused when I revisited this video taken by Kelsey Sarles on June 10, 2010 as I modeled for her the idea that became She Chooses(TM), released as a public beta web application on March 22, 2011. The purpose of the video? To serve as a mock-up for our CTO and developer, Alex Edelman. I thought if I just showed him how the mobile app would work, he could code it. Ah, the idealism and naiveté of the novice.

When I look at the Dropbox folder full of subfolders, each of those full of dozens of full-color mockups made by Kelsey Sarles, and at the extensive communication via Basecamp for our newly released mobile app, Thought Full(TM), I wonder how Alex ever coded She Chooses as a software application, much less as a software platform.

Alex did ask for more detail beyond a video and I ended up making a whiteboard drawing, photographing it, erasing that one, drawing the next, then sending him a series of photos as email attachments. I wrote a narrative in Word that, looking back, says more about what the app is than what it does.

Nonetheless, video + whiteboard drawings + Word doc + Skillz of Alex = software platform for women selected for pitching to investors at Distilled Intelligence 1.0.

The mobile version of She Chooses is in development.  The video was first shared on the She Chooses Blog in What Problem Does It Solve?

Thought Full(TM) - an app to remember - was created and designed by Kelsey Sarles and developed by Jim Gray of New River Mobile. Thought Full is a Handshake(R) mobile application produced by Handshake Media, Incorporated.

Here's more about Thought Full - thoughtfullapp.com - the posts on Thought Full on Handshake 2.0, and our full line of Handshake(R) brand mobile applications.

Other posts of possible interest:

Can I Make Money on Mobile Games?
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?
Mobile App Design Infographic
What to Do with a Great Idea for a Mobile App
Getting Started in the Business of Mobile App Development

"An idea gets you exactly, absolutely nowhere. Sorry to be a downer on this, but that's the inescapable reality.  Even if you're already a professional game developer, the competition for getting ideas made into games is ferocious."
- Mike Sellers on Quora, quoted with permission

One of the next Handshake(R) brand mobile applications might be a game.

I have an idea for a mobile game.  But from over three years in business, I have learned an important truth:  not all ideas are marketable.

Sure, Zynga and Rovio have made money from mobile games, but can I?  What's the mobile game business model anyway?

My little entrepreneurial heart pounded when I read on Mashable, "Games can come from anywhere" and "innovative ideas can take smaller development firms far."  I'm from "anywhere"!  We have a "smaller development firm"!  But, yeah, yeah, that's true of any idea.  Been there, done that.  What about the numbers?   Can my idea make money? 

According to Nielsen, games are the top downloaded app and app downloaders are willing to pay for games. Those are trends, not numbers.  "Does this have legs?" I heard investors ask often of ideas while I was pitching She Chooses at Distilled Intelligence 1.0.  Can this idea take its "legs" and run up a hockey stick graph of growth so I can make money?

According to the New York Times citing a Gartner report, "Mobile gaming will grow from '15 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2015.'"  Hmm, not a hockey stick.  How much would that growth be in dollars?  Mobile Marketer cites a Pyramid report:  "the mobile gaming market is predicted to reach $18 billion by 2014."  Now that's a number.

But how much of that $18 billion is my mobile game likely to get?  How does one monetize a mobile game? 

"In-app ads" and "in-app sales" we hear about often and ReadWriteMobile describes them well.  I'd love to see this 2008 post on 29 business models for games updated for mobile.  (A mobile game monetization SDK plug-in featured on TechCrunch would, I'm sure, require hours of coding and game redesign to work technically.  Monetarily?  Unproven. And I'm wary of OPP - building business models solely on Other People's Platforms.)

Jamie Middleton did a very nice job for TechRadar with a two-page, comprehensive piece on making money from mobile games, identifying top mobile games, then interviewing their inventors - both wildly and modestly successful - for examples of how in-app ads and in-app purchases work.  In an article by Susan Wu in 2007, TechCrunch tagged virtual goods as "the next big business model."  Four years later (2011), Jackie Micucci writing for Microsoft describes the new ease for players to purchase those virtual goods and services via in-app micropayments for "new weapons, higher levels and other virtual goodies...to gain a competitive edge."

I used to be one of the inventors with a great idea - and hubris - who said, "This idea is so great the market demand for it will be huge!"  After the slog of trying to create a market where none existed for some of my ideas, I now envision myself as both inventor and investor.  I still have ideas but upon having them, my first questions are, "Is there a market?" and "How will we make money?"

Is there a market for mobile games?  These trends and numbers say yes.  So I make a mobile game - is there a way to make money from having made it?  These sources say there are multiple ways.

Is there a market for my mobile game?  If I have a great idea, execute its creation brilliantly, and market it extensively, will the market value my product enough to pay for it?

Ah, therein lies the risk, the gamble, the entrepreneurial decision.  Maybe, maybe not.

One of the next Handshake(R) brand mobile applications might be a game.

Other posts of possible interest:

Mobile App Design Infographic
What to Do with a Great Idea for a Mobile App
Getting Started in the Business of Mobile App Development
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?

Antti Akonniemi spoke about the business of mobile development at Future Female Mobile Dev Camp, organized by Future Female and Kisko Labs, held in Helsinki, Finland on October 8, 2011.

We've excerpted key points graciously shared with us below.  Antti Akonniemi's full presentation is available on SlideShare: Mobile Development - Future Female.

Why mobile?

• huge market
• engaged everywhere
• truly personal mass media (you wouldn't share your phone, would you?)
• always-on mass media
• always-carried mass media
• only mass media with built-in payment channel
• location based services
• movement tracking
• closer to a physical product (vs. designing for desktop)

Mobile development success factors:

• Have a clear problem to solve.
• Have a market for your problem.
• Think about the business. Will you get any money out of this?
• Test your idea before executing (show it to your friends, colleagues, people on the street). It's a lot cheaper to fail before you start developing.
• Design first, then develop.

Thank you, Antti, for sharing highlights from your talk with Handshake 2.0!

Other posts of possible interest:

Mobile App Design Infographic
What to Do with a Great Idea for a Mobile App
Getting Started in the Business of Mobile App Development
How Much Does a Mobile App Cost?