Mobile Roadie

It’s time to take mobile seriously

I meet a lot of people every day in a wide variety of positions in companies. Some people get it, and some people don’t.

Morgan Stanley predicts that within five years, more people will connect to the internet via a mobile device than via desktop PCs. This is game changing for everyone.

Lack of mobile friendly shopping experiences
It’s unbelievable that big companies still don’t prioritize making a mobile version of their ecommerce site. Just do it, stop wondering if it’s worth it. I know several Fortune 500 companies that do tens of millions of dollars a year in ecommerce business that don’t even have it in their long term plan.

Carrier billing is a con
Carriers need to get over themselves. No one is going to give them 50% just to have the privilege of having the charge billed to the consumer’s cell phone bill. Apple and Google take 30% for purchases through their store. That’s a lot, but they’re also providing a lot of value. Carriers are providing less value and charging nearly double. If carriers got smart, they would reduce carrier billing to 5% and start taking business from credit card companies.

Your mobile strategy needs resources
Don’t get an app to just have an app. You’d never get a website and then not maintain it, right? Mobile is just as important if not more. Give your mobile customers exclusive content. Update the app and your mobile website often. Engage with customers where they are (huge advantage of mobile vs. desktop).

Flattening world
In many countries around the world, there are more people connecting to the web through mobile devices than desktops. This is mostly due to economic reasons – but is extremely powerful in reaching demographics you might never be able to reach if you just have a website.

Bottom line
Apps and mobile are here to stay, and the opportunity is real. Don’t slack. Grab the bull by its horns and go for it. You won’t regret it and frankly don’t have a choice (your competitors are making a move). It’s time to take mobile seriously.

• posted under: Mobile, op-ed

How to Choose a Mobile App Maker

It seems like every week there’s another company that will build you an “app.” Here are a few tips on how to make the choice.

First question you should be asking yourself is – do you need an app? Don’t build an app just to build one. Build an app if you have a need to communication with your users/customers/fans on their mobile device. Build an app if you have great content you want to distribute to mobile devices. Most importantly, build an app if you plan on maintaining it – or it’ll get stale quickly.

Once you’ve made the decision to make an app, then the question becomes – build or buy?

I don’t think ANYONE should go out and hire a developer/designer to build their own App unless they are extremely experienced and/or need to do something very custom. App builders today are simply too good and inexpensive to make building a good solution for most applications.

So, now you’ve decided that you need an app and are going to buy it.

Quality

I put quality first because too many people focus on the price first and forget that you need a quality/sticky product to get people to come back to your app over and over (isn’t that the point?). Look for things like:

User Experience: Download one of their apps and play with it – do you like the way it looks/feels? If you don’t, your users aren’t going to, either.
Speed: Are things “snappy” or are you waiting forever? Does it work over EDGE, 3G, and WiFi?

CMS: Do you have access to a content management system to update the content? If not – you’re going to spend a lot of time contacting them and waiting for updates.

Viral features: Does the app allow users to share via email, Facebook, and Twitter? Does it have features that make users want to participate and spread the word? You can’t do all of the promotion yourself – so this is key.

Web views: Be cautious of companies that will build you a native “app” that then pulls in web views for the sections – most of the time this results in a poor user experience. Also beware of overly simple apps that just pull in an RSS feed and a Twitter account – users won’t respond well.

Ease of use: There’s no point in buying an app if you need to hire a developer to implement it. Look for quality self service tools that allow you to make important decisions (such as the look/feel of the app, location and names of tabs, and content uploading) yourself without needing a PhD in PHP.

Reputation

You don’t want to build an app with a company that goes down a lot (taking your app’s content with it) or may not be here in a few months. Apps are so new that there are a lot of startups – but look for companies that have done a few high profile apps, have plenty of examples in the store, are responsive on emails/inquiries, and that have had good write ups in the press.

Price

Price is important – but it’s not everything. You don’t need to spend a lot to get a fantastic app. In general, I think the sweet spot is between $500 and $1500 for the year for a typical app, usually billed monthly or quarterly. If you want to do something custom – a game, for example – then be prepared to spend $5,000+. Just because the basic app is inexpensive doesn’t mean customizations are going to be; it really means that you’re getting a great deal on what used to be a $40,000 app.

Multiplatform & Multilanguage

Do you have customers or fans outside the US? Look for apps that have built in multi language support. Also – while the iPhone is the clear leader today in the mobile app space – try to find a company that allows you to create a native iPhone app in addition to other platforms.

Overall

Just like anything in life, you get what you pay for. Try and strike a good balance between price and quality. Be sure viral features are built in to the app and that you can easily update the app’s content yourself. Lastly, make sure the product and content both kick ass. That’s what is going to keep users coming back, and what is going to get you the most bang for your buck.

• posted under: op-ed

Web Apps vs. Native Apps

A frequently asked question we get is why get a native app when web “apps” are becoming so good? Why invest in Apple’s approval process and store (and soon Google’s and others) when you can hire a web developer to build you an HTML5 mobile friendly experience?

As good as web apps may be, they are still a far cry from their native app cousins. Here are a few specific examples that matter to you:

Push Notifications.

One of the great things Mobile Roadie customers do with their apps is reach their users – at times geo targeting them up to just one mile around any location – with a “push notification.” This message looks like a text message and appears regardless of whether the app is open or not. It’s an incredibly powerful way to reach users. Web apps simply can’t do this.

U/I.

As good as web apps have become, the overall user interface is still dependent on Safari. Things like scrolling, animation, transitions, forms, “cover flow,” and other native app-specific nuances aren’t possible or aren’t as pretty and seamless for users. Loading time is also greater in web apps than native apps. What this really means, quite simply, is that your users will have a better and faster visual experience with a native app – and be more likely to come back and frequent it.

Home screen icon.

Yes, you can create a “bookmark” which creates an icon on the iPhone’s home screen to a web “app.” But not everyone knows this. An App comes with a built in presence on the iPhone’s screen – making it easy to find and placing a constant reminder about you/your company/your brand/your group. Additionally, native apps show up in iTunes under Applications; web apps don’t.

Enhanced access.

Web apps can’t access your address book, iPod, or camera; native apps can. Native apps can tap into your iPod (to suggest to users what tracks they’re missing from your collection) and address book (to enable easy access to share with friends). Native apps can also access the camera that – in Mobile Roadie’s case – allows users to post photos from a particular event/show.

Your own world.

Native apps are all about you – your content, your users, your brand. But with a web app, while users may start off in your world, with one errant click Safari can take them to a completely unrelated website with no clear way back. This can’t happen in a native app.

While we applaud the efforts of developers around the world to improve HTML, Javascript, Flash (not on the iPhone), and other languages to make the web a more mobile-friendly place, there is still a very relevant place for native apps – and it is only going to grow as Apple (and others) add on features to the hardware that only native apps can take advantage of. While it’s a good strategy to have both a mobile-friendly website and a native app – if you wanted to go for the one with the best chances of making a big impact on your customer/fan base – native apps simply blow web apps away.

• posted under: op-ed
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