Saturday, January 08, 2011

Mobile apps gold rush

Ever impressed with the success of applications like Angry Birds for smartphones and it looked tempting working on your own application? Reading statistics like 12+ million paid copies and 30+ million free versions for a game which does not look quite complex might make anyone think and calculate about it ("12 million times that money and 70% of that ..."). It may even make you dream about becoming your own boss reading stories of people quitting their daytime jobs for iOS development.

Is it really that easy to be different and more successful than those more than 300.000+ applications? Considering thousands of publishers trying to achieve this, it is clear that it is not that easy.

Steve Costello writes about the driver of the success of Angry Birds:
According to Hed, the driver for the success of Angry Birds has been the “relentless social media buzz,” which has helped it stand-out from the raft of other mobile games products available for iOS and other platforms. “Getting featured in the app stores is important, but it does not guarantee automatic success. Working together with great brands helps, as does having a tremendous product. At the end of the day, being phenomenally successful puts you in the news and generates increasingly more interest and more publicity,” he says.

"The most successful developers tend to be time-served veterans, who can trace their heritage back to early Palm OS and/or Symbian titles" says Steve on another blog post. He also adds that to be able to successful you have to adapt yourself to put yourself in the best position for the future.

Perhaps there is a message for the developers currently working away either alone or as part of a small team, struggling to generate interest in a crowded market dominated by established giants. The most important thing is to keep going, and continually evolve to target whatever the market “sweet spot” may be. Admittedly, this is no guarantee of success – but it does seem to be the best way to maximise the opportunities.

How do you feel about trying your chance on your application after such reports?

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Techno-junkies

Some time ago I watched some videos shot by the participants of Turkcell’s customer insight studies. The segment considered was the university students and they were given video cameras and asked to stop using mobile phones for some time. The cameras were for them to share their experience and thoughts.

Though I do not remember the videos in detail, I remember how they were complaining about the lack of communication. Even though some of the videos were a bit exaggerated, their message was clear and not surprising: Mobile phones became a huge part of our life.

A recent post at Engadget talking about a research by International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) reminded me that customer insight study. ICMPA’a research is sure more comprehensive but shares a similar idea: A class of 200 students living without any media (cell phone, iPod, television, car radio, magazines, newspapers and computer) for 24 hours and blog about their experience.

According to a new ICMPA study, most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world.

The research study is not just showing that we’re incapable of living without media, but points out that we are actually addicted to it suffering withdrawal symptoms, just like real addicts.


Many students described their reactions to going without media for 24 hours in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addictions: In withdrawal, Frantically craving, Very anxious, Extremely antsy, Miserable, Jittery, Crazy.

Do you think you could succeed (no texting, no Facebook or IM-ing) or could not resist to the desire and fail to complete assignment as some students did? Are you one of those junkies?