iPhone Apps: Building or Downloading, End Goal is the Same

Whether you’re the cube dwelling developer rock star hoping to make it big on the next hit iPhone application, or urban loving gadget geek downloading one, your goal during the process should be the same: enhance the current iPhone experience. Sure there’s no shortage of terrible applications out there for the Apple device, but those aren’t the ones that need a warning. Most of those are obviously useless and the poor reviews along with lack of word-of-mouth buzz make them leave the radar fairly quickly.

The ones that tend to stick around and trick the innocent iPhone user, as well as coax the ignorant developer are the ones that are useful, but replicate functions that already exist. Out of the box, without accessing the safari browser, the iPhone gives it owner various abilities such as stocks, mapping, weather, and more. Because these are default programs users are conditioned to rely on them for the various types of information they offer. That being said, there are many 3rd party applications that do very little to enhance that offering or even it present it a much different way.

Although they are fewer in number, here are a few good examples of enhancing a built in iPhone ability:

Getting it Right:

Weather.com Mobile: The built-in weather application is simple and clean. It does its job very well and replicating it isn’t going to cut it and the Weather Channel knew it. So in order to make its mobile application worthy of clogging up the home screens of iPhone users it brought a much more detailed and immersive weather experience to the table. There are people who are having barbeques, planning road trips, and playing golf who are going to want the hourly or ten day forecast. And the video and weather mapping options ensure that this isn’t simply a port of the weather mobile site. Sure there are going to be plenty of those content with the simple built in weather function who won’t need this kind of granularity, but Weather.com is among the top 30 sites in the U.S. so clearly there’s also a great market for those who do.

Yelp: The Yelp team succeeds where so many other location based applications fail. It’s obvious that Yelp leverages the built in Google Map on the iPhone but where it goes above and beyond to enhance the simple experience of showing nearby restaurants. During the restaurant hunting process it offers the obvious consumer reviews, but also transportation options, pricing, parking, outdoor seating etc. It is essentially taking a niche piece of the mapping experience and blowing it out for a specific interest. So by avoiding redundancy, Yelp proves itself to be a valuable addition to the iPhone’s current mapping software. Also shout out to Urban Spoon! A great twist on a similar category.

Need Help:

Where: The Where application is a geolocation tool that does not do a great job of selling in why it’s more useful than built in features. The Starbucks locater is a slightly prettier version of just typing Starbucks into Google maps. Hardly worth owning another app for. A yelp feature is installed and shows you the closest restaurants, but it’s a half-baked version of it. It doesn’t show you all the details that the actual Yelp app does, and if you want to see more than 3 reviews it opens a web browser and takes you to the yelp.com web page which is hard to navigate. It has a “buddy beacon” to find where your friends are, but given the lack of must-have features, the user base is low and thus not a lot of “buddies” are available to pick from. The one ray of hope I thought might help differentiate this app was the “Eventful” piece which displays concerts and shows in your area, but soon realized that much like Yelp is also a separate application that Where tried to build into its tool. Essentially Where is trying to be a platform within the iPhone platform all while inserting advertising. If the platform were tremendously more useful than Apple’s, then I would be willing to see ads, but being that isn’t the case, this app is getting deleted.

Converted Web Pages: There are countless perpetrators here. Websites that essentially have been retrofitted into an application format that acts like a shortcut on your home screen instead of in your safari bookmarks. In some cases the application format is worse than the mobile browser page. Many of us may remember the initial version of Facebook for iPhone was actually less functional than the iphone.facebook.com version. Although in that case, the issue has been remedied there are still plenty of finance, news, and even clock applications that simply serve no purpose other than to remind web developers and brands what not to do when joining the growing list of iPhone applications. Consumers who purchased a 3G iPhone did so largely because of the fast web serving capability. Given they will be spending a lot of time within the safari browser, if you’re going to make them close it to open your application, make it worth their while. Otherwise it’s wasting time and space on their home screen.

Some final suggestions for application devs. and iPhone owners:

DO:

• Leverage the iPhone’s built in technologies in unique ways.
• Build as many options as you can inside the application. The user downloaded the program as an addition to their browsing experience, not to act as a glorified bookmark.
• Provide a tools for users to discover new content (Pandora or Last.fm stream random music to compete with users mp3 collection).

DON’T:

• Rely too much on the safari browser to launch outside of your applications.
• Turn your web page into an application just because “you can.”
• Build advertising into your application if the value exchange isn’t worth it to the consumer.
• Dumb down other lone applications to act as a content aggregator within your own mini platform inside of Apple’s own.

Google iPhone App: Speak to Search

After a 3 day delay, the new version of the Google mobile app for the iPhone has been released. The coveted feature of Speak to Search is now available although it doesn't always work perfectly. I did a test run looking for "trees" and it gave me search results for "trains" and Amtrak. Not sure if it learns to read your voice better over time but I am guessing not.

In theory assuming the speach function works perfectly you will save the time of typing (especially if you have stubby fingers like me) but in the end you're still going to be clicking on the search results and looking through the iPhone web browser.

Much like the overzealous Apple commercials, the process at which all the above occurs takes longer in real life than the video demonstrates.

Outside of the search feature, the app also offers you a mini google desktop of sorts that gives you the common tools you're used to such as Reader, Talk, Docs, etc. It's almost like a platform within a platform. Although it doesn't work perfectly kudos to Google for giving the Apple users a set of tools even though they are making a big push right now to launch their own Android platform. The question is, how long until Google finds a way to monetize this application? Much like YouTube, they are certainly going to try.

Dear Twitter. Here's your business model. You're welcome.

It's quite amazing that within the U.S. Twitter has not taken any major steps to monetize yet. Don't get me wrong, I love the current state of this social network but it would be naive to think a company would continue to on a path of bankruptcy and debt. So the question is, how does this entity retain its passionate users while at the same time open opportunities for revenue to start pouring in?

1. COPY APPLE. Take a group of products and services that already exist and package them into a pretty centralized location. In the crude illustration above, you can see that the existing Twitter web portal has "Twapplications" residing to the left of the current setup. These applications would each have their own functionality and largely replicate current 3rd party services such as TinyURL, Qwitter, or Twitter Snooze.

2. Host a "TWAPP Shop." Create a centralized location that can house 1st and 3rd party applications. All applications should be built to Twitter specs and be approved internally prior to being made available. The application shop should offer both free AND paid tools. Again, similar to the model of the iTunes store. A percentage of each sale will be assessed.

3. Make it 3rd party friendly. From an application perspective and client perspective make sure the additions to functionality are portable, or at the very least not something that inhibits the current operation of twitter clients.

4. DO NOT TAKE AWAY ANYTHING THAT WAS ALREADY FREE. Although Twitter may not be as old as social networks such as facebook or myspace, the evangelists of it (in its current iteration and possible future ones) will be those members who have been using the service for a year or two. Those people are used to the offering they have received, and they are used to NOT paying for it. Profits from changes to Twitter should come from enhancements and not from fees tacked onto the current offering. THAT'S WHAT DRUG DEALERS DO. DON'T BE A DRUG DEALER!

5. Reward Ingenuity. The number of 3rd party twitter tools popping up everyday are amazing. And not only the volume, but the function. Rather than offer cash prices like some other social networks, again copy APPLE. Offer free advertising for that application which brings awareness to both Twitter but also a specific "must-have" Twapp. Sure Apple does this in TV ads, but Twitter could certainly do a smaller but relatively effective campaign via PR and Social Media efforts.

Why will the above help bring Twitter into the realm of profit? People like things in a nice central package. Tie in eye pleasing graphics, user reviews, and possibly mobile applications and not only do you have  recipe for a sustainable business, but a community of people who promote FOR YOU. That is the secret formula APPLE has perfected and it can work elsewhere.

(Just to be clear. I'm not an apple fanboy. The iPhone is the first product I have bought from Mr. Jobs and I still only think it deserves a 7/10)