It is the same story every time. Another friend of mine goes over to the dark side, gets rid of his/her BlackBerry and buys an iPhone. Then the questions start pouring in. “How do I delete a song from my iPhone? What do you mean I can’t do it from the device?” “How do I create a ringtone?” Then there is the question that every single new iPhone owner asks: “What apps should I download?”
Before I begin, I want to clarify one thing. I have never built a business or a product from scratch. I am not an entrepreneur (yet) and there is nothing more annoying than a person who preaches out of lack of experience. Having said that, due to the nature of my work, both as a blogger and a marketing guy, I meet a lot of companies on a daily basis. I hear their challenges and thoughts, and it always occurred to me that the average app developer goes through what every business owner goes through, only on a smaller scale.
One of the obvious advantages of the growing mobile app ecosystem is that if you don’t like a specific app, there is almost always a better alternative. If you don’t like making free calls on Skype, use Viber. If you don’t like the way Instagram applies filters to your photos, use PicPlz or Burstn. If you don’t like the way one flashlight app works, there are hundreds of others to choose from. I think you get the point.
One of the first and main challenges mobile developers have to overcome is discovery. We have all heard the numbers, 300k iOS apps, 200k Android apps, plus BlackBerry, Symbian, and all other platforms bring the total number of mobile applications to the millions. So given these growing figures, how is a developer supposed to get an app discovered?
Despite the extravagant number of mobile applications out there, this space is still relatively young. What that means is that users and developers are still learning the ropes of what works and what doesn’t. Clearly, birds that you fling at pigs is a recipe for success, but beyond that, what are some of the other things we have learned?
There are many speculations regarding the cause of the recent global economic recession, but we all know the truth. It was the Angry Birds and their affect on the productivity of the work force. Angry Birds is a true mobile wonder with over 50 million downloads, 80% of users keeping the app installed, and as Peter Verterbacka, the “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio, makers of Angry Birds puts it, that number is without the holiday stats, which broke a record of a million downloads a day.
With over 300,000 apps for the iPhone, one of the biggest challenges that many companies are trying to overcome, is discovery. This is a challenge for the iPhone user who is overwhelmed by the vast selection of apps, but it is also becoming a serious problem for the developer who spends time and money developing an app, that more often than not, ends up falling into the black hole of the App Store.
Since chances are you are here reading this as a result of the title, I will give you the bottom line. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is an all around fantastic tablet that would serve you loyally as a Web surfing, music listening, video watching, and app exploring device. But let’s be honest, that is not what you want to know. You want to know how the Samsung Galaxy Tab compares to the iPad so I will address that. Would I replace my iPad 3g with a Samsung Galaxy Tab? No, but not for the reasons you are thinking. To understand what I mean, you are going to have to read on.
There are hundreds of thousands of mobile apps across all the various platforms, but there is only one Flipboard. It says a lot about an app when its design makes it the app you use to show off your device to your friends and its functionality makes it the most used app on your device. Flipboard is that app. Its design and concept have made it one of the most viral apps ever and its simplicity and intuitive nature makes it a pleasure to use. Here is an interview with the founder.
By now, you have most probably heard the ridiculous number of mobile applications available on the various platforms. Apple is leading the way with its 300,000 iPhone apps in the App Store and Google is catching up fast with 100,000 Android apps in the Android Market. Overall, as far as the consumer is concerned, this trend is a positive one. The more selection, the lower the prices, and the higher the standards for mobile apps.
OK I do not even know where to categorize this video. Is this thing real or a very fancy video editing job? If it is in fact real, how on earth does it work? The following is a video of a 58″ iPhone table with what seems to be an extremely responsive multi-touch interface. It is apparently activated with an iPhone app for jailbroken iPhones and it then controls your iPhone’s screen.
