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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

IPHONE APPS BUSINESS: AN INSIGHT FOR DUMMIES



With the popularity of iPhone (for that matter Apple’s all other products such as iPad and iPod Touch) in the global market, the iPhone application market has evolved like never before. There are thousands and thousands of iPhone applications in the market these days. The iPhone apps market has become an ocean of all sorts of apps. Yet, it’s very easy to distinguish a good iPhone app from a bad one. Yes, I’m claiming that not all iPhone apps are up to the mark or as desirable as the hi-tech iPhone/iPad users would want to have.

I thought about this massive explosion of iPhone apps into the market and for no doubt whatsoever it’s the Apple’s well laid strategy to allow anyone or everyone to develop iPhone apps at will. As a result, not only Apple made a significant progress in spreading the iPhone/iPad businesses but also gained a fresh insight into its products from the hi-tech and developers community. What came next was the keen interest of the corporate world, mostly in mobile industry, to develop apps on the Apple’s platform. Certainly, this was a win-win situation for both the Apple Inc. and the developers of the iPhone apps.       

Yet, I would want to highlight the negative side of the iPhone apps evolution. There are iPhone developers and iPhone app developing companies (few startups, few big ones) everyone is trying its very own ideas, few with some vision and others just like that. End result is market with flooded with the iPhone apps.

From a business point of view, the competition is intense, and it takes a lot to turn an iPhone app into a real success. For a company to cope up within the iPhone apps market it is just not about developing a good iPhone app but also about making it available to the target audiences; And if you are thinking it’s just about marketing than you are wrong. It is really important for the developer’s community to first be ultra clear about what app it is trying to develop, who will be using it and what you expect to do about the iPhone app in the future (one time app or any updates in future??) . Market research is so very important aspect of iPhone app business, be it identifying what app you want to develop or what niche domain you are trying to get in, everything has to be clearly defined before any development starts. In fact, Market research also identifies the target audiences and marketing strategy beforehand in order to avoid clueless strategy for selling the app later in the game.

One start-up that has a clear vision of where it’s going and where it wants to be is Faqden labs. I got this rare and invaluable opportunity to review the firstiPhone application that Faqden labs developed. The iPhone app that I reviewed was named “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT”. I predicted it to be an instance winner with its excellent user interface and even better analytics for learning the GRE/GMAT EnglishVocabulary, and I’m glad it simply produced the results the way I thought it would. It became an instant hit, and is among the top 5 apps in Educational apps today of Apple iTune Store. I have no doubt whatsoever that “INTELLIVOCABfor GRE GMAT” is the best vocabulary building iPhone app in the market at the moment. Recently, Faqden labs launched a similar product with specific focus of SAT students called “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT”. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” has a superb UI and analytics just as “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT” has. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” certainly looks the better improved version of Faqden’s first iPhone app. For SAT students take my world “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” is the best vocabulary building app.


From a user point of view, there is a swamp of iPhone applications out there and buying an iPhone app is one thing but identifying the app that he wants to buy has become an extremely challenging activity on its own. This has evolved a business of another kind i.e. companies like Appolicious who are maintaining the directory for iPhone apps and help users narrow down on their choices. Basically, such businesses are weeding out the unwanted apps on the choices of users and their own intelligent logic. Amazing!! Now we have got softwares to churn out iPhone apps, it is like having an app for sorting out the apps, what a vicious circle :) :) .......        

11 comments:

Swati said...

I think it is not applied to just iphones but we have hundreds of apps available in the market for almost every smartphone. sometime,for the user, it's really tough to decide for which one he should go.
If there could have been a directory of mobile app with their all details, how amazing it would have been for the user.

TM said...

want one too...

http://aygenart.blogspot.com

huntressmoon said...

I believe that the market does not belong to Apple just yet especially when it comes to smartphones category. Android is now neck to neck to Apple and the only way Apple can counter this is to build the intensity of their nuke heads aka Apple Iphone 5. There are a lot of flaws at the current Iphone 4 vs 3GS (like Windows Vista (I phone 4) vs XP (Iphone 3GS). However, I believe Android has a good chance to kick Apple one step down with Nokia constant attempt to sue Apple for technology secrets copy cat/stolen etc.

Unknown said...

@Swati, yes that is so true..Hey, but I guess you missed the part in the post where I mentioned the directory of mobile apps...It's there already :)

Unknown said...

@Irene, thank you so much for visiting here and for following me. I agree with you Android is an emerging market and possibly its the only market I see that can challenge the Apple. From a personal point of view I want to see some real action in the app market...good for everyone.

Coverboy And Covergirl said...

nice gadgets

Website Design Company said...

Applications for the iPhone is actually a realistic business can be fun and fulfilling. Maybe you have a great idea for a game application or related matters, and we want to develop so that you can sell and generate income, but do not know where to start. Here we will discuss the basics.

Unknown said...

@Steffi, thanks !!

iPhone App Development said...

I agree with you there are lots of apps available in market for iPhone and it is difficult to identify the best apps from them.I say thanks for sharing this information.

platsimple said...

This is the appropriate blog for any person who wants to discover about this subject Apple iPhone for Business.

Mobile App Developer in India said...

Thanks for sharing your ideas! I would appreciate though if you’d elaborate more on the matter as I think it does lack something here and there... keep it up

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