Do you have one yet?
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| Rajaram Rajendran |
Company logo, Branding, Stationery, Brochures, CDs, DVDs, Corporate Video, you have it all. On the digital front, website, Facebook page, Twitter handle and you’re present on every network out there! Isn’t that enough ?
Question. Does your product / service have an app yet?
Might be a bit too early to ask that. But I’m going to ask anyway. And you should ask back “Why?” Well, we’re trying to figure that out here. Remember 5 years ago when everybody and their pets wanted a website? Yup, it’s the same situation now. Just that instead of the website, now it’s ‘ze’ mobile app.
So why do people make mobile apps? I don’t mean the developers who make apps to sell them. I mean companies. Why do they make their own apps? When they have a fully functional website already. And all smartphones are capable of accessing websites, aren’t they? Well, there’re two sides to it. The bad part first: apps cannot have too much in them. Unlike your website where you have links upon links of content, an app has to be simpler. Then, not all apps are free. So you do have an option to charge the user. Whether they buy or not, depends on your app. But there is an option.
The good part: people like apps. Really. They’re simpler to use, they get you to what you want to do, on the go, without having to read through copy or click through links. For example, I like using Twitter on my mobile app, than the website. Same with Facebook. I fire Twitter / FB app up, type in my tweet / status, and I'm out of it. Most of the time, that’s all you want to do.
And to top it, apps can make use of the features of the device. How many websites have you seen actually making use of the user’s camera? Apps do it all the time. Apps can provide notifications, without even being opened. A look at my Facebook app’s icon tells me whether I have to open it or not. We will continue App vs Website further, in another issue.
So what exactly is this ‘app’ ? Well, for me, a mobile app simplifies a process. They’re mostly focused on that one or two things you really want to get done fast. Take Instagram (an iPhone app), for example. Click a picture, add a filter to it, and share it. End of story. But does it always have to be so ? Not really. There’re mobile apps for banks. They do much more. But still, in a way that’s much simpler than their websites. And the best part, they’re on your phone’s screen, anytime, all the time. I read about one which takes a picture of your cheque, and voila! The cheque is as good as deposited.
So let’s say, you looked at the number of smartphone users on this planet (or even in the country), and suddenly, you realize the potential. “Let’s make an app”. But where to start ? So we look at platforms. There’s iOS. There’s Android. There’s Blackberry. There’s WP7. There’s WebOS. Do we make 5 apps ? Hmm. Good question.
We will get into details, in a future issue, but yes, it is time to think about using this huge, massive, enormous opportunity out there with more and more smartphones being sold everyday.
Let’s think about it.
Company logo, Branding, Stationery, Brochures, CDs, DVDs, Corporate Video, you have it all. On the digital front, website, Facebook page, Twitter handle and you’re present on every network out there! Isn’t that enough ?
Question. Does your product / service have an app yet ?
Might be a bit too early to ask that. But I’m going to ask anyway. And you should ask back “Why?” Well, we’re trying to figure that out here. Remember 5 years ago when everybody and their pets wanted a website? Yup, it’s the same situation now. Just that instead of the website, now it’s ‘ze’ mobile app.
So why do people make mobile apps? I don’t mean the developers who make apps to sell them. I mean companies. Why do they make their own apps? When they have a fully functional website already. And all smartphones are capable of accessing websites, aren’t they? Well, there’re two sides to it. The bad part first: apps cannot have too much in them. Unlike your website where you have links upon links of content, an app has to be simpler. Then, not all apps are free. So you do have an option to charge the user. Whether they buy or not, depends on your app. But there is an option.
The good part: people like apps. Really. They’re simpler to use, they get you to what you want to do, on the go, without having to read through copy or click through links. For example, I like using Twitter on my mobile app, than the website. Same with Facebook. I fire Twitter / FB app up, type in my tweet / status, and I'm out of it. Most of the time, that’s all you want to do.
And to top it, apps can make use of the features of the device. How many websites have you seen actually making use of the user’s camera? Apps do it all the time. Apps can provide notifications, without even being opened. A look at my Facebook app’s icon tells me whether I have to open it or not. We will continue App vs Website further, in another issue.
So what exactly is this ‘app’ ? Well, for me, a mobile app simplifies a process. They’re mostly focused on that one or two things you really want to get done fast. Take Instagram (an iPhone app), for example. Click a picture, add a filter to it, and share it. End of story. But does it always have to be so ? Not really. There’re mobile apps for banks. They do much more. But still, in a way that’s much simpler than their websites. And the best part, they’re on your phone’s screen, anytime, all the time. I read about one which takes a picture of your cheque, and voila! The cheque is as good as deposited.
So let’s say, you looked at the number of smartphone users on this planet (or even in the country), and suddenly, you realize the potential. “Let’s make an app”. But where to start ? So we look at platforms. There’s iOS. There’s Android. There’s Blackberry. There’s WP7. There’s WebOS. Do we make 5 apps ? Hmm. Good question.
We will get into details, in a future issue, but yes, it is time to think about using this huge, massive, enormous opportunity out there with more and more smartphones being sold everyday.
Let’s think about it.
__________________________________
meet Rajaram Rajendran
Entrepreneur, designer, digital artist, wannabe musician and a jack of all, who thinks black & white photography is very cool. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Rajaram Rajendran'.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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