"Adorably Morbid"
Dumb Ways To Die is the “most arresting hook since PSY’s Gangnam Style” wrote the Melbourne Herald Sun back in November, 2012. Within a month of release it was the “6th most shared ad of all time” according to Google Insights. The “adorably morbid” video campaign has since expanded to be a hit game for iPhone and iPad too.
The viral hit was created by Sydney-based agency McCann to help address a rise in dangerous behavior around Sydney trains.
Awesomely Entertaining
Since last year, the Dumb Ways To Die video has garnered nearly 50M YouTube views. While that is only mildly impressive compared to the 1B + views of Gangnam Style, the Dumb Ways To Die phenomenon is a public service message, not a hit song from Seoul. While PSY’s hit song was picked up by music moguls in the US and transformed into an international hit, Dumb Ways To Die seems to have spread almost entirely via word-of-mouth.
That said, awards help contribute to the viral growth of any campaign, and Dumb Ways To Die has racked its fair share. At this year’s Webby Awards the viral sensation took home more awards than any other, including four People’s Voice Awards. Dumb Ways also took home several Australian awards such as best radio ad, and is being touted as a favorite to win at the upcoming Cannes Lions Sweepstakes by none other than The Gunn Report.
Last month the Dumb Ways To Die game was released for iOS and was instantly the #1 free app in Australia. A month later the app has taken the top spot in the US App store as well (screen-shot taken today), beating out huge names like Candy Crush and Vine. No doubt there are millions of in-app views to add to the YouTube total.
Exceptionally Effective
Entertaining a tough demographic was one of McCann’s aims for the campaign. However, this was a public service initiative... so was it effective?
Brilliantly.
Reports vary, but back in February (a couple months after the campaign launched) the Sydney Metro reported that “near-miss” accidents were reduced by more than 30 percent. WHOA! Them be big numbers.... and that’s before the game released for iOS, before the most recent push for global virality. With the app taking the top spot for free apps in the US, I wonder what kind of reductions we will see in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco?
And it is only the beginning. The Sydney Metro recently signed a licensing agent to spread the Dumb Ways To Die characters across the retail-sphere. Anticipate T-shirts and cups, stationary, and more in the months ahead. With any luck, the important message of these “adorably morbid” characters will continue to promote safety around trains.
Getting Buffer
A couple of years ago a friend introduced me to what was then a relatively new service called Buffer. It instantly became one of my favorite applications, since I like to share what I’m reading online but only have a set time during the day when I get most of my reading done. For many people this is a problem because we are in multiple time zones, or because it means we are slamming the network all at once.
Buffer solves this by allowing you to share organically but schedule those tweets or posts to a predetermined schedule on whatever networks I choose. Sounds like Hoot Suite or Tweet Deck, but Buffer is much simpler and feels a lot more like the way I want to share. In other words, this utility really nailed the user experience.
Getting Buffer
Buffer has gotten way buffer since the release of their iOS application -- beefing up on lot's of nice integrations. The once little known web application with a Chrome plugin is now a platform supported by dozens of applications, as well as the big boys Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. According to TNW, Buffer reached 500K users earlier this year and continues to grow. No doubt, since they continue to iterate with new and very useful features like “buffering” retweets for Twitter, and integrating with super products like Feedily.
Filler Features
Buffer does what you have always wished a social media utility to do:
1. Painlessly add stories or your own content to your “buffer” from awesome services like Chrome, Feedily, Twitter (retweets too!), and more.
2. Share them to your network via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn... you can choose which one as you’re adding to your buffer -- some content is appropriate for LinkedIn, others just twitter, etc.
3. Adjust your post schedule to meet your audience’s needs and keep yourself from spamming them with an barrage of posts -- without complicated excel spreadsheets.
4. Killer analytics to better understand your audience.
Buffer Rocks
Buffer has been slowly building an incredible product. I’ve worked with dozens of people (entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs) during the past 3-4 years who focus on 1M downloads, or 10M users, perfecting (identifying?) that killer feature, etc. It’s discouraging. Sure, those are important milestones, but the focus both early-on and for the long-term must be on building a great product.
Buffer should be praised for their resilience and for remaining focused on building a great product, that people want to pay for. They nailed the user experience, building a useful product that their target audience loves.
TNW interviewed Buffer’s CEO Joel Gascoigne, you should check it out! He really nailed the pain points of professionals who want to -- or have to -- keep up with their social media but just have 15-30 minutes in the morning or evening to really focus on trends in their field.
Buffer is your elixir. If you aren’t using it yet, best start now!
The Future Of The Cloud? The Crowd.
Iran isn't the only one launching monkeys to space these days. Launch Festival 2012 winner of best startup, Space Monkey, finally launched last month on Kickstarter. Boy I’m so excited and so should you!
What Clouds Are You On?
For most people, the cloud is an amorphous thing that exists somewhere online. In reality, the cloud services consumers use (i.e. Dropbox, iCloud, etc) are supported by massive data centers and enterprise software built and operated by Amazon, IBM, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and a host of companies you've probably never heard of. New players are entering the Big Data fray too, such as VMWare, whose data centers are scheduled to go live next month in a few US states (more locations coming soon).
While most people have at least heard of Dropbox, the Big Data vendors are where the real monkey is. An open source professional community called Wikibon published a list of Big Data vendors, along with their revenues which exceeded $11B in 2012. Gigaom reported that IDC forecasts Big Data revenue will reach upwards of $70B... or $20B by 2017 -- um, yeah they’re not sure, it's “like herding cats."
Anyway, according to the Wikibon community, these companies should have a 31% compound growth rate for the period of 2012 - 2017. Holy Cow! Indeed, we are all moving to the cloud. What’s next, outer space? Sort of.
Monkeys Astronauts Are Everywhere!
Most cloud services are built on these massive Big Data vendors, and the migration to cloud based computing means these vendors are building new data centers in rural (supposed secure) locations in the rural United States and elsewhere everyday. However, two guys set out to change the way we do we use the cloud.
Space Monkey has a different vision for the cloud, and it starts with you. When you subscribe to the service you get a 2TB storage device. This device (which looks really awesome - btw) is connected to all the other Space Monkeys in the world, each sharing 1TB or 50% of the storage space available to distribute the data across the Space Monkey network.
Sounds like it would be hard to do right? Well, the device itself is apparently not that complicated... but the founders are geniuses so no kidding! The really amazing part of this company is not just the technology though, it is they are really building a distributed storage network with real users. While Dropbox and other cloud services are forking out cash to rent space at Amazon’s (et al) data centers, Space Monkey is building a crowd-based data center where each user is contributing to the total capacity and efficiency of the service.
Is It Better?
Ten Times Better. They don’t have to lease from Big Data vendors so Space Monkey can offer x10 more storage for a fraction of the price. Don’t believe me?
1TB of storage on Google Drive will run you $50 per month. Dropbox... forget about it. When you sign-up for Space Monkey, you get a 1TB for $10 per month... $120 per year. Plus you get this really rad looking device to show-off to your friends. The user experience is way better too, since you can store everything virtually without taking up precious space on your local disk. Basically you can afford to have enough storage where backing up and storing files you can access from anywhere is a totally pain-free experience.
… There Is Another
Interestingly, all the hype around Space Monkey has overshadowed a very similar product.
Symform also offers a new type of cloud that also leverages distributed data storage in a similar way to Space Monkey (or kind of like torrents actually). Symform allows you to use your local hard drive to contribute to the cloud community, and offers a really unique pricing scheme. 10GB is free, and you get 1GB for every 2GB you donate. Cool!
Endless Fun With KPCB’s Next Big Winner
My son, 27 months, read my t-shirt the other day. Sure, he has no idea what “unsweetened juice” means, but he was reading it phonetically.
As you know, Ed Tech is booming -- or ballooning in the opinion of some who believe there is a bubble. Among the famous investors joining the fray is the acclaimed Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins (KPCB), and they have once again backed the right horse: Callaway Digital Arts.
Endless Alphabet
For the past 6 weeks or so my son has been thoroughly enjoying Callaway Digital Arts flagship application, Endless Alphabet (or Endless ABCs). Like most parents, particularly those with bilingual children, there is a sense of urgency around getting language learning started early. Loads of development data shows us that this is critical for future achievement. So my wife and I scour the web and app stores for the latest new applications for learning literacy.
However, most of the time they fall short. Either they are too much fun and not enough learning, or they are too much learning (too difficult for that early age when we parents are anxious). Enter the Endless Alphabet.
Endless Fun AND Learning
The application has received critical acclaim from every “kids apps” review site, has been featured by Apple, and written up in Wired’s Geek Mom section. Geek Mom’s Kelly Knox said her daughter “squeals in delight when a new” word is ready in the app.... same here. And it deserves all the praise.
Children absolutely love the application, and play with it for as long as you will let them. Replaying the hilarious and brilliantly animated definitions, and giggling through the touch-and-drag letters as they transform into ridiculous monsters that spew phonetics repeatedly until they are placed in the correct position.
See it for yourself, and try it with your own children. My son continues to be enthralled by Endless Alphabet, and more words are being added all the time.
But most importantly, it works. Not only is he trying to read words that have never appeared in the application (thanks to the fun phonetics) he is using new words he learns via Endless Alphabet in the correct context (thanks to the brilliant animations).
For example, the other day when he ate some food he didn’t find particularly appealing he said “yucky!” Excuse me? Yes, and he never learned it from me.
About Callaway Digital Arts
Callaway (CDA) is fastly becoming a serious player in the vastly lucrative educational content market. To date they have received $6M in funding from a list of A Team investors led by the iconic Kleiner Perkins. Founded back in 2011, the company has released several successful applications in the Ed space, with partners indicative of their investors’ network value such as Sesame Street and Hasbro.
Penguin's New Breakthrough
In case you haven’t noticed, Ed Tech continues to boom. Last year Ed Tech startups grabbed more than $1B in funding -- ONE-BILLION-DOLLARS... just looks bigger that way. Since my first passion in business was actually educational technology, from time to time I’ll post about Ed Tech applications. Here’s the first!
Penguin Publishing is an old company, they’ve been around since 1935. Most people probably consider publishing a dull and non-innovative space. Some may even believe that with advent of Amazon Self-Publishing traditional publishing companies are already in decline. I beg to differ... and Penguin’s new app really blew me away.
Poems By Heart
This is probably my new favorite app, really!
Why? I guess some people are forever hopelessly romantic long after high-school. Poems By Heart is a really fun and simple way to memorize poems. You can impress your friends or, if you’re like me, someone special to you by reciting to them poems of all kinds, from William Blake to Emily Dickinson, and more.
This app isn’t just my favorite because if the value it gives me -- that is, my wife loves it when I recite to her a romantic poem -- it is my favorite because it is one of the most innovative ideas I’ve seen in a long time. Penguin Publishing has taken something many people probably had forgotten about, and made it interesting and modern all over again. Truth is, we all wish we could rattle-off poetry like they do in the movies, don’t we?
Poems By Heart is a game, with levels of difficulty for different poems. The app takes you through stages, removing words from stanzas or lines to help you memorize. You select the correct words from several below the stanza or line you’re memorizing. For your final mission you have to recite the poem by heart to the app, and it records it for you. You get points for doing missions quickly and filling in the blanks with the correct words.
Not only is it fun, it’s educational since you are engaging with literary history (the poem) multiple times, learning vocabulary and usage -- not to mention learning about the poets themselves (or just poets period!).
But it gets better. From a business perspective, this app is a brilliant innovation. It’s clear that Penguin invested a lot of time and talent to leverage it’s massive store of content to generate new revenue through mobile. While the app offers new users with two free poems, to memorize more poems -- or specific poems that you love -- you have to purchase sets. The sets are sold as poetry genres now, but you can imagine with all the poetry in the world the possibilities for Penguin are endless.
Hat’s off to Penguin... then again, “He who binds to himself a joy / Does the winged life destroy....” We’ll see if it sticks, but so far looks like a big win for Pearson and for poetry all around.
Android Gaming
Mobile gaming continues to be dominated by iOS. Games Industry reported that iOS games earned 3.5 times the revenue of Android games this past quarter. However, signs that Android is making a quiet but steady rise are everywhere, from rumors of an Android Game Center to a slew of new Android-powered game devices.
Money Matters
While iOS continues to show healthy growth of its App Store revenues in 56 countries worldwide, Google Play hasn’t exactly languished in the shadows. TNW recently reported that Google Play revenues grew 90% so far in 2013. And in fact, some estimates show Google’s revenue growth is 5 times greater than Apple’s, with Corea and Japan driving growth for the platform -- 9 of 10 of the most profitable “app revenue generators” including NHN, NHN Japan, and Kakao are from Corea or Japan.
Still, total revenues are dwarfed by the App Store and will probably continue to be for the next couple of years. A representative from Daum, one of Korea’s dot-com champs, says they don’t expect Google Play revenues to overtake App Store revenues until “sometime in 2016.” This lack of consumption by Android users means that game developers focus on iOS first, developing for Android -- especially considering there are an estimated 3997 distinct devices with varying specs -- is just not worth the hassle early on.
Paradigm Shift?
Ouya has arrived, or at least it’s on the way. The much publicized Android-based gaming console is scheduled to hit retailers this June. Most people know about Ouya because of its remarkable success via Kickstarter, where they raised over $8.5M from around 60,000 backers. So what does Ouya mean for Android gaming?
Hard to say, but the device is clearly targeting indie game developers in addition to high-profile titles (Final Fantasy). Ouya is making every game into a freemium product, requiring they be free to try. Some games will offer a demo, while others will surely go the in-app purchase route -- a brilliant, pay-what-you-want model. The hope for indie developers is that when they can present their work side-by-side with brand name games on a TV, they will compete better. If this holds true, we could see Android game revenues increase substantially.
There Is Another...
Ouya is not the only Android gaming system, nor are these gaming systems the only option.
GameStick is competing with Ouya to win the new, albeit uncertain, market beginning this June unless there are further delays. Gamestick also raised a good deal of money on Kickstarter, and both consoles are boasting 600 developers support their platform. It isn’t clear yet how they will differentiate themselves other than the hardware. Will it be that they negotiate exclusive games like the big boys do? Building their brand around Marios and Yoshis? Looks like it.
NVidia is also getting in the mix with the much anticipated SHIELD device. While not a console, it is a serious addition to the Android gaming world built around the incredible capabilities of NVidia's new Tegra chip. The mobile gaming device is targeting hardcore gamers who crave high-definition. It is perhaps unfair to say that it will compete with Ouya or GameStick; rather, the SHIELD will take Android up against the like of the Play Station Vita. This is a huge win for Android if it goes well, and NVidia will do all it can to see that happen.
NVidia has already launched a distribution site for Tegra games (games built with the Tegra chip in mind) called the Tegra Zone. Important to note, the Tegra Zone is not exclusively for NVidia’s SHIELD, for any device with their super chip installed.
And indeed... Ouya boasts a Tegra 3.
A New Galaxy
As convergence to mobile devices marches briskly forward, smartphones themselves will continue to play a central role in gaming. After-all you can already connect your device to a TV, as well as a controller -- like this from Green Throttle -- leaving some to wonder what the value is in an Android console. In fact, Ouya has some people saying the console is already outdated though it hasn’t even launched. It does boast a Tegra 3 graphics processor, 1 GB of Ram and 1.7 Ghz quad-core ARM CPU. However, that doesn't compare well with many of the highend Android devices for sale.
For example, the new Samsung Galaxy S4 sports 2 GB of Ram and 1.9 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor... or Samsung’s own processor, which is apparently even faster. And Samsung isn’t the only one.
While Ouya is a great idea, the possibility that it will languish as a niche product seems rather high. However, the remarkable activity around Android gaming so far this year is any indication then Google Play could close the gap with Apple a little sooner than expected.
Getting Beta Users
Building in the wild. While in SV this term got tossed around a lot, so what is it? Basically it just refers to the fact that most of the time you won’t get it right the first time. You have to get feedback. Beta testing is a great way to do that, some would say it’s essential.
Why You Should Beta
If your service is released as a beta, you get to say sorry. People who signup for your beta will assume your product is a work-in-progress, provide you with feedback on features and brand choices, and forgive all the bugs and errors and system crashes along the way.
In fact, if your service is not bulletproof you should release as a beta, or else. While many product teams tell themselves “well, so it crashes; everyone crashes at first,” that is not the way consumers see it. Only 16% of users will try an app more than once if it crashes... that means MORE THAN 80 PERCENT will ignore you forever if you fail. So please, go beta if you think you are going to crash.
Finally, when you work in a bubble your ability to observe objectively becomes hindered. People tend to reinforce bias in each other, you could call it group bias. This can even lead to members of a group to ostracize those with dissenting opinions. Getting objective feedback from users solves all this. No one can argue with the market, the idea sticks or it doesn’t . Of course, that assumes you recieve objective feedback... so how do you do that?
How To Beta
There are several resources that can help get beta users. However, there are several important things to keep in mind before you start.
1. Know how much you can spend. You have to assume the cost of future iterations, as well as the value of any users you acquire. If you get all this great feedback and can’t capitalize on it by improving your product, well you’ll have to start begging for money. Anyway, if you’re beta you shouldn’t be spending a lot of money on marketing. Wait until you have a sticky product.
2. Be sure you have a way to engage with users. Believe it or not, I’ve seen people set up services and have no means to engage with users. No email, no social media, it’s really incredible. Trust me, it’s not an ideal situation. To set up your beta, you can try a landing page host like Unbounce Pages, or Launchrock. These services will collect contact information for you. Better yet, integrate with Mail Chimp and really stay engaged with autoresponders and lot’s of other valuable bells-and-whistles.
Acquiring Beta Users
The easiest tool is you. Go to Meetup.com and find events where your target users exist. Show them your prototype and ask them to signup. They will also tell you how cool it is, and if they mean it they won’t mind signing up on the spot... so ask them to. If you get to know the organizers of a group or event, then ask them how you can participate. Offer your help and be sincere, eventually it will pay off. Organizers will appreciate your efforts and will promote your little beta, or give you the chance to as a guest speaker.
Next, use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery to direct targeted users into your acquisition funnel. This is probably the most cost-effective way to promote anything on the web. In one case study, a company got 6000 signups for $0.03 each in one week. OMG that’s cheap! You probably won’t get that good of a deal, but at most you’ll spend about $0.25 for high quality leads. Your retention will be higher if you’ve tested your landing page first (show it to people at meetups, etc), and if you are using Mail Chimp to send people autoresponders and informative email.
Beta listing services are also a good way to promote your product early on. These services let you list your beta with all the fun and fancy you desire: landing page screens, app screens, descriptions, etc. Users will discover your beta there, and try it. Here are a few:
Get Professional Help
The methods above are great because while you’re acquiring beta users you --hopefully-- build some buzz around your product. It’s a beta release, your marketing while improving your product. However, sometimes you just want to test and get it done.
If that’s the case, I recommend Center Code. They offer a variety of “managed testing” for hardware, software, and mobile. There are lots of benefits, and if you don’t have a QA team to support you (do you?) then this is probably a good idea. It’s $3000 to test a mobile app for 2 weeks... which is a real bargain considering the consequences of a buggy launch.
Application Overload
There are more apps than anyone could possibly review, so how do you choose? Most people probably hear about new apps from their friends or colleagues, others may read about an app in the news. A few brave souls may go so far as to scour app review sites, and you can too.
Here are a few ways you can find cool apps to impress your friends.
Search Is King
Just like the web, app discovery is overwhelmingly done through search. Most of these searches are done within the App Store or Google Play. Last year Apple acquired app search startup Chomp in order to improve the App Store search results and user experience. The impact of the acquisition was almost immediate.
While the “king of search” is, naturally, Google, another Eric Schmidt-backed company is making significant headway in the world of app search. Quixey is “The search engine for Apps” and you may already be using their search solution without even knowing it. Quixey is a functional search for applications across platforms and is integrated with 3rd Party app distributors, OEMs, and search solutions like Duck Duck Go and Ask.com.
App-Discovery Apps
There are a few of these services, but my absolute favorite is Discovr Apps. If you have ever tried the Visual Thesaurus (if not, you should), it is basically the same concept. When you click on an app, a bunch of related apps pop-up around it. It’s endlessly fun, stream of consciousness search. Discovr is a huge hit with Music, Movies, and now People too.
Of course, this genre could disappear in 2013. Apple has recently “cracked down” on services like Apps Fire and App Gratis (not the same as Discovr, but app-discovery-apps nonetheless).
High-class Reviewers
There are a ton of app review sites, and most of them are paid... meaning app publishers pay to get reviewed by them. However, there are three sites that I find outstanding. They are:
#1 Overlapps
The best of the lot. Overlapps has an inspired, engaging and beautiful design, just a wonderful browsing experience. You can browse apps based on categories (there are many and the icons are brilliant), or see the latest for iPad and iPhone. Another neat feature is you can “love” an app and see which apps are getting the most “love.” Subscribe to Overlapps to add apps you are thinking about buying to your Wishlist or Favorites.
#2 Appolicious
Wow, just an immense database of information about apps. Appolicious is probably the leader in terms of sheer volume of information, and it is very well organized. Recently partnered with Yahoo, the site is filled with Recommendations, News, and Video Reviews -- they own a video review service called AppVee. Also, when you create an account for Appolicious you can “Build your library” of apps.
#3 AppAdvice
AppAdvice features news about Apps. However, there are also some pretty killer mashups of apps they call applists. These applists are based on seasons or holidays, as well as interests, games, etc. Some examples: “life solver” (like health or wedding planning), “empower your device” (apps for productivity, utilities). There are also daily video reviews, and App Guides which are really cool.
App Guides are probably the best review format available. Basically, the best apps for any category have been curated here with subcategories. For example, within Lifestyle you will find “Baby Monitoring Apps” or “Best Goal-Setting Apps.” When you click on any of these sub-categories there are reviews for several apps within that sub-category ranked as “Essential,” “Notable,” Decent,” and “Other Apps.”
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Re-Inventing Your Phonebook
If you’re old enough, you remember having a “little black book” where you kept all your contact information on the go. For real pros, this was a necessary supplement to a rolodex. However, since the 90s “the little black book” has been transforming from an invaluable papermate to perhaps the most vital piece of software we carry. So far in 2013 the phonebook app, or contacts app (whichever you prefer), has been a hit. Here are a few I’ve taken a look at for iOS.
Xobni Pro and Smartr
Xobni provides professionals with a first-class contact management system that can be accessed from Gmail, Android, Outlook, and iPhone. Of course, it will cost you. Last time I checked it was on sale from $10 to $7.99 per month, or $47.95 per year. The pro service offers up some neat tricks for business people who are still (sadly, I am one of them) married to Outlook. My favorite is having access to Gmail, Android, or iPhone contacts from my Outlook... sweet.
For less serious folks you can get Smartr Contacts by Xobni, available for iOS and Android. Like Hacker reported on the app way back in 2011 when it was released for Android, and again in early 2012 when it was released for iOS. Smartr is pretty cool, showing you statistics like how often you appear in messages with your contacts (syncing with iCloud, iCal, Yahoo, Gmail Facebook, Twitter, and if you have a pro account Outlook).
Note: 4 Stars by Macworld, and Lifehacker called Smartr “The best address book for iPhone.”
Addappt
Addappt is new and is now available without an invite code for iOS. It has a more social personality than most contact apps, claiming to be an “up-to-date address book maintained by your friends.”
Of course, up-to-date contacts will probably mean my friends have to be using the app as well. Clearly that represents a problem for Addappt. Last year I worked briefly on an app for Android called Vell, which not only promised to keep contacts up-to-date but also provided personalized video caller-rings. Based on that experience I am certain that critical-mass will be the most important challenge for Addappt, which is probably why they were “invite only” early on.
Thread
What a beautifully designed app, for those who like the minimalist approach. It is like Any-do for contacts, and I would love to buy it. However, the App Store reviews aren’t plentiful enough to have an average, so you may want to wait for a price-drop promotion (there is probably one on the way).
Thread offers the features you would expect including Facebook and Twitter integration as well as groups. It also offers a dialer, which is cool, but not really a big deal. The big win here is the design, it looks great.
If you think of your iPhone as an extension of your personality (you might as well) and that personality loves design, this app may be just what you are looking for.
CoBook
I really like this app, though Smartr is probably better (especially if you go pro). It accomplishes most of what Smartr can do, syncs with the essentials (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin), and has a nice profile page that let’s you email a “Livecard” to your contacts. Oh yeah, and it “keeps your contacts up-to-date” too, so long as you’re friends on CoBook. Another really cool feature is the ability to tag your contacts, and the dialer is really great as it displays recent contacts’ image above the dial pad (yup, you can click them to rapid dial).
CoBook has done a really good job of making a social utility, offering a nice blend of the social UX with the practical simplicity of a utility. The Verge wrote of Cobook, it is a “revolutionary step forward for contact apps.” I have to agree, it’s pretty awesome.
CoBook Images
Thread Images
Smartr Images
Optimize for Mobile Web
While using landing pages to introduce mobile apps to targeted audiences online has become standard, these pages are not always responsive to various devices. Here are a few reasons why you should have a mobile optimized site, and hopefully make it functional.
4 Billion Mobile Devices and 3 Billion Toothbrushes
That’s why it is hard to conceive that people would overlook the need to have a mobile web version of their service, or at least of their landing page(s). According to research by Accenture 69% of their respondents accessed the internet using a mobile device, including smartphones and tablets.
Overall, you can expect mobile internet users to outnumber desktop internet users by next year. Already 25% of Americans access the internet exclusively through a mobile device.
A to the I to the D to the A
Mobile versions of your service can do more than just introduce your service or direct people to download. They can present to potential users the core-benefits of your product by providing a generic version to anyone out there. Not only that, these mobile web versions can be built much faster (and for less money) which means you can start building buzz -- not to mention getting real feedback.
In other words, start building “Awareness” and getting people “Interested” by showing them why your product is better. This will create “Desire” for the product, and means that more people with take “Action” when the time comes. This centuries old model for customer acquisition, AIDA, is the backbone for most acquisition funnels.
Speed and Universal Access
The mobile web is “device agnostic,” meaning it is fairly responsive (changes size to fit a variety of screens) and works on any operating system. Chris Borgan, he co-authored The Impact Equation (NY Times best-seller, blah blah), provided an interesting case study for a sports service that chose to build both native apps and for the mobile web. The service was able to provide core features (up-to-date scores) a full 6 weeks before their native app was ready for review.
Not only were they able to reach their audience sooner, it was available to anyone whether they prefer iOS or Android. That can be an enormous benefit for a bootstrapped team.
How to do it?
First, have a website. Even it is a landing page telling people to sign-up for your beta pre-launch. Next, optimize that site for mobile... it’s not that hard to do, here’s a neat article about it: [LINK].
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