If you haven’t heard of them the following blog post will tell you more about this dream story of 3 taxi drivers who dreamed up an app!

When Caroline came to London a month ago we were saved from drowning (yes it rains  heavily ever now and then in London) by a fantastic taxi application called Hailo Cab.

If you haven't heard of them the following blog post will tell you more about this dream story of 3 taxi drivers who dreamed up an app!

Here at WIP, we partner with many mobile conferences taking place all over the world.  As a result, we are able to secure discounted registration for the WIP Community for most and sometimes even a FREE pass or two.  The next few weeks are jam-packed with events before the usual summer slow down. Check out the events below and many more on our Mobile Community Calendar:

AnDevCon, May 15 – 17, San Francisco, USA.  Still time to register for this technical conference geared towards software developers building or selling Android apps. Exhibit Hall is Free to attend. Conference discount for WIP Community.

APPNATION, May 15 & 16, New York, USA. This is where the app and connected device ecosystems meet, combined with social TV apps.  It is the first conference to focus entirely on the business of apps and their transformative impact on consumers and enterprise technology, devices, commerce, media and social interaction. Discount for WIP Community.

WhyMCA Mobile Developer Conference, May 24 & 25, Bologna, Italy.   This Dev Con will feature  2 days of talks focused on mobile: development and UX for Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms, crossplatform development, HTML5, frameworks, the future of mobile and more. FREE to attend.

Random Hacks of Kindess, June 1 – 3, Cities around the World.  RHOK is a global community of innovators building practical open technology to make the world a better place. Hacks are taking place in many cities, all at the same time.  FREE for attend.

Mobile Content MoCO•2012, June 7 & 8, Moscow, Russia.  This key event in the area of mobile content brings together leading companies from Russia, other countries of the region, the EU, Middle East and USA. Mobile topics include: content trends, apps/app stores, mobile commerce. Discount for  WIP Community.

Israel Mobile Summit 2012, June 12, Tel Aviv, Israel.  This is a full day event that celebrates the Israeli mobile industry.  It features keynotes from top speakers, panels on hot mobile topics, an innovation showcase and contest of the hottest Israeli mobile startups and plenty of networking opportunities! Held in English.

App Planet @ Mobile Asia Expo, June 20 – 22, Shanghai, China.  Focused exclusively on the mobile application ecosystem, App Planet is a specialized component of Mobile Asia Expo. Bringing together the developer community and the device and platform owners supporting mobile apps, App Planet creates an environment to grow the app ecosystem. WIP has a limited number of FREE passes available to qualified developers.  If interested, send me an email and let me know why you would like to attend.

In-app purchases are blowing up, and now account for more than 70% of the revenues in the iTunes App Store, and account for a huge and growing chunk of revenues on other platforms as well. Business models with in-app purchasing (such as freemium, virtual goods and more) work a bit differently than paid downloads, and require you to design your app differently to get the best conversion rate and accrue the most revenues. There's a premium on lifecycle planning and management so you can keep your revenue streams alive and continually offer new value to your users in exchange for continued purchases.

Want to learn more? Join me as I moderate a webinar hosted by the Verizon Developer Community that will cover in-app purchasing and get you everything you need to know to get going with it in your apps. We'll cover:

• how to align your app design with in-app purchasing business models
• how to maximize your conversions and revenues
• best practices for implementing in-app purchasing
• tips and lessons learned from fellow developers
• and more!

Register now for the webinar, on Thursday May 17 from 2-3:30pm EST. If you can't make it, don't worry, we'll record it and make it available to you!

The results of the survey definitely re-emphasize something that we've been preaching for a while - that it is important to start thinking about marketing from day 1 and as much as possible, your development and marketing cycles should sync. When 68% of developers in the survey have earned less than $5000 (guess they weren't developing for the BlackBerry), it should be eyeopening for all those about to release an app.

You can also download App-Promo's full white paper by signing up on their site. 

James Coops kicks things off for us with the 'Best Mobile App Developer Directory' by mobyaffiliates. It's still a growing list, but includes iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and HTML5 developers. The apps are grouped by geographical region, and they are taking suggestions, so if you are a developer or work for a studio, go ahead and email them and tell them why you're the best! 

Natasha Hutchinson of adfonic shared this post about why advertisers should be shifting their media budgets to mobile. The most interesting stat the shift in consumer behaviour:  "a recent study by Flurry showed that we now spend one third more of our time on mobile apps than desktop web That’s a significant contrast to 18 months ago when the reverse was true".

Peggy Anne Salz sent over an article on mapping your mobile strategy by Jeff Hasen at Mobilegroove. Jeff asked leading marketers for tips on how to execute global strategy and it is worth a deep read, particularily if you have a target market in Asia. 

Finally, we at WIP want to highlight a couple of marketing tools that we've found for you, starting with the Mobile Developer's Guide to the Parallel Universe, a free community driven resource helping you sync your development cycles with your marketing cycles. As well, we want to share an interview with did with Gary Yentin, CEO of AppPromo on how to make your app discoverable. More often than not, we meet terrific developers with fantastic applications and no marketing strategy and we can't stress enough how much we want to see them succeed! 

Our pick of the week goes to Natasha Hutchinson and her statistics on the changing landscape of consumer behaviour. It's an interesting take on the frothy state of our industry!

MotoDev has recently released a best practices guide for Enterprise Android development. It's free to download with registration. It's a fairly comprehensive guide, especially if you're new to mobile enterprise. It covers everything from the planning stage to deployment of your app. The white paper also covers security considerations and systems integration. It's definitely worth a look!

Download it here. 

image by felixmontino

Late last week, RIM released their Q4 2012 revenue reports, and the results were extremely disappointing, to say the least. Multiple senior-level executives parted ways, along with one with the original faces of the BlackBerry brand itself - Jim Balsillie. As the news of RIM's apparent pending doom spread throughout the blogosphere, I couldn't help but wonder if this was really the beginning (or middle, depending on your level of cynicism) of the end for the Canadian tech giant. While most critics have focused on BlackBerry's revenue numbers and the downward consumer trends, there has barely been any news on what developers think of BlackBerry.

To start, both BlackBerry DevCon Europe and all the sessions at BlackBerry's ADC at Mobile World Congress were completely sold out, but was this simply due to the schwag being given away at the front door?

Surprisingly, the answer was no.

While talking to attendees at DevCon Europe, we noticed an unusual (in a good way) amount of optimism in the platform, one that hadn't been seen in a while. Many of the developers there had BlackBerry devices and were seeing some success in using this platform to develop and were anxious to see what the new QNX platform would offer. Angus Fox, CEO of Multizone mentioned that enterprise security and lack of churn through inability to change is a great strength for RIM and he sees iOS and BlackBerry as the two major platforms with money to be made. He did add that Mutlizone does work in the Public Sector and may not represent the norm, but felt heavily that BlackBerry is far from the grave despite the negative press.

The same vibe cannot be said for North American developers, as more and more developers turned their focus away from BlackBerry. Developing for iOS/Android, and then maybe Windows Phone seems to be the consensus opinion. Former Facebook Developer and Current CEO of Path Dave Morin recently emphasized that Path was "actively not developing for BlackBerry". Morin is a key influencer in Silicon Valley, and there is no doubt his words will resonate with developers everywhere.

Furthermore, developers are tired of waiting for BB10 to finally arrive. None of the current BlackBerry mobile devices on the market today will support the upcoming platform and while the PlayBook will support BB10, it is a different form factor than smartphones, making it highly difficult for usability testing. Delaying releases has become somewhat of a bad habit for RIM (see: Kindle, BBM on PlayBook), and this has to be stopped. Each day that BB10 isn't released is a day where the platform loses more developers, and this is without any guarantees that BB10 is an amazing platform for consumers and developers alike. An additional note to the BB10 platform is that it will be dropping native java support in favor of QNX's new tools, which did not resonate particularly well with the developers we spoke with.

BB10 has started to move, with alpha prototypes being given out at their BlackBerry 10 Jam (no correlation with WIPJam) conference in Florida next month. The developer's feedback of the platform from the conference will really be extremely interesting to watch. If they can continue to excel on enterprise security, move faster on BB10, and ride on the optimism of developers in Europe, they may rise once again, but make no mistake, they are riding on razor thin lines.

Tell us a little about your expertise and background on mobile marketing.

Our team has over 15 years of combined mobile marketing experience. We started in mobile when personalization was the big trend and everyone wanted a ringtone and wallpaper for their phone. Both Tom and I have continued to work in every facet of the industry as it has grown, becoming experts in mobile media, mobile marketing, mobile advertising and product strategy and development along the way.  We leverage our years of experience and knowledge to help our clients of various sizes and vertical succeed across platforms with their apps.

How do you feel mobile marketing differs from web and traditional marketing? 

App marketing definitely leverages a lot of core principles from their traditional and digital cousins but the main differences lie in the nuances of the product and the market that is specific to apps. Understanding the opportunities specific to marketing applications with media and bloggers, paid and earned media and especially within the app stores is key to maximizing the effectiveness of any campaign. 

Obviously you work a lot with developers. What is the most common issue that they come to App-Promo looking for help?

The main issue is with discovery. Most developers come to us because they’ve launched their product and are not seeing the download numbers they were expecting and so require our assistance in making some noise and helping them achieve their goals. Many of our clients previously launched their products thinking that once they got in the app store, they would start to see users and money roll in. They soon realize that the app stores are merely distribution points that require outside effort in order to succeed.

With Rovio's latest venture, Angry Birds Space, it appears there's  a new trend of 'blockbuster apps' (complete with launch dates, trailers, the works). Do you feel that discoverability is going to be harder for smaller teams that aren't Rovio or Zynga? 

Yes. We are definitely seeing large players dominate the space and this is not chance or luck - it is a perfect example of the impact of marketing. Rovio and Zynga both had their start as unknowns and both of these companies took their great products and marketed them heavily on a consistent basis to get to the top.
That being said, what’s great about the mobile space is that there is always room for an app, no matter what the size, to become a success story. Its not the size of the company but the strength of a strategy that does this. A combination of a great idea + market research + quality product + marketing strategy and budget = BIG WIN.

With mobile moving so fast, what are some resources you use to keep up to date?

In order to keep up with what’s going on today in technology you need to be a speed-reader and a sponge. Our team is active on Twitter and Tumblr and use content aggregation tools like Zite and Google Reader to quickly reference and ingest information from media sites and blogs that cover mobile, social, marketing, media and digital in general. We also engage the community by creating surveys to understand what's really going on. We're actually currently underway with a survey for app developers to gauge their level of success against how they treat their app as a business.

What are some of the latest apps that have impressed you with their promotion? 

OMGPop’s Draw Something has to be top of mind here. How can you not mention this app when you talk about marketing today? It’s everywhere from the press perspective and even more importantly, it's on more than 37 million devices so needless to say it’s a success.

The key to Draw Something’s win was not just it’s sticky and intuitive product but the use of social networking to let users market the app, equipping it with the potential to go viral. And that’s exactly what happened! The fact that users could post their sketches to Twitter and Facebook was key to the application’s 0 to 60 climb up the App Store Charts making them an “overnight” success.

In addition, Draw Something’s in-app marketing to upgrade the free app to the premium version and purchase in-app virtual goods is a great example of an app developer with a solid monetization strategy to earn them money. Well this and of course getting Zynga’s attention to get bought out but that doesn’t happen every day.

What is the number one tip you would give to developers or teams of developers who have an idea right now? 

Don’t fall into the trap of believing “If you build it they will come”. There is more to an app that just an idea and some code. Take that idea you have for an app and assess it against what’s really going on in the market to reduce the risk of launching a product your audience doesn’t need. Make sure you have a realistic plan to make money with your app. And most importantly make sure you include budget for ongoing marketing to help you stand out from the crowd.

The NOOK Apps program provides the opportunity for you to reach a vibrant and growing community of mobile app users.  The past year has shown us our users are ready and willing to pay for great content.  While there are many apps that stand out from the crowd, the most successful companies and apps have several things in common.

• Apps appeal to our key demographic, which is unique among mobile gadgets – 70 – 75% female, many of whom are also mothers.  Children’s apps, especially learning and development is a high focal point for NOOK Apps.  While gaming is our most successful category, lifestyle, education, and other apps that enhance the experience of using the device, such as customizable backgrounds are immensely popular. 

• The most successful NOOK apps have very high production values. From education to games to social media, the top contenders have elegant and intuitive means of navigating and accessing the app content. Each of these apps has a thoughtful design that focuses on the user’s experience rather than simply the final goal of the process.

• The NOOK Apps program offers developers the opportunity to provide trial versions of their apps when they submit them for review. This allows users to “try before you buy” while giving you the opportunity to attract users who may prefer to experience a taste of the app first.  Our trials provide an easy method to allow for upgrades from within the app. The terms of the trial are up to you, and the choice of what to include in the full version rather than the trial is a subtle and powerful tool to expand your user base.

• The visual assets for each app are well crafted and thoughtfully designed. The Barnes & Noble shopping experience, both online and on our devices is very visual and graphics that stand out get the most attention.

• Our most successful apps come from developers that empower their users. They pay attention to them - through social media, user reviews and their support sites. Adding new features or content regularly is very well received.  Updates that address user issues are acknowledged through a developer’s social media channels.  Given the opportunity, our users will let you know what they want and will be fiercely loyal once you show you’re willing to listen.

•  Barnes & Noble has multiple devices supported by the NOOK Apps program and the most successful apps target them all. Although it takes more consideration of app capabilities with respect to separate hardware models, the payoff is in the larger potential market as well as extensive brand awareness throughout our entire ecosystem.

• When developers sign up for the program, they take extreme care to enter accurate contact and financial data. Having up to date contact information makes it a lot easier to work with Barnes & Noble when it comes to merchandising and marketing plans.

The NOOK Apps program has been a very successful partnership for both Barnes & Noble and our thriving developer community. A focus on delivering high-quality apps from passionate and professional developers has enabled us to build something new in our corner of the mobile app world.  The unique and effective approach we use to curate and merchandise apps have resulted in our developers seeing significantly higher revenues on our platform.

Visit http://nookdeveloper.com and join us in shaping the future of mobile apps today!