Fixed Mobile Convergence

"Consumers are reluctant to pay for applications on their mobile devices," developers told Gartner (News - Alert) Research Director Angela McIntyre. "One developer explained that downloads of his mobile game were modest at the $4.99 price point," for example.

As an example of price sensitivity, the developer told McIntyre that when promotions for the $4.99 apps featured price points of 49 cents, essentially making the apps "free," downloads "increased more than a thousand-fold."

Developers seem to conclude that they will have to “give away” the application and build in micro-transactions, essentially using a version of the "freemium" model where the basic product is given away, and then users can incrementally buy additional features.

Another approach is to use the "freemium" model to offer a free version of the application and an enhanced version of the application that consumers could purchase for $4.99.

But getting a user to download an app is not the same thing as sustaining usage over time. Developers told McIntyre that updating apps was key, and that creating a seamless user experience when the application is used off-line also was important.

Alert features and RSS feeds were likewise deemed important devices for convincing consumers to come back to the application again and again. Sending “real-time” traffic updates to navigation applications, or “breaking news” on topics of interest are examples.

Status updates and messages from other people the consumers care about, and those in their social networks, also are valuable retention tactics.

Viral marketing is not as useful as some developers had hoped, though. Developers are finding that consumers who follow a link from social networking sites to their application web pages are much less likely to purchase it than a consumer who sought out the application on their own. 

So, what are some common issues that Macroview Labs encounters when engaging with big brands that want to create mobile apps? Common mistakes include duplicating a website on the mobile screen. That does not take advantage of the capabilities a mobile has, such as cameras, bar code scanning, accelerometers and GPS, for example.

Aron Ezra, MacroView Labs CEO, has quite a lot of experience engaging with, and creating applications for, large organizations and brands ranging from major Las Vegas casinos to NASCAR, Elitch Gardens and the city of Arlington, Texas.

“Artwork is really important,” says Ezra, something you can verify yourself at http://www.macroviewlabs.com/montecarlo. “Fresh content also is important, because you have to give people reasons to come back.”

The other frequent pressure is to create apps heavy on the “hard selling,” he says. One of the things brands frequently do is they think of it as a marketing tool, says Ezra. If that is so, then the obvious purpose of an app is to “sell,” so then the app winds up being an ad.

But “people want tools, they want to interact with friends, play games, learn things, get discounts and enhance their experiences,” says Ezra. “If a purchase happens now and then, OK.”

That will strike many brand managers as a discordant note. But before anything positive for a brand can happen, people have to want to engage with the app, use it, forward it to their friends and share it.

In the mobile world, and especially in the realm of mobile apps, people are incredibly impatient, Ezra notes. “You have seconds to make an impression.”

So despite the pressure to create a new marketing platform, brand managers might sometimes have to recognize that an app might be evaluated by a given user in seconds, and might not ever get a second chance if the value isn’t obvious.

Mechanically, app navigation has to be totally intuitive. Nor can be design be “too cute.” Also, a solution sometimes doesn’t match the demographic, Ezra says. There are, in short, lots of little things that can hinder an app’s appeal, and hence effectiveness.

Another common mistake is not building for right devices, or creating the wrong kinds of apps, he says. Some brands or organizations might initially want to create apps that are intended for use in areas with bad data coverage, leading to bad user experiences.

Sometimes brands and organizations think they just want an iPhone (News - Alert) app, but perhaps the intended user base relies on Androids or BlackBerrys.

Also, many brands initially try to earn revenue in the wrong ways, says Ezra. “We have had brands tell us their goal is to charge $3 for the app,” says Ezra. But there are many revenue opportunities even with a free app, he says. Brands can sell room nights, tickets, goods and get into partnerships with local businesses, local hotels, golf courses and restaurants that pay to be featured within an app.

Of course, Ezra believes we are only starting to figure out how to use mobile apps. In 2011, for example, he expects to see many more apps developed for enterprises to allow their employees to be more efficient and effective. That means apps for employees and work processes.

For example, by 2013, 33 percent of business intelligence functionality used by enterprise workers will be consumed via handheld devices, says Gartner.

Some of the verticals that adopted mobile apps quickly are those led by marketing and always looking to raise the bar, and trying to dazzle, such as casinos, or retailers, says Ezra.  They constantly need the next new thing. But hospitals and governments, though rarely on the very cutting edge, will adopt once the value is understood.

But tablets really change the game. In the past, the thinking has been that robust functionality needed to be stripped out when porting apps from a PC context to a mobile context. With tablets, there is no need to strip out features for mobile. In fact, tablets might lead to creation of mobile experiences that are in fact much richer than are possible on a PC.

You can download the Monte Carlo hotel app created by Macroview Labs here.