Best-Practice Guide on

Mobile Applications

Cristina Dresch

November 8th, 2010

1

Summary

INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................3

Who is this guide for?..............................................................................................3

Why a best practice guide on Mobile Applications?.................................................3

PART 1 – UNDERSTANDING THE MOBILE MARKET..............................................4

Statistics about growth, cost and operating systems share.....................................4

Five types of mobile consumers..............................................................................6

Is it right for you?.....................................................................................................7

PART 2 – STRATEGY AND PLANNING.....................................................................8

Types of applications...............................................................................................8

Entertainment.......................................................................................................9

Branded game development.....................................................................10

Product Placement....................................................................................10

Game sponsorship....................................................................................11

Mobile Utility Applications..................................................................................12

Where to get them?...............................................................................................13

Promoting Your App...............................................................................................15

Make it Viral.......................................................................................................15

Create something new.......................................................................................15

Get rated and reviewed in the store...................................................................15

Have a good name, icon and logo.....................................................................16

Price it right........................................................................................................16

What to do next?...................................................................................................18

CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................19

REFERENCES..........................................................................................................20

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3

INTRODUCTION

Who is this guide for?

This guide is designed for companies or individuals who are interested on understanding more about the mobile applications and how to get in this market.

Why a best practice guide on Mobile Applications?

The mobile market has been growing in fast speed. Mobiles that are web-enabled

are becoming more accessible each day. This is very powerful for marketing since

mobile provides “powerful demographic and psychographic signals about the owner”

(Krum 2010, p.7), which means the information can be targeted in a higher level. The

message can be more interactive and actionable, and the response can be

immediate since everyone is checking their phones often during the day.

There is a lot of information online that discuss this topic but most of the

times, in a more technical way. The main goal of this guide is to give you an insight

on the mobile market as a whole and the importance of mobile applications. After

reading this guide you should be able to know how your company can take

advantage of the mobile application, and everything you should consider before

building one.

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PART 1 – UNDERSTANDING THE MOBILE MARKET

Statistics about growth, cost and operating systems share

The mobile market has been growing in fast speed all across the world. According to

comScore (2010) web-enabled smartphones already make up 20% of the 3 billion

mobile devices worldwide, with predictions of heading towards 50% in the next 3-5

years. Some impressive statistics from Gartner (cited in Econsultancy 2010, p.15)

say that mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web-access devices

worldwide by 2013.

The mobile web market is currently valued at $5 billion and it will reach

approximately $19 billion by 2014, says Juniper Research (2010). According to

Econsultancy (2010) 56% of companies are planning to increase their budget for

mobile marketing.

The graphic below shows that mobile traffic from each region has increased at

least 4x in the last two years. The biggest growth was in Latin America and Oceania

where an increase of 11x was experienced.

Figure 1 - Monthly growth in traffic [Source: Mobile Metrics Report, Admob, May 2010]

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The applications are starting to be a big part of the mobile market, in the first

semester of 2010 “application download numbers reached a total of 3.8 billion in

only 6 months, compared to 3.1 in 2009” (Research2guide 2010, p.1). Consequently

there was a big improvement in the market revenue as well, increasing from U$1.7

billion in 2009 to U$2.2 billion in 2010.

As we all know the mobile market offers thousands of brands' options. Each

brand produces its smartphones with different operating systems (OS), which can be

close-source or open-source. The top two mobile OS in the market are Android from

Google (open-source) and iOS from Apple (closed-source). Android can be found in

different brands such as Sony Erricson, HTC, Nokia, Samsug, Motorola, etc., while

the iOS can only be found in iPhones. Below there's a graphic showing the operating

systems share in the mobile market.

Figure 2 – Operating system share [Source: Mobile Metrics Report, Admob, May 2010]

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Five types of mobile consumers

Krum (2010) identified 5 types of mobile consumers. These characteristics can be

mixed in one individual, but usually one type will stand out more than the other. This

segmentation helps while targeting your application to a specific audience, so before

you look at this, it's important to know which type you want to target.

Up-to-date: these people use their phones to stay connect to real-time

information

Social and curious: also known as connectors, the ones who bring friends

together, love to network, plan events and are interested to know what's going

on their friends lives.

Busy and productive: people concerned mainly with all the information related

to their personal efficiency. This type would be considered the professionals,

where their “phone has become their all-in-one device for all communication

and information needs”, the features are important and used (Experian 2010).

Latest and greatest: These people want to be the first to try a product, even if

there is no guarantee that they will be satisfied with it.They always want to

use the newest technologies and applications, and to be a part of the newest

social networks and communities. Friends look to them for reviews and

recommendations of new technologies.

Just the basics: they are interested on anything that makes their lives easier

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Figure 3 – Mobile Content Usage in the US [Source: Mobile Content Usage, comScore MobiLens,

January 2010]

Is it right for you?

It's important to understand that it's not necessary to have a mobile application in

order to be present in the mobile market. Good mobile applications cost a lot of

money to be built. It's necessary to offer the right product or service and have

enough resources to get it right. The key is to understand “your audience know your

objectives and be prepared to fail” (Krum 2010, p.12).

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PART 2 – STRATEGY AND PLANNING

Types of applications

“Mobile applications can offer brands tremendous value in building customer

interaction, brand loyalty and general product or service awareness” says Matt

Goddard (2010, p.1). Consumers have the option to choose from a big variety of

applications to make their phones more personal and to customize it to their needs.

According to a research done by Nielsen (2010) games are the most popular

category of application, 65% of smartphone’s owners who have downloaded at least

one application in the last month have downloaded a game. Followed by

News/Weather (56%), Maps/Navigation/Search (55%), Social Networking (54%) and

Music (46%). (Dredge 2010).

Below there's a graph which represents the percentage of different types of

applications downloaded in May of 2010. It's divided in feature phone and

smartphone, which have a slightly difference (smartphones are usually more

complex and expensive than feature phones), but both give the option to download

applications (Lee 2010).

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Figure 4 – Categories of Applications Used in the Past 30 Days [Source: The state of mobile

Apps, Nielsen, June 2010]

After analyzing all types of applications, it's possible to divide them in two big

groups: entertainment and utility.

Entertainment

There are different types of entertainment applications. Some of them can be built

only to "support short-term campaigns or events, but often become forgotten when

the campaigns ends” (Goddard, 2010). Others are built planning to keep the user

engaged and entertained for a long-term period (launching upgrades, paid versions,

etc).

According to Krum (2010, p.134), “one-third of the downloadable mobile

applications available are games, and more are being developed every day. Mobile

games provide marketers a unique opportunity for branded game development,

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product placement, and game sponsorship”.

Branded game development

Before creating a branded game application is important to know who your audience

is. The game has to be engaging to those people and it can't be too pushy on the

advertisement. People will download your application either because they love your

brand or because your game is fun. Never rely only on the first option, that won't

keep them interested on the application for too long.

Some things to consider before you start building you application (Krum 2010):

Make sure your game has something different and more valuable compared

to the competition

Find the balance between marketing and creating a fun gaming experience

Think of mobile gaming applications as a brand awareness and reinforcement

campaign

Always provide clear instructions and help options. Playing games on mobile

phones might still be a new experience for many people, so they might need

help.

Consider providing upgrades or additional levels as separate downloads for

users who have mastered the game.

Most download branded game applications are: A4 Driving Challenge by Audi

(3,000,000 downloads), Waterslide by Barclaycard (9,800,000 downloads), Magic

Bottle by Cocacola (500,000 downloads). (Mobile Statistics International ,

Econsultancy 2010)

Product Placement

This can be tricky. It is necessary to really understand the game and its audience

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well before you make any agreements. The message, as in any other channel, has

to be relevant to the audience. Otherwise your brand might be related to a bad

message from the game, or the users won't welcome you there because they are not

the audience your brand attracts. But if the product placement is done in the right

way, everybody wins. Krum (2010) mentions that:

The product placement creates more realism in the game for the user.

It increases the margin on the game for the publisher.

There is an increase in brand awareness and affinity for the marketer.

Game sponsorship

According to Krum (2010) a game sponsorship happens when “a product or brand

pays for the right to run short advertisements or promotions before or after the game

is played”. These ads are called pre-roll or post-roll promotions, and the advertisers

choose whether to sponsor an entire game or to share sponsorship with other

advertisers. These ads can either be static or animated, it depends on the game, and

they usually last between 10 and 30 seconds. Mobile game applications with

sponsorship are most of the times offered as a free download, since the game

development costs are partially or entire paid by the advertising.

These ads are interesting not only to generate brand awareness, but to get

immediate response from the users. If the “gamers are interested or want to find out

more information about your product, they can click on the ad to visit your website,

register for emails or purchase the product without having to go to the computer”

(Krum, 2010).

You shouldn't be worried about upsetting the users. Most of them understand

that the ads are necessary to reduce the price of the game, which means that they

are also ready to ignore your add, “unless it is particularly engaging, funny, or

compelling” (Krum 2010, pg.138).

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Mobile Utility Applications

Most of the times when we think about building an application to help promote a

brand, we end up thinking about games. But that's not the only option. It's possible to

create applications that provide a valuable service and that engage the customer

without providing them entertainment. As mentioned earlier, 56% of smartphone

owners who have download at least one application in the last month downloaded a

news or weather application, followed by 55% for maps, navigation and search.

Examples by topics: phone utilities, educational, financial, news, weather,

navigation and travel, business productivity, shopping, multimedia, lifestyle, social

networking (Krum 2010)

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Where to get them?

To decide where to go to find an application it's necessary to know which operating

system the smartphone owns. Nowadays there are several application stores, but

according to ReadWriteWeb (2010) these are the biggest: iTunes App Store,

BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog

and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. If you want to promote your application, it is

very important to distribute it in as many stores as you can, otherwise some users

might feel left out when they can't find it for their phones. But that isn't so simple

giving the fact that each OS has different development requirements.

According the graph below, Apple is still the biggest application store by far.

The second place goes to Android Market, with 130 thousand difference on number

of applications available. But it's important to keep an eye on the second graph,

Android is growing fast. They added 15% of their applications in only one month

(Distimo 2010).

Figure 5 – Application store sizes [Source: Distimo Mobile World Congress 2010 Presentation,

Distimo, January 2010]

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Figure 6 – Application store growth [Source: Distimo Mobile World Congress 2010 Presentation,

Distimo, January 2010]

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Promoting Your App

There are almost 15 thousand new applications being uploaded per month on Apple

App Store (Figure 4). It doesn't matter how good your application is, simply adding it

to the store is not enough. It's necessary to have an strategic plan to make it

successful. Krum (2010) gives some tips about how to promote applications.

Make it Viral

You need to start promoting the application before it has even launched. You can

create teaser campaigns and generate buzz (DCI 2010). Krum (2010) suggests to

create interaction between users as part of the application. In case that isn't possible

for technical or creative limitations, the application should at least have integration

with existing networks or applications (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc).

Example: Google Voice Application - 250 thousand downloads in Android Market,

and more than 500 reviews. There is a free and an advanced paid version.

Create something new

Once you have an initial draft of the application's concept it's important to start the

benchmarking. Analyzing the strengths and weakness of the competition will make

you “figure out key elements that could make the application more functional, more

interactive, or more fun.” (Krum 2010, p. 144)

Example: Ikea Augmented Reality – this generated a lot of buzz since it’s launched.

The customer can get the application in the store through bluetooth or SMS, or they

can go in Ikea's website to download it.

Get rated and reviewed in the store

Applications that are not rated or reviewed by users are easily forgotten. Not only it

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can convince users about how good the application is, but it also puts the application

in a better ranking position in the app store. It's important to have at least two

reviews right after the application has launched, people tend to hesitate to rate or

review an application if nothing has been added there yet.

Example: Angry Birds – more than 300 thousand ratings for all versions in Apple

Store, with a five star average. When the app was released for Android,GetJar

servers went down because of the amount of downloads (90 thousand in seconds).

Have a good name, icon and logo

The logo and the icon can't be too creative, neither too abstract. There has to be a

balance and keep in mind the screen sizes. The application has to be described “in

as clear and compelling terms as possible” (Krum 2010, p. 145) and the title of the

application has to contain the most important keywords. These two elements

combined will help the application get a better ranking in the store search results.

Example: Flixster – when searched for movies in an Android, it shows up as the first

result. Name of the application is Movies by Flixster, “The #1 app for movie reviews,

trailers and showtimes”. In August it hit 20 million downloads. (TechCrunch 2010)

Price it right

Users don't tend to pay for applications, specially the entertainment ones. But in

case you can't offer the application for free, it would be smart to at least have a light

version available for no price. Users will have the opportunity to understand how it

works, and if they think it's worthy, they will download the paid version.

Below there's a graph (Figure 7) on the percentage of free versus paid

applications available in the stores. It's no surprise that the Android is the store with a

larger number of free applications, since “the nature of the open-source operating

system from Google attracts the sort of developers that enjoy giving away their

works and the open nature of the application” (ReadWriteWeb 2010). The other

graph (Figure 8) shows the average price in each of the six biggest app stores where

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Apple, Android and Nokia are in a very similar range (from U$3.27 to U$3.62).

Blackberry and Microsoft were more than twice higher (U$8.26 and U$6.99). That

doesn't mean certain stores offer more expensive types of applications, sometimes

the exact same application is charged more in different stores (ReadWriteWeb

2010).

Figure 7 – Free VS Paid [Source: Distimo Mobile World Congress 2010 Presentation, Distimo,

January 2010]

Figure 8 – Price Comparison [Source: Distimo Mobile World Congress 2010 Presentation, Distimo,

January 2010]

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What to do next?

Many people think the work is done after the application has launched and been

download by a group of users, but that is wrong. It's necessary to keep upgrading

and improving the application, otherwise there is no chance to keep competitive

(Skenderidis 2010).

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CONCLUSION

Before considering building a mobile application it's important to really understand

what is the goal behind it. Which audience you want to target is one of the most

powerful information, since you will need to build an application that is valuable to

them. This doesn't affect only the application type and design, it also effects the

development since different users own different operating systems on their phones.

You need to understand what's going on in the market. Since mobile apps are still

very new, trends and statistics change quickly. You need to be updated.

Remember: you can have the best application in the market, but if no one knows

about it, it's like it doesn't exist. So you need to spend as much time as you did

planning the application, thinking how you will promote it.

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REFERENCES

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United States of America: QUE.

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GODDARD, M. (2010) Which one of four key types of mobile apps fits your brand?

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