We Love The Web - Blogorhea

Apps are shiny.
Apps are there on your iThing even without an internet connection.
Apps run in full screen with no browser bars.
Apps make great bling to show your clients/boss.

What’s not to like?

First things first: the mobile web is (normally) more important.
If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, then consider that first. You can find more information here - How-to: stop punishing iPhone owners.

Done? Great: let’s talk about apps.
Sucessful apps.increase customer loyalty by being useful, amusing or informative and keep your brand right there on a customer’s home screen (I’m talking about marketing apps in this how-to, not paid-for ones).

It’s also true that most apps are only used a couple of times. There are a lot of apps. out there.

So: why would anyone want yours?
If you can’t answer that question, you will waste your money.

5 good reasons to build an app.

• You have a complicated product that people need to configure, update or access on–the-move
• Your app. provides an information service (AA directions, Train times, Yell etc.)
• You have great content that changes regularly and people want to access it on-the-move (e.g. the Economist or Guardian etc.)
• There’s a repeating or ‘hobby’ element to your offering (such Nike GPS+ that records jogging mileage using a smartphone GPS tracker or a dieting product with weekly weigh-ins).
• You have a great idea that’s going to ‘go viral’ which will amuse and amaze everyone. 

3 reasons not to

• Because we can
• Because our marketing director has an iThing
• Because you want to see if you can get Comic Sans past the Apple app. reviewers.*

*You can’t. Comic Sans has been banned from the app. store and using it is in violation of your license agreement with Apple. Loading an app. containing this font causes the immediate and irreversible shut-down of your iOS device. This paragraph is 100% true in every way. Oh yes. 

What’s does that leave?

• You have an in-house brochure or sales tool that would look great on a shiny.

Something you have to know about the iThing

The only way to get iPhone/iPad apps in the hands of the public is through the Apple app. store. That means we have to get it past the app. store review process (PDF doc).

Break the rules and the app. gets kicked back at you.

This isn’t true of Android. Publishing to Android marketplace costs about £50 in fees and there’s no review process. Debate rages as to whose approach is better.

So, is there no other way of distributing an app.?

Many of the enquiries we get are for sales collateral: shiny screens to be used at trade shows etc. So: for limited distribution, you need a different answer: in-house apps.

To do this, the iShiny device has to be known to your IT people and has to be tweaked to allow installs of ‘in-house’ apps on it. The IT people need to be registered developers too. The configuration change isn't a huge deal, but it's not exactly the 'download and install' that you are used to.

You could always put a full-screen PDF or slideshow on the iPad if you just need to get your brochure on it. Or buy an Android instead.

What else do I need to know?

Consider which platforms you need the app. to work on:
Right now, it’s normally iPhone and Android. Here’s a link to current smartphone market share.

But, take the lead from what devices people use to access your website. For you, iOS may outstrip Android because of your audience.

If you need to develop more than one, then you need to read this bit. These devices understand different languages. It’s possible, but harder, to develop an app. to target both at the same time. Considering you have to get the Apple version through the review process for *each and every* update, it can be cheaper to maintain two separate programs. You can learn and iterate on the Android, then push the successful changes through to the iPhone version.

To find out more about how a mobile app. could help you, call Frank or Jules on 01422 847 958 or email us: make.it.work@welovetheweb.com

If you have a friend or colleague who you think might like to receive these as emails, get them to sign-up here: Sign up for the We love the web newsletter.
We won't share their email addresses with anyone else and we won't send through huge numbers of mails, just these how-tos, well, and the very occasional sales pitch, but we promise not to be 'in your face' about it.

And you can unsubscribe at any time.

Here's a quick test.

Take out your iPhone (your friend's Android, Blackberry or other smartphone will do just as well).

Go outside, beyond the reach of Wifi and onto your 3G connection.

Now: browse to your company's website.

And wait.

... wait some more...

... tum-tee-tum-tee-tum ...

... not long now ...

... are we nearly there yet?

... I wonder what's on the telly tonight...

... maybe I'll just take a quick snooze while this web page loads.

OK, so why should you care? 

That's what one in five of your customers experiences.
Just before they leave in disgust.

Now, try this site m.guardian.co.uk

I hope you agree that this is far less annoying.

One in five users are now mobile.
This screenshot below is from the analytics for one of the consumer sites we look after. Popular site too, it has 50,000 members. Quick Caveat: different sites attract different browsers. We look at this on a case-by-case basis with you.

20% of web browsing is now done from mobiles!

You'll know this if you ever travel by train. Sometimes it seems as though half the carriage is busily jabbing away at touchscreen devices. Not having a mobile version of your site means you are annoying one in five of your customers. I think that's a bad thing.

Good news: it's usually straightforward to make a mobile version of your site.

Basically, we do some cleverness so that mobiles just skip much of the styling and images that make a desktop site pretty, but slow to load. There's no rebuilding: it just runs off your existing desktop site content. These stylesheets are simple and lightweight by design, so they aren't even expensive to produce.

We'll also set things up so that people on smartphones are automatically redirected to the mobile site. And even put in a link to the full site so they can get to that if they want it.

To find out more about how a mobile site could help you, call Frank or Jules on 01422 847 958 or email us: make.it.work@welovetheweb.com

If you have a friend or colleague who you think might like to receive these emails, get them to sign-up here: Sign up for the We love the web newsletter.
We won't share their email addresses with anyone else and we won't send through huge numbers of mails, just these how-tos, well, and the very occasional sales pitch, but we promise not to be 'in your face' about it.

And you can unsubscribe at any time.

* you stop punishing Android and Blackberry owners too at the same time. You may see that as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about the shiny.