Mobile apps as part of a short-term campaign – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns

By Magnus Jern

It is becoming as natural today for a brand to have a mobile application and mobile Web site as it was to launch a Web site in the 1990s.

This is not a question about technology or effectiveness – brands simply need to be where consumers are, and consumers are spending more time on app stores and interacting with apps.

At the same time, most users only have about 10 apps that they use every week or month.

One-off-apps effective as core business apps

But is there anything wrong with 1 million people using your app only once?

Mobile apps as part of a short-term campaign may only be used just a few times, but the marketing effect can be just as efficient as that of a core business app or mobile Web site.

You can draw a parallel between a mobile app and a viral video, an advertisement on YouTube or a brand microsite. Most people will only visit it once, but the brand manager will be very satisfied as long as the interaction has made a longstanding impression.

Examples of great mobile app campaigns include: carry on via Mobile apps as part of a short-term campaign – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns.

10 Apps Apple Just Killed With iOS 5

 

WhatsApp is the most popular BBM-like messenger for iPhone

Read more here. 

WhatsApphas been one of the most popular iOS messaging apps for a while because it let you message in real time with friends.

 

You can see delivery receipts, read receipts, typing notifications, and more. It uses push notifications.

Now, it’s all included in iMessage, and brand new real time messaging app for iOS.

One thing WhatsApp still has, however, is cross-platform messaging. There are no plans for iMessage to become an open protocol that other operating systems could use.

via 10 Apps Apple Just Killed With iOS 5.

 

How to create new engagement for abandoned apps – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns

There I was, staring at my computer screen. Confused. Then it occurred to me, I was trying to find an iPad application – on my computer. My mobile life had collided with my computer life.

My brain was trained to seek the quickest way to the content I was seeking and that was through an app. This simple capture error made me notice something else.

As tethered to my phone as I am, I am still not using the bulk of my collected apps. I have abandoned them.

Lowdown on download

As I swiped through my iPad to get to the desired app, I sorted through the clutter I have made of my screens.

Folders stuffed with apps, favorite apps sitting proudly alone, and downloaded and rarely used apps increasingly pushed further from my app life ground zero.

I can swipe for pages through all the colorful and cool apps I have downloaded, and rarely used. All neatly stacked and abandoned.

It might be out of sight, out of mind for me.

But for brands, the occurrence of app abandonment can mean the loss of a critical touch point with an audience.

Just as site metrics are no longer about unique visitors, but rather the level of engagement, the same criteria are now being asked of apps. Not how many apps were downloaded, but how many were used on an ongoing basis in a relationship.

As documented by Localytics, a mobile analytics company, roughly a quarter of the time, apps were used once and abandoned.

If consumers were motivated enough to take the time to download an app, how can they be recaptured for a second attempt – this time to establish relevance and relationship?

via How to create new engagement for abandoned apps – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns.

These are the types of apps Twitter thinks developers should be building – TNW Twitter

Twitter‘s #devnest event in San Francisco is under way, and aside from the incredible stats revealed about the Twitter ecosystem, Twitter also mentions the types of apps developers should focus on, namely, Analytics, Content, Curation, Publishing, and Enterprise.

Back in March, Twitter’s Ryan Sarver made an announcement discouraging developers from building new Twitter clients. As it turned out, Twitter is just telling developers that the bigger story is building on the other facets of Twitter, rather than just becoming “yet another client”.

In today’s #devnest event, Twitter invites developers  to tap into these five areas of opportunities instead.

via These are the types of apps Twitter thinks developers should be building – TNW Twitter.

Please, App Makers, Give Me More Than Download Stats

I am beginning to enjoy Ryan Kim’s writings more and more. And since he is tackling issues that have my dedicated interest, I’ll let him speak for himself. So here is his idea on the ‘fresh rates’ of apps.