Dec

29

App Store to reach 1 billion apps?

Filed Under Apple, Mobile | Comments

How will the app store differ when it reaches 300,000 or say an unrealistic 1 biiiillion apps vs. the current 100,000? Will we see a large increase in the average number of apps being used per iPhone/iTouch? I don’t think so.

For every new app I download and plan to keep, I usually delete one I’m not using. Let’s call this the LIGO method of app management or Latest In, Garbage Out. The average usage difference between the apps I use daily (5-10) and the remaining apps (50+) is huge. I’m guessing that’s true for most people and won’t change no matter how many apps become available.

(Photo credit: gnta’s photostream)

My obsessive app prioritizing is probably not the norm – I’m sure there are many people who just keep accumulating apps until they reach the 9 screen max. Either way, your organization behavior with apps is most likely very similar to how you manage blog subscriptions, your desktop, people you follow on Twitter, etc.

Let’s not forget about the problems that start to arise when you have too many apps on your iPhone including: slower performance and freezing, too many app updates, low memory, and decreasing battery life (steady improvements to hardware/software may address some of these issues). On the other end, Apple will have to keep hiring more people to try and keep the app store clean. As long as the quality of apps increases and Apple continues to manage the app store effectively, I’m all for the rapid growth. And the rapid growth will continue as long as we keep seeing success stories from the developers themselves who are increasingly starting to reveal sales figures.

I also wonder if Apple should phase out featured apps completely (but keep Top lists) similar to how Twitter hopes to abandon its suggested users list. In the future, I hope to see them make less “App Store breaks 200,000 apps” announcements and more announcements about improvements to the app store. The other major players like Google should also focus on designing a better app marketplace, then maybe people won’t care as much about them always being behind in total number of available apps.

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Dec

10

Online fun: better include my friends

Filed Under Gaming, Mobile, Social Media, Web | Comments

The obvious: there’s a rapid rise in social gaming along with social network integration within almost anything fun we’re doing online. When we play offline, it usually involves our closest friends so it’s not surprising the same is becoming true online.

What surprises me is the fact that major brands haven’t really been too aggressive in experimenting with social games and simple, fun apps. Of course that will change soon, but hopefully only if it makes sense for the brand. If they aim to target a younger audience, I think a branded social game can be a very powerful marketing effort based on the success stories we’ve seen so far.

This quote from a recent article in Ad Age sums it up nicely:

While the heavy gamers remain highly serious and addicted to games, we’ve begun to see another emerging, and even larger, market — casual gamers who are into social networking. They visit gaming sites during their lunch break for a shoot-out, for instance, or for a fun break at night or on weekends. This changing demographic is opening a wider opportunity for marketers who should definitely look into gaming as an area of growth potential for communicating their brands.

And two more quote’s from the Three Minds blog:

If customer engagement and social relevance are the new holy grails of marketing then designing for play should be put on the agenda of all marketers.

The fact that gaming is still unexpected is an opportunity to surprise and delight your audience.

Below, I wanted to highlight some of the examples that came to mind since social games/apps and other miscellaneous fun social sites started gaining traction. I’ve included some general usage stats and pointed out what made them social.

OMGPOP

For those unfamiliar with OMGPOP (formally called iminlikewithyou), it has been around for a couple years now and growth isn’t slowing. It can be highly addictive and judging by the chat rooms, it seems to be most popular among teens. Teen or not, I think some of their most popular games such as Draw My Thing and Balloono can appeal to anyone. They’ve made it extremely easy to invite friends to instant matches which is one of my favorite features (no sign-up required).

omgpop

The stats:

  • Balloono has been played over 106 million times which amounts to nearly 3 million hours
  • Blockes has been played over over 52 million times which amounts to nearly 2 million hours

What makes it social:

  • Private games w/ unique invitation links to invite friends through AIM, Facebook, and Twitter
  • Quickly join live multiplayer games, make friends by randomly challenging them
  • See which friends are playing after logging in & join their games

JibJab

You’ve probably seen these videos or eCards pop up in your Facebook news feed or at least read about JibJab on TechCrunch. Sure they’re a bit cheesy but there’s no denying people love to create and share these with their closest friends.

jibjab

The stats:

  • 6 million registered users, over 100 million visits/yr (source)
  • Gained 1.5 million users through Facebook in 5 months (source)
  • 80% of new users are now signing up using Facebook connect

What makes it social:

  • Taps into Facebook to remind you of friends’ birthdays for eCards
  • Import Facebook photos to easily customize videos to share

Fishville

Plenty has been said about all the very popular Zynga games. I recently decided to give Fishville a try instead of Farmville and Mike Arrington is not lying, it’s very easy to get hooked (which shouldn’t surprise you).

Jason Calicanis has said “they have figured out what’s addictive about social games. And what do we like about playing games? It’s playing games with other people.”

fishville

The stats:

  • 25 million monthly active users and growing (source)
  • Zynga sees revenues of $50 million in 2008 from sales of virtual goods (source)

What makes it social:

  • Become neighbors with your Facebook friends playing Fishville (like most Zynga games) plus incentives for helping them out and sending free gifts
  • Frequent news feed publishing if user allows it

Parking Wars

I had to include Parking Wars which is probably still the best example of a branded social game to live on Facebook by A&E.

parkingwarz

The stats:

  • 66,905 monthly active users but declining (down from 110k)
  • 400,000 people signed up in the first two months (source)

What makes it social:

  • Adding more friends gives you more places to park

Other notable Facebook apps: Pet Society, Scrabble, Mafia Wars, Flixster Movies, Social Interview, Friends Exposed, etc.

I Am T-Pain

iamtpain

The stats:

  • Users have created over 10.2 million recordings (source)
  • 300,000 downloads after 3 weeks w/ average time spent in app being 66 minutes (source)
  • During it’s most popular time period, was receiving 10,000 downloads a day (source)

What makes it social:

  • Basic posting to Facebook Wall or Myspace profile
  • Demoing sure to get friends wanting to try it themselves

Tap Tap Revenge

There’s no denying Tapulous is leading the way when it comes to social iPhone apps.

taptap3

The stats:

  • Downloaded by 1 out of every 3 iPhone/iTouch owner
  • 500,000 paid app downloads, over 6 million users (source)

What makes it social:

  • Challenge and battle friends online or real life 2 player mode
  • Now including messages, integrated chat, and rich profiles

Other notable iPhone apps: Words with Friends, Foursquare, Live Poker, Who Has The Biggest Brain, VW GTI, Moron Test, etc.

Modern Warfare 2

Gaming consoles made huge improvements several years ago with the most recent generation releases but it’s not until now we are starting to see the next phase of social features.

modernwarfare

The stats:

  • 7 million copies sold on day one (source), $550 millions in sales first 5 days (source)
  • 8 million online players within the first five days (source)

What makes it social:

  • Instant online play with logged on friends
  • Link your gamertag to Facebook profile

Other notable gaming console/handheld games: Animal Crossing, Halo, and basically any other game with online multiplayer mode.

———————

Most brands probably wouldn’t be creating their own console games like Burger King, but they need to keep in mind how hard it is to reach hardcore gamers. Some of my old work friends spend most of their spare time playing games like Modern Warfare.

Social gaming sites and Facebook apps are threatening multiplayer sites like Big Fish Games, Pogo, Addicting Games, Candy Stand, and Yahoo! Games and casual games in general. I’ve also been wondering why peer-to-peer iPhone games over Bluetooth have not really taken off (some examples).

For much more in-depth and daily news only on social gaming, definitely check out the Inside Social Games blog.

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Sep

28

Proof that it’s the year of mobile

Filed Under Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Mobile | Comments

Yes, that’s sarcasm in the title. Here’s the latest: over 85,000 iPhone apps available, 10,000 apps for Android devices, 80 for Palm, and who knows how many for BlackBerry (update: someone heard me, it’s 2,500 apps).

As of right now, there isn’t a Brands category in any of these app stores and I don’t foresee that ever happening (wouldn’t really make sense anyway). As more big brands release mobile apps, it’s becoming harder to keep track of who is doing what.

subwayiphones2

So I created a Google spreadsheet to try and organize all these apps in one place. I’ve decided to only focus on the iPhone for now, but should be moving on to the rest soon if there is interest. I’m also probably missing a lot of apps right now but this will, of course, be an ongoing (and hopefully collaborative) effort.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Some trends

  1. Out of the 200+ apps listed so far, only about 15 have an average rating of 4 stars or better
  2. AndroLib shows 64% of all Android apps are rated 4 stars or better. Are branded apps in general worse or just on the iPhone? As soon as I build the Android list, we should have a better idea
  3. In general, it’s pretty obvious the total number of ratings should be a good indicator of the apps overall popularity (not downloads)
  4. The biggest category by far is Lifestyle, News being the second
  5. Brands are consistently improving apps because I rarely noticed an average overall rating that was lower than the latest version’s rating
  6. Not surprisingly, free dominates branded apps (about 90%)
  7. Top 5 most rated apps: Facebook, Zippo, Barclaycard, Weather Channel, and Google

Update: Steve Smith from MediaPost’s Mobile Insider wrote a great article titled Your Brand App Hit Parade that references my spreadsheet. Make sure to check it out if you didn’t come from there.

Please let me know what branded apps are missing by using this form or send me a reply on Twitter @jsmakr with the brand/app name.

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Sep

17

Suggested users by @jsmakr

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Mobile, PR, Social Media, Twitter | Comments

It’s obvious Twitter’s suggested user feature is not so great because it knows nothing about your interests. Below is a list of people I currently enjoy following because they have many years of experience in the digital marketing, advertising, social media, and mobile industries (all Screen shot 2009-09-17 at 9.35.10 PM‘d by me). If you have similar interests, you should be following them too.

Check it out and maybe create a list of your own. If you do, please send me the link or consider tagging it with the hashtag #mysuggested. It doesn’t matter what day you do it.

3804551632_b1a558e35c24

In no particular order:

@dberkowitz – Senior Dir, Emerging Media & Innovation at 360i
@Malbonnington – Managing Partner @BBHLabs
@paulisakson – Head of Strategy at space150
@spikejones – Chief Firestarter at Brains on Fire
@bogusky – Chairman of CP+B
@flytip – VP, Executive Creative Director at R/GA
@workforfood – Associate Creative Director at R/GA
@Shivsingh – VP & Global Social Media Lead at Razorfish
@Steffan1 – Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Euro RSCG Chicago
@bud_caddell – Strategist at Undercurrent
@mikearauz – Strategist at Undercurrent
@colindrummond – Cultural + Business Insights Dept at CP+B
@eyecube – Global Director, Account Management at Taylor PR
@lynneluvah – Director, Social Media at FastCompany.com but will soon be Senior VP Social Media, The Advertising Research Foundation
@IanSohn – SVP, Marketing and 360° Digital Influence at Ogilvy PR
@bastholm – Chief Digital Creative Officer at Ogilvy
@heyitsnoah – Head of Planning and Strategy, The Barbarian Group
@faris – EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson
@scottfrog – Chief Executive of StrawberryFrog
@awolk – Blogger, Creative Strategist, Consultant
@Armano – Senior Partner at Dachis Group
@jowyang – Partner, Altimeter Group
@dmklee – Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Digital Arts
@its_amber – Dir of Digital Strategy, Naked Communications
@rachelpasqua – Dir of Strategy, Emerging Technologies at iCrossing

Just a handful of the agency accounts that I currently follow and find very interesting:

@BBHLabs, @Wexley, @RGA, @BrainsOnFire, @AgencyNil, @razorfishee, @bigspaceship, @firstborn_nyc, @NakedNY, @ogilvydigital, @hillholliday, @booneoakley, @modernista, and of course where I currently freelance @mslworldwide

And don’t forget about:

@AdweekDotCom, @tweetfreakblog, @adage, and @agencyspy

I haven’t been a huge fan of Follow Friday lately because 140 characters simply isn’t enough. Many people send out several tweets in a row with just @usernames – who actually clicks through to each? In a blog post, you have the freedom to include as much info as you want and you can update it as often as you want as things change.

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Sep

8

Mobile observations in Cairo & Istanbul

Filed Under Gadgets, Mobile, Travel | Comments

I recently spent a week in Cairo and a week in Istanbul and I wanted to highlight a few of the things I noticed with current mobile trends in these two major middle eastern cities.

egyptnokia

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Cairo

  • By far, most people carry Nokia but the latest models are rare.
  • Most people are on prepaid accounts: data usage is charged per KB and texts are charged per sent/received instead of having a monthly allowance so people are overall careful with their usage.
  • I used local provider Mobinil while there – 3G coverage was widely available and speeds were great (even around the pyramids).
  • The iPhone is available on two local carriers (with MMS support) but considered very expensive.
  • Somehow even though Egypt is still behind on widely available and affordable broadband internet access, most people are on Facebook and actively using it (mainly through mobile access). Minimal Twitter use as far as I could tell.

Istanbul

  • Same as Cairo: saw mostly Nokia handsets being carried, a majority of which are Nseries devices.
  • I used local provider Vodafone Turkey and got ZERO 3G coverage the entire week (even though customer support told me to make sure I turned on 3G in the settings during activation). This was around the entire city and even some areas outside of city center.
  • The iPhone also available in Turkey on two carriers but along with BlackBerry’s not nearly as commonly used as here in the U.S.
  • Staying in a hostel, it was interesting to see everyone accessing Facebook & Gmail during downtime via laptops and sometimes their phone on the hostel’s WiFi.

Other Tips

If you have a GSM phone, travel frequently, and like to stay connected I highly recommend you unlock your device and use local carries like I did. Besides the iPhone, I believe most carriers will help you unlock a phone before you travel. The fact that prepaid accounts are the norm here and in some foreign cities makes it very easy to walk into any major carrier’s store once you arrive with your passport and within 10 minutes you have a newly activated SIM card. And you will avoid being charged “affordable” international roaming charges. When possible, just use Skype to make much cheaper international calls back home over WiFi (or 3G with some extra work on the iPhone).

I honestly don’t see the iPhone being a dominant device in Egypt and think it will take a while before it’s big in Turkey. This recent Fast Company article highlights Nokia’s efforts on how they plan to remain a leader in these global markets. What I witnessed in Cairo and Istanbul verified what I have always been hearing and reading about when it comes to their global dominance outside of the U.S.

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