Mobile
iPhone Web Apps
Design, Code, Profit
Marcus Schappi

Why web apps?

Why web apps?
• Portable
• More profitable
• Just as sexy as native apps

Portable Code

It’s all about Webkit
http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/

Safari

Mobile Safari

http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/

https://opensource.motorola.com/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.sitewide/wiki/
MotorolaOpenSource

Android
http://code.google.com/android/

Why web apps?
• Transferable
• More profitable
• Can be just sexy

Fast Deployment!

Web developers are
cheaper

Our Avg cost of PHP
Vs Cocoa Dev
$140AUD
$70AUD
$137
p/hr
$72
p/hr
$0AUD
2008

Choice in
Business Models

App Store V’s
Subscription

Success Story

Trisim

250K U SD
2 Months

I’d be happy
for 100k?

100K

App Store
$5*30,000 - (’s cut)= 100K

Subscription
$5p/month*1667 = 100K p/year

Why web apps?
• Transferable
• More profitable
• Can be just sexy

Web apps can
have native app
sexiness too!

iPhone Flick
i.mydailyphoto.com/flick_navigation.php

Multi-touch
http://tlrobinson.net/blog/?p=42
http://www.sitepen.com/blog/2008/07/10/touching-and-gesturing-on-the-iphone/

Persistent Storage
http://qantas.com/mobile

http://phonegap.com/
Accelerometer, Location, Camera, Vibration

Design

Solve a problem

Why ?

1 liner mission

Basecamp: Project Management is communication
Fire Invoice: Fast Invoices = Faster Payment
Writeboard: Word is overkill
Qantas Mobile: Flight info in hand

Design a great app

Follow iPhone
Human Interface
Guidelines
https://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/
Conceptual/MobileHIG/MobileHIG.pdf

Download “iPhone User Interface Design” Video from Apple Developer Connection

Get Design Styles
from preexisting code

http://webapp.net.free.fr/
http://code.google.com/p/iui/
http://clientside.cnet.com/cnet-js-standards/ciui-cnet-iphone-ui/

Push the boundaries
of your Coders

Sometimes this
means a small
investment in Caffeine

Design in Payment
from the beginning

If you want to not go under,
quote 5 man days per view

For your own apps,
subscription model, app
store etc.

Coders

Don’t under estimate
the power of
Webkit / Javascript

Use Webkit
Optimizations where
possible

Without CSS With CSS
Optimizations Optimizations

Use Apple’s
documentation
it’s built into XCode

Sometimes it’s not
your bug

WTF?

Profit

App Store

What kind of Apps
will get rejected?

Farts

Stabs

Politically
Incorrect

Hurts carriers

Competes with Apple

Australian app store
rankings...

16th Place
2146 Downloads

7th Place
1864 Downloads

4th Place
1370 Downloads

5th Place
1163 Downloads

5th Place
1606 Downloads

5th Place
1828 Downloads

Installs
AU (AU Upgrade) US (US Upgrade)
3,000
2,250
1,500
750
0
05/10/2008 06/10/2008 07/10/2008 08/10/2008 09/10/2008 10/10/2008 11/10/2008

Key Findings

Most installs on
Sundays

Only 20%
Update

Don’t get down over
App Store reviews

You will get low stars if you
don’t include
features people want

People will use ratings as a
soap box for other areas of
your business...

Contact / Slides:
www.myiphoneslides.com

Questions?