Mobile apps from idea to product

Mobile Apps: From
Idea to Products
Berna Erol and Ibrahim Okuyucu
Dec 2011

Outline:
O tli
• How to evaluate mobile ideas
• Low tech prototyping
• Development, outsourcing, costs
• Deployment and promotion
• Pricing, monetization
• iPhone vs Android
• Future of Mobile Tech
1

Presenters’ Background
Berna Erol Ibrahim Okuyucu
Deployed 5 iPhone , 1 Android Apps Developed 3 Iphone Apps
Most apps ranked #1 in their Deployed 3 Iphone/2 Android Apps
respective categories, 1 won award 100K users in 8 weeks
1 app exceeded 150,000 users, 2 Cofounder of a funded mobile
apps 100,000+ users, 1 app 50,000+ startup
p
users
Founder: iKidApps.com (200,000+
monthly page views)
Research Manager: Ricoh Advanced
Personal Technologies group

Berna Erol and Ibrahim Okuyucu 2

Make No Mistake: We are in the middle of a new SV
revolution
e o ut o
More than just phones
MainFrames, Mini, PC, Internet,
MainFrames Mini PC Internet Mobile
Mobile, personal, social, and location based, NUI
Smartphones will be the only computing devices for
billions of people
By 2015 Mobile Internet > Desktop Internet

Morgan Stanley Internet Trends
http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/Internet_Trends_041210.pdf


Have an app idea?
Awesome!

What’s next?


Big picture

Idea

Market
Tracking
Testing

Deploy & Low Tech
Promote Prototyping

Develop MVP
p


IDEA: Evaluate your ideas and pick ONE
Create an environment for cultivating ideas
Categorize/evaluate them
Is your idea a pain killer or a vitamin? If you have to chose
between two go for the pain killer.
Are you passionate about your idea? Do you have some
unique skills and interests in that area?
Know h
K how to f
focus: O id at a time!
One idea i !

Suggested read:
Myths of Innovation - Scott Berkun

Market testing of your ideas
• Test your assumptions
T i
• Narrow the target audience
• Decide on the general feature list

Amazon Mechanical Turk
Example: Evaluating a bookmarking idea

Google Ads, Facebook Ads Testing
Product testing via adwords, suggested Read: 4 Hour Workweek
(Tim Ferriss)
A/B testing

Ask your “brain trust”

Come up with one tagline that describes your app. Be enticing, be exciting
For my apps: “Mobile scanner in your pocket!” “An interactive kids book like no other!”


Low tech prototyping Proof of concept
• Prioritize product features
• Decide on the MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Develop wireframes (user experience)

Paper prototyping

Image : http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/28/notepod-paper-iphone-notepads/
Good tool: Balsamiq http://www.balsamiq.com/

Low tech prototyping Proof of concept (cont’)
Initial prototype for testing game Actual product in 3 months
mechanics: Initial kids game in http://www.brightknightkingdom.com/

PowerPoint + had my son play it by
going from slide to slide


Clickable PDF test it on mobile device
PDF,

iPhone and iPad Development GUI Kits, Stencils and Icons
p ,
http://speckyboy.com/2010/04/30/iphone-and-ipad-development-gui-kits-stencils-and-icons/

iPhone Mockup, Wireframe and Prototyping tools for iPhone Developers
http://www.mobigeni.com/2010/02/10/iphone-mockup-wireframe-and-prototyping-tools-for-iphone-developers/

User Experience (UX) is a learnable skill
skill.
Recommended books:
The design f
Th d ig of everyday thi g ( classic b D N
d things (a l i by Don Norman)
)
Don’t make me think (Steve Krug)
Designing i
i i interfaces ( if Tidwell)
f (Jenifer id ll)


Develop

• Idea
• Promising market research results SPEC
• Target audience
• Prioritized feature list, MVP
• Wireframes

Content development: Software development&
• Writing Testing
• Translation
• Graphics
• Audio


Development: Do it yourself or outsource?
Do you have the time skill to develop
time,
the app yourself?
Do you have the money and
management skills to outsource?
Software development costs start from
few hundred d ll
f h d d dollars f relatively simple
for l ti l i l
applications and go to $50K+ for more
sophisticated ones involving server
communication etc
etc.


Do it yourself – Programming resources
Where to start?
Best source is IOS Tutorials/Sample Projects from Apple
Stackoverflow.com
Meetups, Workshops
Frameworks:
Sencha (if you know Javascript) for html app
http://www.sencha.com/
PhoneGap htt // h
Ph G http://phonegap.com/
/
Titanium: http://www.appcelerator.com/
Unity game development tool: http://unity3d.com/unity/
Simple development for content apps:
Be aware that Apple App store may
not accept some simple apps or web
http://www.appmakr.com/
p // pp / based apps if it does not provide
enough value or it does not use native
http://www.appscend.com/ features of the iOS device

http://www.redfoundry.com/

Native vs HTML5
Native
Native API (Camera, Phonebook, Accelerometer)
More responsive UI
App store

HTML5
Rapid deployment, no approval process
p p y , pp p
Single code base for potentially multiple platforms
It is the future but for now (Dec 2011) is not the way to go

One strategy: Make a mostly native iPhone app, nail down the user
experience >repeat this in HTML5 for other platforms including Android


Do it yourself – Content resources
Get photos graphics background textures from:
photos, graphics,
iStockPhoto.com
Fotolia.com
Public domain
Photoshop, PowerPoint
etc

Music, sound effects, speech from:
iStockPhoto.com
Garage band
G g b d (MAC)
Text to speech
Record yourself
etc

How to outsource development?
5 ways to fi d d
find developers
l
Identify apps that are similar in mechanics but maybe different in content
and target audience. Contact the developer, j
g p , just describe y
your idea (
(no
need to share the full spec at the beginning). Get a rough quote and assure
them that they can revise once they see the spec.
Go to Elance.com, Freelancer.com, vWorker.com (formerly
RentACoder.com). Very good developers from Russia, Ukraine, India. Ping
only the ones with great feedback. Do the same for getting a quote.
Ask friends about overseas or local developers that they worked with in
the past.
Recruit local: Advertise with linked in, Craig’s list
Collaborate with a developer – you’ll bring the idea, design, and marketing
>they will code


How to outsource development? (cont’)
Try them out with a small project
If possible, try several developers with some very small projects – for
example $200 projects. Let them know this is just a small project and a
large one will becoming their way.
Evaluate: Are they responsive, accurate, easy to work with?
Give the
Gi th spec and ask f a bid
d k for
Developers range from $30 to $150/hour. However projects always
take longer than planned, so it would be best to get a bid for the entire
project rather than hourly work. At this point it is crucial to h e your
oje t the th ho l o k thi oi t i i l have o
spec in top shape.


How to outsource content development?
Local:
Ask friends, Craigslist, Linked in
Collaborate
Offer revenue share
Find contractor: Elance.com, 99designs.com
Follow the same guidelines as developer. Start with a small trial project.
As little as $10/hour.
Find examples from web and send to designer to describe what you are
looking for.


How to outsource content development? (cont’)
Designers cannot read your mind Give them many many
mind.
examples of what you are looking for:
example Final drawing

If possible g
p give
pictures, not
graphics as
examples so
that you do not
run into
copyright issues

Deployment and Promotion
Test with users iterate
users,
Solid QA, multiple OS versions, multiple devices (particularly for
Android)
Name your app wisely
Use keywords when naming y
y g your app where makes sense. Do not be
pp
extremely clever with the name or make up words.

Keywords are important, utilize Google keyword tool
Select screen shot images carefully. Perfect opportunity for A/B
testing
Stand out from the crowd with
your app icon
Humans are genetically p g
g y programmed to p y
pay
attention to faces, certain colors

Pick your category strategically

Deployment and Promotion (cont’)
Price your app wisely You can A/B test this also after going live
wisely. live.
Localize your app description, keywords
You can find translators online (elance com etc) for as little as $5 $10
(elance.com,
per app description
Make a YouTube video, short and sweet. Do include in your
blogger distribution
Create Facebook fan page, ask friends to like it


Deployment and Promotion (cont’)
Spread the word (remember the tag line?) and send emails to
line?),
bloggers
In some categories It takes only 50 downloads/day to get into top 100.
g g
Concentrate your promotion efforts in 1 2 weeks, do not spread it.
Make lots of forum postings, blog commenting. No time? Find
someone to do this for $1 $2 per post
post.
Ask your friends to rate your app


Analytics – Measure your success and learn from
data
Flurry.com, Localitics.com:
Gives usage error etc statistics as well as customizable event
usage, error,
paths


Analytics – Measure your success and learn from
data (con’t)
(con t)
Follow your progress:
GlobalApps iPhone app gives you the rankings of your app in
different app stores.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/globalapps app ranking world/id321975982?mt=8

www.appannie.com also provides the ranking info online


Monetizing your app
How much can you expect t earn f
H h t to from a $
$0.99 app?
?
Anywhere from $50/month to $100,000/month. Most likely that you will not
g
get reach unless you have a hit app but a good supplemental income.
g

Freemium methods
and in app purchases
do work.
Graph shows how ‘releasing a
releasing
lite app’ can pull up your sales.
Source: Flurry.com

Ads: One option claims of up to $5 per click but most developers
option, click,
are not happy with the performance for the time being
•but we bet this will change as the mobile ad market matures

iPhone vs Android
iPhone / iOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_App_Store
Better demographics, better monetization
Less fragmentation, better UX
Limited API

Android
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Market
Android install base is growing faster than the iOS
No approval policy faster iteration cycles
policy,
Less competition
API has more functionality
Less money, Andoid users do not pay


Monetizing your app: Fremium in iPhone vs Android

Source Mary Meeker presentation, 2011

Future
Think: Mobile social location
Mobile, social,
New Platforms: Kindle Fire, Nook, Wimm
3D capture, di l
t display
Mobile payments, NFC
Gamification, yes, even the enterprise software
f h f
Verticals: Wearable Health, Education
Hardware + app combinations


Thanks!
Berna Erol berna_erol@yahoo.com
Ibrahim Okuyucu okuyucu@gmail.com


Questions?
What mistakes did you make that you would avoid in the future?
Focusing too much on artwork production
• If you are designing the game, game mechanics is the most important. Focus on that
aspect first before anything else. (
p y g (exmp: Doodle jump)
p j p)
Not having the full spec before asking for pricing
• You pay dearly afterwards
Picking more than one platform
• Pick only one platform for quick iteration. Don’t waste time supporting all features for
other platforms until you have product market fit

Is it possible to have your app featured in Google app market or Apple app store via internal
connections?
Yes! We have done this, but also I had 2 apps features without any connections
whatsoever. You do a great app and Apple people will notice.


Mobile apps from idea to product

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (17)

Similar to Mobile apps from idea to product

Similar to Mobile apps from idea to product (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Mobile apps from idea to product