The Mobile Apps You Should be Creating Now

Run a couple of quick Google searches and you’ll see that the incredibly fast pace of mobile app development now provides us with over 200,000 apps in the iTunes store and over 100,000 Android Apps. That’s a lot of apps to sort through, learn about, and to decide whether or not you want to buy, or invest any of your time in. Is there an app for that??? How are you going to create a mobile app that provides value to your user? How are you going to build a mobile app that can generate positive buzz in the blogosphere?

Here are some thoughts about the two most important things to keep in mind when you’re dreaming up your next app, and hopefully, these ideas will help you on your way to answering the questions above.

The Device:

It seems so obvious, but you need to remember the hardware that your app will be running on and realize the things it can and can’t do. There are a ton of apps out there that try to mimic desktop applications, which I think is the wrong approach most of the time. Do you really want to run Excel on your phone? You should be looking at ways to take advantage of all the things a mobile device can do differently than your traditional computer and incorporate those into your app.

How can you use the camera/s or video camera? The new Chase iPhone banking app that lets you take a picture of a check that you want to deposit, transmits that photo to Chase, and then the check is deposited into your account is awesome. That’s the type of innovation and usefulness that separates mobile apps. More importantly, that’s the type of mobile app that seriously has me thinking that I’ll leave Citibank for Chase... On a side note, this is why your business needs to pay attention to mobile product offerings, because the rest of the banks out there better get to work on similar functionality fast! What could be done with the GPS or the compass? How about the accelerometers? Does the device have a radio tuner?

One of my favorite mobile apps is iHandy Level which uses the accelerometers, once calibrated, to act as a level. It might not be the best level, but I know where to find it whenever I’m hanging a picture!

The Audience:

This can be thought of in two ways. First, you should have a target audience, be it a certain demographic, or users of specific types of products/services, etc. That’s just a sound idea in any product development cycle. However, the other way to view your audience is as fleeting, in that they’re generally not going to be using your app for long periods of time on a mobile device. You need to stay focused on providing information, usefulness, or entertainment in quick chunks. Mobile apps are the Sportscenter soundbytes of applications, booyah! Keep it quick, keep it simple, and keep it fun and/or useful. Remember to plan out app entry and exits, as they could be abrupt when the user gets a phone call, for instance. If they were in the middle of something with your app, ideally it brings them back to the same place when they’re done with the call, or if it’s a sensitive/secure app, financial for example, it needs to log the user out if it can recognize the call has ended and the user hasn’t resumed their spot in your app.

Mobile apps are an exciting opportunity to reach people in different and more creative ways. Avoid thinking about them as any other software development project and you might have the next hit featured in an iPhone television ad!