Archive for the ‘iPhone’ tag
Creating the Best iPhone Apps
At the Texas Wireless Summit, John Donovan, CTO of AT&T, gave a keynote at the end of the conference. It was a sit down interview given by Richard Schwartz of Openwave. Most of the conversation was about how AT&T takes a strategy of weaving together technologies to deliver an unified “experience.” John talked about both the mobile domain and the home area network environment. At the end of it all, I got the chance to ask a question. I asked him, “What verticals need better mobile applications?” He actually answered the question I wanted to ask which was, “What apps will net the most profit?” I know that I am not the only person interested in what it takes to create the best iPhone apps. So, I thought I would reproduce some of what I wrote in my notes here.
Focus on:
- Individuals of HIGH value. Folks who’s time is worth too much for them to open a laptop or call someone for info. These users need applications that can save them time. They also have the money to spend. A good example would be an application that enabled high value sales team members to better utilize SalesForce.
- Companies that manage and maintain a huge number of laptops. There are scenarios where those laptops could be replaced with or supplemented by mobile devices. It reduces costs and headache for those IT departments. It also makes the employees more mobile. This point can be generalized to replacing any extra piece of hardware such as an analog monitor or bar code scanner.
- Anything that is necessarily mobile, mapping for example. Loopt is a good example and has had success on the iPhone.
- Low security risk applications. This seemed to be more of a suggestion to avoid heartache. There are certainly big opportunities in the banking and finance industries. However, that is more sensitive data and will result in slower adoption and more ridicule.
I thought for a while about what app I would like to build that would meet many of those criterion. Then I went looking for it. Here it is: TripIt. I knew someone would have created it by now. It is a travel organizer. If they can successfully help executives and executive secretaries, they will be a money app. I called Loopt early on; I look forward to seeing how TripIt does.
