Apps aim to solve every mobility problem

Apps aim to solve every mobility problem
By Alan Cane

Published: February 15 2010 07:40 | Last updated: February 15 2010 07:40

When Apple Computer launched the iPhone 3G in 2008, it introduced a new option on its iTunes menu: the App Store.

This is a collection of software programs or applications (pieces of software that help users perform specific tasks) that can be downloaded to, and run on, a “smart” mobile phone or other mobile device.

Just over 18 months later, the expression “mobile apps” – hitherto used only by IT specialists – has become synonymous with a phenomenon comparable only to the craze for distinctive ringtones a few years ago.

The range of functions available from the App Store is bewildering: cooks can carry a library of recipes in their pockets; birdwatchers, the identifying features of every feathered creature they are likely to encounter. Many apps are meant to do no more than raise a quick laugh – an image of a glass of lager, for example, which empties as the phone is tilted.

Increasingly, however, apps are becoming serious and useful. Sccope, for example, has developed an app that allows shoppers to compare prices from a number of leading stores using a phone’s camera to scan product barcodes.

There are now 100,000 iPhone apps in the App Store, mostly free or costing only a few dollars, leaving other hardware and software manufacturers to play catch-up.

Google, which developed the Android smartphone operating system, has introduced Android Market; BlackBerry has the BlackBerry App World; and for Windows Mobile, the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

BlackBerry’s App World, for example, offers business-focused apps that can be downloaded to its devices to perform such tasks as managing expenses claims, keeping a mobile call log and tracking vehicle mileage. The Android market includes such productivity-enhancing tools as the TooDo task reminder list and an app that gives added information about the identity of those calling your phone.

“Apple has done a really fantastic job for the mobile internet with the iPhone and the App Store because it has made people aware that they have the internet on their phones,” says Mat Diss, co-founder of Bemoko, a developer of mobile websites.

He goes on, however, to point out that the App Store is a “walled garden” – only Apple-approved apps are on offer and they are written only for the iPhone – and the iPhone has only 5 per cent of the market.

According to the consultancy Capgemini, the introduction of app stores has brought significant changes in the way mobile content is produced and accessed.

One change is that the entry cost of developing a mobile app has reduced, in theory at least, to little more than the cost of the developer’s time.

Several companies have produced online tools to simplify the task. Late last year, Golden Gekko, a mobile website development group, launched Tino, a web-based service which, it claims, will allow anybody to build a mobile application and bring it to market more quickly and cheaply than before. The cost could be as little as £100 ($157) compared with £5,000 to £10,000 that an app might still typically cost today.

“It requires no developer skills,” says Magnus Jern, Golden Gekko chief executive. But he adds drily: “To make it look good, you would need to be a fairly skilled designer.”

Mr Jern explains that organisations are becoming aware of the importance of mobile apps but lack the money or skills to create them and typically under-estimate the cost of a professionally produced app: a museum with a budget of €2,000 might ask him to develop a “mobile guide” app – something that could still cost up to 10 times as much.

According to one survey, only one in three smartphone owners keep an app on their phone for more than a day. (If they have paid for it, of course, the developer’s task has been accomplished.)

What has driven mobile apps to become the new big thing? A large factor has been Apple’s mission to persuade individuals that downloading software to a phone is simple.

Mr Jern argues that most people who own a mobile phone have played games on it – but only if the game was pre-loaded. With the iPhone and the App Store, apps became easy to find and easy to access: “If you deliver something truly useful, people will want it,” Mr Jern says.

Dan Rossner of PA Consulting argues that the arithmetic underpinning the growth of the mobile phone market is compelling: “High-speed connectivity and improved user experience has accelerated mobile internet take-up and the ubiquity of the mobile device will make it the dominant connected platform,” he says.

“Globally, the number of mobile devices exceeds desktop devices by a factor of 10. Businesses should therefore be looking at how to achieve competitive advantage through this channel in the same way if not more so than they did with the advent of online services on the PC.”

The trend towards the useful rather than trivial seems set to continue. Gartner Group, the US-based consultancy recently predicted the top 10 consumer mobile applications for 2012, leading off with money transfer followed by location-based services, mobile search and web browsing.

Of course, as Christopher David of the handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson points out, mobile apps have been around for a long time. Today, they fall into two broad categories – the stand-alone application, which lives within the phone, does one thing only and has no access to, or need of, further resources, and the networked app, where the “front end”, or “controls”, reside on the device which accesses information via the internet.

Many of the apps currently creating interest fall into the first category.

But it seems the growth of mobile apps has sparked controversy within the industry over the future of software on the go.

When asked whether the excitement was justified, Rich Holdsworth, chief technology officer of Wapple.net, a mobile web design and development company, replied: “Absolutely not.”

He argues that the future lies with mobile browser-based services: “It’s a massive step backwards. There are some quirky cool things you can do with apps but the pool is a pretty shallow one.”

The argument is essentially that developing a distinctive stand-alone app is hard and expensive and has to be repeated for each kind of mobile phone; an app written specifically for the iPhone will not run on a BlackBerry, for example.

On the other hand, browser-based services can be developed for a broad range of handsets that can all access them via the mobile internet: “The future is moving away from installed applications and towards browser-based services,” Mr Holdsworth says. “These are available anywhere, any time on any operating system and are continually refreshed and updated.”

Rob Bamforth, a consultant with the consultancy Quocirca, is also sceptical: “Apps come from mobile developers and the big question is ‘why?’. What motivates them? Many have been on the iPhone bandwagon of developing lots of IT aimed mainly at entertaining consumers, but this is low investment, back-bedroom and extremely hit or miss development.

Other industry experts are more enthusiastic. Stuart Orr of the consultancy Accenture says the sheer level of innovation and number of apps available is impressive.

“For every business, there is at least one app available that can help to solve your problem. Furthermore, these apps are available at compelling prices,” he says. “The iPhone has been the key here, as it opened the floodgates by showcasing the potential of mobile services as well as allowing small developers a low-cost route to market for some excellent business applications.”

On balance, it looks as if apps and mobile internet sites will co-exist for the foreseeable future. As Mr Holdsworth puts it: “The app brigade will tell you that mobile internet sites don’t compare with apps. From a certain point of view they are right.”

He continues: “The decision to choose either a mobile internet strategy or one based on apps will depend largely on what you want to achieve. For images of spirit levels and tilting pints of beer, it’s apps all the way.

“For anything that offers dynamic data, interactive services and user participation, then you really should give the mobile internet a go. It’s cheaper, more flexible, is more tightly integrated into your e-strategy and it will work on pretty much any connected handset.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.

"FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. Privacy policy | Terms
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2010.

Read:
Apps in action: Did IT Work?