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Are you a fledgling application developer, dreaming of making money from that ‘killer app’? You’d do well to take a tip or two from professionals whose apps are already up on mobile and web platforms.
“Don’t go there with a casual approach. Don’t be a me-too application. You need to study the apps that are already out there and find a market need and a market gap. You need to evaluate competing apps by having a look at the downloads and feedback they have received,” Jayont Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Milestone Interactive, told young App developers at the IAMAI App Festival organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India on Thursday at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre. Engineering students and graduates gathered in big numbers at the meet.
Apps have become an opportunity for individuals, start-ups and big firms working on IT products to reach out to a vast number of Internet users across the globe by publishing their apps on App Stores of Android, iOS (Apple’s operating system), BlackBerry and several other platforms.
Each boasts of millions of apps available for downloads, some for free and others at a cost.
Pre-launch publicity
Jayont advised the developers to position their apps in such a way that they generate interest in the community well before the launch. “You should create a kind of pre- and post-launch hype,” he said.
He offered to help out the developers in ideating and translating their ideas into apps on a window created at their company. “We will help you try out a variety of monetisation options and cross-selling opportunities,” he said.
Badri S, CEO of Mobango at Mauj Mobile, cautioned the developers against the pitfalls of ignoring opportunities to sell apps. “You should tap each and every platform; don’t be choosy, opting for just one or a few platforms. The revenues from downloads from mobile service operators in India cross the Rs $200- million mark this year. This shows how important this medium is,” he said.
Quoting a survey, he said the world witnessed downloads of 85 billion apps in 2012 on a range of Internet media that include PC users and mobile phone users.
“But only 50 per cent of these downloads happened on popular platforms such as Android, iStore (Apple store) and BlackBerry. The remaining downloads happened on a multitude of Web sites that offer apps. You should be able to reach out to each and every visible point in order to get attention,” he said.
He also wanted the developers to constantly measure the intensity of engagement in order to fine-tune the app.
> kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
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