Sourcebits Blog

Sourcebits’ Secret Sauce

Our own Brian Meehan returns from last week’s ThinkMobile 2010 in New York City to share his talk about Sourcebits’ recipe for App Store success.  With examples from our best-selling app for iPhone and Android, Knocking Live Video, Brian outlines 10 key ingredients of what he calls ‘WOW’ apps.

1.  A Killer Feature – i.e. the first cross-platform live phone to phone video feeds.

2.  Utilizes Core Functions – Make the most of what you’ve got. iPhone developers enjoy a unique feature set including Core Location, Accelerometer, and the most accurate multi-touch display on the market. Harness their power and reap the reward.

3.  No Proximity Limitations – At the heart of iPhone and iPod touch beats the most advanced wireless Internet device in the world. What separates a WOW fart app from a ‘Push button to fart’ app? Virtually pulling someone’s finger 6 time zones and 5000 km away. In Knocking Live Video we exploited the same basic premise: anywhere, anytime live video with friends and family.

4.  Intuitive Design – Users should never be more than 3 steps from any given action. A dedicated, talented user interface design team is essential.

5.  Social Viral Power – Will people want to show their friends? A WOW app generates social chatter, both on and offline.

6.  Social Tools to Catapult Your App – You may have a great app, but if it doesn’t offer instant access to Facebook or Twitter you’re handicapping it from out the gate.

7.  Sustainable Engagement – Whether sharing live video of baby with grandma and grandpa or enabling long distance shopping, a WOW app becomes a fixture in users’ lives.

8.  Works Cross-Platform – Don’t hobble your app by pegging it to one platform. Develop for multiple devices.

9.  Choose Wisely – Not only do we need to choose which platforms, handsets and carriers to optimize for, but which category to dominate in the App Store, Android Marketplace or BlackBerry App World. Muscling in on a popular category like ‘Games’ for example, will take more marketing oomph than lower lying fruit like ‘Lifestyle’ or ‘Education’.

10.  An Episodic Launch Plan – WOW apps don’t launch themselves. Coordinating blog and Tweet teams, PR releases with the relevant media outlets, on and offline event appearances, carrier promotion, etc all take careful planning. Launching without a plan is no plan for success.