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4 Non-Tech Companies That Created Great Apps
Jun 17th
Many small business owners worry that their lack of technical expertise will hold back their company app. It is indeed possible, however, to create popular, useful apps even if you’re not a tech company.
Now, the companies below are admittedly huge brands with access to big budgets. Their apps undoubtedly were built with the help of technically savvy partner developers. However, with Bizness Apps, you also have access to a technically savvy partner developer! Therefore, let these apps inspire your imagination when it comes to what is possible for non-tech companies when it comes to apps.
1. ESPN ScoreCenter
ESPN is a digital media giant. They’re big enough, in fact, to drown in their own size when it comes delivering content on the little screen. Their app is perfectly balanced, however, to leverage the huge amount of information they have with the small amount of information users want when using a mobile app. Using the ScoreCenter app, users can select a sport or game, and get a quick update on what’s going on by reviewing scores and headlines.
The takeaway for small businesses: Whatever your business has to offer, focus with pinpoint accuracy on the most quickly-accessible functions when you design your app so that users can get what they’re after with a minimum of hassle.
2. American Express Mobile
What’s the first thing you would expect the Amex app to do? If you guessed, “Tell me my balance,” you were right. But the app is quite powerful and versatile aside from that, providing users with special offers, reward redemptions, informational content, and even receipt management. The Amex app gives users what they want, then expands into a great suite of related features.
The takeaway for small businesses: Focus on a core function, then branch out once you’ve nailed it to deliver extra value in ways that make the most sense for your users.
3. Red Robin
Nope, it’s not for ordering. It does something even better – meal customization! If you’re health-conscious or dealing with dietary restrictions, the RR app will let you customize a meal so you get exactly what you need.
The takeaway for small businesses: Personalization is a user-favorite. If your app has customizable functions, that’s a big plus.
4. Zipcar
It’s a match made in heaven. The number one user request for Zipcar was almost certainly, “Where is the nearest car?” The app delivers exactly that, along with a bunch of other useful and neat functions (you can remotely honk the horn!).
The takeaway for small businesses: Some businesses struggle to find a purpose for their app, but your business may have a perfect reason to create one. Brainstorm, and try to figure out what single function users are craving most. Then give it to them!
Would You Rather Give Up Water, or Mobile Apps?
Mar 1st
If you answered “water,” congratulations – you’re in the majority!
In a recent study by Apigee, an astounding 85% of respondents from a variety of countries said they would rather give up water than mobile apps. Putting aside the fact that some people may have been exaggerating, and putting aside the delicious array of non-water beverages there are to drink, this statistic is still pretty incredible.
Some other food for thought from the study: 82% of respondents said that they couldn’t go a day without using an app. What are examples of these critical apps that people can’t go a day without? Email and social media, as you might have guessed, but also the ultimate practical app: an alarm clock app. Other functions that people now report they cannot perform without an app are navigating to work, finding dates, ordering dinner, and, oddly enough, “impressing people.”
But with all these functions, people still can’t get enough! People continue to dream up new uses for their devices. Among them are:
• “Reality control” over things like lighting, A/C, and door locks (46%)
• Tracking energy use (38%)
• Remote car starting (34%)
• Making purchases tagged to the their mobile device bill (21%)
All of this information indicates that mobile dependence is high and increasing. Interestingly, it also shows that people are happy with this trend and are excitedly anticipating that it will expand. While some dependencies or tech trends might be headed upward, not all are looked on favorably. For industry players, however, seeing not only this increasing dependency on mobile devices, but also an enjoyment thereof, is a great sign of the coming opportunities in the mobile sector.
These opportunities vary widely. Apps, of course, are still hot despite there being hundreds of thousands of them. Almost everything we do now has an app to go with it. In addition, functions that were once performed by other technologies may shift toward apps (for example, Ernst & Young is reporting that SMS messaging is largely being replaced by instant messaging apps).
But the opportunities don’t stop at developing apps. Mobile device accessories are needed, reviews and tutorials to help users make the most of their devices are needed, heck, even mobile developers themselves are an entire secondary market to serve with solutions as thousands chase the dream of producing a top-selling app.
Keep your eyes peeled for mobile opportunities – it appears that the saturation point of this market is still quite far off.
The Growth of Mobile Coupons
Feb 21st
Coupons have been with us for ages, but mobile coupons are a new and steadily growing slice of the market that present exciting opportunities for developers and merchants alike.
Last year, about were 92.5 million digital coupons were redeemed. Most were online coupons redeemed while shopping on a desktop or laptop. 16.3% of mobile users, however, also redeemed a mobile coupon using their device last year. This figures is growing at a few percent each year, and total mobile coupon redemptions are expected to reach 53.2 million by 2014.
Apps for mobile couponing are constantly being released to meet demand for these mobile deals. Some offer rich functionality, allowing users to scan barcodes of products to find deals, display coupons for scanning at registers, and earn rewards simply for entering a store and launching the app. Some of these apps are still a bit buggy, however. Technical issues involving redemption at point of sale are well documented, but improvements are always under development.
In addition, certain register software platforms allow for entry of texted coupon codes, which skirt these problems. In fact, according to certain polls, users generally prefer to receive mobile coupons via SMS or display them for scanning at a register, and are redeeming mobile coupons at 10 times the rate of print coupons (10% versus 1%). Indeed, some shoppers are considering cancelling subscriptions to newspapers they were maintaining solely for the coupons, because digital coupons are meeting all their needs. For advertisers, this factor is strongly in favor of focusing on mobile coupons, as opposed to traditional print circulars.
Delivery methods vary widely. Scanning QR codes, checking in on an app, tapping a point-of-sale terminal, or using digital “loyalty cards” are all ways for consumers to make use of mobile coupons. But some in the industry have noted that many users are reluctant to adopt technological developments, which holds some of these methods back. Naturally, the more friction points there are, the less likely people are to actually redeem a coupon.
Regardless of these difficulties, mobile coupon use continues to grow, and retailers, developers, advertisers, and other industry players should consider including mobile coupons in their strategies going forward. Opportunities abound, and the technology is still in a relatively early phase, allowing nimble players to get in on the ground floor of a developing market.
And that’s just good business.
Bizness Apps 3.0 Officially Launches
Jan 30th
Hello everyone,
I’m excited to announce that Bizness Apps 3.0 has officially gone live for all of our users today!
Bizness Apps 3.0 is a complete revamp & rebuild of our world famous mobile app & mobile website platform. With this release, we put a huge emphasis on beautiful designs, intuitive user experience, and blazing fast loading speeds.
What does Bizness Apps 3.0 include?
- completely revamped platform
- redesigned template menus
- redesigned background images engine
- redesigned food management dashboard
- redesigned reservation management dashboard
- redesigned coupon management dashboard
- redesigned shopping management dashboard
- redesigned every feature dashboard
- redesigned app previewing
- user experience tested & improved
- improved loading speeds
- beautiful menu animations added
- beautiful gradients added to all buttons
- and much much more…
What does this mean for our resellers?
This means your rebranded client area will make you look more professional than ever and help you “wow” your clients as you demonstrate the powerful CMS you provide every single client that signs up with you. This redesign will come to all of our resellers’ rebranded panels within the next week.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Bizness Apps Reseller Program, click here.
Hope you enjoy the redesign as much as we did designing it!
Thanks again for all your support, everyone!
Andrew Gazdecki
CEO at Bizness Apps
Small Businesses Rely On Mobile Apps
Jan 29th
In a 2011 AT&T survey, almost 40% of small businesses (those with 2-50 employees) reported that, “[T]hey could not survive – or it would be a major challenge to survive – without mobile apps.”
Wow!
One can imagine how those numbers have increased with the mobile explosion.
The most widely used type of app? GPS and mapping, which almost half of responding small businesses use to get around.
Employees are also working remotely, and using cloud-based apps, as well as software-as-a-service apps. (It’s worth noting, however, that about a third of respondents are still a big foggy on what the “cloud” is.) Social media use was also growing, and was up 50% from the prior year. About 40% of those surveyed even said that they had “measurable success” using social media.
In general, anything that saves time or money, or increases productivity, will ultimately be adopted by businesses. As this AT&T survey shows, certain helpful apps have become deeply embedded into a significant number of small businesses.
As these experiences become more common, we can expect resistance to mobile apps to decrease and adoption to continue to climb.
Holiday Trends With Mobile
Dec 28th
Hello everyone,
The mobile industry had a huge year in 2012 and that especially showed bright during the holiday season. The infographic below outlines some of the amazing growth that the mobile industry saw during this past holiday season and year as a whole. One of the most exciting trends that we saw this year, pertaining to mobile apps, was the rise in app usage compared to mobile websites.
Feel free to send this infographic to your clients to educate them on the growth of mobile!
You can download the full size version here.
Thanks and have a happy new years!
Andrew Gazdecki
CEO at Bizness Apps
[email protected]
How To Make An App | Recorded Webinar
Nov 30th
Bizness Apps is making mobile apps and mobile websites affordable and simple for small businesses.
Watch the webinar below for information on how to make beautiful mobile apps and sell effectively to small businesses using Bizness Apps and Bizness CRM.
This webinar was originally recorded on 11-28-12. If you have any questions about our service please email us at support (at) biznessapps.com, we’d love to hear from you!
Why Startups Should Make Both Mobile Apps and HTML5 Mobile Websites
Nov 30th
In the grand debate between native and HTML5 apps, a lot of startups are placing a bet on one side of the mobile fence. It’s becoming all too common to see development in favor of either native mobile apps or simply a mobile web app to be used across all smart phone browsers.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a debate we should choosing sides on. Startups should be creating both native apps and functional mobile websites.
The battle between native and mobile isn’t a winner-take-all fight, or even a fight at all. Instead, each one is still growing in popularity and both should be used by startups to serve complementary goals, even if there’s some overlap.
We aren’t alone in dismissing the “debate", consumer product strategy analyst Thomas Husson at Forrester agrees. Indeed, Husson notes that studies are finding that many individual consumers use both native apps and the mobile web, rather than focusing one or the other. On average, users are spending over an hour each day using each one.
Some users do have a clear preference, it’s true, but many don’t fall into one camp or the other. Instead, they make use of whichever technological tool works for them at a particular time and for a particular purpose. Below are some reasons to focus on both, and why startups would be wise not to neglect either one.
Competitive Advantage
Mobile presents huge opportunities in which startups can create competitive advantages by simply being more available on certain platforms. Startups should aim to be ubiquitous and available on every device for this reason alone. Mobile apps have large appeal to power users and deeply integrate with each phone they are developed for. The mobile web is affordable to develop for and can be a great starting point if cost is an issue.
Consider developing for the mobile web first, instead of developing an app on each platform right from the beginning. You will, of course, need to pay attention to the way your site appears on each device’s browser, but this strategy will help you be ubiquitous early on and make porting your mobile experience to native apps easier in the future.
Popularity
With any startup, you should consider the preferences of your users before anything else. Studies have shown that some users prefer apps, while other prefer mobile web experiences. The iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store are monster hits. It’s estimated that mobile app downloads will surpass 85 billion by 2016, but it’s also estimated that there will be nearly 1 billion HTML5-enabled smart phones by 2013.
Therefore, with the mobile web and native apps combined, you can maximize your reach across all mobile devices. Unless the market becomes absolutely dominated by a single device in the future, this factor probably won’t change.
Functionality
Unlike a native app, a mobile website doesn’t have the same access to a device’s features and hardware. Native apps can be deeply embedded, and can tap user info, device tools (e.g. the accelerometer), and more. Native apps simply let you do more than HTML5 web apps.
And man, are they fast! As Facebook historically discovered, a native app can run twice as quickly as an HTML5 site. Mobile web technology is developing, however, and it’s been shown that HTML5 features can drive usage up 28%. But for the time being, native apps still have the edge when it comes to functionality.
Profitability
This depends entirely on your situation and industry. Mobile websites cost less to develop and reach more people, which may initially lead to a higher ROI. There’s more to the story, however. Paid apps lead to download fees, which now reach into the billions in the aggregate, and customers are spending billions via mobile apps such as eBay’s that allow for purchases.
There are some things mobile websites can do to generate revenue, of course. But while mobile websites can create a paywall and sell subscriptions, the net effect is uncertain. In addition, mobile ad revenue can be higher through native apps due to increased engagement. Whether your business will profit more from a mobile site or a native app is a matter for careful and specific analysis.
User Experience
Native apps still provide the smoothest and most enjoyable user experience. HTML5 is improving fast, but still can’t match the speed and custom-tailored feel of native apps. App Stores also provide a quality control mechanism for apps that requires developers to be hyper-conscious of user experience.
On the flipside, site owners don’t need App Store approval to publish content and don’t suffer any of the accompanying delays. With the mobile web, there’s nothing to download, no updates to install, and no versioning differences between users. On the other hand, there’s no store to direct traffic to your site. For some apps, the extra layer of effort is well worth it. It all depends on what your goals are.
Why You Need To Focus On The Mobile Web and Native Apps
Each has its pros and cons, but one thing is clear: you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. As Facebook discovered, this leaves you too exposed to the downsides of a particular technology. To maximize your reach and user engagement, you need both, and they generally serve different purposes.
For most startups, your mobile website will be a place for quick information and very basic interaction, while your app will please fans, deepen relationships, and allow you to get creative and do more with your customers.
This strategy, of course, assumes you have the resources to tackle both effectively.
If you’re strapped for cash or short on time, consider a hybrid approach using resources like Appcelerator and Phonegap. The important thing is to invest in mobile to the greatest extent you can. It’s popularity is still growing rapidly, and as the pros and cons of apps and the mobile web shift, you’ll be ready to take advantage of whichever is leading.
Native apps and the mobile web are both here to stay, so it would be wise to hedge your bets.
How Bizness Apps can help
We do it all. Our platform allows businesses to create simple, elegant, and effective HTML5 sites, but also to craft native apps for customers that are interested in a more engaging mobile experience. Our apps come fully loaded with loyalty programs, mobile shopping, push notifications, food ordering, and more.
With Bizness Apps, businesses can launch complete mobile marketing solutions in minutes, without any programming knowledge, and for less than the price of a newspaper ad.
To learn more, and to start taking advantage of the fastest-growing mobile opportunities available, click here to learn how to make an iPhone app.
Andrew Gazdecki is the founder and CEO of Bizness Apps, a do-it-yourself mobile app & mobile website platform for small businesses and Bizness CRM, a CRM designed to make selling to small businesses easy.
