Читать книгу The Small Business Guide to Apps - David Howell - Страница 4

Introduction

In July 2011 Apple announced that over 15 billion apps had been downloaded from their App Store. “In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Equally of note is that it was more than 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users who downloaded these apps. This massive installed user base for apps (even larger when you take into account Android, Windows Phone and other handsets) is clearly a market that all business owners should be looking closely at.

Since the iPhone was launched in 2007, the smartphone market has exploded. More consumers now access the internet with their phones or other internet-connected devices than with traditional computers. Customer bases have gone mobile. M-commerce looks set to outstrip e-commerce as the main retail channel for internet-connected consumers over the next few years. Indeed, eMarketer forecast that the worldwide market for mobile marketing could reach $19 billion by 2012. Forrester report that they expect US mobile commerce to reach $31 billion by 2016.

Research carried out by eBay UK shows that mobile business is rapidly gaining pace particularly in Great Britain, with Britons outpacing other Europeans in their enthusiasm for mobile purchasing. According to Verdict Research, British consumers will spend over £275 million in this way over the next three years.

It’s no wonder: the latest research from Ofcom reveals the love affair that Britain has with the smartphone. Over a quarter of adults now own a smartphone, with this figure rising to almost half when teenagers are included. With almost 60% acquiring their smartphone over the last year (2010–11), the market is certainly burgeoning. There are already countless handsets out there ready and waiting for your business’s apps, with this figure rising every month.

There’s a very real danger of getting left out. As Malcolm Pinkerton, senior analyst at Verdict Research, says:

“M-commerce revenues are growing at a rapid rate. Shoppers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, already using their mobiles to research products and compare prices when out shopping. There are only a handful of retailers that have properly caught on and are catering for m-commerce shoppers. As consumer affiliation with m-commerce increases, retailers will need to decide if they’re going to be pioneers in the market and meet consumer expectations, or wait and risk being behind the curve as many were with e-commerce.”

The advantages to adapting to this new and growing marketplace as early as possible are significant. eBay is a standout example, providing multiple apps for its range of users (eBay, PayPal, eBay Fashion), and acquiring and implementing new technology that simplifies tasks for users and extends app functionality – as, for example, with RedLaser and its scanning tech, which now lets eBay buyers scan barcodes to compare prices, and sellers to quickly populate their online lists. 25% of all iPads sold in the first month of sale had installed the eBay app.

As Pinkerton adds:

“If correctly implemented, m-commerce will not only ensure the needs of tomorrow’s shoppers are met today, but also that growth is maximised across all channels … The approach taken by eBay should be a lesson to other retailers as to the potential of m-commerce.”

If you thought that the app market was just about games and big brands, think again. Businesses of every size in every sector that have built their own apps are reaping real commercial rewards.

An excellent recent example explored later in this book is Addison Lee, London’s largest minicab company. In one month after releasing their own app – which allows customers to book minicabs from their iPhones – the company took 75,000 app-based bookings. This equated to in excess of £1.4 million. The company should gross over £20 million through its iPhone app in 2011.

Addison Lee subsequently released Android and BlackBerry versions that contained all the functionality of the iPhone version. A Nokia Ovi Store app was planned for launch in the third quarter of 2011. For small businesses, as we’ll see, developing your apps for all of Apple’s devices as well as the other operating systems that are available should be a detailed part of your company’s development roadmap.

Because of the relatively low cost of entering the app market, smaller enterprises can level the playing field, often outstripping their larger competitors simply because they have developed and marketed an app that delivers a service that their consumers are looking for.

What this book covers

This book isn’t about how apps can help you run your business more efficiently, or an in-depth tutorial about how to create an app for your enterprise. There are plenty of other books on these subjects. This book is a brief and unfussy guide about the business of apps for those whose time is money.

You will see how apps fit into the commercial ecosystem of business today. Often ridiculed as nothing more than cheap timewasters, or the exclusive province of videogames, apps can actually offer a completely new revenue stream for your business. They can also offer the chance to enhance your enterprise’s brand.

Connecting with customers over their mobile phones and tablets allows a more intimate and ultimately more lucrative link between businesses and consumers to be established.

In this book you will learn how the app can be used in your business to not only make sales of goods and services, but how a successful free app can be used as a powerful marketing tool. Branding now has a digital component that must not be overlooked. Using an app as part of your business’s brand is critical.

We may rapidly be approaching the time when consumers expect all businesses to have an app in the same way that they expect every business they buy from to have a website. At the very least, if there is something your business can offer through apps, and you do not do it, someone else soon will.

This book is committed to helping you and your business take advantage of apps and remain ahead of the curve.

Dave Howell, Telford, Shropshire, January 2012