What is an App?

In its simplest definition, an “App” is a software application designed for a specific task.  The marketing department at Apple did a superb job making software sound so cool and hip, and people with Windows computers so out of touch, by using the word “App”, that now it is a mainstream word, like Google, Kleenex, and Band-Aids.   

Businesses have developed “apps” for as long as there were computers.  Examples include enterprise software, accounting software,  software, graphics software and media players to name just a few.  Peoplesoft and Outlook are “apps” that are now used by thousands of companies worldwide to do tasks.  When computers were first introduced to business, an IT department and team of programmers would work to develop software used exclusively by their company for productivity and a competitive advantage.  The Apollo Reservation system was an early entry for United airlines and the VAX software was an early tool used by Digital Corporation.  As the desktop PC emerged as a common business platform, and operating systems software became more common across companies, software development moved to independent 3^rd party providers creating application software suites for common tasks such a word processing, accounting, and e-mail.  Thus was born Microsoft Office,  WordPerfect, WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, Powerpoint, etc.  The operating system software and the application software had become more removed from each other.

Mobile application software, also known as an application or "app", is computer software that is still designed to help the user to perform specific tasks.  I like to describe today’s mobile apps as bringing your company website to the end user and allowing them to perform the five most common tasks using the computer in their pocket, the smart phone.  Many application programs deal principally with documents.  Apps may be bundled with the computer and its system software, or may be published separately.  Application software does not interact with the computer operating system or hardware components.

As the computer has gotten smaller and mobile computer/phones have extended the range or replaced the desktop PC, mobile apps have filled the space of application software.   Mobile apps, are software applications, usually designed to run on smart phones and tablet computers. Mobile apps were originally intended for productivity such as e-mail, calendar and contact databases.  Thus was born the Palm Pilot, the HP Journada, and the other digital organizers.  Eventually the digital organizer and the telephone apps were merged into one device, which we now call the smart phone.  As the smart phone moved from the business environment (Blackberry) to the consumer market (Apple iPhone), public demand and the opportunity for software developers to make money caused rapid expansion into other areas such as mobile games, factory automation, GPS and location-based services, banking, order-tracking, and ticket purchases.

Mobile Apps are available through application distribution platforms, which are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the Apple App Store with iOS software, Google Play with Android software, Windows Phone Marketplace and BlackBerry App World. 

I don't have time to support a mobile app too!

I am sure that all of us have said that at one time or another. The latest new technology comes out before you have even figured out the last technology and there certainly isn't enough budget to hire more people to take care of your new mobile app channel.  So what can you do?

There are two paths for mobile app development strategy.  Native app development and web enabled. A native app is developed in iOS and is installed and run locally, independent from other applications.  A web enabled application is web broswer based, and normally repackages web pages in a browser view.  The advantage of this is regular updates to the home web page will be reflected automatically in your mobile app as changes are made. The number of people using a website as their primary method of interacting with your organization decreases 60% or more once you have an app. Integrating location services and camera technology only accelerates the migration to a mobile app. Posting pictures on Facebook exploded with a mobile app. Bar code scanners, maps, and photo apps are all examples of this trend.

Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App Strategy

As we can see, the more people that own smart phones, the more customer use will continue to grow.  According to CIO Magazine, "smart phone use is expected to double in the next five years" as more and more people own and carry smart phones with them. 

Take a moment and think of the implications that your customer will have a computer in their pocket that your business can communicate with any time you want to.  In the past, if you wanted to communicate with your customers (advertise) you would select a highly rated TV show, magazine with your reader demographic, or even advertise on a billboard downtown or along side a highway to reach the highest number of potential customers.  The problem with this method was that a significant portion of those people who viewed your communication/advertisement were not interested in your product.  With a mobile app, you will be able to communicate with all of your current customers, placing your message directly in their pocket, and making your communications with your customers more effective and personalized.  Sending targeted messages to new customers, to women customers, or customers in a geographic area is now possible through your company's mobile app.

While it seems in some areas that everyone has a Smart phone already, if not two in cities like New york and San Francisco.  Looking worldwide, there are more than seven times the number of "dumb phone" users than there are "smart phone" users.  However, there is a strong shift coming as feature phone users replace older phones and upgrade their handset to smart phones.  It is estimated that the percentage of smart phone users increased by 12% in the past nine months while the percentage of feature phone users decreased by 8% in the same time period.  The smart phone, or pocket computer, is now in the hands of a majority of cell phone owners.

The Future of Mobile Computing

What kind of phone do you have in your pocket?  Blackberry?  iPhone?  The Android?  In this day and age, when everyone over the age of ten years old seems to have a cell phone in their pocket, you ask your friends and acquaintances.  The accepted term that is all encompassing is "Smart Phone", but really what each of us carries in our pockets every day is a computer in our pocket.

The cell phone industry long ago merged with the computer industry and the television and entertainment industry is not far behind.  Software applications are being developed at an ever increasing pace to run on all of our cell phones that do everything from weather forecasts to grocery lists to navigation to games.  The challenge now is to deliver functional applications that improve our access to information, our ability to accomplish tasks more efficiently or better, and ultimately, to make our lives better. "Better" is a relative term that has a wide range to most adults depending on whether their teenager's cell phone is constantly chiming with irreverent text messages during dinner or if they are trying to meet at a spot to pick them up after the high school football game.  It is not the app that is bad, it is how the app is used that can make it annoying or a "can't live without it" sort of thing. 

Most parents today have provided their children with a cell phone so they can call them and keep in contact with them.  According to the MacArthur Foundation Exploring Digital Media and Learning report in March 2011, "Mobile device ownership among children ages 4-14 has experienced double-digit growth since 2005 and almost all children in the U.S. have access to a mobile device, with 93 percent of 6-9 year olds living in a home with a cell phone."  In the past, parents would never have provided a laptop to their children, but now, with the advent of the cell phone, a child is provided a computer with a small screen, a keyboard sized to type with two thumbs, and a phone, too.  If you were to re-phrase the findings from the report, 93% of children today are likely to have a computer in their pocket at any time.