Expert Tips on How to Make an App Worth Million Dollars

You need a good idea, good execution, and some luck to make it big with your App. We talk to experts across platforms and bring you their tips.

apps

5 things to remember while making an app

1. Plan your App

a. Research markets

b. Identify your target audiences

2. Develop and build your App

a. Work on user experience (UX) and usability design

b. Use helper SDKs (for quick and efficient development)

c. Build your App on specific platform

d. Test/QA your App

3. Reach out to your Audiences

a. Promote and Advertise (using Social Media, App Stores, Recommendation sites)

b. Study download patterns and rework on distribution

4. Monetize your App

a. Identify your revenue model (advertising, in-app purchase, pay-per-download etc.)

b. Keep users engaged with features

5. Support your users

a. Update app with new features and offerings

b. Optimise your app and keep it bug-free

c. Actively support your users and respond to their queries and woes

“The app ecosystem also has something called the App Poverty line, which is hoisted at $500 per app per month. only 26% of App Developers are above the app poverty line today (as of Jan 2013). one of the main reasons for this is half-baked ideation.”

Categories to go after

Games

a. Puzzle and Board Games

b. Adventure (3D) Games

c. Engaging Games with Social / Freemium purchase model

Entertainment

a. Movie based apps

b. Music apps

c. News apps

d. Adult content apps

Social Media Apps

General news Apps

Fun & multimedia

For e.g. camera effects apps, apps like Talking Tom

5 Common mistakes Developers make

1. Pack it with features

Features are good but if you pack in too many of them, it becomes difficult for end users to grasp the real deal. The need of the hour is to have a business goal defined for your app and push features that only supplement that vision. Keep it simple. Keep it real.

2. Poor Design

This can be detrimental to your app’s success. Bad reviews dramatically pull down your app rankings and users are very sensitive to usability design. Also, adding too many ads kills the user experience, as filling your app with ads takes the engagement factor down for the user. Keep the app clean and usable at all times.

3. My way or the Highway

A lot of developers build apps that make sense to them as users. However, their point-of-view and focus-area may not come from the same place their potential users come from. Instead of this, focus on making something for an identified void in the market and mold the app to suit the needs of that market.

4. Focus on App Downloads

A flip side to point number 4 is when you promote heavily and push for downloads. A lot of distribution networks today focus on getting you downloads via incentives. This model although successful to yield downloads, doesn’t do much to keep the users engaged. Make your app engaging enough for repeat value.

5. Lack of promotion

Your app may be the next Temple Run, but if you don’t plan to market and distribute it (even push it towards a basic form of viral marketing), you’ll be left with nothing in your pocket. Let your audience know that you exist.

iOS because all killer apps are on Apple

ios

Expert tips:

- Focus on the core functionality of the app and design the app around that.

- Do not bring the desktop/web browser thinking to mobile apps.

- Focus on a demographic, and a geographic when you build an app.

- Build metrics into the app, so that you can measure them constantly and tweak the app based on usage.

- Listen to your users (App Store comments) and fix any reported issues quickly.

What’s the best category to focus on?

- Games, as this is the most engaging category for iOS users.

- Photo & Video, as iOS operating software is fast and robust for this category of apps.

What are the top mistakes app developers make?

- Not focusing enough on the User Interface and User Experience: Show your app to your family and friends and observe how they use it. Participate in relevant forums (like toucharcade.com) and enlist external beta testers.

- Presuming that building an app and uploading it on the App Store would mean revenues rolling: Discoverability is a major issue and getting the word out about your app is very important. Try to reach out to influencers (like bloggers, journalists, etc.) and tell Top Free apps on ios them your story.

- Not testing enough: App users are pretty unforgiving lot. If your app crashes the first time they launch it, 60% of them would not try to launch it again. So test your app well, under various conditions, and on various variants of OSs, hardware units etc.

What works for iOS?

- It’s still the best platform for monetisation.

- Fewer number of OS and device variations to test on.

- The development tools available with OS (Mac OS) are available for free.

- Great forums with very helpful developers.

How can ios evolve as an operating system?

- I would give this advice to every OS developer- Move with the times as UE are changing by the day.

Top free Apps on iOS

1. Vine - Dev: Vine Labs, Inc. Category: Social Networking

2. Candy crush Saga - Dev: King.com Limited - Category: Games

3. Draw Rider - Dev: Anton Vazhinsky - Category: Games

4. Take it easy - Dev: Ravensburger Digital GmbH - Category: Games

5. Snapchat- Dev: Snapchat, Inc - Category: Photo & Video

Top paid apps on iOS

1. Cut the Rope: Time travel - Dev: ZeptoLab UK Limited - Category: Games

2. Whatsapp Messenger - Dev: whatsApp Inc. - Category: Social Networking

3. Fish out of water! - Dev: Halfbrick Studios - Category: Games

4. Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run - Dev: Nickelodeon - Category: Games

5. MineCraft – Pocket Edition - Dev: Mojang - Category: Games

Android is Open Source but Susceptible to increasing Malware

Android

Expert tips on how to make an app:

Memory Optimisation: Instruments XCode, Android Debug Bridge are the few of the tools that are commonly used.

Coding tips: Modular, Object Oriented Programming, Proper and Timely Code Review

Tools embedded: XCode, Eclipse, Microsoft Studio 2012, SQLite,

Which category of apps stands as the most lucrative ?

The innovation and objective of application drives the success 5 of application. The applications like WhatsApp, Instagram, Pulse, The Guardian and Angry Birds are from different domains and these are the best ever known applications whose success is immense. So we can say there is no specific domain/ category which has the most lucrative apps. In each category there exists and application that has topped on charts.

Top mistakes that an app developer makes and how to avoid them

Developer and UX Engineer are the ones who play important role, as they are the ones who develop the concept and present it to the real world. The UX Engineer needs to be aware of user expectations more closely and the developer need to understand the platform constraints and how best a feature can be presented to end user. The UX Engineer needs to take care of user experience along with updated features coming in new versions. Deciding target platform and their respective OS version is also an important factor to be Top paid apps on google play considered as there might be some features which are deprecated or added in new versions.

Top Paid Apps on Google Play

1. Swiftkey keyboard - Dev: Swiftkey - Category: Productive Tools

2. Temple run brave - Dev: Disney - Category: Gaming

3. Titanium Backup Pro - Dev: Titanium Track - Category: Productivity Tools

4. Where’s my water - Dev: Disney - Category: Gaming

5. Smart Tools - Dev: Titanium Track - Category: Productivity Tools

Top Free Apps on Google Play

1. Whatsapp Messenger - Dev: Whatsapp Inc. - Category: Social Networking

2. Facebook - Dev: Facebook Inc. - Category: Social Networking

3. MX Player - Dev: J2 Interactive - Category: Music

4. UC Browser - Dev: UCWEB Inc. - Category: Internet Browsing

5. Truecaller -Dev Truecaller - Category: Productivity Tools

Windows 8 fastest Growing OS, also has Temple Run

Windows 8

Expert Tips:

1. Planning and Definition Define a goal for your app. Write it down. Then expand on the idea till you’re satisfied with what you want to achieve. Now get down to the wire-framing. You don’t need any special wireframing or design tools — even a simple drawing on paper will do to begin with. The objective is to try and visually construct the flow of the user’s actions through your app.

2. design & interaction – navigation: There are many different methods of navigation that can be employed — persistent, hierarchical, drill-down etc. Choose the method in a way that your user doesn’t get lost.

- Buttons: Most Smartphones are touch enabled so be careful when designing action items or menu buttons.

– Forms/text: If an input box needs to be filled with numeric (e.g. credit card), make sure that the number keypad is shown instead of the full QWERTY keyboard.

– colours: Colours are a great way to visually connect with similar items or even to convey the importance and lead the user’s eye to the specific features you want to highlight.

– load / download image: It is a good practice to display a visual representation of the activity when the user is led from one function to another.

- Screen Resolutions: Be sure to take into account different screen resolutions to which the app will be targeted.

- different platforms: Don’t copy a design created for one platform and try and use it on another.

3. Development while developing an app, the following few points should be addressed.

- tracking codes: Make sure you include a way to track your application usage.

- power consumption and battery life: Be aware of what activities are required for your app and limit the use to only those items that are absolutely essential.

4. check before uploading – icon & screenshots: An attractive icon and descriptive screenshots are worth more at least a thousand downloads.

- user feedback: Ensure you provide a feedback email address

– social media for marketing and promotion: Use the power of social media to promote it.

- title: Choose a concise, catchy name for your app. The more it reflects what your app does, the better your chances at attracting the right audience.

Top Free Apps on Windows 8

1. Whatsapp Messenger - Dev: WhatsApp Inc. - Category: Social Networking

2. Talking Tom - Dev: 85001 - Category: Game

3. Facebook - Dev:Microsoft Inc. - Category: Social Networking

4. UC Browser - Dev: UCWEB Inc. - Category: Internet Browsing

5. Here Maps - Dev: Nokia Corp - Category: Maps and Navigations

Top Paid Apps on Windows 8

1. Pro Shot - Dev: Rise Up Games - Category: Photography Apps

2. Youtube downloader Pro – Dev: AnKo Software - Category: Social Networking

3. Chronos Calendar - Dev: AR-1 | Category: Productivity Tools

4. Nextgen Reader - Dev: Next Matters - Category: News+ Weather

5. TrueCaller - Dev: Truecaller Software - Category: Productivity Tools

BlackBerry 10 – a developer Friendly OS, if blackberry manages to weather the storm

blackberry 10

Expert Tips on how to make an app: While a native app is always preferred, apps can also be ported from other platforms on to BB10. There’s always a time/cost factor that needs to be taken care of. Also, the time of the launch should be important. For e.g., when launching an app around music events in the city, they should ideally be launched just before a big concert. Also, from a coding perspective, developers should keep the following things in mind:

- start building with a solid framework

- make sure objects are properly assigned and realised

- As much as possible, create and use re-usable components.

Which category of apps stands as the most lucrative?

I think Games and Productivity would be the two categories that have the capacity to make the most money. I could be wrong, because you never know when a super app springs up (heard of Evernote?) from nowhere and make more money than games.

I would say these are the points to consider when making a BB10 App :

- try to make the app in Native code that will enable you to scale, optimise and generally create a better running app.

– always look at sticking to the BlackBerry 10 design practices.

- look for “Built for BlackBerry” certification, which can happen when you ensure that your app connects to BBM and a couple of other BB specific features.

- always try to code in Objective C / C++ code. Try and avoid porting of apps, which may not be optimised for BB10.

Is BB10 os is great for amateur app developers?

Since BB10 is a new platform, it is really intuitive and brings the element of freshness in the way the user interacts. None of the competing OS has the features that BB10 brings with it like the UI layout handling that is easier and the developing menu/action items etc. that can happen real quickly as against other platforms.

Any suggestions on how BB10 OS can evolve as an OS?

My suggestion to the BB10 OS, since it is a pretty fresh and new OS, is that the debugging for e.g. could me made much more robust alongwith certain other aspects, but overall it fulfills its promise of being a game changer for RIM – which is a welcome trend for the once most-loved business phone.