Get your bite of the App
In 2006, it was blogs. In 2007, it was Facebook. Last year, it was Twitter. In 2009, the coolest space for companies to be is on Apple’s iPhone App Store.
Although Apple and O2 will not disclose exact figures, it is understood that there are more than 100,000 iPhones in the Irish market. Globally, Apple’s sales figures are closer to 20million.
To take advantage of this market penetration, Apple created an online download service – the App Store – that has become a runaway success. Since its launch 18 months ago, the store has processed more than one billion downloads. Applications, which can be free or priced at any level, range from games and phone utilities to business programs, news wires, stock indicators and financial services
In the US, virtually every large company with a significant front-facing operation has commissioned an iPhone App. In Britain, media outlets such as Sky have trumpeted their tailored iPhone services.
With significant market penetration in Ireland, is now the time for Irish companies to start thinking about creating their own apps? If the answer is yes, the first questions that an Irish company will have about creating an iPhone app are obvious: how much will it cost and how long will it take?
“Most high-end independent iPhone developers charge by the hour, up to or over $200 or €150,” said Steven Troughton Smith, one of the first Irish developers of iPhone Apps.” You also have to factor in future updates, as applications need regular maintenance to continue to work with future versions of iPhone, not to mention bug-fixing.
“A simple application could take only a few hours for an experienced developer to do, so a small project won’t cost the world. Larger, complex applications that interact with services could take weeks or months of development work.”
The next question is one that companies have pondered with regard to setting up a website: should it be mere brochure-ware or should it have a strong interactive element?
“Some companies treat them as loss leaders or just as a marketing cost,” said Dermot Daly, founder of Tapadoo and the developer of an iPhone app that lets users search the Irish telephone directory.
“Take Calvin Klein. It is a fairly non-interactive site, other than its store locater feature. That was not done as a money-making exercise, but rather as a marketing exercise.”
If you don’t want to go public, Apple has come up with a way to leverage home-made apps within a company.
“Apple gives an option of enterprise distribution,” said Daly.” This is basically an App Store within your own company. The catch is that you have to have more than 500 employees.
“The advantage is that if you have 500 guys on the road delivering products, you can standardise communications and operations using the iPhones and the app. The main drawback here is that there are still very few Irish companies with more than 500 employees that would standardise on a smartphone.”
Despite Ireland traditionally being behind the curve in adopting digital platforms, one iPhone developer said that interest in iPhone apps was growing among Irish companies.
“There is definitely a market there,” said Daniel Heffernan, co-founder of AppSchool.ie, which runs courses in how to create iPhone applications.” From my experience, a lot of companies don’t want to hire in an iPhone developer as a full-time employee, but would rather hire in a contract worker to bring their services to iPhone. I’m working on just such a job right now.”
However, if a company thinks it might require multiple applications, it might be as well to train someone in the required skills. This, according to Heffernan, creates the ‘iPhone guy’ in a firm.
“App School trains people to develop iPhone apps and these skills can be immediately applied to corporate applications,” said Heffernan.” At least one of our students is currently doing this.”
