Making, developing and promoting iPhone applications is one with the hottest entrepreneurial opportunities out there. Through the latest count, you will find 200,000 iPhone applications alone available for sale at Apple's Application Store because its June 2007 debut. This equates to an astounding pace of 182 new applications a day. Authorities now conclude the explosive recognition of iPhone and iPad will dramatically expand this quantity even more in the many years to come.

"For every iPhone developer who surges to success, there are thousands with their applications who do small more than gather 'digital dust' on Apple Application shelves," says Scott Lorenz President of Westwind Communications iPhone app marketing firm.

"These designers need to rise above the clutter and get noticed. To get an concept of the depth, width and height of that clutter, just go to the Apple App Store and see all the apps accessible. Pay particular attention to competitor's apps and take some time to dig into the choices the App Shop offers to promote your product," claims Lorenz.

"Some designers rely upon word of mouth to marketplace their applications. Word of mouth is an excellent device but you'll need PR to fuel up word of mouth. What is really needed is a PR plan that reaches both the end customers - the buyers - and the media who can achieve individuals buyers," adds Lorenz.

"Developers of technology of any kind have a tendency to talk to other tech individuals in their own globe. And that makes sense. They trade suggestions, swap insight, discuss roadblocks, and share code. But to market and ultimately sell their iPhone apps, designers must reach out to the folks who speak to their conclusion customers. They need to reach non-technical journalists who can mention an app on a Tv newscast, write a newspaper column that reaches a couple of hundred thousand readers or a syndicated stereo display with 100,000-plus listeners across the United States," stresses Lorenz.

"A public relations firm or publicist has an extensive list of media contacts with whom he has developed a professional relationship and history that may be pitched. The contacts and relationships a PR specialist has are 1000 percent much more apt to obtain a stereo interview or inclusion in a newspaper column than the technology developer who can't be expected to possess these types of contacts. That's why an iPhone app developer needs to invest time and resources using the publicist greatest equipped to create the app nicely enough recognized in the right places that it will turn out to be a well-liked seller," says Lorenz.

iPhone App Reviews
When Lorenz works with an application builder, he begins by assessing what he thinks the media potential is for that application and asks these questions. "Would the media even be interested? Is it a niche app or is it an app that would be of wide consumer interest?" Then he determines which journalists, columnists, television, bloggers, and radio and Tv producers will be interested in that app and pitch them.

"We'll also go beyond conventional media and consist of item reviewers at major media outlets as well as bloggers and individuals with large followings on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. We'll begin to produce a buzz on the internet and generate traffic towards the developer's website or and the iPhone App Shop. If suitable, I'd get celebrities to use my client's application after which get a testimonial from the celebrity to talk about how great the app is and its use. With one recent iPhone application promotion our YouTube views elevated by 13,500 from 11pm to 6am after an interview on Wall Street Journal Radio and a couple of highly trafficked review websites. Evaluations matter. PR matters," says Lorenz.

iPhone App Marketing
Lorenz suggests that iPhone app designers use Google ad words (PPC) to drive people to their website exactly where customers can discover a website link to an on the internet demo that clearly shows what the application is all about. He also claims developers need to possess a YouTube video that may capture consumers looking on YouTube for a new app or who stumble upon it while searching for some thing else. Lorenz states make certain the URL towards the YouTube movie and the URL towards the website demo website link each be used in all promotional materials to drive sales and traffic.

Lorenz shares a pitch he made for any client that illustrates how he caught the attention of busy columnists and TV-radio pros. The pitch reads:

"A new prize-winning iPhone App that locations energy in the hands of the folks is on pace for 25,000 annual downloads. It's remarkable because it's a California ONLY App but could go national. The new App also won 2nd location within the 2009 University of Southern California Student Innovator Showcase. The press release beneath has more info. If you would like to talk to the 25 year old developer, please contact me."

"The release, early on put forth links to the developer's web site and also to a YouTube movie for a demo. It had been on the really quick download pace and actually was ahead with the Bible for downloads about the iTunes Store," claims Lorenz.

Heading Viral with Your iPhone Application
Lorenz carried out a comparable campaign for a musician/teacher who produced educational rap music to become used in the classroom. Press releases incorporated links to where the music could be downloaded free, to YouTube movies and to his website, MrDuey dot com. "We created buzz on YouTube along with other Internet hotspots that drove sales and pushed him above all other movies on TeacherTube (like YouTube but primarily for teachers and students). At last check we were approaching 1.5 Million Views of his "Fractions" video making it the most popular movie on TeacherTube," mentioned Lorenz.

In another on the internet campaign Lorenz helped Angel Acres make it to the "Top 10" in a $1 Million shelter makeover contest sponsored by Zootoo.com, a web site for animal and pet lovers. As component with the effort, he enlisted a talented musician to write and record a song to be used in an online video and for public service announcements. "It was a cool way to get some additional attention by using music," says Lorenz.

iPhone Application Public Relations
"The bottom line," claims Lorenz, "Hire a publicist to cut via the clutter and reach into the niche marketplace that will location your application within the middle of shoppers, purchasers, and extremely curious end customers. Building the app was, I hate to say it the easy component."

PR Mac
 

A WATCHDOG may be launched to offer North East businesses a way of finding a dependable way of running a web site.

The Federation of Media Development Businesses (FMDC) may be launched in Middlesbrough after an growing quantity of firms complained of becoming taken advantage of by internet designers.

The aim with the FMDC is to be the lead regulator for businesses providing providers like web design and hosting, and enable them to sign up to a charter which proves that they are a reliable firm.

It also plans to be the first proactive repository of clients’ access codes and domain registration particulars, which offers secured back-up emergency facilities.

FMDC co-director Stuart Davies said: “If a web style company goes bust or disappears, it may imply your company’s internet presence is wiped out with one fell swoop.

“Not only does which have a damaging impact on any company, but it may also price hundreds as well as a large number of pounds to set up a new web site from scratch.

“However, our system would mean that businesses know which internet designers they are able to trust, meaning a better support and experience for the company owner, which in turn offers the web developer with a higher reputation.

“And within the unlikely occasion of something going wrong, everything will be backed up so downtime will be kept to a minimum.”

Fellow director Saheed Rashid mentioned: “The FMDC can also act like a tender program for developers ensuring that any company searching for a high quality development organization will probably be secure within the knowledge that all companies who respond will be of the higher high quality.

“The tendering system remains anonymous till the company has made a decision which improvement and media businesses it wishes to talk with”.

The FMDC will host its official launch occasion at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough on June 30.

NE Business

As of last week, the market cap of Apple Inc. is now larger than that of Microsoft and second only to ExxonMobil. The fact that their new W3C standards-based iPad tablet computer, just released in April, already includes a user base measured in millions and growing is a key contributor to their phenomenal success.

What does your website look like on an iPad?

Don't anticipate to find the answer to that question on any of the faux "iPad emulator" phishing sites that have sprung up. The only way to know for sure is to load your website on an iPad yourself, or have someone with an iPad load it and take a screenshot for you personally. Either way, what you see may not be what you anticipate. Especially if your website consists of flash without having fallback, or worse yet, you've an all-flash web site.

Such is the situation for a number of competitors of Miami/Hialeah-based Gonzalez Pavement Equipment Inc.--also called GPE Engineering & General Contractors, or simply GPE. On the iPad, some of their competitor websites show no navigation panels ... others have gaping holes in their home pages ... and one displays only as a blank, black screen. But such is not the case for GPEENG.com, their new "Web 3.0 Ready" website designed by WebReDesignMiami.com.

The recession has been hard on construction and engineering contractors in South Florida as elsewhere. But according to GPE Vice-President Antonio "Tony" Reyes, .GPE has been able to navigate through this economic hurricane and keep the majority of its employees on board due to its ability to adjust to changes in the market, and to the commitment and hard work of all employees and management." The degree of that commitment and the results of that hard work pervades the web pages of GPEENG.com. And WebReDesignMiami.com, Bruce Arnold's Miami-based Semantic Web (Web 3.0) design boutique, has made sure that the GPE message will be delivered to the broadest possible audience:

The web page source developed for GPEENG.com passes all seven tests of "Web 3.0 readiness", making it "iPad-Ready" and then some. It consists of W3C/WCAG-validated tableless HTML5 and CSS3 with Unobtrusive Javascript generated by custom-coded dynamic PHP for the LAMP platform (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP). This professional standards framework and coding discipline separates content from format and behavior and thereby optimizes efficiency, accessibility and search engine indexing potentials. The completely custom website template leverages contemporary design conventions, such as 1024-pixel screen display optimization and PNG layered gradients, and features integrated tools to facilitate browser branding, bookmarking and social media marketing. Ajax/jQuery technology was applied to create a random engineering projects display on each page with asynchronous updates, and VA4Most.js powers the optional W3C-compliant HTML5 audio. Also, an integrated content management system (CMS) will enable the GPE team to add to their projects gallery and make many of their own modifications going forward.

As GPE's Tony Reyes attested, "We are very excited about the new website and the exposure it will bring. It makes us proud to have chosen Bruce and his staff to lead us into the future of web design. Bruce made the complex and arduous task of web site building into a simple, thorough and effective process. His cutting edge techniques and performance driven mindset was a successful combination for our business."

PR Inside

Finnish internet style answer provider Hammerkit has launched a closed beta with the new version of its cloud-based web style device with revamped UI and functions. The company's tool allows web creative designers to put into action even complicated web sites on their personal, without the require for assist from programmers. Traditionally internet designers have built mock-ups and wireframes, and then transferred these more than to programmers to implement and weave in databases connections etc. dynamic performance. Hammerkit aims to revolutionize this old school fashion, permitting creativity without understanding complex programming methods - therefore the company's tagline "a device for the internet punk generation."

 The new product is the edition quantity four in Hammerkit's line developed over a few many years. For that most recent much enhanced edition, the team has spent six months talking to several digital agencies in Finland, Germany and also the UK, to determine the discomfort points in the designer-developer collaboration. They uncovered that the procedure for completing a web site very frequently requires as well long, even although the designer is using the exact same basic components over and over once again. The problem is the fact that these components also get handcrafted once again each time with new website in query.

Hammerkit's device is a SaaS browser-based WYSIWYG visual editor, allowing designers to copy and paste web site components and functionalities, just as with text and pictures. The tool is targeted for expert web designers that understand the particulars of HTML, CSS and other internet technologies, but do not have "hard coding" skills. Seeing the tool in action, it truly appears to be that simple. Nevertheless, it is not meant for that typical Joe not understanding the underlying technologies at all and just looking to produce a individual website using regular templates.

The organization is hoping that creative designers who put into action web websites for their clients, like SME firms, adopt the device to substantially reduce delivery times and expenses, while staying in total control of their style. The designers can build a complete web site from scratch, such as dynamic elements like social networking (e.g. Facebook widgets) and database connection (e.g. webstores) without any excess fuss. If a databases is needed for the additional performance, and there isn't an existing one, a brand new database is produced automatically within the background on Hammerkit's servers depending on the designer's specs.

Interestingly, the tool could be started and taken into use freely. There is really a catch, of course - as soon as the designer wants to possess their own domain for a website instead of using Hammerkit's URL, the organization charges a 250 eur charge from the designer and a recurring 29 eur monthly hosting fee in the end client.

The device also includes open API, which lets the user create and import fully customized performance components. These customized components are presently customer-specific, but the company revealed that a shop in which Hammerkit users could market these components to other customers (compare e.g. the Joomla! add-on business) might be coming just slightly later within the autumn, supplying potentially additional revenue streams.

Arctic Startup

ipad gold rush arrives in Canada     Print     E-mail
Wednesday, 02 June 2010

Apple Inc.’s touch-screen tablet showed up on Canadian store shelves final Friday, but web developers are nevertheless trying to grasp the opportunities around it
By Curt Cherewayko

There's consensus in the web-development industry that the ipad will significantly alter how info is consumed. But three industry leaders at last week’s day-long Convergence digital advertising conference were still determining how to take complete benefit of Apple Inc.’s most recent device.

During a panel debate more than whether the ipad will revolutionize the communications business, the panelists agreed that web developers, marketers and other businesses which are reliant on an on the internet presence should dive into apple company ipad improvement sooner instead of later, given the pace at which the marketplace is currently moving.

Apple’s tablet-style touch-screen personal computer showed up in Canadian shops last Friday for $549, two months after it was launched in the U.S.

Dana Dansereau, moderator of last Thursday’s panel, which was part of Vancouver Interactive Digital Week, noted that some analysts have predicted that four million to 10 million iPads will be sold this year,

The company chance close to the ipad is compounded by the truth that the typical ipad owner so far is affluent and earning $100,000-plus earnings annually.

“This device and others like it are going to change how we interact not just with websites but with brands,” mentioned Dansereau, technical director of Fjord, which can be the digital marketing arm of Vancouver’s Cossette West.

“It utilized to be that your manufacturer was on the personal computer, but now its essentially being cradled in my arms. I’m holding it in my hand in a way I never have before.”

Panelist Olivier Vincent, who's president and CEO of Burnaby-based online lookup directory firm Canpages Inc., said that Canpages tries to pack as much relevant lookup content onto its website and software as it can, without having sacrificing usability and accessibility.

Given its larger interface, the ipad lends by itself to that method, said Vincent.

Canpages’s search providing recognized as virtual visits, which offers buyers with on the internet visual tours of businesses, is especially compatible using the apple company ipad interface.

“It’s not just about the interface and manipulation, it’s concerning the context in which you use [the iPad],” mentioned Vincent. “If we are able to discover the best context design for our app and apply it towards the ipad, we will possess a winner. I hate to say it, but we’re not there yet.”

Numerous internet developers in Canada who are especially eager concerning the ipad have already made the trip towards the U.S. to purchase an apple company ipad within the months prior to its launch in Canada.

Jason Snell, vice-president and editorial director of MacWorld, the leading magazine for all things Apple, mentioned that obtaining a really feel for that apple company ipad prior to it hit Canadian shops may be an advantage for Canadian designers over U.S. designers who rushed to be among the very first to develop applications for that ipad.

That initial rush resulted in some instead shoddy applications said Snell.

“I think people within the U.S. had a bit of various encounter exactly where there was some quite wild stuff for the first bit that just got retired … in no way to become observed again,” he said.

Scott Michaels, vice-president of Vancouver-based application developer Atimi Software program Inc. mentioned how the first wave of failed applications also reflects that developers have never worked with a unit with the iPad’s nature.

Despite that the apple company ipad is entirely new territory, Michaels noted that developers ought to move quick to discover possibilities close to it.

“This is really a fast-moving business, and you can’t wait for everything to settle itself out,” he mentioned, adding that developers need to begin improvement quickly if they wish to launch a robust ipad application in 2010.

“Because otherwise, after the shine wears offs … you won’t get that additional splash of marketing that will be free of charge for your manufacturer,” said Michaels referring to the marketing glow that emanates from any manufacturer that can associate itself with Apple.

“And you don’t have to do some thing huge, you just have to complete something good.”

Snell additional that you will find going to become numerous more devices like the ipad to hit the market within the coming years.

Said Snell: “So its much better which you familiarize yourself with what all of the issues are now because, if not, you’re heading to be playing catch up.” •

BIV Business Today