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“I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software.”
Never one for understating a situation, those were strong words, even for Steve Jobs. The Apple CEO was talking about the success that the iPhone App Store had seen in its first month in the market, and he wasn’t kidding.
It seems every major media outlet in the world has run pieces on the success of the App Store. The phrase “there’s an app for that” peppers headlines and conversations around the world. The New York Times heralded the revolution in mobile applications as a new gold rush.
Who can blame it? There are now more than 150,000 applications in the App Store. There have been more than 3 billion apps downloaded since the store went live on July 10, 2008. The launch of the iPad last month has generated yet more app-related hyperbole, and with Taiwanese smart-phone manufacturer HTC promising sub-$100 handsets running Google’s Android operating system within the next 12 months, and with a serious push from Nokia, Blackberry and all of the other major smartphone manufacturers, the next year promises to be an interesting one for technophiles in the marketing and advertising industries.
The hard reality at the moment is that there is a significant number of application platforms and operating systems available to brands, agencies and marketers. Finding the right platform, talking to the right audience, and breaking through the noise generated by the sheer volume of applications being released on a daily basis is tough.

WHAT’S APP? Mobile applications are quite simple in concept. They are pieces of software that are pre-installed on your device or are available to download from the Internet. They are not new. There have been multiple mobile applications available for multiple handsets for several years – ranging from games to currency conversion tools to more complicated applications allowing you to broadcast live video and audio from your phone.
A wide variety of branded applications can be downloaded for the iPhone, which is by far the most popular global platform at the moment. In the last 12 months alone, we’ve seen apps released by Coca-Cola, Etisalat, Etihad, Time Out, Jack Daniels, Gucci, North Face and countless others. Users like branded apps. Research by Admob, one of the biggest mobile advertising networks in the world, found that 70 percent of iPhone users surveyed had downloaded a branded app.
Some of the download figures for branded applications are enormous. Barclaycard released a Waterslide app which tied in with a recent UK television ad campaign. To date, it has been downloaded more than 9.5 million times. Lighter manufacturer Zippo was one of the first companies to release an app – a simple interface that allows you to “flick” a lighter on your screen and produce a flame. That simplicity has been rewarded with more than 6 million downloads. Audi’s A4 Driving Challenge, where players take a new Audi A4 round a track, is approaching 4 million downloads.
While the mobile tech industry in this region is still in its relative infancy, there are applications that are exceeding expectations and driving interest in smartphone engagement. Recently, Rashid Al Naqbi, Etisalat’s general manager for directory services, said that the telecoms company’s Yellow Pages app has “had an overwhelming response from our customers… with more than 10,000 downloads so far.”
Last month, Ben Davies, the assistant editor in charge of online publishing at Abu Dhabi newspaper The National, spoke to journalists, including Communicate, about his paper’s iPhone application. It had been up and running for under a month, but had already been downloaded around 4,000 times. “Print needs a multi-platform news organization to exist, and that’s what we are building,” he says. A BlackBerry application for the newspaper will also launch soon.
Gavin Dickinson, executive director of publishing at Abu Dhabi Media Company, says the publisher also launched an iPhone app for The National’s sister title, Al Ittihad. “It was the No. 1 Arabic app downloaded in the UAE for two and a half weeks,” he says. “We didn’t publicise it, we just put it out there.” Even without much publicity, the app has been downloaded around 3,000 times, he says.
Arabic apps are seeing a surge at the moment, says Hilal Halaoui, a principal at business consultancy Booz & Co. “I was looking a couple of weeks ago at the Arabic applications on the iPhone,” he says, “and I found a huge increase in the number of applications that are Arabic-related.” Arabic-language applications were once thin on the ground, but now – even through simple apps, like stock trackers – they are beginning to catch up.

MEASURED RESPONSE. The difficulty for brands and developers is how to measure the success of these applications. Download numbers are one metric, but they do not tell a comprehensive tale. Engagement is key. Research by New York-based app analysis company Pinch Media has shown that only 20 percent of users return to a free application after one day. After 30 days, fewer than 5 percent are engaging with the app.
The key seems to be giving people something that adds a level of value or engagement. North Face, the outdoor equipment manufacturer, had more than 300,000 downloads of its snow report app in 2009. The app was simple enough: It gives people the weather forecast for multiple ski resorts worldwide, along with details of what time lifts open at, webcam feeds and more. While the headline figure of 300,000 downloads may not be as impressive as Zippo’s or Barclaycard’s, North Face brand manager Nate Bosshard has said that users “utilize the service several times a day, sharing reviews, checking weather, and updating Twitter feeds regularly.”
The outcomes can be impressive as well. Audi generated more than half a million visits to the A4’s Web site from its iPhone driving application. Kraft’s iFood Assistant carries recipes and how-to videos, and not only does it generate revenue for the company (it costs $0.99), but it is also responsible for a sizable mailing list, with 90 percent of app users registering at Kraftfoods.com. Barclaycard’s 9 million downloads have generated 650,000 hours of brand engagement time.
Many regional agencies are now looking closely at this area. Barry Flaherty, international business development director at branding agency Grow in Doha, is “working on designing and developing a broad range of applications, from bespoke applications for the likes of banks, museums, massive development complexes and educational establishments, right up to developing our own smartphone application around augmented reality for Qatar,” he says.
However, Flaherty, like many others, sees numerous potential stumbling blocks ahead. “A combination of poor mobile coverage, blackspots, and fear of mobile data tariffs (some capped at 300Mb per month) also pervade here, and there is no doubt the region lags behind in terms of adoption,” he says.
These barriers to download are underlined by the findings of Nielsen’s research in Saudi Arabia. Sagar Tamang, regional director of telecoms practice at the research firm, found that mobile Internet usage “did not exceed 16 percent” of those surveyed. “Nokia tops the market [in Saudi Arabia], with a total market share of 87 percent. Blackberry users stood at a mere 5 percent,” he says. In contrast, observers attribute the UAE’s recently announced 200 percent mobile penetration rate to the fact that many residents carry a BlackBerry supplied by their employer.

BERRY NICE. Booze’s Halaoui says smart phones are probably in the hands, pockets and ears of around 5 percent of Saudi’s mobile users. The platform could be a wildcard of app adoption in the region, though. “There’s been a major shift in the use of BlackBerry in 2009,” says Halaoui. “A product that was positioned for business is now pretty much used by the extreme end of the subscriber base: women and children. I see more pink BlackBerrys nowadays than I see professional BlackBerrys; it is really amazing, the growth that happened there.”
The future for mobile applications will be interesting. While Nokia and BlackBerry have significant market share in the region, the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World are not nearly as popular as the iPhone’s App Store. Development costs are therefore rising, as more and more people shift towards developing for devices with a smaller market share, but a larger base of application users.
Developing an application across multiple smartphone platforms is problematic. Each uses a different language, meaning brands might need multiple developers. Screen sizes and resolutions are different, so the design for each operating system has to be tweaked. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, not all app stores have been created equal. Android and iPhone users are most accustomed to downloading applications. Nokia is putting a lot of resources into its Ovi Store, but educating its customer base may prove difficult, particularly as Android devices get cheaper and more appealing.
Achieving a critical mass of application development needs the right incentives for developers, says Halaoui. “Getting to the right business model is extremely important,” he says. For instance, Apple’s iTunes store – the only place iPhone apps can be downloaded from – takes 30 percent of the revenue for the sale of apps. It leaves 70 percent for developers. Brands can capitalize on the popularity and traffic a steady stream of new apps generates. “You have lots of small players that really contribute to innovation,” says Halaoui. “You have to make sure that whatever business model, whatever partnership model you establish, they are being incentivised to continue growing your innovation base.”
The real key for brands and agencies is not to get caught up in the idea of building an application for the sake of building one. Far better to follow the lead of companies like North Face (or Smirnoff Vodka who, rather than build their own app, recently sponsored the Time Out London application). Build something useful, promote it using all available channels, and you could find your app being hailed as the next big success story.
– With additional input from Austyn Allison and Rania Habib

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