An interesting article on Treehugger today sparked a conversation with our marketing and application development team. The article is “Darn. You can’t Club Seals on your iPhone™,” a rather intriguing title, we defy anyone else to not click on that article. The discussion that ensued centered on ways to not initially anger or alienates users of the iPhone and the Apple® App Store.

We have written much about how to retain app users longer than the average rate of deletion at 85% in the first 30 days so feel free to peruse that article as well. However, our app development and marketing teams feel there is another area to cover, the top five things that can alienate users right off the bat, before they even have a chance to use the application.

Controversial Topics

This one won’t so much turn away users, as it will immediately get you blocked from the Apple App Store itself. Users do tend to gravitate towards these sort of applications based on sheer curiosity, but Apple is looking to put the kibosh on them in order to remove liability.

The actual verbiage from Apples App Store Terms and Conditions says,

“Content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable.”

This lingo casts a pretty wide net as far as objectionable material, having it be subject to Apple’s discretion. Our app development team recommends that when brainstorming app ideas, or even stress-testing one you have already thought of, consider whether someone else would find it objectionable.

Ask yourself these key questions, presented based on increasing objection level:

Would my mom find this offensive?
Is this morally questionable?
Is this normally publically available?
Is this illegal?

If the answer to the first two questions is yes, (or no if you have easy-going mom), then this may pass the Apple guidelines, if the answers to the last two are no and yes, then it’s likely you’ll have to keep that iPhone app idea to yourself.

Free to Paid

This one can be tricky and is definitely not an exact science. The logic for free or Lite iPhone applications is sound: get users to enjoy the basic form of the application, entice them to want to play the full version, get deeper into more parts of the game. However, letting users get everything too long will make them not want to pay for a full paid version. Rather than paying for the full version, they’ll likely give the game up entirely.

The best advice is to strike a balance with how many downloads you have, as this is obviously the best indicator of popularity. The average number of downloads on the Apple App Store is 2,000*, which is high because of sheer volume. If your application is even barely starting to reach that number on an unpaid model, it might be time to consider releasing the paid version, before you cap out your average.

If someone is willing to pay for an app, it is a positive sign that users are engaged in your app (use it day-to-day) and would like to keep using it beyond a free trial.

*(based on # of downloads (January 2010)/# of applications on App Store (January 2010)

Overdoing Information Input

From a marketing standpoint, gathering user information makes total sense; you will learn more about users, and make things easier for them the next time. However, because users generally have an expectation that app usage is somewhat casual, they will be immediately hesitant if you ask too much about them before using the application.

Because phones are not totally associated with traditional forms of input, they feel as though their information will generally go into this unknowing void that may be stolen or used in other ways to market or harm them.

One-Upping: Not Developing the App to be better than the Original

Google is really the classic example of one-upmanship. They took an existing idea, inspected it from all angles, and then did it better to the point that they are a leader not only in search, but a myriad of other products and services. While this may be a somewhat broad example, it still applies quite well to app development.

Because there are so many people with great mobile application ideas, duplicate ideas are bound to exist. However, where people often go wrong is creating duplicate applications that don’t consider taking the original further, or inspecting what it is that user’s would like to see that is different.

Some helpful questions to ask when considering making a similar application:

What audience does the original serve? Who else would want to use this?
What are the limitations of the original? How can I make this more functional?
How can I increase the retention for an app like this?

While that was a fairly short list, questions like these will help you narrow down specific differentiating factors that can take your mobile application from copycat to most-downloaded.

Not Considering Multiple Platforms

This is something our software development team has seen a lot in the last year. Smartphone hardware providers are proving to be competitive against the iPhone and are segmenting the market into many different kinds of users: Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry and Palm.

Because the non-iPhone market is growing tremendously, people are looking for the recognizable games and applications they have seen and heard of in the App Store. It is a great opportunity for mobile developers to reach more diverse sets of users.

If your application is significantly popular (see above), then it’s probably time to consider multiple platforms. We know that multiple platforms can drive your cost up, and is not something that everyone should casually consider, but there are definitely limitations of growth on one platform.

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Although brief, these are hot button issues that not only do we see externally, but internally as well.  Feel free to leave a comment on reasons you have initially been deterred by an app.

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