UCL M.Sc. Technology Entrepreneurship 2015 - Launching Digital Products
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Transcript of UCL M.Sc. Technology Entrepreneurship 2015 - Launching Digital Products
DECIDE
• Distribution Channels
• Targeting Users
• Avoiding Potential Launch Issues
• Charging
• Tech Advice for scaling
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Opportuni1es• Developing Consumer Applica1ons
• Enterprise Mobility
• Building Mobile Apps for exis1ng companies or brands
• promo1onal, social or func1onal apps
• Extending exis1ng Services to mobile
• Gaming and Entertainment
• Payments or commerce
• Internet of Things + connected home
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The Mobile Ecosystem• Network Providers / Mobile Operators
• Device Manufacturers
• Opera1ng System Providers
• App Store providers
• Cloud providers
• Designers & Developers
• Innovators
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Revenue Channels• Mobilise existing paid service
• Free apps to promote service or brand
• Charge per download (how much will user’s pay)
• Lite/pro - In-app purchases (freemium/paidmium)
• Play around with pricing (Appgratis, Appsfire, Free App A Day, FreeMyApps)
• Subscription Charging
• Determine the value of your app or content
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Targeting Users• Think of what apps your target market use.
• Target devices in your target market
• ROI may not be there to support uncommon or old devices
• users keep a device for 24-18 months
• pre/post paid user, do they have a data plan?
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Payment Predictions• through 2018, less than 0.1 percent of consumer
mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers
• by 2017 94.5 % of downloads for free apps
• 90 % are downloaded less than 500 times per day and make less than $1,250 a day.
• Source Gartner
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"Freemium" Model• Provide free app to upsell premium app
• Provide taster/teaser version
• Playable Demo of Game
• Reduced feature set
• Usually use advertising to make small revenue
• Trial versions on certain platforms e.g. Microsoft
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In-App Advertising• Low revenue for app developers
• 60/40% split for Apple and Microsoft
• Must be relevant to the user & the context
• Affiliate programs may be a better bet
• Users do not want interruption!
• Think of the UI design impacts of the advert
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Charging• Online Payment Providers
• Stripe PayPal/Braintree Square Amazon
• App Stores
• http://www.slideshare.net/mobyaffiliates/guide-to-mobile-app-stores
• Operator Billing and aggregators e.g. Bango
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Marketing• Don't expect to upload an app and sit back and make money
• Visibility of an app on app store is key
• Need to draw customer to your app/site
• External sources such as Social Media
• Consider advertising and affiliates!
• Try to get to be Featured App (give 3 weeks notice)
• Use Promo Codes for media or influencers e.g. Bloggers
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Marketing• Angry Birds Strategy (see wired article on this)
• Start in small Markets and build user group and get good ratings and build from there
• Build a group of happy users who will help to promote the app virally
• start on Android to build a community fast then move to iOS
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Affiliate programs
• Refer users of your app to download other apps
• Make money if your referral leads to a purchase on iTunes within 72 hours (5% revenue)
• mobyaffiliates.com Amazon phg
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Prelaunch Strategies• Soft launch in smaller App Stores (App Lab)
• TestFlight and Google Play Beta
• launchsky.com preapps.com
• Promote on discovery sites like Appolicious
• Coordinate marketing activities with launch
• Reviews - who blogs/writes about your type of apps - send them a promo code
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Prepare for Launch• Get All paperwork and legals in place
• Create the necessary Certificates Profiles etc.
• Upload App Meta data and promotional content
• ASO and App Naming
• Promotional/Support Website + Social
• Logo and Screenshot
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CARTOON CREDIT: "The Joy of Tech™" by Nitrozac & Snaggy,
joyoftech.com. Copyright © 2008 Geek Culture. Archived at
GeekCulture.com.
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Problems with Approval• not following Human Interface Guidelines
• using Private APIs (functions reserved for Apple)
• apps not working offline
• competition with built-in app or Apple service
• e.g. alternatives to in-app purchases
• using existing Apple icons for different purpose
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Problems with Approval• don’t just wrap a mobile website into an App
• Check the size of the App
• Validate the app before launch
• Be careful with background activity and data use
• testing using tools and on real devices on different OS and hardware variants
• Leave time for Approval/Rejection/Reapply/Rejection
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App approval times• current average is 4-5 days (weekends too)
• http://appreviewtimes.com for latest times
• @appreviewtimes will post once a day with the latest averages
• double that to be safe (ideally 2 weeks)
• can be more near a new iOS version release
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Important Features!
• Feedback mechanism online and in-app
• Manage permissions appropriately
• Let users suggest & inform
• Ratings API (use carefully don't annoy users)
• Analytics and Metrics
• Push Notifications
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Partnering• Be a featured app provider from a software
supplier, speak at their conferences, get featured on their stores
• Partner with a mobile operator - get exposure to their customers and an ability to charge them
• Partner with a OEM - possibilities to get pre-loaded on a device
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Keeping Users Engaged• Keep user using your app or the will stop using it
• Competition with other apps on device is high
• Use Push Notifications - but not too much
• Find reasons for them to engage
• Update regularly to keep users engaged
• Competitions/Promotions/Social etc
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Be adaptive to change• MVPs are usually a rush and technically bad
implementations - should be good enough
• Need core functions to achieve learning
• Being agile and using CI from an early stage in product development can improve ability to adapt to new features and allow faster release cycles
• MVP will probably need rewriting to avoid technical debt can keep layering bad code on bad architecture
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Validating Assumptions• What you think vs what users actually do
• A/B testing for each feature
• abtestmaster.com for list of libraries
• Measurement is key to validate
• Analytics tools
• segment.io flurry google UXCam mixpanel
• Measure, learn and improve
• Let the data help to drive your decisions
choose an assumption to validate
add feature(s)
and analytics
carry out split testing
can it be measured?
evaluate metrics
Yes
No??
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Scalability Concerns• Tricky balance between building MVP and building a
scalable product
• Focus on using backend servers that auto-scale e.g. cloud services or PAAS
• Build systems that are big enough for expected user base but don’t over engineer for non-existent users
• Don’t ignore scalability over adding new features e.g. Friendster
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Estimating Costs• Consider cost of implementation per platform
targeted, OS versions and per device class
• Cost to build + cost to support and improve
• App Store and other distribution costs over time
• Price and lifespan of hardware
• Apps will need constant updating to keep up with OS and device changes
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Useful Links• appannie.com
• https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.appannie.com/blog/pdf/Going_Live_on_Google_Play_Checklist.pdf
• http://cdn.apptamin.com/ASO_Cheat_Sheet.pdf
• http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-mobile-industry-2014-11?r=US#-21
• http://www.phunware.com/marketing/freemium-paidmium-mium-latest-pricing-strategies-mobile-apps/