By way of keeping you connected to the hot new companies that debut here in Silicon Valley, one in particular caught my eye and it’s called ContactRoom.  As you can imagine, a company that does a lot of B2B contracts needs to have a streamlined process and until now we’ve had basic ERP functionality, but the Workday of B2B contracts hasn’t existed until now.  Getting a contract signed is part of the sales function and both the selling performance and the legal terms are key.  Now companies can track both the sales reps and the terms to see which are performing, or not, and adjust accordingly.   There are a number of wins here.  First, all [...]

Mobile App Development TV (Video – 360p)

ContractRoom: Streamlining B2B Contracts

At the DEMO Fall 2014 conference what we do is watch other companies debut their products and then take feedback from a panel of judges.  I watched Brad Lawler of Draft present and the judges liked his financial services solution and they commented a lot on the excellent look-and-feel of his app.   Sorry to say, but appearances make a huge difference in just about everything these days and mobile apps are no exception.  Incredible to me is that Brad designed the app himself.  He says he studied design for a few years on his own, and when it came time to design his app, he worked with a few different agencies, where he learned a lot [...]

HTML5 Is An Alternative When Getting Started With Apps

Ryan Huff is CEO of Cirruspath which provides a way of more seamlessly integrating with CRM systems. When asked what the trend is with enterprise apps, he said it was all about usability and you can’t expect to get it right in the first release. I speak with many enterprises who are interested in app development and many of them are just becoming aware of what it takes to develop a good mobile app. Keep in mind that a poor mobile app is likely not to be used and might not have much of an impact on an organization.   Ryan says that organizations can’t expect to get it right on the first try or even [...]

Finding Success With Enterprise Apps: Usability Is Key

I was excited to cover DEMO Fall 2014, which ended yesterday. I have a lot of content and thoughts, some of it is already out and I’ll be pushing the rest of it out as time permits. What I want to bring you is a sense of what you would learn if you were there and I’ve picked a good person to interview to give you that perspective (I encourage you to catch the next DEMO event). Erick Schonfeld is the executive producer of DEMO and he and his team reviewed scores of startups and selected the 40 who are attending. After reviewing so many startups in the space and considering he’s been covering technology [...]

DEMO Fall 2014: Mobile Trends

I spoke with Marcus Weller, CEO of Skully today at DEMO Fall 2014. I asked him what advice he would give to entrepreneurs who are thinking about getting involved in wearables. He had some great advice and that is to focus on your core use case and get that right before you move on. I thought that was spot on, because you may have read other posts of mine where Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, says, “It’s easy to add; it’s hard to edit – it’s hard to focus.”  Apple is successful because Apple has always focused.  That’s what entrepreneurs these days need to do and not only that, there are many executives at important [...]

Advice to Wearables Entrepreneurs From Skully CEO

One of the things I love about conferences like DEMO Fall 2014 is they get you outside of your normal way of thinking, and that’s what is necessary to be truly innovative. Who ever thought of turning people into ATMs? It’s pretty crazy and it could either go wrong or it could go right. Just like the mobile carriers were disintermediated by WhatsApp, this payment solution by Ali Goss of HelloBit could push banks aside for at least one of their services – money transfer. International money transfer processes are full of friction.  It’s hard to pay vendors overseas, there are hefty fees involved, and it usually requires a special trip to the bank where you fill [...]

Payment System Turns People Into ATMs

Many people are not aware that it is possible to swap in your own custom keyboard in iOS 8 (a software keyboard, not a hardware keyboard).  Such keyboards have been possible on Android for a while. I talked with Ping Wang of iQ Technology and the CEO Ray Chao about their new DejaVu Keyboard product at the opening welcome reception at DEMO Fall 2014.   The main benefit is it helps you type faster and is useful for words that are unique to you or your profession.  Let’s face it, the rate a which you can type on a mobile keyboard is a big friction point on mobile devices and DejaVu Keyboard can really speed things up for users. [...]

DEMO 2014: Software Keyboard for iOS and Android

As host of Mobile App Development TV, I’ll be covering DEMO 2014 to bring you the very latest in app development trends, best practices, strategies, and insights.   I’m excited about the lineup of speakers including Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and cofounder of Twitter, Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, Peter Thiel, Former CEO of PayPal and Matt Rogers, Founder of Nest.  That’s a heavy hitting lineup, straight from the heart of Silicon Valley.    We’ll be here November 18, 19 and 20.   A number of successful companies have launched at DEMO, including Salesforce.com, Evernote, Jawbone, Cisco WebEx, Vmware and many others.  I’m especially excited to hear about Steve Wozniak’s latest venture. [...]

Watch Mobile App Development TV at DEMO Fall 2014 in San Jose

They say that the rising tide floats all ships.  What about a tidal wave?  Many people are dumbfounded at the valuations that app companies are receiving, especially in the messaging world, but looking back at history can provide some perspective.  Messaging has been hot for a while, starting with AOL in the 90s, then platforms were developed that integrated the many messaging solutions.  Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011, and although that wasn’t an app deal, it set the tone.  Facebook then bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012; the biggest app deal to date, and it seemed like a lot, but that deal has been totally eclipsed by Facebook’s latest $19 billion dollar [...]

$19B Acquisition Lighting the Mobile App Developer World On Fire

“Customers who use the app actually shop with us two times more frequently and spend 40% more than a customer who doesn’t use our apps,” according to Wendy Bergh, Vice President, Mobile & Digital Strategy at Apps World 2014.  While many companies want assurance of a return before they invest, Walmart is an example of an innovative company who took a risk by investing in mobile apps without any clear return in sight.  By taking a risk and carefully listening to her customers she was able to provide a substantial return on investment to Walmart through mobile apps.  It makes sense that Walmart would find this opportunity, because there is a lot of low hanging [...]

Mobile App Increases Revenue at Walmart

The most effective way to sell a mobile app idea is to create a complete prototype so that your stakeholders can get a sense of the full experience of your app.  People are visual, and by showing your idea in action you can capture the excitement and give a sense of what the app really does.  That’s the advice of Marco Paglia, Google’s Design Lead.  An effective presentation can help you secure funding or get your company’s buy-in on the concept and design. In other words, your prototype needs to be fully functional and complete with graphics and transitions. In order to sell the idea, the prototype must be striking and visually appealing.   Then it [...]

Sell Your App Idea With a Prototype

As part of our continuing coverage of Apps World 2014 in San Francisco, I talked to Brent Hieggelke, Chief Marketing Officer of Urban Airship.  Urban Airship provides notification services for app developers, and this ties very nicely with beacons that can trigger events like personalized notifications when a user is at a particular location in the store. Until now marketers could only learn about their customers through their web browsing and mobile app usage, but now data are available on a customer’s physical movements throughout the shopping experience.  Can you imagine the possibilities?  Thus far, advertising costs have dropped dramatically because of the very precise targeting available through online advertising.  Now, retailers can set up all [...]

iBeacon: Secret Weapon For Retailers

Last week I went to Apps World 2014 in San Francisco with the intent of interviewing thought leaders on a variety of topics, including User Experience (UX).  Why user experience?  Because if an app isn’t useable, it will fail; and many apps are failing because of usability.  When you consider all of the other factors, you can max out each of them, but if your app’s UX (user experience) is poor, the app will fail.  The UX of an app is one of the most determinate factors of success.  This is why it’s so important for app developers to figure out what good UX is and implement this in their app.  A good UX makes [...]

3 Tips for Improving App User Experience

Two of the toughest issues for mobile app development company stakeholders are cost and design.  On the iOS platform (iPhone/iPad), particular attention is paid to design, and Android also has its own design language; however, the navigation patterns can be quite different between the two platforms.  In this video episode of Mobile App Development TV, we talk to Pete Petras, who is the US Creative Director for Globant.  Globant is a technology service provider focused on developing compelling experiences with particular expertise in mobile app development.  Pete talks about the cost incurred when companies undertake development projects, and how user experience is becoming a driving factor in app success.  Watch the video now: Watch MP4 (iPhone/iPad) People [...]

Mobile App Development Cost and Design

You don’t have to look far to see how gamification has accelerated online websites and apps.  Take the Facebook “Like” for example.  This game mechanic has driven the success of the Facebook platform.  If you already have or are thinking about building an iPhone or Android app, you should give some thought to what’s going to keep your users coming back.  Applying principles of gamification can be just the thing to make your app successful. Watch the video now: Watch MP4 (iPhone/iPad)  In this first episode of Mobile App Development TV, we talk to Danny Maco, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who frequently serves as an advisor to startup companies here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and [...]