5 ways to create your own iPhone app
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 3:00PM
With the explosion of smart
phones over the past year, more and more companies are moving beyond websites
and social media to embrace the mobile revolution. This year looks to finally
be the year of the mobile phone that people have been predicting for the past
five years. Last year, if you didn’t have a Twitter account and a Facebook Fan
Page, you weren’t in the game. This year’s must have property is an iPhone app.
iPhone apps are a great way to
enable brand/consumer interaction and building brand equity. Most businesses
think an iPhone app is financially and technically beyond their means. The good
news is both of those issues are no longer true. I looked around the web and
noticed there are several sites that allow you to create your own iPhone app
and publish it either for free or for a small fee.
I set out to discover what options
non-developers have for creating iPhone apps without spending too much. I sat
down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that businesses might
want in an iPhone app-creating-tool. We wanted:
- an easy-to-use interface for both creating and
updating apps - to get the hang of it quickly
- the software to be web based
- to integrate Twitter (in-app)
- to link in YouTube (in-app)
- to link in Flickr (in-app)
- Facebook groups (in-app)
- to enable RSS-feeds (blogs)
- a high level of customization (interface and
design) - unlimited updates
- analytics
- the ability to make an Android version
The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and
registered. I took a screenshot of a relevant part of the interface and then
spent some time playing around with it. A decent site should be able to explain
itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my
wish list.
allows you to classify the app from 17 different categories, such as
Professional Service, Government Organization or Business Directory. The customization
is limited to being able to upload your own graphics, such as background and
app icons as jpg files or by direct input. At the moment, RSS-feeds are not
supported, but according to Buildanapp this function, along with Twitter
integration, will be added later this month. Linking URL’s is supposedly
supported, but I couldn’t get it to work.
Pros: Multiple platforms (iPhone, Blackberry and Windows
based), easy to use
Cons: Too basic, no RSS, no natural way of integrating social media
Price: $7.99/update, $19.99 to post to Apple app store
Rating:
Kanchoo is rich in content management and text formatting
tools, making the app well suited for news distribution. Graphics like button
icons, backgrounds and splash pages are pretty much the only things you can
customize, which is a shame since it’s an excellent way for a company to
present themselves. Kanchoo takes some time to get the hang of and the
interface is overly complex. To preview your app before you submit it, you need
to download software.
Pros: Very useful if you’re working in the news industry
Cons: Takes time to learn, expensive
Price: Initial submission fee 88$. Hosting is 28$/month.
Rating:
MobileRoadie creates apps for the iPhone and Android phones.
The tool is highly customizable, allowing the creator to integrate the most
popular social media assets, a store, RSS, a wall for user/brand interaction,
geo segmentation and stats on number of downloads and what excerpts are most
popular. A fun and easy app well worth checking out – if you’ve got a chunk of
change to burn.
Pros: Easy-to-use, social media friendly, rich features
Cons: Too expensive
Price: setup fee $499. Hosting is $29/month.
Rating:
Mobbase is an app positioned for musicians and their fans,
but this web-based service includes many features applicable for brand
promotion as well. The app is extremely customizable, allowing you to define
all the graphics including individual backgrounds on every page, the design and
layout of the buttons, splash pages, bottom bars, etc. The service integrates
most of the desirable social media tools such as Twitter (sorting by username,
@mentions and #hashtags), videos (YouTube: entire channel, specific video or
tags), photos (“sets” if you’re using Flickr or Albums with Picasa), blogs and
RSS (two streams) in a natural way, along with a few other interesting features.
Pros: Highly customizable, easy-to-use, social media
friendly
Cons: Can’t change name of buttons, analytics only tracks number of downloads
Price: $20 activation fee + $5/month for first 500 downloads, $1/month for
every 1000 downloads after that.
Rating:
Swebapps is a rich app-creating tool intended for companies.
Choose whether you want 4, 6 or 8 buttons and select among more than 30
features, including Facebook, a portfolio, Twitter and podcasts. There is an
extra analytics feature called app-tracker that measures not only the numbers
of downloads, but what buttons are used the most. The service is very intuitive
and simple while still offering a lot.
Pros: Intuitive and easy-to-use, good analytics, client signup, many RSS feeds
Cons: Rather expensive, can only add one Twitter account
Price: $50/button, $10 app tracker,
hosting fee $25/month
Rating:
Conclusion:
All the app creating apps tested were useful, but it comes down to what your
ambition level is, how much you’re willing to spend and who your target is. The
most social media friendly were Mobbase and Mobile Roadie. These were also my personal
favorites, as they enable a great deal of customization and have loads of
interesting features to get my creative juices flowing. The other apps had some
great features – especially the analytics with Swebapps. But Mobbase takes home
the gold as Mobile Roadie and Swebapps are priced much higher without offering
a whole lot more.
Reader Comments (10)
1. While we may be a bit more expensive than others, you get what you pay for. None of the other companies mentioned have a commenting system which spreads FAN ACTIVITY back to FB and Twitter. This is a key differentiator that helps our customers grow their apps virally.
2. None of the other companies offer the option to have geo targeted push notifications. Huge deal for our customers.
3. Mobbase in particular requires you to click on a button to "update" content when there is new content. MR apps automatically detect new content and load it in.
I could continue, but the bottom line is that you get what you pay for. MR customers sell more music, tickets, and merch, and have their fans come back for more and spread the word for them.
M
Thanks for leaving a comment. Mobile Roadie looks to be one of the stars of SXSW this year. Good luck next week.
I agree with your points. For a person just getting started or wanting to play with creating an iPhone app, there are cheaper, less dynamic versions. Mobile Roadie isn't so expensive that someone looking to get serious would be swayed from your product.
Stefan