A recent Read Write article highlights six apps created by non-tech companies that writer Brian Hall feels are great apps that please users.

Each of the six apps … fully delivers on the company’s core business – making me want to remain (or become) a customer. Beyond that, they are all surprisingly intuitive and helpful. The key characteristic they share? An overriding concern for the user.

I’m glad Brian sees the benefits in these apps and I’m sure these six companies are happy to get the call out. But deciding an app is nice, useful and worth while is an extremely subjective thing – we all have our favorites.* The bigger question for these companies is – do the majority of people agree with Brian? Star ratings are helpful, but they don’t give app makers a lot of insight into why a user feels that way.

To find out if Brian has company in his fandom let’s take a look at some hard data surrounding these apps. Of the six apps highlighted in the article, CVS, Chase and MLB.com have enough Applause data to analyze.

CVS

Brian likes this app for its multiple functions and because it’s “simple to use and packed with helpful customer-facing features.”

The CVS app makes great use of multiple smartphone functions. You can easily find a nearby store, use digital coupons to save money, then collect points for additional savings – all within the app.

Scan your prescription’s barcode with your smartphone camera to have your medications refilled. If you want a picture from your smartphone’s camera printed out, that’s easy, too.

Other users largely agree, the iOS app has an Applause Score of 69. While there is room for improvement (most noticeably around app elegance – users are torn between loving the app’s look and hating it) CVS exceeds user expectations when it comes to app usability,  performance and content. In fact, the most commonly used words in reviews are “great,” “love,” “easy” and other generally positive words about the app’s usability and overall usefulness.

The one thing CVS can look into right away is password and login security, which are the source of a number of negative reviews.

(The Android version of the app doesn’t have Applause data at the moment.)

Chase

Brain recognizes that he might be in the minority when it comes to loving the Chase app. But compared to other banking apps, he said, this one stands out in a good way.

Read more …

Applause has received much attention since its debut in January. It is currently a finalist for: the 2013 CTIA E-Tech Awards in the “Enterprise Solution – General Business” category; the 2013 MITX awards in the “Most Insightful: Big Data and Analytics Innovations” category; and the 2013 Stevie Awards in the category of “Tech Innovation of the Year (up to 1,000 employees).”

Well we’re proud to add to that with some great news: Applause has been selected as a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner in the *”Cool Vendors in Mobile Marketing, 2013” report. The recognition comes less than two months after the launch of the Applause Index, the first-ever stock market-like index for the mobile apps economy, and just a few weeks after Applause expanded to begin crawling apps in the Windows Phone Store.

Gartner’s “Cool Vendors in Mobile Marketing, 2013″ “reflects a focus on the areas  Gartner believes form the foundation for any good mobile marketing strategy: platforms, analytics and the ability of a brand or service provider to tie online and offline worlds via mobile devices. Each of the vendors profiled in this year’s research enables or provides one or more of these areas.”

As we know here at Blog Central, mobile apps play an increasingly vital role in how users consume content, conduct commerce and interact with companies.

”Mobile marketers, mobile app developers and digital marketing leaders all have a substantial stake in understanding user engagement with their mobile apps. Flying blind or looking at download metrics alone isn’t sufficient for managing growth and monetization of mobile apps,” stated Gartner in the report.

*”Cool Vendors in Mobile Marketing, 2013” – Mike McGuire and Jake Sorofman, April 26, 2013

If you’ve been following the Applause Index, then you’ve seen the daily ups and down of the Android and iOS app stores. The cumulative numbers tell any interesting story – that iOS apps top their Android counterparts in terms of their overall Applause score. This is true of almost every major category.

At the time of this writing, however, there is one exception: the category of Content, News & Books. The overall score in this category for iOS is 4395, while Android posts a score of 4416. Here is a breakdown of the apps themselves:

Want to dig deeper into the numbers?

Check out the Applause Index Now >>>

Every decade or so there’s a shift of the technology we find implanted in our cars’ dashboards. From 8 tracks to cassettes, CD players to MP3 connections, now the latest shift is leveraging your smart phone to interact with apps. The connected car is here, but how is it fairing?

Well, the good news for manufacturers is that the majority of the scores for their apps, which communicate with the vehicles they manufacture, are within the same range. Unfortunately, whether on iOS or Android, that range is typically in the 20s – 30s for an Applause Score.

So what’s driving (no pun intended) these low scores? Looking across the board, there appears to be dissatisfaction with the usability and stability of these apps. For many, creating the connection with the car is a headache, and is inconsistent.  As these apps evolve and provide both entertainment and functionality (locking and unlocking of your car), users appear to desire a more usable app that just works.

If auto manufacturers are looking to apps to help sell their cars, they’ll have to avoid quotes such as:

“I think this app is the worst waste of all your time and energy trying to make it work and it didn’t work I hope by the time my lease is up the 2014s will be much better or force me to go somewhere else.”

There is one exception to the trend. Tesla, the manufacturer of American-made all-electric vehicles, has Applause Scores more on par with tech companies than auto manufacturers. These apps are rated highly in Usability. Are Tesla users more forgiving of their app experience because they are fans of their vehicles, or does it take a company that is disrupting the car industry to disrupt the car app industry?

Would you change cars to get a better app experience?

What are users saying about your app – and how can you respond to their needs? Maintaining loyalty and user engagement is perhaps the biggest challenge for app developers.

But major players like Google are making moves to bridge the communication gap between developers and users. Google yesterday announced that all developers can now reply to reviews of their apps on Google Play. According to The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino:

“This ability will allow developers to complete the circuit of communication, offering them the ability to create a conversation, rather than a one-sided complaint forum. This is something that I’ve been waiting for Apple to do for some time now, especially since its acquisition of Chomp, so bravo to Google.

‘You can reply to user reviews in the Google Play Developer Console, and your replies are shown publicly below the corresponding user review on Google Play,’ says Google Play Product Manager Ellie Powers. ‘Users receive an email notification when you reply and can either reply to you directly by email, or update their review if they choose to do so — though keep in mind that users are not obligated to update their reviews. You can also update your reply at any time.’”

But responding to users is only the second half of the battle. Listening, knowing what yours users are saying through consumable data, is more important than ever.

This also places a bigger burden on developers; Will users expect a response to their review, and will developers be able to dig through all the clutter? What if a developer has multiple apps that have thousands of reviews, each? Without a tool to help you gauge what your users are saying, trying to manage your Google Play Reviews could take a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Through Applause, developers can quickly gauge what users are saying about their application and make informed decisions on how to respond to their users (through an app update, a reply on Google Play, etc). For example, if a lot of users are writing reviews containing words like “confusing”, “weird” or “poor design” you may want to revisit your app’s usability – whereas if your users are writing reviews mentioning the app “crashed” or “froze” you’ll need to address your app’s stability.

Listening and diagnosing the problem will give you a better idea of what action to take, if you need to respond to your Android user reviews, and which ones specifically to respond to. Google’s announcement is further validation of the importance of listening and monitoring what your application’s users are saying. It’s no longer acceptable to develop an app and abandon it. Maintaining a feedback loop, and utilizing tools that make it easier to do so, are necessary ingredients to success.

Don’t let your users feel like, as Panzarino says, your app reviews are a “one-sided complaint forum”.

Find an app in Applause now>>

When developing apps for children, privacy and appropriate content become even more important. Privacy and content are two of the “three reasons why building a viral app for kids is harder than it looks,” according to a Gigaom article.

One of the biggest hurdles for app developers — which should comfort parents concerned about the privacy of their kids — is complying with COPPA, the regulations from the FTC that limit the data that developers can collect from kids like names or photos, and which require developers to attain permission from parents before they acquire any data. …

Shai Samet, a lawyer and privacy consultant who runs the startup kidSAFE Seal Program, talked about how developers can work with the COPPA guidelines to create apps for kids, reminding them that all sorts of information, from real names to photos to videos to geolocation, is all information you need parental consent to collect. You also can’t include social plug-ins for apps like Facebook, or include behavior tracking ads like Google ads, both of which are common monetization strategies, if they’re targeted at kids.

Before your app hits the market you need to do extensive reviewing and testing to make sure you’re complying with COPPA – and that parents feel you’re complying. Test in-the-wild with parents whose children could be potential users. These parents know what they look for in an app, so they’ll know if something is missing – internal QA staff or testers who aren’t parents might not notice.

Once your app is launched it’s important that you don’t stop monitoring. A privacy issue might have slipped through the cracks or something you thought was innocent might make parents uncomfortable. Maybe it’s too easy for young users to lie about their age and access an app that then collects their information as if they were an adult. The Privacy attribute in Applause will help you monitor user sentiment and the attribute signals breakdown and review stream can help you pinpoint any issues.

Content is particularly tricky when it comes to children’s’ apps. You need to make sure the app content is age appropriate, makes sense to children and meets parents’ expectations – no easy feat.

Read more …

Since the age of the smartphone, our society has replaced innumerable activities in favor of their digital counterparts. It’s difficult to think back to the way things were before these mini super computers were on hand at all times. Before the modern cell phone or smartphone, cellular devices were used to make calls and that was about it. Eventually we began seeing ringtones, games, cameras and text messaging being added. These building blocks allowed for more sophisticated mobile operating systems to reach the point they have today … and these five things have never been the same.

1)      Alarm Clocks – The days of slamming your fist into the audible beacon of the waking world have been dwindling into obscurity for years now. Your smartphone can be programmed to go off to any song you desire at multiple times to allow for maximum snoozing. Alarms can even be set to go off based on the user’s location, so if you’re getting some shut eye on the train, you can set that Prince ringtone to go off when you reach your stop. It’s a pretty amazing world we live in when you can reign supreme over the infamous sandman. Plus, these new alarms offer so much more than the old dress-top versions.

Nightstand is a visually stunning app that brings a nightlight, alarm, weather feed, timer and flashlight all to your bedside. With an Applause Score of 73, users seem pretty pleased with their new alarm.

2)      Newspapers – Almost every aspect of printed media has made its way to our tapping fingertips, which means the newspaper has migrated in a big way. Developers now create apps, e-readers, RSS feeds and social media tools to push information to the masses. Nearly every major newspaper or magazine in the country has made their content available on mobile devices at this point. At long last, you can read the latest issue of ‘Grapes Monthly’ when you’re not within throwing distance of the nearest magazine stand.

Flipboard is the best of both worlds in that you can specify which types of news you’d like to see and it will organize it into separate boxes for you to flip through at your earliest convenience. Pulling from all over the internet, it will create your perfect newspaper residing completely within your own phone. With an Applause Score of 85, it doesn’t look like users want to go back to the old way any time soon.

3)      Asking – “What band is this?” – Let’s be honest, smartphones replaced the Walkman a long time ago, but what improvements has it made to music on-the-go? No longer simply playing content loaded on the device itself, we’re able to stream almost any form of aural media, from music or podcasts to audio books or even police scanner feeds.

Read more …

Can’t figure out why your mobile app is losing users? Your app might be loading and operating too slowly.

Often times software developers overlook their app’s performance, and focus on usability and other aspects of their app. While other forms of app testing are equally important, if your app isn’t running smoothly, well, odds are your users are going to move on.

Jennifer Lent, of TechTarget, says that app developers don’t pay enough attention to performance from the get-go:

“Software teams don’t pay enough attention to the performance management process. In fact, they don’t see it as a process at all. Instead of architecting apps to run fast from the get-go — and coding and testing them with performance goals in mind — they take a wait-and-see approach, hoping the software won’t run into trouble when in production.

When the inevitable happens — poor performance — operations managers rush in to find and fix the bottlenecks. They are firefighters putting out a blaze without taking measures to prevent it in the first place.”

So how do you prevent poor performance in the first place? In the wild load testing can help you identify an app’s bottleneck before users do. In order to prevent issues, performance has to become a development team’s priority during both development and QA.

Post-launch, monitoring you’re app’s performance based on what users are saying will help you gauge where you need to improve. Here’s a look at a few of the top apps in Applause, and their Applause Performance scores:

IMDb Movies & TV

The top Entertainment app in Applause, IMDB Movies & TV for iOS ranks 89 overall. Specifically IMDb’s Performance ranks 93. Many user reviews in the Applause Review Stream mention the apps speed; such as, “I use it all the time. Accurate, fast…”,  “One of the best apps for movies. So fast, so accurate..” and “Complete and fast to use”.

Trainyard

The top Game app in Applause, Trainyard for iOS ranks 96 overall. In addition, Trainyard’s Performance ranks 94. Many user reviews in the Applause Review Stream mention the app’s ‘fast-paced’ performance; such as, “Fast paced puzzles, with a variety of difficult levels” and “For anyone who likes a faced paced addictive puzzle game… WORTH EVERY PENNY”.

Jump Desktop

the top Business app in Applause, Jump desktop for iOS ranks 91 overall. Jump Desktop’s Performance ranks 91, as well. User reviews in the Applause Review Stream mention the app’s speed; such as, “Works great on PC and Mac, but I notice the speed on Mac is a little slower”, “Impressive speed and touch accuracy”, “…speed and clarity from my iPad works good even when not on Wifi”.

By looking for words within in your Applause Review Stream such as ‘doesn’t work’ and ‘slow/fast’, you can gauge on a large scale which aspects of your app’s performance are working, and those that are not.

Want to check out your app’s performance on Applause? Find your app.

According to Buzzfeed there are currently over 78 highly produced TV shows or pilots available for viewing online. From my personal favorite, House of Cards on Netflix, to 14 pilots on Amazon.com, providers are scrambling to provide content for more screens in more places.

There’s a catch though. Much like channels on TV each content provider has their own offerings, but unlike traditional cable none of them are bundled together. If you like one or two shows from each provider you’ll have to fork over $7 here and $7 there, quickly adding up to or exceeding the cost of that cable bill you so desperately wanted to cut.

So then what is it that will differentiate our entertainment apps in the future? Well, in order to capture my $7 a month I have to find enough of the content compelling. Looking at the Applause scores for the top three providers (Amazon, Netflix and Hulu) the numbers don’t look that good. The Applause Attribute scores for Content average out to about 30 points (out of 100). Hmm, that doesn’t seem promising.

When we designed Applause, we aimed to take the mouthpiece and soapboxes that consumers have and analyze all of the noise into easy-to-takeaway actionable data. Well, here we have it: the users are saying content providers aren’t providing compelling enough content. As more shows appear online, will the fates change? Are content providers listening to their viewers? Sure, there are implicit analytics in how many subscribers stay with a service after watching a series. But what is it that the viewers are saying? Is one show enough to keep them hooked or do they need a smorgasbord of new content?

What do you think users roles are in the future of “TV” content?