Attendance of Apps World Europe is set to double this October

There are many reasons why you should register for Apps World Europe now but the fact that the show, which will be held in London’s Earls Court 2, from 22-23 October, promises to be bigger and better than ever is perhaps the biggest reason.

The Apps World Europe show, which this year celebrates its fourth birthday, has doubled in size and will see more than 8,000 delegates visit more than 250 exhibitors for two days of top level networking, meetings, workshop streams and awards. It is THE place to see and be seen for anyone in the apps industry – from developers to mobile marketers. Here are 7 more reasons why Apps World Europe should be top of your agenda and why you really must book your place now:

1) 12 workshop streams

Apps World Europe will offer key note speakers in all the current hottest topics from some of the world’s biggest brands, including McDonalds, Carlsberg and BBC, and covering everything from gaming to mobile marketing and TV and second screen apps

2) More free access to content

There are now five free workshop streams including the developer zone and the return of the Droid World at Apps World Europe. For the first time visitors can also access the enterprise and gaming zones for free

3) Brand new dedicated workshop streams

New subject areas include M2M and automotive apps and API strategies, helping you tap into the latest thinking in these subject areas

4) Greater pass flexibility

Guests can register for free access, a Gold all areas Apps World Europe pass, or select from a range of passes that best suit their needs and budgets including networking, individual workshop and awards passes

5) The second Appsters Awards ceremony

12 awards that celebrate excellence in the apps industry, including the prestigious Apps Champion 2013. The awards are hosted by a showbiz celebrity and are free to enter so there is no excuse not to nominate your work

6) Hackfest

Three hackathons that will see developers compete to create a new app in categories such as TV and automotive with great prizes in store for the winners

7) The return of speed networking

Apps World Europe’s take on speed dating gives you 2 minutes with high level contacts as well as access to the Connectlive app which allows you to choose who you want to hook up with at the event

Book your place now at http://www.apps-world.net/europe

Diary note: Apps World can also exclusively reveal the date of the next Apps World North America, which will again be held in San Francisco in the US. The event will run from 5-6 February, 2014, at Moscone Center West.

If you have taken the effort to develop an app for the mobile market then the obvious choice is to use the same mobile and social media tools to market it but what gives you the best impact for encouraging consumers to discover your new app in a market that is so overcrowded?

1)      Make it unique

The beauty of apps is that they can be anything – from serious business tool to a simple but effective brand extension depending on how laterally you as a developer think. The more unique it is the more likely you will get talked about. For example toilet paper brand Charmin’s SitorSquat loo finder not only stops users getting caught short but also allows them to rate cleanliness – proving both a useful tool and a creative extension to the brand.

2)      Build your customer base early

It’s a nerve wracking decision to open yourself to scrutiny before you’ve even launched but early splash web pages that include the app branding, basic details about functionality and news about its development can help to build followers and interest in the app.

3)      Share on social media

At both developmental and launch stage sharing your app on social media will help increase visibility. Including social media links at the developmental stage also helps you identify and engage beta testers at a later stage.

4)      Encourage the hype by allowing first views

Developers and designers are increasingly opening up on sites such as Dribble and Forrst where they share ideas and works in progress with like-minded people which can also help with feedback and interest in the app.

5)      Get blogging

Continuing the dialogue about your app is vital to building an audience. Targeting apps focussed blogs and allowing them early exclusives also helps to build interest before launch whilst guest writing on blogs that relate to your target audience can also help to build users. This isn’t a opportunity for a blatant pitch but carefully crafted content that makes readers want to check out your app.

6)      Use mobile advertising

Considering pay per click advertising for your mobile app is an obvious opportunity but ensure this extends to mobile devices too so that your ad appears when customers need it.

7)      Be more targeted through social advertising

Facebook ads allow you to target your ads directly to your prospective customer base rather than to all, by allowing you to target people by demographics and interest which means they are more likely to convert to download your app. Facebook Mobile is cheaper than Facebook web ads and allows you to encourage direct installs too.

8)      Use affiliate marketing

Partnering with like-minded brands where the customer base could be interested in your app can help build a relevant customer base.

9)     Concentrate on ASO – (App Store Optimisation)

In the same way as SEO has worked on the web ASO works on mobile and is just as important if you are to stand out from the 600,000 iPhone apps and 450,000 Android apps currently in existence. There are various tools that can help such as AppCod.es which helps determine keywords your competitor’s apps are using, or App Store Optimisation Keyword Volume estimator which pretty much does what it says on the tin — telling you the most important keywords to use and how your app ranks against competitors.

10)      Consider specific mobile app marketing agencies

If all else fails or you simply don’t have the time to invest in the above tips then put it in the hands of the experts instead. There are a number of specialists in this area who will help.

Good luck! Now it’s time to go and get noticed!

1)      EBAY – Offer variety by going niche

EBay’s selection of targeted apps to meet its customer needs and improve their shopping experience is wide-ranging – from its full EBay store to the more targeted EBay Fashion and EBay Motors as well as its more niche apps such as ticket outlet StubHub! or entertainment media outlet half.com. However its RedLaser app allows EBay to further demonstrate the strength of its offer by allowing consumers to scan barcodes to find the best deals on eBay, online or in their local area and has recently been updated to add further functionality.

2)      TOYS R US – Be a useful tool

We’ve all faced the same problem of not knowing what toy to buy for a young child but Toys R US has turned that to its advantage with the Toys R Us Toy Finder. The key component of its latest app allows children to build wishlists from the company’s entire catalogue of products and share them with friends and family who can then buy with ease – a useful tool that really does help.

3)      ARGOS –Make it easy

It would be expected that Argos’ app would allow shoppers to do the basics such as allowing shoppers to check stock and reserve their products on the move as well as providing opening times and directions for their closest store.  But when the company launched the app it did so with a television ad campaign that also allowed viewers with the Shazam app to directly download the new Argos App via an onscreen Shazam prompt onscreen. As effortless as the app itself.

4)      GAP – Share the knowledge

Retailers have a wealth of information at their fingertips and at Gap the fashion giant is sharing that with its shoppers by allowing shoppers instore to scan barcodes which check availability of alternative sizes and colours and get further product information whilst also allowing them to share with their friends too, allowing them to email products they like to friends, family or themselves. Its sub brand Old Navy also adds a unique twist with its Snap Appy app that offers unexpected titbits – from deals to games or fashion advise each time you capture a photo of an Old Navy logo.

5)      TESCO – Add value and inspire

As the UK’s biggest retailer you would expect Tesco to allow shopping via its app but where the company really adds value with its mobile app is with its recipes, cooking tips and videos whilst its Ipad and Chrome app also includes meal planners that allow the shopper to add ingredients directly to their basket driving sales for the retailer and making the customer’s life just that little easier and increasing the basket size for Tesco.

6)      ASDA – Make it fun

Asda has learnt lots from its US parent Walmart and its app is award winning for its convenient features such as top as you go on delivery orders up to 11pm the night before and barcode scanning. At Walmart the app can even identify the aisle number for the product you are interested in. However Asda added a handy tool for busy mums with its interactive Easter Egg Hunt this Easter which allowed parents to take a photo of their children with an augmented reality virtual bunny to enter a competition for £100 to spend at the store. Meanwhile on Easter Saturday kids could use the app to find Zapcodes in an interactive Easter Egg hunt instore – a genius idea to drive footfall and keep kids busy.

Even though the first Android OS was rolled out in 2008, there have been plenty of innovations and alterations in those four and a half years, with each iteration of course named in alphabetical order after a saccharine sweet treat.

Key Lime Pie is set to feature at Google I/O on May 15-17, although nothing has been set in stone from the search giant as yet.

Take a look at the infographic below. Do you remember Android Cupcake, Donut and Eclair? 

The free to attend Droid World conference at Apps World on 22-23 October 2013 in London, featuring the now famous Android man, will look at Key Lime Pie extensively, examining its important features and how the OS will help app development. Find our more and register for free here.

For firms, developers and mobility specialists offering their own enterprise mobile solutions, partnership within an industry ecosystem can provide a route to increased market penetration and revenue generating opportunities; plus, partnership can afford access to the kind of marketing apparatus normally only available to huge corporations.

With access to a staggering user base of over a billion mobile users, many with specific mobility needs, SAP runs a successful partner ecosystem that generates many of the apps you’ll find in its app store.

Leiduck was keen to emphasize the opportunity this represents.

“To provide customers with the ready-to-implement mobile apps they need across all industries, 80% of our packaged mobile apps need to come from our ecosystem of partners,” says the firm.  “That’s why SAP wants you to invite you to learn more and be one of the innovative partners that build apps on the SAP Mobile Platform and reach millions of SAP users through the SAP Store.”

Here’s more information on how to get involved with SAP’s Mobile Apps Partner Program.

The platform offers a unique and validated approach to app discovery, offering iPad and iPhone users a the chance to download one paid app for free every day, in order to introduce them to services they might otherwise never find.

This also enables developers to build visibility for their undiscovered apps.

The service now regularly drives between 500,000 to 1 million daily downloads, with three million of its 10 million users visiting the app at least once a day, sending member apps into the top five and beyond in the iTunes App Store as a consequence.

When Paris-based AppGratis featured EDGE Extended, a critically acclaimed iOS game developed by Mobigame, the promotion drove over a million downloads for the app in 24 hours, including over 330,000 in the U.S alone.

“AppGratis moved the needle for us and helped put EDGE Extended in the spotlight,” said David Papazian, CEO of Mobigame.

“They drove downloads for EDGE Extended internationally, getting the app into the hands of people who actually wanted to play our game and helping us reach people we never would have otherwise. AppGratis is the leader in app discovery and is a strong partner that delivers real results.”
Download AppGratis from the App Store.

Photography by May Suen / may@maysuen.com / maysuen.com 

It’s time to get the game-faces back on this morning, as we have a whole heap of top-level apps industry discussion to look forward to. Here’s a short selection of some of the in-depth, not-to-miss sessions you can catch today.

If you’re unlucky enough not to be at the event today, you can still follow the discussion using the Twitter hashtag #AppsWorld. If you’re here at the Moscone, looking to make useful contacts, you might want to head down to the Connect Live zone, near registration, between 1.00 and 1.45 for today’s speed networking sessions; talk fast and make friends.

Still recovering from Sunday’s Super bowl? Football fans won’t want to miss this afternoon’s keynote in the TV Track at 2.00, when Manish Jha, GM of mobile at the NFL delivers a presentation on his view of the ongoing development of second screen services in television, and how they can enhance the user viewing experience and interactivity.

Developers

If you’re working with HTML5, or looking for some expert insight on how you might do so in the future, you’ve come to the right place today.

Game developers or gaming fans will be interested to hear how leading dev Grant Skinner and his team brought some of the best loved 80s arcade classics to a new audience using Create JS and HTML5. Don’t miss this in the Developer Track at 11.20.

West coast start-up guru Steve Newcomb’s current role as founder and CEO of Famo.us allows his to indulge his passion for developing in HTML5. His session in the HTML5 track at 10.45 will deliver a ton of solid developer advice. He’ll deliver the lessons learned from famo.us’ two year journey, where they went from duck taping hell to finally returning to proper engineering and once again enjoying their jobs. “This talk will help you avoid their mistakes and hopefully arm you with tools,” he says, “rendering engine knowledge and coding techniques to tame your hornet’s nest.”

Akshay Shrivastava, director of mobile and connected services at Turner Broadcasting, will be adding to the HTML5 track discussion at 12.00, when he examines how the standard weaves into technology strategy, and how this can align with business’ mobile goals.

“Creating compelling HTML5 apps – How to get the look and feel right of HTML5 based apps” is the title of the afternoon’s main HTML5 panel discussion today at 2.00.Featuring representatives from Pinterest, PhoneGap, Enyo and Microsoft, plus another appearance from Grant Skinner, this is the place to be this afternoon if you want your development questions answered.

Marketing & Publishing

In the marketing track this morning, experts from AT&T, M&C Saatche Mobile, Urban Airship and mBlox will be joined by Asif Khan, Founder and President of the Location Based Marketing Association to discuss how location technology can be applied to marketing strategies.  THey’ll examine how location adds a third dimension to search functionality and how this can be incorporated into your strategy. That’s “Innovation with location based marketing strategies and mobile” at 11.30.

The publishing industry was an early adopter of digital and mobile technologies, and the trend has been making seismic waves across the sector for years. “How to create a positive experience for users and advertisers” has always been one of the key questions. At 2.00, a panel of leading experts from brands like The Washington Post; magazine publisher Rodale, journal publisher SAGE Publictions; book publishing heavyweight Random House; and the Online Publishers Association will attempt to tackle that very issue.

Enterprise

Many enterprise apps fail, it’s a fact; often they just don’t generate the user uptake required to justify their existence, but why? At 10.00 this morning, Dr Brian Laughlin, Technical Fellow, Technical Architecture and Strategic Planning at The Boeing Co will look at how many app implementations are managed, and attempt to answer this question.

A large number of developers claim that there’s gold in them there enterprise hills. Businesses are used to paying good money for reliable, high-quality IT, and apps are no exception. At10.30 this morning in the enterprise track, there’s a panel discussion that looks at how developers can approach the enterprise market. Compsoft, ShinobiControls, Intel, Rackspace, TabTimes and Box Communities will examine the issues.

Have a great second day at Apps World. This show is all about helping people make connections, so please get involved, ask questions, swap business cards, and help us take the conversation online using the Twitter hashtag #AppsWorld.

The BB10 launch, when it came last week, happened with a simultaneous bang in Dubai, Johannesburg, London, New York, Paris and Toronto; and threw up a few surprises as well as expected features.

The company unveiled two new smartphones, the Q10, with the BlackBerry trademark QWERTY keyboard; and the Z10, a touchscreen device.

Apps World in San Francisco today, 8 Feb, is the perfect opportunity for HTML5 developers to learn more about how they can become BlackBerry App World developers.

“BlackBerry has rightly focused on ensuring that the BlackBerry 10 devices have a large catalogue of content and applications,” commented Ovum analyst Adam Leach following the BB10 launch. “Which is now essential for any modern smartphone, and achieving 70,000 applications at the launch of a new platform is a good start.”

But 70,000 apps on launch is no coincidence. The team behind BlackBerry’s developer relations has been furiously hard at work over the last year, giving out over 40,000 free devices and repeatedly circling the globe, succeeding in drumming up developer enthusiasm for this long awaited new platform; read CNET’s excellent account of BB’s Alec Saunders’ [@asaunders] 48 week developer relations odyssey here.

Even so, BlackBerry are still keen to recruit new devs and add new apps to their platform, so for every app that’s submitted from the Apps World show, the team will be offering the chance to win one of ten BB10 devices.

And with initial user feedback on the new platform broadly positive, developers don’t stand to lose anything by spending as little as ten minutes porting their existing apps over to the new platform.

Get prepared: there are a few things you’ll want to have ready before you go to meet the team:

Become a BlackBerry App World developer.

Request the signature keys.

Install the tools and plug-ins.

Apps World kicks off again this morning at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, but it’s still not too late to get involved. Get yourself down to the Moscone, or find out how to register for your free developer pass here: http://www.apps-world.net/northamerica/

For firms, developers and mobility specialists offering their own enterprise mobile solutions, partnership within an industry ecosystem can provide a route to increased market penetration and revenue generating opportunities; plus, partnership can afford access to the kind of marketing apparatus normally only available to huge corporations.

With access to a staggering user base of over a billion mobile users, many with specific mobility needs, SAP runs a successful partner ecosystem that generates many of the apps you’ll find in its app store.

Leiduck was keen to emphasize the opportunity this represents.

“To provide customers with the ready-to-implement mobile apps they need across all industries, 80% of our packaged mobile apps need to come from our ecosystem of partners,” says the firm. “That’s why SAP wants you to invite you to learn more and be one of the innovative partners that build apps on the SAP Mobile Platform and reach millions of SAP users through the SAP Store.”

Here’s more information on how to get involved with SAP’s Mobile Apps Partner Program.