Following the announcement by UK department store giant John Lewis that it has surpassed £1 billion sales online a year earlier than expected the retailer also revealed a new £40 million web platform, a revamp of its mobile site which now accounts for 25% of traffic, and announced that will launch a new app later this year. It’s no surprise they are revisiting an already successful app after research from Flurry Analytics earlier this year revealed shoppers spent six times as long in mobile retail apps in December than a year previous. Such apps need to do more than simply be an entrance to the company’s mobile store and truly add value. So with apps now central to building loyalty and traffic what are retailers doing to stand out and what lessons can be learnt?

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. (more…)

Good morning to all developers, mobility specialists, mobile marketers and app industry professionals! The waiting’s finally at an end; Apps World North America is up and running at the Moscone Center West.

Day one of Apps World promises great excitement, with vaunted speakers doling out spoonfuls of sparkling content on a variety of topics.

From monetisation to mobilisation, expertise will be provided by companies such as Twitter, CBS Interactive and National Geographic among others across 10 conference tracks, alongside a free exhibition hall with over 150 exhibitors. (more…)

Apps World will be seeing in 2013 with a return trip to North America following on from the success this year’s Europe show. On February 7th and 8th next year the global apps event will be taking over the dynamic Moscone Center in San Francisco’s urban center, for 2 days of discussion and debate around the mobile app ecosystem, amongst a bustling exhibition with 80+ leading technology players.

This year Apps World North America will be showcasing 6 niche workshop tracks, covering areas including Mobile Marketing & Advertising, Gaming & Web Apps,HTML 5, Mobile Payments NFC, TV & Multiscreen Apps and Automotive Apps. Half of the two day agenda will be the free to attend Developer Zone, Droid World and Enterprise Apps workshops tackling key issues for developers. (more…)

So that’s the Apps World London live show for another year, thanks to everyone who came down, took part, got involved or even followed the event remotely.

Many thanks to all our exhibitors and sponsors for enabling us to put on our biggest ever show. The numbers are in and we’ve had almost 6000 visitors through the door this year, and you’ve helped Apps World cement its place as one of the foremost European apps industry events. Special thanks to our Diamond sponsor Samsung, and our Platinum sponsors BlackBerry, Yandex, Microsoft, SAP and Brightcove.

We’ve heard some fascinating talks, presentations and workshops across ten conference tracks, covering everything from TV apps, mobile marketing and game development, to enterprise mobility, mobile payment and operator app strategies. The free-to-attend developer tracks were packed on both days, with the HTML5 track proving particularly popular.

In previous years you would’ve had to wait a full twelve months before your next slice of Apps World action, but this year we’re making the majority of sessions available to paid delegates as downloadable podcasts, enabling you to enjoy first class industry advice and insight all year round. There will be additional streamed content to come via our partners.

There was another awesome first this year, as we held the inaugural Appsters Awards, complete with TV comedian host and vodka ice luge, at the sumptuous Kensington Roof Gardens on Tuesday night. Judged by a crack team of industry experts, the Appsters whittled down over 250 nominees to a shortlist of 70, and finally winners in 12 categories.

Congratulations to all the winners, and particularly to Bristol-based developer Mubaloo, who scooped both Best Developer and the overall Appsters Champion 2012 award. The after party was a cracker, the dancing was borderline illegal and we suspect there may have been some sore heads on the conference floor this morning. Well done you troopers! Click here for a list of all the Appsters winners.

That’s it for this year. It’s been emotional. More content to follow when we get back to the office!

The winners have been announced in the first ever Appsters Awards, celebrating excellence and achievement in the apps industry.

The glitzy Awards ceremony at Kensington Roof Gardens, hosted by TV comedian Miles Jupp, was a who’s who of the apps industry. It was a good night for British talent, with the BBC’s 2012 Olympics app, Bristol-based developer Mubaloo and the interactive Tube Map app from mxData all taking the top prizes in their category.

With a shortlist of over 70 nominees, Awards were handed out across 12 categories, including Best Consumer App [London 2012], Best Entertainment App [BBC Olympics app], Best Use of Geo-Location [Tube Map] and App Developer 2012 [Mubaloo].

A panel of expert industry judges scored each nominee individually to determine the winners. However, two special categories were decided differently from the others.
Start-up app 2012 finalists had to pitch their ideas to a live audience and a panel of judges at the Apps World conference at Earls Court on Tuesday, with the winner decided by live audience voting as well as judges scoring.

Appsters Champion 2012 was awarded to the finalist with the largest cumulative score from all competition judges.

Mark Mason, CEO of Appsters Champion Mubaloo, said: “It’s been fantastic. Three and a half years ago, there were four of us in the show. We just had an inkling that the B2B and enterprise market was going to be huge.

“These awards are the confirmation of all our hard work over the last three and a half years.”

CreditCall’s Commercial Director Sian Bosley on winning the Best Payment App Award said: “We strive to offer the most secure and forward thinking solutions. It has taken us over two years to navigate the complexities of EMV and UK payment regulations to ensure that it has the required certification to fulfil all card scheme needs.

“We are honoured and delighted to have won this professional recognition and to have been cited for our innovations in this booming industry.”

Appsters Awards 2012 Winners
Best entertainment app – BBC Olympics app
Best enterprise app – SwiftKey Healthcare
Best consumer app – London 2012
Best payment app – CardEase Mobile by CreditCall
Best TV app – PlayJam
Best use of geo-location – Tube Map by mxData
Best visual design – Shutterstock by Xtreme Labs
Most innovative app – Speech Pathology by Gravitywell
Start-up app 2012 – Soundrop
Mobile Marketing Agency 2012 – bolser
App Developer 2012 – Mubaloo – creator of the MET Office Weather app
Appster Champion 2012 – Mubaloo

By Davoc Bradley – Head of Mobile, Redware

Smartphones and tablet devices have dominated the market since their introduction and in our personal lives, we are using them to complete more and more of our tasks. From mobile banking, to keeping all our notes, shopping lists, appointments and emails in the vast array of apps that are out there, we are increasingly keeping more of our lives on them.

This trend is only set to continue, with tablet devices still in their infancy and new tablets always coming out, like the windows 8 surface tablet. As a market, it has gained traction quicker than any other product. Alongside this, the smartphone market is consistently innovating and we are seeing more and more sophisticated models on the market year on year.

For businesses this trend is no different. In a recent survey by IMC, 90% of the respondents already owned a smartphone and 42% of them a tablet device. 60% of the respondents companies already allowed mobile devices on their networks, but their use is still very much limited to accessing email and calendars with only some of the larger companies using the full capabilities of app’s for their business. (more…)

MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce is hosting lunch briefings over the two days of Apps World at Earls Court 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The trade association has drafted in some top-level industry expertise to deliver two cutting edge sessions. Open to all #AppsWorld visitors.

The first is an in-depth mCommerce Legal Check-Up on day one, followed by an analytics briefing on developing for a global mobile audience.

Both sessions are free to attend and will take place in the MEF Lounge near the Mobile Content and Commerce Village. (more…)

With only days until Apps World on 2-3 October, which means we’re agonisingly close to learning who the first ever Appsters Awards winners will be.

Our judging panel has been over 70 finalists across twelve industry categories. The judging team has been tirelessly scoring, comparing and contrasting the highly varied field, based on their interpretation of a number of key factors involving strategic objectives, innovation, feasibility and measurements of success.

There’s been laughter, tears, heated debate and lots of coffee. But as we near the end of the process, excitement is building towards the Awards ceremony on 2 October at the Kensington Roof Gardens. (more…)

A recent poll conducted by learning and mobile technology firm Redware amongst staff revealed interesting findings about the changes in mobile phone usage since the nineties and highlights some of the most popular apps today.

Nearly half of staff surveyed were the proud owners of a Nokia from the mid nineties onwards, with models such as the 3210 being popular.  A handful also owned a Motorola or a Sony Ericsson.  Today that’s changed significantly with the dawn of the smartphone with users owning an iPhone, Blackberry or HTC handset.

Whilst early mobile phones meant that people became available anytime and anywhere to receive calls and people could get access to answers and information on the go, today staff see the main purpose of their mobile and smart phones as being very different.  Email, music, social media and children’s games were the most commons uses today.  In the nineties users revelled in the fact that they didn’t have to be at home to take a call, could make social plans via text and could pose to impress the girls with their new gadgets! (more…)

Most applications do not generate revenues from paid downloads, but they serve other purposes. They can generate revenue with adjacent services like advertisements, in-app purchases or as a channel for larger service offerings, like mobile payments, retail, customer service, auction sites, banking applications or engaging customers with your brand.

If your application is built as a part of larger mobile strategy and it gets uninstalled due to bugs or other failures, you have limited your possibility to generate any revenues with your strategy, and a lot of expensive development and marketing work is quickly wasted.

Low ratings come from users who have problems with an app crashing, perhaps after a new version of the app was issued. (more…)