The BuyPhone: Why the iPhone App is not the New Second Life, so Stop Asking.
posted by Ryan McManus 
on September 03, 2008 at 12:40 PM
filed under: Internet Culture, Advertising, Process, and Brands
Ryan McManus
Art Director : New York
topics: Photography, Creativity, Art Direction, Strategy, and New York
filed under: Internet Culture, Advertising, Process, and Brands
Good lord, have we had a lot of requests for iPhone Apps lately.
And who can blame these companies? With the iPhone fast becoming one of the most prolific and exciting new developments in mobile computing, with the App Store seeing stratospheric download rates and profits, who wouldn’t want a piece of the action? If you’ve got a brand, you need an iPhone App.
Except, really, you don’t.
Toby
summed it up nicely yesterday:
Toby Boudreaux
CTO : New York
topics: Social Networking and Community, Technology Industry, Microsites and Minisites, Rock and Roll, and Internet Culture
“We need an iPhone App!” “OK, what problem does it solve?” “The fact that we don’t have an iPhone App!”
Companies are poised to try to crown the iPhone App as the new killer ad platform, following such illustrious benchmarks as the Facebook App, the SecondLife Location, the MySpace Profile, The Social Network, and the MiniSite (shudder). And, truth be told, we’ve been there for most of those milestones, some famously so
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Burger King Subservient Chicken
Burger King for Crispin Porter and Bogusky
topics: Internet Video, Viral Marketing, Flash, Agency Collaboration, Advertising, Barbarian History, Content, Design, Entertainment, Internet Culture, and Strategy
But the iPhone App is a different animal, and those companies who are coming to us for one are finding us hesitant.
Coming from a Product Design background, this makes perfect sense to me. Product Design and Advertising are, after all, two ends of the same spectrum. While Product Design seeks to create a solution to an existing problem, Advertising looks to create a problem that the Product solves. They complement each other, sometimes justify the other’s existence; ergo, if the problem the Product solves is universal enough, Advertising is minimally needed. If, however, you didn’t know you needed the Product in the first place, Advertising must step up and convince you of the problem you weren’t even aware of.
So, how does this relate to iPhone Apps? Simply put, an application is not Advertising, it’s a Product. It must solve a problem, it must be Useful and Valuable, or else it will fail and the Brand that created it will be culpable.
And we’re not just talking about perception. Applications created for the iPhone must subscribe to a strict HIG, and if they do not, the designer is responsible and liable. Most likely, your App will just be pulled, but as the worst you could face a lawsuit.
So, if you’re going to ask us to make you an iPhone App, be prepared to answer the following points (as succinctly put by Toby):
Toby Boudreaux
CTO : New York
topics: Ruby on Rails, Social Networking and Community, Internet Culture, Technology Industry, and Mobile
- If the features of the App are not Device specific, you don’t need an iPhone App, you need an iPhone-compatible Mobile Site.
- If the features of your App ARE Device-specific, they should be used according to HIG and only when the concept forces it.
- Every app is a commitment and needs to be important, provide utility, and solve a problem.
- If you treat iPhone apps as feathers in your cap or add-ons “just because”, you just plain don’t GET the device and its role in users’ lives.
All said, if you come to us needing an iPhone App “just because”, we will likely be able to come up with a concept that works for your brand that solves a problem. We’re big iPhone users and fans of Branded Utility here, and there are myriad things the iPhone could do that it doesn’t do yet, and if one of those ideas fits with what you want your brand to be, well then, we’re in business.
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