As many of you know CollegeMobile is an entrepreneurial venture founded by Chad Jones in 2009. Chad saw an amazing business opportunity in the world of mobile app development and started CollegeMobile and the rest is history. Around the same time I was working at a University entrepreneurial centre. Through the centre I took on a side project as the City Director of Lemonade Day Saskatchewan.  Lemonade Day teaches children, in kindergarten to grade 8, the values and lessons of entrepreneurship. This program strives to plant the seeds of entrepreneurship in the youth of North America to teach them lessons that will last throughout their lifetime.

Lemonade Day was founded by Michael Holthouse of Houston Texas,  a very successful entrepreneur who wanted to share these lessons with the youth of North America.  Every year Lemonade Day hosts a City Director’s Conference where all of us City Directors meet up to talk about best practices and share the success stories from that year. Last year I said “Chad this is a great opportunity for us to develop a mobile app that will digitize Lemonade Day’s materials.” Off I went with my carry-on suitcase filled with yellow clothes and an iPad filled with designs that I would pitch to Michael in Texas. Our whole team was excited for the possibility of working with such a great organization that did so much to empower the youth of North America. Michael and his team loved the mobile app idea right from the start and we soon began work on one of the largest apps we have ever developed.

Not only were we working with an amazing organization and well-known and respected Houston Entrepreneur but we also had another cherry on top of our cake: Google for Entrepreneurs was going to fund the development of the Lemonade Day App! Lemonade Day had secured a national sponsorship from Google that would allow them to reach their goal of “1 Million Entrepreneurs”, developing a mobile app was part of this plan to spread the Lemonade Day message!

With larger projects, such as Lemonade Day, there are often many stakeholders involved. In Lemonade Day’s case there were 6 different teams working on the project!

• CollegeMobile – Saskatchewan-based mobile app development company that developed the iOS and Android mobile app
• Yastech – a Saskatchewan-based company that developed the app backend and Interactive Website that complimented the mobile app
• Landtroop Strategies – a Texas-based Strategy company that took the Lemonade Day workbooks and redesigned the content for the app.
• The Old State – A Texas-based website design and development company that helped to sync data between the Interactive Website being developed and the current Lemonadeday.org site
• Limb Design – a Texas-based design company that created the images that are in the app
• Prepared 4 Life – The Texas-based non-profit organization that operates Lemonade Day. They were the central hub that edited all of the content, tested the app with focus groups, gave final approvals and many, many more tasks that brought the app to where it is today

It takes a lot of organization and coordination to make sure that all of these teams know what their tasks are and what the other teams are doing at any given point.  Even though we were separated by 3,000+ kilometers we still managed to have very good communication by using daily email updates, daily phone calls and daily Google Hangouts that allowed us to chat face to face and share documents.

Lemonade Day transformed this year from a personal project of mine to a project that I got to share with my whole CollegeMobile team.  We were able to create an amazing app that will hopefully touch the lives of youth across North America.

Download the Lemonade Day App for Android HERE and the Lemonade Day App for iOS HERE.  

If you would like more information on Lemonade Day and how you can get your city, group, organization or family involved please visit http://lemonadeday.org

When I studied in HCI, we were taught that the user is very important.   When I work with clients I try to solve a problem that will improve their user’s experience.   When I design apps, I find that in order to improve the user’s overall experience, both the interface and the interaction flow are essential. For example, when we see a poorly designed app most of us automatically judge it unfavorably before we even start to use.  On the other hand, if the graphics of an app are pretty but not functional, people will just say, “cool” but won’t continue to use the app.

Coming up with good designs for app is a very involved process.   I remembered the first time I designed an app, I absolutely hated the color combination I chose. It just didn’t look right no matter what I did.  I decide to get some guidance from my supervisor on how I could become a better designer.  She reviewed my work and shared her personal tips with a very important main lesson: “learn and get inspired from everyday things.” She told me whenever she saw good color combination she took a picture and saved it for later use. When she went to conferences and saw appealing slides, she took pictures for later inspiration.  She gathered not only graphic design but also interaction design. For example, when she saw a vending machine or elevator buttons that were confusing to users, she would take a picture and spend a little bit time to think and redesigned them.

I took her tips and found it is extremely useful. I created an inspiration folder on my phone and take pictures when I see things that inspire me.  When I design apps I always turn to my inspiration folder to find ideas that can enlighten me. For example, recently, when I designed an app for a local gym, I needed to integrate the words  “scan barcode ” on the home screen with a bunch of other information. The first idea that came to my mind was making a rectangle button on the top of the screen, but I thought it might look so dull.  When I turned to my inspiration folder and a good idea stood out to me. I found a poster picture that I took from my office and I liked how the title was designed.  I followed a similar way to design the “Scan barcode” button. I put the button across the title bar and it ends up not only ended up taking less space (more screen real estate for other additions!) but also add style to the overall design of the app.

This question has been discussed for years. In terms of user preference, apps have won out as 85% of users prefer an app over a mobile website. But is mobile web truly dead right now?

The answer depends on the demographics of your users – or more specifically, their phones – and how you think those demographics will change in the future. If you are targeting a tech-loving crowd with the latest smartphone in their hands or the “Generation Y” demographic, then yes, mobile web is dead.

In this case, you shouldn’t spend significant efforts on mobile web but instead invest your time towards a better mobile app for your users. However, if your demographic have a large number of “dumb” phones then it may be valuable to invest more heavily in mobile web over a mobile app.

We don’t believe an app is right for every business – at least not right now – but every forward-looking business should be thinking “mobile”, which usually means they should be thinking about a mobile app.

If your management team doesn’t think mobile is important, remind them that Blockbuster Video ignored the web because they had a business model that worked very well.  This allowed companies like Netflix to take their entire market and put Blockbuster out of business.

Don’t allow your business to become another Blockbuster by ignoring the future.

Apps for marketing and customer service do not generate revenue from the app itself. In many cases, depending on your type of company, you wouldn’t charge customers a fee to access features in your app, much like you wouldn’t charge customers to access features on your website. Similarly, you wouldn’t display other company’s ads in your app, much like you wouldn’t display ads on your company website. Again, this all depends on the type of company you operate.

Like any marketing campaign, you advertise with the intent to improve awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, or adoption of your product. There is obviously no revenue being returned from these advertisements. Mobile applications for marketing are very similar in that they include the brand’s logo, colours, and more to improve consumer interest, evaluation, trial or adoption.

Consumers won’t just download a marketing app though. They will download a customer service app (which uses marketing). CollegeMobile has created many of these apps for credit unions and retail organizations. These mobile apps might provide customers with access to a company’s services, or information on a company’s products.

There are hundreds of different uses for a mobile app, so you will need to use your imagination. What kinds of mobile apps do you think your customers would use?

Here are some apps to help get your smartphone in the mood for spring!

Swackett
Platforms: FREE for:
• iOS
• Android 

Though warmer weather is typically associated with spring, sometimes that temperature can be all over the place and it is so hard to know what to wear! Swackett is not just your typical weather app, sure it shows you the current weather, forecast and even gives you radar view. The real fun and practicality comes from the “peeps” in this app. Peeps are little people that dress up in the clothing that you should be wearing for the weather. They show a male and female version and also a dog and cat version to ensure your furry friends are dressed appropriately for the weather too! I have an Android phone and it also gave me an option to dress up the little Android man with weather-appropriate duds. The app also surprises you and gives you fun facts: “There are 57 variety of tomatoes”….. not sure how useful this is, but at least we are learning people! If you are the helpful type, you can even share your “peep” with your social networks so your friends will also know what to wear for the weather.

Swackett Weather App

Vegetable Planning Calendar
Platforms: FREE on iOS

Nothing says spring like a fresh spring salad from your local farmer’s market. If you are lucky though, you may have space to plant your very own garden and for that you may find the Vegetable Planting Calendar app useful. Now the app doesn’t have the coolest user interface, but it does however have very useful information for you Green Thumbs out there (or aspiring Green Thumbs!). The app gives you a big list of vegetables and then tells you when the perfect time to plant is. There are also little “hard frost”, “light frost”, and “high temperature” symbols that let you know what the plant can handle in terms of cold to hot temperatures. The app also gives you little handy tips about little particulars that certain plants may need such as the pH of the water, best types of soil to use and how far you should plant the seed in the soil. Here’s hoping for garden-fresh salads in your future!

Good Housekeeping @Home
Platforms: FREE for:
• iOS 
• Android 

Often one word associated with the word “spring” is the word “cleaning”, while some of us may cringe at the thought of all of that back-breaking work, others may take it as an opportunity to dust off dull winter and welcome the spring shine! One app I found that I really like is the Good Housekeeping @ Home app. This app gives you 4 useful categories to choose from: Stain Buster- to help you solve hard stain problems, Do-It-All Cleaning that gives you handy tips for everyday cleaning, Home Décor Gallery gives you fresh ideas for every room in your house, and News & Tips shares helpful tips like “11 ways to use your dishwasher”, “Clothing care myths” and much more. This app will come in handy when busting through the winter grime and I am personally looking forward to further browsing their Home Décor Gallery for some fresh spring ideas!

An organization that needs a new mobile app will consider the percentage of its customers/employees that have iPhones, Android smartphones, BlackBerry smartphones, and Windows Phones. Choosing the most popular mobile devices used in a particular region, industry, and company will maximize the app’s reach. Thus, the most popular smartphones used by customers/employees of that company influences which smartphones the app is developed for.

A consumer that needs a new smartphone will consider the selection of apps available for a particular phone model. According to comScore’s Mobile Future in Focus Report 2013, the selection of apps is the fifth most important consideration when purchasing a smartphone, behind the network quality of service provider, phone operating system, total monthly service cost, and data plan cost. What you may not have expected is that the selection of apps is more important than the price of the phone, brand name of service provider, and brand name of the phone! Thus, the apps that an organization chooses to develop influence which smartphones the user purchases.

• Enhancing internal communication
• Reducing travel costs
• Decreasing paper costs
• Shifting workloads

Imagine if employees sent videos, photos, audio, or text messages instead of just making a phone call. These solutions can reduce miscommunication frequency and severity, or simply improve communication efficiency.

Like many things in life, it’s sometimes easier to simply explain or report something using photos or videos. For example, explaining the location of a tree branch that is to be trimmed. Take a picture, annotate it, and send it off!

Another possible use of a mobile app is a push-to-talk (PTT) system. PTT allows users to use smartphones like walkie-talkies, eliminating the need to dial, redial, or wait on the line. In some businesses, employees just need an immediate response.

The appeal of a smartphone is that it’s essentially a computer without the bulk. Employees can send and receive information at the source rather than at a desk, decreasing travel time, travel costs, and/or paper costs, while giving employees the time to do bigger and better tasks. After all, no one really likes driving somewhere to drop off paper forms or typing paper forms into the computer.

These are just a few of the ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs using a mobile app. As you can see, mobile apps can do more than bring in money!
Tune in 2  weeks when we discuss “ROI – There’s an App for That, Part Three: Apps for Marketing and Customer Service” – an interesting topic about mobile apps that neither generate revenue from the app itself, nor reduce costs. Rather, the return will be knowledgeable, happy, and returning customers.

The BlackBerry Z10. (Photo: Mark Blinch, Reuters)

On March 13th, about two weeks following the launch of BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry announced the largest single order of its devices in the history of the company: 1 million BlackBerry 10 devices. The purchaser is Miami-based electronics distributor Brightstar. This significant achievement means the world to BlackBerry (no pun intended) and helps to establish confidence in those consumers afraid to make the switch.

As of March 21st, the BlackBerry 10 platform had more than 100,000 mobile apps in the BlackBerry World. With 30,000 more apps than a month ago, it’s fairly evident that BlackBerry 10 has been well received by many mobile developers – and only 20 percent of these 100,000 apps were ported from Android!

Just a couple weeks ago, Google pulled all ad-blocking apps from the Google Play Store. In recent months, mobile apps like AdBlock Plus started showing up on the store. This alarmed developers, advertisers, organizations considering ads in their apps, and Google itself, because ads are a reliable source of revenue on Android. Google stated that these ad-blocking apps violated the Developer Distribution Agreement. More recently, AdBlock Plus has released another Android app that has to be side-loaded (i.e. downloaded from a website rather than the Google Play Store). Thus, it’s harder to find the app, but the concern is not eliminated.

For hardware, Samsung and HTC have released their latest Android-powered flagship smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. Just like any other recent smartphone release, people are arguing whether these phones are innovative or not. Nonetheless, these two smartphones are awesome.

Make sure to tune in next month for more mobile news!

• Apps that generate revenue
• Apps that reduce operating costs
• Apps for marketing and customer service

In the next three weeks, I will explain why each is beneficial and, more importantly, why each can still show a return. This week, I will cover mobile apps that generate revenue.

Apps that Generate Revenue

Mobile applications that generate revenue help recoup the costs of mobile app development and then ideally continue to bring in revenue. As mentioned in one of our previous blogs, “How to Earn Revenue with Mobile Apps,” there are two primary ways to generate revenue:

1. App Users
2. Advertisers

Depending on your business model, you can offer a free mobile app with in-app purchases, a free app with subscriptions, or sell an app on the app stores. Otherwise, you can include advertisements or have two separate versions: one that is free and has ads, as well as one that is paid and does not have ads. If you’re a smartphone or tablet user, you might have noticed that these types of revenue-generating apps often come in the form of media players, utilities, educational apps, personalization apps, or games.

Beyond making money via the app itself, there are many other great ways to earn revenues, such as offering a mobile commerce service or expanding a paid PC or web-based service to mobile. These types of apps extend your company beyond the PC/web, providing customers with access to your service anytime and anywhere. This gives customers another way or reason to buy your product or service.

As will be discussed in “Part Three: Apps for Marketing and Customer Service,” most mobile apps for marketing and customer service don’t typically charge end-users or include advertisements. There may not be app revenues in store for you, but there might be something more…

As for next week, I will discuss “Part Two: Apps that Reduce Cost,” outlining how you can use mobile apps to improve workplace efficiency.

During my presentation at the CANHEIT (Canada Higher Education IT) conference last year, a gentleman asked me something along the lines of, “what about app development for tablets? Do you need to create a new app, or can you just blow up the smartphone version?” I explained how the use case is often different and that the user interface might also look a little different. After the presentation, another gentleman, referring to the earlier comment, said, “you don’t need apps for tablets, you just send users to the website.” Well, it depends! Plus, times have certainly changed since then.

Even for 10” tablets like the iPad 3, Nexus 10, and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, an app may be necessary because of hardware usage capabilities (camera, motion, gestures, etc.), advanced user interface options, convenient access, or even caching. An app would also be much more useful for internal tools, such as content management systems or interactive promotional tools. Now, I would argue that the smaller the screen, the more you need a mobile app (and the less you need a website).

Smaller tablets and larger phones (phablets) like the Galaxy Note 8.0 and Fonepad were the buzz at Mobile World Congress 2013, held just a couple weeks ago. 7” screens like the Nexus 7 and 8” screens like the iPad Mini are sure gaining in popularity as they are more affordable and portable than 10″ tablets. If you own a 7″-8″ mobile device, you would likely say that you use mobile apps and regular websites equally. You might prefer mobile apps because most desktop websites aren’t designed for a 7-8” screen and require zooming in on every page (with the exception of responsive design sites). On the other hand, you might prefer websites because smartphone apps are sometimes blurry or have abnormally large text when they are stretched onto a larger screen.

Nonetheless, an app should not imitate content from your website, but instead should provide users with the services they want in the most convenient way possible. Think of banking – credit unions don’t go into detail about all of the products and services they offer, but instead allow their members to simply do mobile banking. Apps for salespeople don’t necessarily describe the company, but instead allow them to simply access CMS systems or provide excellent mobile presentations. Apps for doctors don’t talk about the services they offer, but instead simply help them save lives.

Mid-size mobile devices are unique, so they must be treated as such. Smartphone apps might be too blurry, desktop websites might be too small, and websites might display too much (inconvenient) information. In the end, it’s all about the user’s needs (convenience).

For consumers

First and most importantly, the BlackBerry 10 operating system (OS) was released early on in February, alongside BlackBerry’s flagship device, the BlackBerry Z10. The upside to this new OS is that it’s fresh, which is exactly what RIM needed to survive and thrive. The downside to this new OS is… that it’s fresh. Developers can’t simply update their existing BlackBerry apps – they have to develop new ones.

On a similar note, at the BlackBerry 10 launch event, Research In Motion (RIM) rebranded to simply BlackBerry.

Market stats for 2012 were also announced in February. The iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and Samsung Galaxy S III were the top selling smartphones globally in 2012. In the global smartphone market, Android accounted for 69.7 percent, Apple iOS 20.9 percent, RIM 3.5 percent, Microsoft 3.0 percent, and others 2.8 percent. In the US smartphone market (Q4 2012), Android accounted for 53.4 percent, Apple 36.3 percent, BlackBerry 6.4 percent, Microsoft 2.9 percent, and others 1 percent. No new reports for Canada, sadly.

Just recently, Firefox interestingly announced a new mobile OS. It will be available on Alcatel, LG, ZTE, and Huawei devices in nine markets, but not the US or Canada (though, it may make its way to us in the future). The smartphone market is awfully saturated, so I think it will take some time before we hear much more about Firefox OS.

For developers

New Facebook SDK, Dropbox APIs, and Gracenote SDKs and APIs were released. Happy developing!

The beloved iOS app test platform, TestFlight, was launched for Android developers. If you’re an Android developer, you will probably enjoy it.

That’s your Month in Mobile. If you would like to add more, please feel free to mention other news by commenting below or replying on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

I’ve always been an Android guy, but I’ve been intrigued by the BlackBerry 10 platform. My Samsung Galaxy S II work phone had been the talk of the town at one point, but now I have a personal Samsung Galaxy S III, so we no longer need the past. What better opportunity than to own one of the most talked about devices this year – the BlackBerry Z10. I would like to tell you about my first impressions of the software.

The Apps

Just like any OS, some apps are excellent, some are average, and some are just horrible. The Weather Network has a much better UI than iOS or Android. Twitter is about the same, but seemingly much faster once it caches. Sadly, YouTube launches in a browser. Nonetheless, you don’t really think about the traditional, ‘old-school’ BlackBerry when you see the quality of Angry Birds, theScore, or Twitter. It would be interesting to see some more BlackBerry-exclusive mobile applications.

The App Store

As you would expect, the BlackBerry World does not have nearly as many apps as iOS or Android, but do you fault them? I am pleasantly surprised by the number of very useful apps and am encouraged that there will be many more to come.

On a separate note, I found it difficult to navigate the BlackBerry World store. It took me a while to find the “Top Free Apps” section, and then it didn’t show me enough top free apps! This is how I find 75 percent of my apps, so I would like to see more. In addition, you must drill down through several categories. You can’t just view “Games” in general – you have to select what type of games. This can be pretty inconvenient sometimes.

The Gestures

This took some getting used to. Swipe up to see recent apps, swipe right to access the BlackBerry Hub, swipe down to access the menu, and swipe right in some apps to get the categories. I could see these all becoming natural after a few days. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to launch new apps – you must swipe up and then separately swipe right. When I naturally swipe diagonally from the side, sometimes the app will recognize it as an upward swipe, and the side bar will not open. These are all minor issues that may change with future updates.

Verdict

I give the current BlackBerry 10 software a 3.5 out of 5, and anticipate it becoming 4 out of 5. Although there is more work to be done by both BlackBerry and third-party mobile app developers, I enjoy the subtle uniqueness and impressive quality of software.

If you want me to try something for you or if you have any suggestions on how to fully take advantage of BlackBerry 10, please feel free to comment below.

Red Stamp
Want to go paperless during this season of love? Why not email, text, tweet, Facebook or Instagram a greeting card for Valentine’s Day! This app is available for iPhone, iPod and iPad and has over 600 templates to choose from. If you want something more customized, you can upload photos from your camera or take a picture right within the app. This app has garnered a lot of attention and was voted Best of the Web by InStyle, and featured in the New York Times, The Today Show, MSNBC, and CBS Early Show! With so many templates you can send a greeting to everyone you love!

Virtual Candle

What better to set the mood with than a flickering candle? Well if you are short on matches or just don’t want to create a fire hazard, then look no further than a Virtual candle app. There are many free virtual candle apps for iPhone and Android that you and your loved one can huddle around while you share a romantic meal!

Avocado

Avocado is the social networking app built just for you and your love! This free app keeps you connected to your partner with private messaging, photo sharing, grocery lists and more! Created by a husband and wife team, Avocado was named one of the best Social Apps of 2012!

Songza
Whether you are single or a couple, everyone can appreciate music! We like Songza because not only is it completely free but there are no pesky pop-up ads and no limits! You can create a favourite playlist that is tailored to a night of romance or a night out with your favourite single pals!

With these cards, candles, messages, and music, you will surely be recognized as Cupid of the Year.

…

You probably guessed Samsung and Apple, and then maybe HTC, LG, Sony, RIM, Microsoft, or Nokia. You are partially right.

International market research company IDC reported last Thursday that the top five smartphone vendors, and their respective market share, in Q4 2012 were:

• Samsung, 29.0 percent
• Apple, 21.8 percent
• Huawei, 4.9 percent
• Sony, 4.5 percent
• ZTE, 4.3 percent

Below is a comparison of Q4 2011 and Q4 2012 global smartphone shipments:

Obviously, Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the smartphone market with a combined market share of 50.8 percent. The two vendors I was interested in, however, were Huawei and ZTE. For those who don’t know, Huawei and ZTE are both multinational Chinese telecommunications companies. They both accomplished such great numbers with a combination of lower-cost and higher-end smartphones for the mass market. Huawei saw and 89.5 percent growth in the past year, while ZTE saw 48.4 percent growth.

You may be surprised to learn that both Huawei and ZTE have Android phones, Huawei has Windows Phones, and ZTE is expected to have Windows Phones soon.

The two companies are still currently little competition for Samsung and Apple. However, they have long-term potential to become leaders in the Chinese market, where nearly one billion people have yet to get a smartphone. With a choice of lower-cost and higher-end smartphones, I personally think it’s only a matter of time!

Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep up-to-date on other mobile trends.

What is ding free, you ask? ding free is a national campaign by Canadian credit unions to promote their network of surcharge-free ATMs. The campaign is focused on a unique ATM Locator App that CollegeMobile developed in 2012. The app is one-of-a-kind, as it allows people to effortlessly locate free ATMs across the country and gives them another great reason to bank with credit unions.

In the past two weeks, the ding free ATM Locator app has blown up in the news. The app was featured in national news stories from sources like The Globe and Mail, Yahoo! Finance, and Canada Newswire. It was also featured in credit union news releases and promotional pages across the country, including credit union giants Vancity Credit Union, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, and First Calgary Financial.

As a result of such awesome coverage, the app reached:

• 12th in Free Finance iPhone apps in Canada
• The “What’s Hot” section in Finance on the App Store
• 59th in Free Finance Android apps

As of today, January 18th, the app is rated:

• 5 stars on iOS
• 4 stars on Android
• 4.5 stars on BlackBerry
• 4 stars on Windows Phone

The success of the ding free app is a combination of a large surcharge-free ATM network, quality mobile app development, and a great marketing team.

The ding free ATM Locator is available, for free, on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Related Link: www.ding-free.ca