Area Companies Tap Into Mobile App Trend

Ever wanted to buy coffee, find an ATM or call those Hogs?

There’s an app for that. And all three were developed in Northwest Arkansas.

In early January, California-based Apple Inc. announced its App Store reached 3 billion downloads – that’s in less than 18 months since the online store opened. It just turned the 2 billion download mark in late September, giving it a 50 percent jump in  roughly one quarter.

“When you see those kinds of numbers, you can’t help but see the advantage of it,” said Jerry Osmus, director of strategy for Rockfish Interactive.

Osmus was referring to the advantage of companies having an iPhone app in a world where there is an app for almost everything.

Not having a mobile application will soon be similar to companies not having a Web site.

Smartphones are changing the way people live and work, Osmus said, and many area developers are tapping into the trend.

Rockfish, a marketing and technology agency headquartered in Rogers, developed five iPhone applications in 2009 and is planning to launch six to eight applications in 2010.

“We believe mobile is the way of the future and the iPhone is the biggest application platform,” Osmus said.

The company developed its first app when The Hershey Co., in conjunction with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., wanted to develop a marketing product for Valentine’s Day.

A brainstorming session led to a clever application called Blow a Kiss that allowed users to send messages by blowing into the phone. Wal-Mart’s Valentine’s Day products were integrated into the application so users could browse the products and go online and purchase them. Osmus said the app, which earned a coveted spot in the App Store’s home page, was downloaded 15,000 times in the two weeks it was available.

Rockfish also developed a mobile ordering application for Silver Joe’s, a specialty coffee company that opened a Rogers location in 2009, that happens to have some common ownership with Rockfish.

With the swipe of a finger, coffee aficionados can browse the menu, customize a latte or cappuccino and purchase their drink so its ready and waiting when they arrive at the store.

The company also developed an application for Arvest Bank that allows users to locate the bank’s branches and ATMs using the iPhone’s GPS technology.

Jason Kincy, alternative delivery marketing manager for Arvest, said the bank first joined the mobile trend about 15 months ago with its mobile banking application.

“Mobile banking is an important part of how our customers interact with their money,” he said. “It’s similar to what online banking was in the early 1990s. You have your early adopters and then there is a steep growth curve.

“Now, it’s an assumed service that most everybody uses.”

With the idea that smart phones are becoming the preferred gadget for accessing the Internet, Arvest wanted to provide a tool for customers to find branch and ATM locations while they’re on the go.

“We have more locations, more ATMs than anyone else and their scattered all over the place” Kincy said. “We wanted to make sure our customers know where to go with as little hassle as possible.”

As people change the way they surf the Web, companies are rethinking their marketing plans.

Osmus said many companies are going to begin shifting some of their marketing dollars to mobile in 2010.

Kincy said Arvest is certainly keeping a watchful eye on the mobile movement.

“As mobile functionality continues to grow, we want to grow with that,” Kincy said. “We’re also paying attention to what our customers want.”

Web developers are also beginning to shift their focus from the PC to the mobile phone.

Scott Mills, co-founder of IFWORLD in Fayetteville, has developed two iPhone apps in the past year: an application for teachers called Grader and a photo-viewing tool called Peephole.

Mills was watching his wife grade papers when he got the idea for Grader. In a couple of days, he had developed an app that generates a grading chart and applies a percentage grade to tests and quizzes, and submitted it to Apple. Once approved, Grader was available for download.

He developed Peephole out of his own frustration in trying to view photos uploaded to Twitter.

 The app allows users to view photos in one place, without having to browse through hundreds of “tweets.”

Mills said he has more ideas for functional apps in 2010 and is starting to get requests from clients who want their own mobile apps.

Scott Bedwell, a Bentonville High School senior, was ready to start developing mobile applications as soon as the App Store launched in 2008.

He spent months trying to come up with an idea for an app before developing MY DJ.

Bedwell said the idea for MY DJ came from talking to friends his age who like to listen to their music in a continuous stream. He built the app in less than a month and asked a friend to design a logo.

“I wanted to get a simple version of it out there so I could see what the users wanted,” he said. “I’ve gotten tons of feedback.”

The application takes a user’s music library and plays random parts of each song for a selected amount of time, fading out and in between songs.

Most of what Bedwell knows about programming, he learned on the job as a Web developer for Bentonville Public Schools. The rest, he taught himself.

Programming for the iPhone requires learning a different programming language, which Bedwell said he mostly taught himself.

“I thought about buying a book but I didn’t want to spend more money than I had to,” he said.

Bedwell paid Apple a one-time fee of $100 for a developer’s license.

Once he was ready to submit MY DJ to Apple’s approval process, Bedwell was nervous based on stories he’d heard about the company’s strict criteria.

“I was worried they would find something wrong with it and I would have to go through the process all over again,” he said. “I’m very lucky to be one of the few that got accepted the very first time.”

MY DJ was released in the app store in mid-October.

The app has been downloaded about 400 times, Bedwell said. He earns 70 cents for each time the 99-cent app is purchased.

 Bedwell expects bigger sales when he releases version two of MY DJ. In the new version he will include the most requested feature, which is being able to choose what songs the app plays. Users will be able to select songs by artist or genre and create playlists.

Bedwell said that won’t be the last version of MY DJ. He will continue to develop upgrades for the app based on user feedback.

Bedwell said he also has more ideas for applications and will continue to hone his mobile developing skills.

Those skills are expected to be in high demand as smart phone sells surge and mobile applications rise in popularity.

Apple’s App Store has 100,000 different applications available for download in 77 countries.

Google recently released the Nexus One to compete with the iPhone. Android, Google’s mobile operating system, offers 20,000 apps in 48 countries, with that number expected to grow at a rapid pace.

The mobile trend doesn’t stop with smart phones and applications. Osmus said 2010 is going to be a big year for mobile computing in general, especially with Apple and Microsoft both rumored to release tablet computers.

“Mobile is creating a whole new medium,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what happens.”