products | gwilliamrobinson

At the fourth talk I attended Matt Webb, the CEO of BERG, eloquently spoke about the interconnected nature of products, culture, technology, design, and the experiential aspect that lubricates them all. His talk focused on hardware products, and the affably named Little Printer, within the context of the above. I work within the mobile design and development agency sector, so at times my mind did drift towards software products and how the conversation applied to them and mobile apps in particular. This led me to ponder – are mobile apps under-appreciated as products?

Agency-client dynamic and mobile apps as products

A mindboggling statistic that I read this week that helps frame this topic is that there are over 700,000 apps in the AppStore – each one of them in their own right a product. Given my experience in the mobile industry, I’m well aware that my point-of-view on the question is may be tainted by experiences and agency mind-set. With this said, I’m steadfast in my opinion that yes – mobile apps are underappreciated as products.

Anyone working in the agency scene, mobile or otherwise, will understand that we are at the beck and call of a client at all times. I find that this dynamic in the relationship is often magnified and pushed to the limits when designing and developing a mobile app. To the untrained eye people will see a beautiful, rich and engaging app and be unaware of the fact that these products are incredibly complex to deliver.

Mobile app development is software development at the end of the day – something that Matt Webb himself pointed out is a hard thing to do. The shiny exterior that these apps reside on, belie the dexterity in design and complexity of coding/development that make these products. Every mobile app is a unique solution – a product with a unique DNA – where every consumer experience and layer of the product is fully thought through.

Hardware v Software: Smartphone v Application

When Sir Jonathan Ives first got his minimalistic hands on the iPhone, he undoubtedly crafted one of the most beautiful products ever made. Rightfully so, the iPhone and Ives received the recognition and appreciation due as a beautifully created product and its creator. What fascinates me to this day though is why Apple doesn’t further push the 700,000+ products that have been designed and developed off the back of this product and OS platform. Just the same way that creating the iPhone was a tour de force in technology and design by Apple, apps should be regarded the same. From the highly addictive Angry Birds to the stunningly beautiful Guardian Eyewitness app, I regard apps as technological and design feats of excellence.

Ultimately, my reasoning for mobile apps being under-appreciated and being taken for granted is due to their ubiquity in everyday human life – mobile apps are crutches we lean on for everyday life situations.

At the beginning of the second VC talk at WSJ Tech Café, Ben Rooney asked the three VCs what are they most interested in right now. The thread running through the answers was that mobile technology is where it’s at in terms of the ‘next big thing’, innovating, and making serious hard cash. Rather than talk about billion dollar industries, trillion dollar industries are what VCs are looking at – education, health care, energy and food, transportation, and communications. The commonality between them all is that mobile technology dissects them all and is innovating how we approach these industries. Come to think of it, this is what first drove me towards working in the mobile agency sector – the opportunity to work across a number of industries and innovate with the latest technologies.

Mobile is inherently ‘disruptive’

Barry Maloney of Balderton mentioned the term ‘disruptive’ ideas are what excites him – the Betfairs, Wongas, Hailos, and MySQLs are all tangible examples the VCs repeatedly referred to when discussing in light of disruptive ideas. Disruptive ideas are ones that bring a new approach and a new solution. The mobile industry lives up this need for disruptive and innovative thinking in its agile and dynamic nature. Due to the iterative nature of the many of the leading products in mobile – think the iPhone, OS platforms, mobile apps – new releases with updated features and functionality are inherently innovating and disrupting how consumers and developers approach these products. In turn, these products are impacting every industry that VCs have their hand in, forcing the mobile issue so to speak.

Innovation is the thread of every conversation in mobile

To provide an anecdote, I luckily have the opportunity to consult and pitch to a cross-section of industries on mobile technology on a regular basis – ranging from egaming to automotive and everything in between. A regular line of questions asked is what have you done that is innovative in mobile? How can we innovate what we do in mobile? What are my competitors doing that is innovative? What are the latest features and functionality in the latest iPhone 5 or Android OS release that we can use to innovate our existing mobile product? The people who are working in the mobile and emerging technologies space are bread into this mode of thinking of how we can approach mobile products differently on a continuous basis. It is this approach to products that mirror Barry Maloney’s sentiment of wanting to see ‘disruptive’ ideas that he can invest in.

What I see as the next frontier in mobile attracting VCs

Having just left Miguel Milano (President EMEA at Salesforce) talk at WSJ Tech Café this morning I am reminded of how ‘enterprise-grade solutions’ permeates the mobile industry I work in. It is apparent to me that everyone is striving to achieve that enterprise-grade level status that attracts the VCs in droves. So whilst enterprise is not really the next frontier in mobile – it is already here – it is an area where opportunities are abound for start-ups in the mobile industry. Coming up with an enterprise-grade idea/product in mobile that has a solid revenue model, short sales cycle, and applicability to a number of industries is something that every VC would listen to. Easier said than done.