Ken Yarmosh - App Savvy: turning ideas into iPad and iPhone apps customers really want

Back around the turn of the Internetoh, I dont know, 2005I started religiously recording interviews with experts for the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. I did it in part because it looked to me like the next new thing and I wanted to make sure I was part of it. As time wore on, I found that I just sort of liked doing it and eventually built an audience that liked getting their content that way.

More recently, I gave in to the sirens call of the app for my podcast. I mean, I was an iPhone-toting devotee of all things appish, after all, and thought I really should have my own app. I created it and decided to price it at $2.99 just for grins. Now, understand, it pretty much has the exact same content that I publish weekly on iTunes for free.

I was immediately struck by the number of people, including current podcast subscribers, that snapped it up at $2.99. I would call this a light bulb kind of moment for me and my relationship with apps.

The lesson for me was that people want apps for things because they allow them greater control.

I dont think developers should look at apps with a new, new thing or hottest water-cooler download mentality. Apps are on their way to supplanting the Web in general as the provider of information, games, experiences, and productivityand control.

While my podcast content is out there to be had for free, its out there in the wild. An app user of my content has much greater power over how they consume, interact, destruct, and transport that content, and thats perhaps the larger point of this book.

The first step to becoming app savvy is to recognize why the app category is red-hot and here to stay, and why you need to think in terms of tapping app behavior to package, repackage, purpose, and repurpose everything that a mobile social consumer wants to doand even a few things they dont know they want to do.

When you come to view your app ideas and execution with a feeding a behavior mindset, ideas and the carrying out of those ideas will flow more freely.

Creating apps may become your gold mine, and this book will certainly show you how to make it so, but step away from the get rich desire and focus on creating apps that allow people to do the things that need doing in ways that give them far greater control, and youll be well on your way to unlocking a flood of potential.

I met Ken way back in those wild days of 2005 or so, and it was clear to me then that he was on a mission to embrace, connect, and commune with all things digital, so I wasnt the least bit surprised when he showed up on my doorstep with a book you need to read right now for the reasons Ive outlined above.

Whether you plan to build an app yourself or hire someone to build one for you, this book will make you smarter about the things that matter.

John Jantsch

Author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine

Historically, there have not been many product booksthat is, books that deal with topics beyond the creative or programming aspects of the software development process. The ones that do exist have been fairly conceptual. They often dont get into the details and instead focus exclusively on frameworks for building software. Details are necessary, however, for those who want to go from idea to software product, or in this case, from idea to iPhone app. This book includes those often-missing details. While providing a broader perspective of iOS application development, this book also covers the specifics of taking an idea and subsequently launching an app into Apples App Store.

Yet that statement is oversimplified. People dont want to just take an idea and launch an iPhone app . Instead, the typical goal is to take what is believed to be a unique or great idea and launch a successful application . The latter element, success, can vary but is usually easy to define. It may include financial gain, notoriety, career advancement, personal satisfaction, or similar outcomes.