Tom Hulme, a design director at IDEO who helped create and launch the CelebAround iPhone application, explains the process and planning that went into the app.
This is a great post, because it considers the process as a whole: from researching the app market to pricing models and Apple’s role in the proceedings.
I can’t help thinking that Apple will have to open up and that the store is going to be used more and more as free distribution. In the future relatively few app’s will be paid for, and those that are will often use the emerging subscription model so that they can offer trials for free (lowering the barrier to adoption). Media and gaming companies are already using apps as wrappers for their existing content and offering additional features – they will give away apps and then monetise the content subsequently. Apps are likely to be portals in the future.
Here’s what you do… you don’t build an iPhone app! You use HTML5 and CSS to design a site/web app which can be viewed on ANY device.
So many publishers are missing the mark because they see the Apple app store as a quick and easy way to generate money. The iPhone is still a minority device.