An App-Filled New Year

By Amy Vale

From all of us at Mocean Mobile, Happy New Year! We hope the next twelve months bring you clarity about what matters in life (and business) and strengthen the relationships in your life. Because most of us on the team are unabashed app lovers and depend on them for just about every type of activity, I wanted to highlight some apps that are doing things right (and can offer lessons to developers when building their own apps).

StockTouch

One of the tougher parts of app design , especially for apps that aren’t games or entertainment-related, is simplifying and packaging huge amounts of complicated data so that it’s still beautiful and easy to digest. The StockTouch app lets users seamlessly watch the stock market as it unfolds and uncover insights and trends on companies and sectors. Tapping on a specific stock brings up detailed – but digestible – charts and information.

Just Landed

The Just Landed app helps track inbound flights and plan routes to reduce the complications and stress of airport pickups. For apps like Just Landed with a heavier text-to-image ratio, it’s important that the app has a simple interface and is beautifully designed. That means having clear, crisp and readable typography. Just as with so many other things in life, less is more. Don’t go overboard with using specialty or overly complex fonts, especially when the text is what really matters to users. In this instance, Just Landed helps

Code Year

For those of us who are techies and proud, the Code Year app teaches you coding skills that’ll make you a sought-after programmer. The free app offers lessons each week and covers topics like Ruby, Python and Javascript.

Happy Holidays From Mocean Mobile!

By Amy Vale

From all of us at Mocean Mobile, we’d like to wish you a very Happy Holidays! This is a time to reflect, appreciate and cherish the circle of family and friends in our lives. For us, it’s also a time to think about the positive impact we’ve made in the mobile industry, recognize the lessons learned along the way, and find new ways to improve monetization opportunities for our publishers, app developers and ad networks.

According to a recent PriceGrabberstudy, 82 percent of consumers plan to use mobile apps to save money when purchasing holiday gifts this year. Here are a few holiday apps that will save you money and de-stress the holiday shopping experience.

CouponSherpa

Who doesn’t want to score big savings this holiday season? The Coupon Sherpa free app for Apple and Android makes it easy to do just that by providing hundreds of digital coupons for popular stores like Kohl’s and Macy’s. Simply hand your phone to the cashier and they'll scan the coupon. No clipping required.

Decide

One of the worst feelings is saving your hard earned money, doing all your homework (at least you thought so) and purchasing something, only to find out a few months later that the price of that same item is much less than what you paid. The Decide app for iPhones and iPads helps you determine the best time to buy everything – from cameras to table saws.

Slice

If you do most of your shopping online, Slice will help you organize the receipts in your inbox and track your packages. The app will also show you a breakdown of your online spending habits, and remind you of Groupons, LivingSocial deals, and other coupons you wanted to take advantage of.

Mocean Mobile VP Amy Vale Named ‘Mobile Woman To Watch’

By David Gwozdz

The year is coming to a close and we’re in a bit of a retrospective mood. Looking back at 2012, mobile dominated nearly every conversation that took place – from industry events and client dinners to CMO conversations and mainstream press. For us, it’s been a year of incredible growth, major milestones, lessons learned along the way and a feeling of optimism for what lies ahead in 2013. Because we’re also one of the few organizations with not one, not two, but seven female executives, I’m proud to say that, once again, one of our female executives – Amy Vale – has been named to Mobile Marketer’s list of “Mobile Women to Watch.” We’re all incredibly proud of her accomplishments and what she’s done to elevate our brand as the standard in mobile ad serving technology.

Be sure to check out our customized research and Mobile Memo TV YouTube series for the latest monetization tips and strategies.

Movie Apps That Are Cool and Monetize Too

By Amy Vale

Who doesn’t love movies? In the app-heavy mobile world, it’s pretty clear that developers love movies too. A recent TVGuide.comstudy found that 68 percent of U.S. TV viewers watched between one and five hours of video per week on tablets and mobile phones. And mobile users reported paying for 10 percent of their streamed content.

For the increasingly mobile-dependent consumer who’s attached at the hip to their smartphones, tablets and e-Readers, there’s an endless amount of cool movie apps to help them get their movie fix. And for developers, movie apps are also conducive to long-term monetization. Here are two movie apps that are cool and monetize too.

Crackle brings Seinfeld’s web series to smartphones and tablets

Jerry Seinfeld is an icon in Hollywood. He was among the first to break all the traditional conventions of mainstream television; his show Seinfeld kept audiences amused and laughing for nine seasons despite being about “nothing”; now he’s got a new web-based show called “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”  Thanks to Crackle, a free app for iOS and Android, users can get their entertainment fix with a tiny selection of movies and TV shows, including Monty Python’s “And Now for Something Completely Different,” “The Fifth Element,” “Groundhog Day,” “I Dream of Jeannie”, “All in the Family,” and, of course, “Seinfeld.”

The cool factor of this app isn’t just reserved for movie and TV buffs; developers can make good use of in-app ads to monetize. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. In-app ads need to be aligned with the type of apps people are using. In this case, that means integrating rich media, especially video content, into in-app ads. 

Action Movie FX puts you in the middle of the action (packs a punch)

There’s no shortage of action movie buffs. These folks don’t just love watching action-packed stunts and explosions in the latest Bond movie; they wish they could be in the middle of the action too. Well, there’s a free app that can do just that. It’s called Action Movie FX and requires iOS 4.3 or later and works with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch (4^th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi and iPad 2.

Here’s how it works. You open the app and select one of two free action effects: Missile Attack and Car Smash. This app is particularly conducive to monetization because users with a penchant for cool effects and action can purchase additional effects for 99 cents apiece. Plus, the app offers all the guidance and how-to of creating their own effects and overlaying them into their own video clips. Because of the exceptional user experience and audience associated with this app, in-app purchases are a smart way for developers to monetize.

The iOS Vs. Android App Monetization Debate

By Amy Vale

In an increasingly mobile-first world, apps rule. Apps deliver content to users in a way that’s fast, engaging and relevant to what matters to them. Apps allow users to be “always on, always connected.” Noah Elkin of eMarketer said it best: “Consumer response in terms of adoption and use of apps is a testament to their importance within the marketing ecosystem and the central role they can play when it comes to ongoing engagement.” For developers, the app’s ability to deliver engaging, useful and relevant content instantly directly impacts their monetization strategy. Knowing the monetization opportunities that lie within appvertising, we can’t help but ask that question: Are iOS or Android apps better suited for monetization?

According to Nielsen, US Android and iOS app users spent 101 billion minutes per month with their apps in March 2012, more than double the amount from a year earlier. Clearly, there are benefits to developing apps on both platforms. Here are a few things developers should keep in mind to monetize their iOS and Android apps. 

Design for optimization.

Apple’s release of the iPhone 5 this year offered up many new improvements to the design, functionality and experience of the device. Among these many improvements, the screen size is about 4 inches larger than previous models, putting it in direct competition with Android screens which can be as big as 4.8 inches. What this means for apps that were developed for the smaller screens of older iPhone models will require some form of recoding and redesign to accommodate the pixel resolution and aspect ratio of the new iPhone 5.

The ad-supported model works.

A recent study by CambridgeUniversity found that 73 percent of apps in the Android marketplace were free, and of those, 80 percent relied on advertising as their main business model. The study goes on to reveal that free applications are far more popular in terms of downloads. Only 0.2 percent of paid apps get more than 10,000 downloads, compared to 20 percent of free apps having 10,000 or more downloads.

Repurpose existing and archived content.

One of the key benefits of smartphones and tablets is the ease, speed and immediacy with which media content can be delivered to users. This is especially true for news, music, video and entertainment-related apps where content plays an integral role in user engagement, CTRs, downloads, video plays and, of course, sales. By offering live recordings from music artists or even archived issues of newspapers as in-app purchases, developers can effectively monetize their apps.

Communicate the value of in-app purchases (and upgrades).

In-app purchases are one of the most attractive ways to monetize apps on both the iOS and Android platform. But one big mistake that’s often made by developers is not communicating the value of in-app purchases (and upgrades) to users. Leaving users in the dark will only hinder your opportunity to generate revenue from an app. Do whatever you can to communicate and encourage users to make in-app purchases and offer upgrades that will enhance their overall user experience.

Upsell at the right time.

We’ve seen this time and time again with many gaming apps. As with any form of advertising, upselling at the right time is crucial to ensure you attract and retain users who will become loyal. The more loyal these users become with an app, the more likely they’ll be to click on an ad within the app or purchase a virtual token, especially if it gives them a competitive advantage or advance to the next level of the game.