What makes an app successful?

The way to a successful app

A half year ago everybody in the Netherlands started playing Wordfeud (a mobile version of the board game Scrabble) and when someone has bought a smart phone he or she immediately start downloading popular apps like Whatsapp, Angry Birds, Nu.nl. But what makes these apps successful?

Recently an article in Wired (‘The web is Dead.Long live the Internet’) lead to a lot of rumors. They say that apps in the near future will become more important than the web. Users have no longer the need to search for information, but they want to receive. From the world wide web there’s a shifting to closed platforms, apps. The advantage from apps is that information comes to you, so you don’t have to search for it and it works better and faster. For an example of those apps, see our list from InfoApps.

There are also apps that are just fun to play or to have and that’s their way to success. Apps like Wordfeud or Angry Birds. Read our list of FunApps for more examples. Another reason to buy a special app is the price. Some apps we can get for free. For example Whatsapp, which we can use to send free messages. Or a lot of applications costs only 79 cent to download. These apps don’t feel like a purchase.

Some facts about the success of apps:

• An app is especially very effective for the dissemination of commercial content. You can see a shifting from sponsored free content to ‘freemium’. With freemium you give the users the opportunity to try the ‘light’-version from an app. In this way they try to stimulate people to pay for the ‘premium’-version.  
• According to Dennis Crowley (the founder of Foursquare) is it possible to change human behavior with an app. He said: ‘Once an app someone provides in a special need, is it possible – if the use is accessible – to change the behavior of your user in no time.  
• One of the ways publishers try to attract attention to an application is to put the app on sale.