Alistair Houghton meets Liverpool developers looking to create the next generation of mobile apps
IF YOU ever doubted that iPhone apps could be big business. just look at the tale of Cheshire company Chillingo.
The company, which published smash hit iPhone games Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, was last month sold to software giant EA for $20m.
So it’s no surprise that today, just two years after Apple launched its App Store, there are many software developers in and around Liverpool looking to develop new and exciting apps to take the mobile world by storm.
For the uninitiated, apps are small programmes that can be downloaded to mobile phones or other mobile internet devices.
Apps are most associated with the iPhone –its App Store now sells 10m apps a day – and with the larger iPad.
But they are also available for other handsets, such as BlackBerrys or handsets using Google’s Android operating system.
Apps are small – they may be free, or cost only a couple of pounds each.
Those pounds can add up – Angry Birds, for example, has sold more than 6m copies. But with so many apps available, developers have to battle to make theirs stand out.
Liverpool’s Thumbstar Games has six games in Apple’s App Store – but hopes to have 12 by the end of the year.
Its games include Fruit Machine Gold, which this year hit the number one spot in the casino games chart.
Yesterday it launched new game Dynamo Kid, where gamers have to “clear a path, remove baddies, destroy hazards and debris, and make Dynamo Kid jump”.
The key to success in the App Store, says Thumbstar’s chief operating officer Martin Kitney, is marketing.
He said: “Our approach is that to make anything a success on the App Store, you need to put a lot of effort into PR and marketing.
“It’s where a lot of developers fall down. They might have the best game out there, but they don’t get the word out.
“If a game’s in the top 25 or on the homepage on the App Store, then people are more likely to spot it.
“If they don’t know it’s there they can’t search for it – it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Jon Wetherall, director of Toxteth-based video games company Onteca, modestly says that “magic” helped his company’s Big Pub Quiz app become a bestseller.
He said: “The market for apps is still growing , but there’s a lot of competition. It’s really hard having a hit but once you’ve got a hit, it seems to stay a hit forever.
“Big Pub Quiz has remained near the top of the trivia chart in the UK.
“Why was it a hit? It’s just luck. We also had a hit with an app called Santa Tracker – perhaps Big Pub Quiz charted on the back of that.
“There’s a certain magic in iPhone apps I don’t understand. We didn’t do anything special with that app – it just works.”
Freelance designer John McKerrell has put around 30 apps in Apple’s App Store since he started developing apps in 2008.
His projects include an app for United Utilities, commissioned through Liverpool digital company Mando, that allows people to submit meter readings through their iPhones.
Another successful app is Basic Sat Nav – which informs you whether you are getting closer to your destination by telling you if you are getting “warmer” or colder.”
Apple makes its App store sales charts accessible, with sales split into categories. Mr McKerrell agrees that the trick with apps is getting them into the charts for their respective categories.
“The Basic Sat Nav app has been in the top five of the UK navigation app store, and it’s consistently in the top 20,” he said.
“That’s the funny thing about the charts. You can be number one in the education chart with sales that get you nowhere in the games chart.
“But once you’re into the charts, you make more sales. If you get into the top 20 you can sustain those sales.”
McKerrell is hoping for more success with a series of apps he has created to help students revise for their GCSEs and A-Levels.
This year he created apps covering the GCSE biology, chemistry, physics and science syllabi, as well as apps for A-level biology and chemistry students.
Now he has teamed up with website Exams Tutor to develop those apps further and offer them in other subjects.
Apps can also be used to promote events. In recent months, for example, four major Liverpool events signed up local software developers to create promotional iPhone apps.
Apposing has created an app for this year’s Liverpool Biennial arts festival and will soon launch an app for Liverpool Music Week, while agency Citrus Suite is developing an iPhone app for next month’s Liverpool Design Festival.
Meanwhile newly-formed company Tokyo Digital, which has offices in Liverpool and London, developed an app for the MOBO Awards, held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool last month.
Tokyo’s client services director Gareth Martin said: “The MOBO app came out and shot into the Top 20 for the 48 hours around the event. It did all its business and then shot back out.
“The MOBO app has been extremely popular within its niche. And locally, with the event being in Liverpool, it’s something that everybody can keep to remember the event.”
The iPhone hogs the headlines but Liverpool developers are busy producing apps for other platforms.
Mr McKerrell, for example, is also working to produce versions of his education apps for other devices, while Thumbstar produces games for Android devices.
Meanwhile, Apposing has designed apps for mountain biking star Steve Peat, the Liverpool Echo arena and events including the Liverpool Biennial.
The company works across various mobile platforms and recently produced versions of the Echo Arena app for the Android and the BlackBerry.
But director Dave Brown said most of the company’s work was for the iPhone and iPad.
He said: “Nokia and Android phones are being purchased by a younger generation who don’t necessarily want to spend their money on apps as they’d rather spend it on music downloads, for example.
“There are more Nokia and Android phones are out there, but iPhone and iPad owners are more likely to spend money on apps.”
Most apps are designed specifically to run on particular devices. But developers, including Mr McKerrell, are also creating “web mobile apps”, which can run on any device through internet browsers.
Apps could develop still further in the future, perhaps including “augmented reality” technology that uses cameras on phones to create multimedia experiences.
Using augmented reality, for example, visitors to a museum could hold their mobile phone’s camera up to an exhibit. The app would recognise the exhibit and more information about it would then pop up onscreen.
Mobile apps are the most visible example of digital distribution in the gaming industry.
But video gamers will already be familiar with other examples of online stores, where they can download games direct to their console. Nintendo Wii owners, for example, can buy games through Nintendo’s WiiWare store.
Onteca recently launched a game, Monsteca Corral, that is available exclusively through WiiWare. One day, Mr Wetherall believes, most games will be distributed online – just as music is now largely downloaded.
Both Onteca and Citrus Suite are working on YouView, the joint venture project between the BBC and other broadcasters that will see internet content delivered direct to television screens.
In the future people will be able to download apps direct to their televisions – and Citrus Suite director Chris Morland says there will be many opportunities for Merseyside companies to create compelling digital content.
He said: “These tools will not just be for the internet – they will also be about people accessing services. People will be able to find information they could not access before.”
With the market for mobile apps still growing, and a new market for YouView apps likely to open soon, it seems app developers will be busy for some time to come.
And every Liverpool software company will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Chillingo.
