With the daily onslaught of incredible apps launching across app stores daily, it’s easy to become a little immune to quality apps when you see them. To help cut through the clutter and shine a much deserved spotlight on a few apps you should keep an eye on in 2012, I’ve rounded up the best ones for you.

1 – Bizzabo for iPhone and Android

Networking doesn’t only occur online. In fact, some of the best networking is done face to face at conferences and events. That being said, it’s not always easy to know what everyone does or who you should be talking to. That’s where Bizzabo comes in. Mentioned on businessinsider.com by Ben Lang as one of Israel’s 15 Growing Israeli Startups to Watch, Bizzabo is a networking app for events and conferences which has already launched In Israel and is expected to launch in the US in 2012.

To share a little more insight, Bizzabo has worked in about 60 conferences and has succeeded in creating more than 1500 new LinkedIn connections as well as hundreds of new Twitter followers among event attendees.

2 – Playup for iPhone

With the Superbowl being right around the corner, and the Olympic games later this year, Playup is an app that’s sure to see some serious waves. Playup is a social network for sports events where friends and fans can cheer, rivals can heckle, or the couch athletes can just get down to talking match strategy. According to stats on AppAnnie, Playup is maintaining a ranking of 3^rd spot in the sports category on the US app store.

3 – Onavo for iPhone and Android

iPhone owners, if you’re planning on doing any traveling this year, don’t leave home without Onavo installed on your device. You’ll thank me later. The app compresses your mobile data by up to 80% which in turn saves you big bucks while on the go. Having recently secured a $10 Million series B funding round, the company will continue to expand its product line, offering and reach.

4 – Vodio for iPad

Straight out of the gate, Vodio for iPad received very positive reviews by the web’s leading app reviewers, including TheNextWeb, TechCrunch, iPhoneLife and has most recently been featured App of the Day by Apple in Canada.

Vodio allows it’s users to create personalized video channels, mixed with a dash of social integration. Additionally, Vodio lets you share videos through your social networks, so your friends can enjoy it too. (Disclosure, Vodio is an AppsMarketing.mobi client.)

5 – Pinterest

With the mega growth of this visual social network, we’re bound to see more and more of its users reach for their smartphone to share random moments of inspiration. Of course, the Pinterest app lets you do much more than follow other likeminded pinners (I think that’s what you call them). The Pinterest iPhone app lets you touch up your pictures in a very unique way they call TouchUp, bringing a fresh change to the filters and effect type photography apps.

In all fairness, this post could have just as easily been about 20 hot apps you should keep your eye on through 2012, but for the sake of your time I wanted to share the ones that most caught my attention.

At the end of the day, the best apps are the ones that help you best manage your day, have a little fun or learn something new. Know of such an app? Share it with us in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros

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Today more than ever, companies struggle to differentiate themselves from competition.  The hottest craze in marketing to attract attention is Social Media, which deserves a well-thought plan.

Social Media is more than collecting Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers.  It’s a method of discovering and sharing news and content.  It’s a way of having your followers publish your message in their own words.

Consider the following as you begin to engage users or as you sharpen your current social strategy:

• Determine your goals and objectives.  Make them tie to your overall company goals.
• Do your homework.  What social media sites do you wish to engage with people?  A starter list includes the obvious Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn and other blogs.
• Get to Know your Social Community.  Find out what they respond to and their etiquette preferences and ease into it.
• Actively get to know your target users.  Listen to them, understand them.
• Inject humor when possible.  Learn what makes your social media members want to share what you have to say.
• Create a convincing reason to share.   You can’t expect others to share without being asked or incentivized to share.
• Ask people to spread the word.   Make it easy to share by adding buttons to easily utilize social media sites.
• Make things easy to read.   People like quick, easy-to-remember material.   Creating lists or “Top 10”-style reads keep your message brief, but valuable.
• Keep ideas fresh to your target market and don’t always use the same format.  Shake it up.
• Illustrate speaking points with photos and charts.   Make it easy for your social community to understand what you’re trying to say.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Every day there are new articles about how to effectively market your social media strategy.  Pay attention.  The more informed you are about planning for the social web, the more successful you will be.

For additional tips on sharpening your social media strategy, contact W3i at info@w3i.com.

Sue Ann Heck, Account Development Manager, W3i, LLC

Sue Ann has extensive experience in account management and prides herself in building quality, long-term relationships with W3i’s valued partners.

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W3i collaborates with developers to optimize monetization tools such as in-app purchases.  By identifying high conversion in-app purchase touch points in a game, developers can capitalize on a similar implementation.

Venan Entertainment is an experienced game developer, developing games since 2002 (Space Miner Blast, Ninjatown). For their new title, Book of Heroes, Venan partnered with Recharge Studios utilizing the AppX fund, a $10 million fund created to help developers accelerate their game business.  AppX provides a free suite of services; user acquisition funding, actionable insights and game-changing production support with no long-term revenue share and without giving up IP rights.

During the post launch, the AppX team observed healthy activity of in-app purchases in the tutorial and wanted to understand why 25% of the paying users were purchasing an armor bundle virtual good.

In our combined analysis with Venan, we found that the largest monetizing event in the game was during the tutorial. The game was artfully displaying the advantages of a high cost item at the perfect time during the game.

First, the player is shown the context of what is going on in the game. The player must understand the value they are getting from making a purchase before they are presented the offer or they will not make the purchase!

In Book of Heroes, the player is in the game for about three minutes before they are given the opportunity to make a purchase. This makes the player familiar with the mechanics of the game. At the opportune time, the player is presented a bundle of upgrades for their avatar, not the in-app purchase screen. The player is required to purchase armor, but they can choose from multiple tiers. The first tier is easily attainable with their default premium currency amount and provides a minor improvement to gameplay. The second is exactly the cost of investing in the minimal IAP purchase of $1.99 and provides a large advantage over the first. The third requires the IAP of $4.99, and creates a huge advantage for the user’s avatar.

Combine this with a seamless visit to the IAP screen, back to the bundle purchase area and the handy discount amounts on the IAP screen showing the advantage to making a higher purchase, and you have a great monetization event.

Contact W3i to collaborate in growing your app business.  Now time to incinerate some Rath’een Warlocks!

Jimi Van Guilder, Producer, Recharge Studios, W3i, LLC

Jimi is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Nickelodeon, the NFL, NBC, Marvel, Snoop Dogg and LucasArts. Jimi heads up production at W3i’s wholly owned publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios.

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App entrepreneur success stories are becoming increasingly common through the ever-growing mobile industry. Of course, the truth is that working up to a hit app almost never happens over night or with your first app for that matter. As someone once put it, for every Angry Bird out there, there are at least 20 thousand angry developers.

Having met with countless app developers, I can safely say that the one thing they all have in common is entrepreneurial drive. With Apple recently crossing the 10 billion download mark and an estimated 44 billion downloads expected to be achieved by 2016, creative young mobile app developers everywhere are going all-out, looking to cash in on the hottest business trend to emerge in the last decade.

What does it take to become a successful app entrepreneur? Some may say that the development process is actually the easy part. Thinking of an app with the right balance of value, creativity and marketing reach, that’s the tricky part.

One of best apps to riches stories involves Lisa Bettany, a Canadian figure skater who suffered through a serious injury only to bounce back at the top of the app charts with her hit app Camera+. Entrepreneur.com shares her awesome story which I urge you all to read at least once.

Anybody Can Do It

We’ve all at one point or another had an “Ah-Ha!” moment where we were sure we’ve thought of a hit app idea, or at least know someone who has. However, we weren’t all born with the gift of coding flowing through our genes. Luckily there’s no lack of talented freelance developers for hire on services such as odesk, elance, guru.com and many other freelance sites to help get the job done.

Enter Trey Smith. After launching a very lucrative business as an affiliate in the online world, Trey turned his attention towards iPhone apps. His iPhone apps include top hits such as Jump Pack, Maze+ and Monster Magic.  In just a 5 month period Trey’s apps have had over 3,000,000 downloads. In his webinars, Trey explains how he took his iPhone app game, Kolo’s Journey, from concept to completion and through marketing, almost entirely through the use of freelance services.

Business Sense on the Go

One of the biggest advantages entrepreneurs have today is the ability to conduct business anywhere via their mobile devices. From answering emails, to signing agreements, the use of Smartphones as business tools has transformed the way entrepreneurs do business. This also opens the door for app entrepreneurs to think outside of the box as far too many restrict their app ideas to “the next big game,” when in reality, there’s a huge window of opportunity to deliver utility and productivity tools to make on-the-go users’ life a little more fun and manageable.

In conclusion

The most successful app entrepreneurs have approached their app ideas by looking at what niche their app could best fill. Do not underestimate the power of targeting a specific audience or end-user for your app idea, that being said, the real magic happens when you keep  your mind open to fun and creative ideas.

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Windows 8 which is expected to make its beta debut in February 2012 is trying to offer the “best of both Worlds” by incorporating a single OS that works across desktops and tablet devices.

With the Windows store, users will be able to license, purchase, and download Metro apps from one location. Although Microsoft is starting with free apps, developers will be able to offer paid apps as well. Microsoft is offering developers a 70/30 rev share with the added bonus of increasing their rev share to 80% once the app reaches $25k in sales.

Microsoft stated that “there are now 1.25 billion Windows PCs in existence, and 3 million copies of the Windows 8 developer preview have been downloaded since September” providing an impressive reach for the new OS.

However others remain uncertain about the potential success of Windows 8 as the “the only real benefit that [Windows 8] provides [is] access to the Windows app store” says Al Gillen, Program VP at IDC.

Additional obstacles that Windows 8 is faced with include the significant efforts corporations have taken to implement Windows 7, application compatibility issues, and their reliance on developers to rework existing Windows apps for the Metro interface.

The table below shows the OS market share percentages as of November 2011 according to NetMarketShare:

As illustrated in the table above, Windows accounts for the largest OS market share with 92%.  With the high percent of consumers currently using Windows XP and Windows 7 it might be difficult to convince them to make the switch.

Microsoft has had a bad history of trying to get consumers to upgrade as a result of application compatibility issues. Windows 2000 Pro required developers to upgrade their apps, which resulted in little success. As a result, Microsoft had to create a new OS with improved application compatibility known as Windows XP. The same compatibility issue occurred with Vista which led to the release of Windows 7. Many wonder if Windows 8 will face a similar fate.

Microsoft must also convince developers to alter existing Windows apps to be compatible with their Windows 8 Metro interface. Although they are offering a fairly attractive incentive to developers with the 70/30 rev share if they are unable to get developers to invest in making these changes it may not be successful.

With all of these obstacles that Windows 8 is faced with, IDC believes that it “will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs” and they go on further to state that they “expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor.” Therefore the question remains is Windows 8 bound for success or doomed to fail?

By: Joy Haeg, Account Development Manager, W3i, LLC

Joy manages many of W3i’s key partnerships with a focus on growing successful, long-term business relationships.

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In Tips on Game Mechanics Session 1, I discussed why your game should allow for the purchase and display of content to create envy between players.

This session I will focus on how to increase user retention that ultimately leads to more opportunities for monetization. One of the simplest mechanics to increase user retention is to add a daily reward to your freemium game. It is surprising how many games that use a currency do not contain a daily reward but many top games that previously did not have an award now have one (Gun Bros. is an example).

There are some variations you can place in your daily reward. In the recently released Recharge Studios game Dolphin Play with Friends, we implemented a daily reward that awards players an increasing amount of standard currency for the first four consecutive days and one unit of premium currency for the fifth consecutive day. Once the player gets to five days the cycle starts over.

Some games have variations on the number of consecutive days you can come back to earn the maximum currency, and some games award the maximum currency as long as you come back on consecutive days indefinitely until you miss a day. Other applications award a variety of rewards other than currency such as consumables used in gameplay or crafting.

Daily rewards also offer a great opportunity to monetize the user indirectly by offering an ad for a daily free app as you can see in the example below.

Once the user closes the daily reward they are presented this custom interstitial advertisement from W3i’s Mobile App Advertising Platform that offers a new free app each day. Offering this interstitial after a daily reward is the perfect opportunity to present an ad to the user for two reasons. One, they just were given a reward so they must be in a good mood! Two, they will only see the ad once a day just as they see the daily reward once a day.

Does your app have a daily reward? There may be room to increase the retention of your app and possibly include an advertisement that is less intrusive than an ad shown more than once a day or directly on app launch. Retention is the biggest opportunity, I find myself scrambling for my iPhone if the end of the day rolls around and I had been too busy to collect my reward and feed my dolphins!

Jimi Van Guilder, Producer, Recharge Studios, W3i, LLC

Jimi is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Nickelodeon, the NFL, NBC, Marvel, Snoop Dogg and LucasArts. Jimi heads up production at W3i’s wholly owned publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios.

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The About page is one of the highest trafficked pages on a site. People look here to see if your company has the talent to meet their needs. If they’re not satisfied with who you are, they may not navigate to additional pages and you’ll lose a conversion. So brag a little…toot your own horn…have others toot your horn and don’t be afraid to get a little personal.

When bragging, I mean describing the accomplishments of your organization, make sure that you tie these accomplishments to what you can do for prospective clients. If the journey of how you got where you are today is impressive, briefly inform your visitor of that history and its key milestones.  Include awards and acknowledgments your projects have received and don’t forget to update these as they come in. If you haven’t received an award since 1995, it may be best to not include that one. It will look as though you were great last century but haven’t kept up with the times. If your organization is involved in the community this is a good place to show off your big heart.

Have you worked with some big players in your industry? Let them tell prospects how amazing you are too. Other people reinforcing your accomplishments will boost your credibility in the marketplace. Testimonials are even more effective when they come from recognizable names. If the person or company name may not be recognizable, add a photo or company logo to help personalize the statement.

Last tidbit of advice: Stop the snooze-fest by showing some personality! Humanize your company by deformalizing the copy. Use attention grabbing adjectives and verbs to make your information fun to read.  Many corporations may be leery of moving the tone to a personal feel. If that is the case, A/B test and take note of the difference in conversions as well as time spent navigating to additional pages. Showing personality is especially important if you are the brand (i.e. web designer, consultant). Having a video for your About page is a unique way to speak to your audience if you are the brand.

Whether you are a large corporation or working from your garage, people still want to know why they should pick you. So, be sure to use pizazz while substantiating your expertise in order to stand out from the crowd.

Heather Schmidt, Account Development Executive, W3i, LLC

Heather provides value to W3i’s partners by continually focusing on optimization and growth strategies. 

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Before they can read or write, babies are already picking up iPhones and iPads, bringing a whole new meaning to the words early adopter.

For some, the thought of letting toddlers anywhere near or even play with a Smartphone may be unthinkable, but the fact is that more and more toddlers are turning techie whether their parents like it or not. Snapdragons, a Nursery in Britain, realized that if you can’t beat them, join them. They introduced the use iPads to teach pre-school children letters, numbers, shapes and colors.

A recent PBS survey about how kids and parents interact with the iPad revealed that 70 percent of parents reported allowing their children to use their iPad. Each iPad, on average, contained eight apps specifically downloaded for their kids. Furthermore, 40 percent of the parents surveyed said their children played on the iPad at least once a day, but their children’s daily iPad “playing” wasn’t only for entertainment apps. A full 90 percent of parents said that “educational value” was the most important criteria when choosing an app for their kids

As it stands, there are litteraly thousands of apps targeted specifically to babies and toddlers, from interactive games that name body parts to animal sounds and nursery rhymes. Watching tiny fingers flick through photos and objects on Smartphones is now the norm.

Toy maker Fisher Price isn’t going to miss out on this new trend and recently released a new “apptivity” case for the iPhone and iPod touch, framed by a colourful rattle, which allows babies to play while promising protection from “dribbles, drool and unwanted call-making.”

Cashing In On The Toddler Craze

Fisher Price isn’t the only toy maker who’s jumped into the mobile app arena. There’s an increasing trend of toy / app hybrids heading for a toddler near you. HappiTaps for example,  turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a cheerful bear’s face. Slip it inside this plush holder; and voila, you have a square-headed rattle that you can clip to your belt or stroller.

Woogie is a five-legged, plush smartphone holder that can work with an iPhone device or Android phone, and makes no effort to block the home button.

All Things in Moderation

Like it or not, kids are growing up with an iPad within arms reach. While some parents are divided in letting their children play with apps or dispute it’s educational value, most experts agree that a careful balance is needed if your toddler is to get a head start in the modern day technological race.

“It’s really important that children have a variety of tools to learn from. Technology gadgets can be one of those tools, but they shouldn’t dominate, especially when we’re talking about very young children,” Cheryl Rode, a clinical psychologist at the San Diego Center for Children shared with ihacked.ca.

Toddlers learn through repetition, color recognition and interaction, and the iPad’s interactive design reinforces each of these aspects of learning.

Parents, I’m turning it back over to you. Do you let your little ones explore and experience apps or do you keep your iDevices as far away from them as possible? I’d love to know what you think. Share your comments below or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros and let me know.

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Have you ever made a download or install decision based on the quality of the app icon? I’ll be the first to confess that in a time where apps are becoming more and more abundant, where you have the choice of hundreds of thousands of apps, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out and find a useful app. Much like in speed-dating, users will make decisions in a matter of seconds, especially considering the mobile context and our increasing demand for instant gratification.

Arguably, the quality of your app icon will increase the chances that users will give your app a fair shot and (hopefully) fall in love with what it offers behind the scenes. In other words, if you put together your app icon without much thought and effort, the chances of a user choosing your app versus skipping it for the next one are close to nil. Does that mean a quality app icon equals a quality app? Certainly not. The same is true for the inverse. However, it will most likely make users at least explore your app in more depth and lead to an install for further evaluation.

So, what does a quality app icon look like? There are plenty of app icon tutorials and resources out there on the net, some better than others. Michael Flarup (on his PixelResort site) has put together one of the better set of guidelines for app icon design (even though it’s a little dated) and I won’t rehash any of it here. The only thing I would augment is the “Stand out from the crowd” section. While Michael shows some good examples, we can push the envelope a bit more. I’ve seen some great concepts come through on Dribbble, a site where some of the top designers hang out and show off their latest works. Here is a small sampling from some work featured on Dribble of how your app icon can stand out even more:

Examples of App Icons that Stand Out

Unfortunately, there is not much, if any, data on what types of icons actually work better in the various app stores. It would be nice to run some A/B testing and get a better understanding. Regardless, making your icon look great is likely a step in the right direction (don’t skimp on the value the actual app provides either). Remember, first impressions matter.

What are your favorite app icons?  Feel free to post in the comments.

David May, Director of Creative Services; W3i, LLC
David has been working in the design industry for over 9 years and carries a fancy B.F.A. with focus in Graphic Design. He’s a native of Germany and loves peanut m&m’s. about everything related to the web and design in general.

What are your favorite app icons?

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What’s New @ W3i for Mobile App Partners

App ID Creation – Create an ID for your app that you can use for integration. This will save you time speed up implementation so your app is to market faster! Forgot your ID? Do you need to know what we have set up for your currency? Can’t remember if you have been set up as a partner for a specific application? Find it all here!

Self-Service Campaign Management (Coming Soon!) – Stop and start your campaigns to optimize your return. No more waiting for someone who may be in a different time zone than you. Move quickly with the ability to pause and resume your campaigns as needed without the help of a W3i associate. Were you looking for the ability to see the campaign information for your applications? Now you can! You will be able to view your budget, remaining balances, daily cap information, country targeting, rate, start time and expiration time, whether or not your application was featured and more!

Mobile Integration Documentation – For ease of implementation you now have direct access to updates to SDK’s, sample apps, FAQ’s, etc. No more waiting, direct access to all of our integration updates immediately without having to log in.

Create and Save Custom Reports – Saves time and gives you the insight you need at your fingertips. Save your reports for immediate access to your most important reports after login.

Custom Subscriptions (Coming Soon!)– Now that you have the ability to save your reports, wouldn’t it be nice to have them e-mailed directly to you? Coming soon, the ability to subscribe to your custom reports and have them sent directly to you as you need them. Weekly, daily, whenever, you got it!

This is just the beginning of improvements we are making to improve your experience partnering with W3i.

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