As Chairman and CEO of Phunware, I am often asked questions about mobile application development, mobile best practices and monetization.  In this occasional series, I will share some of the Q&A from past conversations and interviews as well as open it up for any new questions that folks are curious. Submit your questions to socialmedia@127.0.0.1.
What do you think makes an engaging mobile application?
We start from a user perspective. You need to think about what the core value of that application is; it’s utility, why a user would download it, and why they will come back, week over week, month over month, quarter over quarter, year over year. A lot of companies believed, with their first generation of mobile applications, that it was a box to check–that you need an application, and some brand extension. Usually, the budgets were very small. However, what we have found is, across all titles on iTunes, we are getting some of the highest rated applications from our portfolio. We’ve gotten to the top of categories like Travel, Entertainment, Lifestyle, and Education–from all different kinds of brands and sizes of companies; some free, some paid. We use our proprietary framework which creates a mobile experience, rather than just an app or a feature. Creating that quality, especially for large brands, is critical. People understand what is good, and what is bad. Users are casting judgments about brands, and whether they are engaged appropriately, or if they are being insulted by the methodology of engagement.
