Megaton on TwitInterviews.com

Earlier today, MegatonApps LLC President Casey Ayers sat down with TwitInterviews.com’s Kim Beasley to talk about the iPhone platform, social media and how businesses can harness both for greatest effect:

Kim Beasley: Welcome @CaseyAyers to your TwitInterview. Please share about yourself, your business, and how long you have been in your field of expertise.

Casey Ayers: Hi, Kim! I’m Casey Ayers, President of MegatonApps LLC. We are an iPhone application development and publishing company. We work with independent developers to assist them with UI design, marketing, business admin and other tasks so that they can focus on making their programs the best they can be. We also work with corporate clients, to help them understand the iPhone as a platform and how their brands can be properly introduced to this exciting new market space. For these businesses, we offer a complete package of services, managing everything from design to publication of their iPhone apps. Although Megaton is just a few months old, my business partner and I have deep experience in design, business administration and technology/videogame journalism.

Kim Beasley: What are some reasons why a business owner would want an iPhone application developed?

Casey Ayers: The iPhone is such a unique platform in this business environment. Although its market may seem “small”, at just over 20 million devices worldwide, compared to the cell phone market in general, the reality is that the iPhone presents the greatest opportunity to connect with customers at the mobile level today. iPhone users represent a majority share of mobile web browsing, and the average iPhone has more than a dozen user-downloaded applications. While businesses selling actual products will benefit from presence on the device, companies that can successfully bring their services to iPhone fare even better.

Kim Beasley:What are some ways that a business owner can tie in social media with a iPhone application to expand their business?

Casey Ayers: For businesses, the most important feature of social networking is the chance to connect with their customers in a more direct fashion than they have been offered in the past. We are currently working on a proposal for a professional sports team, for example. The app offers the ability to search through the player roster, view video highlights, read recent team news and more. Fans will also have the opportunity to ask questions of a team representative that will be posted as part of a daily column and to get in touch with a ticket sales representative, so they can be sure to reserve their spot at the big game. Although this example doesn’t directly utilize Twitter or Facebook, it’s a form of interactivity that users and businesses alike can value. There are many other circumstances where traditional social media can be directly injected, and this is made relatively easy by the well-constructed APIs made available by Twitter, Facebook and others.

Kim Beasley: Can a business owner monetize an iPhone application? What kind of customers can a business owner expect to reach?

Casey Ayers: Business owners can monetize applications on the front end by charging for them in Apple’s App Store. However, significant pricing pressure in the marketplace has driven the typical app price down to just a dollar or two. There are two solutions for this: First, if companies have a service that they believe will be popular across a wide range of customers, charging the low, market price can be a primary source of revenue. Companies will find more success, however, in using the iPhone platform in ways that drive alternative revenue streams. Creating iPhone versions of web services and desktop applications, for example, can serve as a great way to drive users to those products, where larger monetization is easier to accomplish. Advertising is another alternative, as is simply bucking the pricing trend and asking a premium price for the app, if it matches well with a specific type of customer. The new SlingPlayer, for example, is priced at $29.99, well above the 99¢ often seen, but the app provides enough value to current SlingBox users to justify the price. The customer demograph, while skewing toward urban environments and higher household incomes, is fairly widespread, thanks greatly to the fact that iPod Touch also runs on the iPhone OS. Suffice to say that almost any businesses can find a healthy base of potential customers on iPhone.

Kim Beasley: Last question– how can a business owner tap into the mobile environment, too?

Casey Ayers: While the iPhone is the most vibrant mobile platform available today, a number of overriding principles can be followed regardless of the mobile platform. First, the mobile arena requires simple design and easy interactivity. This doesn’t mean that detailed information can’t be presented on a mobile platform; rather, as important as presentation is on a traditional webpage, it is doubly so on a mobile device. Secondly, being efficient with bandwidth is critical. While the iPhone has unlimited data usage, many users remain capped or even pay by the byte. Finally, enter the mobile arena with a goal. Whether it’s to offer an unbeatable service for mobile users, drive customers to a desktop product or service or to simply raise awareness of a real-world product, businesses must ensure they know why they’re interested in the mobile space if they want to find true success.

Kim Beasley: Thank you for sharing your knowledge today about iPhone development. Please share how people can get in touch with you.

Casey Ayers: It’s been my pleasure! If you are an independent developer and you believe you’ve developed a great app that can’t seem to find its customer base, we’d love to help you find greater success. If you’re a corporate client looking to understand this exciting space better and want to ensure that your market entrance is handled with the highest level of care and professionalism, we want to hear from you as well! You can find out more about MegatonApps LLC at http://megatonapps.com. Readers can also e-mail me at casey@megatonapps.com. Finally, I’d be completely remiss to not include our Twitter addresses! You can get in touch with me at http://twitter.com/caseyayers and with my business partner at http://twitter.com/seanoneill. Also, be sure to follow the Megaton feed for our latest updates at http://twitter.com/megatonapps!