Leeds SEO

I love my iPod Touch – probably a little too much. It has really changed the way I use the Internet when I’m at home. I rarely use my laptop now to surf the web. I even don’t use a standard browser for many of my regular activities as there are iPhone applications that do the job better.

Below is a list of apps I use regularly (every app is free because I’m to stingy to pay for anything):

TwitterFon

In my opinion the best free Twitter application (I’ve tried a few). You can do pretty much everything you can on the web interface. It makes retweeting simple (hit the retweet button), you can browse people’s profiles, you can do searches, browse linked pages and upload photos. It also gives a really nice “conversation” view for both tweets and direct messages. The only things I wish you could do easier is post links (e.g. from your recent history or bookmarks in Safari) and support multiple accounts (I my own account plus ones for LocateTV).

WordPress

Although I’m not sure I’d want to write a whole blog post in it, the WordPress application allows you to connect to any of your blogs (as long as you enable XMP-RPC) and approved comments, write posts, create pages and even upload photos from your photo library (or camera if you have an iPhone). From home this is ideal to make sure comments for this blog are approved in a timely fashion.

Ebay

This app is used by my wife more than me (buying shoes and the like), but it certainly gives a very good way of browsing and buying on eBay. It remembers your account information and placing a bit on an item is even easier than the website, in my opinion. Whether that’s a good thing for my bank balance is another matter. You can easily see a list of items you are watching and searching is very simple too.

Facebook

The Facebook application is a simple presentation of the main parts of your Facebook profile. You can see your news feed, notifications and requests. Like many of the other applications, you can upload photos and view other people’s. The way it integrates with the phone is really nice as you can browse friend’s photos just like the build-in iPhone photo application (e.g. swipe the screen to move through photos). I’ve found that, since installing the application, I use Facebook more (I’ve been mostly hanging out on Twitter) as it’s only a single click to launch the application and see what people are up to.

iTalk

iTalk is a very simple application with a big red button (that turns green when you push it). That is probably enough to make it great, but what it allows you to do is record audio to your iPhone/iPod Touch. This is very useful for making notes, recording meeting or even creating a podcast. To work on the iPod Touch you will need a 2nd Generation one and an external mic. Apple have an integrated microphone headset, but I have gone for the Monster iSoniTalk as it allows you to plug in your own headphones.

Movies (by Flixster)

Flixster’s application allows you to look at cinema listings in your area. You can save your favourite cinemas for easy lookup and find out what films are showing. You can also view trailers for the films to see if it’s going to be worth your time going. The really neat bit is that the application integrates with Facebook using Facebook Connect. This allows you to add your favourite movies to your facebook profile and see what movies your friend have rated or would like to see.

LocateTV

OK, so I’m slightly biased here, but I find the LocateTV application a really handy way of using the service on my iPod Touch. Only last night, my missus had accidentally deleted the Sky+ series link for Brothers and Sisters and asked me what channel and time it was on so she you set it up again. Within seconds I had searched and found out the channel name and number for her. You can also search for when your favourite actors are next on TV – a great way to find different things to watch.

So what had this got to do with Internet Marketing? Each of these applications provide the service providers with alternative way to reach their audience.

For Ebay, it is clear that by providing a easy to use custom interface, they can easily attract more regular users.

For Twitter the lines are less clear: the application is written by a third party and revenue via advertising will be lost (although the data from tweets is likely to be the main source of income).

For Flixster, it allows them to continue to spread their brand. They have been very successful at creating popular applications for MySpace and Facebook. By being among the early innovators on the app store has helped them stay in the top.

For LocateTV, it was started off mainly a learning experiment to find out how you could build a mobile application. We are looking at ways to enhance the functionality to really make the most of the iPhone environment.

It was certainly interesting going through the process of having the application reviewed by Apple – they actually rejected it first time due to a usability issue (IMHO it is a positive thing that they go to this level of detail before publishing).

Promoting an application on the iTunes App Store is also another interesting part. Many of the top applications stay in the top 20 for a long time and so getting into this list is important. This can be either top overall or top in a category (so choosing the right category could be important).

The search on the App Store is fairly basic and the name of the application seems to be key. Putting an appropriate keyword or two into the title (e.g. the Flixster application is simply called “Movies”). There is also the mysterious part of getting into the “featured” applications (chosen by Apple) – this can be a great way of getting noticed. I also think that regularly upgrading an application can help (to get the app into the “new” category).

One of the great things is that there are loads of iPhone geeks out there who list the latest applications added to the store, so they can help promote apps.

Of course, the iPhone isn’t the only place where widgets are becoming a great way to reach different markets. The Android platform is another way to get applications onto mobile phones.

This makes it a very exciting time for internet marketing and also for developers, who can build applications and sell them directly to consumers (or give them away for free!). Feel free to share your experiences below. Oh, and if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch – maybe I’ve convinced you to buy one!