There’s no denying that the iPhone has revolutionised the way we use our mobile phones and the internet, particularly when it comes to applications. This is why when most businesses need a mobile system they think, “I need an iPhone app”, rather than “I need a mobile application”. This attitude is partly down to the success of Apple’s marketing department and arguably the device itself. However, we believe that businesses need to be asking themselves who their target audience are before deciding on which mobile platform to choose.
So if your audience are corporate customers, then our platform of choice is usually the Blackberry. Because compared to the iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile, BlackBerry has the corporate environment sussed. This normally makes it the preferred choice for large corporations who want a truly enterprise grade mobile solution. ICAP is one such company. ICAP plc, are the world’s leading inter dealer broker and provider of post trade risk and information services. They’re also active in both established and emerging markets and operate a global network covering more than 32 countries world-wide.
We were asked by ICAP to develop a real-time price feed application that would be able to function across a variety of Blackberry handsets, (Bold, Pearl, Curve, Storm, Torch etc) regardless of whether they were traditional candy bars like the Pearl or the latest touch screen devices such as the Torch and Storm. Due to the valuable nature of the information being supplied, security was paramount. This meant that those who had access to this information needed to be monitored carefully via password log in, geo-location and unique mobile ID (IMEI) number.
In terms of the actual design, we blended the native Blackberry components with a strong on brand interface design to develop an intuitive interface that’s simple to use, but able to process and filter large amounts of information seamlessly. Ensuring that the application had backward compatibility was also important, as we wanted the application to run smoothly across all operating systems. The finished result is a user-friendly application, which allows for real-time streaming of trading prices from the ICAP trading infrastructure, direct to the user’s handset.
During the application’s development we received great support from the RIM development community, who we enjoy a partnership with via the Blackberry Alliance programme. We also benefitted from on site RIM consultancy directly with regards to this particular application.
Most of us know that mobile applications are huge at the moment and the market is only going to get bigger as users change their habits. So if you want to enhance your business and increase awareness, then maybe it’s time to consider one, and for those of you who already have; make sure you’ve thought about the purpose of your app and your target audience – because after all, not everybody likes apples…