What is the best way to go about creating an "app"? From idea, who to contact for product development, what to do with the app once you have it developed, pricing? The whole process is something that I am very interested in.
The first thing to do is make sure that it makes sense for you (or your company) to have an app. First decide if an app will really benefit your customers and grow your bottom line. There are currently 400,000+ apps on iTunes in the App store. The sheer number of apps creates a huge discovery issue and requires you to support your app with marketing and advertising, which can get expensive. Even if your app is free it is still very difficult to get people to download and use your app unless it creates a lot of value for the user. Depending on your business, it might be easier to make sure that you show up in existing apps. For example, if you own a restaurant, store or service business it is important to make sure you show up in searches on Yelp and other directory/informational type apps. If you already have a website for your company, it is also possible to optimize your site for mobile devices. Here is a pretty good article on Mashable about optimizing a site for mobile: http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/mobile-web-optimization/ If you decide that you do in fact need an app for your company, there are a number of mobile design and development companies. Prices vary greatly depending on what you need in your app and where you have it built (in the US vs. abroad). Prices can range from a few thousand dollars to over $100K. Mutual Mobile is a US-based company that comes higly recommended and is a good place to start.
