Last night I went to the SF AppShow, who were celebrating their one year anniversary. I like the concept of the show: 10 apps are each given 6 minutes to present. The execution especially on the part of some of the app developers needs work. The SF AppShow selects the apps to present and I don’t know the criteria but I felt like some were just not worthy of a presentation. I do know that the apps pay for the opportunity to present. Anyway, each app can show a prepared video and then demo the app live. Some didn’t do either of these, the app Shotgun Duel is an example. You are paying for this chance to present in front of a crowd of influencers and you don’t have a video or demo of your app? The developer of Shotgun Duel just stood on stage and described how his app worked. Fail! Some apps didn’t do a good job of letting us know the name of the app, example Waze. Waze is a crowd sourced traffic app. But they never bothered to show us the name and I thought it was Ways. If your app is a odd spelling of a common word, make it clear to your audience how it is spelled.
Another thread that seemed to be common amongst many apps was they had no revenue plan. They wanted to focus on building something cool, something perfect first. Then worry about how to make money. Sound like the dot bomb? I think we may have a app bomb building. How do you start a business with no revenue model? Some apps didn’t have clear marketing plans defined. They were going to spread the word through Facebook and social networks. I do admire the spirit of creating something new and exciting but you need to also be serious about this if you want to have a chance to succeed. The app market is extremely crowded and operating like they will come if I build it does not fly.
All that being said the couple apps that gave me a “wow” moment were Thump Football and MorphWiz. Flipboard was also presented, but I have been using that app since it was released, I had a “wow” moment months ago for them. Thump Football is app that allows you to play along with college and NFL football games. You predict the plays and outcomes and are awarded points if you are correct. You can play as part of a group or alone. Fun idea to add interaction around football games. MorphWiz is a musical instrument created by Jordan Rudess the keyboard player for Dream Theater. I am not a musician, but I can tell you the music Jordan was playing sounded amazing. When he was done he got the loudest applause of the night.
The apps that were shown:
Flipboard
Edmonds
Free2work
Shotgun Duel
Astrolome
Romplr
Thump Football
Waze
Movie Night Out
Picbounce
Morphwiz
Michael, thanks for posting your review of the show. As the Executive Producer of the SF AppShow I felt compelled to reply to some of your points. “The execution especially on the part of some of the app developers needs work. Some didn’t do either of these, the app Shotgun Duel is an example. The developer of Shotgun Duel just stood on stage and described how his app worked. Fail!”
This is totally our fault. Inedible Software had prepared a great slide by slide demo of Shotgun Duel, and our feed from the laptop on stage went down right as I took the stage at the beginning of the show, so the presenter was without his prepared demo.
“Some apps didn’t do a good job of letting us know the name of the app, example Waze. each app can show a prepared video and then demo the app live. Some didn’t do either of these, the app Shotgun Duel is an example.” We had slides for each presenter with their app name and app icon that were supposed to be displayed behind each presenter, so the name would’ve been clear. Unfortunately again, the feed from our computer with the slides was down.
“The SF AppShow selects the apps to present and I don’t know the criteria but I felt like some were just not worthy of a presentation.” We try to pick apps that solve problems in new ways and have simple, well designed interfaces or in the case of games are addictive in the case of their entertainment value. We usually only show one game per show and look to showcase a representative sample of all the categories in the app store, to showcase the diversity of what is being done with the platform. We’re also looking for apps that make great demos that wow the attendees. The hope is that every attendee leaves wanting to download at least one app or at least recommend one of the apps to a friend. Sounds like we succeeded in that you wanted to download Thump and were intrigued by MorphWiz.
Seth, I really appreciate your reply and it was great meeting you at the show. Thank you for clearing up the technical issues that lead to the presentation problems…. unfortunately those things happen. I really do love the concept of the event and could imagine it becoming something much larger that runs longer, showcasing apps by genre and targets the general public. Great way to give some attention to apps that might otherwise have a tough time getting heard over all the noise in the app market.