What two words best describe a hi-tech company eager to win the consumers’ hearts in all categories: social network, mobile operating system, web browser and email? Angry Google!
Angry Birds has become a part of the modern culture and the brand is now part if the common knowledge just like Google, Facebook, Microsoft. One million downloads a day and 250 million downloads in total does not leave any doubt. Neither do pictures like the one below.
Angry Google
The major competitor of Angry Birds in the overall number of sales in the App Store is surprisingly not another game but WhatsApp Messanger, which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.
What does the mobile game have in common with the utility app? They are used on very different occasions but they have a few things in common.
• Simple elevator pitches:
– You will help cute birds defend nasty pigs that have stolen their eggs.
– You will be able to do more than SMS allows you to at a lower cost.
• Very intuitive and simple user interfaces:
– The key app features are easily accessible without cluttering the interface with the stuff most of the users would hardly ever access.
• Instant gratification to the end users.
– There are five types of Angry Birds, each equipped with a unique skill to fight the pigs. That’s all you need to know to start playing.
• Deliver what they promise
– Whether it is a way to decrease the phone bill or make the good win over the evil.
The most popular apps all guarantee a great end user experience from first encounter with the users.
• They do not overpromise, confuse or overwhelm. If first experience with a new app / device is bad, users will not return and are lost forever. Why do you think Google Wave died? Google Wave had a lot of nice things to offer to users, but Google didn’t build a compelling user experience nor did it define some use cases for the application.
• They deliver stable quality and great user experience. Customer surveys of mobile subscribers in Europe and North America confirm that 74% of respondents would be prepared to pay for a higher quality of experience and better download speeds. Users have higher expectations to paid apps as opposed to the free ones.
The algorithm for a killer app is simple, yet difficult to implement; the few apps that that live up to the end user expectations take a vast majority of the downloads. End users are prepared to pay for them. 75% of iPhone users purchase one or more apps each month.
Tech Surprises 
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