Is anyone currently charging for their mobile app, or are they planning to?
I've been talking to one of these companies about this revenue share and the owner says others plan to. I don't have an issue with it as long as the cost is low, but it always helps to sell an idea to the rest of the institution if you can prove others are doing it... Yvette Sterbenk Communications Manager Corning Museum of Glass One Museum Way, Corning, NY, 14830 Office: 607.974.8124 Cell: 607.368.1026 www.cmog.org -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Proctor, Nancy Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:52 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: Re: [MCN-L] iPhone app discussion I agree with Stephanie. Just yesterday I came across another company offering this model in which the app & CMS are free to the museum, and revenue is shared between the provider and museum on app or tour sales. That brings my count to 4 that I'm aware of for sure: 1. Toura 2. uGuideMe 3. MyToursApp 4. Artful from CultureLabel There are a couple more that seem willing to consider this model: * Spotlight Mobile * Tristan Interactive And then there are the opensource solutions already being developed and deployed, most notably by the Dallas Museum of Art and the IMA. You can check them out on the Museum Mobile wiki: http://wiki.MuseumMobile.info The important thing is to do your homework and be aware of what's available on the market already before dropping money to reinvent the wheel. It may be that your needs are so specific you do need a bespoke-build app, in which case $30k seems to be in the ballpark of going rates (I've heard quotes from $10-40k), and there are many accomplished app developers out there who can help you. Also consider opportunity cost: it does take someone's time to design the mobile experience, prepare assets and put them into an app, no matter how user-friendly the CMS is (and hopefully it's database driven to a large extent so it's possible to mass-import content as well, rather than assemble every tour by hand). Of course, the biggest expense of all is creating quality content that facilitates the experience your target audience needs. That's where I'd prioritize the investment, because without good content, it doesn't matter how technically slick your app is - the mobile experience will still fail. Nancy -- Nancy Proctor, PhD Head of New Media Initiatives Smithsonian American Art Museum MRC 970 PO Box 37012 Washington DC 20013-7012 USA t: +1-202-633-8439 c: +1-301-642-6257 f: +1-202-633-8455 http://www.americanart.si.edu http://eyelevel.si.edu/ On 3/9/10 3:00 PM, "mcn-l-request at mcn.edu" <mcn-l-request at mcn.edu> wrote: Message: 1 Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 09:31:07 -0800 From: Stephanie Weaver <[email protected]> Subject: [MCN-L] iPhone app discussion To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: <B0BC3367-965C-4769-BB4A-DD4F7439FE8B at experienceology.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Kurt, I go to many different conferences, and at each one in the last 18 months I have met 1-2 companies who are creating a platform for apps (some iPhone only, some smartphone). Nearly all of them are offering the platform for free, meaning: they are giving the museums access to their CMS platform, and the museums are supposed to create/upload the content from existing digital assets. They are all doing some kind of revenue share on the app sales. I don't know if/when this business model will be sustainable. I am also a bit skeptical that small to mid-size museums will have the staffing to find/format/create the content for the app. So, you could charge for that portion of the service. The ones I don't think will work are the guys who want $30K up front to create the app for the museum. Especially when folks like IMA are about to open source their platforms. I think there will always be a place in the liaison role where you can and should charge for your expertise. Maybe on a sliding scale. Hope this helps! Best, Stephanie Weaver Visitor experience consultant experienceology?: Because happy visitors return. San Diego, CA _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
