There are plenty of frameworks providing streamlined developing, more developers than ever, and the channels are there to promote new offerings. But while the process of how to make an app has got simpler, it’s harder than ever to find the idea that makes for a real game-changer.
It also had some controversial redesigns over the years, the latest of which was in 2018 – read about it here. As proof of its disruptiveness, Uber has led to protests from taxi drivers and legal challenges in many cities. But its success despite this has spawned many imitators and forced other taxi and ride services to react and modernize.
1. Instagram
With its myriad filters and styling options, the photo-sharing app suddenly allowed us to transform the most mundane shot from our everyday routine – everything from breakfast to the bus journey home from work – into something beautiful and share-worthy.
Most of us were already taking photos on our phones before Instagram came along. What Instagram did was make us feel like talented photography professionals.
With more than a billion users now, Instagram has provided an easily accessible method of promotion for small businesses, and in the process has created an entirely new industry of online influencers promoting products, trips, and experiences.
It changed the way we take photos and share them with friends, but it also changed the way we interact and experience everything from eating out to exercise classes. Making businesses need to think more than ever about presentation.
2. Uber
Uber is now responsible for 14 million trips a day and is the single most expensed vendor on business expense sheets in the US according to Certify. The taxi industry was ripe for disruption and Uber got there first with a solution that was easier and more convenient. In this case, the idea for a ride-hailing app reportedly occurred to Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp after they struggled to get a taxi in Paris while attending the LeWeb tech conference in 2009.
It also had some controversial redesigns over the years, the latest of which was in 2018 – read about it here. As proof of its disruptiveness, Uber has led to protests from taxi drivers and legal challenges in many cities. But its success despite this has spawned many imitators and forced other taxi and ride services to react and modernize.
It provided an estimated final fare and accepted virtual payments – all from a sleek black and white UI that was initially as simple as “push a button, get a ride,” and which later evolved to start at the end of the process by asking “Where to?”.
3. Twitter
We no longer need a TV anchorman or embedded reporter to tell us what is happening in the furthest corner of the world; news can be delivered by anyone with a Twitter handle and be found and explored thanks to the trusty hashtag. The platform transformed the way news is broken and turned members of the public into citizen journalists, commentators, and opinion formers.
While the internet had already pushed the speed at which news could be communicated, Twitter took things even further by cutting out the middleman – the media.
4. GrubHub
GrubHub was founded in 2004 and changed all this with an app that allowed users to browse menus, see photos, enter discount codes and pay for delivery in a few taps. These apps offered comparable UX and left GrubHub struggling to find a unique selling point. Restaurants have not always been very good at marketing their food online, often offering unwieldy multi-page pdf menus, while placing orders over the phone used to often involve frustrating calls with rushed workers.
GrubHub is another example of an app that saw a chance to make life a little easier – and tidier, since it well and truly rendered obsolete the piles of takeaway menus piled up beside the landline. The problem for GrubHub has been that a host of competitors was hot on its tail, from Deliveroo in London to Glovo in Barcelona.
5. Google Maps
Its integration with other Google products makes it something of a panacea, as it incorporates Google calls, reviews, questions, photos and personal contacts into one map-based interface. But Google Maps disrupted more than just the cartographic and GPS industries; it’s also had a huge impact on marketing, revolutionizing how businesses can be found by enabling people to discover businesses on their own doorsteps that they might previously have never known existed.
There are many maps applications out there including Waze and Apple Maps, but with 1 billion downloads, Google’s is by far the most used.
The main use for physical maps and atlases now seems to be as vintage decor, while top-of-the-line GPS sat nav devices such as TomTom and Garmin have been rendered all but obsolete now that free apps such as Google Maps have turned our phones into personal navigators.
6. Spotify
Spotify didn’t invent the wheel, but sometimes a great app comes from improving, simplifying or streamlining what has already been started. The incorporation of some of the best features from other services, like jointly created playlists and tailored suggestions, makes for personalized access to a treasure trove of music at a scale not seen before.
With millions of tracks and a free version for those who don’t mind ads, it’s become the go-to music service for 248 million active users, convincing even inveterate pirates that streaming was the way forward.
Spotify took the post-Napster iTunes Store concept and perfected it, introducing a pay-per-month subscription service for music streaming that could be used across devices to save physical storage space. The latest redesign put more of an emphasis on podcasts, tapping into yet another blooming market.
No comments:
Post a Comment