Will this prototype prove to be a viable product? It’s impossible to predict, but one thing is certain: it took a long time and a lot of money to just produce the prototype. What if the prototype doesn’t pan out, what do you do with the team you hired to create it?

These are difficult questions for any company to wrestle with.  Fortunately, this is an area where Little Green Software can help.

One of our clients is developing the next generation of hi-tech fitness tracking.  Because of the sensitive and proprietary nature of the technology we cannot reveal the name of the client or details about their products.  What we can share is that the solutions they are building combine the best of multiple worlds: GPS, heart rate monitors and other electronic fitness sensors, timing devices, smartphones, and applications for web and mobile.

Our client is working on R&D of products that will be ready to bring to market in the next year or two.  At this stage, the devices serve as “proof of concept”.  They are exploring innovative concepts and pushing the limits of what’s possible with their new products.

Little Green Software was hired to bridge the gap between the company’s existing product and the proof of concepts they would like to explore. Our client uses these prototypes to explore what has potential and what should go back to the drawing board. They keep only the best ideas, which they pitch to internal product and marketing teams and test with consumer focus groups with the hopes of ultimately green-lighting new products.

Companies need new products to continue to grow and compete. To create new products, you need the freedom to explore new ideas to see what works (and possibly more importantly what doesn’t). Little Green Software is ready to jump right in and help you start prototyping these products today.

The Bridal Extravaganza Show brings New York-style fashion shows right to Houston, TX. Future brides and grooms are united with the region’s top wedding vendors in one place, facilitating a one-stop shop for wedding planning. The company hired Little Green Software to create an app that catalogs the experience–essentially turning the venue into a virtual tour guide and directory. Available in the iTunes Store, the app categorizes every element of the trade show, making it easier for visitors to navigate the labyrinthine aisles of wedding inspiration.

Mobile Photo Ideas

The Bride Guide app enables the user to chronicle their experiences and inspirations through photographs: snap a picture of something that catches your eye, write a brief description, and the app catalogs the photo for later review.

Client Feedback

The Bridal Extravaganza Show’s unique mobile app idea resulted in happy clients and a streamlined trade show experience. Little Green Software was proud to work with The Bridal Extravaganza Show in mobilizing the event. Here is some feedback:

I found Little Green Software willing to ‘TEACH’ us through a very complicated process. We were novices to this arena and Little Green Software answered all of our questions, made helpful suggestions and recommendations and made the process easy for us.

–Jeanine Hickman
Production Manager
Bridal Extravaganza Show

• I use Google Calendar as my primary personal calendar.  How do I subscribe to a public calendar feed (e.g. Bull City Forward) so that it appears in my Google Calendar?  Here’s how.
• I use Google Calendar as my primary personal calendar.  How can I access it via my iOS device? Here’s how.
• I use Google Calendar as my primary personal calendar and access it via my iOS device.  How can I view the other Google calendars I’m subscribed to (e.g. public or private shared event calendars) on my iOS device? Here’s how.
• I use Google Calendar as my primary personal calendar.  How can I access it and other calendars I’m subscribed to  with iCal or Mozilla Sunbird? Here’s how.
• I use Google Calendar as my primary personal calendar.  How can I access it and other calendars I’m subscribed to with Microsoft Outlook? Here’s how.

Hope this is helpful!  It was kind of a pain to set up but I’m hopeful I will now be able to avoid booking appointments that conflict with events I want to attend.

Once Upon An App produces a series of  educational puzzle games adapted from classic children’s stories. For these titles, the company hired Little Green Software to upgrade the animation and transition features of their application framework, and to assemble the image and audio content into the final application.

Connect the Dots for iPad

Little Green Software worked closely with Once Upon An App’s artists and sound designers to create this beautifully simple iPad application adapted from the “Dot Drawing Book” series published in 1920 by the Henry Alternus Company. Little Green Software automated the content processing so that future volumes of the same series will require no additional programming.

Android Framework

Little Green Software ported the Once Upon An App application framework to Android, allowing the company to double the market for its popular iOS apps.

SMART Table Framework

SMART Technologies, the makers of the popular SMART Board used in classrooms around the world, recently introduced the SMART Table interactive learning center, the first multitouch, multiuser table for early education students. Little Green Software built an application framework to enable Once Upon An App to efficiently produce a complete series of interactive classroom material.

Peepers: I Say… You Say for Kindle

Little Green Software adapted the Once Upon An App application framework to the Kindle, once again expanding the company’s market for its popular apps for children. Little Green Software then used the framework to produce the Kindle version of  Once Upon An App’s Peepers: I Say… You Say, a fun app for learning about opposites.

It’s unusual to find someone with an app in the iTunes store, and experience with Android, as well as gaming consoles, who is available for contracting.

Little Green Software saved us a great deal of time by porting our development infrastructure to the Android platform.  They were able to understand our requirements and create a solution when no one else was, and they exhibit a high level understanding of many different technologies, with the ability to work collaboratively in integrating them.

Little Green Software’s experience allowed them to quote on complex and sophisticated projects with much less initial research and negotiation than other vendors.   Their flat organizational structure allowed us to communicate directly with programmers when needed.  The result was less work on our part managing outsourcing, reduced turnaround time, and greater value.

—Noel Hunter

President, Once Upon An App LLC

When Little Green Software launched Tally-O, a social iPhone app for sharing personal travel guides with friends, it faced a classic community content problem. Tally-O needed an initial source of interesting content to attract a user base and foster a community that would eventually generate its own content. Meanwhile, iwannagothere.com, an award-winning website with content and a user base aligned closely with that of Tally-O, was interested in expanding its content distribution to a native iPhone app. Hence, a partnership was formed.

Little Green Software developed software that integrated content from iwannagothere.com’s public API to the Tally-O content server. The content is synchronized daily and the partnership has increased traffic for both Tally-O and iwannagothere.com. Read more

It is great for iwannagothere.com to have partners like Little Green Software. The entire process for integrating our API with your application was really easy and we had no problems at all. It was all very smooth, we worked really well together.

—Maria Martinez

Founder and CEO, iwannagothere.com

The first observation is that the demographics change quickly — this is a highly competitive and innovative market in which new products are introduced every quarter. The total market is growing rapidly, and the landscape of choices available to customers often varies significantly every few months.

My general recommendation to clients who want to reach the biggest market on a tight budget is to consider a mobile web app. Mobile web apps have many of the same capabilities as native apps, but since they run in the smartphone’s web browser they are compatible across a wide range of devices.

Another recommendation is to look beyond smartphones. The very popular iPod Touch, the iPad, and the new Android tablet devices are not smartphones, so they are excluded from surveys of the phone market. However, these devices are capable of running the same apps as the phones, and unless you need phone-specific specific features, it is smart and cost-effective to build a native app compatible with the entire family  of devices, not just the smartphone. Add the demographic data from these devices to get a more accurate picture of the total market.

A few summary observations on iPhone and Android:

1. iPhone owners are age-diverse. As of mid-2009, about 1/3 were 25-34, another 1/3 were 35-54, and the remaining 1/3 were equally divided between <25 and >55.
2. As of Q1 2010, 23% of mobile phone customers in the US had a smartphone, up from 16% in Q2 2009. As of Q1 2010, Android’s share of the smartphone market was 9% while the iPhone share was 28%. Both Android and the iPhone skew Male (about 55/45). iPhone customers users tend to be somewhat older, wealthier and better educated than Android customers.
3. By the end of Q2 2010 the percent with smartphones had grown to 25% (from 23% in Q1). Nielsen projects that smartphones will overtake feature phones by the end of 2011. By the end of Q2, iPhone’s share of the smartphone market was still 28%, while Android’s share grew to 13%. So Android was definitely attracting new subscribers at a faster rate than iPhone. This will probably continue until the Verizon iPhone service becomes available.
4. iPhone holds a strong lead in device preference. Among current iPhone customers, 89% would want a new iPhone device versus 6% who would want a new Android device. Among Android users, 71% would want a new Android device, while 21% would prefer an iPhone. These are probably the people who gave up on waiting for iPhone on Verizon.

Compilation of free demographic reports:

• AdMob: May 2010 Mobile Metrics Report
• Nielsen: iPhone Users Watch More Video… and are Older than You Think
• Nielsen: iPhone vs. Android
• Nielsen: Android Soars, but iPhone Still Most Desired as Smartphones Grab 25% of U.S. Mobile Market
• Advertising Age: Boomers — Yes, Boomers — Spend the Most on Tech
• iPhone Small Business Discussion Group: iPhone iOS Version Distribution
• Worldwide Smartphone Market Grows 89.5% Year Over Year in Third Quarter 2010 As New Devices Launch, Says IDC
• U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up: Which is the “Most Desired” Operating System?
• MobileBeat overview of ChangeWave survey: Apple iOS vs. Android consumer battle heats up (and BlackBerry gets crushed)
• Do You Live In An Android State Or An iPhone State?
• IDC Confirms Apple’s Smartphone Crown as Smartphone Shipments Exceed 100 Million.
• Android And Apple Now Command Nearly 70 Percent Of U.S. Smartphone Market Share
• comScore Reports September 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
• Samsung confirmed as smartphone chief as growth continues, says IDC
• Pew Internet: Smartphone Adoption and Usage
• iOS and Android App Downloads Expected to Hit 25 Billion in 2011

Many thanks to Bob Jolls from GPTrex, who provided several of the links and much of the analysis in this compilation.

Energy Balance is a fast paced matching game where the player picks the most appropriate activity to burn the calories associated with a particular food.  It teaches kids to balance the calories they get from food with appropriate activities. Energy Balance allows players to compare scores and unlock achievements for speed and persistence. Energy Balance was developed in conjunction with Duke University Medical Center researchers and physicians.

“Childhood obesity is arguably one of our most pressing public health challenges,” says Dr. Bernard Fuemmeler, a pediatric obesity researcher at Duke.  “Children need to be equipped with the tools to help them navigate through the energy-rich environment in which they live and teaching children about health needs to be a fun and engaging enterprise. That’s why we are excited to be working with the excellent software engineers and game designers from Little Green Software. We hope that games like these can play a role in combating the obesity epidemic.”

Little Green Software partner Robert Taylor says: “Unfortunately, most people don’t really think about the calories associated with the foods they eat throughout the day. The goal of Energy Balance is to build relationships between foods and their associated calories in the minds of players. For example: if I eat a hamburger for lunch, then I really should go for a bike ride today instead of watching TV to burn those calories. As players begin to remember the relationship between calories and activities, their scores improve in the game. I know I’ve learned a lot from play testing the game.”

Energy Balance is provided free of charge by Little Green Software. This game allows players to jump in and start building healthy relationships between foods and activities as they try to best their previous high score and unlock achievements.

Tally-O searches for nearby destinations from the app’s 1,000+ unique, personalized travel guides and scavenger hunts.  Players win points for visiting and interacting with destinations, and for creating their own adventures.  Tally-O is the only app on the App Store that allows players to publish adventures to Facebook for their friends.

The app is an ideal travel guide, far superior to a typical guidebook.  Recommendations are unique, reflecting the personalities of Tally-O players and their friends.  In addition to travel guides, the app is perfect for interactive adventures like scavenger hunts, pub crawls, adventure racing, geocaching, and family outings.

Each adventure features multiple destinations with a location and description, a photo gallery, trivia questions and answers, and integrated Google maps with Show My Location.  Built-in GPS detects the player’s arrival at the destination, and an optional Homing Sensor on the 3G and 3GS provides an extra challenge on the scavenger hunts.

New features in Tally-O 1.1 include: Google maps, Facebook status updates, 3GS compass support, and auto-save.  Adventures from partner site iwannagothere.com are now synced daily, ensuring there is always something new to explore.  The new companion Facebook app allows Tally-O players an alternative platform for viewing and creating adventures.

Tally-O was developed by Little Green Software, based in Carrboro, NC, USA.

Tally-O, an iPhone app that lets friends create and share their own travel guides, has partnered with iwannagothere.com so that the hundreds of travel guides from the site can now be enjoyed on the iPhone.

“Tally-O allows travelers to find the best tips & guides wherever they are, whenever they want.  We believe in open knowledge. Using our API Tally-O can offer our guides & tips.  iwannagothere.com content + Tally-O app are the perfect combination for your trips.”

—María Martínez, founder & CEO of iwannagothere.com

Infinitely more credible than traditional guidebooks, these social travel tools both allow friends and fellow travelers to share guides and personal recommendations.  While the big tour guides cater to the general tourist audience, Tally-O and iwannagothere.com are perfect for travelers seeking unique destinations and experiences they can share with friends.

“iwannagothere.com is the perfect partner for Tally-O.  Both are social travel tools that let real people share personalized travel guides.  Now all of our users get the best of the both worlds.”

—Ed Holzwarth, President of Little Green Software, creators of Tally-O

With this partnership, existing users of Tally-O can enjoy exploring the guides created by iwannagothere.com users.  Existing users of iwannagothere.com can download Tally-O ($1.99 in the App Store) and view all the Tally-O and iwannagothere.com adventures on their iPhone or iPod Touch.  The app uses the built-in GPS on the device to find nearby destinations.

If those questions have you pondering, here’s another: What if any time someone used the app to visit one of your destinations, their Facebook status was updated to share your content with their friends?  With the 200+ million Facebook users, how would status updates expand your influence?

Let’s just say: A lot of new people would be introduced to you and your content.

And the kicker: What if you could get all of this for free?

Now before going too much further, if you don’t yet know what Tally-O is, I recommend reading a brief introduction as well as my article on how to promote a website, blog or business with Tally-O.  I received a ton of emails about that article, and many of you with travel websites and blogs wrote to ask:

• How can I get my site’s content into Tally-O automatically?
• What more can be done to promote my brand within Tally-O?
• Can you make an app that has my site’s content exclusively?

Great questions!  I think you will like our answers…

Get your site’s content into Tally-O automatically

This is easier than easy.  Become a Tally-O partner and we will import your destinations automatically, for free. The only requirement for partnering with us is that your website must have at least ten adventures we can import.

Promote your brand within Tally-O

This too is easy as can be.  Each Tally-O adventure has a theme — a 64 x 64 image.  You can create your own theme with your logo, and it will be displayed prominently next to the description of each of your adventures.  Add a link to your website in the destination descriptions and voilà, you’ve got a strong association with your site and brand identity.

Create a an exclusive, branded iPhone app with the same content as your website

Little Green Software can do this too!  Sorry, this part isn’t free, but it may cost less than you’d expect.  Contact us and we will explore the possibilities.  If you already know your requirements, tell us what they are and we’ll be happy to send you a proposal.

I look forward to hearing from you.  Until then: Happy Adventuring!