Germans Catch the iPhone Apps Wave

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Dimitri Völk's app has also already been sold several thousand times. Völk, 27, knows nothing about birds, and yet his app makes it possible to distinguish among 175 birdcalls. Using terms like "begging call" and "song," a drop-down menu and an image database, one can quickly identify birds. "We wrote a database that can be filled quickly—in days—with the existing content from reference books" says Völk. Amateur ornithologists like the program so much that they are willing to shell out up to €10 for the app. Völk's latest hit is a mushroom guide. People picking mushrooms can identify their finds and store the coordinates of particularly productive mushroom fields for the following season. "All you need is a good idea and one eye on the advantages of a smartphone. Otherwise people will just take a book when they go into the forest," Völk explains.

Traditional News Media Want Slice of Apps Action

The success of apps has now caught the attention of publishers and television networks, who reason that if people are willing to pay money for a mushroom identification app, why not for the news? This has prompted some in the media industry to speculate that applications could encourage the reader to pay for journalistic content on the Internet.

The idea of charging money for well-researched journalism delivered via the iPhone, the Blackberry, and similar smartphones, is not nearly as curious as it sounds, given that mobile telephone users are already used to paying for services this way. According to a McKinsey analysis, however, the interests of German mobile phone users are ranked like this: general Internet searches, checking e-mails, map and navigation tools, music—and then news.

That's why there are so few applications based around the classic print media in the German-language App Store. An app for the online platform, stern.de, has been available since February of this year and according to the publisher the free program has been downloaded about 360,000 times since then. But the application doesn't really offer a lot more than what is already available on the website of the Hamburg-based magazine.

Some regional papers, like the Bavarian Augsburger Allgemeine, are looking into the idea of offering a kiosk-like app for the iPhone, under the working name "News Push." The Süddeutsche Zeitung, based in Munich, also plans to offer an app from the middle of November.

Newspapers Plan Paid Content On iPhone Too

In a highly publicized move, the Axel Springer publishing house announced the launch of "Mein Klub" (My Club), a football program that allows the user to obtain news about his or her favorite club or read stories about German football stars. This type of information, however, can be found just as easily on the Internet.

The German version of women's magazine Elle, published by the Burda group, offers apps with advice on shopping and beauty in various German cities. Instead of using the information that's provided by one's iPhone, the Elle app refers the user to articles that have appeared in issues of the magazine instead. The app, available for €2.99, has only just sold enough to recoup its development costs.

Experts are skeptical about whether paid programs for journalistic apps will be successful. A user can easily use their smartphone to access the Internet where they'll find many free-of-charge Web sites already optimized for browsing on mobile phones. "As long as there is browser button on the iPhone that allows you to get free information from the Internet, it will be very difficult to establish paid products in the App Store," says Alexander Dahlke, a mobile communications expert at McKinsey.

For this reason, the Springer publishing house plans to introduce apps for two of its publications, the tabloid Bild and its flagship newspaper Die Welt. Customers will be enticed to the paid-for Web sites with additional content, like the full transcripts of interviews. Once the apps are introduced, access to the Bild and Die Welt Web sites via the iPhone will be blocked, so that those wishing to continue using the sites will only be able to do so by buying the program.

'The World Isn't Exactly Waiting For Apps Containing Banner Ads'

So far advertising revenues generated by smartphone applications have been sluggish. "The world isn't exactly waiting for apps containing banner ads," says Florian Gmeinwieser, a member of management at Plan.Net mobile, a German agency specializing in mobile advertising.

Not even the popular iPhone program "Meine Stadt" (My City)—which helps users find the nearest ATMs, bars or gas stations—pays for itself with advertising revenues.

In fact, profitability is not the aim of a lot of the new apps, with many intended mainly for marketing. Many companies have fallen victim to the hype around apps, Gmeinwieser notes. Low development costs for an app—usually only a few thousand euros—have tempted many companies to develop their own apps. "Today every management board wants an app of its own. But only those with added value will make it," Gmeinwieser says.

For some software developers, the added value is more personal. When his wife became pregnant for the first time, Lars Bergelt, an orthopedic shoemaker from Mittweida in Germany's eastern state of Saxony, wrote a program that allowed him to monitor the development of the fetus. A graphic shows the outline of the body, and information about weight and functioning organs can be superimposed. Now Bergelt's wife is in her second pregnancy and his program has calculated her due date as Nov. 16. Only 4 percent of babies arrive on their due date but, as Bergelt says, "it would be just terrific, if she actually gave birth on that day."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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