I thought this would be a good start for my blog. At Permeative we have been making iPhone apps by the dozens every month and by now have made nearly three hundred iPhone apps. About fifty of these are apps of which we are publishers. The rest is work we have done for our clients.

Now that is a lot of client work in a short span of time (we have been around for a little over 18 months as I write this). This has built a natural consultative edge in most of us (we are a team of 100 now). Here are five points that I always tell my clients and developers before we engage or when we are in the early stages of engagement:

1. Solve a problem

Make sure that you are solving a problem / addressing a need that people face when they are on the move (most people have PCs at office desks; those who work on shop floors cannot even look at a phone while at the production line) – get your market research right (who uses, why and how much)

2. Usability

Usability – take care of users and the way they use your app. They have taken pains to download your app. They have paid for it. Don’t give them something that they would not like to see on their iPhone or that makes them drop the phone while trying to use the app.

3. Adhere to guidelines

Adhere to Apple’s user interface and development guidelines – these have been perfected by people who have created the platform on which apps will run. They know their job. Follow those rules – doing so will let you focus on your idea and making money out of it

4. Support your app

Support your app well – the app store is a racy place. Apps go into oblivion is not supported well

5. Launch new versions

Launch newer versions if you have been successful – one again, the app store is fast – there are just too many apps. A host of people have great ideas. Upgrading your app tells your customers that you care

Of course, things like having non disclosure agreements with an app development organization such as ours are essential. But then these are business basics. We do not work without confidentiality agreements in place. We would not have built hundreds of apps for our clients otherwise.