Recipe apps are hit on iPhone. You will find loads of iphone recipe apps available in the market in all sort of varieties. Those who love cooking will appreciate the fact that apps have make their life easier. No more printing out recipes on paper, all you need is just an iPhone and off you go. Some recipe apps even have voice guide which will free your hands and all you need is to just listen the instructions.
So you are chef or cook book writer or just a developer who wants to build recipe app for iphone? And you wre wondering where to start and how to make your recipe app stand out in the overcrowded market?
Read on while I unlock the secret of developing a successful recipe app for iPhone.
Investment
iPhone App development is a costly affair and you should not jump into this until and unless you have some spare money to invest. If you can’t raise money by yourself then you should get someone to sponsor your recipe app.
If you have published cook book then your publisher might be interested in sponsoring your recipe app.
If you can’t get a sponsor then try a co-development whereas the developer will share the cost and profit.
Gathering Requirements for Recipe iPhone App Development
Once you have sorted out the money, the next phase is to gather requirements for the iPhone app development. This is very crucial as any changes in the requirements will prove to be very costly at the later stages of app development. You should never start app development without finalizing the requirements.
Free or Paid?
As saying goes, there is no such thing as free lunch. You wouldn’t be developing a free recipe app? Would you? The cost involved in app development wouldn’t justify giving away app for free.
If you are investing money into recipe app then obviously you need to think of the ways to monetize it. There are various ways to monetize the recipe app. I’m listing some of the models, but there is no limit for your imagination in monetizing the app
Freemium App Model
In freemium model you let users download the recipe app for free and also give some recipes for free but you charge for downloading more recipes.
Pro: This model gives user control over how much they want to spent and what they want to purchase.
Con: Users wouldn’t know in advance how many recipe you can purchase.
Free Recipe App
I can think of only 2 reasons why you would invest heavily in an iPhone recipe app and give it away for free. The first reason is that you are a popular chef and you would rather like to give away free recipes than to charge for it. This could be good way to get more popularity on the App store.
Another reason is to monetize the free app via mobile ads or in-app purchase.
I hate mobile ads and I would recommend anyone to go for it. It also makes a recipe app looks cheap (read rubbish).
Paid iPhone Recipe Apps
IMHO this is the best business model for iPhone recipe app. The important things to remember in a paid recipe app is how much you would charge for it and how many recipes to include. You can top up the paid app with some extra features such as videos, shopping list, favourite recipe, review etc.
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