我对手机上的应用很着迷，我的iPhone、HTC Desire手机和iPad每月都会新增15到20款应用，所以有些人可能会认为我是个应用恋癖者。因为手机应用已经通过了应用商店的审核，所以我从来不担心自己的手机会因应用质量问题而崩溃，而且如果我对某个应用生厌了，也很容易卸载它，所以常因商务用途或品牌喜好而频频更换应用。事实上，一些品牌公司开发手机应用和游戏，并通过应用商店来传递品牌体验的做法在今天已不鲜见。我还发现这年头，这些品牌在数码领域几乎无孔不入。

但是，为何电脑应用的品牌体验却没有丝毫动静？

mobile-apps

Adobe Air软件的问世，已可满足Flex和Actionscript开发者创造多平台的电脑应用需求，但电脑应用的市场营销体验却至今不能成为主流。其实这一领域仍有巨大的利益可挖掘，比如说创造让用户数小时泡在个人电脑上打发时间的应用体验。

我认为现实问题就是，对多数普通电脑用户来说，大家在安装应用软件时都会很自然地再三斟酌（对多数人来说个人电脑简直就是不容侵犯的净土），因为我们不知道自己的电脑能否承受流氓插件、病毒、软件残缺代码的考验。而且也不值得去冒这种风险，我总是对自己的创意团队再三强调，无论如何都不要随意安装电脑应用程序，因为这样做的死机概率太高，要尽可能通过浏览器来体验应用功能。

我们正处于一个全新时代，一个手机应用几乎无所不能的时代，一个用户信任手机应用及应用商店的时代。苹果最近宣布将通过一个专门应用商店来销售电脑应用，相信这对应用卖主来说也是一个巨大的商机。因为此举可能让电脑也成为一个基于应用的品牌体验平台，并最终降低大家对电脑死机的恐惧心理。

手机应用的发展无疑仍将继续前进，但我认为电脑应用体验也会成为一种主流趋势。在当前的应用商店问世之前，手机平台也有相当长的一段时间完全是自主选择应用，而且那种操作对一般用户来说不但困难而且繁琐。希望电脑应用也能来一场这样的革命，培养一些行业专家来协助代理商和品牌公司成就一番作为。

至于电脑应用商店的市场营销体验如何奏效，我认为可以借鉴手机应用的成功经验。但人们不能对大得快膨胀的应用和游戏抱有太大期望（有些人希望可以在电脑平台上运行这些内容），而应该多考虑那些容量较小、内容有所侧重、“可自由处理”的应用体验。现在用户对应用期望已经发生变化，他们比较注重低风险、短期性但功能良好的应用体验。

应用开发商和卖主现在都应该首先考虑一下电脑功能，从浏览器或流动内容所不能执行的操作中，发掘自己可施展拳脚的空间，并牢记“全天候服务”是品牌创造积极用户体验的沃土。这些领域正是浏览器难以突破的困境，电脑平台可以由此入手，为新的应用创意渠道创造良机。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Mobile Apps Are the Rage, But Whatever Happened to the Desktop?

I love apps on my mobile devices. Some might argue I have an app addiction with literally 15 to 20 apps being bought a month between my iPhone, HTC Desire, and my iPad. Since apps are reviewed by the app stores, I don’t worry about my devices crashing, and if I don’t like them they’re easy to uninstall so I’m always game to try out apps by businesses and brands alike. In fact, it’s pretty normal fair these days for brands to be creating apps and games and distributing these (typically free) brand experiences through the app stores. In fact, I find they tend to make their way into almost every digital pitch these days.

Why then did desktop applications as brand experiences never take off?

Adobe Air made it easy for Flex and Actionscript developers to create multi-platform desktop apps and yet the world of desktop apps as marketing experiences never went mainstream. There are so many clear benefits including being an ongoing engagement with consumers on one of their most personal devices that they might spend hours and hours a day on.

The reality is that I think there is a natural hesitation to install anything on your desktop for casual computer users as you never really know if your computer (which for many of us is holy ground) would survive the experience due to malware, viruses, poor coding, etc. For most the risk just wasn’t worth it –- which is exactly why I’ve always recommended to creative teams that they avoid installable desktop apps at all cost because the drop off rate would be too high and stick to in-browser experiences whenever possible.

We’re in a new age, though, an age chock-full of apps that do pretty much everything, an age when consumers trust the concept of apps and an app store. Apple’s recent announcement that they will start selling desktop applications through an app store is a major opportunity for marketers. It has an excellent chance to bring in the age of the desktop as a favorite place to provide app-based brand experiences and the feared drop-off rate might finally plummet.

There is no doubt that apps on mobile devices are here to stay and I think this is the beginning of a major trend in desktop experiences. Mobile devices have been able to install applications for quite some time before the current generation app stores existed — it was just difficult and cumbersome for your typical user. Expect the same revolution to happen on the desktop and start preparing for a whole new wave of specialists to help agencies and brands alike.

For marketing experiences to be successful on the app store I think we should look to guidance from the successes of apps on mobile devices. Expectations should move away from large blown-out applications and games that some might expect on a desktop machine and think about lightweight, focused, and sometimes “disposable” experiences. Consumers have reset their expectations around low-risk, short-term experiences that serve one function very well.

Application developers and marketers alike should be looking at the functionality of desktops and thinking what can I do here that I can’t do in a browser or via streamed content. I expect a lot of more advanced uses of cameras, processing power, your local computer content, and “always on” experiences to be fertile territory for brands to create memorable moments for consumers. These are areas where browser-based experiences still struggle and the desktop offers a chance for new creative approaches. （source:adage）