Where’s the pain in iFart?
On Christmas Day, when my son was purchasing apps for his new apple iTouch and announced that iFart was the top selling app, I rolled my eyes.
But when my blog reader keeps puking up post after post about the revenue generated from an application that makes fart noises (on Christmas Day alone it netted about $30K ), I can’t help but feel I’m doing something terribly wrong.
For over a decade now, I’ve built software (mostly web) applications to relieve pain. I’ve trained myself to take a step back and ask, “What is the problem we are trying to solve?” or “What is the pain and how great is it?”
Watch this video and tell me if you can identify the pain that iFart relieves.
The notion of building an application like iFart - an application that serves no purpose outside a 2 second childish prank - is difficult for me to adopt. However, I can’t help but feel there are lessons to be learned. Here are 5 lessons I’m going to take away from the success of iFart Mobile:
- Appeal to the lowest common denominator
Sometimes you need to forget market segmentation and just appeal to the massess. - Dumb it down
Assume the masses aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Don’t give them features they aren’t capable of using. Keep it simple. - Don’t give away the farm
Even useless applications can generate revenue. - Price it right
Even in a tough economy, anyone can justify a $.99 guilty pleasure. - Make sure it’s easy to buy
This is more a learning from the app store vs ifart. One touch is all it takes to purchase and download the iFart app.
While I don’t think I’m going to download the iPhone SDK to develop iBurp (it’s inevitable, if not already available), I will reconsider my approach to software. Sometimes, no pain is needed. Sometimes, it’s about a “lack of sophistication”. Sometimes, you just have to let it out.