The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Ripple Mobile
Quick Pitch: Ripple Mobile’s first app, OnTime, alerts you when you need to leave for your next event based on your current location.
Genius Idea: Business travelers have a habit of squeezing appointments into their schedules like they’re putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But in unfamiliar territory, it can be hard to gauge how much time is needed to travel from one meeting to another in a different location.
Enter OnTime, Ripple’s first app for iPhone (Android and BlackBerry apps are on the way). The app pulls in whatever calendars are loaded onto your phone, and uses the Google Maps API to help the user assign each appointment an address. It then sends push notifications when it’s time to leave for an appointment based on how much travel time is between your current location and destination.
Other apps send push notifications based on times that you enter, but OnTime is the only app I’ve found that will calculate based on my location AND give me turn-by-turn directions with travel conditions. There’s also an option to set alerts for a bit of cushion time before leaving for meetings, pick and choose which calendars to receive notifications for, and send an e-mail or text message if you are running late. When you arrive at your location, the app will ask you if you’d like to share it to Facebook or Twitter.
Except for a public transportation setting (president and co-founder Kevin Miller assures me this feature is on the way) and an option to check into Foursquare within the app (a future possibility), I can’t think of anything else I would want my appointment keeper technology to handle.
So far users seem to agree with me. Since the app launched on December 21, not a single person who has downloaded it has deleted it. While Miller isn’t disclosing how many people this includes, the app has appeared in the list of top 25 paid productivity apps. Average use frequency, which doesn’t include push notifications, is three times per day.
All of revenue from the app comes from its $1.99 price tag, so the fact that customers appear to be happy bodes well for business. In order to compete with free productivity apps — even less cool ones — OnTime will need to prove that it is far superior. Especially when the price on each version of the app raises to $4.99 thirty days after it launches.
In the future, Miller hopes to build more apps that will eventually integrate with each other. His next project involves an app that will make it easier to “connect, communicate, and stay in touch.” Without specifics, this sounds less than exciting. Then again, “an app that makes scheduling easier” probably didn’t do OnTime much justice while it was in stealth mode, either.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, StudioThreeDots
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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