BarMax CA is the most expensive application featured on iTunes with a $999.99 price tag. This application is aimed towards Law School students preparing to pass the Bar exam. Similar existing applications are available free from BarBari with a catch; the user has to enroll in BarBari’s program, costing between $3000-$4000.

Not only is BarMax CA the most expensive application, but also the largest in terms of size, containing hundreds of pages of texts, as well as hours of audio lectures. To prepare the user for the California bar exam, this application covers multiple choices, essays and a performance test. BarMax promises to save students money while providing them with the same quality of preparation material for the California bar exam.

Like a handful of other applications, BarMax was created out of necessity by Mike Ghaffary while he was preparing for his own bar exam. Though it is tough to justify spending a $1000 with one click, once tapped into the right niche market, BarMax could become the must-have-app for law students in California!

Among the applications developed locally, targeted towards the Olympic attendees, are ChicWalk, iCoin Canada, and Winter Games Grub. ChicWalk introduces local boutiques in form of a GPS-mapped walk, while iCoin Canada introduces new visitors to Canadian money. Winter Games Grub is an application with Games schedules, news, blogs, and even means for the user to submit content.

ChicWalk

As is the case in any city, local boutiques and designers are rarely featured on the mainstream tourism websites and maps. ChicWalk features 9 complete GPS-Mapped walks covering Vancouver’s fashion and design rich neighbourhoods. Covering areas from the West End to South Main, ChicWalk introduces more than 1000 shops to a Vancouver visitor while providing in-store specials and exclusive vendor offers. ChicWalk is the first application of its kind, addressing the needs of the Fashionistas visiting Vancouver.  The application also provides the means to forward the user’s secret wishes to a friend, family member, or spouse. This application is available for purchase on iTunes.

iCoin Canada

Visitors with no previous experience in handling Canadian bills and coins will find this application useful. This application, complete with a graphical interface and sounds, allows the user to figure out which coins or bills to use to pay their balance. By providing the numerical and the picture of the coins, it provides the user with an intuitive interface.

The current balance is saved upon exiting the application and by shaking the phone the balance is cleared. This application is available on iTunes and is featured in two versions, the paid version also features Canadian bills.

Winter Games Grub

No article covering the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games iPhone applications would be complete without mentioning an application that lets you track schedules, read news, and keep up-to-date with daily events.

Winter Games Grub is unique in its approach by combining news from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to provide a more comprehensive coverage of the games.

It not only lets you keep track of daily events but also provides the means to submit updates and news not covered by mainstream media. This application is available on iTunes for free.

Like any social game, the main feature of this application is knowledge sharing with your list of friends. Not only you can keep track of whereabouts of your friends, by knowing their exact location, but share tips and recommend venues based on your experience. For small businesses with limited budget for advertising, this high tech version of word-of-mouth can be significantly beneficial.

Using FourSquare not only enables you to keep track of the whereabouts of your friends, but also compete with them. Its simple yet functional interface allows the user to track their status in the scoreboard.

In addition, the application rewards the user by a variety of badges earned based on his/her usage behavior; these rewarded badges are then shared in form of Twitter status updates.  The user with the most number of check-ins at a specific location becomes the “Mayor” of that venue. The mayoral feature provides the businesses with a chance to encourage customers to visit them more often by offering specials or free items.

Other than the competitive game aspect, its user-friendly general interface, along with accurate locating capabilities, make FourSquare one of the top contenders when it comes to location based applications. A list of venues appears, recognizing the user’s closest geographical location, allowing the user to check in.  The application also encourages user feedback by rewarding them extra points for adding new venues.

Behind every successful service and/or product, there’s a visionary and a great team of people. FourSquare is the brainchild of Dennis Crowley and his new partner Naveen Selvadurai. Dennis Crowley has been involved in the location-based application since 2000 as one of the founders of Dodgeball, which was later, acquired by Google and replaced by Latitude.

In a nutshell, FourSquare allows you to explore different venues in your city, get tips and recommendations when visiting a new city, all while sharing this information with friends. Local and small businesses can harvest the power of social media and digital word-of-mouth, by offering specials and freebies to new and loyal costumers.

Twitter

With the mainstream embrace of social media sites such as Twitter, third party applications assisting individuals and businesses reach and interact with their target audience, were among the most talked about in the technology scene here in Vancouver.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite, developed by Invoke, a local Interactive Agency, was among the newsmakers in 2009. Their PC and iPhone clients allow the user to manage multiple accounts, schedule tweets and updates, and to more efficiently utilize the power of social media and networking sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn.  Among their accomplishments were winning Canadian New Media Awards and being selected as the official Twitter client by the White House.

Four Square

Foursquare, a location-based mobile game, was launched by 6S Marketing in early September and became an overnight success among the online community in Vancouver. 

Although the application is not developed locally and was launched without seeded content, local businesses were quick to add their locations and set-up special promotions to attract and reward Foursquare users.

Vancouverites are quite active on social media sites and were quick to start taking advantage of this location-based application, to explore different venues in the city, and share that information with friends and colleagues.

Lessons that can be learned from success

Hootsuite and Foursquare during the last year are numerous, but innovation, focus, and timing are the most important ones.

As cliché as `thinking outside the box` may sound, both of these headliners used that mentality to their advantage.

In today’s crowded high-tech market, focus and timing are essential keys to success of any product. Had it not been for the mainstream embrace of social media sites such as Twitter, third party applications wouldn’t have made as loud of a noise as they did in 2009!