iSites Lets Companies Steer Mobile-App Creation

—Connie Cho at California Apparel News

Once upon a time, a business needed this new-fangled entity called a website in order to present itself to the world. Fast-forward to the future, and mobile applications for smart phones are steadily becoming the way companies are directly communicating with their audience.

One tech company is placing the development of mobile applications directly in the hands of businesses without the need for an outside programmer or developer.

iSites (www.isites.us) enables companies to create and self-manage their own mobile applications across platforms such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android smart phones.

iSites, launched in January 2010, is the flagship product of Los Altos, Calif.–based GENWI, a mobile application creation and management company.

iSites integrates a company’s website updates, social-network feeds, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and data into one application. 

“Smart phones are the new PCs,” said GENWI co-founder and Chief Executive Officer P.J. Gurumohan. “[With tablet devices, such as the iPad], we’ve reached the point where the gadget must reflect the same user behavior.”

Gurumohan views mobile applications as an extension of a brand and its catalog. “It’s a way to bring together all [content] in a way that makes a compelling rich-media presentation,” Gurumohan said.

iSites’ app service is tailored toward small- to medium-sized businesses. Companies pay a subscription fee of $50 to $100 a month to style the color scheme and customize the content on their mobile applications. Companies can also enable AdMob advertising to earn revenue off their apps.

Companies that have created apps through iSites include London fashion blog The Style Scoutand Nashville-based contemporary resale and vintage boutique Goodbuy Girls. 

iSites has also worked with Cypress, Calif.–based Vans, a VF Corp. brand, on its Vans Hubmobile application. Vans has developed several applications for the iPhone, but the Vans Hub is the first for Android.

The Vans Hub app features news, blog-post feeds, photo galleries, and videos featuring musical performances by bands and action-sports clips. Users can voice their opinions on products and share information through the app.

“The benefits are simple,” said Nikki Scoggins, Vans’ direct-to-consumer communications manager. “Rather than loading Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter plus news sites for our dozens of sports and lifestyle categories in separate windows on my iPhone, I can easily open them in one app with a couple of clicks to see what’s new. It’s a great tool for the fans.”

Scoggins says the reception to the app has been positive. “We’ve been pleased with the response from our communities for Vans Hub,” Scoggins said. “The daily downloads have remained constant since its launch and [have] not tapered.”

Scheduled System Maintenance January 16, 6pm PST – Midnight

We’re performing some system maintenance work affecting feed addition and new app creation today from 6 pm through Midnight Pacific Standard Time.

We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We’re done with Site Maintenance January 13, 2011 :)

We’re back up and running and our system won’t hold you back from creating apps now.

Thanks for your patience.

Let’s go create some apps, now!

Issues with new app creation on January 12

We’re really sorry if you’re having trouble creating your app at iSites.us right now.

We’re cleaning up our system which is interfering with new app creation. We’re really sorry if you are facing any one of the following issues:

1) Getting repetitive messages that the Instant app URL is unavailable

2) Once the app is created, are unable to add feeds

We will sort this issue out within the next couple of hours and appreciate your patience.

Sytems Maintenance on January 9, till 12:00am PST

We’re running some updates on our systems until midnight tonight. You may find it difficult to add some feeds. We’re sorry about any inconvenience caused. Please try again tomorrow in case you hit any roadblocks building or updating your apps. Thanks for your patience.