SHARE:
Florida Small Business Profiles - Mobile Apps
Field of Dreams
While the mobile app industry in Florida is growing, making money from an app is still tough.
App: AppwoRx
Chris Cabell has found a niche developing mobile applications for physicians and the medical industry under the name AppwoRx. The south Florida resident has built several mobile application platforms that help physicians with medical record keeping and communications with patients.
He has partnered with Ariel Soffer, a Miami cardiologist and head of the Soffer Vein Institute, in developing several mobile app platforms that are sold to physicians and medical groups. He typically charges $499 and a monthly subscription fee. Patients can download and use the app at no cost.
Their biggest products are two app platforms called AppRx and PhotoRx. AppRx has received media attention because it allows physicians to communicate with a patient based on photos sent through a smart phone app. Doctors can also use the PhotoRx app to integrate photos of patients with electronic medical records.
App: MonkeyWish
When Florida’s real estate market was in the doldrums, Kristi Taylor, who worked in real estate development in Gainesville, began plotting a plan B in mobile apps.
“I knew mobile apps was the future,” Taylor says. “I jumped ship.”
She started a company called T5 Tech and hired engineers to develop her idea for a website and companion mobile app called MonkeyWish — a universal gift registry that allows users to select items from a retailer’s website and add to their wish list on the MonkeyWish site.
Users can view a list and even scan items onto their phones from stores to add to their wish list.
The app is free. Taylor makes money by partnering with retailers such as Best Buy, Sports Authority and Amazon. If someone makes a purchase from a user’s wish list from one of those stores, MonkeyWish receives a percentage. Registry listers can also post gift items from retailers that MonkeyWish does not partner with.
While there isn’t “significant revenue” yet, Taylor says the app is gaining users rapidly, thanks in part to media exposure. She showcased the app on the “Today Show” in December. After it aired, app downloads increased 1,000%, she says.
- Free Downloads
