Apps rule in mobile marketing and considering that there are more than 5 billion mobile phones worldwide, it is not surprising that companies serious about mobile marketing are focusing on developing apps for their customers. Mobiles let companies reach their customers wherever they are. According to the September 2010 comScore report, 31.4% of mobile users downloaded apps.

The world’s largest automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, recently introduced its “DAS” or Digital Auto Space app which is an interactive iPad app. DAS is a magazine that takes customers into the fascinating world of Volkswagen with stories, videos, 360 degree car views and other interactive features. Planned as a quarterly magazine, DAS will be available in five languages and is part of the auto giant’s digital marketing strategy aimed at engaging with their audience.

Volkswagen’s launch comes close on the heels of iPad apps launches from Mercedes-Benz and Audi. In fact, Hyundai, the Korean car manufacturer will offer its owner’s manual as an interactive iPad app.

Currently, Volkswagen is promoting the relaunch of their Golf Cabriolet with a world-first augmented reality app for the iPad2, iPhone and Android. This AR app is fun and lets you explore and play with the car as you would with a real car.  You can change the car’s colour, rotate the car and it also allows you to create a picture of you with the car which you can share across your social networks.

In March 2011, Volkswagen released a unique AR app for iPhones, the VW Test Drive a Print AD. This app lets users test drive cars across the print ads. Right now this is available only in the Norwegian Apple store and on VW’s website. The goal was to persuade drivers of the car’s benefits and what better way than to let them go for a drive? Augmented reality is a great way to provide a life-like experience and this ad was featured in Norway’s most popular print magazines. After downloading the app, users could position their phone over the print ad and check out the car’s various features while driving it and testing its impressive features like lane assist, adaptive lights and cruise control.
With its innovative apps Volkswagen aims to establish itself as a market leader. Brand-specific apps go a long way in promoting a brand and its products, helping with marketing and brand building.

The Medical Information, Anytime, Anywhere (MIAA) app, created by Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) in partnership with CISCO, is the “first of its kind” created in the US.

Using Google Android-powered mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the MIAA healthcare app allows physicians to retrieve a patient’s complete health record in real-time, anytime, anywhere, allowing for more informed diagnostics and improved patient care.

Because of the app’s interoperability feature, which makes it possible for it to retrieve information from major electronic health record systems across organisational boundaries, a patient’s lab reports, drug allergies, virals and even x-rays can be viewed within the app. “This new technology will improve patient care by taming the complexity of health care, and reducing the current hassle inherent in a highly fragmented industry,” said Ben Kanter, MD, chief medical informatics officer and pulmonologist, PPH.

Features and Benefits

• User-friendly mobile app
• Anywhere, anytime access to a patient’s complete medical history
• Integrated physician-to-physician messaging, all the while maintaining patient context
• Real-time integration: vital signs monitoring (heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and respiration)
• Automatically adjusts to home, hospital or clinic environment
• Compatible with different software – automatically breaks down records into a common, understandable format

PPH had a live demonstration to showcase the MIAA app’s abilities and various features at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), for the first time in public, on the 21^st of last month.  According to Orlando Portale, PPH’s Chief Innovation Officer, PPH is eager to share the app with the rest of the healthcare industry and encourages investments in wireless healthcare solutions.  The future is now!

The Festive Season is here and most of us are a bit worried that we’ll overindulge in all the mouthwatering sweets and foods that comes with the holidays.

Fortunately, with all the exercise mobile apps currently available, you needn’t worry about having to shed those extra Christmas kilos later, for mobile apps have changed the way people apply themselves to reaching their fitness goals.

For all the runners CardioTrainer, RunKeeper, Gym Technik and TurMeter are some of the apps available to keep track of your training. The apps allow you among others to work out your own exercise routines or make use of the built-in ones, control your speed and trace your progress. You can even track the distance you ran via GPS and count the steps you’ve taken and calories you’ve burned, all while listening to music.

If weightlifting and stationary fitness is more your thing, iFitness is the answer to your exercise needs. The app sports over 300 exercises, pictures and step-by-step guides on how to execute them properly as well as 20 routines specially created by various fitness experts.

Perhaps you need the support of friends and family when trying to stay in shape during the Christmas time. Endomondo, described as a “fitness social network” rather than an application, allows you to share your progress with friends and get them to join in the fitness fun. This is a cross-platform app with a built-in network of fellow runners.

Into alternative health? Meditate with Tai Chi Regimen Music Mobile app or iZen Lite. The Medicine Buddha Mantra is believed to heal physical illnesses and purify negative karma, whilst the Quan Yin Mantra app is said to make you a more compassionate, loving person – much like the Buddhist goddess herself.

Do you have to work during the Festive Season? No problem. You can exercise at the office, using mobile apps like OfficeYoga and YogaAtWork to help you relax and release tension caused by sitting at your desk from nine to five. Brainwave, voted best mobile app in 2009’s Handango Championship Awards, helps you to focus your attention, learn faster and even apply self-hypnosis. Perfect for that upcoming meeting, wouldn’t you say?

There are many other fitness apps available, many of them free and suited for almost all smartphones, just waiting to help you to reach your fitness goals.