That is the question I posed to the App Making group this week.
A few highlights from the discussion:
Ellis Hamburger, writer at The Verge:
Ultimately as a developer you must aspire to be the best in your category, which often means looking to competing apps and making sure you can outdo them from the get-go — and *don’t launch your app until you meet those goals* since any category only has a few real winners.
Samuel Iglesias, developer of Tea:
To me what makes a good app idea is a good interface idea: the two go hand in hand. More often than not problems we identify (which aren’t really *that* hard to identify) have HARDER usability problems that piggy back onto them.
David Chartier, MacWorld + Mac Observer + OnePassword:
A good app has a clear message and purpose. The tools have to be unique and fill a need, or people will question why they need it or just stick with something they have.
Francisco Inchauste, Rise + Smashing Magazine:
TweetA good app idea adds on to the competition’s with some better features and implementation. A *great* app idea reimagines that product through design, and resets the baseline.