Old niche, new apps: 4 app brands revolutionising existing segments

Samsung revealed at the SXSW Interactive 2016 that it was building a Songify-like app. Hum On , still on beta, could turn even an off-key delivered hum into a notated piece of music. This might seem insignificant, but the music world might embrace it, especially composers who have melodic gifts but know nothing about notes or playing an instrument.

What makes it special is the notation part. With sounds being transcribed to notes, this could be a future tool for music teachers and voice instructors. It could also be used to tune musical instruments, as well as to encourage tone-deaf music lovers to make their own melody and, eventually, songs.

Nevertheless, the mobile phone giant’s biggest app project this year so far is Waffle, its own take on Instagram and Facebook. It’s like a limitless Instagram (grid-wise) combined with Facebook and Snapchat that allows connected friends to share stories via editable photos. In other words, one’s content could be altered by somebody within the app. No one’s sure if this could be as big as its precursors, but its success could potentially force Facebook to come up with the same feature.

One app banking on an existing niche and revolutionising it in a grand scale is Born2Invest. At first glance, it looks like just another content curation app in the tradition of Flipboard, but it isn’t. First, it’s only for business and finance news, which means investors and tech journalists no longer have to deal with entertainment and Upworthy-type news. Second, it’s multilingual. It is currently available in 25 languages and expected to be available in 30 more in all 150 countries before 2016 ends. Most important, perhaps, is that it’s noise-free, which means there are no ads, one thing that made many curation ventures fail miserably in the past.

The app made a quick hike to the top spot of business and finance app rankings both on Play Store and iOS store despite being live only for less than eight months. Apart from being clutter-free and multilingual, it’s the only business-centric news app on the market whose content are written by real writers and journalists.

CEO Dom Einhorn once said that it’s a top priority in his company to look for writers who have knowledge, experience and unabashed love for the finance world. “It is our app’s only secret to maintaining a well-written, journalistic content despite being curated,” he said, “as curation is like reporting, too — you should maintain professionalism so that you won’t lose readership and audience.”

Anchor, on the other hand, could be the next Audioboom, which is basically the app that made the likes of “Serial” extra popular and audio content trendy again. Anchor is like Facebook and Instagram without the texts and photos, so it might cater to dyslexics or those who want to take extra time off Twitter’s noise. Unlike Audioboom that focuses on audio content publishing, it wholeheartedly embraces social networking.

"Your listeners can talk back, sparking instant group conversations that were never before possible. When not recording, listen to authentic humour, knowledge, inspiration, and debate from Anchor's global collective of personality," said on its website.

While some think a derivative app like Anchor could simply disappear without a trace, experts believe it could go beyond a mere social media entertainment among friends. “Social media has always been a challenge for radio because you have to just link back to your site. [Nonetheless] now we have a place to go and share our voices and hear the voices of our fans, too," Delaney Simmons, WNYC Radio’s social media director, said to NiemanLab.

Hence, this app could link people to AM and FM stations, an industry that needs a boost as people are now listening to radio less every day. This could also encourage people to talk about their experiences via audio instead of writing a Facebook post that requires adherence to grammar and spelling.

Shyp, meanwhile, is the Uber for snail mail. The app is for those who still believe in the magic of physically mailing letters and packages. What makes it special is that it will help users find the nearest courier from where they are sending their Shyp request, which is activated by taking a photo of the item to be mailed. What will happen is that a Shyp personnel would come to their door, get their package, and personally deliver it to the nearest UPS or FedEx.

Unbelievably, because of the shrinking number of mailing facilities and traditional letter lovers, the company said that it experiences 20 percent growth every month. Investors are liking it, actually. A Fortune report says Shyp’s market value is now more than 300 million and it is still continuously obtaining additional funding from the likes of KPCB.

“In the way that Uber has transformed transportation in cities, this is going to change shipping,” John Doerr, Shyp co-director said. Indeed, that could happen as its growth happens in spite of being available only in San Francisco, New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn), Miami and Los Angeles, though it accepts all kinds of transaction, including that of shipment to outside-US territories.

Innovation isn’t always about “inventing something totally new.” Sometimes, improving a niche’s loophole could do wonders, make staggering revenues even.