This all holds doubly true for apps. As I've been looking into iPad and tablet apps, I've realized that any schmuck with some basic programming skills can make an app, and while they might not all be good ones, the ideas are still out there. Here are some ideas my research turned up:
Need It/Got It
College kids, especially Freshman, find themselves unable to go shopping and get their hands on some things that they might normally want at school. At the same time, they end up with plenty of things they end up not needing or wanting. The goal of this app would be to connect the two ends together.
Need It/Got It is an app focused on setting up small-scale trades between college students, say a box of mac and cheese for some batteries. It would provide an easy space for students to post and search for things they might need and make an offer to whoever has it. There could even be a space for "want it," for longer term listing of larger items, like games or textbooks.
Now, I understand that Craigslist is a thing, but it has some real image issues and has no focus. Need It/Got It would be different in that it would be geared toward students at a particular college (and wouldn't host creepy listings. It would also use a shorter timescale; the goal would be for trades to be executed within an hour of posting.
Competitors for the app would be the aforementioned Craigslist, as well as the hard-to-track-down "swap-meet" type app Anttenna (their site has gone dead). Catering to college kids will set Need It/Got It up and apart from the competition.
Unnamed Jam App (Marmalade?)
Forming a band is tough; you have to find a group of people who can get along well enough to make and play music together. Unnamed Jam App seeks to remove that aspect. Users of this app would log in when they want to make music, and be placed into a jam session with other musicians based on preferences (users can set their genre preference, as well as how willing they are to play with other users of different genres). The users can then use the tablet to share music, lyrics, and chords to jam together from wherever they are.
The premise of this app would be anonymous, near-random groupings of musicians collaborating on a single song together. While there would be options for contacting your grouping afterwards (to share a recording, perhaps), that wouldn't be the focus.
There are tons of apps meant to help musicians jam, especially over distances. Garageband, eJamming, and Ninjam allow for musicians to connect and record over distances, but not randomly or anonymously. This app would aim to be different because it connects you with musicians you don't know, which can lead to some awesome, unexpected music.
Card Table
This app is a card game platform based around the idea of a virtual tabletop. Nearby users would be able to play games together, sharing the "tabletop" of their tablets while being able to have a hand of cards. Users would be able to create custom cards using an in-app editor, or use pictures to create cards (similarly to the Pop App).
The inspiration for this app comes from programs like OCTGN, a computer program that allows users to play custom card games online, but with a focus on interface and mobility. It could be an excellent tool for game designers, allowing them to test custom card games (with possible options for board games?) easily and in a simple to use format.
My research brought up some copyright issues that a program similar to OCTGN ran in to. Based around the card game Magic: the Gathering, the program Cockatrice (now taken down) used loaded images of the cards and violated the company's copyright. This app could get around that by not coming preloaded with anything besides a basic set of cards, but still allowing users to take their own pictures for personal use.
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