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This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
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A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app), is computer jargon for software which is revolutionary and popular. A killer application may be a video game, web application, desktop application, etc.
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Revolutionary
Revolutionary does not imply that a killer app must be inventive, merely just the first to make a new concept popular. Napster and Doom are good examples of this.
Napster was revolutionary but not necessarily inventive as P2P concepts and file sharing (IRC) were already around. It succeeded in mixing the right features and technology as well as a relevant marketing strategy for it's young target market. Once the users realised the potential of Napster to illegally trade music files, it became wildly popular, and is remembered as the killer application, popularising the term Peer to Peer.
In 1993, id software combined immersive 3D graphics, network multiplayer gaming, support for custom expansions and a clever marketing strategy (shareware distribution) into a game called Doom. Each of the aforementioned attributes of Doom already existed to some degree in public knowledge, but id software found the right balance in combining these features which ended up as a killer application. They notably succeeded in popularising the first-person shooter gaming genre.
Identifying
There is no standards body which can declare when application is a killer application. Therefore, there are no set criteria for defining a killer application. Below are some points which must be considered when discussing the killer application term:
- Time - An application of 10 years ago may still be remembered today as once being killer, but would not be applicable today. For example, Napster was considered a killer application of its day, but is no longer as other competition has taken its market share, and the product itself was banned.
- Marketing Hype - Many vendors will self profess their product to be a killer application, however this is often linked directly to download volumes. Typically, a killer application stamp is applied later in the future as a reflection of the success of an application.
- Market - In a smaller market, say for ISP's a certain DNS server may be considered to be a killer application, but to the rest of the world, it is not applicable.
- Popularity - Today, measuring popularity for software is often measured by the volume of downloads. This does not directly scale to actual use, a user may download some software and never use it, or only use it for a week.
The Making of
There is no sound formula for creating a killer app, as the software market cannot be predicted. There are however several guidelines which could be followed to give an application the best chance for the killer application title, most of these relate to good software design practices.
- Problem - As with all application development, there is always a problem to solve. There are many problems which have not been solved, but then again, there are many solved problems which could have better solutions. These problems need to be targeted, otherwise the application will just look like another Swiss army knife.
- Mixing innovations - There are many good ideas in the software world which mostly go unnoticed. The reason for an idea not being realised is dependent on many factors, including market readiness, and the commercial ability of the inventor. A developer of a killer application will be able to identify ideas and be able to mix them together to solve problems.
- Marketing - People aren't going to use your application unless they know it exists. There needs to be a certain buzz about the product, so as to drive adoption and popularity of the application. There are many marketing tools available to achieve this and a developer must have good business acumen to leverage these successfully. There are possibly many of killer applications which have been able to spread by word of mouth, but even there, the developer needs to be able to decide if that's how they want to market their application.
- Business Model - This can include Marketing, but many other parts of a business model which supports a product can influence the commercialisation of a software product. For example, support may be paramount for such a revolutionary application, imagine having a fantastic application but no guide for how to use it.
- Reliability and Performance - These affect a killer application to a lesser degree, as the revolutionary component allows users to see past the bugs. Many copy cats of a killer application will often focus on adding more features, improving reliability and increasing performance.
Leverage
Killer applications are sought to add value to a platform and can create a temporary monopoly in a target market. Of course a company cannot be certain about the popularity of a new software application, but they can attempt to leverage an application (which they believe will be revolutionary and popular), to catalyst sales of their or a partners platform.
Some examples of such leverage are:
- VisiCalc on the Apple II platform (also considered the first killer application)
- Lotus 1-2-3 on the IBM PC hardware platform
- Halo on the Xbox platform
Of course there are many more which could be listed here, but can be found in the List of Killer Applications article instead.
Multiple killer applications may be delivered for a single platform over time, but their relevance and importance is reduced with number.
