VMware was already an investor along with Kernel Capital and Enterprise Ireland, and all three have participated in the new round as well. Intel has however taken the lead this time with ACT Venture Capital also joining in.

FeedHenry serves business customers that want to develop and deploy in-house mobile apps. In February the company partnered up with Telefonica, allowing the bundling of FeedHenry’s platform with the telco’s infrastructure-as-a-service platform, Instant Servers, for the benefit of European customers.

According to Marcos Battisti, Intel Capital’s managing director for Western Europe and Israel, the investment will help FeedHenry expand internationally:

“The mobile application market segment for enterprise is at a tipping point and those companies delivering a comprehensive solution that provide both an end to end mobile development strategy and a way to implement applications easily and securely will be at the forefront of the market segment.”

FeedHenry’s rivals include firms such as Antenna Software and SAP. The Irish firm’s particular selling point is flexibility, allowing deployment of its Mobile Application Platform to public, private and hybrid clouds. Apps developed on the platform can also be built once then rolled out to iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices.

The company also provides “backend-as-a-service” functionality, with server-side code based on Node.js, as well as app management tools and analytics. There’s been considerable activity in that BaaS market with Salesforce.com and Rackspace adding mobile backend capabilities there and Facebook buying Parse just last week.

It should be noted that this is far from the first investment Intel Capital has made in this space. Just this January, it also put $4.6 million into enterprise mobile app deployment firm Apperian. And, in February, parent company Intel bought the mobile app development tools division of AppMobi.

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For the past two years, the EMR company, which was co-founded by the country’s CTO Todd Park (before his Washington, DC career), has tried to encourage more openness and innovation with hackathons and conferences through its “More Disruption Please” campaign. But this week, the company said it’s taking its biggest pro-developer step yet with an API (application programming interface) initiative launched in partnership with API management company Mashery.

“Our point of view is that the largest barrier to entry for a lot [health companies] is access to physicians and access to their work flow,” said Armbrester, the company’s director of business development. “What we really want to do is expose APIs and let people build things.”

Starting this week, developers and providers will be able to access APIs that connect to athenahealth’s network of 40,000 providers nationwide.  With access to doctors’ appointment data, patient’s medical history (anonymized , billing information and more, the company hopes developers will be able to create an ecosystem of apps on top of athenahealth’s EMR service in the same way that third-party developers have created apps on top of Facebook’s Open Graph.

Possible apps could help doctors with scheduling, sharing information with other practices, communicating with patients and getting patients to stick to their treatment plans, Armbrester said.

The next step, he added, is the creation of an Apple-like app store where physicians can pick and choose the apps most relevant to their needs. Other EMR providers, including Allscripts and Greenway, have also opened up their APIs to developers and created app marketplaces. But Armbrester said that unlike most traditional health care companies, athenahealth’s multi-tenant cloud-based architecture means that it can roll out application updates to all providers at once.

While the industry has been mostly slow to open up to third-party developers, others have started innovating from the outside. The SMART (Substitutable Medical Applications & Reusable Technology) Platforms Project, led by doctors at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, is creating an ecosystem of apps that can be layered on top of existing EMRs. Once a vendor or hospital IT department implements a software container, hospitals can install SMART apps, which include interactive growth charts for pediatricians, and cardiovascular risk assessments for cardiologists. Last month, mobile API company Apigee said it was creating an API exchange that could be used in health care to help developers write one app that could be used across different hospitals and health organizations.

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Essentially, Telefonica will start selling FeedHenry’s platform to its European enterprise customers with Instant Servers providing the hosting piece. Technologically, the two platforms are fairly well aligned — FeedHenry uses Node.js for integration with its back-end systems, and the Joyent-based Instant Servers platform uses Node.js SmartMachine virtual machines. Predictably, the two companies talk in their statement about “sharing a vision for cloud computing”.

“We are seeing increased demand from enterprises seeking cloud-based mobile app platforms to reduce up-front costs and time to market,” FeedHenry CEO Cathal McGloin said in a statement. “Corporate IT and app development teams will now be able to build applications for the most demanding consumer and enterprise users to quickly and easily deploy them securely to the cloud.”

FeedHenry, which was a finalist in GigaOM’s Mobilize Launchpad contest back in 2010, is based in Ireland, although it recently opened an office in England as its European business expands. Spain’s Telefonica is increasingly trying to push into the cloud, as are most large operators.

“The intersection of mobile and cloud is a natural one,” Telefonica Digital Cloud Director Tim Marsden said in the statement. “Our goal is to accelerate the availability of mobile-optimized, cloud-based services for app development and management, giving full access to cloud services like storage, security, caching, and server-side business logic.”

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Because of that, as a category, aspirational apps and services that depend on real-world results have a significant built-in barrier to scaling that other apps rarely deal with: They’re subject to the frailties of human nature. Confronting users with the intent of getting them to change is a tough low-odds endeavor, and the early drop-off period poses a significant challenge to those web services and apps that are trying to make us thinner, fitter, or smarter.

Simply put, it’s tough for your company to scale when users uniformly drop off after the first few weeks.

There’s an understandable motivation then to look for ways to keep users coming back and engaged. The issue is that otherwise smart methods can become distracting gimmicks if not employed appropriately. Here are a few trendy options developers often reflexively turn to when creating apps that can easily become a liability if they don’t make sense to your service.

Make everything a game

There’s no arguing that gamification has been employed to spectacular effect. At the same time it’s extremely hard to do well. A common complaint about Foursquare, clearly one of the foremost examples of well-crafted gamification, is that users quickly suffer from “check-in fatigue.“ Once the initial glory wears off, most people get bored of staying on top of the leaderboard.

Perhaps more treacherous is when game-play features are strapped onto an app without proper context. Such applications routinely fail to get traction from the start. For example, Google News introduced “Google News badges” back in July 2011 to little fanfare. (I have yet to see anyone  show a level badge for how many news articles they’ve read; not surprisingly the company mercifully put the feature to bed in September)

The bottom line: gamification can help if it makes sense to the app and is designed within a context. As a gimmick it’s never enough to keep a user base engaged over the long haul.

Drag friends into it

In the real world, aspirational businesses often use a form of peer pressure to compel people to follow through on their mission:  personal trainers push us to keep our commitment to get to the gym, and Weight Watchers uses positive peer pressure to keep its members coming back and paying dues week after week. With apps though it’s a far different story. No matter how entertaining or lifelike, virtual avatars simply don’t have the same psychological impact as interacting with people in the real world. So while skipping out on a real person may trigger feelings of guilt, that avatar trainer in a PlayStation or Wii fitness game? Not so much.

The other approach, linking activities and milestones to the social graph, is a similar and obvious temptation for aspirational apps. The inevitable pitfall though is that most people tend to happily share the accomplishments they’re proud of (I ran an 8K!), but inevitably and understandably bury their disappointments (I skipped a scheduled run to eat a cake). The challenge for aspirational apps then is to replicate the discipline or positive reinforcement that’s created from real world interactions with trainers, professors, and peers, and not come off like a tattletale or nag.

Go quantified

While the  Quantified Self movement – succinctly described in ‘The Economist’ as “an eclectic mix of early adopters, fitness freaks, technology evangelists, personal-development junkies, hackers and patients suffering from a wide variety of health problems” – isn’t new itself, new technologies are rapidly transforming what is possible with all that personal data.

Yet while data collection is becoming a more seamless part of our daily routine, quantified self applications tend to appeal to only niche, narrow markets (i.e., an early adopter fitness freak with sleep apnea). In order to scale on any appreciable level then, aspirational apps are compelled to target a broader audience base.

Require big cash, up front

In the offline world, consumers are often willing to pay a high price for aspirational products in a weak moment. You might call it the Rosetta Stone model, for the $500 language course we imagine will soon have us chatting up an Italian supermodel. Or maybe the fitness center model, as they annually convert droves of News Years hangover cases into pricey yearly memberships. In both cases, consumers feel great at the moment of purchase; however, only a minority of customers will actually use the product after the initial excitement and motivation wear off.

Similarly with an aspirational product, it’s possible this strategy could make for a quick initial hit (though at high price points there are low odds). But it’s unlikely you’ll maintain a happy, engaged customer base after that, which is crucial. More to the point, we’ve seen that people are hesitant to pay a lot of money upfront for most online services anyway, preferring to go with pay-as-you-go, no-commitment subscription models.

Humans are complex. We’re a convoluted mix of big plans and inertia. For self-improvement and learning apps to successfully scale, they need to find a way to keep their users happy, motivated,and committed over a long period. While there’s a large market awaiting apps and services that can overcome these challenges and can tap into age-old human needs for peer recognition, achievement, and self-improvement, designers need to consider the very real limitations of the methods they choose to keep users motivated.

Boris Wertz is the founder of Version One Ventures. Follow him on Twitter @bwertz.

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Icenium combines a cloud-based development environment with Apache Cordova, which powers the mobile development framework PhoneGap. But instead of requiring developers to download xCode, Eclipse, or the Android SDK, Icenium is able to move all of the tools to the cloud, so developers can conduct coding, simulating, debugging, deploying to devices and publishing apps from a Mac or PC.

What this means is that web developers can use Icenium to create cross-platform hybrid apps that are built in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript and can run natively on iOS and Android, for smartphones and tablets. But they have the freedom to choose what computer they build on and what platform they build for. Meanwhile, they don’t have to download bulky IDEs. Icenium will be available for free until May 31, 2013.

With Icenium Graphite, an installed version for PCs, and Icenium Mist, which lives in a browser, developers can  access an array of tools such as syntax coloring and formatting, real-time error detection, refactoring, code navigation, integrated version control and app publishing preparation.

One of the cool tricks of Icenium is a feature called LiveSync, which allows developers to immediately see changes in real-time on an integrated device simulator and across any connected devices without having to recompile  code. Icenium Ion, another feature, allows testers to scan a QR code on their iOS device and get an app installed quickly without the need for provisioning.

Doug Seven, Telerik’s executive vice president who is leading Icenium development, believes this is the kind of tool developers, especially web developers need, allowing them to focus on building ideas and testing them out quickly instead of managing a lot of development environments.

“Icenium is a game changing solution that gives developers the access and ability to innovate quickly and easily, without being tethered to a place or specific platform,” Seven said in a statement.

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Infotainment platform makers and the developers they work with are wrestling with that paradox, said David Kirsch, connected technology engineer for Honda R&D Americas at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Thursday. In one sense, the real estate on the dash and the power of on-board hardware gives them an opportunity to make sophisticated and immersive apps, but those are the exact types of apps that distract drivers from what should be their primary tasks: staying in their lanes and avoiding other cars and obstacles.

A panel of speakers, including Glympse CEO Byran Trussel and Aha by Harman VP and GM Robert Acker, all agreed that concern for safety was the main reason why connected cars would remain largely closed as development platforms in the near term.

“On one level you just want to say ‘let 1,000 flowers bloom,’ but you don’t want to let 1,000 flowers bloom on your dashboard,” said Trussel, whose company Glympse has developed a version of its location-sharing app for Mercedes Benz’s in-dash system. For several years, development on the car is going to be limited to a specific relationships struck by carmakers and trusted partners, he said, though Trussel believes controls will eventually be put in place that will allow for a more open development framework.

Automakers are taking a risk, though, the panelists admitted. If they keep too tight a grip on the their infotainment systems, developers and consumers will just start looking elsewhere for connected car apps. “If that safe experience is so de-featured, [drivers] are just going to default to the smartphone,” Acker said.

Check out the rest of our Mobilize 2012 coverage here, and the live stream can be found here.

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App users are now abandoning apps after using them just once at a rate of 22 percent, down from 26 percent when Localytics first looked at retention rates last year. And for users who open an app more than 10 times, that figure has gone up from 26 percent to 31 percent. That suggests that app makers may be figuring out how to better encourage engagement and long-term use, rather than shooting for quick downloads.

That’s been one of the big changes in the app ecosystem, as app makers realize it’s better to retain users than push for big download numbers, which can be easily inflated. It may also be a result of the fact that many of the tools for incentivizing downloads have been blocked by Apple. That may also partially explain why iOS apps perform better than Android apps in retention.

Localytics found that among heavy users opening an app more than 10 times, 35 percent are iPhone and iPad users while 23 percent are Android users. For one-time users, Android apps also see 24 percent of their users abandon the app, while 21 percent of iOS users leave after one time. The company examined the behavior of app users on 60 million devices, comparing a nine-month period that ended in March 2012 with a previous nine-month period ending in March of 2011.

The year-over-year improvement in retention may be a result of app makers getting better at building apps, said Localytics. Users might also be more discerning about which apps to try. Also, users are downloading more apps overall, according to Nielsen, which reported last month that the average number of apps per smartphone has increased from 32 apps to 41.

As for Apple’s loyalty advantage, Nielsen also found that 88 percent of iPhone users are app downloaders while 74 percent of Android users are, another reason why retention may be better on iOS. Localytics’ CEO also told The Wall Street Journal that iOS apps may also be more polished because they’re the primary target for many app developers. iOS devices also enjoy higher customer retention compared to other smartphone makers.

There are still plenty of challenges for app makers. The numbers show that 69 percent of the time, an app doesn’t get opened more than 10 times. But for app makers, it’s clear that you need to continue to build for repeat usage and long-term engagement. With most of the monetization models for apps based on in-app purchase or advertising, it’s all about keeping people coming back to the app. The fact that people are returning to apps more often is an encouraging sign considering that the deluge of new apps is not slowing down. Maybe app users aren’t as flaky as we thought.

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The key to service is an updated version of MOG’s iPhone app, which automatically connects to Sync when connected via the USB port in 2012 Sync-enabled vehicles, including the Fiesta, Fusion, F-150, Super Duty, E-Series, Mustang and Expedition. The app can relay its settings, playlists and downloaded content to the car’s stereo. It also uses the iPhone’s 3G connectivity to link to MOG’s Internet-based services, giving the driver access to MOG’s curated radio stations, as well as playlist and ‘favorite’ songs not stored within the phone.

The integration goes beyond merely streaming the app’s audio feed through the car’s speakers. Ford worked closely with MOG as part of its App Link program to port the service’s user interface and core functionality into the dashboard. Basic Sync voice commands can be used to start the app, move between songs and shuffle playlists. Users can assign MOG radio stations and playlists to the stereo’s preset buttons, and they can designate new songs as favorites using through voice prompts, adding them to their music collections.

Ford has been positioning Sync App Link as a mobile platform over which developers can build apps for cars just as they would for Android or iOS phones. Ford, however, hasn’t yet opened App Link to the general developer community. Instead it has selectively added applications through direct partnerships. It’s primary focus has been on companies a lot like MOG – music or other audio content streaming services, as opposed to more visually oriented apps that might distract the driver.

Ford’s first big dev partner was Pandora, but the automaker has since included in the program Clear Channel’s digital streaming service iHeartRadio, audio magazine provider Stitcher, Slacker Personal Radio, and news services NPR and Orangatame OpenBeak.

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The New York Times has had quite a week when it comes to uncovering ways that rogue application developers can exploit both iOS and Android in order to obtain personal photos. Earlier in the week it reported that iOS applications can access and upload photos stored on your iPhone simply by asking you to share your location with the app (Apple is believed to be working on a fix.) On Thursday it reported that Android apps can do the same thing without asking for any permission at all.

How is this possible? Google’s explanation, provided to the Times:

We originally designed the Android photos file system similar to those of other computing platforms like Windows and Mac OS. At the time, images were stored on a SD card, making it easy for someone to remove the SD card from a phone and put it in a computer to view or transfer those images. As phones and tablets have evolved to rely more on built-in, nonremovable memory, we’re taking another look at this and considering adding a permission for apps to access images.

As many have noted, this is sort of how computers have worked for a long time. If an application prompted you every time it needed to access a file, you’d do nothing but approve prompts, as MG Siegler pointed out in a post dismissing the concerns articulated by the Times as similar to those of people who never leave the house because they’re scared of getting robbed.

But the example the Times used to test this out involved a timer app that uploaded photos from the phone when the user started the timer. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that an app designed for the most personal computing device we’ve ever created should have to ask your permission before being allowed to do something completely unrelated to its core function.

In other instances, Google agrees: just look at its response to the Path/iOS address book snafu. When you install an app on a mobile operating system that is has been touted by its creators as more secure than the competition because it requires developers to ask your permission to do absolutely anything–and that app does something that it never asked your permission to do–you have a right to be annoyed.

Google won’t even let an Android application access the Internet unless the app developer tells Android that the app intends to access the Internet. Applications have to declare their intention to “write to the SD card,” as Facebook’s Android application does before it is downloaded. But they apparently don’t have to declare their intention to “read from/access the SD card,” which Facebook is obviously allowed to do so its users can upload photos.

The company needs to find a way to require app developers to list something like “access to photo library” alongside the list of permissions it requires app developers to submit before their app is allowed to upload photos. That doesn’t mean the app has to ask your permission every time it wants to access a photo: it just needs to tell Android that it reserves the right to do so once installed and allow potential users to see that intention before they install the app.

Assuming you read that list of permissions before you download Android apps, you might wonder why a timer app needs to access your photo library. And if that bothers you, you might go off and find one that doesn’t feel the need to make a copy of your photos.

Mobile computing isn’t going to turn into a nanny state if Google requires Android app developers to be honest about their intentions, a policy that it applies to just about every other piece of personal information on an Android phone except photos. The only people who lose in that situation are those who would exploit your photos for their own benefit.

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Of World of Goo’s one million downloads on iOS, 69 percent came from its Universal version, which is optimized for use on both the iPhone and the iPad. That 69 percent of downloads drove 79 percent of revenue, while the 29 percent of installs of the iPhone-specific version accounted for just 17 percent of revenue. Coming in third was the Mac version, which nabbed only 2 percent of total downloads, and generated 4 percent of the profit.

World of Goo has different price points for each version; the Mac app costs $9.99, the iPhone version is just $2.99, and the universal iPad + iPhone version is $4.99. They also have different release dates; the Mac app debuted on June 7, 2011, the iOS Universal app on Dec. 15, 2010, and the iPhone-specific version arrived Apr. 13, 2011.

The numbers seem to indicate that you’ll get the most bang for your investment buck starting with universal apps, but of course it isn’t that simple. Games are good candidates for Universal development, since often mechanics and controls remain relatively the same whether you have more or less screen real estate. But for other apps, it might be hard to come up with something that works as well on the iPad as it does on the iPhone, or vice versa. Universal apps also require more time on the coding side, and can lead to a more complicated update process, so it’s more of an investment in that regard. Not to mention that trying to make a product that works on both can sometimes involve sacrifices, as TUAW’s Erica Sadun rightly pointed out in the past.

Sadun wrote that post nearly two years ago, however, and one important thing has changed since then: the iPad has become a wildly successful device, selling 11 million units last quarter, compared to the iPhone’s 17 million. Its growing at a much faster rate than the iPhone, too, which means the number of users who appreciate a product that works on both devices is also on the rise.

The bottom line is that if a Universal app makes sense for the specific type of application you have in mind, it’ll only become more economically advantageous to get that out the door first as time goes on. Especially with an iPad 3 launch on the horizon, customers will be looking for the best value and portability they can find, and that’s exactly what Universal apps provide.

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