At The Practice, we love a great success story, particularly when it comes to ingenious tech developments. So we were thrilled with the news that 17-year-old schoolboy, Nick D’Aloisio, has become one of the youngest app creators to attract venture capital backing for his hit app, Summly, after selling it to Yahoo!

Summly summarises and condenses news stories into three paragraphs that fit onto an iPhone screen. It also allows users to customize news categories and link to the full article if they wish to read more. The app sounds simple, but it’s proved such a hit that it was featured by Apple as one of its best iPhone apps of 2012. Nick, who’s received almost $30 million for his app and seen over one million downloads, says he was inspired to create something that simplifies the way we consume news online. “I was using Google and Bing and there were so many results to scroll through it was really inefficient. So I built an algorithm that shared them and trimmed them. Then it just transformed into the idea of, ‘why not just summarize news in general?” he said.

Nick’s investment for Summly arrived just over one year since he created the app whilst studying for his mock GCSEs. Primary investment comes from Horizons Ventures, the private technology investment company of Hong Kong businessman, Li Ka-shing, but other backers include Ashton Kutcher, Wendi Murdoch, Stephen Fry and Yoko Ono, while his mother is also a major shareholder. The backing seems apt, as more and more companies appear to be vying to purchase other news-reading apps in line with high mobile traffic; LinkedIn for example, was said to be highly interested in a similar app named Pulse, earlier last month.

So what is the key to building a successful stand-alone app? The big-hitters that immediately spring to mind include those such as Instagram, Angry Birds, and Words with Friends. But the true statistics unfortunately reveal a very different story: only 12 per cent of apps earn $50,000 or more in revenue, while a staggering 59% don’t generate enough revenue to break even on development costs. While design and usability are key components to an app’s success, research by online marketing company App Promo also suggested that the amount of time and money spent on marketing was also crucial. We think that attention to detail is also paramount- too often than not, some of the smaller functionalities of an app aren’t tested thoroughly enough, leading to problems as the app undergoes the building process. And from a user point of view, The Practice team unanimously agree in simplicity- for us that means eliminating unnecessary features, and keeping registration buttons to a minimum. Of course, the quality and uniqueness of the idea and product is what’s going to make for a standout app, and that’s where we think Summly gets it right.

Do you use Summly to scan news stories relevant to you? And are there any apps you think are particularly worthy of popularity and success, but haven’t seen the limelight yet? We’d love to hear your thoughts as always so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.