How Roambi became one of the hottest business apps for the iPad

The iPad changes everything

Less than a year after the release of Roambi for iPhone, the company’s fortunes and exposure would change greatly with the release of the iPad tablet in April 2010.

When the iPad was announced in late January 2010, the MeLLmo team’s minds were blown. The company had spent an enormous amount of time and focus working on how to convey data on small iPhone screens, but this new device could give Roambi a chance to shine on a large 9.7-inch touch screen.

“We knocked it out of the park on the phone,” Alsbury said. “Then we had to switch and do a 180 and we had all this real estate.”

After watching the iPad announcement, MeLLmo immediately decided a new version of Roambi would need to be ready for the iPad by launch day.

“We had about two months to upgrade the entire app to iPad. That was not a very fun two months,” Alsbury said. “The entire iOS team was only about five developers with two-man design team. We worked 16- to 18-hour days for a solid month.”

One of the most challenging aspects of the development was working on an application for a device the team had never seen. The team had to create and test the app with a simulator, which was nerve-wracking, since touch apps need a high degree of precision.

The development and hardships paid off considerably. The day the iPad was released, Roambi was featured on the first page of the Business category in the App Store. That sort of exposure is priceless to a young company.

“It was well worth the work to be there on day one,” Alsbury said. “The iPad platform was such an enhancement of the Roambi experience.”

I suggested to Alsbury that the company wouldn’t be as successful as it is today without the iPad. With so many businesses incorporating the iPad into their work flows, Roambi is getting more time in front of executives and key decision makers. Apple is even spotlighting Roambi on its dedicated “iPad at Work” page.

But Alsbury maintains Roambi might have been more successful if there had never been an iPad. “In that case, the work we had done [on the iPhone] would be viewed as more precious and more valuable,” he said.

Looking to the future

Roambi’s future looks bright. MeLLmo’s successes with Roambi on iPad and iPhone attracted the aforementioned $30 million first round of funding from Sequoia Capital this past September. With that money on hand, the company plans to add more employees to its roster of 120, open new office locations in other parts of the world, and keep innovating its product.

“We will continue to follow the platform,” Alsbury said. “It allows for innovation and for creating rich and immersive experiences.”

Soon, MeLLmo will add another four languages to Roambi to help it meet “heavy” international demand and bring the product to a total of 11 languages. By the end of the year, the company plans to add more.

The most recent addition to Roambi is a product called Flow, which lets people use data to publish magazine-style reports. There is a free Roambi Flow Viewer for iPad that allows anyone to read reports you publish.

“We’ve moved away from the original numerical data presentation with Flow,” Alsbury said. “And we’re going to keep pushing those boundaries.”