Keep Your Mind Sharp with Memory Matrix for iPhone

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Quick Pitch: Lumosity.com is the leader in online and mobile brain training and now offers 2 mobile games, Speed Brain and Memory Matrix.

Genius Idea: How do you spend your time when you’re away from your computer and left to just your mobile device? If the iPhone App Store’s list of top apps is any indication, most likely playing games. Lumosity is a company that wants you to make more productive use of your time, with an iPhone application that its scientific research claims will improve your memory.

The game itself, Memory Matrix [itunes link], is pretty simple, but more challenging than you might think. You’re presented with a “matrix” of squares, several of which are shaded in. The shaded squares quickly disappear, and you then need to identify which boxes were shaded in by touching them on a blank matrix. The game gets progressively harder as you do better, with the matrix expanding and more tiles getting shaded in.

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Lumosity has done studies to show that this type of game improves what’s called “working memory,” which is used for “temporarily storing and manipulating information.” You’ll be able to see if they’re correct since the game lets you track your performance over time.

From a business perspective, the game is in fact designed to get you to upgrade to Lumosity’s web services, which include all sorts of different interactive activities to stimulate your brain function. To do that, the app prompts you to upgrade if you’d like to receive additional training on the Web, where there are dozens of different games to try with a $9.95/mo account. Alternatively, if you don’t want to make that kind of commitment but want another challenge to try, there’s also a 99 cent iPhone app called SpeedBrain.

In any event, Lumosity is a good example of using the app store mainly as a promotional vehicle for a web service, by offering a small taste of the real thing free of charge. There's also a bit of a viral hook built in, as the game keeps track of high scores and encourages you to invite your friends to a challenge.