Is Apple Taking Over Your App Category?

Posted on 30. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

Rumors, rumors! We usually don’t like to indulge in them and moreover wouldn’t want this blog to become a place of guesses and wishes. However, there sometimes seem to be the kind of “news” that, even though rumors, seem to be quite relevant for iPhone app developers in general – regarding product and marketing. And so we just felt compelled to do it: here’s another round of “Is Apple Taking Over Your App Category?” .

Not to imply that Apple is becoming an app-product company, but it seems to position itself strategically in some app categories. After taking steps to strengthen their gaming know-how, MacRumors.com now reports a job listing in which Apple is specifically looking for a software engineer for it’s built in maps app. Sure, if anything, this should be good news, right? There are so many maps and navigation services out there, Apple strengthening its infrastructure to support these kind of services is great news. Or maybe, they are even taking steps in the Google direction? Or this is all about being able to compete with Google wherever deemed necessary? Apple just recently acquired Placebase, a mapping company.

Before the guessing gets out of hand, we sure hope Apple will use its competence to enable third party developers and not to compete with them. Otherwise, not only would they make for a pretty strong competitor, they would also be able to exclude the services they see as competition or the like.

iPhone News Of The Week

Posted on 28. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

Yet another exciting week in the iPhone universe comes to an end. No internet connection for the last seven days? Here’s what you have missed:

Apple’s very own Schiller talks App Store approvals with BusinesWeek
Augmented Reality will make it big – just hang in there for 2-3 years
The iPhone will be sold in the UK equivalent of Walmart – what are the implications?
Apple launches (has launched) new iPhone ads – check ‘em out
As this was a topic on this blog as well, here’s some insider thought on native vs. web apps
Interesting: Google updates movie search – also for iPhone
The iPhone is coming to the probably most mobile-crazy country in the world: South Korea
And for your future Christmas memories: the NY Times is having a look at the best out of more than 2000 iPhone camera apps

Enjoy the weekend!

There Are No Mobile Marketing Experts, Yet

Posted on 27. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

This blog entry reflects an opinion only, or maybe it is just an open question. If so, then our question would be: are there any mobile marketing experts out there? And if there are, how much of their knowledge will be viable in 6 months or a year from now? Furthermore, does anybody have more than a guess on what exactly will happen in the mobile industry in the next years?

The reason why we ask ourself this question is because we find articles on mobile marketing and app marketing on a daily basis, often written by so called experts. And we are not doubting that there certainly are experts. However, it sometimes seems overlooked how young this sector and industry still is. Calling some people “experts” and others “novices” implies that there is a huge gap between knowing and not knowing how to work the mobile channel to your advantage. And frankly, yes there probably is a gap and it is getting bigger every day. But in a time where new ad formats seem to be popping up on a regular basis and statistics on mobile usage and user behavior are barely reliable, the knowledge-advantage cannot be too big, right?

At apprupt we want to basically help you with distributing your app and doing so wisely. From the start we have been focusing on “learnings to be made” and talked about an industry that is just at the beginning of a huge mobile (and app) wave. Of course, this is an opinion too, though it refers to a relatively probable prediction. It is safe to say that no matter what you think the future of marketing your app will be, the time to learn and productively progress is now. Become an expert while you still have the (relatively easy) chance.

apprupt At The European Tech Tour Web And Mobility Summit

Posted on 25. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

Tech Tour Top 25 Company Last week apprupt had the chance to spend two great and inspiring days at the Web and Mobility Summit of the European Tech Tour. The European Tech Tour has the goal to gather the best emerging European companies in a given industry sector – apprupt was one of 25 companies who were invited to the event to speak in front of a selected group of investors, entrepreneurs and other industry players. We were chosen out of more than 400 companies which applied to attend.

The event itself was inspiring and very well organized, apprupt co-founder Jascha Samadi held a presentation on apprupt and I myself was able to attend a panel on “where do all the advertising dollars go?”. We also met a lot of industry-savvy mobile-enthusiasts and other entrepreneurs. It was great sharing thoughts and ideas with such a selected group of people over the course of two days. Although not all start-ups were from the mobile sector, from talking to those that know something about the space, it was clear that the future for mobile is a bright one – regarding apps, mobile web as well as mobile advertising. Though this might sound like common sense to you, it is always great to see that we are just at the beginning of the mobile revolution and a lot of bright entrepreneurs are working on making mobile happen today and tomorrow.

Among the start-ups that attended the event were cavi, kaufda, plista and studentsn. Next event on our list is the German iPhone Developer Conference – see you there?

App vs. Web

Posted on 24. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

The “app vs. web” discussion is a rather complex one and we wouldn’t want to get into the topic of whether the future lies with native or web-based apps and traffic (or maybe both). Additionally, in the short term, this probably isn’t of relevance to app developers out there. However, it is apparent how few web sites out there have a mobile (just mobile, not even device specific) optimized version of their online site. Additionally, without naming anyone in specific, it sometimes seems some companies rather build an app-version of their website instead of creating a simple mobile site. It thus might appear as if mobile web traffic was not relevant for any kind of marketing.

Whatever the case, mobile websites are relatively easy to create and will in the short term probably see an increase in usage (if they are usable). And admob’s recent findings – although of course slightly biased – make clear that there is at least one correlation between apps and mobile web usage. The data implies that about 75% of all smartphone web traffic is made up by either Apple or Android devices and in fact 55% of overall traffic is made up by iPhone OS. The combination of smartphones (thus rich browsing capabilities) with unlimited data plans is probably a main reason for these numbers.

Most important for you: those devices leading in mobile web traffic also lead in app downloads, with the iPhone as a clear leader regarding any kind of key figure.

Why could this be relevant for your marketing? Well, the data implies that in the future mobile websites will be relevant for your app marketing not only because the devices that you build your apps for are the ones most widely used for smartphone web browsing (or web browsing overall) but also because you can target certain devices or device-specifics via mobile web browsers. On top of that, it means that wherever your target group might be browsing, they are highly prone and used to downloading apps.

Knowing where and when to market on the mobile web might be an invaluable knowledge for the success of your app performance and thus your app business.

The App Store Discussion: It’s About Traction

Posted on 23. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

We recently blogged about the long term perspective of the App Store and issues regarding the app approval process that still have not been resolved. There are more issues than just app approval adding to many developer complaints. Again picking up this topic, we wanted to add that all of these are probably not issues that will make or break the Apple App Store in the short term. Android has been picking up momentum in terms of numbers of apps and devices, so there were a few articles picking up the topic of Apple risking to lose their developer to Android or other platforms.

This article reveals what the situation is probably really like for almost every developer. It also reveals a simple truth: it’s about (potential) traction and users. The mentioned article refers to a Gameloft earnings call on Q3 2009 sales. In this call Gameloft revealed that for the three-month period sales of iPhone apps were 400 times higher than for Android apps. At the same time, this implies that Gameloft has made about 10,000 Euro from their Android titles in that quarter. We think these numbers speak for themselves. As a consequence, Gameloft has now cut their investment in the Android platform, which, regarding the mentioned numbers, appears only to be common sense.

So summing it up without delving further into the pros and cons of the different App Stores: Android appears to have some work to do to get its users to download and pay for apps. Until a competitor with the same kind of traction and usability shows up, the complaints and discussions about the Apple App Storewill probably only lead to minor improvements.

This Week In iPhone News

Posted on 21. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

It’s been a great week for us, as we’ve won a 2nd place at the WebFuture Awards – thanks and congrats again to Till, who did the entire pitch/speed-dating session by himself.
Apart from that, the iPhone world hasn’t stopped moving either, so here’s what we found interesting throughout the last days:

This is what’s probable to happen in every country where the iPhone is sold by more than one operator
The iCarte device will turn the iPhone into in RFID reader (but probably only until this is added by Apple) and if you want to get puzzled – here’s a puzzle
Read more on revenues and perspective on Android and iPhone from major iPhone developer Gameloft
These are Gizmodo’s best iPhone apps of the week
For your weekend reading, if you want to further go into the topic of the app approval process, which we also blogged about this week, read this Paul Graham article

Enjoy your weekend!

Developer Insights From Alexander Blach: “You Have To Love Making Apps And Value Your Customers”

Posted on 20. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

We just had to use that quote for the headline! It’s time for another developer insight talk, this time with Alexander Blach, developer of the extremely successful “Rezepte“-app and also an apprupt Performance Analytics user (also check out his homepage – it’s in German). Alexander gives a lot of great insight regarding what works and what does not in terms of app positioning. Njoy!

1. Tell us about you, your company and the type of apps you offer.

My name is Alexander Blach, 28, and I am the author of “Rezepte” – one of the most popular German recipe/cooking apps.

When I bought an iPod touch in 2008, I really wanted to learn how to create apps for this awesome device. So, I learned Objective C in my spare time and released my first app – “Fundus”. The idea was the same that made “AppBox Pro” from AllAboutApps a huge success in 2009: provide the features of several apps in one app for less. However, my app didn’t become very popular, so I looked for another idea.

I quit my day job as a developer of business software (CRM and human resources software – a lot of database related stuff) and started my own little one-man-show in February 2009. I was asking a lot of people for ideas and one of my former colleagues (thanks, Harald!) wanted an app that he could use to quickly find recipes on the go. So I looked around the Internet for recipe sites I could use. I discovered www.rezeptewiki.org and got in contact with their founder – Daniel Beyer. They now get a revenue share and, in turn, I can use their database of really great recipes. They also agreed to advertise the app on their front page. I think this is a typical win-win situation where my app and their site profit from the popularity of each other.

While I was in the list of top 100 paid apps, I also got contacted by quite some people who asked me to create apps with them. I developed an app called “Food Guide” for the ditter.projektagentur GmbH that recently went on sale worldwide. With this app, you have the most important information regarding almost all of the common food products in Europe at hand – in text and pictures in many languages.

I’m currently working on a new, big project that will be great for car owners. I’m pretty excited about that.

2. What kind of marketing/promotion have you done for your app(s)? Any insights on what worked and what did not?

With “Rezepte” v1.0, I could participate in the “appsforsale.de” Easter-Special a few days after the release of the app. A lot of German developers reduced the price of their apps, and this was covered on a lot of blogs and news sites – including iFun.de. I ranked first in the Lifestyle category and, soon after, was number 16 in the overall paid apps list.

Following that, Apple featured me on the App Store front page. I made it in the overall Top 5. This was in May 2009 and was the best thing that could happen. Sales exploded and I never reached the same numbers after that.

Next, a lot of reviews showed up – the iPhone podcast “Mein iPhone und Ich” (My iPhone and I), Chip.de and many more.

Updates also helped to drive sales. I don’t know exactly why, but I guess that users remembered that they have the app on their device and showed it to other people. Having a large customer base helps sales in the long term.

I tried a lot of other marketing strategies: AdMob (I’m not sure if it really helped – but it can burn a lot of money really fast), Twitter (can be great if you have the right followers), Blogging, YouTube, magazine advertisements (can’t really say that it helped much), web site advertisements (not really helpful), Google Ads (does not work at all for iPhone apps), and lowering the price and advertise that (this helped a lot – in August 2009 I lowered the price to 79 Cent and made number 6 top overall paid app in Germany).

To sum it up: the best thing is to get featured by Apple. To accomplish that, you have to get some media coverage by yourself so the right people notice you.

3. In general: any tips for creating and promoting an iPhone app? What would you say are the most important things to consider?

First you need to decide if your app has mass appeal or if it is a niche app. Then, you need to set the price accordingly. Don’t start at 79 Cent so that you can lower the price later. If it’s a niche app you won’t get into the Top lists anyway – so you have to get your money through higher prices.
You also need a really good idea, a lot of luck as well as time and effort. You have to love making apps and value your customers. It’s quite tough considering that your app is one in over 100,000.

The Long Term Perspective Of The App Store

Posted on 18. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

Throughout the last weeks we have been blogging on app marketing and issues that come along with it, as well as topics related to making an app successful. Many of the topics we pick up and that are discussed in the blogosphere refer to recent events or problems and anticipated short-term developments of the App Store and the app industry in general. Although there are statistics and numbers out there, predicting market conditions, market size and market shares by OS, it becomes quite obvious that this still very young market has so many issues to solve in the here and now to be thinking about, let’s say, 2013.

Take for example the recent (or never ending) discussions on the app approval process and Apple’s treatment of developers. Cases of developers being and feeling mistreated and misguided, tales of unjustified rejections and approvals, intransparent processes and guidelines increasing delay in app (and update) approval time just seem to be adding and adding up. Of course, this is probably not something that Apple is taking lightly, as recent examples have shown. Apple even seems to be using “robots” now to test applications before approval – although this one could be rather negative than a step in the right direction, it shows efforts to automate and thus speed-up the approval process.

However, the discussions around solving the before mentioned issues appear to be solely about what to do now, like “increase transparency” or “clarify the rules for app approval”. Rarely do we see discussions about whether the system itself is sustainable in the very long term. That is fine, considering the massive success of the App Store as a centralized distribution platform, having revolutionized an entire industry (or even created it in the first place). Apple and the App Store principle have been a game changer for many market participants.

We do not want to argue about what makes sense and what does not. We love the App Store and think it is here to stay. But if you want to get your head around the long term perspective and some thought provoking arguments, we recommend you read this post. Additionally, this blog entry underlines the power of instant approval and the risk that Apple is running by creating a delay between creation and distribution of content. Enjoy reading them before getting back to the “here and now” of selling apps

Small Effort, Big Effect.

Posted on 17. November 2009 by Kjell Fischer

The Apple App Store is awesome. It has the advantage of reaching millions of users around the world without ever really having to internationalize your app business. Practically, you do not even need to leave your home – all you have to do is check the boxes for the different countries when uploading your app. Additionally, you can use English for the description text of every country’s app detail page. The same goes for the language you use within in your app. In fact, for app developers outside of the U.S. this is as exciting as for those within the U.S. Those not from the United States are able to reach a huge market (the biggest for iPhone apps) and for U.S.-developers, it’s a pretty big upside to potentially reach a lot more customers than “just” the one in the own domestic market.

We just recently talked to a smaller developer from Germany (“smaller” meaning he has three apps on the App Store and his “app endeavors” are still at an early stage), who is working on his app projects part-time, though considering to go full-time soon. This developer started with an app which he put up on the App Store in German and, of course, English – sales were doing fine at 79 and 99 Cents respectively. Obviously, this developer didn’t have a lot of budget to spend on anything, but he decided use some of his money for a translation service (no, not Google Translator – this is the translation service he used) to have the detail page of the app translated into 5 European languages. According to him, after adding the translations of the product descriptions to his detail page, sales went up immediately and also (as an effect of that) his app went up in the rankings, which then resulted in even more sales. Of course, he is now dealing with more “local” support requests, which is quite a challenge, but in general, this small effort really helped him get his app business off the ground.

So today, this is the story we wanted to share with you, the moral of which you may find by reading the headline. If you have any similar stories of the like – we would love to hear them!