Anyone in the app business knows it’s tough to market an app. And according to a recent article on Techcrunch.com, “Getting a mobile app noticed in the increasingly crowded mobile app market is more difficult than ever..” The app world is becoming like one giant forest, millions and millions of trees. So, if one of those trees falls in the forest, and no one is around to see it, does it make a sound? Sure, there are SEO enhancements, word of mouth marketing tools, and built in demographic identifiers that might help move your app up on an ever expanding search list of apps, be they books, games or lifestyle tools. However, in this day and age of digital distractions, one mechanism to help that tree land with a loud smack is a tried and true PR/marketing campaign that involves choosing strategic partners, creating clever story angles that dovetail with newsworthy occasions, and instituting a cause marketing campaign and contest.

The David and Goliath Example
According to a recent article in Publishing Perspectives, “…the children’s market is a huge opportunity within the digital publishing arena…” Jumping Pages, a children’s app developer, decided to enter into this market with an expertly produced book app, first interactive version, of the epic tale of David and Goliath for kids. The dilemma was how to make a story that has literally been around forever become relevant in the crowded book app world. The company wanted an effective marketing/PR campaign to rise above the increasing number of other book apps that were furiously entering the fray.

From a production stand-point, the David and Goliath for the iPad app was ready to go in July 2011; however, after careful thought, Jumping Pages re-examined the landscape that lie ahead, and decided to incorporate an effective launch partner – in this case, the clever use of a narrator, to help sell the story. Ideally, the narrator needed a back-story that would have broad media appeal and be newsworthy.

Triple Play Partner
Jumping Pages reached out to baseball star and former World Series MVP David Eckstein to narrate the app. As many sports fans know, David has had a noteworthy career, overcoming his relatively short stature to achieve glory at the Major League level; hence a back-story – a modern day David’s whose own life mirrored that of the epic David’s story.

After arranging for his participation and partnership, the company next moved the launch date of the app to October to coincide with the start of the World Series. Coincidentally, October 2011 marked the five-year anniversary of David’s World Series MVP performance; therefore, Jumping Pages created an alternate app book, the “MVP Edition”, which would be released to dovetail with the newsworthiness of the fall classic.

In order to successfully market and promote a new app, particularly a kid’s app, it’s important to strike a balance between reaching kids and their parents; thus, David, as a baseball hero fit that bill — a hero to both dads and sons. Moreover, David was featured in the film “Champions of Faith,” so he had appeal to those with an interest in a famous bible story. Thus, with David’s partnership and cooperation, Jumping Pages had a triple play: a newsworthy event, a strong back-story, and an opportunity to create multiple story angles; subsequently, the app was featured in over two-dozen outlets using a variety of story angles that appealed to sports (Yardbarker.com), religion (The Christian Post), baseball (MLB.com), dad’s interest (Wired.com/GeekDad) and moms (GeekMom) readers. Further, the timeliness of the World Series provided app reviewers with a reason to post reviews of the app in October, far quicker than the normal (those who know the process can understand this!) time lag.

Cause, Demo and Contest
In addition, through David’s involvement, Jumping Pages had the opportunity to incorporate a cause marketing proponent into the launch, working with David’s charity of choice, “Bags of Hope,” who helped promote the app to their members and Facebook fans. Next, utilizing David’s involvement, a public reading/demo of the app was arranged as part of the post-launch strategy that would keep the app top of mind during the upcoming holidays. An in-store demo featuring David and his wife Ashley, took place on November 30 in a Manhattan Apple store, during the start of the hectic holiday shopping season. Finally, Jumping Pages sought a contest partner to run an iPad giveaway (iPad being the number one requested gift for the holidays and the supporting platform for the David and Goliath app), approaching Smart Apps for Kids, a leading kids app review site, to be a partner for a contest that ran the week before Christmas. The contest enabled Jumping Pages Facebook page to garner over 1,500 new fans, and provided excitement for the app and the company during the critical last minute holiday shopping period.

The launch of Jumping Pages, and the introduction of the David and Goliath app, was a PR and marketing success thanks to the use of partnerships, creative story angles, a newsworthy event, cause program and contest. David may have slain a giant in the story, but in this case, Jumping Pages felled a tree with a crack as loud as a game winning homerun!

Share

“For so many app brands, December is a strategically critical month for app discovery,” said Micah Adler, Fiksu’s CEO. “What we witnessed during the month was a ‘land rush’ in which advertisers earnestly spent marketing dollars in order to achieve ranking before the traditional App Store freeze which then would generate substantial organic downloads through increased visibility.”

In other words, the higher the rank before the freeze, the better the visibility during the days when many folks are looking to put apps on their new iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.

The chart above shows that cost in marketing per loyal user – someone who opens an app more than three times – peaked in December at $1.81 per. The chart below shows a similar high in December with 6.04 million daily downloads of the top 200 free US iPhone apps.

What we can glean from this data is that there is a circular activity loop here, in that mobile advertisers spent heavily, which in turn drove their exposure and rank on the App Store, which, in theory, will drive sales and/or in-app purchases (along with in-app advertising) during the freeze and beyond, thus giving them more money to spend on advertising. For more in-depth analysis from Fiksu themselves, see their indexes page. Data for their indexes come from over 11 billion moviel app actions (launches, tegistrations, in-app purchases) and more than 200 million downloads recorded by apps marketed with the Fiksu platform.

Fiksu, Inc. is a mobile app user acquisition platform that purports to intelligently raise an apps visibility in an over crowded and multi-marketplace market. It is based in Boston, Massachusetts, and was founded in 2008. For more details about the company, see their website.

Share

As far as rank increases go, 87% of apps increased in rank while in their sale period, with 35% increasing over 25 rank positions, and 17% gaining over 50 rank positions. Obviously, pure rank increases don’t actually say much – increasing 25 rank rank positions from 100 to 75 would be different than jumping from 30 to 1. Relative rank increases were on average 137% on the iPhone App Store, and 252% on the iPad App Store.

However, the tradeoff with that rank increase is obviously lower revenue per sale at the hope of increased total sales. Not many applications actually undergo a massive revenue boost: only 18% of apps that go on sale in the iPhone App Store (17% in the iPad App Store) experience at least a 50% increase in revenue; in fact, 44% actually lose some revenue by going on sale, with 49% on the iPad. However, the average app’s revenue increased by 22% on the iPhone, and 19% on the iPad during the total length of the sale.

Shorter sale periods with higher price cuts may be the way to maximize the odds of revenue increases. Evidence shows that apps gained more money and higher ranking positions on the first day of their sale, and steeper discounts decrease the risk of losing money, and increase the possibility of revenue increases. In particular, discounting at least 50%, or down to $0.99 or $1.99 provided optimal revenue increases, according to Distimo. Their report is free to read and available here.

Share

It was an amazing year. With over 1.5 million votes cast (over three times the number cast last year) and a record number of nominations, we now have the winners of the 2011 Best App Ever Awards. Thanks to all that voted, nominated, and made these fantastic apps!

All-in-all Android made a fantastic showing pulling in 46% of the overall votes. A great response considering this is the first year for Android to be included in our well established awards. But unfortunately it wasn’t enough to topple iOS from the top prize. Now, the winner of the Best App Ever!

Best App Ever Category

Winner: Jetpack Joyride by Halfbrick Studios

Second Place: Temple Run by Imangi Studios, LLC
Third Place: Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger

Halfbrick made iOS the winner of the Best App Ever by beating the top Android vote getter by nearly 10:1. Here are a few more interesting stats:

1,565,833 total votes cast
1.1 million unique voters
36,431 number of votes the top vote getter, Jetpack Joyride, got across all categories
1,692 unique apps in the awards
53.9% of the votes were for iOS apps
46.1% of the votes for Android apps
1 Best App Ever winner, Jetpack Joyride from Halfbrick Studios!

Thanks again for voting, we’ll be back again next year for our 5th Annual Best App Ever Awards!

Check out the Best App Ever Awards site for full details on all categories.

Share

“Acquisition focused companies fit nicely into the typical accelerator models since that is what VC and angels fund, and of course we do want those kind of game companies and we do have the best well known VC’s and Angels coming to help in the game space,” said Burkett in a phone conversation last month. “Games are different, though, in that many times the dream of the a studio is simply to be a great long team studio and partner with great distribution, cross promotion and publishing networks when desired. We want an option for those studios too, and deals for revenue share from games does fit that option,” she continued. “What better way for them to become aware of a studio than to meet them face to face in a workshop?”

Game Dojos wants to connect the best of the business with the newest to the business, helping find some micro funding and even office space for program participants. “We’d love the game companies to come here,” Burkett said, referring to San Francisco, where Game Dojos is based, “but we’re also looking into the virtual thing. We’d prefer teams to relocate to SF if they can for the three months, however we are not going to refuse to take a strong talented team based elsewhere, and will talk to them individually for consideration.” They’re not just looking to fund the studios, then, but actually nurture them to help create “longer term companies,” she said.

How do game companies apply for admission into the program? There’s a simple form to fill out, and a website and FAQ to visit to get a sense of what Game Dojos is looking for. In our conversation, Burkett mentioned wanting to find studios that had already put together a game concept or demo, at least, to show that “they can produce.” The website now says that in order to be considered, studios must have a “working demo of a current or past game, gaming platform, or gaming tool to illustrate that your team can develop and execute an idea.”

Who are the industry vets that Game Dojos is working with? How about Disney Interactive Studios, PopCap, Glu, EA, IGN, TapJoy, and the Silicon Valley International Game Developers Association (SV IGDA), for starters? The list is only growing, according to Burkett.

Game Dojos is a new venture, but the staff are no strangers to the business. Burkett has been involved in game development since the early days of Macromedia and Shockwave. She also founded the HTML5 Developers Conference, Bay Area Game and App Developers Group, Games.js, SF Mobile Dev and chairs the Silicon Valley IGDA. Simon Amarasingham, COO of Game Dojos and pictured at right, and his brother, Kemal, founded dSonic, now one of the leading game audio companies in the US with credits on over 100 titles from AAA console titles like Bioshock and Brutal Legend to mobile and casual titles like Farmville and Gumdrop.

Be sure to head over to the Game Dojos website for all the specifics on the program, its partners, and links to forms and FAQs.

Share

Other aspects of the App Store can also significantly impact your app sales. About a month ago Apple quietly changed the ordering of its mobile app categories on the iPhone and iPad to be alphabetical. Previously Apple had been ordering the app categories by the most popular which meant that games and utilities were ranked at the top of the list, for example. Naturally, the categories that rank higher in the display list on the iPhone and iPad are seen first and the apps within those categories are more likely to get more views.

The reason is simple. People view and download the most popular apps in the App Store. They typically browse the App Store from their iPhone or iPad. It’s similar to someone doing a search on Google. People searching on Google will tend to look at the first page or two of the search results. Beyond a few pages of search results, it becomes more difficult to get views and click-throughs to your site. Companies that depend on Google for both organic and paid search are impacted quickly whenever Google makes a slight change to their search algorithm. The smallest changes can have a huge impact on where a company ranks in search results.

Just like Google, when iTunes makes the slightest change to their App Store search algorithm, it has an impact on how many people see your app. The recent changes to the category ordering have also impacted sales for many app vendors for better or worse. Some developers have been helped because their app is now in a category that is displayed higher on the mobile screen. Take the Business Category, for example. This category ranks second on the displayed list just below Books. The top Paid Business App is TurboScan from Pixoft. It has moved into first place and this high ranking could be attributed to the fact that it has received so much more exposure due to its higher views on the mobile App Store screen. If your app is the best-selling app for a category, your icon is displayed in the category listing. Tapping on that category icon will bring up the best-selling paid app in the first position for that category. Barcode Scanner for Shopping may also have benefited from the change in category ordering as this app as seen a jump in sales.

Other developers may be adversely impacted due to the decrease in exposure for their app because their category now appears further down the list. Some categories, such as Utilities, have now moved to near the bottom of the category list. I4Software, the developer of the best-selling Flashlight app, however, has remained in first place in its category despite the change in the ordering. Michael Zaletel, i4Software CEO, commented “We are still ranked #1 in the Utilities Category and have been for some time even after the category change. Additionally, our position in the Top Paid overall on the App Store hasn’t been affected much and we believe it’s due to our 15,000+ five star rankings. However, we wish the Utilities Category was displayed higher in the mobile display list like it was before because the more exposure your apps has, the higher your sales.”

It’s hard to say, but these changes in the ordering of categories may have some impact on Apple revenues for mobile app downloads. People gravitate to the most popular apps. If they can’t readily find the most popular games or utility apps, they may not purchase those apps when they are browsing from their iPhone or iPad. Some sales may be lost because of the impulse buying that happens directly from the iPhone and iPad.

Just like doing a Google search, the higher your web page is ranked, the more traffic it’s going to have. And more traffic translates to more sales. The more visible an app is, the more sales it’s likely to have. When it comes to visibility, every change to the App Store, whether it be to the search algorithm or the ordering of categories, can have a positive or negative impact on your app sales.

Share

The Best App Ever Awards are the most prestigious (if we do say so ourselves) and longest running mobile app awards. Last year saw nearly 500,000 votes cast in the awards, and this year the goal is over a million. Here are a few more stats on this year’s awards:

2011 Best App Ever Awards, By The Numbers:
  287,643 nominations placed by users at the site
  7,243 different applications submitted for nomination
  1,692 different application are final nominees
  1,336 different developers have apps nominated in the awards
  109 app / game categories in the 2011 awards
  76% of the nominations submitted were for iOS applications, 24% for Android applications
  42 Gameloft app nominations, Gameloft leads the pack with the most of any publisher
  20 nominations per category (10 for iOS, 10 for Android)
  14 Educational/Kids categories
  1 Best App Ever category winner (it’s iOS vs. Android)

Voting is open now through January 25th with the final winners to be announced at the 2011 Macworld / iWorld Expo in San Francisco, CA. Shortly after, they will be posted to the Best App Ever site, and we’ll point you to them there as well. Make sure you get your votes in early, and take advantage of the social sharing option on the site to rally support for your favorite apps.

See the Best App Ever site for the full list of apps and games nominated in the 2011 Best App Ever awards in all 109 categories.

Share

In the chart above, Flurry shows the fact that developers are making more money on iOS than on Android, even as the numbers of Android OS enabled smartphones continues to increase, commanding as much as 53% of the market, according to an NPD Group study released yesterday as well. Here’s how Flurry puts it:

“Anecdotally, developers consistently tell us that they make more money on iOS, about three to four times as much. To be sure, we pulled a sample of in-app purchase data from a set of top apps with versions on both iOS and Android, comprising of several million daily active users (DAUs). Running the numbers, we find that, on average, for every $1.00 generated on iOS, the same app will generate $0.24 on Android.”

Which brings us to the next point. Flurry notes a definite discrepancy in the number of new projects by developers for iOS vs those for Android. The graphic below shows that developer support, as measured by the projects committed to on each platform, has declined from over a third to under a quarter of all new projects. Flurry attributes this to expanded availability of iOS devices on networks like Verizon and Sprint, as well as successful flagship product launches in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. They also note that Android does not have this kind of product focus, with a ton of different competing handhelds in the market.

Does this mean that Android is losing? Far from it, says the Guardian, quoting a post by Great Little War Game developer, Paul Johnson, in which he discusses the lucrative nature of developing on both platforms, especially with the recent $.10 sale on Google’s Android Market. Said Johnson,

“We’re on track to have taken around $125,000 by the end of this first sales quarter and that’s not too shabby a return in my book,” writes Johnson. “If you have an iOS game that’s pretty decent and you’re wondering about porting to Android, just do it.”

Bottom line? Seems like most developers are looking to iOS for their winter holiday income, while adding Android to the picture just makes good business sense. If developers can only commit resources to one or the other? Looks like iOS is the clear winner, at least for now.

Source: Guardian UK

Share

Awards are a great marketing tool, and with the expanded categories in the Best App Ever Awards this year, it’s a great opportunity for developers for some free promotion.

In it’s fourth year, the Best App Ever awards is a people’s choice awards for apps. Last year over 500,000 votes were cast in the quest to find the best apps, not just the best selling. This year it’s back bigger and better than ever.

In a big change this year, not just iOS but also Android applications and games are up for nomination in the awards competition. Users can nominate their favorite apps and games in any of the multiple categories by heading to the app nomination page and choosing a category.

Nominations are open through the end of the year. After that the nominations will be tallied and the top 10 iOS and Android apps in each category will fight it out for the awards. In addition, the 10 iOS and 10 Android apps that get the most nomination overall will fight it out for the title of Best App Ever.

To promote your app, in the categories you choose, nominate them first yourself. Then on the nomination confirmation page there are various tools to help you get the word out about the nomination — from social sharing links, to HTML badges for your website.

Start Nominating Your Apps Now!

Share

In a world where app development is by necessity becoming more cross platform, being able to access the top apps in a global market becomes more and more important. The developers plan to add Apple App Store next, hoping to be the first app to show the data of both markets at once. This can only help developers whose apps are on both stores. In addition, they plan on adding Verizon, NTT Docomo, Tstore, and Vodafone Android markets, more discovery features and a graph to help visualize accumulated rank and price change data.

For more details, see the App Rank for Android page on Facebook.

Share

The following two most popular items are, somewhat intuitively, watching video clips from a site like YouTube, and then listening to downloaded music, with 65% and 62% of surveyed tablet users, respectively. Reading electronic magazines and listening to streaming music are next on the list, each with a 57% score. Which, really, is pretty amazing in and of itself. Over half of the tablet users surveyed admit to reading, and more folks download music than stream it. Interesting.

Of course, the survey didn’t ask tablet users what they did with their devices in non-entertainment categories, so developers of productivity and business applications won’t be able to use much of this data. In the entertainment area, though, we see that smartphone users and tablet users surveyed listen to music about the same amount. The similarity ends, however, when looking at TV shows/Video, with the tablet users reporting a much higher percentage of watching. Maybe that bigger screen is in fact important?

Share

Doug Purdy, Director of Developer Relations, Facebook
Baudouin Corman, VP Publishing Americas, GAMELOFT
Gibu Thomas, SVP Mobile and Digital, Walmart
Ben Keighran, CEO, Chomp
Brandon Watson, Senior Director, Windows Phone, Microsoft
Dave Castelnuovo, Founder & CEO, Bolt Creative (PocketGod)

And many more.

Want to attend AppNation III? 148Apps network readers can get a 30% discount on the registration fee by using code 148APPS on the registration page.

More About APPNATION

APPNATION is an ambitious and bold thought leadership conference and exposition focusing exclusively on the burgeoning consumer applications revolution and global app economy.  The third annual APPNATION event will feature speakers and exhibitors from leading companies from across the app economy. DEVELOPERS: Submit your app and have a chance to pitch at the AppCircus@Appnation! Isobar is sponsoring an NFC Hackathon and check out the AppNation Bootcamp.

148Apps Network readers receive 30% off full conference registration by using code 148APPS!

Share

Some of the other key focus points of the conference echo the current trends in the industry and point the direction that Sprint will head in the future. Items such as NFC communications, machine to machine communications (M2M), and 4G roll out dominated both the keynotes and the sessions. While only one session was dedicated to the iPhone and iOS, it was a topic of conversation in many of the sessions and mentioned frequently in the keynotes.

It was big news when Sprint finally got the iPhone last month. From the mood that the Sprint Open Solutions Conference held last week, they are also welcoming iOS developers. I’ve been to more than a few press conferences and developers conferences from the major US carriers in the past few years. And one of the most interesting things to me has been how little AT&T mentions the iPhone at their conferences. And Verizon recently had their developers conference and dedicated not a single session to iOS or the iPhone. So while iOS barely gets a mention at the AT&T and Verizon developers conference, Sprint welcomed iOS to their stable with a three hour of introductory session from Bill Dudney, Tim Burks, and others. This is just a beginning of course, but it’s promising.

During the keynote from CEO Dan Hesse, he mentioned many times how great it was to have the iPhone on Sprint now (and to no longer have to answer the question of when they would get the iPhone). The addition of the iPhone 4 and 4S should allow Sprint to have their best year ever this year. Needing to have just one million adds to reach that record level. The iPhone should easily help them retain users and gain new ones.

Steve Jobs also got a very nice mention from CEO Dan Hesse to close out the keynote. Mr. Hesse commented that there’s no doubt that “Steve jobs, Apple, and the iPhone have revolutionized this industry.”

Overall a great conference, packed with information. Put this on one your radar for next year.

Share

Air Sharing is a file sharing app, allowing users to interact with a large list of different file formats. It can connect to computers, create a wireless hard disk with your iOS device, share file with other users, and even print documents. It connects to many cloud services, like FTP, the now defunct iDisk, Dropbox and Box.net, among others.

Howell suggests that iCloud is now allowing developers like him to reduce costs, and use iCloud to store information for app usage, including Key Value Storage. This allows developers to leverage the free nature of the basic iCloud service instead of incurring server costs, or using higher priced options like Dropbox and Box.net.

Of course, developers will need to consider the down side of iCloud as well. There is no Windows or Linux support, yet. Many users may opt out of using iCloud, even for the basic 5G. If developing a game, for example, and storing a user’s high score on iCloud so it’s available to all copies of the game across iOS devices, developers will need to make sure there is a secondary system in place to meet the same needs for users without iCloud.

Are you planning on using iCloud in your app development workflow? Let us know in the comments below, or email us at editor at 148apps dot com with your story.

Share

Xylogic hopes to support app developers and publishers with this unprecedented type and volume of data by providing them with information on the type of apps that are being downloaded the most in the various markets around the globe.

As a quick example, their data show that Apple leads Android with 1.45 billion app downloads in August, globally. Android shows .64 billion app downloads in the App Market. Also, that iPhone and iPod touch consumers downloaded 8.7 apps on average in the month of August. However, in terms of growth, the Android Market is showing an incredible increase over a short period of time. Developers and publishers, while focusing on the huge iOS market, may be well served by having apps in the Android Market as well. This is the kind of strategic planning that can happen when data of this sort is made available. Xylogic will do so today.

Xylogic is based in Berlin, Germany, and bills itself as an app search company that helps users find the best apps across mobile platforms.  http://xyologic.com/ Their website allows users to use regular language expressions to look for apps across Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone 7. Read more about the company and their process at their blog. Developers and publishers wanting to read the reports directly can download them from the website here: http://xyologic.com/app-downloads-reports

Share

As a quick reminder, Unity is the 3D game development tool used for game development mainly on mobile, but it’s also now on the current generation consoles. The tool does everything for rapid prototyping and 3D cross-platform game development.

Shown during the Unite11 keynote, Unity 3.5 includes lots of new, very impressive sounding features like Multi-threaded rendering, Improved occlusion culling, and Radiosity Normal Mapping lightmaps. All in all, about 40 major new features. I’m thinking this will make some developers very happy — and me, as a game player will reap the benefits! For a full list of new features in Unity 3.5, check out the press release.

Oddly, Unity is also planning on getting into the already crowded social gaming world. Adding support to Unity for leader boards, achievements, etc. It will, at least, be able to integrate with other networks like Game Center and Open Feint. But, who needs another game network login? Other great features will be things like an interesting analytics feature to get feedback on what people are doing in the games — allowing the developers to smooth out rough spots.

Unity also announced the acquisition of Mécanim, a cutting edge animation company based in Canada. Also plans to bring Unity to the Nokia N9 and the Roku 2 box.

All in all some really great new features. It’s great to see Unity spread its wings and really grow up.

Share

It should be noted though that Chomp were very specific about a few things. The goal is to maintain the quality search and the searchers will always receive relevant results. Keywords bid upon will be vetted to make sure they are relevant to the application they were bid on for. In addition, any sponsored search result will be specifically marked in the results.

For the full details, we’ve reproduced the full press release after the jump.

CHOMP LAUNCHES FIRST ADVERTISING PRODUCT TO CONNECT APP ADVERTISERS TO CONSUMERS SEARCHING FOR APPS
Allows Advertisers to Capitalize on Billions of App Downloads for App Discovery

San Francisco, CA – September 27, 2011 – Chomp, the leading app search engine is pioneering app search advertising with the availability of Chomp Search Ads.  The new program, which launches in private beta today, allows developers for the first time, to bid on keywords or phrases which will deliver their ads when users search on those terms within an app search engine.  Chomp Search Ads matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, resulting in quality ad matching for both the advertiser and the consumer.  Chomp is opening up Chomp Search Ads to a limited amount of advertisers during this first stage of private beta.  The company announced that Milk and Zaarly are two of the first companies participating.

“Being able to advertise the Oink app to people that are in the process of looking for something just like it is a form of targeting we haven’t seen before,” said Kevin Rose, founder of app development company, Milk. “Chomp’s ability to give Milk keyword ad delivery as a result of relevant user search is as ground-breaking as when Google first offered keyword advertising for the web.”

According to Gartner Group, $893 million was spent on app advertising in 2010.  With over 200 million iOS and Android users looking for apps each month, developers are spending 20-30% of total app revenue they generate on trying to acquire new users through various advertising and marketing initiatives. Gartner expects total app revenue to be $50 billion by 2014, and as a result, is forecasting a $15-20 billion spend on app advertising.[1]

Chomp Search Ads is an auction-based advertising service.  Advertisers will first set up an account and pre-load it with ad dollars.  Chomp will recommend search terms based on the developer’s app.  The developer can also request terms.  They can then bid for the rights to a keyword by setting a daily maximum spend as well as a maximum bid price for a given keyword or phrase.  Chomp will show ads for apps based on a number of factors, such as bid price, as well as relevancy to the search term.  Increasing the bid price will help improve the chances of an ad showing, but it is not the only factor.  Chomp users will always receive the most relevant search results, irrespective of advertising buys.  Advertisers will have their pre-paid ad accounts charged when users click through via the “Get It” button on the ad.  Chomp will provide detailed campaign reporting to advertisers allowing them to measure the performance of Chomp Search Ads.

“Search advertising has the most value when users see an ad for an app that parallels the kind of app they’re trying to find,” said Ben Keighran, CEO and co-founder of Chomp.  “Chomp Search Ads is the first product that matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, helping both the developer and the consumer.  Our goal is to make advertising accessible for the bulk of developers  — companies that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, yet they rely on search ads to drive discovery and sales.”

Prior to Chomp Search Ads, advertisers could only buy app display or performance advertising, however under these models, ad placement is disconnected from the user’s desire to find an app.  Even on app store sites ad delivery is not based on user search relevance.

“With over a million iOS and Android apps out there, it’s essential to Zaarly that we connect with people looking for a local marketplace,” said Bo Fishback, co-founder and CEO of Zaarly.  “The first step to an app download is awareness, and that’s what Chomp delivers.  Before this program we wouldn’t even buy advertising because it never delivered meaningful results.  We see that completely changing with Chomp Search Ads because we’re confident that it will deliver the highest quality users.  We’re making it an essential component of our outbound marketing.”

Chomp Search Ads is available in private beta at ads.chomp.com or by clicking the link at the bottom of the Chomp.com home page.

About Chomp
Founded in 2009 by Ben Keighran and Cathy Edwards, Chomp, Inc. is the only company to enable app search based on what an app actually does.  One billion apps are being downloaded every month.  As the number of apps explodes, it’s become difficult for users to find the perfect app for what they want to do.  Chomp’s patent-pending algorithm is able to understand what an app does and what a user wants and then makes the best match.  Chomp also allows developers to effectively integrate app search into their content.  Chomp powers search for a wide range of partners including Verizon, Carphone Warehouse, Blekko, 148Apps.com and @aplusk.  The company is funded by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Ron Conway, BlueRun Ventures as well as a number of ex-Google angel investors.  Advisors include Kevin Rose, Ashton Kutcher, David Blei and Don Metzler.  The company is based in San Francisco, CA and can be found at www.chomp.com

Share

Everyone is talking about HTML5 — it’s the future, right? Developers from all over the world are getting together to learn more about HTML5 and those ubiquitous plans next week in San Francisco.

The HTML5 Developers Conference has already announced some fantastic speakers like Douglas Crockford (discoverer of JSON), Yahoo!, Ben Savage, Sibblingz, Steve Souders, Google, and Jason Hoffman. Take a look at the full lineup of speakers, looks like it’s going to be a packed day.

The HTML5 Developers Conference takes place next Tuesday, September 27th at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco. You can register with 10% off using the code HTML5vibe.

And for the full details on the hackathon, hit the jump. For more information on the HTML5 Developer Conference, hit up html5devconf.com.

HTML5 Developer Conference Announces HTML5 Hackathon, With Special Focus on Social and Mobile Gaming
Conference now largest-ever HTML5 event with speakers from Mozilla, Joyent and Nokia added to lineup

SAN FRANCISCO – September 19, 2011 – Silicon Valley International Game Developers Association today announces additional speakers and a Hackathon to the world’s first-ever HTML5 developer conference. The conference, which will take place on September 27 at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco, has surpassed over 700 registrations and is now the largest conference of its kind in the world.

Due to popular demand, an HTML5 Hackathon has been added to the event and will be hosted at the Eventbrite Headquarters in San Francisco on September 24 and 25. Game developers will be able to hack on a variety of application programming interfaces including Sibblingz’s Spaceport platform (for high-performance, cross-platform games/app with Flash-like API using JavaScript), Eventbrite, Crowdstar, MongoDB, Yahoo, Google, Node.js, and more.

“With the overwhelming interest we’ve gotten in HTML5DevConf, we thought there was a clear opportunity to reach out to thought leaders in the gaming developer community and host an HTML5 Hackathon,” said Ann Burkett, chair of SV IGDA and conference organizer.

The Hackathon winners will be formally announced, be gifted tickets to HTML5DevConf, and brought on stage for a five minute presentation / demo at the conference. Sibblingz will award first, second and third place games cash prizes. Eventbrite, Crowdstar and MongoDB will provide additional prizes to the winners. For those interested in participating in the Hackathon, visit http://html5-hackathon.eventbrite.com.

The developer conference is also announcing additional heavy-hitting speakers:

·      David Herman of Mozilla is defining the next generation features of the JavaScript language.
·      Jason A. Hoffman, Founder and Chief Scientist, Joyent (node.js) and Frank Greco, Director of Technology, Americas at 

Kaazing,have been at the forefront of HTML5 cross-platform cloud technology.

·      Representatives from Nokia will speak about the company’s plans to leverage HTML5.

Tickets to the conference are going fast. To secure you participation, go to: html5devconf.com.

About the Hackathon:
What: HTML5 Hackathon
When: Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25
Time: Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. and Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Eventbrite Headquarters, 651 Brannan Street Suite 110, San Francisco, CA
For those interested in participating in the Hackathon, visit http://html5-hackathon.eventbrite.com.

About the conference:
What: HTML5 Developer Conference
When: Tuesday, September 27
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Westin Hotel, 50 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA

Share

Owen says,

“The goal is to get an idea of what the App Store economy looks like for games. The term “average” (or mean) gets thrown around a lot, but if you’re an iOS developer, you know that average is almost meaningless, because the massive hits on the App Store distort the mean. What is more important is the median, or what the middle game in the pack is making. I am hoping that, if enough people take the survey, we can start to get an idea of what that median is.”

Now, we all know that math is hard, but you can’t really do any kind of development without it. Owen plans to release the data in aggregate to help all independent iOS developers have a better sense of the market for their efforts. That sounds win / win to us.

A direct link to the survey is here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8BZFHRX

Head on over to Owen’s blog for more details or to contact him directly.

Share

The PhotoAppLink Initiative attempts to solve this problem via the open-source PhotoAppLink library, a mechanism by which apps incorporating the library can send photos from one app to the next without all that annoying save and re-launch. Created collaboratively by PocketPixels and CodeCrop, the feature is available right now in their and other photo editing apps: Snap!, Color Splash, Simply B&W, PicTools, AutoStitch, TrueHDR, Juxtaposer, Click! and Photogene.

PhotoAppLink apps automatically detect other apps with the same library, and allow users to choose another compatible app with the PhotoAppLink interface. The second editing app is launched automatically, and the image is transfered in the background to the newly launching photo app, which frees up the user to continue to edit the photo. This allows for a much nicer user experience, and prevents the camera roll from becoming cluttered with several versions of each multi-app edited photo.

PocketPixels and CodeCrop both develop photo editing tools, so developing this initiative and code base together was a natural fit. The code is available on GitHub, a secure yet social coding hub that developers can use to share and disseminate code. The code is distributed as open-source, and includes good documentation to easily implement within any other photo editing app.

The developers hope to add more photo editing apps to the initiative in time, with several prominent photo app developers already on board to include the code in future releases, including PaperCamera, PhotoToaster, ColorBlast!, Color Range and MobileMonet.

Share

But with the industry having, at least temporarily, focused its eyes on the business community, a new report by In-Stat is shining light back onto the consumer. And the consumer is changing their habits.

According to the report, some 50% of tablet owners – iPad included – watch films and TV shows on their portable device for leisure. In the words of research director Keith Nissen, “tablets, in particular, have become a primary video device, both inside and outside the home.” There are few adjectives that come to mind to describe such a high percentage: unexpected, unanticipated and unprecedented began to scratch the surface.

To appreciate this figure, consider where the tablet industry was this time two years ago: a microcosm of the technology centre, with pocket-sized phones dominating the consumer sphere. All the talk was on iOS and Android, and the hardware that went with it: iPhones and HTCs. Yes, there were tablet-sized computers, like the Sony Vaio, but when it comes down to it, these were computers rather than tablets.

Then came the iPad in April 2010. It used the same iOS software as iPhones and iPod Touches – so consumers knew how to use it before they got their hands on it. It was a new device, but in a sort of technological poetry, it was as if the iPad had always existed.

Today, it is used as both an input (word processing, gaming) and output (photos, videos) device. So are its rivals. Their functions as output devices are increasing, most notably with the iPad’s 720p HD connectivity. “By 2015, our research projects that 65% of the US population will own a smartphone and/or tablet” reads In-Stat’s report. “As these devices become a center-point for video engagement and consumption, content providers, device manufacturers, and operators need to support a multiscreen usage model that reflects social interaction, screen interaction, personalization and mobility.”

I wonder what iPad 3 has in store.

[Source: Mobile Entertainment]

Share

Typically, companies trying to deploy applications, for the iPhone especially, have to use a number of complex steps to move developed applications from the developer to testers or other enterprise users. The process can be confusing and involves many steps. AppBlade hopes to help manage this complexity from one simple, easy to use centralized location. The AppBlade folks believe that the best solution for using increasingly ubiquitous personal tools in enterprise environments is this more secure, company-focused service.

Here’s a handy video with more information.

AppBlade the company began in 2010 by a group in Boston, MA who found the app deployment and testing process difficult and labor-intensive. They decided to develop a deployment service from the ground up and offer it to other developers to benefit from. Pricing begins at $49 per month for a single development company and moves to a $49 per month per user for an enterprise solution tier.

Share

148Apps is a proud media sponsor of the event. If you’d like to join us there, you can use discount code 148vip to get $100 off the registration fee.

More on the conference, direct from Engage Digital, the creators of App Developers Conference is below / after the jump.

App Developers Conference – October 26-27, 2011 in Santa Clara, CA
 
The App Developers Conference is the essential event for everyone building and selling apps for emerging devices. From smart phones to smart cars, applications and connectivity are driving the consumer application market forward at warp speed. This event brings development professionals together with the platforms, tools, services, and brand marketers that are working to connect people, places and things.
 
Held in the heart of Silicon Valley, AppDev provides attendees unparalleled exposure to best practices, current trends, and effective strategies behind the most successful techniques to develop, market, and generate revenue through apps. Coverage includes mobile devices, tablets, televisions, autos and internet connected consumer electronics devices. Big players like Pandora, Yahoo, Ford, Samsung and TeleNav are planning to share what they are working on and show developers how they can get involved.
 
More details are available here: http://appdevconf.engagedigital.com/
 
Save $100 when you register using the “148vip” discount code.

Share

Competition for rank in the app stores indexes how many downloads are achieved per day by the top 200 apps in that store. The second index deals with the cost to acquire “loyal users,” those who open an app three or more times.

The data so far reveals that the top 200 iPhone apps in the U.S. averaged about 4.34 million downloads per day between March and June. The cost per user has risen to more than a dollar, to $1.08.

What does this mean to the app developer? According to Fiksu, developers and marketers can use the data from the top 200 iPhone apps to gauge how their own efforts to market their app stack up against the industry at large. In addition, the indexes can be used as a way to understand how variables such as iOS upgrades, sales of devices, advertiser demand and network advertising inventory can affect business goals. In other words, if there is a spike in downloads of the top 200, developers might expect a slip in downloads of their own non-top-200 app. Or, a lack of advertising space might help app publishers know that their per-user cost will be up within a current month.

More key data points from the March to June 2011 period include:

- App Store Competitive Index: April 2011 was the most competitive month–the Top 200 ranked free iPhone apps amassed an aggregate average of 4.610 million downloads per day. In May, this dropped to 3.78 million downloads per day but in June rose again to 4.505 million per day (a month in which Apple reported one billion total downloads).
- Cost per Loyal User Index: The index reported a steady increase: from $0.94 in March to $1.10 in May and $1.27 in June.

To read the full analysis and see the data, go to Fiksu’s Index pages.

Share

Most recently, for example, discussions are centered on “free” versus “paid” apps. This is a question that many app developers are facing. You want to put a dollar amount on your app to bring in revenue, but what is the downside? What is the difference between the number of people who will actually download a paid app versus one that is free? According to the latest Chomp report, the trend against paid apps is continuing. Developers who offer paid iOS apps experienced a download decrease of 1% during May versus April. Similarly, the lower-priced apps are growing over the more pricey ones. The $.99 price point grew 2.4% during this time period, while apps that cost over $14.99 decreased by .4%.

Where does that leave you, besides in more of a muddle of whether to have a paid or free app? You need to weigh several factors. Just because the number of downloads for paid apps is going down, plenty of people are still buying them. Developers who are making the most of the iPhone and iPad technology and creating new and useful apps for these devices are finding that users will pay the price. Naturally, games head the list of paid apps as well as those that allow users the opportunity to apply new functions on their smartphones and tablets. The trick is finding a niche where you are not competing against the free apps.

On the other hand, many app developers are making money from free apps, as well. In-app advertising, for example, is big business. Your free app can include ads and even videos for your own product or service or a third party. This gives you the opportunity of making money through your app yet still releasing it for free. In addition, you get the publicity of being on the Apple Store list for free apps. Of course, there is always a middle ground: You offer a free demo to give potential buyers a taste of your app. If you hook them on it, such as a new game, or provide an excellent hint of additional services, they will upgrade. The same strategy works for apps that have “in app purchases,” where the primary app is free and additional features are charged.

The latest Chomp stats also provide continued insights into the way that users are searching for apps. Previously, 148apps.biz reported that fewer and fewer queries are for specific app names: For every one hundred searches, only nine were for the name of an application. This statistic flopped in May. “Compared to April, the ratio of non-app name versus name queries shifted 9% in favor of name searches.” Ah, the fickleness of users. The moral of this story is continue to place an emphasis on key words and search engine optimization including brand promotion. In other words, cover all your bases.

Chomp CEO Ben Keighran says that in the future his company will be adding more statistics that will help app developers. With such high numbers of apps being developed every day, along with the ever-changing needs of the users and introduction of new technology and functionality, app developers need to keep real close to these statistics as part of their marketing plan.

Share