In this App Developer Conversations we talked about Google I/O (happening this week) and WWDC (in just a few weeks)
We focused on a few key things:
Take a look and let us know in the comments what you think and what you’d add.
In this App Developer Conversations we dug into some recent Android news and some critiques coming out of Apple.
We focused on a couple key areas:
Be sure to visit MobileDevHQ to see the how to be successful with apps in China
Take a look for yourself and see if you learn something new. Be sure to let us know in the comments if there are other areas we can address!
Robi: Hello. Welcome to App Developer Conversations. We’ve got Ryan Morel
back. You look a little tan. I hope you had fun in Hawaii. Ian is also
back from Hawaii.
Ian: Doesn’t look tan, because I stay in the shade.
Robi: Ian Sefferman of MobileDevHQ. I’m Robi Ganguly of Apptentive. Now
that the gang is back together, we’re going to talk about some new and
some old news, I guess. Let’s start off with something that’s old but
it’s always funny when it happens; Phil Schiller told us that Android
sucks, which is like, “Okay. Phil Schiller’s talking.” Then Android’s
chief, Andy Rubin is leaving. How about you talk to us a little bit
about the Android news around and Rubin leaving the [inaudible: 00:44]
and going into something else for Google.
Ian: I think it’s a potential huge shake-up. It could be really good, it
could be really bad. Andy Rubin has done a fantastic job of having a
vision of an open source operating system, finding a company who could
help get distribution for that operation system in Google, and making
it sort of . . . it’s not the standard, because I think iOS is the
standard to everybody here, but it is certainly comparable to the
standard; has huge numbers. That being said, if they do want to become
the standard, they’re going to have to figure out a 10x play and maybe
that involves shaking things up every once in awhile. This could work
out for them really well for them.
Robi: Do you have any thoughts on it?
Ryan: Yeah. I think it’s been an amazing run for Android; we all know that.
I think questions start to get raised when you have a market size that
is 5x the size of another, yet ¼ the size of the revenue. That starts
to become a little bit . . . that’s way out of balance. Then other
questions start to come up when you have OEMs with leverage. Amazon,
right across the street here, has essentially their own version of
Android, which Google has no control over. We can bet Samsung is
continuing to just push on their own version of Android, if not, going
to move slowly; Tizen, or whatever the hell they call their thing. Now
all of a sudden, you take those two players out of what you would
consider the core Google Android audience, and you’ve got problems.
You’ve got [inaudible: 02:28] devices.
Robi: I think that is probably Phil Schiller’s point. Phil Schiller is
like, “This fragmentation is real and it’s really messing with
consumers experiences, and look at the data. Sure, they have more
devices than us, a lot more now, but our people use their devices way
more often that are consuming more data.” When you think about it from
the developer’s perspective, we’re always talking about which
platforms developers prefer, what approach. It seems like you’ve got
to be developing for both if you’re going to be in this long-term.
This issue, are you seeing in your business what Phil Schiller is
saying, in terms of there being more money, people are using it more
often?
Ian: Yeah. The short answer to that is, yes. There’s obvious caveats to
that, and we talk about Amazon as a caveat to that. In the standard
Android world, absolutely, iOS rules the day.
Robi: How does this play out? Do we just get to hear for the next 10 years,
“Android sucks”? Then everybody’s buying Android devices. Is this the
scenario?
Ryan: I think at some point, people need to recognize that it’s okay to
have different audience segments. This has always been Apple’s play.
Apple’s like, “I don’t want these people who want free devices. We
don’t want them.” It’s arguable for game developers; you don’t want
them either, because they’re not paying you any money. Then there’s a
certain segment of the Android population, like you and other people
buying the Galaxy Nexus 3 and Nexus 4. Sorry.
Ian: Galaxy S3.
Ryan: Yeah, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4, etc., those are the high-end scope.
When you look at the handset breakdown between them, it’s still iOS.
If I’m a developer, I’m thinking about how do I maximize my game for
these handsets that appeal to this higher-end audience and then not
care so much about this lower end audience, maybe?
Robi: Then there is another side to this I think, which is Schiller and
Apple are up there saying fragmentation’s bad, it’s really hard for a
consumer to have a consistent experience, and their developers’ lives
are easier, but we continue to see more and more devices coming out of
them supporting different things. iPad 2 is different from the iPad 3,
which is different from the iPad Mini, which is different from the
iPhone 5, which is different from the iPhone 4S. There’s no shortage
of things that are confusing about the iOS ecosystem at this point.
Are you seeing any of that stuff coming out, playing out? Are you
hearing from developers, that that is becoming more challenging?
Ian: We really talk after the development cycle, but I haven’t actually
heard that. People still bang on that drum, and I think of Android is
fragmented but iOS is not. I think part of that is because Apple says,
“Android is fragmented and we are not.” People just listen to them. It
is fragmented.
Robi: I’m definitely seeing people developing just and iPad app or just an
iPhone app now. More and more being like, “I’m just choosing this one
thing. I’m just going after this. It’s too complicated to think about
the experiences across both.”
Ian: It’s probably right to do that. Depending on what your app is, there
are different use cases between having an app on your phone and having
an app on a tablet.
Ryan: Yep. We’ve talked about this before; they’re all big enough now. When
the iPad first released, an iPad-only app was a guaranteed failure.
Now, there are 120 million of them or something ridiculous. That’s a
huge market of people who are spending a lot of money. Perfect, Super
Cell, a good example, there’s an article about that making . . .
they’re calling the iPad the perfect gaming device or something, and
they’re focused almost solely on that.
Robi: Wow.
Ryan: Anyways.
Robi: Anything else?
Ryan: It’s good to be back.
Robi: Welcome back.
Ryan: I missed you guys.
Robi: We missed you, too. We talked about you quite a bit in the last ones
we showed, actually.
Mark: Fucking asshole, glad he’s gone.
Ian: I think there was fucking asshole, but it was because you were in
Hawaii.
Robi: Sipping Mai Tais.
Ian: Not editing the video.
Robi: Be sure to tune in for the next 2 installments of App Developer
Conversations. You can like this on YouTube. Share it with your
friends and subscribe.
A case study of the iPad app, David and Goliath. Be smart about launching your app and it could make all the difference to cutting through the noise in the app stores.
With a majority of Americans owning a mobile device, mobile apps are a key way to connect with consumers. As mobile apps are creating more and more revenue, all businesses need to consider having a mobile app.
On average, less than 5% of unhappy customers complain to the company. Therefore, every piece of criticism and negative feedback is valuable to understand the other 95% that are not saying anything.
In today’s app market, discovery and retention can be difficult for app publishers. Here is some advice on what shouldn’t be done to acquire users.
Even with the surging growth in mobile, spending on mobile ads continue to lag behind the spending on online ads. Here are some ideas for mobile advertisers to use now and later.
Everyday more and more apps are accepted into the app stores. More time needs to be spent on optimizing your app for discovery, keeping in mind the different discovery algorithms between the stores.
With constant new versions of iOS, Android, and other platforms combined with HTML5’s improvements, are native apps still the best course for publishers?
A helpful guide from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that helps app developers comply with truth-in-advertising standards and basic privacy/principles.
A clear report on developer economics focusing on changes in the mobile environment, platform specialization, profit margins, marketing and distribution, and geographical mobile app usage.
A mobile app’s success used to be defined by the number of downloads it received, but loyalty is a vital component that developers should devote more time to.
Trustworthiness is a core value that all companies need to embrace. People do business with the people they trust and the more trust a company can earn from its consumers the higher the customer loyalty will be.
Positive customer experiences often lead to repeat business. Here are a couple of tips that can easily be implemented to make a positive customer experience.
Your customer experience strategy needs to have an emphasis on building trust with customers. Here is some advice on how to earn your customer’s trust.
Of course there are many other great posts from 2012, so please share your suggestions in the comments.
In this week’s App Developer Conversations we shared our predictions about 2013, specifically as they apply to app developers. We had several, so this episode is a bit longer than most, but we think it’s worth it. We’d love to hear your predictions in the comments!
We had a few key predictions:
In addition, we discussed predictions around the impact of tablets and a few “wild ass” predictions, like:
Also, be sure to see the other two segments from this week:
In this week’s App Developer Conversations we discussed Apple’s new iPad Mini, which was just released this week and what it means for the app economy, in addition to talking about other new devices.
We had a couple key observations:
Watch to find out more and be sure to see the other two segments from this week:
App Developer Conversations is a weekly video series with Ian Sefferman of MobileDevHQ and Ryan Morel of PlacePlay covering current topics of interest for app developers. If you have suggestions for future conversations, please let us know!
The second is the new iMac, which looks awesome, and I kind of
want. Then the third is that Apple told us that they paid $6.5
billion to app developers, so that’s pretty impressive. Let’s
kick it off. Which one is most interesting to you?
Ryan: From personal perspective, it’s the iMac. It’s not like – none of
these things are about rational decisions, right? You just see
it and you’re just like, “I have to have that.” It was kind of
the same with the iPad Mini. Even though I a new iPad, I was
like “I really want that.” But ultimately for us in the
ecosystem, it’s the $6.5 billion paid out to app developers.
That is such a mind-boggling, huge number for an ecosystem and a
market that essentially didn’t exist four years ago.
So, as a result of some hardware which is really beautiful and
some software that works, we’ve now created $6.5 billion of
income that just didn’t exist. It’s unbelievable.
Ian: Especially when you think that that number is low-balling it, because
it certainly doesn’t include how you’ve helped developers,
right?
Ryan: Yep.
Ian: You’re missing out on all of the ads except for iAd in there. It’s
essentially just purchased apps and in-app purchases, right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Ian: So I’m sure the number, call it 50%, 100% higher, right?
Robi: Yeah.
Ryan: Well, that’s not even – so you guys get paid, right? You guys get
paid. That doesn’t include the 30% on the top that Apple takes,
so are we talking about a $20 billion ecosystem, maybe, all
those things combined?
Ian: Yeah. It’s as you were saying earlier. It doesn’t include [inaudible
00:01:57].
Robi: It doesn’t include Starbucks, right? Millions of dollars of coffee
spent every month through their mobile app. Nordstrom’s, selling
furniture through their apps. Things like this are just
incredible, and they’re not accounted for.
Ryan: Yeah. That’s my point. I don’t even think we could get to a real
number in there. It’s in the tens of billions of dollars, I
think.
Robi: Yeah. I guess we’re onto something.
Ryan: Maybe it’s here to stay?
Robi: So let’s dig in on the iPad Mini. I think we’ve been talking about
this a little bit. It’s been assumed that it’s going to happen
for a while. Now that it’s here, underwhelmed or overwhelmed? Or
just whelmed?
Ryan: I’m overwhelmed by how good of a job they seem to have done with the
hardware, and making the software work on that size. I’m a
little underwhelmed by the price, about at $249, $299, it’s game
over for everybody else. I think they’ve left the door slightly
open.
But seeing what they’ve done over the last two years with the
reduction of price on MacBook Air, maintaining margins and low
price on iPads as they’ve upgraded it, is it unrealistic to
think that a year from now or 18 months from now that iPad Mini
is not going to be $249, while Apple maintains their 42% margins
or whatever else? It’s not crazy.
Robi: Right.
Ryan: For developers, I think it’s a no-brainer, right? They’re going to
sell tens of millions of these, and it’s the same screen
resolution as iPad2. It’s great for everybody, I think.
Ian: I was totally underwhelmed, I would say. The price sucks. The form
factor of it to me felt like Apple was following competition,
and that’s not Apple’s M.O. That’s not where they excel. So they
were like, “Oh, everybody has a seven-inch tablet. We need to
have a seven-inch tablet.” Then they were like, “But you know
what? We’re going to play a little game of penis envy and we’re
going to make a 7.9-inch tablet,” right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Ian: So to me it was just kind of a little bit of [inaudible 00:03:59] and
that’s not Apple’s style.
Robi: I feel like the fact that they spent about five minutes talking about
the Nexus 7, and how that’s a worse device than the iPad Mini
was uncharacteristic. I say that remembering of course that
Steve Jobs decided to join one of the Apple calls like three
years ago and bash Android for a good ten minutes. So maybe it’s
not that uncharacteristic.
But it just seemed like we’ve known this is coming. If you want
to differentiate yourself, why are you spending so much time
talking about the competition instead of talking about the
benefit of what this is for consumer and for developer. Like you
guys, I thought the price – the price is high. I think it’s
great for their business. They’re managing margins. We know that
they are really like a device company, first and foremost, so
they’re not going to do this at a loss.
But doesn’t this leave room for the other tablets in the space?
Doesn’t this make the story around the Nexus 7 and the Kindle
Fire, in particular those two devices, much better for at least
the next, let’s call it, nine to 12 months?
Ryan: Maybe. So, I thought the reasons for pointing out the differences
between the iPad Mini and the Nexus 7, those were consumer-
oriented. Apple, I am, admittedly, a [inaudible 00:05:17] to
some extent. But they do such a good job with equating features
to releasable things that you can understand, like, “Hey, this
is as thin as a pencil,” right? “Hey, look at how iPad Mini
displays a webpage versus Nexus 7.”
So any review of Nexus 7 versus iPad Mini versus Kindle Fire,
people are going to see those things, and that’s what resonates
with people. I mean, I think there will still be a market for
the Google tablets, and clearly Amazon says they have
distribution and all the cool shit. But I don’t see how the mass
market is going to choose a Nexus 7 or a Kindle Fire, over an
iPad Mini.
Ian: I think it might be the opposite. I think it validates the market for
the Kindle Fire, especially, and the Nexus 7. I use my
grandmother as an example, because one day I randomly went home
and my grandmother was sitting there with her Kindle Fire, and I
was like “What? How did you get a Kindle Fire?” She’s like “Oh,
well, I heard about it and it’s cheap.” I was like “All right.”
So, she was like “Then I went to the Apple store, and it was so
much more expensive for an iPad, and why would I spend that
money?” Now if she sees it, she’ll be like, “Wait. These two
things are exactly the same. Even down to the size. But this
one’s cheaper. Yeah, definitely going to get this one.” So, I
actually feel like it validates those other guys for a little
bit longer.
Robi: Yeah.
Ryan: Sorry for jumping in, but doesn’t that to some extent invalidate the
product strategy? The Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7, those are
content plays. If the people buying those devices are super
price sensitive and not content consumers, then they make no
money on content.
Ian: Well maybe, but I’m not convinced that the people who won’t spend
$200 are going to be thinking about it all the time to not spend
a dollar at a time, right?
Ryan: Yeah, maybe.
Ian: I feel like those are two separate price elasticity curves, where a
dollar is a little bit easier to get over that hump of that
$200.
Robi: Yeah. Especially, and we talk about this a lot, you come back to the
simplicity, especially with the Kindle Fire because you have the
Amazon account, and so you’re all set up. You’re good. You’re
like, “Oh, well yeah, I do want to watch this show.” Does your
grandma watch as much TV as she used to, or is she on her Kindle
Fire more? I would be curious.
Ian: Yeah. I don’t know the answer. But certainly when I went home, she
was playing on the Kindle Fire a lot.
Robi: See. So that’s where dollars are coming from. The television is
dormant. It’s getting dust and here you are just immersed, and
you’re like, “Well, yeah. I’m going to buy my content here.” I
think that’s a big opportunity, and that lower price point…
Especially, so you go to the Apple store, you’re not seeing the
competition. You go to Radio Shack or Best Buy or Walmart or the
places that people shop you’re seeing the competition and it
looks pretty good and it’s $140 less.
Ryan: Yeah.
Robi: It’s kind of hard to envision most people making that decision
simply. That’s a pretty tough call, $140. That’s almost double
the price of the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire or something like
that.
Ryan: Yep.
Ian: All of this said, I still think Apple is going to sell a gazillion of
these things.
Robi: Oh for sure.
Ryan: Yeah. I think it’s a no-brainer. Because, even, the thing that I
thought was a mistake was that they didn’t make pre-order
available at 11:05 a.m. yesterday, because immediately I was
like, “I need one.” Then at 10:00 last night, I was like, “Eh,
I’m okay.” Clearly maybe I’m in the minority here.
So I think one of the questions I would have was given, and
we’ve talked about this before, Apple and Amazon have some clear
advantages over Google and the Nexus 7. So do you think, that
this is ultimately – is it going to be a two horse race between
Apple and Amazon [inaudible 00:09:15]?
Robi: Yeah. If I had to bet, I’d say yes. It seems like they’re clearly
certain of who they are and what they’re doing, and the rest of
the competitors don’t have that focus, and I think that
determines a lot of success.
Ian: Both Apple and Amazon, it feels like they have a “why” as to what
they’re doing, and the rest of the guys, it’s just sort of,
they’re ticking off features, right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Robi: Yep.
Ryan: Yeah. Every time I hear about Google and what they’re doing, I don’t
think they know. I know the Nexus 7, you have it and you love
it. But how are they going to get all the content? Payment is
all screwy.
Robi: Big challenges. So the one last thing is there’s a new iPad out.
Like, that got lost, almost, yesterday. I think that all three
of us were like, “Oh, yeah, there is.” So it’s got the lightning
connector, a couple other things. Does this change anything for
developers? Is it going to make your life harder or easier? Or
are you just going to have to buy a new device if you’re on the
cutting edge?
Ryan: The latter. I think maybe the interesting opportunity here is for the
developers of high-end games, because the 2X CPU, that’s really
meaningful, especially when you’re talking about some 3D
content. For everybody else, eh.
Ian: Yeah. It’s a little bit of a non-issue until you start thinking about
the hardware gamers and how this can continue to cut away the
market share of console gaming, right?
Robi: Yeah, that’s true. That’s really true.
Ryan: So I guess that’s another conversation we could have around whether
or not the iPad Mini is intended to be a controller, and running
on either Apple TV hardware, or full iPad or MacBook hardware,
because that’s about the right size. Because it’s clear they’re
going to go down that path, right? They want people doing stuff
with AirPlay [inaudible 00:11:11].
Robi: To me, it seems like the quote from Jobs in the biography, that he
finally figured out the solution on the TV. Increasingly, it’s
looking like you have to have an iPad plus your TV, don’t you
think?
Ryan: Yeah.
Robi: That’s the solution.
Ryan: Yeah. I think the more we hear about, oh, Apple doing a TV – well,
maybe. But really it’s about the iPad or your iPhone and some
software.
Robi: Yeah. All right. So. That’s this installment of this week’s App
Developer Conversations. Stay tuned for the next one. Thanks.
In this week’s App Developer Conversations we discussed Rovio’s recently released game: Bad Piggies and explored how app developers can create and extend franchises.
We had a couple key observations:
Watch to find out more and be sure to see the other two segments from this week:
App Developer Conversations is a weekly video series with Ian Sefferman of MobileDevHQ and Ryan Morel of PlacePlay covering current topics of interest for app developers. If you have suggestions for future conversations, please let us know!
Angry Birds is Rovio’s big hit, but now Rovio is coming out with Bad
Piggies, and they are trying to see if they can extend this franchise
into something else. I think it makes sense to talk about how a
publisher can really build a franchise, and how you can take an
audience from one app, or one series of apps, to other apps. Let us
kick it off with you, Ryan. You played the game, what do you think?
Ryan: I think it is fun, at least the 2 or 3 levels that I played. It is
interesting enough that I will play maybe a couple more and either
stop or keep going. I think that the nice thing that it has, and was
really smart on Rovio’s part, was making the pigs the central theme,
the central character of the game. I think we saw that despite Rovio’s
massive marketing muscle, which is massive. Amazing Alex, probably for
Rovio’s standards, is a massive flop, so using a character from the
Angry Bird’s franchise may a ton of sense for them.
You played a level or 2.
Ian: Yes. It is a good game right. It is fun, relatively simple, it will
be a good time waster for when you are sitting on a bus, or at the
airport, or something like that. I totally agree, using, leveraging
the franchise of Angry Birds is super-smart. I am always amazed at
walking into, I am ashamed to admit it that I have walked into a
Walmart in the last few months, Walking into a Walmart and seeing
Angry Birds toys and things like that. This just totally leverages
that. It is straight out of . . . Rovio has done a good job at
pretending they are a movie studio that does not make movies. They
say, ‘We are going to act as if we are Paramount, and Paramount knows
exactly that, whoever makes it, that Pirates of the Caribbean is a
monster franchise, or Pixar knows that Toy Story is a monster
franchise, if we need to extend that franchise, we extend that
franchise, it makes us like killing in the short term. That is a long
term play because you can do it over and over again. From that
perspective, it makes a ton of sense. It is something that I do not
think a lot of . . . EA has done it with Madden, things like that,
that is just a continual franchise, but not a lot of the casual games
have been able to do that, and I think it is really interesting to see
somebody do that.
Robi: How did you find out about it? Did you read press, or were you told
about it in one of their apps?
Ryan: I read about it.
Robi: OK.
Ryan: They do, Rovio pushes their stuff hard. If you go into any of their
iPad or iPhone games and you press pause, you will see ads for their
other ones. Clearly, a lot of people are finding out about it through
that advertising. I think it will be, I think it is an interesting
little test to see how many people will convert from Angry Birds to
Bad Piggies versus Angry Birds to Amazing Alex, whether or not that
becomes a barometer for their ability to produce non-Angry Birds
content. Angry Birds has shown no signs of slowing down. It has been
3 years, but you would assume that eventually it will. Do you not
think so?
Robi: Probably. It is not always top of the charts though, which it was for
a good period of time. I think what is interesting is their using a
bunch of their inventory instead of for advertising external stuff,
advertising their internal stuff. We, at Yahoo!, call that house
advertising and it makes a ton of sense, especially you are as big as
they are.
I think what is weird, to me, is that Rovio has not really done a lot
else to really build up their franchise. They have the ability to
subscribe to a newsletter and some of the apps. I do not know if you
have ever clicked on that. It takes you out to a webpage, which is
just really dumb. You are leaving the app and it does not really look
good on your phone, so I would be surprised if that was very
meaningful to them. Do you not think they could be more sophisticated?
Ian: Yes, absolutely. They are sophisticated in some of the stunts that
they do. I remember the Space Needle, that was super-smart, covering
the Space Needle with a sling shot and putting a big bird on there was
really interesting. I think they way that they branded that stuff,
doing that type of marketing is smart. I think they have not done a
good job of the traditional digital marketing, building a community
around this franchise.
Robi: Right.
Ryan: Right. Do you think that, I would guess that the reason is that they
just have not needed to. By the time they need to, it will be too
late.
Robi: That is the thing. If I was them, you got the dollars in your wallet
and the ability to invest; I would be investing as much, if not more,
than I was in new games and new opportunities, and making sure that my
ability to take people from one game to the next, to the next, was
really smart and intelligent. I was taking that audience and I was
moving them around my assets, and making sure that they knew about
what else I was doing. I think that is one of the places we see most
developers being really behind the marketing ball, where we think in
app messaging and the ability to really take your audience and talk to
them about the right things, you drive significant results. It is
instructive of where we are in the market, that a company a successful
as Rovio, is still pretty early and somewhat primitive in thinking
about this.
Ryan: I think it could be just a result of the natural extension of the
console-days. With mobile, it is really the first opportunity and the
first platform that companies have that cannot ‘own’ the customer,
despite the fact that Apple technically owns it.
Robi: Right.
Ryan: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have always been the gateways.
Although, Apple is now, there are still meaningful opportunities to
connect outside of the app experience with the App Store, Facebook,
their website, and all the different things you are talking about, but
just no one is doing it. EA is trying to build Origin. I cannot
remember the last time I heard anyone talk about it besides me. Could
they do a better job? The answer is obviously, yes, because eventually
someone’s going to. [inaudible: 06:43]
Robi: Anything else on this topic?
Ryan: I would just ask if you think, if either of you think Rovio has a
shot at doing something really successful, outside the Angry Birds
franchise?
Robi: I think that they probably could, if they were to take my advice.
Ian: Hire Rovi, and we can win.
Robi: Exactly. Founders@Apptentive.com. Seriously, I think if the fact of
the matter is that if they start to invest in turning their apps into
channels, to build a real meaningful audience, and it is not just
about the ads that they are using, but it is actually saying, ‘We are
going to turn this into a marketing funnel. We are going to get deeper
engagement from people.’ Then you can move folks, but otherwise, you
have to have a lose association that looks close enough to the Angry
Birds franchise and it is using the same characters, then of course,
somebody will click then go download your app. What do you think?
Ian: I think you are right on. It is interesting to me that, I think, EA
is a household name. Rovio is not, Angry Birds is. From that
perspective, it becomes hard. Angry Birds is the company, so branching
out of Angry Birds is a little bit more difficult, where as EA is the
company and EA has Madden, Tiger Wood’s Golf, and things like that. I
think they got to fix that problem first.
Robi: Stay Tuned for Part 3 of this week’s App Developer Conversations.
Thank you guys.
Join us this June 8-10 in San Francisco for XHack, put on by our friends at RadiumOne in support of their Via.Me product. XHack is about mashing APIs in the photo, video, audio, social, and mobile spaces (or some subset – focus is always good ☺). The fun begins Friday, June 8 with happy hour and brainstorming, with the coding set to being on Saturday, June 9. You can find more details at: http://xhack2012.com
Team Apptentive is excited to be participating and presenting our SDKs for Android and iOS. The Apptentive SDK makes it easy for app developers to optimize their app store ratings and solicit feedback from their customers.
App developers small and large are using Apptentive to increase their ratings, retention and revenues and we’re excited to offer all XHack participants a 6 month Pro subscription to our services.
The only requirement is that you actually publish the app you build within a month of XHack.
XHack is capping the event at 150 developers, so be sure to get registered today: www.xhack2012.eventbrite.com
In case you need a little more motivation to come join us, there are a number of prizes up for grabs: By attending you’ll be getting a chance to win the $5000 Best in Show grand prize, $2500 prize for Best Use of the Via.Me API, and $1000 for People’s Choice.
We hope to see you there!
Imagine you just downloaded the best app you’ve ever used for your smartphone. The app does more than advertised, the user interface is clean and easy to use, you get happier using it – it’s just a home run. It’s so good you feel compelled to write a positive review because, let’s face it, an app this good deserves a bit of review love.
This thought flits across your mind and then you think about what it’ll take to act on your impulse: you have to quit the app, visit the app store, write your review and then (hopefully) return to the app.
Did this experience make the app any less impressive and productive for you? Absolutely not. But, it was a bit inconvenient and it took you away from the app. Sadly, because you had to go through those extra steps you:
Now, imagine you are the one who developed that app. You know it kicks ass because you have heard it from a lot of people in your testing process but you want to see what the rest of the world else thinks.
As most app developers do, your first step is to check out the reviews and ratings. Just as you thought, there are some really high ratings but the comments are limited and somewhat muted, saying things like:
Those comments are encouraging, but they’re not exactly specific or actionable. They don’t tell you what you did right and they don’t address the things you can do to make the app better. To make things better for your customers you need feedback that can actually make your app better and that can help you truly understand the customer’s experience and their needs.
Generic quips that people leave when they are in a hurry or simply not interested in leaving something that takes a bit more effort are, unfortunately, more filler than substance.
In-app feedback forms really boost customer input
For both the person using an app and the app’s developer, in-app feedback is the way to go. It allows the end consumer to provide immediate and uninterrupted feedback when they are actually using the app.
Instead of hoping that the consumer will get around to leaving feedback a few days later (which many don’t), capturing a consumer’s feedback at the moment they think about it ensures that you the feedback you get from customer is:
As an app developer, you have a big challenge: making an app that is easy to use and love by consumers. While there are many ways to try and guess about how to accomplish this goal, the ultimate test is consumer sentiment – without truly understanding what people think, you’re just guessing.
By making it easy for your consumers to give feedback and ensuring that the feedback is as raw, honest and real-time as possible, you’re telling your customers that you care enough about their opinion to give them the tools to express it in a quick and easy manner. The results are astounding: more feedback, better ratings, more honest input and a significant number of customer relationships that are spawned through simple conversation. So, be more customer friendly and enable your customers to talk to you in your app.
We recently read about Apple rejecting apps with pay-per-install campaigns, like those run by Tapjoy. It appears that Apple is unhappy with the pay-per-install practice and has gone so far as to start banning apps that utilize the system.
What’s really unfortunate about this is that it doesn’t sound like Apple has reached out to communicate about the changes, so we’re left with press speculation and guesses. We’re biased, but it seems to us that a lot of Apple’s perception problems with developers could be mediated by having a more direct line of feedback available.
When you put a lot of time and effort into building your app and company, the most frustrating thing that can happen is to never be able to communicate with the folks you depend upon. Like it or not, Apple really is a dependency for a lot of developers and we think they should recognize that and offer better communication options, especially when they’re making surprising editorial changes like this one.
Regardless of how Apple deals with this, the question this brings up for App developers is important: if you run the risk of being banned for using pay-per-install campaigns what do you do? We’ve got 3 specific pieces of advice:
If you’re really serious about developing apps for a living, you need to be thinking about a long-term strategy. As fans of the lean startup movement, we’re big proponents of customer development. Determining who your customers are and what they love about your apps is crucial to really knowing how to grow your business. Advertising, like pay-per-install programs, can help you acquire customers, but it isn’t a replacement for developing your customers and understanding who they are.
Our suggestion to app developers is that while ad spending can be a component of your growth strategy, it’s never been a replacement for understanding your customer base and opportunity. If Apple ends up putting an end to pay-per-install programs, the companies that were solely relying upon it for growth will be hurt, but the companies that have a strong sense of who they are will be in a better position to succeed. Their businesses gain durability over time, because they’ve thought about attracting customers who love them. Use your time and energy on how to build applications that learn from customers, enable feedback and help you get better on a continuous basis. We think that we’ve build some solid tools to help with this, so be sure to try out Apptentive and tell us what you think!
