You may not realize it yet, but the App Store is broken.
I spent this week at Apple’s WWDC conference in San Francisco talking to quite a few iPhone app developers. One thing that struck me was just how many of them shared the exact same concern with the App Store: App discovery.
By now, you’ve likely heard some of the success stories from the App Store (Apple does what it can to promote these at just about every event it holds pertaining to the iPhone now). But for each of those, there are also a ton of developers who work hard on apps only to watch them fall by the wayside. Apple’s greatest strength with the store — the fact that there are now 50,000 + apps — is also turning into its weakness with many developers. And if it doesn’t adapt the store to its huge growth, those developers might start looking at other platforms.
The problem is that while early on, it was pretty easy for small-time developers to make an app and get it noticed in the store, now with 50,000 apps, we’re getting to the point where you need to do something else to promote your apps. That’s good news for big time development studios like EA, which can throw marketing money at the problem. But for some smaller developers — some of which are just one person — that’s simply not an option. But there is one potential solution, and it’s one Apple already has built-in to iTunes: Genius recommendations.
Apple rolled out its “Genius” feature for recommending music on iTunes last year. Based on my experience with it, I believe it really is genius — it scans your music library and uploads the information to iTunes’ servers where it compares it to other users’ libraries (anonymously) and sends back recommended playlists based on the other songs you have on your computer. And, perhaps more importantly, it also recommends songs on iTunes that you will probably like based on songs in your library. Apple also more recently rolled out the same feature for movies purchase recommendations on iTunes. And it’s the iTunes Store recommendations that are key, because it could easily do the same thing with the App Store.
At its most simple level, it could probably work like this: Say there’s an app that you downloaded and really like, Apple should be able to recommend other apps of a similar genre you might like based on what others’ downloading habits are. But Apple could probably go much deeper than that and see which apps you use (or at least launch) the most, and use that as a basis for these recommendations as well. And it could also use the star rating system it already has in place as another point of recommendation — though it should probably make it easier to rate apps from within iTunes if it does that.
While such a system may not be perfect, it would be much better than the current system of app discovery through iTunes, which really isn’t too fair to little developers. Apple features some apps within iTunes, but those are usually skewed towards ones made by the bigger App Store players. For example, look at the apps featured along the top of the App Store right now: The Sims 3 (an EA game), ESPN Scorecenter, A Home & Garden app, a Lonely Planet app and a Square Enix game.
Now, to be fair, those are all popular things in their own regards, so the largest collection of people would probably be interested in them and so it makes sense for Apple to highlight them. But in doing so, it’s perpetuating a type of “rich get richer” system that threatens to take over the App Store.
And if you are a smaller app, it’s not like being featured on this main iTunes App Store page matters all that much anyway. I spoke with one developer of a top application this week who told me that when his app was featured on this main page, they only say a single-digit percentage point bump in terms of downloads. Much bigger, he says, was when it was featured on the iPhone version of the App Store.
But let’s look at the featured ones there. It’s largely more of the same: ESPN Scorecenter, a THQ game for the new Disney movie Up, the Sims 3 again, an AT&T app, etc. Apple does do a much better job diversifying this list, wrapping in some smaller apps as well, but there are still only so many apps they can fit in this area — especially since it’s on a much smaller screen. Again, a Genius feature on the iPhone or iPod touch would go a long way in helping to uncover new, under-the-radar apps.
The Top Paid and Free app lists are great when it comes to helping with downloads, I hear as well. Of course, you have to actually move a lot of apps to get on those lists to begin with. So it’s another of the “rich get richer” situations.
Some smaller developers have started to think outside the box to promote their apps. A bunch of them have started banding together, forming their own networks of sorts, for promotion. This method allows them to not only promote each other’s apps over the web, but within the apps themselves. That way if one of them takes off, the likelihood that another one of the apps in this group will be seen, is much greater.
Another outlet that app makers use to try and get traction is the press. Every day, we’re pitched dozens of apps, even though we don’t really cover that many apps here at TechCrunch. If we happen to, that seems to be a decent way for an app to get some downloads, but that fame is often fleeting. A developer’s best chance in this regard is to hope that their app gets enough coverage from multiple outlets over an extended period of time. That should help it both spread by word of mouth and hopefully make it onto one of the top apps lists. But again, this is very hard to do.
And these alliances and means of promotion pale in comparison to having Apple actively promoting your app. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that if you can get our app on one of the iPhone’s television commercials, your downloads will absolutely go through the roof. And if Apple puts your app on the demo units in its store, that helps sales in a big way as well. But Apple can only do that for so many apps. There needs to be a better way, that scales to a huge store — which the App Store has become.
All this matters because there is plenty of money behind all of this. The App Store is already a big business for many developers, and increasingly for Apple itself. And when Apple launches the in-app payment system in the iPhone 3.0 software due next week, I think the store could even jump to the next level in terms of people making money off of it.
But to keep the overall momentum the store has going, Apple needs to make sure its ecosystem is enticing for the small developers to work in. And that’s getting to be a problem with so many apps now in the store, and with so many big name development houses now making apps. I think a Genius app recommendation feature would go a long way to help this.
This would be a fantastic addition to the store. Now if only they got over their desire to censor apps for stupid reasons …
I think that’s coming shortly as well with the parental control features.
Apple doesn’t care about how it works, just that the UI looks good. Genius recomendations are far from genius.
Sadly the top iphone apps are resembling the youtube most viewed list.
Its mostly crap. The decent stuff is buried and you have to search for it.
Mostly agree. Especially the “free” lists.
I’m having trouble with what the problem is… I mean, EA and big software have ALWAYS had a “branding” advantage… The true issue here is, small devs had a TINY WINDOW of big noteriety at the start, and things are drifting back to “normal” – you need to have not only a good app, but a marketing plan, whoooooo – and this is upsetting developers? Isn’t that like saying that developers shouldn’t have to market their own stuff, get the word out, etc?
I do feel a Genius feature would be cool, even if it appeared just as a third list “top free, top paid, top suggested”, with the third list being me-specific, based on whatever. But, again, even with Genius, there’s huge potential to MISS the best apps that just happen to not be used that much.
Maybe they should take a tip from dating sites, and have a category of “unloved but lovable apps” – ones that are HIGHLY RATED, but also haven’t sold that day…
Then again, wasn’t the charm of Mac that you didn’t have to wade through a mire of random crappy apps to find the good stuff, ala Windows? Somehow, I think the best apps are still going to get covered in the media/word of mouthed if they are truly useful.
Totally agree – isn’t this just as much of a business as anything else? Why would/could you assume to hit huge success with “build it and they will come” strategy?
You need product marketing in order to stand out. Small developers typically don’t have the skills, don’t have time for it, or don’t want to bother. And yet, with App Store there is a multitude of more ways to do marketing compared e.g. to the old Java apps/games carrier business.
Marketing starts from creating a selling name, icon, screenshots, and app description. It’s staggering how many do an awful job already at the basics.
A genius feature would be great, nevertheless – but I don’t think that would be any silver bullet.
Amen.
I posted this critical information for everyone on an earlier (17 May 2009) Techcrunch story:
Here are the facts:
There is 1 paid app for every 11 downloads.
Approximately 23% of apps are free.
80% of revenue goes to top 25 developers.
40% revenue goes to top 10 apps.
An oversupply of apps and limited visibility (there are only 100 highly visible slots) is driving down prices.
There are approximately 20,000+ mobile apps in the store.
The current price distribution breakdown and number of apps in that price range is:
4,660 are Free
8,153 $0.01-0.99
2,712 $1.00-1.99
1,291 $2.00-2.99
553 $3.00-3.99
1,134 $4.00-4.99
227 $5.00-5.99
92 $6.00-6.99
120 $7.00-7.99
39 $8.00-8.99
613 $9.00-9.99
803 $10.00 >
The way the store is currently designed, only 100 apps are highly visible which means people are competing for positioning in this top 100 by driving down their price which drives down Apple’s margin and therefore keeps the net profit very low to breakeven.
(Apple are NOT in it to make a profit from the store as stated by Apple. Apple simply uses the App store to sell more iPhones which is what they are truly monetising for profit.)
75% of the top 100 apps are there because they are between free or up to $0.99. This competition for the top 100 visibility is fierce and as stated, for developers to get visibility they need to keep the price low which is driving down the prices and inevitably it will deter developers from investing. This is unless Apple can come up with a better way of exposing the depth and breadth of apps in the store (consumer discovery), create premium categories, create promo opportunities outside of the top 100 and or possibly differentiate revenue share is developers invest in promotion / marketing etc.
The ratio is the ratio – for every 11 downloaded apps only one is paid for.
70% of revenue goes to developers and 30% to Apple, but…..
Let’s look at iTunes for one second to understand the economics and Apple’s strategy (using a $0.99 app example) -
$0.99 Revenue
$0.70 Royalties
$0.10 Delivery costs
$0.12 Billing costs
$0.92 Cost of goods sold
$0.07 Gross profit to Apple
$0.05-$0.07 Operating expense
$0.02-$0.00 Net profit per song
According to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer at Q1 FY08 Earnings calls, 22 Jan 2008 – Apple uses the iTunes service as a differentiator but monetizes via the device (iPod). “Our objective with the iTunes store is just a little above break even. And we think that it helps us to sell iPods and Macs, and that is really our strategy.”
Apple are using the same strategy for the App Store. The economic objective is to break even or slightly above for the mobile apps store and monetise via the iPhone with halo effect to iPod’s and Mac’s. By the time you factor in delivery costs, billing costs and operating expenses the margin is likely to be around $0.02 or break even per app. Now, factor in that for every 11 downloaded apps, only 1 is paid for.
Analysis and assumptions:
So, FY10 Mobile App Store is approximately $360m in revenue with $250m going to developers = $0-$20m to Apple as net profit.
App prices vary from $0.01up to and in excess of $10.00 so you can’t simply multiply $0.99 x 1 paid app for every 11 downloads into 1billion downloads.
FY11 estimate is $2b in revenues with $1.5b going to developers.
Also contributing to the higher likelihood of Apple only achieving breakeven vs a small profit is the tens of millions being spent on marketing to establish the App Store in the first 1-3 years but this is included in the operating expense example outlined earlier.
Cheers…..
This is probably the most informative thing I’ve read on TC in a while. Too bad it was just a comment.
Apple is a *hardware* company. They have to make profits from hardware because that is how they are categorized on Wall St.
Why is my post not being published? I submitted it 20 minutes ago but its still not up so I will try again…..
I posted this critical information for everyone on an earlier (17 May 2009) Techcrunch story:
Here are the facts and analysis:
The ratio is the ratio – for every 11 downloaded apps only one is paid for.
Approximately 23% of apps are free.
80% of revenue goes to top 25 developers.
40% revenue goes to top 10 apps.
70% of revenue goes to developers and 30% to Apple.
There are approximately 20,000+ mobile apps in the store.
An oversupply of apps and limited visibility (there are only 100 highly visible slots) is driving down prices.
The current price distribution breakdown and number of apps in that price range is:
4,660 are Free
8,153 $0.01-0.99
2,712 $1.00-1.99
1,291 $2.00-2.99
553 $3.00-3.99
1,134 $4.00-4.99
227 $5.00-5.99
92 $6.00-6.99
120 $7.00-7.99
39 $8.00-8.99
613 $9.00-9.99
803 $10.00 >
The way the store is currently designed, only 100 apps are highly visible which means people are competing for positioning in this top 100 by driving down their price which drives down Apple’s margin and therefore keeps the net profit very low to breakeven.
75% of the top 100 apps are there because they are between free or up to $0.99. This competition for the top 100 visibility is fierce and as stated, for developers to get visibility they need to keep the price low which is driving down the prices and inevitably it will deter developers from investing. This is unless Apple can come up with a better way of exposing the depth and breadth of apps in the store (consumer discovery), create premium categories, create promo opportunities outside of the top 100 and or possibly differentiate revenue share is developers invest in promotion / marketing etc.
(Apple are NOT in it to make a profit from the store as stated by Apple. Apple simply uses the App store to sell more iPhones which is what they are truly monetising for profit.)
Let’s look at iTunes for one second to understand the economics of the App Sotre and Apple’s strategy (using a $0.99 app example) -
$0.99 Revenue
$0.70 Royalties
$0.10 Delivery costs
$0.12 Billing costs
$0.92 Cost of goods sold
$0.07 Gross profit to Apple
$0.05-$0.07 Operating expense
$0.02-$0.00 Net profit per song
According to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer at Q1 FY08 Earnings calls, 22 Jan 2008 – Apple uses the iTunes service as a differentiator but monetizes via the device (iPod). “Our objective with the iTunes store is just a little above break even. And we think that it helps us to sell iPods and Macs, and that is really our strategy.”
Apple are using the same strategy for the App Store. The economic objective is to break even or slightly above for the mobile apps store and monetise via the iPhone with halo effect to iPod’s and Mac’s.
By the time you factor in delivery costs, billing costs and operating expenses the margin is likely to be around $0.02 or break even per app. Now, factor in that for every 11 downloaded apps, only 1 is paid for.
So, FY10 Mobile App Store is approximately $360m in revenue with $250m going to developers = $0-$20m to Apple as net profit. I estimate nil to $7.5m net profit. FY11 estimate is $2b in revenues with $1.5b going to developers.
App prices vary from $0.01 up to and in excess of $10.00 so you can’t simply multiply $0.99 x 1 paid app for every 11 downloads into 1billion downloads.
Also contributing to the higher likelihood of Apple only achieving breakeven vs a small profit is the tens of millions being spent on marketing to establish the App Store in the first 1-3 years but this is included in the operating expense example outlined earlier.
Cheers…..
Agreed.
I find what I’m looking for based on recommendations online by way friends, Google, social media, or other great sites (lists, for example).
Sometimes — just sometimes — I stumble upon that App or two that actually fits what I’m looking for. However, it takes a lot of searching & browsing.
dead right, for apps on mobile discovery has always been the killer app and almost always the thing companies overlook when creating a long tail of content. I don’t believe a genius feature or any mechanized discovery engine will be the answer, in the end the long tail is filtered by people and people ‘like me’, which is very hard to program.
eh idk… nothing against small developers but content is king.. if an app is really great then it will get media coverage… if not.. then it deserves its mediocre fate…
you could claim that there have been truly great apps that got no attention and have fallen by the wayside.. but the same can be said about startups… plenty of good ones have failed for various reasons.. should it be the responsibility of a larger force to prop these up?
messing with this is pretty much like the government bailouts messing with capitalism…
True to a certain extent, though as the numbers keep going up there are legitimately good apps that are getting missed by a lot of people. There just needs to be a better discovery method, just as the music discovery methods like Pandora help people find music they might not otherwise.
then there is a market for 3rd party recommendation apps and services… just like market intermediaries in other industries..
one of pandora’s strengths comes from its ability to perform that recommendation task (very well I might add).. so in a sense it competes with apples genius right?
i should point out that the pandora example affirms my position as it can be considered an example of a recommendation service in addition to music streaming service
Good idea, but don’t they already have this for the desktop version of iTunes. On a app splash page there is a section that says ‘People who bought this app also bought..’. That section helped me discover a few gems.
I think they should def. do something like this on the appstore on the iPhone. Perhaps a button that says genious, that lists apps you’d like based on apps you bought. That would be awesome.
Yeah, that is a very good idea.
How would it detect similarities though. Genus works by analyzing beats/tempos of songs. There is no data in an app that can necessarily be detected in the same way.
If they can get it to work, it would rock.
Gee, thats like developers might have to do things in the real world and promote and advertise their content, just like real business :)
At least those people that publish 135 sliding puzzles might slowly sink into the noise.
FYI, this is my fave app at the moment
http://itunes.a...335979&mt=8
Well… I have the same problem with that as I have with Amazon’s recommendation system. Say I just bought an SD card. That being the case, I don’t need to see a dozen more SD cards in different brands and sizes.
What would be better, IMHO, is something more in the NetFlix vein, in that people who rented this ALSO rented these. Maybe people who purchased this particular To Do list software also liked a particular photo app and Twitter client. If so, tell me.
Don’t tell me about the same kind of app I just bought, tell me about apps in OTHER categories that like minded people bought and enjoyed.
Another thing would be to deepen the category list. The top levels are geting full, so now is the time to break productivity apps into categories: notes, to dos, reminders, etc..
They’ve already done it with games. Now do it elsewhere.
Yeah, I like that idea as well, a nice extension of what I was saying.
A what they bought next recommendation
All true, but don’t we need to let it settle first, in order for this to work a statistical base needs to be created and that needs a few hundred thousand users downloading before information can be analysed – I thinkl that has probably happened by now.
Try this approach: a separate series of pages on the Apple web site – for iTunes users – to log into and search, searchable by subject, category, popularity and comments, with a directly clickable link directly into to the iTunes store.
Apple is such a dark horse some times, it’s probably already running and just hasn’t been publicised yet…
I haven’t used an iPhone before, but do they allow demo apps? Maybe if they gave a demo of apps or free trials when the apps are “recommended”, then people could be more persuaded to buy it if they like the demo/trial.
Going exactly the same way as Facebook platform, can’t everyone see it?
Use the dev community to drive massive growth and then offer a lilte tiny bit of hope of striking gold while killing them slowly
Well, it worked for the music industry. At least up to now…
Eric Foor makes a good piont
there is a key difference with the genius tool as it pertains to music as opposed to apps… with music the user is allowed to sample songs prior to purchasing.. what happens when the genius recommends shitty apps that users didn’t get to test drive before spending money? At least with a 3rd party recommendation service, you know that you’re dealing with a 3rd party recommendation service and the subsequent experience is not a reflection on the platform itself
Can you address the 148 app limit on the ipod touch and Iphone?
With 50,000 apps it is capable of holding just 0.2% of applications from the app store, despite having 8-32GB of space.
Pierce
how well does your iphone run with 148apps installed?
Perfectly…
This is why we started digizal.com, this exact reason. I guess Techrunch just gave us validation ;)
that’s what happens in free market economies… if problems occur or there is an under-served area of the market.. a company will develop a proposed solution
many app store developers are realizing that it’s not a guaranteed way to make money.. so they are forming unions (like the one mentioned in the story) and some are raising capital just like other startups so that when their app is developed they have money for a marketing campaign to tell the world about it..
i think the sooner developers don’t see this as a get rich quick scheme the better off everyone will be, the quality of apps will increase and better mechanisms for discovering and telling your friends about great apps will appear.
F*CK TRENT REZNOR!~~!!
maybe its time to get out of the app business for most. the ipone phenom was an appel spun, user slurping, self-profilling prophecy.
appears the parties over.
GeniusLocator.com – “simplicity killed the app”
Sup dawg, I heard you like locating…
Is this any different than running a website? There are tons of websites out there, the challenge is just the same of getting people to your website as it is getting them to your app.
now we have 250 million websites competing with 50 thousand mobile apps for the same space.
what does this say about the future of mobile advertising?
what happens in 3 years when 5 internetmobile hybrid appwebsites dominate 97% of the consumer discovery and decision market?
We try to combat this problem as well, but the volume of applications is just overwhelming. We’re pitched hundreds of apps a week but we can really only cover the gems. The thing is, there are 50,000+ apps out right? About 5-10% of those I’d say are worth anyone’s time. An even smaller percentage are worth keeping on your device or purchasing.
While I agree that it is frustrating for new developers in terms of exposure but the key is to *gasp* create a good application that has real use or entertainment value.
Now the real issue at hand extends further than genius recommendations. The way the Top 25-50 needs to be reworked. Currently, it is based on unit volume. What needs to be implemented is revenue based top spot display. So, a $0.99 app sold 10x versus a $9.99 app sold once would be equal in terms of standing. Is that really fair? Yes. While the argument can be made that the $0.99 app is simply a better app – the truth is that this usually isn’t correct. Low price apps get the impulse buy advantage, which is HUGE in this market.
Sites like ours can held some for developers, but this requires a serious re-tuning of the App Store by Apple directly.
-Alex
Why is it apples job to market apps? This idea that you can just build an app or a website and get rich is silly. You need to build a cobweb of mobile apps, firefox apps, facebook apps and websites. You need to stand out.
No, that’s not it, Alex. the good application argument breaks down if you look at some of the stuff that’s been hitting the top ten lists, in free and also in paid.
The real problem is that Apple has modeled the App Store on its iTunes music store. In music, I care about trends, and I care to be cool enough to have heard the latest music–that’s how the industry works.
Selling software shouldn’t be a matter of top ten lists updated every few hours. That’s just crazy.
I’d like to see customizable home pages for the App Store. I want to be able set notifications for ‘piano’, or ‘shopping’, or ‘guns’. And any app / game that releases with these keywords could be of interest to me. I want control over the top lists I’m shown–I want to see top ten of the past 24 hours separately from the top ten of the past four weeks. I want to set alerts for any apps that release mentioning my city or state, or my profession. I want to set alerts for discounts and other offers for the apps I have shown interest in. I want to set alerts for specific developers, so I can track the latest from developers whose work has been useful to me.
This and much more. Apple should blend the Amazon store with its current iTunes store, take a few ideas from the customizable home pages that Google allows (Google News, for instance), add many more little and big tweaks on its own, and completely overhaul the App Store design.
I hope Apple is already working on some of these ideas. I think we’ll have a hundred thousand apps in the next 6-8 months, and the current App Store design is just not capable of handling that volume–or even the current volume, for that matter.
So why not just make a Facebook Page for the application? People will be able to become fans and their friends will then know.
If you are a developer and have a fan page for your app, you can add our game box to your page: http://apps.fac...k.com/wordshunt . You will receive ~2000 visitors to your page every day for free.
How many of the ~2000 visitors are iPhone owners?
Encourage them to do versions for WebOS – that’s 100K users GUARANTEED will see the app right now and more coming all the time. Be ready for Verizon Jan 2010.
So despite all the hype that the app store generates, at the end of the day iphone app developers face the same issues as any other software developer pushing stuff on the internet. Hmm who woulda thunk it?
You all need to wake up.. Field of dreams happened because you had baseball players. I am talking to the CFO of dexrex the other day and his company treats marketing like an after thought.. there are dozens of cheap ways to increase your surface area online. maybe pay attention to those youtube stars cause they get.. why the heck would you depend on apple to sell your stuff.. dam you could link people to your app through affiliate programs hidden in fun little static websites.. linkshare.com itunes I think.. I hate linkshare.. how many of you are showing off your app website in your facebook profile.. click the name get a clue.. don’t get mad if it breaks.. but add the profile box.. use posterous and get 7 subdomains whatever..urlpirates.wordpress is called.. The thing is you could get your whole company to do.. make an effort.. and maybe.. someone will hear about you.. say I want to try that.. and then reinvest.. look to youtube. MAybe sxephill is too expensive but a guy with 10 000 subscriptions that focuses on apple products.
You just need to do a better job.. use the blogs, the twitters, the facebooks.. link them together with firefox apps and make marketing part of the process… the most simple way I have found to get people to your site is each day help 2 people in groups. Add them as a friend… give them multiple ways to find your websites from your facebook profile.. arggg
2 people a day that is..
I’m with you all the way, Gebadia. The antipathy to basic business practices in Silicon Valley is galling. The lack of imagination when it comes to self-promotion is astonishing.
Great post, MG – it’s crazy that Apple hasn’t done this yet, but it’s why we went ahead and built AppStoreHQ (http://appstorehq.com). We figured a web-based iPhone app discovery site modeled on Amazon’s search + browse would be a welcome alternative to iTunes and the phone itself, not just for iPhone owners looking for apps, but also for developers looking for a more equitable and transparent method of app promotion. If Apple ships Genius for Apps we’ll have to rethink, but so far so good…
AppBeacon
AppShopper
Apptism
etc…
However, I must admit I’m surprised Apple hasn’t done something themselves to improve matters.
They should let google partner for app search. Strengthen the grip they have on new media.
I know apple search is brutal. Itunes is clunky too.. I like that amazon idea? Why doesn’t apple sell apps on amaZon?
With the increasingly difficult job of finding new apps in the App Store, it’s almost mind-boggling that Apple hasn’t implemented a feature (one that it already has in iTunes) to lessen the barrier to finding new stuff.
http://ionizedm...iscoverability/
Great .I agreed . It’s good to stores . jajaja
Agreed. Apple uses 50,000+ apps as a bragging point. I think it’s more a disability – it’s too hard to find the signal amongst all the god damn noise (cuz man, there’s a lot of horrible apps for the iphone)
With android around, apple should really start acting wisely now. This discouraging attitude is a big demoralizer to the developers…
Another thing that would be nice for the iTunes Store to do for app developers is allow us to respond (at least in some way) to negative reviews, i.e. enable us to offer one-on-one technical support to people who are having a hard time.
Star ratings is another place where the App Store needs improvement as well. For example, we have a lot of 1 star reviews where people said things like: “GREAT APP! I LOVE IT”. The person simply forgot to give it a star rating but those 1 star ratings probably had an effect on our ranking.
BTW, just to confirm what you said, MG: being in the top 100 and being featured by Apple is the only way you have a chance right now. Banding together with other developers to promote your app is not the silver bullet and I highly doubt that advertising your application will bring you a lot of downloads. If we hadn’t been featured by Apple a few times and spent time in the top 100 apps, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
All this being said, Apple has been really good to work with. I’m sure they are working on something to improve this process.
Probably less than 10% of the applications in the app store are actually applications. There are thousands of “apps” that are just taking web content and putting a mobile UI around it. Weather, TV listings, financial calculators, recipes, news readers, to name a few. Sure, there are a few that tap into the accelerometer, multitouch and some calling features, but not many at all.
How many applications do we use on our desktop computers which is 10x more powerful? less than 10 on average.
The real killer app on the iPhone is the web. Over time the totally worthless iphone apps will die out and things like the TomTom application and games will be considered the true added value of the device. Those real apps and the web.
“I spoke with one developer of a top application this week who told me that when his app was featured on this main page, they only say a single-digit percentage point bump in terms of downloads. Much bigger, he says, was when it was featured on the iPhone version of the App Store.”
How about you speak with this developer, who hasn’t been featured on the iPhone version of the App Store, but was featured on the main page of iTunes, and saw a 300-400% increase in sales? So yes, it matters. It got me into the top 100 for a few weeks.
There’s an easy way for Apps to get noticed. It’s this funky new process called “advertising.”
C’mon, developers and entrepreneurs, if you want to be a business, you gotta start acting like a business. Don’t just sit around waiting for customers to come. Hype thyself. The TechCrunch Deadpool is filled with millions of dollars worth of startups that most people never heard of.
Don’t wait for Apple to fix their store. Put marketing in your business plan and budget for it.
I think agree with you. Pro-active selling is better than waiting customers to come to buy your products.
If only it were that simple. In reality, visibility on the app store is everything. I haven’t heard of anyone whose sales as the result of advertising came anywhere remotely close to covering the costs. Right now, advertising reaches a tiny fraction of users compared to the App Store, and is more or less useless, considering you’re selling your app for a few bucks at most.
When you sell app $0.99 a piece how much can you spend on advertising?
Pepsi sells soda for less than a buck a can. McDonald’s touts 99-cent Big Macs. Most iTunes tracks are 99-cents. You make up the cost of the ad on the volume, particularly since there’s no marginal cost to the producer for selling digital media through Apple, other than royalties.
The iPhone App “Classics” enjoyed a 600% sales surge from appearing in an Apple ad:
http://coolrule...iphone-apps-ad/
And the ad doesn’t have to be an expensive TV commercial. There’s plenty of marketing that can be done on a low budget. Hire a smart, small ad agency or consultant, and build that cost into the production.
It’s not rocket science. Video-game companies market the hell out of their products. An App maker should at least spring for an ad on an Apple fan site, or a pay-per-click add on Facebook
Again, it does not work. The idea of buying ads occurred to people a long time ago, but the small bump in sales that you get from advertising on even the largest iPhone sites doesn’t pay for the costs. The #1 source of visibility for apps, by a vast margin, is the App Store, which does not have advertising that can be bought. It’s all very well to be armchair quarterbacking with facile “just buy an ad” comments, but that’s not the reality.
Really, Eric? Do you have proof of that, or are you just making facile armchair comments?
No Shiite, the App store is the #1 source of visibility. Just like you want your brand of beer displayed at eye level in the supermarket. No genius insight there. But what happens when you can’t get that primo positioning?
You advertise. Marketing 101. You factor the promotional cost into your costs of production and price your product accordingly. Whether that “ad” takes the form of a banner on a website, or a well-written email to a prominent blogger in hopes of coverage, is up to your marketing director. Hell, you could even do a pay-per-click ad on Facebook and set a limit to your expenditure. Or maybe you do a cross-promo with some other App developers and chip in to buy an ad somewhere. Or you hire clowns to run up and down Market Street.
The possibilities are endless. They just require imagination and a can-do ‘tude. Most tech companies don’t know jack about how to do an ad campaign. That doesn’t mean it can’t work.
its amzing and useful new info
Test
Yeah, buy an ad?
Amen. The Silicon Valley allergy to basic marketing makes me ill. Half these tech geniuses run around creating companies based on advertising revenue, when they themselves don’t believe in advertising. I love to see them fall into the TechCrunch Deadpool.
Ironically, Apple gets the value of advertising, but the squirrels who make the Apps run scared at the thought of it.
They all need to stop whining about lack of exposure in the iTunes store, and just buy a freakin’ ad already. Hell, make a video of the App and post it on YouTube and Metacafe and Facebook and all the other Web 2.0 monstrosities that give their services away for free.
I would also like to see a ‘Genius’ variant for apps, however I feel that the same apps will still feature as most recommended/downloaded!!
Apple needs to box and market patience.
While suggesting a ‘Genius” feature for apps gives great headline, the idea that (except for games) I need Apple to tell me there are 20 other Apps out there that are similar to the one I have chosen, barely scratches the surface. How about a searchable index with meaningful tags? I can’t (won’t) search through 1000+ responses when I choose to look for a utility that I don’t have. How about helping me find something new and useful?
Excellent article and suggestion MG. Not sure it will completely solve the issue but it would certainly help a lot.
Currently the device prompts you to rate an app when you DELETE an app. This skews the ratings toward lower ratings, as many people who keep the app on their device and use it happily are not prompted to rate the app.
They have this already.
On the iTunes store, on your desktop/laptop in the lower right hand portion it always shows what consumers also bought when looking at the current app.
It usually lists 5 things customers also bought.
They need to get a better marketing strategy, just like that of Microsoft; call it monopoly while I prefer to call it Market Dominance.
http://www.nichea.info
Agreed. It’s unfortunate that you have to hold up Microsoft as a model, but you gotta do whatever you can to get through to these pixel pushers.
“Oh, we started a rock band, but there are too many musicians out there, so we’ll just keep playing in our garage until some record executive drives by and hears us… boo hoo, boo hoo….”
“Oh, I look like a supermodel, but there are so many pretty girls in Hollywood, I’ll just sit here in Kansas and wait for someone to discover me… boo hoo, boo hoo…”
I’d like to take a step back and take a stab at the root philosophy of this issue.
I believe this problem of app discovery is a strategic marketing problem and must be treated as such in order to change the ways applications are created, developed and delivered.
First, I’d like to say that one of my pet peeves with Apple is their disregard for the marketplace. (once again a strategic marketing design issue) While some of you may argue that no other company has created such a tangible marketplace for the consumer, I don’t believe that is the correct angle in which to address this issue. More appropriately, the issue is in regards to the habitat created for applications, their ability to thrive and procreate.
So as a strategic marketing problem let’s identify a few issues with the current marketplace.
~App segmentation, applications are highly focused in their capabilities and usage. Most apps perform specific functions by themselves and due to structure of iphone OS do not (cannot) communicate with other applications. Thus the 50 bazillion apps and a ~150 app limit on the device….really how many pages of apps should I have? This isn’t exactly the minimalist Apple that I admire.
~App segmentation also leads to multiple applications being created for the same purpose, each has their own + and -. Applications are haunted by their legacy, name and root initial purpose.
~Multitude of applications for each segment leads to competition of price and not competition on value. Applications are forced to create lite apps to try to sell value to consumer, lite apps are not easily converted to full apps. (I would like to see automated and built in purchase and upgrade)
In this respect, the current marketplace is a horrible economic system, it is neither based on capitalism nor socialism. It has no rhyme or reason for success or failure. In addition, it increasingly diminishes the work of developers and quite frankly wastes their time.
When we look to other development environments (sourceforge comes to mind) we see that the environment is more geared towards collaboritive development of applications. In this respect a certain focus gets a diverse group of developers to contribute to a cause. I believe that this is the most efficient way of achieving a useful and valued piece of software. There is now the question of how to monetize and split the profits, but this problem is much easier to solve once the value of a product is increased ten fold. Imagine applications that are available for free trial for 30 days and available for purchase after such time. Now you have aligned the interests of the consumer and the developer, the value equation of development and consumption result in proper software development.
In conclusion, I believe that Apple treating the marketplace as a gimmick to sell more iPhones and macbooks is hurtful to the development community and the root interest of progressing the nature of software development and respecting and rewarding developers. The root cause of the problems of the current marketplace are the result of poor judgement on the part of Apple for creating a progressive development ecology.
Maybe someone needs to develop a Genius app?
Agreed, Genius would be a great way for indie apps to get noticed. As a developer myself, it’s very hard to push up the ladder, and getting into the top 25 is basically impossible because those that do stay there.
I will very shortly be launching an iPhone promotional section on Publicity Wheel (http://www.publicitywheel.com) for this very reason.
Looks like a business opportunity :) What about a portal like iworthy.com (domain seems to be taken) which would do proper reviews or collate reviews from the app store and display them in a more user-friendly and search-able manner? The costs might run high for review of paid apps, but if successful paid app developers will be willing to give away a free version to the reviewers!
i dont see why this is a news article? of course you have to promote your product, otherwise how else is anyone going to find you?
where else do you just put something up and expect it to get 1,000s of downloads automatically?
if you want to sell numbers, you have to promote it somehow
after getting approved on Saturday morning, and 2 days later being ranked #11 in our category and ~#70 in the UK top 100, the app store is working quite well for us
I emailed MG Siegler to let him know that I have created the genius features the App Store are still looking for. Checkout the website http://www.AppGiveaway.com and you will know what I am talking about :-)
MG thanks for bringing to light a HUGE issue for indie developers. From the trenches, here’s what’s going on:
1. Review sites are overloaded with requests. Like Alex mentions, there’s just not enough time to cover all of the submissions. Re: his quote “the key is to *gasp* create a good application that has real use or entertainment value.” I wish this was true. What is true is that you can have a rockin’ app that falls through the cracks of reviewer sites. It seems the best way to get noticed by reviewers is to pay to have your review expedited.
2. Developers don’t know how to market their apps. Anyone who spends time in developer forums knows that developers ARE interested in promoting their apps. The problem is twofold: 1. there is little hard data available on exactly what works and what doesn’t from a promotion standpoint. 2. It takes time, expertise (and and most often cash) to execute a solid marketing strategy. Many one wo/man shops just don’t have time to be an outstanding idea person, developer, designer, PR, advertising and marketing professional.
3. Having a Genius Bar for the App Store would be very helpful but Developers also need to get a handle on marketing and advertising. This means for a small shop like Clever Twist, we’re balancing our roles to cover all aspects of the business.
4. Clever Twist wants answers darnit. It’s an embarrassing statistic, but our apps “Popper!” and “Yo Mama So…” have both been in the app store for more than a month and we just broke the $500 mark in revenue YESTERDAY. We’re in the process of interviewing developers who want to share their experiences (good and bad) in app promotion. From there we’ll be publishing results and a forum for developers to continue the conversation.
If you’re a developer interested in contributing to the cause we’d LOVE to hear from you. Please fill out the contact form here: http://www.aclevertwist.com and we’ll get right back to you.
:) jen
Jen,
You’re right that sometimes really great apps fall through the cracks, especially during a submission to a site like ours, but I’d like to use your apps as a reference point for everyone if you don’t mind.
Your team definitely has talent and it looks like you’re capable of doing some great apps, but I’m not surprised that Yo Mama and Popper have not sold well – and this isn’t just because of exposure. We almost always pass on reviewing what we call “reference apps.” This isn’t the actual category, but more the functionality. Yo Mama is literally a database of Yo Mama jokes. There is some functionality added in addition to this, but at the core of it, its just a database. Our rational – in most cases – is if we can do it easily using Safari, we don’t find a dedicated app to be of much value. That’s not to say there aren’t practical uses of a pure database driven app, but this certainly won’t make us get excited enough to put the time and cost into doing a review.
Popper is one that we couldn’t get enough rallying behind for a review because the device is absolutely overloaded with puzzle games. There is always room for something revolutionary – but it is essentially a new spin on Snood. We see new puzzle games every day coming to us and they aren’t terribly interesting. It feels like when I worked in the casual games industry – market gets flooded with these to the point that people stop being interested all together and gloss over it. You will not get mega sales off a puzzle game, period – unless you are PopCap or have a proven prior brand property. Even then, it can be tough.
In any case, we’re always open to speaking with developers and helping them figure out the issue with the direction they are taking, explaining why we can’t cover their app, or helping push them on a good path – but like I said, we get slammed with the number of applications that come out. The best bet, which I mentioned before, is make a really exceptional app. Something different or something high quality, a ton a fun, or of high utility use – and I guarantee that you will get the attention you deserve.
-Alex
What they need on AppStore: BOOKMARKS!
So you basically suggest everyone should run with the crowd? Well, iPhone users were charged of having lemming mentality, but until now, this was an insult.
Run that by me again, the genius feature is genius just how? All it does is vaguely group things by genre! When I click on an rnb song, all it does is adding all other rnb/rap songs in the genius database which are on my iphone to the playlist. There is no difference in the resulting playlists, whether based on the song “someone to hold” by 112, or “kill you” by eminem. How is that genius?
je lance une petition pour tous les européens,to all europeans: je souhaite plus de signatures à cette pétition:
http://www.gope...line/28536.html
Merci