Ideas to fix the App Store (a new developer’s perspective)
In this past week my first paid app (and it’s free version) launched and i’d been noticing a trend when it comes to sales that I don’t think other developers make clear enough, and it’s an opportunity for Apple to give more exposure small developers as well as pad their own pocketbooks.
Exposure on the App Store is everything!
Being visible on the App Store is better than any marketing you do yourself, it’s as simple as that. Case in point, most of my sales to date of Breakaway Fantasy Hockey (let’s just call it BFH) came before I did any promotion for the app at all, while it was still on the first page of the sports section’s release list. After I started spreading the word on Digg/Reddit and the free version of BFH became available, i’ve seen my sales actually decline steadily. Now, low sales aren’t entirely unexpected in my case. My app is for managing NHL hockey pools and the NHL season hasn’t started yet (it’s a month away), so I wasn’t expecting to sell gangbusters in August (why it was released in August is another topic altogether). The fact remains that most of the attention my app’s gotten so far came from being new and visible on the App Store itself.
What can Apple do?
We, as developers trying to make something decent in this business, shouldn’t have to resort to selling our hard work for $0.99 so we can maybe make it to the top of an App Store list because that’s the only way to get great sales. Apple needs to be part of the solution and help as many people as possible get exposure. Here are some very basic, simple ideas they could implement that I think would help tremendously:
1. “If you like [app name], you might also like…”
A recommendation system would be a great addition to the App Store. If someone’s searching for hockey apps it’d be nice to have mine recommended to them in some way. Amazon does this to great success, even YouTube does a good job of recommending videos I might like based on what i’ve watched before. It almost sounds crazy that the iTunes Store doesn’t offer it in some way or another, and it’s hardly a new concept.
2. Randomized ‘Featured’ list
To get to the front page of the App Store you either need be a big corporate entity, or… have lots of sales. Does that sound off to anyone else? You need to get a lot of sales to get on the front page to get a lot of sales? I think there should be a section of the front page that just let’s people know certain apps even exist. Just pick a random handful of 32 apps (that’s how many the “What’s Hot”, “New and Noteworthy”, and “Staff Favourites” sections show) and leave them there for a day or two. Every couple of days swap those out for another 32 apps. It’d be simple to write an algorithm to prevent the same apps from showing up too often, and it would give some much needed exposure.
These are just two ideas but I feel like these are very basic things that should already be there. Developers shouldn’t have to play the $0.99 game to be successful on the App Store, they should be comfortable in selling their apps for what they’re worth and getting a healthy return for their efforts. Apple has their 30% stake in our efforts as well, they should be doing everything possible to help everyone get a fair shake.
Our success is their success, after all.
Free version of Breakaway now available
You can also start following Kiloton on Twitter (@kilotonapps) if you’re interested in hearing my random thoughts during the development process.
What a launch…
Well folks, i’ve got some good news, some bad news, then some more good news.
Breakaway Fantasy Hockey was approved earlier today and is now available to download from the iTunes Store! This is my first app so it’s very exciting. What isn’t exciting, though, is finding out my app had a pretty nasty bug on it’s launch day. Seems that if there wasn’t an internet connection present it had a bad habit of occasionally crashing, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
I’ve isolated the problem, fixed the bug, and submitted the update to Apple just a few minutes ago so hopefully it should be available within the next few days. Breakaway Fantasy Hockey Lite should be available soon as well.
In other news, i’m hard at work on the next major update to Breakaway – v1.1 – so stay tuned for more info!
Coming Soon: Breakaway Fantasy Hockey
After a few months of development, i’m pleased to announce that i’ve submitted my very first iPhone/iPod Touch app. What is it? A hockey pool manager, where you’ll be able to create and manage your fantasy hockey teams and track how well your players are performing. It should go on sale within the next few weeks for $2.99… unless it gets rejected for some weird reason and i’m forced to resubmit. In any case, it should be up well before the start of the 2009/2010 NHL season.
Learn more about the app here.
Swapping Bytes
I’m experimenting with some new themes and layout options for the site, so things might look a bit weird as I get things sorted out.