What I think the new Apple device will be
I have been thinking about posting my thoughts about the upcoming new Apple device for a while. Because I didn’t have the time to do so, I will just make a list of features I think this device will have:
- It will be shipped in a single size, with 10″ screen
- It will have touch screen and, more important, touch recognition on the back of the case, where the fingers naturally rest when you hold the device
- It will use a dual-core ARM processor produced by Semi PA, an ARM licensee acquired by Apple.
- The OS will be a modified version of iPhone OS, so the final user will only have a superficial access to the device.
- Non optimized iPhone applications will work in iPhone size windows while the optimized one will run in full-screen mode. The device will support multi-tasking.
- It will be offered mobile operator free but it will be mobile operator ready. You will be able to pick the provider of your choice.
- Apple will offer free unlimited wireless connectivity with a MobileMe account to access to limited content like iTunes, iDisk, Mail and other Mobile Me services.
- It will offer unlimited connectivity for subscription applications like magazine and newspapers
- It will have GPS .
- It will not support Adobe Flash.
- It will have a front facing camera, with facial recognition for the users (remember that new feature in iPhoto?)
Tomorrow will find out the truth. I know I will get one no matter what, what about you?
Tags: Apple, Table
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The key of life
I found this image on internet and I decided to share it with you.
Tags: Inspiration
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Stencils for iPhone developers
You can find Dean’s stencil at MobileSketchBook.com.
Tags: iPhone, iPhone application, Stencils, Tools, video
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Christmasfy Me: case history of the freemium model on the iPhone
As many of you may have noticed, in the last forty days or so I promoted all over the place a simple Christmas application we published called Christmasfy Me. Not only was it a fun application that we wanted to build, but it was also our first experiment with in-app purchasing. Not too long ago, Apple opened the in-app purchase feature to free applications. I personally think this is a great tool for a lot of people to monetize their apps, and at the same time, somehow solve the problem of not being able to release demo and trial versions of their apps.
As promised, I’m going to fully disclose the results I gathered with Christmasfy Me in hopes of helping others to better understand this business model.
The application
Christmasfy Me is an iPhone application that lets you take a picture, or select an existing one from your library, and apply Christmas elements to it. You can then save or share these pictures via email, Twitter, or Facebook. You can view a video of how this application works at www.ChristmasfyMe.com. The application originally came with three unlocked items, we then unlocked an additional three items for a total of six. To unlock the remaining 20 items, the user had to pay $0.99.
Some factors we need to keep in mind
This iPhone application was built and released as a seasonal application; this means that the same kind of application (not necessarily with the same theme) may have totally different results and numbers during other periods of the year. The application was released in a period that is usually notorious for having more downloads that any other period throughout the year: between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Considering that after Christmas the sales dropped considerably, I will only take into account the sales from 11/26/2009 to 12/31/2009.
The numbers
Over a period of 37 days, Christmasfy Me was downloaded a total of 66,623 times. Of those downloads, 32,189 happened in the US while the other 34,434 account for world-wide downloads, mainly in the UK and Italy. In Italy, the application even ranked as the second most downloaded free application in the photography category and about 120th in the overall Top Free chart for a few days. I can’t hide that I was expecting to do better than this. Of course, I’m not unhappy with the results, but everything was timed in order to be included by Apple in their holidays selection and that never happened. Even on its better days, as far as downloads go, the app never ranked better than 500th in the Top Free Apps chart. This says a lot about how many downloads you need to be in the top 100, especially considering the fact that rank and number of downloads don’t usually grow proportionally.
As far as in-app purchases go, we sold a total of 2,193 “upgrades” over the same period. This is actually better than I expected, considering that this was an average conversion rate of 3.29% and, based on the results published by Riptide of their in-app purchase experience, I was expecting something closer to 2.5%. The regional results demonstrate how US customers are more likely to buy in-app content, with an average conversion rate of 4.11%, and accounting for 60.37% of the total of in-app purchases. So, if you decide to build your business on in-app purchases, forget markets like Italy, where the conversion rate was well below 1%, and focus on the US and the UK. Also, If you look at the chart, you’ll notice that conversion rate dropped after December 16th, the day we released a new version where, among other updates, the number of free elements went from three to six.
Conclusions
It might not be the most profitable business model since you need a high number of downloads to make a decent profit, but definitely less than what you would need with ads. More and more powerhouses like ngimoco, Gameloft, and Tapulous are switching to this model with many of their apps. Also, this may allow you to create complex and expensive apps while allowing your customers to pay only for the features they really need (Boxcar docet). The biggest con I found is that a lot of people expect everything to be free to download. I’ve even been accused of “stealing” money because there were only three free elements in the first version. That cost me a bunch of one star ratings in the App store.
I will definitely explore and use this model more in the future. I think there is more that can be done to improve performance and revenue. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated with our results.
Tags: analytics, Apple, Business, Christmasfy Me, iPhone, iPhone application, Monetization
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2009 recap and 2010 goals
I guess it is time again to look back at what I have accomplished during the soon-to-be over year and set the goals for the upcoming one.
For me, 2009 was really full of surprises and unexpected changes. If you asked me where I would see myself in 12 months last January, I would never have expected to be where I am today, especially as far as personal life. But, I did accomplished some of my goals, mostly in my professional life, such as making Thirtynine my main focus, developing a few successful apps and growing my client base.
So what about 2010?
- Grow Thirtynine: This year I would like to grow the company even further still, which will require hiring a couple of new people in order to have more workforce to dedicate to internal projects. We have great ideas we want to develop, but, luckily, clients keep us busy with their projects.
- Publish a top 100 iPhone application: So far I’ve published several applications that hit the top 20 chart in their relative categories, but I was never able to break into the overall top 100 chart in the US. I have no preference at this point between the top paid or free apps chart, but I can’t hide that I would love to be in the top grossing chart.
- Clean up my digital closet: I really need to get rid of the things I don’t use and cost me money to maintain. I have hundreds of domains and several subscriptions that are not being used. Of course this also means that I have to stop buying a domain every time an idea pops in my brain. I would be lying to myself if said that I will eventually use it, because the truth is that I don’t have time to build it, and if I do, I surely don’t have time to maintain it.
- Be more productive: Too often I get distracted and lose focus on what I have to get done. In 2010, I definitely want to improve that, I don’t care if that means closing every single communication tool for hours at a time. Sorry, next time you need me while I’m working, you might have to come here and knock on my door (and I might still not open it).
- Improve my English: I’m sure that if you are reading this post, you won’t need me to explain to you why I need to improve my written English.
- Get back in shape: Thanks to a herniated disk and several other back problems, I haven’t done much in the past 6 months. My goal is to go back to some sport activity at least 3 times per week (if not 5 like I was used to).
- Do more charity: There are two things I’d like to do. The first one is to release a free application about the Alzheimer’s disease with the main goal to raise money through Paypal donation. My grand-mother is currently in the late stage of this terrible disease, and while there’s not much I can do to help her, I’d love to know that my efforts would have contributed somehow in helping somebody else’s grandmother or other family member to avoid (or cure) this disease. The second thing is to donate a freshwater well with Charity: Water for each single project or app that generates more than $25,000 in profits.
Tags: 2010, Goals
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New iTunes App Store design
I was checking as usual how my apps were doing in the store when I notice that Apple just released a redesign of the application pages in the App Store. I definitely think this is a great improvement and I think it will improve sales for everybody. Here is what’s new:
- They got rid of the huge link to your company name. Nobody was clicking on it to see your apps so it was just a waste of space and it was confusing people.
- Simple horizontal scroll to see the screenshots. This means that if you have a decent size screen you can actually see more than one screenshot at the time.
- Excerpt of the description. Developers will have to make sure that the most important stuff are written in the first part of the description.
- Links to the company site and support page more prominent.
- More importance to the “What’s New in Version…” section.
- An area with the links to few other apps from the same developer. This is great to help cross promotions of your apps. Even after they get old, this is a good way for people to find the.
- This is also helped by a new big “Customers Also Bought” area at the bottom. Of course this won’t help you on your app page, but it will help you when your app will appear on your competitors’ page
Overall I would say this is a great update by Apple, that seems doing a lot of things lately to please users and developers as far as iPhone OS apps.
Tags: App Store, Apple, applications, iPhone application
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iPhone Application Sketch Book Review
Links to the mentioned products:
iPhone Application Sketch Book
iPhone Stencil Kit
Tags: Apple, Book, iPhone, iPhone application, review
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Two weeks of Magic Mouse
It has been about two weeks since I received the Magic Mouse I won thanks to Mobclix, so I thought I’d share with you my impressions.
First of all, the object is beautiful. It could sit on my coffee table in the living room, and my guest would never guess it’s a mouse. As far as functionality, I think we are facing an evolution jump as big as switching from a mouse with a track ball (do you remember them?) to a laser mouse. No more cursing when the page doesn’t scrool, no more experimenting with new ways of cleaning the scroll-ball, it just works… Beautifully and flawlessly. When you first start using the mouse, the shape could make it a bit uncomfortable; it’s significantly flatter than its predecessor, and the movement to scroll the pages could feel awkward, but after a few days you won’t notice it anymore, and you’ll soon wonder why no one thought of this earlier.
On the downside, Apple decided to remove two of the four buttons: the middle and the “squeeze” buttons. Honestly, if I didn’t win the mouse I wouldn’t buy it for that exact reason. Button 3 and 4 were my access to Exposè, and I just couldn’t live without it. As far as multi-touch control, Apple only gives you two buttons (left and right), the 360 degrees scroll and a double swipe left and right to control the browser history and other stuff, like iChat tabs or to scroll through your e-mail messages in Mail. I was actually surprised Apple didn’t take more advantage of some functions they already enabled for the Macbook’s touchpad, such as multiple-finger movements to trigger Expose and Spaces. But luckily, just a couple of days ago, I found an awesome software that lets me set up all sort of multi-touch gestures and now I fully control Expose and more simply by “caressing” my mouse. I’m sure Apple will release an official driver to do all these things soon, but for now I’m happy with how Magic Mouse and BetterTouchTool are working together.
Tags: Apple, Magic Mouse, Multi-touch, review
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Cool blogs I recently started reading
Lately, I added few really good blogs to my RSS feed reader (yes, somebody still use them…).
Here’s a list with some of them:
Both Sides of the Table: I learned tons of things about startups and VC thanks to this blog. In his words: Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC.
BijanSabet.com: general partner at Spark Capital, great tips for startups, awesome music.
Ignore the Code: written by Lukas Mathis, user interface and usability expert.
Make Cool Shit: a blog about creativity and productivity.
Minimal Mac: best tips to de-clutter your mac and your life.
Tapity: Learning and sharing strategies to build successful iPhone apps.
Uproar Blog: writing about software development and entrepreneurship with as much transparency as possible.
Tags: Link
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