

Kissing the App Store Goodbye - edw519
http://thecodist.com/article/kissing_the_app_store_goodbye

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thomasswift
Everything is all about marketing now. Getting coverage and the word out there
- makes a big difference (not that I've done that with my apps).

How are you going to compete with the likes of EA, LucasArts, ngmoco, Konami
and capcom with massive budgets and connections? For me it seems you need to
create something different/wonky that people will talk about, or the staff
likes, to get on the top 25 or other lists.

Simply making something and putting it up there won't make you shit, I know I
got one up there.

>> An Orwellian review team which does not communicate to anyone (even inside
Apple), uneven policies which change at random times leading to horror stories
form Shaken Babies to Google Voices

I agree for the most part with this. Any sort of crazy idea I have, I
immediately think I'm not gonna bother with this because it takes to much time
to develop just to be denied by Apple, for some arcane reason, and get a
rejection letter with a nondescript problem. Other problems with the review
process, you have absolutely no idea how long it will take.

I would love to get some sort of lead time, or amount of apps before yours.

For me it's a crap shoot, but I make things I like and want, if I plan to send
it to the store, because I think others might enjoy them, I test them out to
the best of my potential and try to conform to Apple's HIG.

~~~
rdrimmie
Well, part of your wish is coming true. Apple's announcing an average time-to-
approval for developers. Which is a very small step.

([http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/01/apple-adds-queue-time-
contact...](http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/01/apple-adds-queue-time-contact-info-
to-iphone-developer-pages/))

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colinplamondon
Yowza.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2HdUuM_2Gk>

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cubicle67
This demonstrates that whilst there's plenty of valid criticism of Apple's
handling of the AppStore, it's _your_ job to build something that people want.

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ajg1977
Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the
App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your
application).

~~~
there
when your application is only available through that one distribution channel,
your marketing ability and effectiveness are pretty limited.

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ajg1977
Rubbish. How on earth does a distribution channel limit ones marketing
ability? These are completely orthogonal aspects of producing a successful
product.

Do you think movie studios hope that you'll stumble across their film by
looking at the show times of your local theater? Do Authors pray that you'll
stumble across their book in the M-R fiction section of a bookstore?

~~~
kalid
Unfortunately, smaller independent films and authors probably do hope you
stumble upon their works -- it's notoriously difficult to sell books unless
you are picked up by a major publisher.

I think his point is that things like the App store should be more of a
meritocracy (like the web), but it's becoming increasingly difficult for
smaller players to get noticed to due the economics (strong downward pricing
pressure) and Apple's policies (random rejection can destroy months of work).
One thing they don't mention is how difficult it is to figure out where your
sales are coming from; there's no Google analytics or referrer logs for app
sales -- you have to do things like become your own affiliate through
LinkShare and assign different codes to your own links if you have multiple
distribution channels.

~~~
olefoo
A list of all the things one can do to raise the profile and track the
marketing of a single developer app would be a useful resource. Hell, if you
put together a decent sized ebook, it would probably be a reasonable
successful product. If you could reach the right audience.

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jkmcf
The app store is not awesome for consumers. Like he says, it is poorly
organized (why can't they implement tagging?). Finding something worth
spending money on is time consuming and near impossible. Finding something
that is free and interesting is also quite difficult. I monitor Pinch Media's
feeds, and filter based on free, but most of the apps are worthless.

As for pricing, I think the realistic price for a well developed app is $5-10.
I have spent money on a few games, but most of the non-game apps are either
useless or targeted at something outside my wants.

A great example of a free app is Word Warp. It is one of my most frequently
used apps. Supposedly, they make serious cash from advertising. If it's a
game, and worth replaying, you can make good money. Maybe there's a way to do
this w/ non-games that isn't too intrusive.

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baddox
Oh wait, so it's just like the criticism thrown at Windows Mobile devices by
Apple fanatics that "sure there's lots of software [for Windows Mobile] but
there's so much of it it's impossible to sort through and determine quality."

