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Posts tagged with "app store"

Apple Doesn’t Change Stance on Pay-Per-Install Apps

GigaOM has posted an interview with Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah, detailing how Apple is still not accepting new and updated applications that rely on pay-per-install networks like, indeed, Tapjoy. Back in April we reported Apple, after altering its App Store algorithm to better promote apps based on active usage and quality rather than download numbers, started rejecting apps powered by “pay-per-install” systems and offer-walls – basically in-app links and buttons that allow users to gain free virtual currencies and other goods by downloading another app from the App Store. Developers get paid, users get free goods only by downloading an app they can decide to never open and, on the other side of the spectrum, Tapjoy and other companies manage the entire system by giving developers the tools to implement these functionalities.

As Apple started tweaking the algorithm, it was reported the company didn’t like offer-walls and pay-per-install networks anymore as they saw them like a way to cheat the App Store charts and make some apps rank higher because of the downloads and promotions. Tapjoy then started capping downloads through it networks to comply with Apple’s new rules, but CEO Mihir Shah says he’s “confused” as that’s proven to not be enough for Apple, with the App Store team also saying they had no time to discuss the proposed solutions.

Tapjoy, whose app promotion campaigns have been halted by Apple in new and updated iOS apps, has come up with a new solution that it hopes can help it avoid Apple’s recent ban. The company has proposed a simple fix that allows Apple to identify app referrals from Tapjoy’s ad network so it can prevent those downloads from being counted by the App Store ranking algorithm.

Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah said he reached out to Apple three weeks ago and offered to include a referral URL for the App Store when a user chooses to download an app in exchange for virtual goods. That would allow Apple to identify that the download came from Tapjoy and not count it in the App Store ranking algorithm. Shah said Apple wrote back a couple days later saying it had no time to discuss the issue.

Tapjoy is seeing an obvious decline in revenue and traffic on iOS devices, though they’re making up with growth on the Android platform. Many suggest Apple does no longer accept this kind of offer-walls because they want to promote iAd for developers among advertisers; however, Apple’s review guidelines for App Store apps explicitly mention that ”developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program.”

The Heist Sells Half A Million Copies in 7 Days

Released a week ago and selling a copy every second in the App Store with more than 86k downloads on the second day of availability, the Tap Tap Tap developers have just announced the impressive sales numbers for The Heist, a MacHeist-related iPhone app that, through a series of puzzles to complete, grants users access to a free prize. Priced at $0.99 and available only for the iPhone and iPod touch, The Heist has sold half a million copies in 7 days – 501,813 sales in 6.5 days to be exact for $300,000 in revenue (that’s after Apple’s cut). Tap Tap Tap believes this has to be a new record in the App Store as their previous (successful) app Voices sold 500,000 copies in one month, and The Heist has overtaken Rovio’s Angry Birds for 5 days in a row now. The app will eventually fall down the charts as novelty wears off and people beat the game, but the results in this week of availability are impressive nonetheless.

In most countries The Heist popped into the top, pushing its way past a group of established App Store brands – Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, more Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, etc., and we think by benefit of not being familiar, and rather being totally fresh, The Heist enjoyed a particularly strong surge of interest and sales once the app started experiencing #1 charting exposure. (The #1 spot is not only representative of how well your app is doing, but also is arguably the most valuable and highly tapped ‘shelf space’ on the App Store.)

A lot of people are sick of Angry Birds, and while we have no expectations on knocking it out for more than an abberation of a week, we are definitely proud to have dispelled the ridiculous notion that your app and app icon has to have a bird in it to take #1. Though to be fair, we’re going to have a helluva time merchandising a vault door.

The Heist’s success doesn’t surprise considering Tap Tap Tap’s background and the popularity of MacHeist among iOS and Mac users, though these numbers may have exceeded expectations even for the team that every year organizes contests and bundles to get Mac software at a discounted price. Tap Tap Tap explains on its blog the various “tactics” that allowed the app to climb the App Store charts this fast (including press coverage, word of mouth, email newsletter, and so forth), so if you’re a developer and you’re planning on creating the next Heist or Angry Birds, make sure to check out Tap Tap Tap’s story to get an overview of what’s like to have a tremendous App Store success.

Apple’s App Store Processes 59% Of All Mobile App Downloads

Research2Guidance issued a new research report recently that indicates Apple is dominating other mobile app stores in terms of app downloads. In the first quarter of 2011 it is revealed that Apple’s App Store was host to 59% of all application downloads. This is despite a fall in 22% since the App Store first opened to a dominating position of serving 81% of all app downloads.

The report surveyed 58 app stores which is a significant increase from the 18 app stores that were available when the iPhone App Store launched in July of 2008. Unsurprisingly the Android Market is the strongest competitor to the App Store. It led to a deterioration of the App Store’s share of downloads in the second half of 2010, which fell by 24%.

The first quarter of 2011 has seen a stabilization of the App Store’s share of app downloads, which has actually increased by 2% - helped by the increased popularity of the iPad. Research2Guidance says in its report that the following two years will prove critical for Apple’s competitors if they want to reduce their hold over the market. In part this is solidified by the suggestion that once users spend significant amounts of money on apps, they are less likely to want to switch platforms.

[Research2Guidance via The Next Web]

Opera Mini 6 for iPad Reviewed

There isn’t any stiff competition on the iPad when it comes to third party browsers, but one could arguably assert that Opera has a widely recognizable name when it comes to the mobile browser space; we’re sure the Opera community would enjoy additional exposure on iOS alongside the dominant focus on Android. Unfortunately, Opera’s attention to Android has tended to be a problem when it comes to curating its iOS app. When Opera for the iPhone launched to the surprise of many in 2010, the app fell by the wayside with a lack of enthusiasm and was seemingly forgotten about as Opera for the iPhone never updated to take advantage of the Retina Display. Opera had seemingly lost interest in supporting iOS, that is until an updated Opera Mini 6 landed on the App Store as a universal app, bringing an updated interface and some extra polish to their mobile app. It remains to be seen whether Opera will continue to provide consistent updates to their mobile browser on iOS, but that doesn’t mean we won’t provide our take on the current “red O”.

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10.6.8 Will Get Mac App Store Ready for Lion, Remove Mac Defender

According to the release notes of the latest build of Mac OS X 10.6.8 seeded to developers on Friday, the upcoming upgrade will contain improvements for Preview, VPN and IPv6, but more importantly it will make changes to the Mac App Store application in order to get it ready for Lion’s digital distribution this summer. As noted by 9to5mac, the installer of build 10K531 reports 10.6.8 will “enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion”, as well as “identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender.” Last week, Apple indeed updated a support document related to the Mac Defender malware promising that “in the coming days” a Mac OS X software update would be released to automatically find and remove Mac Defender and its known variants. At this point, it appears Apple is getting ready to release Mac OS X 10.6.8 relatively soon, perhaps even ahead of the WWDC that kicks off on June 6.

As for Lion’s release, latest rumors indicated that after widespread internal testing Apple could release the OS sooner than initially expected – not in July or August, maybe at the WWDC. A WWDC release, however, would appear strange considering Lion Developer Preview 3 still has several bugs to fix and a GM build hasn’t been seeded yet. Apple is undoubtedly “enhancing” the Mac App Store’s underlying code to make the transition to Lion easier and the download process as smooth as possible, though it seems likely that the company will also sell boxed copies (DVDs or portable USB keys, as many suggested) for those users unable to download gigabytes of data from the App Store.

Selling A Copy Every Second, The Heist Overtakes Angry Birds

A few days ago we reported on a new game to hit the App Store, The Heist, which is an iPhone game from the team behind the popular MacHeist bundle. In just a few days it has done astoundingly well, managing to knock off Angry Birds from the top of the paid apps list in the App Store – which is no small feat.

It’s first day had 25,000 downloads according to The Loop, but on day two those figures skyrocketed to 89,798 purchases. Effectivelly that means for just its second day on sale, The Heist was selling more than 1 copy a second (there are 86,400 seconds in a day), supremely impressive for a paid app, even if the app is $0.99.

With revenues approaching $100,000 and sales already well above the 100,000 figure, its obvious to see that the MacHeist team have done a supremely good job in creating and marketing the game – some of the marketing included clues that were hidden in the first Twitter for Mac client this year. Will it sustain the top spot and keep off Angry Birds? Only time will tell.

[Via TechCrunch]

Ranky Shows Beautiful iOS & Mac App Store Rankings for Developers

If you’re an iOS or Mac developer, or you handle the marketing for a development studio that has apps on Apple’s App Store, you know the importance of checking rankings for your application on all the international App Stores. It doesn’t matter if your app is the next Angry Birds (probably not, though The Heist managed to take the #1 spot in the iPhone App Store after months of Rovio dominance) or something that will be fine sitting between the #20 and #100 positions, checking rankings by country and category is a common practice that helps you better understand how well an app is doing, where, and quite possibly also why.

Ranky, a new app by Studio Dalton, wants to make the process of studying rankings extremely simple, focused and beautiful. The app provides real-time results for iOS and Mac App Store apps, a feature that’s surely welcome as it allows to check for any app distributed through Apple’s App Stores. Once you’ve entered any iPhone, iPad or Mac app to track, you’ll only have to select the countries you’re interested in to start analyzing the markets. After that, for each app you’ll get an overview by category or “overall” – the same applies if you filter down apps by country, you’ll get the same screen with “overall” and “category” screens to see how your app is performing. Ranky also comes with the possibility of displaying changes since the last time you checked the app, and email and Twitter sharing built-in.

With a beautiful interface and a simple, yet powerful feature set, Ranky is a neat little tool iOS and Mac devs should test right away. Go download the app here at $0.99.

The Daily for iPad Nearing 1 Million Downloads

The Daily, the iPad-only magazine built by News Corp. with help from Apple when the two companies unveiled iTunes app subscriptions in February, is about to hit 1 million App Store downloads, TechCrunch reports. At the TechCrunch Disrupt panel entitled “Disrupting Publishing from Tablets to Links”, The Daily publisher Greg Clayman said the app is nearing the important milestone of 1 million downloads, though he didn’t provide any details on the number of people that decided to subscribe to the app since late March, when The Daily started charging for content after an initial free run sponsored by Verizon Wireless. The Daily currently comes with in-app subscriptions priced at $1 per week or $40 per year; a report from April suggested The Daily, both because of paywall and editorial choices, was seeing a decline in popularity in spite of Apple’s heavy promotion on Apple.com and the App Store homepage. Others suggested the same when News Corp. confirmed 800k downloads in 3 months and a $10 million loss over the last quarter to run The Daily operations.

However, 1 million downloads is a notable milestone that, in the words of Clayman, puts The Daily “in the large pantheon of large news apps.” Our first impressions of the app still hold true today – The Daily isn’t the fastest news app available on the App Store and not even the iPad 2’s beefier processor managed to make The Daily run smoothly without crashes of sorts. The Daily is expected to become available on more devices later this year, including the Android tablets that have been rolling out in the market in the past months.

Daedalus Touch for iPad

I’ve started to shy away from the bulk of text editors that hit my inbox since few bring something different to the table. There’s only so many ways you can rewrite a text editor, and while I’d love to cover everything the ones I really want to showcase have to offer something truly unique for me to sit down and crank out a review in TextMate. It’s terribly difficult to find something that stands out, but I think those disappointed with the App Store’s current offering may find something of interest here. Daedalus Touch for the iPad is different in part because of how it allows you manipulate documents in a hybrid stack & coverflow style that takes advantage of gestures, and not lists, to organize your ideas. There are no lists or hierarchy of folders, but rather stacks of sheets that contain your text. Of course it has Dropbox and TextExpander support (a must nowadays), which means you don’t have an excuse not to check Daedalus past the break.

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