The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘app-store’

It’s still early days, but app store analytics company Distimo is already diving into the App Store for iPad, gathering some data and analyzing the results. More specifically, the startup has compared some preliminary data for iPad-only applications across multiple categories in the App Store with its findings on iPhone apps.

Distimo tracked 2,385 unique iPad applications in the marketplace as of 6 April, which is significantly less than the 3,000+ apps Mobclix accounted for on April 4. Perhaps Mobclix counted the applications in the App Store that were available for both iPhone and iPad, while Distimo only looked at iPad-exclusive apps, which would explain the difference (we’re awaiting a response from Mobclix to learn more about their counting methodology).

Out of those 2.385 iPad-specific apps, Distimo found that the ‘Games’ category is by far the largest with 833 titles (35%), followed by ‘Entertainment’ with 260 apps (11%) and ‘Education’ with 205 titles (8.6%), respectively. The – relatively – smaller categories include ‘Weather’ (17 apps), ‘Navigation’ (18 apps) and, perhaps surprisingly, ‘Finance’ (with 21 apps).

When comparing categories across devices, ‘Games’ and ‘Entertainment’ applications appear to be even more popular on the iPhone than on the iPad: 70% of the most popular apps on the iPhone are published in either of those two categories, compared to 40% on the iPad. We should note that there are more than 150,000 apps for the iPhone today, so take any comparisons to the less than 2,400 iPad apps with a grain of salt.

That said, it’s hardly surprising that games and entertainment apps are clearly the most popular categories for both the iPhone and the iPad – both devices come with a high-quality touchscreen, boast powerful processors and are excellent for content consumption as well as playing anything from simple games fit for kids to complicated ones that require advanced gaming skills. But if the iPad, and by extension other potent tablet computers, will ever replace laptops (like some contend) is a whole different story imho.

Also, note the difference in percentages for the ‘Business’, ‘Productivity’ and ‘News’ categories.

Now let’s take a look at pricing.

Distimo found that 83% of applications for the iPad are paid, compared to 73% of all applications for the iPhone. We’ll see how this evolves in the future, but I’d wager that both will end up at approximately 25% free vs. 75% paid in the long run.

Also worth noting: the average price of all paid applications that are solely compatible with the iPad is $3.61, compared to $3.55 for applications compatible with the iPhone.

Medical applications are most expensive on both the iPad ($9.39 on average) and iPhone ($10.73). On the contrary, ‘Education’ ($9.10), ‘Healthcare & Fitness’ ($4.41), ‘Music’ ($6.86) and ‘Sports’ ($4.95) applications are significantly more expensive on the iPad.

Contrary, books are currently cheaper on the iPad than on the iPhone, which could be explained by the availability of the iBookstore on the iPad right out the gate.

Again, we’ll have to see how iPad owners respond to differences in pricing levels across categories over time before jumping to any conclusions.

From time to time, Apple posts about new positions on our CrunchBoard job board — which we appreciate. For example, last December they posted an opening that seemed to suggest an expansion of iWork in the cloud. But today we noticed something rather interesting, Apple has posted several positions — so many that they have completely taken over the job board widget that appears on TechCrunch. And all are centered around the App Store.

This shouldn’t really come as a huge surprise to those who follow Apple. The much-hyped iPad device is set to launch on April 3, and with it will undoubtedly be an onslaught of new apps. In fact, it appears that the wait times for app reviews has been slipping substantially in recent days as developers are rushing to submit their iPad apps before the March 27 deadline (to be considered for an initial launch app) — and it stands to reason that Apple is giving priority to iPad apps to get reviewed initially.

It would seem that Apple is bracing itself to take the App Store to the next level with this new device.

So what kinds of positions is Apple filling? Interestingly, most are editorial-based, meaning Apple is looking for people who can help distinguish the good apps for the bad ones, for promotion. For example, the Editorial Programmer, Apps should be someone who, “is responsible for the discovery, selection, and promotion of apps”. Other positions revolve around promoting the business behind the App Store.

Something else interesting is that Apple is looking for people who can help with the “promotion of apps on the desktop as well device App Stores.” This suggests that Apple may in fact be thinking of an App Store idea for the Mac itself. The company recently launched a new Mac Developer Program similar to the one it offers for the iPhone (and now iPad).

Three of the positions listed are also specifically related to game apps. Games have been the largest portion of the App Store for much of its existence, but were recently overtaken by books. But seeing as Apple is now doing its own book promotion via iBooks, games look to reign supreme again — especially with the larger screen iPad. And clearly Apple knows this.

After hyping the fact that they were building a free browser application for the iPhone and iPod touch, and showing it off to a small circle of reporters at the most recent Mobile World Congress (us included), Opera Software has officially submitted Opera Mini for iPhone to the Apple App Store earlier today.

Million dollar question: will Apple allow it in, or leave the Norwegian software company hanging?

The company says Opera Mini for iPhone is up to 6 times faster than the native browser thanks to its compression and server-side rendering technology, based on internal tests, and after having tried it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year I have to say it’s definitely zooming.

Opera at the time told me that they’d analyzed the App Store policies in great detail, and that they’re completely certain of being 100% compliant – which sort of puts the ball in Apple’s camp.

What do you think its chances for approval are?

When you think of one percent of something, it’s usually not a very big number. But in some cases it is. Like when you’re talking about all of the users of the Internet in the world.

Today, OpenDNS is announcing that over one percent of the world’s Internet users are using its services. It’s the first DNS provider to hit such a milestone, and it means that over 18 million people are using the service to access the web in a way that founder and CEO David Ulevitch calls “safer, faster, smarter and more reliable.“

And that usage number has doubled in just the last 12 months, according to Ulevitch.

That type of growth is important because a new, big time player just entered the ring: Google. But despite the big name, and the right price (free), the results for Google’s DNS offering have varied. And in a test we ran with Google’s own Namebench product, OpenDNS easily beat Google in DNS speed.

The truth is that most users have no idea what any of these DNS services do, or how to go about changing them. So companies like OpenDNS have to rely on partnerships with schools (they have over 25,000), partnerships with large corporations (they have them with many Fortune 500 companies), or parents really worried about what their children are surfing for on the web. But again, the growth is clearly happening, and actually picking up speed, according to Ulevitch, so that’s a very good sign.

An even better sign: OpenDNS has been profitable since 2007.

[photo: flickr/jurvetson]

Mobile advertising company AdMarvel, fresh off the heels of being acquired by Opera Software for a reported $8 million plus earn-out, has teamed up with Gannett subsidiary PointRoll to launch an advertising platform for Apple’s iPad.

Dubbed the iPad Advertising Platform, the companies aim to combine PointRoll’s rich media technology with AdMarvel’s mobile advertising capabilities.

The launch of the platform is part of a broader partnership between both companies, who will develop cross-platform solutions for ad mediation, campaign management, ad serving and analytics tailored to the latest mobile devices and operating systems.

AdMarvel boasts about its cross-browser, cross-application SDK for developers to build services that include rich media advertising options for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and other mobile applications including Android and Blackberry. Developers can source from some 60 ad networks from around the globe to deliver geo-targeted ads.

In turn, marketers and ad networks can tap into the platform to manage campaigns, targeting and frequency control and get clear performance metrics.

The iPad Advertising Platform is said to support JavaScript, expandable ad units, animation, interstitials, transparent overlays of content and interaction. The platform also supports in-app advertising units for the promotion of new features or content channels. Finally, the iPad Advertising Platform features click-to-contact, click-to-maps, click-to-app and click-to-video actions.

AdMarvel / PointRoll is far from the only one coming up with solutions for Apple’s iPad – rival Mobclix released its iPad SDK just last week.

And to think Apple has yet to commence shipping the first iPad units to early adopters.

(Source: press release)

This morning, the Internet was abuzz with the news that Apple would begin selling unlocked iPhones. The only problem? It’s not true. In fact, it’s no different from what Apple did last year at this time: sell contract-free iPhones at unsubsidized prices.

But that doesn’t mean this move is entirely uninteresting. You may be wondering why Apple is doing this? And why now? Well, it seems fairly obvious that’s it’s an attempt to move inventory before a new piece of iPhone hardware launches in the June or July timeframe. Remember, that’s just a few short months away already.

When Apple first ships its iPhone hardware, it requires that you also purchase an AT&T contract with the device. This is both practical (supplies are tighter), but also because AT&T pays Apple a ton of money for each subsidized iPhone sold. But as time goes on and new hardware nears, Apple is more concerned with moving existing inventory to make way for the new device.

A $500, $600, or $700 (depending on the model and size) phone isn’t going to sell a ton of units — especially since it’s not unlocked — but there will be those who pay the premium to ship it overseas or are comfortable doing the relatively painless process of unlocking the phone themselves (which voids the warranty). Unfortunately, in the U.S., even if it is unlocked, the phone will only be able to work on T-Mobile as well as AT&T, since those are the two (major) GSM carriers. A different chip (CDMA) would have to be in the iPhone for it to work on the nation’s biggest network, Verizon (or Sprint, for that matter).

Because of the price and restrictions, this move will probably have minimal impact on actual sales. So don’t be surprised if when the fourth generation iPhone is announced, if we also hear about a price cut for the current iPhone 3GS down to $99 (just as Apple did last year with the iPhone 3G).

So, it was a nice pipe-dream for a few hours this morning that Apple was going to be changing its policy and selling the iPhone unlocked (as Google offers as an option for its Nexus One). After all, many would take it as a sign that they’ve grown weary of AT&T and could soon partner with another carrier in the U.S. But really, this is just the first of undoubtedly many signs that a new iPhone is coming.

In late 2009 we wrote about Tapjoy’s evolution from a mobile app developer to a mobile app monetization platform.

Tomorrow, Offerpal Media, one of the giants in social gaming monetization, will announce the acquisition of Tapjoy. That gives Offerpal a beachhead into the mobile space, an area they have only dipped their toes into to date.

The company helps applications like Tap Tap Revenge monetize users. The vast majority of revenue comes via pay-for-installs on other mobile apps, meaning users are paid virtual currency to download other mobile applications (on Tap Tap Revenge 3, it takes about 3 installs of free apps to get enough credits for a free song download). Developers have access to turnkey software to easily add monetization and analytics tools to their iPhone, Android and other mobile apps. Tapjoy keeps between 1/3 and 1/2 of the revenue, passing the rest on to publishers.

They are “very profitable,” say the founders.

Tapjoy “dovetails nicely” with Offerpal’s existing offers and monetization platform, says Offerpal CEO George Garrick. Tapjoy, founded Lee Linden and Ben Lewis, has been integrated into apps by “more than 1,000″ developers and reaches 25 million mobile consumers.

Offerpal isn’t saying what the size of the transaction is, or how much revenue Tapjoy is generating to date. It’s growing fast from a small base, though. Tapjoy says “annual installs, user base and revenue is expected to quadruple this year.” Our guess after asking a few of their customers is that revenue is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.

Tapjoy raised just one round of funding – $600,000 from Tugboat Ventures in early 2009.

The Tapjoy founders dropped by our office at about 11 pm for a quick video to talk about the company and the acquisition:

And so it begins.

This Saturday, March 27, is the deadline to get your iPad application submitted to the App Store if you hope to have it approved in time for the iPad launch on April 3. Last week, Apple began accepting submissions for the new area of the store, and it seems likely (and not surprising) that there’s a bit of a rush going on.

A few developers we’ve talked to have noted that approval times for their apps have started to drag out a bit. So far, none of the developers are too concerned about this, as it has just been a matter of a few days longer than the usual wait period. But this could point to another clogging of the App Store approval process down the road.

Last year, there were no shortage of developers complaining about approval wait times in the App Store. Apple noted at the time that the vast majority of apps were approved within a two week window, but for many developers, this was still too slow. So Apple did something about it. By the end of last year/beginning of this year, wait times in the App Store decreased dramatically. In fact, most developers seemed utterly shocked when recent apps were approved for the store within just a couple of days (and some even less time). It seems Apple both streamlined the approval process a bit, and likely made a lot more hires on the App Store reviewer front.

But the situation remains a tricky one. The more popular the App Store gets, the more apps will get submitted. And the more apps that get submitted, the longer the approval process will take. Unless Apple is willing to perpetually hire new app reviewers, the situation simply isn’t tenable. In many ways, it’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. And it won’t be solved unless the App Store growth slows down, Apple finds an even better way to streamline app reviews (perhaps a trusted app developer program), or they open up the App Store (which they show no signs of doing).

For now, these delays are likely just a speed bump as reviewers focus on iPad apps to make sure a bunch are ready for the April 3 launch. But if the iPad takes off like Apple hopes it will, we could be looking at app approval wait times going through the roof again, as thousands rush to cash in on the phenomenon.

[photo: Universal Studios]

SXSW Interactive is now over. While a clear winner in the “Location War” has yet to be determined, the truth is that many of the location-based services won, as all of them got a huge amount of exposure over the past week. And look for that trend to continue in a big way, as Apple is now highlighting several of them in the App Store.

As you can see in the images in this post, Apple is highlighting five of the key location players both in the App Store on iTunes, as well as on the App Store on the iPhone itself. On the iTunes version, the apps have their own area right below the “New & Noteworthy” area. On the iPhone, the five apps takes up the top five slots of the “What’s Hot” area. Simply put: This promotion is huge.

So what are the five apps? The names should be familiar to you because we’ve covered each very recently. Foursquare (our coverage), Gowalla (our coverage), Loopt (our coverage), Whrrl 3 (our coverage), and MyTown (our coverage). I’d like to think Apple picked these guys to feature after reading TechCrunch, but who knows what goes on behind the doors of the secretive company.

As any app developer will tell you, having your app featured can make or break it. Even the two most-hyped players, Foursquare and Gowalla (the two key players in the most recent Location War), stand to benefit from Apple’s ability to reach all kinds of different audiences with the App Store. Foursquare announced earlier that it had gained 100,000 new users in just the past 10 days — that type of growth may actually continue as long as Apple keeps featuring the app.

The other three, have all benefited in the past from previous Apple promotions. Notably, this helped MyTown surpass both Foursquare and Gowalla in size in under a month after its launch.

Game on, says Apple.

Brands are increasingly prominent on the App Store and Apple tends to love featuring folks like Britney Spears and Coca-Cola on the App Store’s front page. But who’s actually succeeding and which brands have managed to maintain high download numbers?

PositionApp, the app that lets you track how iPhone apps are doing on the App Store rankings, might have the answer. They track and record the top 300 apps across all demographics and have provided us with details on the top 15 apps in the US App Store. Hit the jump for the list.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>