The App Store Analysis
I’ve been developing iPhone apps for just over a year. I’ve got 7 apps in the App Store and have done 32 app submissions (initial + updates), none of which have ever been rejected, some of which were approved in less than a day, and some that took over 3 weeks for approval. The App Store process has improved. What hasn’t improved is exposure or Apple’s compassion towards the developers making 30% for them in the App Store.
Recently (and I understand the problem is still persisting), the App Store was stuck for 5 days, meaning no new apps were showing up in the recently released list. For the big software companies who have done tons of pre-release marketing, etc. this isn’t a big deal, because they’ll get exposure via there websites, review sites, and usually Apple themselves promotes the app. But for the little independent developer, not being seen for those first 2 days is suicide. What did Apple do to appease the developers when they finally did resolve the problem? They opened up the floodgates and buried everyone that had released an app. If Apple cared, they would have slowly released the apps so at least they had a days worth of exposure. This is not the first time this has happened either. It seems to be a monthly occurrence. It is obvious something is serious wrong with the iTunes and App Store backend architecture. Even if they are getting alerted when it’s stuck (which I’m starting to doubt), it doesn’t make sense that it takes over 1 day to fix the issue.
Exposure is key. I’ve tried numerous marketing methods. I’ve emailed plenty of review sites (with no response — not even the courtesy to tell me they received my promocode). I’ve contemplated how Apple picks the “What’s Hot” or “What We Are Playing” apps. I’ve determined that there is an inner-circle, because some of the crap shown there is certainly not worth the exposure. I’m trying OpenFeint now and going to give freegameoftheday a try. My advocates in all this? The Portable Gamer. These guys have been terrific. Unfortunately, their good reviews don’t seem to have too much of an impact on my bottom-line. The guys at Touch Arcade seem to be the biggest. They have a great forum with good message boards that help me get exposure, but in my experience, the reviewers from the site are not easy to get “in” with. I’ve received no acknowledgments from them.
The store is saturated. My first app (Jiggle Balls) is still my best seller (and probably the one that took me the least amount of work). My new one (Tramp Stamp) took quite a bit of work, but is barely getting recognized, even though I’ve gotten great feedback about it’s playability, uniqueness, and addictiveness. I have some enhancements I want to make to all my apps across the board. I am going to get to that, but for now I’m gonna try a few more marketing things for Tramp Stamp.
UPDATE: March 7th – today was my freegameoftheday promotion. How did the day start off? The App Store was down for an entire 3 hours this morning. Argh! The OpenFeint guys are going to try and work with me and get me promoted a bit more. I doubt Apple will make it up to me.
Follow-up Review By TPG
Thanks guys! Hard at work on the enhancements you suggested.
http://theportablegamer.com/2010/02/tramp-stamp-review/
My Friend’s At TPG
Thanks again to my friend’s at The Portable Gamer for an awesome review. These guys are strong supporters of the independent developer. I’ve had a hard time getting any attention by the likes of 148apps or Touch Arcade, so I really appreciate these guys helping the underdog.
Here’s the review: http://theportablegamer.com/2010/02/funky-visions-brings-curiously-titled-tramp-stamp-app-store
UPDATE: I talked with Carter Dotson, turns out this is just a little news teaser and he’ll have a full review up this weekend. What did I do to deserve the kind treatment?
Tramp Stamp Video
A video demonstration of Tramp Stamp is up!
