Getting cracked

A while back we setup a Google Alert for "'Abby Craby' iphone". Strangely, many of the hits are coming from sites in China, Russia, Korea, and the like that are hosting cracked versions of our game. How silly that people are expending the effort to crack a few dollars worth of game. A little digging turned up that it's not much effort. Because of the way the low level software in iPhone and iPod Touch works it's easy for hacking teams to jailbreak phones. This inevitably leads to scripts that crack purchased applications. These scripts are script-kiddie easy to use.

Many developers include usage tracking software in their applications that "call home" to a server on the net. These developers are now tracking what percentage of their applications have been cracked. What developers do with this information is up to the developer of course.

It's a good reason to release a free application with an advertisement model I suppose.

Submission date, availability date, and launch

Availability date

When an iPhone application submitted to Apple iTMS there are pages of information to fill out. Among the forms is a strange setting called "availability date". Developers can use it to set their application for release on a specific date in the future. Say you submitted your application on Monday, you could hedge a bet that it will only take a few days for Apple to review, and then you could setup a Friday launch.

When we launched iSkream there were about 6,000 applications in the store. At the time, one of the ways small developers would try to get their application a moment in the spotlight was to get into the "new applications" featured category. The trick was to time your availability date perfectly so it would appearing during what seemed like a week update by Apple to the category. That's largely an irrelevant strategy now. There are simply too many applications being submitted daily.

Submission date
Submission date is very important and not well understood by many in the community. The submission date is fixed at the time of your original submission in iTunes Connect. A developer can go in to iTunes Connect to grab the application name and fill out all the ERSB information, pricing, and description. You can think of this as either getting your ducks in a row or as name squatting. Steamboat Mountain Designs has dozens and dozens of applications sitting in this state.

What isn't well understood is the relation between the submission date and iTMS ranking. The bottom line is that an application is loosing rank everyday it isn't selling. The store rank system looks upon this situation as if you're simply selling no applications. Yes-- even if it isn't really available in the store.

So there is a catch 22 here. If you grab the name early you're loosing rank. If you don't grab the name you risk getting the application rejected because of a name availability. Quite a hassle for your artwork, sound, and binary. Keep in mind that simply because the application doesn't appear in iTunes doesn't mean the name is available.

With iSkream we discovered that the original name iScream was already taken. We had to spend a day rebranding everything including the website. What we got in return, and didn't even realize was the benefit of a quick turn around from submission date to availably. Take a look at how the iSkream ranking starts off high in the MobClix graph to the right.

Having thought we learned the iScream lesson, we grabbed the iTunes Connect slot for Abby Crabby shortly after the concept came about. What we didn't realize was the downside in forcing a month window of time between submission date and availability date would give us a softer launch. We'd have to build some momentum on our own through marketing techniques. Take a look at how the Abby Crabby rankings launch soft and we slowly gain over time.

Please don't forget to review Abby Crabby

This link should take you right to the iTunes review process (assuming you're on the desktop not the phone).


Click here to review our Abby Crabby application on iTunes (assuming you've purchased it of course!)

Abby Crabby released

We got together with artist and longtime friend Nate Funaro to create a fun little cartoony game called Abby Crabby. It's a little like Kaboom (from the 80s). But this time it's trash falling from the ocean above onto the baby crabs that the mother crab (Abby) must protect. Marcus Nuckles did an excellent job creating original music for the menu and in game tracks.


Check it out in iTunes here

Ideas on maximizing your customer base

I've been following the iPhone market for a while. Here are some insights I thought I'd share. Some of the data may not reflect the absolute latest but the rules still apply. While creating your application concept consider maximizing your customer base by following these guidelines ...

The iPod Touch market is not to be ignored and it will only grow as the prices come down. Have you heard the $99 Wal-Mart rumor? Overtime it will become a commodity game platform. Just look to Apple's new iPod Touch campaign at games.yahoo for a glimpse of where the iPod Touch market is headed.

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/12/12/ipod-touch-gaming-ad-shakes-things-up/

One quarter of your base is using an iPod Touch. Don't build an application that requires a microphone, camera, active network connection or GPS. An even larger percentage doesn't have GPS since the 1st generation iPhone didn't include it.

The 1st generation iPod Touch didn't include an internal speaker, but generally you'll have to assume you've got one.

Ensure your application is smaller than 10MB. You'll loose potential customers on cellular connections in impulse buy mode.

Compress your audio, your application will be faster to download and install as well. Google for "iPhone IMA4". If size remains an issue, consider breaking your application up into separate modules or sequels. Your sales volume will increase and you'll be able to charge more for the extra features that would have otherwise been given to customers for free within that single and first sale.

The 2.1 firmware introduced the App Store, so all of your customers are guaranteed to be running it. There has been little incentive for them to migrate from 2.1 to 2.2. The odds are that you aren't using any esoteric features introduced in 2.2, so don't alienate and loose potential customers that haven't upgraded. If you're using the 2.2 SDK you should use the 2.1 build target.

Getting paid by Apple

For those that aren't aware. The payment process is about as complex as the application submission process. It's all handled through iTunes Connect, what I jokingly refer to as the "backside" of the iTunes everyone usually see. The whole thing has the Apple look and feel but it has a sense of music artist royalties to it.

Here is the dirty tricks you might not be aware of:

1. Apple doesn't payout until you hit a threshold of $250 in a particular iTunes store. There are at least seven stores: Japan, Canada, United States, Europe, United Kingdom, Rest of World, Australia. Contrast this to Google AdSense that pays out at $100 worldwide.

iPhone doesn't have much traction in Japan and other than EU and US I wouldn't expect to get paid in other regions. Your applications are basically going for free in those countries unless your in the top 100 applications and your volumes are huge.

2. Apple pays NET45. So you won't see a dime until a month and a half after you've hit these limits.

3. The Japan government will take 20% off the top of payouts if you don't have the equivalent of an IRS 1099 filed with the Japanese government.