Abby Crabby 1.1 released

Explosive TNT "powerup" now available in later rounds that explodes and cleans out all the trash.
Faster Abby Crabby movement.
And an Easy Play mode for kids.
Check it out on iTunes. Again a free update for previous buyers.

Abby Crabby 1.1 not quietly accepted?

What a strange day with Apple. Usually our submissions go through without a hitch, but today we've gone back and forth regarding the Abby Crabby 1.1 update. It's still not clear what it was all about. Were they concerned about our ESRB rating (4+)? Did they think we'd found that top secret Cocca Touch API for "explode the phone"? ;)

Here is the dialog:

Apple: Thank you for submitting Abby Crabby v1.1 to the App Store. Your release notes state "New explosive power up available on round 6+"; please reply to this email with clarification.

SMD: Let's clarify it with "New power ups available after round five".

Apple: Are the powerups characterized as red starfish?

SMD: We modified the probability of the Starfish appearing and the sound it makes when it pop's trash. The "explosive power up" previously mentioned is a TNT stick. It blows away trash when it's thrown up into the sea, like the Starfish, it doesn't hurt the crabs any more than the trash falling from above. Is this about ESRB? See the attached screen shots.

Apple: Your application status is Ready for Sale

The Chillingo Strategy - Volume Not Quality

Has anyone noticed the volume of low quality applications flooding the App Store from Chillingo? Most of them appear to be ports from old less capable mobile phones that result in sub par results on the iPhone.

Received this today via email, any one else seen it? Here are some excerpts:

We noticed your applications, Abby Crabby and iSkream, on the App Store and they are great! Forgive my forward approach but how would you feel about teaming up? We are having great success since we have started publishing for iPhone. If you search for Chillingo on iTunes you will see we have nearly 100 apps on sale.

Let Chillingo publish your game or app under the 'Chillingo iPhone Publishing Partnership' (CIPP) and we'll upload into the Apple App Store, with full recognition to you as the developer. Apple takes 30% per sale. We'll split the rest between you and us. Partner with us and you keep 80% of the revenue. Alternatively go for our 70% revenue and you'll have access to our talented graphic artists and musicians. (Meaning apple takes 30% and then you take another 20-30%)

Both plans entitle you to online and offline marketing, a fast track service to get you up and running with the SDK, plus hints and tips to help with the porting process (including 'gotchas' that Apple don't tell you!).

(But wait there's more!)

Not only that but we'll advise on the optimum price point to sell for, maximizing revenues for yourself. To keep your app selling we'll also disclose the best solutions for keeping it in the charts.
(Let's guess the tricks: price at 99c and publish so much junk it floods the store giving customers no other choice).

We'll promote your iPhone games on xyz.com and apps on pdq.com . We have hundreds of people per day choosing Apple iPhone as their target device, searching for games and software. We already send several hundred people a day to the app store when they click on our iPhone BUY links. This alone will boost your sales.

(Synergy you say! Where do I sign up?)

1.1 Update for iSkream

You can now save multiple recordings. A free update to previous customers.

iPhone rankings vs sales

I've been tracking several applications in the MobClix rankings and comparing that data to the placement in the phone's App Store. I am, like most developers, interested in how the rankings actually work. And recently I've been wondering about the differences between ranking and placement. These are my thoughts. Your insight is appreciated.

1. The App Store's first screen under any particular category comes close to matching the actual top 25 in the rankings for that category. But beyond that the entires are sorted by something other than "sales rank". Perhaps it's purposefully done to spread the buying public's eyes across more applications and appease the myriad of developer's complaints along these lines. The Hockenberry manifesto comes to mind here. Further points address the App Store page views beyond the first screen (25) in a any particular category...

2. There seems to be precedence for newness (a recent submission). Lots of applications here with no reviews and I would imagine no sales. They usually disappear pretty quickly from the first few screens.

3. One would hope that negative reviews would bring down placement. But this doesn't seem to be the case. For example, iBeer, iHunt, Dark Knight, and all of the DS Effects products.

4. I'm starting to suspect that pushing updates somehow improves ranks and/or placement. Beyond my own disappointment that people are releasing unfinished product, they also seem to be holding onto placement by publishing updates. Perhaps all downloads, even updates, count into placement?

5. Views. Perhaps application description page views are involved in ranking? This might explain how new applications seem to hold placement for a while even while they aren't getting reviews (or sales).

6. I routinely see repeats in the rankings. Unclear what is the cause of this. Perhaps it's evidence that it's not ranking driven.

Interesting promotional techniques

1. As a developer Apple will allow you 50 promotional codes. Give these codes out to people who will favorably review your application in the iTunes App Store. Each time you update your application you will be allowed 50 additional promotional codes. This is reason enough to update your applications.

2. There are now sites like promoappcodes.com that allow developers to hand out free copies of their application to strangers in return for those valuable iTunes reviews. These reviews will help with you application's ranking in iTMS.

3. Some of the big players in the App Store are rumored to be buying initial ranking at launch by handing out hundreds or thousands of $10 iTunes gift certs. This preloading of the market allows the ranking to soar at launch simply due to a massive number of downloads right out of the gate. This is probably why some applications such as.... Rollando launch at $9.99? ;)

Tracking pricing

http://appshopper.com

At first glance this is just another iTunes scrapping pseudo-review site. But it tracks historical pricing data. You can use this site in combination with ranking on MobClix to see how people raise their prices experimentally and then drop them back down when sales drop! Interesting.

Very unfortunate dropping in rank and sales!

We adjusted our pricing right around the new year. Apparently there was some sort of bug with iTunes Connect (the back side of iTunes that we use to publish our applications). A Y2K9 bug of sorts caused the "availability date" to be changed to December of 2009! We fell out of the store entirely for several days while we sorted this out with Apple. Once we figured out what happened and relisted the application we'd found we'd lost about 100 ranking positions.