Kissing the App Store Goodbye
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Kissing the App Store Goodbye
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Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#2Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your application).
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#3Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your application).
Yes, but the app store is 99% of the marketing for iPhone applications. And their are other issues, like the app store approval process, for example.
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#4Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your application).
when your application is only available through that one distribution channel, your marketing ability and effectiveness are pretty limited.
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#5Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#6Everything is all about marketing now. Getting coverage and the word out there - makes a big difference (not that I've done that with my apps).
How are you going to compete with the likes of EA, LucasArts, ngmoco, Konami and capcom with massive budgets and connections? For me it seems you need to create something different/wonky that people will talk about, or the staff likes, to get on the top 25 or other lists.
Simply making something and putting it up there won't make you shit, I know I got one up there.
>> An Orwellian review team which does not communicate to anyone (even inside Apple), uneven policies which change at random times leading to horror stories form Shaken Babies to Google Voices
I agree for the most part with this. Any sort of crazy idea I have, I immediately think I'm not gonna bother with this because it takes to much time to develop just to be denied by Apple, for some arcane reason, and get a rejection letter with a nondescript problem. Other problems with the review process, you have absolutely no idea how long it will take.
I would love to get some sort of lead time, or amount of apps before yours.
For me it's a crap shoot, but I make things I like and want, if I plan to send it to the store, because I think others might enjoy them, I test them out to the best of my potential and try to conform to Apple's HIG.
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#7Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your application).
when your application is only available through that one distribution channel, your marketing ability and effectiveness are pretty limited.
Rubbish. How on earth does a distribution channel limit ones marketing ability? These are completely orthogonal aspects of producing a successful product.
Do you think movie studios hope that you'll stumble across their film by looking at the show times of your local theater? Do Authors pray that you'll stumble across their book in the M-R fiction section of a bookstore?
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#8[deleted]
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#9Another developer who fails to grasp the difference between distribution (the App Store) and marketing (the bit you must do to raise awareness of your application).
when your application is only available through that one distribution channel, your marketing ability and effectiveness are pretty limited.
The distribution channel for SmartPhone software is the Internet. You don't see BlackBerry apps being sold at retail B&M stores in tiny little boxes. Developers sell their apps usually through a web site with their own checkout system that delivers a binary to the user who then must figure out how to install it. With the iTunes store the first part of the model should be the same -- the developer creates a web site and promotes their application through ad buys, promo copies to reviewers, and whatever other tactics they think will work. The only difference is the checkout stage would link to the iTunes Store URL to complete the transaction.
I think all these developers are really missing the point that built in App Stores on devices are simply a delivery medium. You shouldn't rely on it to be a discovery medium for potential customers.
Re: Kissing the App Store Goodbye
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
when your application is only available through that one distribution channel, your marketing ability and effectiveness are pretty limited.
Rubbish. How on earth does a distribution channel limit ones marketing ability? These are completely orthogonal aspects of producing a successful product. Do you think movie studios hope that you'll stumble across their film by looking at the show times of your local theater? Do Authors pray that you'll stumble across their book in the M-R fiction section of a bookstore?
Unfortunately, smaller independent films and authors probably do hope you stumble upon their works -- it's notoriously difficult to sell books unless you are picked up by a major publisher.
I think his point is that things like the App store should be more of a meritocracy (like the web), but it's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller players to get noticed to due the economics (strong downward pricing pressure) and Apple's policies (random rejection can destroy months of work). One thing they don't mention is how difficult it is to figure out where your sales are coming from; there's no Google analytics or referrer logs for app sales -- you have to do things like become your own affiliate through LinkShare and assign different codes to your own links if you have multiple distribution channels.