www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info THE ART OF THE APP STORE INTRODUCTION xv CHAPTER 1 A Brief History of Time intheAppStore 1 CHAPTER 2 Setting Your Goals, Costs, andExpectations 13 CHAPTER 3 Researching the App Store Market 33 CHAPTER 4 Knowing Your Customer 63 CHAPTER 5 Plotting the Stages of Development 93 CHAPTER 6 Guidelines and Expectations forDeveloping Your App 123 CHAPTER 7 Creating Free and Freemium Apps 145 CHAPTER 8 Creating Paid and Premium Apps 177 CHAPTER 9 Adopting Apple’s Approach 195 CHAPTER 10 Riding the Social Networking Wave 211 CHAPTER 11 Feedback, Maintaining, andScaling 243 APPENDIX A Reading List of RecommendedBooks 257 APPENDIX B Online Resources 261 INDEX 275 www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info The Art of the App Store THE BUSINESS OF APPLE DEVELOPMENT Tyson McCa nn www.it-ebooks.info The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-95278-8 ISBN: 978-1-118-22112-9 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-23534-8 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-26007-4 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. www.it-ebooks.info To CG, J, and L. www.it-ebooks.info ABOUT THE AUTHOR TYSON MCCANN is a game designer, producer, user experience, and social media consultant with experience at major game companies including Sega, 3DO, the Tetris Company, Fisher-Price, and Funcom. His broad experience includes edu- cational software, casual and social games, and hard-core video and computer games on everything from mobile devices to current generation consoles and PC. Along with design and production on a few iPhone titles, in 2010 he was part of a team that released a top-grossing, multiple award-winning iPhone multiplayer action game. ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR JOSH COLDIRON is a cross-media designer who has worked on several IOS games across all apple mobile devices, including the “Hall of Fame” award-winning “Archetype.” His experience ranges from producer and level design, to leading quality assurance and localization. He has practiced successful use of social net- working as a marketing tool for IOS apps, as well as for his own business. Before IOS development, he was art director in the print eld for various publications. He currently works alongside Villain developing new IOS titles. www.it-ebooks.info ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Mary James PROJECT EDITOR Kevin Shafer TECHNICAL EDITOR Josh Coldiron SENIOR PRODUCTION EDITOR Debra Banninger COPY EDITOR Kim Cofer EDITORIAL MANAGER Mary Beth Wakefield FREELANCER EDITORIAL MANAGER Rosemarie Graham ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING David Mayhew MARKETING MANAGER Ashley Zurcher BUSINESS MANAGER Amy Knies PRODUCTION MANAGER Tim Tate VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVEGROUPPUBLISHER Richard Swadley VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVEPUBLISHER Neil Edde ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jim Minatel PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER Katie Crocker COMPOSITOR James D. Kramer, Happenstance Type-O-Rama PROOFREADER Nancy Carrasco INDEXER Robert Swanson COVER DESIGNER Ryan Sneed COVER IMAGE © Brian Santa Maria / iStockPhoto CREDITS www.it-ebooks.info ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I AM VERY GRATEFUL to Kevin Shafer for his fantastic editorial assistance, compe- tence and professionalism, as well as to Mary James, Mary Beth Wakeeld, and all those involved at Wiley for this opportunity. To Josh Coldiron for keeping the references to past projects in check and being a logic gatekeeper. To Dane Baker of Villain for his reaching out and asking me to tag along on his company’s initial whirlwind journey. To MunkyFun for having the skills to develop a hit iOS app as if they’d been doing it for years. To developers, colleagues, and those I’ve been fortunate enough to work with for helping me continue to grow in software devel- opment, and as a professional. And innite thanks especially to my family and my wife, Melissa, for being so patient and supportive. I owe you unconditionally, big time. www.it-ebooks.info [...]... how the App Store became what it is today Thus, this chapter enables you to see the trends that shape today’s App Store market TIMe In A TABle Table 1-1 provides you with a concise view of the evolution of the App Store over the past few years www.it-ebooks.info | CHAPTER 1 A Brief History of Time in the App Store 2 Table 1-1: volution of the App Store E Year Month Events 2008 July Over just the. .. on some of its submission policies The App Store Review Guidelines” for iOS apps was a list of all Apple’s conditions for submitting an app, among them the now-infamous “fart” reference: “We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store We don’t need any more Fart apps If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.” October The number of downloaded... 50,000 11- 11- 150,000 Apps Available Millions of Apps Downloaded 16,000 fIgure 1-1: The trend from the first three years of apps downloaded versus apps available shows that apps and demand are keeping pace Now let’s look at the evolution of the modern App Store from a more user-centric perspective The eArly App STore When the App Store fi rst launched in mid-2008, it was like the fi rst primordial... downloads with more than 3,000 apps available for download In addition, Apple maintained Jobs’ launch price point of 90 percent of the apps costing less than the $10 barrier October 2009 Month During the late part of October, the number of downloads (200,000) and the number of apps available (7,500) nearly doubled from the September totals April In early 2009, the App Store reached the half million download... in the App Store 6 Figure 1-2: ooking at the App Store on launch in July, 2008, note the abundance L of white space, lack of the App of the Week,” and the absence of a Books category Novel Uses of the Touch Screen The iPod Touch and iPhone’s touch screen was a giant step in the evolution of interface control for several reasons Sure, the Nintendo Wii started the trend when it announced its novel “Wii-mote”... also App Store policies www.it-ebooks.info | 11 Summary In June 2009, with the release of iOS 3.0, the App Store first allowed in -app purchases with paid apps By mid-October 2009, the App Store s policy against free apps having the same capability was lifted, and a new business model instantly sprung up Offering the best of both worlds to developers — hat free apps were t downloaded more often,... Introduction xv Chapter 1: A Brief History of Time in the App Store Time in a Table The Early App Store 1 1 5 Novel Uses of the Touch Screen Simplicity Succeeds While Complexity Fails The Modern App Store The Slow March Toward Complex Apps How Niches Have Changed from the Early App Store 6 8 9 10 10 Summary 11 Chapter 2: Setting Your Goals, Costs, and Expectations 13 Confronting the “Hero Inventor” Syndrome 13... first time, the Books category takes the lead over Games, and there are more than 150,000 apps available in the App Store (The Games category has since retaken the lead, and currently maintains an only marginally higher percentage of active apps.) April This is a big month for Apple Not only does the App Store reach 4.5 billion downloads with more than 200,000 apps available, the iPad (Apple’s first... ever since Though the App Store is showing no signs of weakening, it is becoming increasingly top-heavy For example, depending on your niche, the top 20 percent of apps may do well in terms of numbers of downloads, but as you’ll see later in the book, after that, the numbers drop significantly The type of success that many developers aspire to (such as the success of the “Angry Birds” application) is... what’s needed for an app in today’s modern App Store On July 11, 2008, Apple’s App Store launched with roughly 550 apps for the iPhone — in total Today, the App Store has roughly 500,000 apps, and is seen by savvy developers and entrepreneurs as a potentially very lucrative market that has no intention of slowing down Assuming that you can make your app stand out from the other apps in your niche (or . 275 www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info The Art of the App Store THE BUSINESS OF APPLE DEVELOPMENT Tyson McCa nn www.it-ebooks.info The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development Published. www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info THE ART OF THE APP STORE INTRODUCTION xv CHAPTER 1 A Brief History of Time in the App Store 1 CHAPTER 2 Setting Your Goals,