Share
How To Distance Yourself From The Shovel-Ware!
On November 4th 2009, Apple Computer announced that the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch App Store, which it calls “the largest applications store in the world” has exceeded a library of more than 100,000 pieces of applications including games content. While this is a significant milestone to Apple and an endorsement to the interest and support of the platforms, it is also a huge challenge to independent game developers trying to be successful in terms of actual sales in a highly competitive market. A quick visit to the App Store through the iTunes application reveals that among the impressive numbers you will find a combined list of more than 6,000 games!
As a game developer, it’s important to consider the following factors:
“I have a great product, but how do I stand out from crowd”?
“How do I get exposure and how do I promote my product”?
“What will it take to create awareness and drive consumers to my website and to the App Store to generate increased sales”?
Undeniable the above questions overlap. At Indie Developer Consulting we are approached (daily) by numerous frustrated game developers trying to succeed in an oversaturated market flooded with shovel-ware. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that it all begins with a quality game or product. Like any other market, if what you have created is not unique, innovative, interesting and fun, the chances of success decreases dramatically. Assuming the product or game you have developed meets those standards, the most important factor is public relations, good product description and viral marketing!
To some consumers a visit to the Apple App Store is an appalling and disappointing experience; the product descriptions for a huge number of games are inaccurate, the links to the developer website is either dead or broken, and the layout, style and design of the App page is unbearable to read because of mixed fonts, styles, color inconsistencies and uninspiring or outright boring screenshots (some game descriptions don’t have any screenshots!)
To Apple game developers – this is your wakeup call! Take responsibility for your product! Don’t expect your last holiday pictures turned into a jigsaw puzzle will make you rich! Contrary to popular belief, creating something on the Apple platform, self-publishing, and waiting for the bank account to finance your next multimillion game company is not going to happen! Use your talent to create innovate and fun games, and let the self-proclaimed suits at Indie Developer Consulting assist you with the product page, the public relations, the marketing and ultimately, help increase your sales.
The Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch is an excellent opportunity for independent developers to make money – and good money too – but having a good, solid, and fun game is only the start. Too many games are available on the App Store with terrible sales purely because of the inexperience in knowing “what to do” once a submission to Apple has been approved.
Contact Indie Developer Consulting to help you out! Our terms and pricing are fair, and if you truly wish to be among the top 20 or even top 100 in the App Store, asking for help and advice is the least of your concerns. After all, as Apple confirms – you are competing against more than 6,000 other games!
SOURCE
0 Comment
Here's an article written by Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus. He is leading authority on Mac OS X, the author of more than 50 books including iPhone For Dummies 3d Edition, and a Mac consultant, troubleshooter, and trainer. Visit his Web site at www.boblevitus.com; e-mail comments to doc@boblevitus.com. Read his article below.
With more than 85,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod touch, there is almost certainly an app for whatever it is you love. I've been working on a new book that will feature descriptions of the best apps in more than a dozen categories and have been spending a lot of quality time testing various ones. Here are a few that really impressed me:
I love to read, so a couple of my very favorite apps are Comics and Stanza, which are both free. Comics gives you access to a huge comic book library-store, plus a great interface for reading them. It comes with over 50 free comics, with thousands more available for a buck or two.
Stanza is an award-winning app for eBooks. The Stanza store lets you choose from more than 50,000 contemporary books at prices well below the printed versions, plus access to another 50,000 free classics and recent original works.
You'll never run out of reading material with one or both of these on your iPhone or iPod touch.
I also like to shoot digital photos and movies with my iPhone 3GS, so I am enthralled with ReelDirector ($7.99) and Photogene ($2.99). ReelDirector is a way-cool video-editing app for your iPhone 3GS. You can rearrange clips on a timeline, choose from 27 beautiful transitions, add fade-in and fade-out effects, and create great-looking titles and credits. Photogene ($2.99) helps you improve digital photos with a terrific array of useful tools such as cropping, sharpening, color and gamma correction, exposure and contrast controls, straightening, rotating, cartoon text bubbles, special effects like pencil, sepia-tone, and heat-map, plus a sweet selection of frames in a variety of shapes and sizes. And both apps feature thoughtfully designed user interfaces that make using them easy and fun.
I love music and played The Beatles: Rock Band on my son's Xbox until my fingers bled. So it's no surprise that I'm totally hooked on the RockBand iPhone app ($9.99). If you've ever played the Beatles or any of the other Rock Band games for Xbox, PS3, or Wii, the iPhone rendition is just like them but on a smaller screen.
There are lots of knock-offs of Rock Band in the App store but none of them is as polished and fun as the real thing.
Finally, though the 2009 baseball season is drawing to a close, the MLB.com At Bat app ($9.99) rocks. With streaming video over WiFi or 3G, multiple camera angles, live audio feeds, condensed games, and more, it's a must-have for baseball fans.
A mobile iPhone and iPod touch version of of popular banking software iBank has been released by Developer IGG.
iBank is a stand alone application which allows users to keep track of their daily spending and account balances anywhere. The application's feature allows the users to transact, track spending, check account balances, and sync iBank for Mac.
For Mac users, iBank are able to sync in multiple devices over Wi-Fi, MobileMe, or any WebDAV server. However, iBank Version 3.5 is required to be sync with Mac.
The Mac OS version of iBank costs $59.99 on the developer's website. The download (demo version) includes 75 transaction trial period.
iBank on iPhone contains some key features of the software. This includes the memorized payee list, split transaction support, and multi-currency support. Expect even more great features in the future because currently Version 1.0 is available for iPhone. If you currently own iBank 3.5 for Mac, the iPhone version is a must buy.
iBank is available in the App Store for $4.99.
Source
If you are tired of being harassed on the phone by telemarketers and stalkers, iPrivus is offering a reverse call lookup application for the iPhone that delivers names and numbers for local and international callers.
Unfortunately, Apple's restrictions on background processes means that users will have to manually enter the numbers—but iPrivus does claim high accuracy due to a "unique database that is connected to every major carrier in the United States." Accurate or not, the real problem here is that a 12-month subscription is going to cost you $45. Yeah, I think I'll keep my money, continue to screen my calls and follow a few simple rules for avoiding telemarketers instead.
Dallas – May 18, 2009 – Privus Mobile, America's most popular Mobile Caller ID provider, has taken its innovative cellular technology and created an application for America's most popular phone, the Apple® iPhone™. iPrivus is the fastest, easiest and most accurate reverse caller lookup application on the market. The easy-to-use iPhone solution, now available at the App Store, enables users to input any complete phone number and quickly receive the person's or company's name registered to the number. After receiving a call from a number not in your contact list, iPrivus helps identify who just called, empowering users to make better decisions about handling missed calls from numbers not recognized.
Additionally, iPrivus can be used to identify unknown calls on your home or business landline phones as well as numbers received via text message that carrier Caller ID services do not identify. iPrivus can lookup any telephone number – even some international numbers with their appropriate country codes – that you choose to put into your iPhone.
"Whether you screen calls on your iPhone or just ignore them, that same question pops up every time you see a number without a name," said Privus Mobile President Greg Smith. "How many times have you stared at a telephone number and asked yourself, ‘whose number is this?' iPhone users now have an answer to that question. We've taken our innovative Mobile Caller ID technology and created iPrivus – a helpful iPhone App for anyone who's ever received a phone call and wondered who it could be. Whether it's calling an old friend back, ignoring an old flame or choosing to block a telemarketer, iPrivus lets you decide what to do with the numbers you don't initially recognize."
Similar to Privus Mobile's original Mobile Caller ID service for cell phones, iPrivus customers can purchase a year's subscription at the App Store. In addition to the iPhone, iPrivus also works on a Wi-Fi-connected iPod touch. source
