Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Jean-Louis Gassée, former Apple executive and founder of the company that created BeOS, took a detailed look at Apple’s latest financial report, SEC filings and its earnings conference call. In an analysis that mixes financial figures with excellent insight, Gassée outlines three areas of Apple’s financials that are worthy of a closer look.

First, Gassée points out the explosive growth and influence of the iPad. Sales of the iPad grew from 3.3 million units in its first quarter of sales, 4.3 million in the next three months and 7.3 million for the latest quarter that Apple reported. In the upcoming year, Apple is expected to grab 87.5 percent of this media tablet market, a new category of devices created by the success of the iPad.

Gassée also notices that the iPad revenue for Q1 2011 reached $4.6 billion and is close to the $5.4 billion generated by the Mac, which is now 27 years old. This is an impressive figure for a device that’s less than one year old. Part of the tablet’s success, according to Gassée, can be attributed to its low price tag. The base model of the Wi-Fi iPad starts at US$500, which is $300 less than what was predicted before the tablet was launched.

Though it is far from a discount retailer, Apple has bucked the trend of high-priced devices with the iPad, the $99 Apple TV, and finally the $999 MacBook Air in 2010. Though its gross margin has dropped slightly to 38.5 percent in the last quarter, revenue and profit continued to grow, which attests to the success of these competitive prices.

Continue reading The significance of Apple’s earnings call numbers

The significance of Apple’s earnings call numbers originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The facial expression experts over at MotionPortrait (makers of PhotoAvatar and ZombieBooth) have just dropped another fun photo effect application on us. SumoBooth takes your photo and transforms your head shot into a pudgy and powerful sumo wrestler.

Once the animated sumo face is generated, you can then have a little fun by slapping him (or her) around a little bit with your finger. Watch the face react to the abuse with various winces and frowns. If you speak, the application will play back what you said in a typically deep sumo voice.

SumoBooth comes with some social functions as well, like the ability to take snapshots and video of your new sumo face and then share them via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

The app will be featured at MotionPortrait’s booth at Macworld 2011 for those who want to check it out. If you can’t make it, have a look at the following video posted over on Appbank (Japanese).

Continue reading Become a sumo wrestler by stepping into SumoBooth

Become a sumo wrestler by stepping into SumoBooth originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Incident, a retro-style game for iOS devices that makes players avoid and jump on mountains of debris falling from the sky in order to reach the top, has been recreated in real life by some enterprising young gamers. Brought to our attention by MacStories, the video of the “sweding” (remaking something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on) of The Incident is quite amusing to watch as these guys remake everything, from the opening credits to the music and the large items “falling” from the sky that the real-life player must avoid and climb up on.

Our own Mike Schramm reviewed The Incident back in August of last year and called it “worth every cent of the US$1.99” it sells for on the App Store, so you gamers into retro action may want to check it out. We’ve seen some creative sweding of games before, like this live-action version of Angry Birds, but the video of The Incident is a must-see for gaming fans of any ilk.

Click Read More to watch the real-life video of The Incident in action.

[via Kotaku and MacStories]

Continue reading iOS game The Incident recreated in real life

iOS game The Incident recreated in real life originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Calling all Final Cut Pro users who want to bring their new iPad into the editing room with them — this news is for you. According to The Mac Observer, Factorial Ltd.’s ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad Final Cut Server client app was recently released and allows content creators to browse, archive, restore and display video assets on their iPads via Wi-Fi, 3G and VPN, with no server configuration required.

Apple’s Final Cut Server was released in 2008 as a “scaleable server application … (which) allows searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes and enables viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac,” and it continues to be at the forefront of video content creation and delivery. This new iPad client app should help it stay that way.

ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad is compatible with iOS 4.2 or later and Final Cut Server 1.5.1 and up. It’s available for US$14.99 on the App Store.

[via The Mac Observer]

Final Cut Server app ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad released originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple has an official Twitter account for the App Store, appropriately named @appstore, which promises “official App Store tweets including our featured apps, exclusive offers, and more.”

The first post from the account came only a few hours ago, but there are already 50,000 followers signed up.

One of the questions that people have had with the Mac App Store was the question of “discoverability” of apps on the store that aren’t “featured” or on the “top” lists; hopefully this account will be one more way for Apple to get the word out about new apps that you might not otherwise hear about. If you aren’t a Twitter user, you can always follow the RSS feed for the account. If you’re on Facebook, App Store is there, too.

Official App Store account on Twitter originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

As the first iOS feature to go back to the Mac, the Mac App Store presents unique challenges and benefits to developers. I spoke with Marketcircle CEO Alykhan “AJ” Jetha about his team’s experience with moving Billings (our previous coverage of this app) to the Mac App Store, as well as the restrictions that keep their other applications out.

TUAW: How soon after learning about the Mac App Store did you decide to use it to sell Billings?

AJ: It was a no-brainer; an easy decision. We knew right away that we’d want Billings in the Mac App Store.

What was the process like, and how did the vetting process compare to that of the iOS App Store?

We submitted the first version on November 3rd. It got initially rejected because we were using the Sparkle update tool. Of course, Apple wants us to use their own. So, we removed that, but left a checkbox in the preferences that offered to check for updates automatically, and got rejected again because of it. We removed that and re-submitted, then ran into a private API call. We worked that out, resubmitted, fixed one more minor issue and were approved a couple of days before the store went live.

Continue reading Discussing the Mac App Store and Billings with Marketcircle

Discussing the Mac App Store and Billings with Marketcircle originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Back when Apple first introduced Game Center, one of the first big questions was whether or not apps that weren’t actually games could use the service to share achievements and leaderboards from user to user. Since then, there have been a few examples of this poking around, but this is probably the most blatant: a new app called 100 Cameras in 1 offers not only over 100 Instagram style “effects” for your iPhone 4’s camera, but full Game Center integration as well. Unfortunately, the limit isn’t really being pushed here as the achievements only give you some bonus points for using the various filters (and I agree with Wired — it would have been nice to see some invention here, maybe achievements for taking a picture in multiple countries or taking a picture of a certain object).

“Gamification” is kind of a buzzword being passed around lately, and it refers to the fact that companies of all kinds are finding ways to use gaming principles, either in things like managing their employees or rewarding customer engagement. Whatever you think of the idea itself (lots of people are seeing it as the latest business fad, and perhaps it is), it remains true that Game Center is still one of the best ways for iOS developers to spread the word about people using their apps. Through leaderboards and the Game Center app itself, all of your Game Center friends can see what you’ve been “playing,” and vice versa — it’s a potential bonanza for companies wanting to share word of their apps. I’m still curious to see more non-game apps use the service. Game Center integration, especially when used well, can be that “secret ingredient” for utilities trying to make a bigger splash on the App Store.

100 Cameras in 1 latest non-game app to use Game Center on iOS originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The New York Times has written a nice profile of Tim Cook, who is once again sliding into the driver’s seat at Apple while Steve Jobs takes medical leave. To hear the paper tell it, Cook is both a man well-prepared to fill Jobs’ role if needed, and yet not exactly the creative visionary Jobs has become. While Jobs runs the company with a wide-ranging vision for products and how they’re used, Cook is the details man — a master of spreadsheets, factory dealings, supply chains and efficiency.

Cook previously worked at both IBM and Compaq, and in this commencement speech at Auburn University last year (embedded after the break), he says that moving over to Apple was “the best decision I ever made.” He says that lots of the conventional wisdom he heard at the time told him not to bother joining Apple — the company was a shell of its former self, and the iPod hadn’t yet materialized. But his intuition told him to join up to “work for the creative genius and to be on the executive team that could resurrect a great American company,” and he says that “no more than 5 minutes into my initial interview with Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple.”

If Jobs does have to step down permanently, odds are that Cook is the man that will take the CEO job. And while Apple will never be the same without Steve Jobs, Tim Cook’s clearly dedicated to the company he took a chance on over a decade ago.

Continue reading Tim Cook in NYT, says joining Apple was ‘best decision I ever made’

Tim Cook in NYT, says joining Apple was ‘best decision I ever made’ originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

An update to Viber has hit the App Store today. I was impressed with the original release of this free VoIP client when it came out early last month. I especially liked the voice quality and the notifications. Since the review, Skype with video finally made it to the iPhone and attracted a lot of attention, but I still prefer the audio quality of Viber, and unlike Skype, it doesn’t have to be running to get a call notification. Of course, everyone you want to call must be running Viber, but that is the only requirement.

Most of the update to Viber is for bug fixes, and there is also an update to the privacy policy, which some users found confusing or objectionable. Viber servers get a copy of your address book names and phone numbers so that the app knows which of your contacts are using Viber without seeing your contact notes or email addresses. You can now read the privacy policy from within the app. New or improved features include a call quality monitor, better Bluetooth support and fixes to international dialing.

Viber is also coming to BlackBerry phones and Android. I don’t think Viber is ever going to threaten Skype, but in some ways, I like it better. If you are a frequent caller, especially if you call internationally, it’s worth a look. Viber is voice only, so no video calling.

Viber VoIP app for iPhone updated and improved originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Chad Podoski develops apps for the iPad and is the founder of Shacked. His first app is called Flickpad, a great looking app that interfaces with Flickr. You can read our interview with Chad here.

Getting your app noticed in the iTunes App Store is a monumental task. With 330,000+ iPhone apps and 60,000+ iPad apps at last count, having a solid marketing plan is a necessity if you want to even have a chance at success. When I launched Flickpad on the day that the iPad was released, I had been so busy coding, that I had given zero thought to any type of marketing plan. Thankfully I quickly recognized the huge oversight. After 8+ months, Flickpad has come a long way and I have tried a plethora of marketing approaches; some successful, some not even close. My hope is that you can learn from this experience, and that it helps you effectively market your iOS app.

Release Early, Release Often? Not on the App Store

As I mentioned above, we released Flickpad on the day the iPad launched. We made the decision to launch early because we wanted to participate in the initial launch of the iPad. The benefit of this decision was minimal, but the long term effects continue to hurt. That first release was not nearly as robust as it should have been, and as a result we got a healthy number of 1 Stars on it. Those 1 Stars, rarely, if EVER, go away. Once a user deletes an app, it is highly unlikely they will ever come back to it. So *Release Early*, I don’t recommend it.

The second part of course is *Release Often*. It is great to constantly be refining and adding features where they make sense, but it tends to work against you in the App Store. This is especially true if you didn’t follow the *Release Early* guidance above. Prior to getting five ratings on any app update, the App Store displays ratings from all your versions up to that point. You also start over with reviews on each new update. Small things can make a big difference. When a customer sees an app with zero reviews and a rating that doesn’t accurately reflect your latest update, it sure doesn’t help your case. You should therefore try to plan larger releases and only push an incremental release if there is a critical bug that needs to be patched.

This is a little bit of a tangent, but still related. If you are developing an app that relies on any type of 3rd party service (in my case Facebook and Flickr), make sure you include some type of mechanism in your app that can notify your users of problems/outages with these 3rd party services. Otherwise your users won’t differentiate between a problem in your code or one originating with the 3rd party. Remember that you will be getting the 1 Stars, not Facebook. If you explain any outages promptly, most of your users will understand. Facebook in particular caused me huge headaches when they were going through their permission model changes, OAuth authentication, and Graph API transitions. I think server changes broke the Facebook authentication in Flickpad 3 or 4 times. Hello 1 Star… Yes Sir, May I have another?

Falling on Deaf Ears

The first avenue I explored in app marketing was in trying to get some review site coverage. I tried all the major ones that I could think of – TUAW, MacStories, Macgasm, TiPb, 148Apps, iPhone.AppStorm, AppShopper, theAppleBits, etc. with varying levels of success. Understandably, the smaller the review site, the quicker they get back to you and generally more willing they are to cover your app. However, some of the bigger names are really cool as well. The guys over at [MacStories](http://www.macstories.net/) have been amazing since day one and I can’t recommend them enough. Developer friendliness aside, they are probably my current favorite app/news/review site. On the other end of the spectrum, some won’t respond to an email unless you sign over your first born child …. you know who you are, lol. Remember not to take it personally and stay persistent. Your best approach is to network like crazy. You will be amazed how interconnected everyone is, and it carries a lot more weight when an app is recommend by a friend instead of by the app developer.

Unless you can get some type of exclusive with one of the bigger sites, get as many as possible to cover you. If you can organize the reviews so they all come up simultaneously or at least close together, that should give you the biggest benefit.

And the Money Started Raining Down from Cupertino

Ah, the Apple recommendation, it is a thing of beauty. More than any other type of press, getting featured by Apple on the App Store opens so many doors (not to mention makes your sales numbers explode). We were fortunate enough to have Flickpad featured by Apple in the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section for almost a full month last summer. Unfortunately, your marketing plan can not just be ‘Get Featured by Apple’. There is not much guidance I can provide here, other than to polish your app as much as possible and market it in all the other ways possible to hopefully get someone’s attention at Apple.

Oh, and remember all those Facebook server changes that resulted in outages of Facebook access for Flickpad …. yep, they happened right in the middle of us being featured. 1 Star, oh how I love you, let me count the ways. We only just recently surpassed the number of 1 Stars with 5 Stars. Our ratings are crazy, large spikes on each end of the rating scale and a small number in the middle.

Professional Screencast – Worth the Money?

It really depends on what your app does as to whether it warrants the cost of a professional screencast. For example, I don’t necessarily think a calculator app warrants a screencast, even though some of those have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. In that case, the app design speaks for itself and people are familiar with the concepts presented by the app. We had great success with having a professional screencast made by the guys over at [HiLo Media](http://www.hilomedia.com/). In our case, a big part of the allure of Flickpad is the fluid and dynamic manner with which you can interact with photos. The screencast was a great, concise way to expose the user to this. A screencast also boosts your chances of getting picked up for reviews by the app review sites. After reading through a ton of ‘Review my App’ emails, I’m sure reviewers love being able to watch a great screencast to make their decision.

Review Site Advertising

Money talks. If you can’t get review sites to pick up your app, and you really feel it has a great shot at hitting, explore advertising on some of the them. You will get exposure to the same users, albeit with a little less but more sustained impact. I have advertised on two different review sites and overall have been really happy with the level of exposure for the cost. Regardless of how long you advertise with a site, it also starts a relationship with the site. Foster that relationship and you may just have an ally next time you are planning an app release.

Speaking of Money, Daring Fireball

For the release of Flickpad 2.0 (added support for Flickr), we planned a multi-prong advertising/marketing push. One of those prongs was a week long sponsorship of Daring Fireball. Pretty much how it works is, for a good chunk of money, you get a mention and John’s opinion of your app/product on Daring Fireball at the beginning and end of the week. The level of exposure was great and I definitely think it was worthwhile if it falls within your advertising budget. If it takes up more than 50% of your advertising budget, I would recommend closely looking at whether it is the best option for you.

I believe the impact of the Daring Fireball sponsorship, while large, was much less than it could have been due to my own mistakes in app pricing. Prior to version 2.0, Flickpad was priced at $4.99 and had seen pretty stable sales numbers. Remember we were still coming off the high of the Apple recommendation as well. $4.99 for a Facebook photo app. Ok, add Flickr and you get two photo apps in one, making it a fast, one stop shop for keeping up on all the latest photos your friends and family are posting. Price: $9.99, seemed logical. What you will come to find is the $4.99 price point or the “What? You want me to pay more for an app than my morning latte. No way!” price seems to be the current inflection point where customers start seeing the app as ‘expensive’ (at least for iOS apps). Had I known then, what I know now, I would have lowered the price to 99¢ for the entire week of Daring Fireball, and blown out a ton of volume. Don’t worry about losing money on short term price changes. There are millions of potential customers, and millions more new ones each week. Instead, focus on getting your app in front of as many people as possible.

Tweet, Tweet

Another prong of the Flickpad 2.0 release was a twitter contest. The idea was simple – give away one Flickr Pro account daily for five days and one iPad as the grand prize. I have mixed feelings on the effectiveness of this effort. It did attract a lot of attention, but I think maybe the iPad was too valuable, and it shifted the target Twitter audience too far away from “iPad owners interested in photo apps” to “Twitter users who just like to participate in giveaway contests”. Regardless, some of the participants, contest types included, have been some of our strongest supporters, and continue to recommend Flickpad to their friends and family on Twitter. It did provide a large Twitter following to help get the word out about new Flickpad updates, so it still continues to pay small dividends today.

Too Lite or Not

After Flickpad 2.0, I released a feature-limited free version of Flickpad. The idea was to allow those who only wanted to follow a small number of people to use the app for free. Well that backfired, as people didn’t see enough photos from the limited number of friends, and ended up deleting the app and rating it poorly. I have since tested out an ad supported version of Flickpad and it has seen quite a bit of downloads. The only reason I mention this is that, if you are considering a free version of your app, carefully consider what functionality it will support and make sure it is enough to provide for an enjoyable experience. I find that people who rate free apps tend to be the harshest of all, as there is zero cost to participate. They start off not being sure if they liked the app, but since it was free, they try it. Once it is confirmed they don’t like it, you rarely get anything other than a 1 Star. The only other comment on free versions is that I think they only make sense when your paid version is priced $2.99 or up.

Price Changes

No app marketing post would be complete without at least a short section on app pricing. What can I say – I don’t have any answers here. I think it is a little bit of a black art. Flickpad has been priced all the way from $9.99 to 99¢. There are a couple things I can say for sure though. One, keeping your iOS app at $4.99 or under will make life a lot easier. And two, use short term price changes and specials to your advantage. There is rarely if ever any negative feedback from users on running specials, and you get nice bumps from when the price drops are picked up by all the app watchers.

I recently had the thought of a new pricing strategy for our next app release. The idea is to decide on your target price for your app, say $3.99. At launch, clearly outline that the app will increase in price periodically until it reaches it’s final price of $3.99. Sell it at 99¢ for a week, then $1.99 for a week, then $2.99 for a week, and then settle at $3.99. The idea is to reward those early adopters, while also quickly seeding the app to generate some word of mouth advertising. I’m curious to know if anyone out there reading this has explored a strategy like this. It is the opposite of what most do, Apple included, where early adopters pay top dollar, but it sure makes a lot more sense to me.

Post Mortem

Looking back, I learned a lot from the different advertising and marketing strategies I tried. Hopefully you have as well. Overall, I am pretty happy with all of the decisions I made. One thing that I would have done differently, however, is to spend a little less on advertising over the long haul and instead put that towards a larger design budget up front. Easier said now though, when I have the resources for a design budget, as opposed to early on when that money didn’t exist.

What Next?

Flickpad is at a crossroads and we are trying to decide how and if to move forward with it. I have recently hired a great designer by the name of [Dustin Schau](http://dustinschau.com/) to create a new app icon for Flickpad, as well as explore some new Flickpad 3.0 UI ideas. I’m not sure whether it makes the most sense to put the effort into a 3.0 update or too instead focus solely on our next app. Also, in the short term I have lowered the price point to 99¢, as well as pulled the free, ad supported version from the App Store. I will probably just let it ride for a little while and see if we can increase download numbers.

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something from it that will help you in marketing your own app. If you haven’t tried [Flickpad](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flickpad-pro-for-facebook/id358635466?mt=8), and you like Flickr or Facebook, please give it a shot at it’s new, limited time, special price of 99¢ . Any help you can provide me in burying those dreaded 1 Stars from early on in Flickpad’s life, would be greatly appreciated.

And finally, here is a mass of links and contact info:

* Me: Twitter, Flickr and most everywhere else as ‘chadpod’

* Shacked: Website, Twitter, Facebook

* Flickpad: Website, Twitter, Facebook, App Store