How to market your iPhone app

This is a question I've been wondering about a lot lately.  It goes without saying that if you just leave your iPhone app alone and don't try and market it, you aren't going to get anywhere with it.  Like any business, iPhone Apps require you work your butt off to get your product out there.  Of course, being so new, there isn't much experience when it comes to iPhone App marketing.  How, exactly, do you do it?

I'm not the most experienced person in the world, but here are my thoughts so far:

Free
1)  Review sites:  They may be new, but there are PLENTY of review sites out there.  Find them and submit your app.  Many just have submission buttons so you can submit info about your company and app.  If you have a paid app, you should generate free codes so reviewers can download them for free.  This is common courtesy and makes sense...no one will review your app if you make them pay for it!!

2)  Press releases - to digital & local media:  Press releases still work.  Find app reviews sites that don't have a "submit" button and send them information about your game.  In addition, target your local media.  Most media (at least print) has "business players" or "new venture" sections where they will cover new business ventures like this.  iPhone Apps and Mobile Gaming is a hot topic right now, so don't forget the "old fashioned" ways of media outreach!
 
3)  Social Media:  People who download apps have above-average usage on Social Media.  Based on that, it only makes sense that someone who has an iPhone app set up a presence on Facebook, Twitter or a blog.  This takes some effort to maintain (trust me), and you always make sure that you aren't too self-promotional and providing value-added content, but it is a great way that you can confirm that you are actively reaching out to an audience that is willing to listen.

Paid
4)  Pay Per Click options:  Google and Facebook both have extremely robust, effective and targeted advertising options.  You can set a budget and pay per every time someone clicks on your add.  Once I have the money, I'm going to look at Facebook ads.  You can target based on demographic and interests - so I'll be targeting iPhone users who like U.S. History.  This will, hopefully, be effective!!

5)  iPhone Ad Services:  There are services out there that specifically target iPhone users with in game ads.  I know there are many, but the only one I really know anything about is admob. which claims over 280,000,000,000 impressions (damn). 

So, that's what I've got.  How about you?  What else am I missing?

Do iPhone Ratings Matter?

I was very happy to discover the following image when I checked on Pocket Trivia: US History today:

Woohoo!  The US History Trivia game now has enough ratings (that number is five) to get an actual star ranking - with four five-star and one one-star rating, we have an average of a four star rating.  This is big news, because it now gives people something by which to evaluate the game.

This got me thinking - do these ratings actually affect downloads?  Traditional wisdom would indicate yes.  When it comes to customer reviews, people are willing to pay between 20-99% more for a five-star product than a four-star product. 78% of customers trust peer recommendations, but only 14% trust advertisements.

I went looking for some information - and found none.  Hmm.  So, as best I can tell, there is no empirical research our there that would indicate whether or not a high rating affects App downloads.  I tend to think it does, but I'd be curious to know the actual affect.

Anyone out there have any ideas?

News Advisory: New iPhone App Developer launches two U.S. History iPhone Apps

Usually I don't post press releases (it's never a good idea to post too many), but this one is pretty important.  Versions 1.1 of both Pocket Trivia: US History and Pocket Trivia: US Presidents are now out and ready to go.  The release is copied below. 

This is a big deal for us, and to their infinite credit, the folks at Enter.Net made SERIOUS improvements to the two versions.  The games now have lifelines, connection to OpenFeint (allowing for a leaderboard and achievements), enhanced graphics, sound effects and a smoother user interface.  It is a marked improvement on the previous game.

So, we've submitted the game to as many iPhone reviewers as we can find (but are always looking for more!) and sent the press release to local media as well.  I know we'll get at lease one story out of it, so that will be nice. 

Now we wait!  The press release (with links added) is after the jump.

How many apps....

I checked out the numbers the other day to see how many apps have been downloaded - interesting numbers. 

It's pretty common knowledge that iPhone lead the way.  As of September 1, 2010, over 6.5 billion apps had been downloaded.  Obviously an insane number.

What is less common knowledge, however, is just how well Android phones are doing.  According to AndroLib, over 1.5 billion Android apps have been downloaded.  For developers, this is a startling high number...and perhaps a number that will speak volumes about the ability of Android to stay on the market. 

Let's be honest - a Droid has a lot of advantages that the iPhone doesn't - a bigger screen and better camera being the two most prevalent.  One of iPhone's biggest advantages over Droid is the App store - generally you can get high quality products that are readily available.  iPhone has the market momentum in that sense.

But so did MySpace.  And Friendster.  And AoL.  And plenty of other tech companies that have since gone the way of the DoDo Bird (no, not the Grand Theft Auto DoDo).

Before learning the stats, as an iPhone App Developer, I hadn't paid too much attention to Android.  That is starting to look like an error.  Not yet.  But maybe in the future.

Anyone have any information on the trends?  How are iPhone App downloads doing vs. Android App downloads?  That be some REALLY interesting information.

And now, for your viewing pleasure...the DoDo from Grand Theft Auto 3.  I could never get the thing to fly.........

Apple ending free case program for iPhone 4

From the Master's of the Universe themselves:

"We now know that the iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue is even smaller than we originally thought. A small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free. For everyone else, we are discontinuing the free case program on all iPhone 4s sold after September 30, 2010. We are also returning to our normal returns policy for all iPhone 4s sold after September 30. Users experiencing antenna issues should call AppleCare to request a free Bumper case."

Hmm.  Alright.  A brief refresher:  As first reported by Consumer Reports, the new iPhone 4 ran into some pretty serious problems when it turned out that, if you held your iPhone 4 just so on the lower left-hand side, you could degrade the signal and wind up losing a call completely.  Consumer Reports thought the problem was so significant that they didn't recommend the iPhone 4.

Apple responded quickly, holding a press conference and announcing how they were handling the issue - just four days after their initial report, Apple announced that they would give away free bumper cases for the iPhone 4. 

As you can see, the note from Apple does leave the possibility that they will continue to send cases on an as needed basis.  But, an interesting tidbit:  According to the good folks at Macworld, "An executive with Mexican iPhone carrier Telcel late last month claimed that Apple would be introducing revised iPhone 4 hardware by the end of September to address the antenna issue, but Apple has made no announcements regarding changes to its hardware or manufacturing process."

Here's what I want to know - how many cases were sent out?  Anybody have any ideas? 

Apple releases App Store Review Guidelines - What's next, we find out who killed JFK?

Credit to Social Media Gods Mashable for breaking this story - super-secretive Apple has released its Store Review Guidelines.  If mere mortals attempt to view the guidelines, you won't be able to without being a registered Apple Developer.  Fine, whatevs. 

One of the more common complaints about App development was that Apple wasn't always always clear about why an app was being rejected.  Now, thanks to the release of the app guidelines, developers can have a better idea of what guidelines their apps have to adhere to.

Apps have been rejected for a variety of reasons, including:

• Ridiculing public figures (see #1 and #2)
• Lack of user functionality (see item #3) - like the famous "I am rich" application.
• Offensive Content (#4, sorry South Park)
• Support of nudity
• Support of violence...like shaking babies?  REALLY?

I'm glad I just make trivia games.

App Downloads - oh there are so so many

This is why mobile gaming is the way of the future:

The following data was pulled from Wikipedia.  It lays out the amount of iPhone App Downloads over time - and as you can see - there are a lot.  The latest data release by Apple shows that over 6,500,000,000 apps have been downloaded.  The most recent jump showed that Apple had an increase of 1.5 billion in downloads from June to September.  At that rate, it will be at more than 10 billion downloads by the end of the year - and the number of downloads keep growing.

Wow.

Journey of a start-up App company

Hello everybody!  If you are fimiliar with good ole Mr. Pocket, and Pocket Protector Games (where Mr. Pocket lives, of course), than you are likely familiar with the fact that Pocket Protector Games is a brand new App Development company, creating trivia games for the iPhone.  We have two games out so far - U.S. History Trivia and U.S. Presidential Trivia.  Both were produced by the great folks at Enter.net.

So, being brand new has been quite an interesting journey so far.  We are a one man shop; my name is Mike Schlossberg, and I have two other jobs in addition to Pocket Protector - working for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and serving as a member of Allentown City Council. So, being busy, this was a very interesting project.

That being said - as far as I am concerned, to me, this was a demonstration of having enough passion and deciding to go for it.  I did this because I am fascinated by technology and really think that mobile technology is the next big thing.  About 20% of America now has a smart phone - and that number is only going to grow.  This is something that took a pretty good time and financial investment, but I am confident that, if marketed correctly, this app will grow in success.  Ideally, I'd like to come up with more trivia games, then branch into other areas. 

As a start-up business, this is a little stressful - you never know if you are going to make it or not, and wow, I really hope I didn't waste a heck of a lot of my own time.  That being said - I really believe this will work.  I hope you will all be with me for the journey!