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#181: Unconventional wisdom, pricing.
18 april 2014 · 15 min
T-shirts Lees meer
I am doing another run of t-shirts for the show. After I did the campaign for them last fall I heard from a lot of people that they missed out. This year I’m giving the campaign a nice long run (through April 28). The shirt design this year combines three distinctly geeky things—underscores, square brackets and fixed width fonts.
Shirts are $14.59 (never longer than 15 minutes). Get one at http://teespring.com/developing .
Wrapping up
I have published the consolidated, summarized article for my Towards a Better App Store series.
Unconventional Wisdom
Today I thought it might be fun to start another series of episodes. I like doing series because then I don’t have to think so much about my topic each week. The concept I’m starting with is modeled a bit after debate exercise where you are given a topic or statement then told to take either the pro or against position. The process of having to defend either side of an argument often helps to think in ways you wouldn’t otherwise. Along those lines I’m going to try and take the intentionally contrarian position against ‘conventional wisdom’ in the software business.
The result is something that isn’t 100% my actual position on things but should be productive and hopefully thought provoking nevertheless. I’ll be making sweeping, un-nuanced statements for effect. As with everything in life, it is more complicated than I’m going to present it. The interesting part of being in business is navigating that nuance for yourself.
The first topic I’m going to attack is pricing.
Paid software is good for customers and developers?
When I first got into the software business nearly 6 years ago the prevailing ‘best practice’ for software sales was to charge a reasonable up front price for your product. Then provide minor update and bug-fix update patches for free. Then charge (with upgrade pricing) for each major update to the product. This model had worked pretty well for many years and had grown up in the era of …
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#180: Enduring Features.
11 april 2014 · 15 min
I hope you fared better in the WWDC lottery than I did, though I’m hopeful for a possibility of a second round on Monday (maybe?). The system and process generally went really well and I think this is likely the process we’ll see going forward. It isn’t perfect but is as good as I could imagine. Lees meer
Improving the App Store: Part 5
Ratings
The star rating of an application is the most important aspects of the sale experience that is outside of the developer’s direct control. It is displayed on every page and instance where your app is shown and gives the customer a general cue about the quality of your app. As such developers tend to take whatever actions they can to increase it. If this were just a question of improving the quality of their apps that would be fine but that isn’t where most developers stop off. Not to reopen the tempest about prompt dialogs, but there are a lot of potentially dubious and tricky things developers can do to try and ‘artificially’ boost their ratings. There are also some really solid, thoughtful ways to accomplish the same goal.
My general recommendations about ways this could be improved.
Define a clear policy about where, how, and when applications may prompt for reviews.
Much of the discussion around the dialog prompts stemmed from a feeling that ‘everyone was doing it’ so ‘I need to too’. The best way to reward earnest developers who are trying to optimize for their users’ experience is to level the playing field by establishing exactly what is permitted.
Make the rating scale a rolling, weighted average rather than just current, at least soon after updates.
I remember when Apple changed the review score from a global average to only the current version. This was an attempt to make sure that a single buggy version didn’t forever hang around your neck. It also makes the reviews perhaps more reflective of the experience the customer should expect. The challenge though is that immediately after submitting your update your reviews …
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#179: Avoiding the Stampede.
3 april 2014 · 15 min
A few words of appreciation for the new lottery based WWDC ticket sales. Get your name in the hat by Monday morning. Lees meer
Then I talk through some of the tradeoffs involved in choosing the level of abstraction to use for your web-service backends, explaining my own tendency to go pretty low level. Starting from these few posts:
The Parts of Your Platform
Web Hosting For App Developers
On Running Your Own Servers, and Why We’re Not
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#178: Customer Escape Hatches
27 maart 2014 · 14 min
After taking credit ;) for Apple’s experiments in search improvements I dive into a few changes to the App Store that could improve doing business in the store. Lees meer
Make the App Store Refund policy more obvious
I really don’t understand why Apple makes the refund process so opaque and awkward. I know from my own experience in physical stores that a clear and easy refund policy helps drive sales. It is far better than a ‘trial-mode’ because it sustains the value of the app (rather than giving it away for free then asking for money later). However, it still maintains that escape hatch for purchases unsure of whether they really want the app.
I’d love two things, neither of which are actually policy changes.
Educate App Store customers about what the policy is and ideally phrase it in clear terms.
I’m sure there is an internal policy within Apple customer support, but I haven’t been able to find a clear explanation of it. The legalese Terms and Conditions for the App Store states that “All sales and rentals of products are final” but that is clearly not the actual policy since people get refunds all the time. Whatever the policy is this should be clear the customers.
Make the process of applying for a refund clear and straightforward.
Right now you go to reportaproblem.apple.com and then fill in a form. I’d love to see this integrated into the App Store app itself. Perhaps even into the Purchased Apps area.
Make in-app purchases (especially consumable) more honest
Building on a blog post I wrote last year I would love to see the App Store better inform its customers about how in-app purchases will affect their experience of an app.
Present a typical overall cost for an app in the App Store description
Make it clear that when you are downloading an app that says ‘free’ next to it that you may not actually be making the less expensive choice. Also, provides a clear expectation about the type of app the user is about to interact with.
Show how much you have spent…
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#177: Something in Mind.
14 maart 2014 · 14 min
I will be at NSConference next week, if you are a listener of the show please make sure you find me and say hi. Lees meer
Continuing my series of Towards a Better App Store, trying to find practical suggestions for how we could improve the App Store. Today I’m going to focus on Search.
Physical Design: Make the cards interface for search optional (if not eliminated).
Ranking: Rewards or punish applications based on objective measures. For example, recently updated, crash frequency, refund requests, reviews, etc.
Curation: While still algorithmically based periodically vet the most popular keywords to ensure good relevance.
Power Search: Add the ability to filter and manage search results to more finely tune the results.
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#176: Make it up in Volume
6 maart 2014 · 15 min
Towards a Better App Store: Part 2 Lees meer
Make it up in Volume
This is Part 2 of an ongoing series trying to explore practical ways that the App Store could be better for customers. Today I’m going to talk about the Store’s size.
The size of the App Store’s catalog is often thrown around as a valuable, useful metric for judging the heath and vitality of the ecosystem. That may have been true before a certain scale. There is value in having a diverse and deep inventory that mets every need but beyond a certain point it completely looses relevance. Duplication, ‘spamming’ and decay of older apps hurts the store more than helps it. In many ways the incredible volume of the Store is at the core of many of the other challenges it faces. App Review takes longer than developers would like. Search becomes tricky. Editorially curating new arrivals becomes daunting.
It isn’t an easy problem to solve. How do you determine which apps should be allowed in which should not. Just how many Flappy clones should be allowed to exist in the Store? 5, 10, 1000? It isn’t just the overall size that is a problem though, the rate of increase is also increasing.
This is only new apps approved on the store (taken from 148Apps), add to this updates and it is an incredible volume.
Also, how many of the apps on the App Store are being actively maintained. I’d guess the number is pretty low but the old apps still stay there. Buoying the numbers but not actually providing good value to
Aside on Apple
For this whole series I’m going to assume that tackling the questions of making the App Store better aren’t constrained by budget nor desire. I’m going to assume that somewhere in Apple’s Profit & Loss they can find whatever resources they need to attack these challenges. Furthermore, I’m going to assume that they have a desire to make the App Store as customer friendly a place as possible. Both of these seem like reasonable things to assume but I feel I should put that out there before I begin.
Re…
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#175: Towards a Better App Store: Part 1
27 februari 2014 · 15 min
This begins a multi-part series on how I think we could move the App Store forward. I had initially thought this could be a single show but quickly realized that it will take quite a few 15 minute conversations to really unpack what can practically be done to make the App Store a better place. Lees meer
A note on Show Notes. I’m planning to continue the long form notes for now, but realize that they are only a taste of what is discussed in the show and not a transcript.
The Goal
It is perhaps a bit glib to assume that the App Store is in need of fixing. It is perhaps the most success software marketplace in history. It has facilitated the download of over 60 billion applications. It removed a tremendous amount of friction and hassle with software distribution. It has allowed the creation of a new way for customers to think about software.
But I think it can be better. I have genuine, personal affection for the App Store. It has allowed me personally to do things I never thought possible. But (to quote myself):
I want to believe that the App Store is a special place. I want for it to be the singularly best venue for customers to come and find innovative, well designed, quality software. Software that pushes the boundaries of what is possible and continually amazes and delights its customers. I want for there to be an aspirational pull upwards on my own development. I want to feel like I need to work extra hard to make sure my apps meet the high standards my customers have been trained to expect.
I don’t think the App Store lives up to these projected goals, but I think it could.
When trying to think of the areas and ways in which the App Store could be improved it is likely not productive to think from a developer’s point of view. In all cases for the App Store to be successful it needs to be customer oriented. I need a target towards which to aim. With this in mind I started out with the goal making an app store that:
Helps customers find quality apps to fill their c…
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#174: A Livelihood
12 februari 2014 · 15 min
There is something tragic about the Flappy Bird saga. The events and realities of it aren’t necessarily anything new but they showcase some of the darker sides of our industry. Lees meer
The Hate
Things like Twitter and the short attention span culture that grows up around it have developed a mentality where it seems perfectly acceptable to tear apart other people or their work. Over the weekend I was disheartened to see so many people I know and admire passing judgement on someone they didn’t know based on 140 character messages. Guessing the motives of anyone other than your closest friends is a fools errand, and even for them it is usually a terrible idea (just ask my friends). People are complicated, fragile and valuable. Projecting into someone else’s situation and then passing degrees on how they respond isn’t nearly as productive as projecting yourself into their situation and trying to learn for yourself.
Words have meaning and I see no clearer example of how powerful they can be than what happened to Dong Nguyen. I genuinely hope he is able to move on from this in a positive way.
Jeff Vogel’s take on this is worth a read. He comes from a background where he has had to deal with this type of interaction. While he has a variety of good points I found his observations about the role PR companies play in business very germane to this audience. The blessing and curse of being an independent is that you often interact directly with your customers. It is impossible for this to not impact you personally and emotionally. Human nature is to dwell on the negative far more than the positive. If you aren’t careful about drawing boundaries you’ll go crazy.
A lesson
There are a number of more squishy lessons to learn from Flappy Bird, but there is one that is manifestly practical. Never, ever, ever share revenue numbers publicly. As soon as you throw a number out there it will be all anyone can talk about. This is a natural reaction since it is one of the only things about y…
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#173: Roses by Other Names
5 februari 2014 · 15 min
I’m trying a new format for show notes. This is half blog post, half podcast. Let me know what you think. Lees meer
I’m not going to wade into the specifics of the Paper-on-Paper-on-Paper-on-Paper battle but I thought it was an interesting topic to address more generally. Naming is an important part of creating, launching and marketing a product. Along with your icon it is probably the single most significant part of your branding efforts. It is what people will search for and how they will tell others about your app. Here are some of the things I’ve learned from my tenure in the App Store.
Remember folks, I’m not a lawyer. Don’t base your legal or branding choices solely on the recommendation of a 15 minute podcast.
Considerations when choosing a name
There are two general groups that your app’s name can fall into:
A unique, contrived or invented word. Some examples of this category are Groupon, YouTube, Snapchat and Pinterest. The advantage of these is that they are typically easier to defend and protect. Because you made up a word it is hard for people to claim collisions are coincidence.
A more generic term. Some examples of this category are Audiobooks, Paper, Flashlight and Camera. The advantage of these is that they are easily recognizable and have built in search optimization. However, they are much trickier to defend and lay claim to.
Some App Store Realities
Name “squatting” is a reality of the Store. While Apple has a variety of policies in place to attempt to mitigate this it is easy for someone to lay claim to a name in the Store without really using it to sell an actual product.
As of today there have been 1,509,669 apps approved in the life of the App Store. With that large of a pool it is very likely that all the basic, short names have already been used for most common nouns and verbs (The Oxford English Dictionary only has around 250,000 words for comparison).
Name duplication is possible through a variety of means. I used to think that once a nam…
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#172: Going Global.
3 februari 2014 · 15 min
Lessons learned from launching Pedometer++ 2.0. Stopping worrying too much about version numbers. Leaving time buffers to accommodate iTunes Connect issues. The success of localization.
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#171: Pros and Cons of Localization.
22 januari 2014 · 15 min
I recently went through the process of localizing Pedometer++. Today I walk through my thought process and experience doing that. Whether you should localize isn’t always a simple question. Lees meer
Previous Episode on Localization
WWDC Video about Localization
Apple Developer Overview
My Cheat Sheet for looking up Languages
iTunes Connect Transporter
Tethras, the service I use
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#170(#156): Distinctiveness
15 januari 2014 · 15 min
I’m renumbering the shows going forward. Early on the show’s history I made a few mistakes where I skipped numbers in the ordering. Now the numbers correctly reflect the number of episodes I’ve created to-date. Lees meer
I’ll be speaking at NSNorth in Ottawa, Canada. The conference runs from May 8-10.
Today my main topic is about distinctiveness. Stemming from my experience with copy-cat apps of Pedometer++.
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#155: Headroom
6 januari 2014 · 15 min
I took two weeks off the internet and work. Here are a few of the things I learned from the experience and the changes I’m making in my own life. Lees meer
Invest in fewer but more personal relationships.
Avoid controversies.
Slow Down, stabilize on quality before moving forward.
Try to be less cynical. Read my App Store reviews. Listen to all my customers.
The video I mentioned in the intro.
App Store Distribution and Marketing for Apps
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#154: Something You Are Proud Of.
13 december 2013 · 13 min
It matters that you can make a living — but it matters more how you make your living. Lees meer
Decisions and Tensions
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#153: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
5 december 2013 · 14 min
Talking through some of the implications of the Christmas bump in the App Store. How to prepare for it and some mistakes I’d like to avoid making again. Allowing yourself to be a bit creative and exploratory with features. Lees meer
I’ll be speaking at two conferences next spring.
NSConf
CocoaConf
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#152: Push-Pull Marketing.
19 november 2013 · 15 min
Looking at app marketing as a spectrum between push and pull. Each developer needs to decide how much they want to interject themselves into a potential customer’s attention. How much do you value your own attention?
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#151: A tree falls in the Woods.
13 november 2013 · 15 min
Some lessons and storytelling about the extended outage Feed Wrangler experienced this past weekend.
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#150: Five Years in the App Store
8 november 2013 · 15 min
A retrospective on the lessons I’ve learned from 5 years working in the App Store. Lees meer
Five Years in the App Store
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#149: Audits.
31 oktober 2013 · 14 min
An overview of my experience surviving my first government audit and how I try to take a very conservative approach to accounting and tax compliance.
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#148: Trading in Pork Bellies.
25 oktober 2013 · 14 min
A few lessons for Tuesday’s keynote. We are living in the world of commodity software. The faster we adapt and react to that the better we will be able to continue making the software we love.
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#147: Our Retina Futures.
18 oktober 2013 · 14 min
Wrap up from Cingleton. Initial reactions and thoughts about Tip Jar In-App Purchases. Some predictions and thoughts about next week’s Apple event.
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#146: Get up, Get Moving.
4 oktober 2013 · 13 min
Looking for unique opportunities and taking risks. Embracing experimentation. The importance of getting up and moving. Lees meer
The Prompt: The Mind of the Underscore
Pedometer++
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#145: Real World Price Dynamics with Lauren Smith.
27 september 2013 · 23 min
With all the recent discussion about App Store pricing and the sustainability of making a living from the Store I thought it might be constructive to bring actual customers into the conversation. While talking with my wife, Lauren, about what was going on our resulting discussion got interesting. I recorded it and thought I’d post it here. She sits at an interesting intersection between a typical App Store customer and someone who knows the business realities of running an indie app company. Lees meer
Please excuse my audio quality. I only have a single proper microphone, so I had her record with that while I used a USB headset.
We start off talking about some implications of Realmac’s decision to backpedal on the pricing structure for Clear. How the decision to offer a paid, separate upgrade creates a situation where customers are apt to seek out other alternatives. The dynamics of this seem to play out differently than doing an in-app upgrade.
The fear of wasting money in purchasing apps and how that can often drive people towards free apps simply because the apparent risks are so much lower. One of the implications of this fear or hesitation is that purchases made within an app are much less daunting than purchases directly from the App Store.
How social proof and personal recommendations can drive purchases in a way that less personal marketing never does.
The misconception that the App Store is stocked by Apple directly rather than by independent 3rd Party apps. This sets up unrealistic expectations with customers about what is sustainable and reasonable to expect from developers. How Apple’s decision to make the iWork suite free feeds into this perception with customers that Apps should come free with their devices with infinite free updates.
The role that good customer service can provide to personalize and humanize your relationship with customers. This can serve as a great avenue both for their continued support and to help give them a realistic set of expecta…
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#144: Pod Wrangler and Getting Creative.
26 september 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Introducing Pod Wrangler. Looking for places where you have unique experiences or resources that let you make things faster or better. Getting creative for business models to adapt to the ever changing app store environment. Lees meer
Pod Wrangler
iOS Version Stats
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#143: Bare Metal.
17 september 2013 · 15 min
As an engineer my tendency is to think that all problems are best solved by cleverness. This week I’ve learned that the reality is that I should not try to solve with cleverness that which can easily be solved with money. Lees meer
Changing a Car Tire while Driving
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#142: iPhone 5s/5c First Impressions.
11 september 2013 · 12 min
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - First Impressions on the iPhone 5s/5c event. Generally it met expectations, which makes me very happy.
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#141: Sweeping Statements with Incomplete Information.
6 september 2013 · 14 min
Friday, September 06, 2013 - Taking pundit commentary with a grain of salt and a few thoughts about next week’s event. Lees meer
Developing Perspective t-shirt
The Inspirational Mug
Grain of Salt Origin
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#140: Managing Beta Testing.
30 augustus 2013 · 15 min
Friday, August 30, 2013 - Announcing the first ever Developing Perspective t-shirt. A discussion about how I beta test my apps to get them ready for the store. Lees meer
Developing Perspective T-shirt
HockeyApp
TestFlight
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#139: Transferring Apps and Affiliate Linking.
21 augustus 2013 · 15 min
Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - Understanding the App Transfer process and an overview of Apple’s new affiliate marketing system. Lees meer
#72: Mistakes, Designing Icons and getting Acquired.
iTunes Connect Developer Guide
iTunes Affiliate Linking
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#138: The New World.
16 augustus 2013 · 14 min
Friday, August 16, 2013 - Walking through the tricky decision I have made about dropping support for iOS 6 in a lot of my adds. What the new ‘cheaper’ iPhone means for developers in the App Store.
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#137: Catastrophic Failure
8 augustus 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, August 08, 2013 - A behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to respond to a catastrophic database migration that took down Feed Wrangler. What happened and a few things I’ve learned from the experience. With surprise special guest.
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#136: The iOS 7 Conundrum.
2 augustus 2013 · 13 min
Friday, August 02, 2013 - The release of iOS 7 “This Fall” brings with it a number of challenges. In this episode I try to unpack the tensions between market timing and technical timing. Also, why I think I’ll be more expansive with my iOS adoption than I had originally thought. Lees meer
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#135: Choices.
26 juli 2013 · 15 min
Friday, July 26, 2013 - Grab-bag episode. The Developer Portal outage. Deciding the kind of business you want to run. Leverging your past solutions to new problems. Staying with it when you get stuck. Recommending the Çingleton Symposium. Lees meer
Dev Portal Status
Honest In-App Purchases
Çingleton Symposium 3
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#134: Useful Toys.
19 juli 2013 · 13 min
Friday, July 19, 2013 - The important and useful role that test projects can serve. How I re-wrote SimpleGram to learn about iOS 7. Using SQLite for applications where batch operations are common. Lees meer
FMDB
Base
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#133: Two Years and Principles of Solid Design.
12 juli 2013 · 15 min
Celebrating 2 years of Developing Perspective. 38 hours of me jabbering on about development. Thanks for putting up with me. Lees meer
Discussing a few principles of solid design that apply very strongly to iOS 7. Contrast, Repetition, Alignment & Proximity. Taken from The Non-Designer’s Design Book (3rd Edition).
First Episode of Developing Perspective, 2 years ago
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#132: Embracing the Future.
5 juli 2013 · 15 min
Friday, July 05, 2013 - How to get yourself ready for iOS 7 and the changes it will bring. My strategy for using iOS 7 in my daily life. Approaching iOS 7 adoption. Lees meer
iOS 7 Redesigns
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#131: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number.
28 juni 2013 · 15 min
Friday, June 28, 2013 - Some reflections on a crazy week scaling Feed Wrangler and the often difficult choices that result of trying to build good products…in a practical way. Lees meer
Pinboard Article
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#130: WWDC Final Impressions.
14 juni 2013 · 13 min
Friday, June 14, 2013 - My overall impressions from the week of WWDC 2013. Lots of opportunities and difficult decisions for developers going forward. Be bold, Be Brave.
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#129: WWDC 2013 First Impressions
10 juni 2013 · 14 min
Monday, June 10, 2013 - My first impressions from this morning’s Keynote. I recorded this directly after the announcements so that I could talk freely before learning any NDA information.
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#128: WWDC Tips and Etiquette.
6 juni 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, June 06, 2013 Lees meer
General Tips
Casey’s WWDC Tips
Jeff LaMarche First Timer’s Guide
Pick up your badge Sunday
Have questions prepared for the Labs
Don’t feel like you have to do something in every slot, take care of yourself
Etiquette Soapbox
AKA: Please, don’t be a jerk at WWDC.
Be thankful to the Apple engineers and employees
Be considerate of others and your presenter during sessions
Make sure all your technology is on Silent (not vibrate)
Please, don’t noisily pack up your stuff and leave before the presenter actually concludes. Wait until they are done!
Pick up your trash
Be polite in line and don’t hold spaces for unreasonable numbers of people
Be aware and respectful of people’s time and attention
Don’t be a pushy salesman for your apps
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#127: Hopes for iOS7
30 mei 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, May 30, 2013 - Some of my hopes and desires for what will be unveiled at WWDC regarding iOS 7.
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#126: Scaling.
23 mei 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, May 23, 2013 - A quick survey of my preparation for and process of scaling a backend webservice. Also walk through the process setting up useful monitoring.
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#125: Invisible App Store Hands.
17 mei 2013 · 15 min
Friday, May 17, 2013 - My take on our Semi-Annual discussion about App Store pricing and whether things should change in the Stores.
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#124: Fear and Learning.
10 mei 2013 · 9 min
Friday, May 10, 2013 - My experience of fear and insecurity whenever I launch something and some of the coping mechanisms that I’ve had to developed to get over it and actually ship software.
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#123: Introducing Feed Wrangler.
2 mei 2013 · 15 min
Thursday, May 02, 2013 - Introducing Feed Wrangler, my latest product. I talk through some of the motivations behind it and how it works. I also talk through why I chose subscription pricing for it. Lees meer
Feed Wrangler
Briefs
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#122: A Few thoughts on WWDC 2013.
24 april 2013 · 14 min
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - A few thoughts about this mornings announcement of WWDC 2013 and the way they are handling tickets this year. Lees meer
WWDC Tickets
WWDC Apple Design Awards
WWDC Student Scholarships
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#121: Dealing with Rejection.
23 april 2013 · 15 min
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - How I deal with the app rejection process, things to look out for and how to act. Lees meer
Napkin App
ADN Invite Link
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#120: Setting up an App Store Developer Account.
15 april 2013 · 15 min
Monday, April 15, 2013 - I walk through the process of setting initially setup to distribute apps within the App Store. Lees meer
Apple Walkthrough
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#119: Go Big or Ship?
12 april 2013 · 14 min
Friday, April 12, 2013 - Thinking about App Store rejections. Building reliable, queue based app components. Whether it is better to build out everything you want or ship a small polished kernel. Linode’s memory bump halving my hosting costs. Lees meer
Linode’s New Memory Blog Post
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#118: Ambitious.
9 april 2013 · 15 min
Tuesday, April 09, 2013 - Talking through one crazy week. The wisdom or folly of attacking ambitious goals. Why you want to own your sync solution. What’s next.