For those who don’t know it yet, I develop iOS applications. I’m founder of iNdevour (maker of Winq app for iPhone).
Believe me, I love Apple. I love what they do, I love their products, I love this whole ecosystem that they created for developers. What I don’t like is that some actions by some Apple’s executives are threatening this same ecosystem.
If you are a developer, you probably guessed what I’m talking about. Reality is, Apple started axing, to my opinion, one of the best working models for app promotion (PPI). Yes, this model is full of controversies. Yes, it gave rise to thousands of crappy apps. But I’m sure it also helped developers of cool apps get noticed.
In an environment with hundreds of thousands of apps competing to get to the top, it’s really really hard to get noticed. Everybody knows that. PPI model at least provided the opportunity for a developer to encourage iPhone and iPad users to try their apps. After the user tries an app, two things may happen.
First. Those really crappy apps will get deleted and trashed in reviews. They may climb up the rating, they may even climb as high as Top 25, but no crappy app can have a budget that high to stay on top forever. So eventually, their marketing budget will dry out. Because if you think about it, you can’t inflate your budget forever - it’s doomed to burst sooner or later. These crappy apps are not sustained by great user experience: bad apps, bad user experience, no value - oh, they will fall.
Second thing which may happen. Good apps will get noticed. If they are that good, if they provide good user experience, beautiful GUI, great value - they will stay on top. Not because of their budgets, but because users will like these apps, they will keep using them, they will recommend them to their friends, they will post positive reviews, etc.
So what we had before eventually was a self-sustaining environment, where, if you wanted to promote an app, if you wanted users to ‘test drive’ your app, you would just pay to publishers per install. Now all this is on the verge of extinction.
What I don’t understand is how you can kill the whole ecosystem without coming up with something else, without a good alternative to what we had before. Unless the market or Apple (as the killer of this ecosystem) come up with something else (and something which works as good!), we’ll go back to the stone age of CTR models with their skyrocketing rates and some players actually monopolizing the market of display ads.
Who wins in this situation? Developers who are already on top, thanks to the same PPI model. Moreover, now that they are already on top, looking down to small developers who are starting on their path, they must feel pretty happy should Apple shut the PPI model down. Like I said, it will be extremely hard to get noticed, so what’s happening now is basically Apple safeguarding guys on AppStore top from their potential competitors.
What about Apple itself? Will they win from the situation? It’s actually a hard question to answer. I understand that Apple executives probably saw that huge and yummy pie taken over by TapJoy and Flurry, and they wanted a piece of it - we are talking tens and hundreds of millions of $$$ here. Yes, eventually Apple gets their 30% off the pie in downloads, but why 30%, why not get it all? Bad idea.
Problem is, iAds as is cannot help developers. I think iAds is a very beautiful platform. It looks cool, with all those animated ads and stuff. But it’s not for developers, it’s for car producers, jewelry shops, banks, all these companies with huge advertising budgets. So unless Apple comes up with a solution when iAds help developers promote their apps, and moreover, encourage ‘test driving’ apps, it won’t work for them either. Developers’ money will go somewhere else.
So what do we have, eventually? We have a working model being shut down and we have no substitute for that. And I’m feeling very personal about this. I believe that we created an app which deserves to be notices, because it has great GUI, provides good user experience and brings value. So how can we get noticed now? Please provide your thoughts here or on iNdevour Web-page using one of the contacts here
Believe me, I love Apple. I love what they do, I love their products, I love this whole ecosystem that they created for developers. What I don’t like is that some actions by some Apple’s executives are threatening this same ecosystem.
If you are a developer, you probably guessed what I’m talking about. Reality is, Apple started axing, to my opinion, one of the best working models for app promotion (PPI). Yes, this model is full of controversies. Yes, it gave rise to thousands of crappy apps. But I’m sure it also helped developers of cool apps get noticed.
In an environment with hundreds of thousands of apps competing to get to the top, it’s really really hard to get noticed. Everybody knows that. PPI model at least provided the opportunity for a developer to encourage iPhone and iPad users to try their apps. After the user tries an app, two things may happen.
First. Those really crappy apps will get deleted and trashed in reviews. They may climb up the rating, they may even climb as high as Top 25, but no crappy app can have a budget that high to stay on top forever. So eventually, their marketing budget will dry out. Because if you think about it, you can’t inflate your budget forever - it’s doomed to burst sooner or later. These crappy apps are not sustained by great user experience: bad apps, bad user experience, no value - oh, they will fall.
Second thing which may happen. Good apps will get noticed. If they are that good, if they provide good user experience, beautiful GUI, great value - they will stay on top. Not because of their budgets, but because users will like these apps, they will keep using them, they will recommend them to their friends, they will post positive reviews, etc.
So what we had before eventually was a self-sustaining environment, where, if you wanted to promote an app, if you wanted users to ‘test drive’ your app, you would just pay to publishers per install. Now all this is on the verge of extinction.
What I don’t understand is how you can kill the whole ecosystem without coming up with something else, without a good alternative to what we had before. Unless the market or Apple (as the killer of this ecosystem) come up with something else (and something which works as good!), we’ll go back to the stone age of CTR models with their skyrocketing rates and some players actually monopolizing the market of display ads.
Who wins in this situation? Developers who are already on top, thanks to the same PPI model. Moreover, now that they are already on top, looking down to small developers who are starting on their path, they must feel pretty happy should Apple shut the PPI model down. Like I said, it will be extremely hard to get noticed, so what’s happening now is basically Apple safeguarding guys on AppStore top from their potential competitors.
What about Apple itself? Will they win from the situation? It’s actually a hard question to answer. I understand that Apple executives probably saw that huge and yummy pie taken over by TapJoy and Flurry, and they wanted a piece of it - we are talking tens and hundreds of millions of $$$ here. Yes, eventually Apple gets their 30% off the pie in downloads, but why 30%, why not get it all? Bad idea.
Problem is, iAds as is cannot help developers. I think iAds is a very beautiful platform. It looks cool, with all those animated ads and stuff. But it’s not for developers, it’s for car producers, jewelry shops, banks, all these companies with huge advertising budgets. So unless Apple comes up with a solution when iAds help developers promote their apps, and moreover, encourage ‘test driving’ apps, it won’t work for them either. Developers’ money will go somewhere else.
So what do we have, eventually? We have a working model being shut down and we have no substitute for that. And I’m feeling very personal about this. I believe that we created an app which deserves to be notices, because it has great GUI, provides good user experience and brings value. So how can we get noticed now? Please provide your thoughts here or on iNdevour Web-page using one of the contacts here
