No joke, there's a reason I'm wearing a dress shirt and tie in Zombie Puncher:
Yep, a few years ago Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical held a contest on YouTube: win a trip to meet her in person! I jumped at the opportunity to meet the girl of my dreams, and so did a bunch of thirteen year old girls.
She never picked a winner...
April 18, 2010
April 15, 2010
Universal Application Dilemma
A Universal Application is an iPhone app that's also iPad friendly.
In a lot of cases, this means: an app that, through significant development effort, looks and plays to the iPad's strengths:
So that's great Kenny. Make Universal Apps. Got it. Right?
As far as I'm concerned, yes! I make free apps. I get paid based on how many people continue to enjoy my apps and click the ads. It's in my best interest to make apps that run well on a variety of different devices.
However, if I were a paid app developer, making my app 'Universal' would cost me money. And all my buyers would get a 'free' iPad update? When I could instead charge them money to buy (again) what's really going to be a significantly different application on a different piece of hardware. So I should make two versions now, right? An iPhone and iPad version? 2x Money?
Actually no, and here's why: all of your iPhone apps sync with your iPad. It's just like your iTunes music collection, you own some stuff, it syncs magically to all your devices. (You can actually play all your iPhone apps on your iPad in a small emulator window that you can boost to 2x size.)
OK so what's the problem? Well it means, if you own Twitterrific for iPhone, and you also download Twitterrific for iPad... you now have two copies of Twitterrific on your iPad. That is, unless you manually sync your apps, but who does that? In my opinion, that's REALLY inconvenient. And I love Twitterrific! I just want a Universal app for both devices.
Here's another example: Plants vs. Zombies. I hear it's a great game! But do I really want to choose between great graphics and extra features (iPad), or the ability to play the app on the go (iPhone)? I kinda want both but... I don't want TWO copies on my iPad! So instead I'm buying neither, yet the game looks really fun!
It's an interesting dilemma that really only affects paid app developers. And I'll be curious to see how this gets resolved!
...here's what I think is going to happen in the short term:
In a lot of cases, this means: an app that, through significant development effort, looks and plays to the iPad's strengths:
- Higher resolution graphics
- Bigger interactive surface space
- More information visible on screen at once
- Less tilt / shake, more touch interaction (heavier device)
So that's great Kenny. Make Universal Apps. Got it. Right?
As far as I'm concerned, yes! I make free apps. I get paid based on how many people continue to enjoy my apps and click the ads. It's in my best interest to make apps that run well on a variety of different devices.
However, if I were a paid app developer, making my app 'Universal' would cost me money. And all my buyers would get a 'free' iPad update? When I could instead charge them money to buy (again) what's really going to be a significantly different application on a different piece of hardware. So I should make two versions now, right? An iPhone and iPad version? 2x Money?
Actually no, and here's why: all of your iPhone apps sync with your iPad. It's just like your iTunes music collection, you own some stuff, it syncs magically to all your devices. (You can actually play all your iPhone apps on your iPad in a small emulator window that you can boost to 2x size.)
OK so what's the problem? Well it means, if you own Twitterrific for iPhone, and you also download Twitterrific for iPad... you now have two copies of Twitterrific on your iPad. That is, unless you manually sync your apps, but who does that? In my opinion, that's REALLY inconvenient. And I love Twitterrific! I just want a Universal app for both devices.
Here's another example: Plants vs. Zombies. I hear it's a great game! But do I really want to choose between great graphics and extra features (iPad), or the ability to play the app on the go (iPhone)? I kinda want both but... I don't want TWO copies on my iPad! So instead I'm buying neither, yet the game looks really fun!
It's an interesting dilemma that really only affects paid app developers. And I'll be curious to see how this gets resolved!
...here's what I think is going to happen in the short term:
- Existing apps will largely be released as 'two versions'
- Greedy publishers will continue to push for 'two versions' (more money)
- 'HD' is going to be a tag thrown on a lot of iPad exclusive apps
- Smart publishers will deliver Universal Apps (what users want)
- Greedy publishers may deliver 'Universal' Apps as a third premium SKU
- Free (ad-supported) apps w/o paid versions will be Universal
April 12, 2010
Market Analysis
A few months ago, Simon and I were talking about app marketability.
He put together an informal BCG matrix for me!
Here's how this works:
Relative Market Share: relative to your competition, how much of a 'market' do you own? Am I dominating the Tic Tac Toe market? Or more realistically, the kids / family game market? The iPod Touch gaming market?
Market Growth: is the 'market' growing? Maybe there's a surge of interest in zombie themed applications. Maybe the new thing is a feature like social networking support or a new device, like the iPad. Am I on top of the trend?
Now take a look at the cell names:
Dogs:
Simon put DOTNUKE and Number Guesser Deluxe in this category. The relative market share I own is small and not growing. That makes these applications a drain to company resources.
Keep in mind, the category doesn't imply poor quality applications, just poor marketability. Consider that DOTNUKE is competing in the realm of pixel art games. Gamers who like pixels are a niche group, my generation: gamers who grew up with pixelated games. Also, art games tend not to have mass appeal. Art games have a small market, and Jason Rohrer's holding a larger market share than I am.
Cash Cows:
I know what you're thinking, why isn't Number Guesser Deluxe a cash cow? The market may not be growing, but I'm dominating the Number Guesser market on the App Store. True, but Number Guesser players are probably also interested in other puzzle or guessing games on the App Store. Number Guesser Deluxe is a very small piece of that market share!
Question Marks:
Zombie Puncher fits in this category. Zombies are in right now, from Left 4 Dead 2 to Zombieland. Zombie Puncher isn't as popular as other zombie media right now, yet I'm making some good money by owning a small part of a growing market.
Stars:
Finally, Simon placed Frustrating Tic Tac Toe in the Stars category. There's a big market for free tabletop games, family games, and time wasters on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Let's say everyone should have a Tic Tac Toe app on their device? 100,000+ people chose to download Frustrating Tic Tac Toe as their Tic Tac Toe app. It's a high quality, strong competitor in a large market. Also, the demand is likely to grow with new devices like the iPad or Android phones.
After Simon and I chatted about marketing, it made sense that my next app would be Frustrating Air Hockey. Air Hockey apps are popular, similar market conditions to Frustrating Tic Tac Toe. And what do we see? Frustrating Air Hockey is slowly but surely gaining a following - already making more than DOTNUKE and Number Guesser Deluxe!
What's next?
Fun fact: I don't own an iPhone. I develop on an iPod Touch, but my phone is a Droid. Maybe I should develop some Android applications?
I also just bought an iPad. It should arrive sometime this week!
So what should I work on next? You tell me!
He put together an informal BCG matrix for me!
Here's how this works:
Relative Market Share: relative to your competition, how much of a 'market' do you own? Am I dominating the Tic Tac Toe market? Or more realistically, the kids / family game market? The iPod Touch gaming market?
Market Growth: is the 'market' growing? Maybe there's a surge of interest in zombie themed applications. Maybe the new thing is a feature like social networking support or a new device, like the iPad. Am I on top of the trend?
Now take a look at the cell names:
Dogs:
Simon put DOTNUKE and Number Guesser Deluxe in this category. The relative market share I own is small and not growing. That makes these applications a drain to company resources.
Keep in mind, the category doesn't imply poor quality applications, just poor marketability. Consider that DOTNUKE is competing in the realm of pixel art games. Gamers who like pixels are a niche group, my generation: gamers who grew up with pixelated games. Also, art games tend not to have mass appeal. Art games have a small market, and Jason Rohrer's holding a larger market share than I am.
Cash Cows:
I know what you're thinking, why isn't Number Guesser Deluxe a cash cow? The market may not be growing, but I'm dominating the Number Guesser market on the App Store. True, but Number Guesser players are probably also interested in other puzzle or guessing games on the App Store. Number Guesser Deluxe is a very small piece of that market share!
Question Marks:
Zombie Puncher fits in this category. Zombies are in right now, from Left 4 Dead 2 to Zombieland. Zombie Puncher isn't as popular as other zombie media right now, yet I'm making some good money by owning a small part of a growing market.
Stars:
Finally, Simon placed Frustrating Tic Tac Toe in the Stars category. There's a big market for free tabletop games, family games, and time wasters on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Let's say everyone should have a Tic Tac Toe app on their device? 100,000+ people chose to download Frustrating Tic Tac Toe as their Tic Tac Toe app. It's a high quality, strong competitor in a large market. Also, the demand is likely to grow with new devices like the iPad or Android phones.
After Simon and I chatted about marketing, it made sense that my next app would be Frustrating Air Hockey. Air Hockey apps are popular, similar market conditions to Frustrating Tic Tac Toe. And what do we see? Frustrating Air Hockey is slowly but surely gaining a following - already making more than DOTNUKE and Number Guesser Deluxe!
What's next?
Fun fact: I don't own an iPhone. I develop on an iPod Touch, but my phone is a Droid. Maybe I should develop some Android applications?
I also just bought an iPad. It should arrive sometime this week!
So what should I work on next? You tell me!
- Android
- iPad
- Frustrating ____?
- Tabletop / Boardgames
- Justin Bieber (he's the next big thing amiright?)
April 7, 2010
Kenny Kicks Ass
I just got back from a birthday tour of America:
Burned a bunch of money flying around, visiting friends!
Check out this (really awesome) thing Jorge drew for me:
Jorge drew this for me in my Monstrosity Mini: a limited print version of Jorge's new comic Monstrosity. Mine features just one of the stories from the collection.
The story I have is a 'Special Report' of humorous cause and effect disasters; it reminds me of 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' but on an epic global scale:
If a meteor crashes in the Colorado Mountains, the animals will become irradiated and grow to giant sizes. They'll go on a rampage, attracting the attention of the U.S. Army, which in turn attracts giant space environmentalists. You can imagine the story just gets sillier from here: including mythical / paranormal creatures, Y2K after-effects, and cold war weaponry!
You can buy Jorge's Monstrosity here, which includes the 'Special Report' and other stories I'm looking forward to reading. And thanks to Jorge for the drawing!
Burned a bunch of money flying around, visiting friends!
Check out this (really awesome) thing Jorge drew for me:
Jorge drew this for me in my Monstrosity Mini: a limited print version of Jorge's new comic Monstrosity. Mine features just one of the stories from the collection.
The story I have is a 'Special Report' of humorous cause and effect disasters; it reminds me of 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' but on an epic global scale:
If a meteor crashes in the Colorado Mountains, the animals will become irradiated and grow to giant sizes. They'll go on a rampage, attracting the attention of the U.S. Army, which in turn attracts giant space environmentalists. You can imagine the story just gets sillier from here: including mythical / paranormal creatures, Y2K after-effects, and cold war weaponry!
You can buy Jorge's Monstrosity here, which includes the 'Special Report' and other stories I'm looking forward to reading. And thanks to Jorge for the drawing!
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