iPhone Strategy
iPhone Apps are a fast growing segment of mobile. We take a close look at the existing App Store catalog, to determine how to leverage your brand to App Store customers. We create a great iPhone experience that cannot be easily duplicated, and preserve your brand and your market position within the store.
New Platform, Same Techniques
We've been in the heart of mobile for close to a decade. We think the iPhone and iPod touch are the bee's knees, but they share many—if not all—of the same challenges that have existed in mobile since the beginning.
For example, great mobile products are always created, never ported. We start with an understanding of the users and the benefits the medium has to offer. We integrate needs, goals and context to find a mobile strategy that touches a cord with your users and boosts your bottom line.
Don't forget that mobile is a different medium and is governed by a different set of rules. Great mobile products are able to adapt or even look beyond traditional strategy to identify new and unique ways to address both the challenges and the benefits that the mobile medium has to offer.
iPhone User Interface Design
We are clearly seeing that the best selling iPhone apps have a well thought out and nicely designed clean user interface, over those thrown together using Interface Builder.
Good mobile user interface isn't easy, regardless of the tools given to you by a device API. It takes a considerable amount of time and thought to understand how to effectively lead users to their goals in the ever changing mobile context.
Same problems, different platform
Luckily we've been designing mobile user interfaces for both native and web platforms for a very very long time. The iPhone is an amazing platform, but it suffers from all the same design challenges that have plagued the mobile industry for close to a decade.
We start the design process on paper, sketching out the various states the user will go through. Once established, we move to Photoshop, creating a visual presentation that feels native on the iPhone, but is distinctly your brand. Only then do we move to Interface Builder, putting the design together as something you can use and getting it ready for development.
Cocoa Development
Cocoa Touch is the primary API, based on Objective-C, and the top most layer of the iPhone OS stack used for building native applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Cocoa touch is based on Cocoa for the Mac OS, and shares many of the same principles and techniques.
Being a long time Mac developer pays off... Finally!
Since the introduction of the iPhone API, we've seen an explosion in new Cocoa developers, looking to get their slice of the iPhone pie. All of our developers were seasoned in Cocoa long before the iPhone came along. Which means they don't just understand the basics of how to program for the iPhone, they have a deep understanding of how Objective-C works.
What this means for you is you aren't paying for our staff to learn Mac programming, you are paying for them to build your project, quickly and efficiently. It also means avoiding any App Store approval hassles with basic rookie mistakes.
App Store Deployment
The iTunes App Store is growing at an incredible rate, with dozens of new applications added every day. It is becoming an enormous ecosystem that is earning developers and publishers big profits.
Submitting your app and getting approved is the first step. App Store approvals typically take a week, though more complex apps can take a longer. If an application fails to meet the Human Interface Guidelines, the app can be rejected and is forced to resubmit. To minimize these headaches, we build a bare bones prototype and submit as soon as possible, getting the technology approved as we refine the user interface for a smooth and timely launch.
Finding the timing
The trick to success in the App Store is having the right app launch at the right time with the right price - not an easy feat. We work with you to determine the right price point of your application (which is becoming a science on its own), then look for the right timing of when to launch your app in order to maximize the opportunities given by market swings.
Buzz Building
Getting into the App Store is the easy part. Getting users to your app is the bigger challenge. Everyone wants to be featured or make the Top 25 in the App Store, since it can double or triple your downloads, but the only way to do that is with good design, good press, and even better sales.
Deck Placement lives again!
With no control over what gets featured within the store, it is up to us to drive sales outside the App Store. Great initial exposure means decent spikes in downloads, which increase your chances of getting featured.
This is the age old dilemma (well at least as old as mobile) of deck placement - getting your application promoted within an outside directory - though with the App Store it is much easier and more effective to do.
By the way, we realize that "Buzz Building" sounds a bit trite, but "Social Media Marketing" sounds even worse. Basically we help you with the best kind of marketing: good word of mouth.
Sales Strategy
The typically lifespan of an iPhone app is about 30 days, though some apps share more time in the spotlight. Managing your sales strategy in out out of the App Store is key to maximizing the exposure or profit of your app.
It's all about downloads
Getting featured and listed in the Top 25 is all about driving downloads. The more downloads you get in a certain period of time means your chances of being featured are exponentially increased. Less expensive or free applications benefit from a significantly higher downloads, but can cannibalize sales of your premium apps and frustrate customers who paid full price.
The bad news is, as you can see, there are no clear cut answers here. It depends on your app, your customer and the competition in your apps space. The good news is we are confident we can help you find a sales strategy that works to meet your business and brand goals. We look both in the store and outside of the store for ways to get your app downloaded en masse, increasing your chances of getting your app in the spotlight.
