Why Tech’s Best Minds Are Very Worried About the Internet of Things (wired.com)

Illustration: Pat Kinsella

The Internet of Things is coming. And the tech cognoscenti aren’t sure 

that’s a good thing.

For years, the prospect of an online world that extends beyond computers, phones, and tablets and into wearables, thermostats, and other devices has generated plenty of excitement and activity. But now, some of the brightest tech minds are expressing some doubts about the potential impact on everything from security and privacy to human dignity and social inequality.

That’s the conclusion of a new survey from the Pew Research Center. For ten years, the Washington, D.C. think tank has surveyed thousands of technology experts–like founding father Vint Cerf and Microsoft social media scholar danah boyd–about the future of the Internet. But while previous editions have mostly expressed optimism, this year people started expressing more concern. “We had a lot of warnings, a lot of people pushing back,” says Janna Anderson, co-author of the report.

‘WE HAD A LOT OF WARNINGS, A LOT OF PEOPLE PUSHING BACK.’

The Internet of Broken Things

The 1,606 respondents said they saw many potential benefits to the Internet of Things. New voice- and gesture-based interfaces could make computers easier to use. Medical devices and health monitoring services could help prevent and treat diseases. Environmental sensors could detect pollution. Salesforce.com chief scientist JP Rangaswami said that improved logistics and planning systems could reduce waste.

But most of the experts warned of downsides as well. Security was one of the most immediate concerns. “Most of the devices exposed on the internet will be vulnerable,” wrote Jerry Michalski, founder of the think tank REX. “They will also be prone to unintended consequences: they will do things nobody designed for beforehand, most of which will be undesirable.”

We’ve already seen security camera DVRs hacked to mine bitcoins as well as a worm that targets internet connected devices like home routers. As more devices come online, we can expect to see an increase in this kind of attack.

Beyond security concerns, there’s the threat of building a world that may be too complex for our own good. If you think error messages and applications crashes are a problem now, just wait until the web is embedded in everything from your car to your sneakers. Like the VCR that forever blinks 12:00, many of the technologies built into the devices of the future may never be used properly. “We will live in a world where many things won’t work and nobody will know how to fix them,” wrote Howard Rheingold.

So Many Left Behind

That complexity could also leave many people behind. Developing nations–precisely the ones that could most benefit from IoT’s environmental benefits–will be least able to afford them, says Miguel Alcaine, an International Telecommunication Union area representative for Central America. In an interview, Pew’s Internet & American Life Project director Lee Raine pointed out that the IoT could lead to a much larger digital divide, one in which those who cannot or choose not to participate are shut out entirely from many daily activities. What happens when you need a particular device to pay for items at your local convenience store?

Meanwhile, those that do partake in the IoT may find it dehumanizing, especially in the workplace. We’ve already seen some companies explore the possibility of monitoring their employees through wearables. “The danger will be in loss of privacy and a reduction of people into numbers: the dark side of the quantified self,” wrote Andrew Chen, a computer information systems professor of at Minnesota State University. Peter R. Jacoby, an English professor at San Diego Mesa College, summed up this line of thought bluntly: “By 2025, we will have long ago give up our privacy. The Internet of Things will demand–and we will give willingly–our souls.”

The Counterargument

Not everyone thinks this loss of privacy is inevitable. Harvard fellow David “Doc” Searls argues that we needn’t sacrifice our privacy in order to enjoy the advantages of connected devices. There’s no reason that all devices must connect to the internet as opposed to private networks. And even those that are connected to the public internet could use encryption to talk to private servers, protecting your data from large companies.

“People’s Clouds of Things can be as personal and private as their houses (and, when encrypted, even more so),” he wrote. “They can also be far more social than any ‘social network’ because they won’t involve centralized control of the kind that Facebook, Google, and Twitter provide.”

Searls imagines a world with more fine-tuned control over not just privacy, but the terms of service that govern the products we consume today. We’ve already seen some progress towards such a vision with open-source Internet of Things projects such as Spark, Tessel, Skynet and Nodered. The question is whether these types of platforms can be used to build truly open consumer products, and, if so, whether anyone will want to use them.

The Hypometer

It’s also possible that the Internet of Things will fail to take off in any meaningful way. “The Internet of Things has been in the red zone of the hypometer for over a decade now,” Bill St. Arnaud, a self-employed green internet consultant wrote. “Yes, there will be many niche applications, but it will not be the next big thing, as many pundits predict.”

An unnamed co-founder of a consultancy with practices in internet technology and biomedical engineering agreed. “Inter-networked wearables will remain a toy for the wealthy,” he wrote. He thinks wearables and other connected devices will be useful for the military, hospitals, prisons and other niche operations, but he doesn’t expect them to be particularly life-changing.

Justin Reich, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, hedged his bets. “I’m not sure that moving computers from people’s pockets (smartphones) to people’s hands or face will have the same level of impact that the smartphone has had,” he wrote. “But things will trend in a similar direction. Everything that you love and hate about smartphones will be more so.”

Apple in payments: a disruptor's dilemma (mobilepaymentstoday.com)

This post is an attempt to look beyond what the presence or absence of any specific radio in iPhone 6 may mean to Apple's intent in payments and instead provide some color around three things that are part of this debate: a) Bring 800 million credit cards on file in perspective b) Address the question of radios on the device – a topic that has a disproportionate share of the debate and finally c) Consideration of steps made by Apple to secure both iOS and its devices as waypoints in its payments journey. Oh wait, that last one is not part of the Apple payments debate today. I believe it should be. Read on to see why.

First – the 800 million credit cards on file

The iTunes store counted towards a total of $2.4 billion in net sales during Q1 2014. Apple pays a negotiated card-not-present rate on its iTunes transactions. On hardware sales, Apple made roughly $51 billion in the same quarter, paying again a negotiated card-present rate. Is it any surprise then that Apple's Treasury Group spends more time focused on negotiating favorable card-present rates than worrying about the former? More savings = more time.

A tale of revenues

The 800 million credit cards on file (from 400 million back in Q2 2012) represents an amazing scale and yet completely underwhelming considering these 800 million accounts hardly spend anything of significance within iTunes. In fact, the revenue per iTunes account declined almost half (it was approx $25 in Q3 2011 and near $15 by Q1 2014) – while doubling in the number of accounts – which could be that a significant portion of the 400 million growth since 2012 is outside of U.S. and the lack of any meaningful iTunes content in those markets can explain why revenue has been lackluster.

There is a glimmer of hope in overall iTunes revenues as App-based revenue per user edges above $5 and I would think that when Apple rolls out the tried and true line of “hundreds of millions in cards on file," it's really speaking to the App developers that they have a proven, global card carrying base capable of spending real money on their apps. And less about turning those 800 million cards in to a retail tour de force.

800 million tokens

And even if it did mean the latter, realizing that dream requires banks and networks to play ball, these are not Apple-issued credentials nor where they hold risk, and therefore any rate related savings require a willingness from both those parties to reduce margins. Even as the second largest online retailer in the world (with $18.3 billion in 2013 online sales to boot), Apple faces considerable headwinds when negotiating rates for online hardware sales as it cannot rely on its own golden standard for risk reduction (TouchID in 5S) to assist in this process today. Will we ever see Apple enabling existing 5S customers to authenticate through TouchID to purchase next generation Apple hardware? Possibly, when the time is right.

Much more can be written about what those 800 million credit cards on file means in the context of a global card tokenization framework. Go here to read my own take on the topic.

Second – the radio

As I mentioned, the radio has grabbed a disproportionate share of the expert discourse. And understandably so. I myself am unconvinced that Apple shares the GSMA view of the NFC stack and business model.

Most recently, Morgan Stanley analysts predicted in favor of NFC in iPhone6 (link here), which to me looked as having several flaws in its understanding of Apple's approach to the radio, the Biggest of which is a lack of ability on the analysts part to differentiate between the radio and the secure element where the credential is hosted which inherits from the flawed GSMA view of NFC/SE. I believe Apple will outright reject this view, both because it does not serve its interests and because the payments ecosystem (merchants, banks, networks, Device OEM's) as a whole has largely abandoned this approach. And looking for the smoking gun in Apple's NFC approach, manifested in a secure element is not going to be found because it's simply useless and wasteful.

And yet, Apple's choice of radio does matter

I recently spoke to a couple of major retailers who happen to be less than ecstatic about the appeal of EMV. Despite Walmart throwing its clout behind EMV chip-and-PIN, merchants who have not yet upgraded their terminals know that they will be subservient to these terminals for at least another decade once they upgrade. As terminal makers like Ingenico and Verifone are choosing to package contactless alongside of EMV, merchants worry that if Apple chooses anything but NFC contactless (let's say BLE) then they are going to be locked out for another decade (or till the next refresh). If Apple chooses NFC, then there's hope that whatever Apple chooses to roll out will be supported by their point-of-sale. Payments via BLE finds no support with terminal makers at the moment and that stifles merchants ability to follow Apple in any non-NFC direction it may choose to take, in the short term. What I am trying to say is that payments via BLE or in a manner other than contactless has challenges that cannot be wished away in the current point-of-sale environment. Again, expect a lot of these ambiguities to be addressed with tokenization and respective modernization of risk mitigation procedures at the edges of the network as well as in transit. Read more here.

And then there is Host Card Emulation

That's another question I get these days: Will Apple support HCE? Don't forget HCE exists as a workaround to the GSMA model – and Apple needs no convincing to stay away from it altogether. With NFC, BLE and any other radio, when the time is right and legitimacy is afforded equally to all radios on the phone, Apple will choose the right combination. And the glue that Apple uses to tie radios and credentials together, well, they will just call that some weird iOS name.

Finally – iOS security

A discussion around Apple and payments can be hardly considered complete without a deeper look at how it approaches security. An iOS security discussion that is specifically oriented around the iPhone is very relevant considering how Apple sees the iPhone as a lifestyle device that has endless utility through the apps, services and devices that interact with it in the iOS ecosystem. It speaks to Apple's own aspirations to create a hub and spoke model with iPhone at the center securely communicating with accessories and services that are allowed to interact with it. And much of that intent is evident from how security is fused in to both the device and the operating system. I was not kidding about the fused part, literally, a unique ID is fused in to the A7 processor at the time of manufacturing, a Unique ID that you don't know, the apps running on the device don't know, and even Apple doesn't know, and yet everyone sees the results of its use by the encryption and decryption functions that are performed using this key.

“I am concerned about security”

When Feds conducted the mobile financial services survey in 2013 and asked the question: “What are the main reasons you have decided not to use mobile banking?," 49% of survey participants chose “I am concerned about the security of mobile banking”. On the topic of mobile payments, 38% of the survey participants indicated security as again the primary concern. As Apple enters the mobile payments fray, it has the enviable position that it does not need to define the concept as Google once had to and instead could chose on what matters most to the general public. And security undeniably is at the top of that stack.

So how does Apple attempt to address security as part of what it has already built (iPhone/iOS), and what it's likely to build – around payments?

It does so by building in incredibly sophisticated crypto in to the layers that make up the operating system and the hardware it wraps around (again the hyperbole isn't mine) examining what Apple discusses publicly about its own security efforts led to Steve Gibson calling the iPhone5S a “crypto marvel“. I personally think “a cathedral to applied cryptography” sounds better.

Case in point: the secure enclave.

Remember the unique ID I mentioned above that is fused in to the application processor during manufacturing? Well turns out there are actually two. And together they are used to encrypt every bit of data stored OR in transit. And the most important bits, the fingerprint data, is actually encrypted for the inch and a half of the wire it runs over from the sensor to the processor. And the A7 processor that receives it has no way of unpackaging it and does little more than sliding it in to a shared memory buffer (shared with Secure Enclave) and tripping a flag that alerts the Secure Enclave to its existance and location. The authentication tokens that are sent to authorize payments in iTunes also call the Secure Enclave home. And when you examine the question, will TouchID ever support third party apps or use-cases, one can see that Apple can reliably implement that support without ever sacrificing security. Accessing TouchID does not imply that others can access the Secure Enclave. The latter has no published interfaces other than what’s used by the A7 processor. It’s dead bolted to everyone else. It is built to withstand both calls for interoperability and privacy.

Good Entropy and the EMV Re-Play attack.

Further, every serious crypto requires (ironically) a consistent stream of irreproducible random noise, that is a source of good entropy. Recently a team of UK academics was able to exploit EMV terminals that had poorly designed random number generation towards replay attacks that are indistinguishable to the bank from valid chip transactions. If Apple expects becoming a point-of-sale is a destination in the natural order of evolution for iOS devices, then it certainly has equipped them to tackle the same security requirements. Apart from the two unique keys that are fused to the processor, all other cryptographic keys are created by the device’s hardware random number generator located in the Secure Enclave. Where other devices rely on a lot of non-deterministic input to generate good entropy, the gyro, accelerometer, camera, audio etc., iPhone relies on counting electrons that pass through a diode junction.

An expanding MFi program

Back in 2011, when I was assisting a major U.S. theme park in trialing dongles to replace cash payments in the park, one of the challenges we faced was that it was easy for an employee to swap out the park issued dongle with one of his own and accept payments in to his own merchant account. That fear alone prevented a mass rollout. And yet, the way iOS devices interact with the third-party accessory market is changing. And this has an impact to not only payment dongles that use the headphone jack, but also how iOS devices will communicate with beacons and other BLE devices. The MFi licensing program is soon to be broadened to include more Apple approved accessories (for example, home automation) that desires to communicate with the iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, Wifi or cable – and must implement a custom integrated circuit provided by Apple. What this means is that Apple has absolute control of the hardware attachment market by means of securing communication between the device and the accessory. If your accessory omits to include the Apple IC, you are stuck using an analog mode to communicate. We are not far away from seeing more sophisticated chip/pin readers that can communicate via BLE with the device with Apple fully securing the transfer end-to-end.

Reading the tea leaves

If one pauses to analyze the careful sophistication with which Apple has chosen to implement security, it’s absurd to consider that it will lower those standards to embrace a Global Platform Secure Element, as being superior to its own methods. Extending the tightly woven blanket of third party attachment support to now include NFC (it currently supports WiFi, Bluetooth and lightning cable) will not pause a problem for Apple. But it’s just another communication channel, just another end-point. Security is pervasive in Apple’s ecosystem and certainly not just a derivative of the type of communication standard it may choose to use to transmit data.

And then one must detach from the payments focus, and step back to view what Apple is building as a whole. And when you do, one cannot omit to admit that payments is but one of the middle chapters that Apple will come to write. That, identity is the problem it’s trying to solve at a device level. Its own deterministic ways of verifying authentication are inherently more valuable than anything else currently available, and though silent but pervasive, it hopes that the fruits of that labor will be evident in the simplicity derived through the third party apps and services that use it, and the consumer will be wise to the reasons why. And that they will resoundingly voice their confidence on the platform with their wallet.

Beacons, social commerce to play bigger role for 2014 holiday season (mobilemarketer.com)

Social commerce's role is growing

Mobile’s role during the 2014 holiday shopping season will be bigger than ever, opening up both opportunities and challenges for marketers as they eye beacons, social commerce, image recognition and streamlined experiences to help support mobile-equipped shoppers.

By November of this year, the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmarkforecasts mobile will account for more than 20 percent of site sales and more than 43 percent of site traffic, up from last year as well as earlier this year. Mobile’s role in stores will also be more prevalent at the same time that shoppers’ attention spans will be shorter – a trend that is being driven by the growth in mobile - meaning marketers need to insure their mobile experiences are both engaging and personalized.

“Given the complexity of mobile and the diversity of devices, screen size, landscape/portrait layout, mobile customer experiences are hard to get right,” said Jay Henderson, strategy director at IBM Smarter Commerce. “Ultimately, shoppers have little tolerance for poor customer experiences.

“To ensure a seamless experience this holiday season, marketers are investing in customer experience technologies to identify customer struggle and quickly resolve onsite problems,” he said.

“To enhance the visitor experience, well-prepared marketers are improving site navigation, providing useful content like how-to guides and user forums, as well as ensuring a consistent brand image across channels.”

Streamlined checkoutsWhile consumers are thinking about buying swimsuits and sunscreen during the summer months, savvy marketers are finalizing their holiday marketing plans.

From an online perspective, retailers are streamlining the mobile checkout process by reducing the number of clicks required for completing a purchase. One way this is being accomplished is by integrating payment options such as Google Wallet Instant Pay and V.me, which enable users to store their data and pay quickly on participating retail sites.

For example, RueLaLa saw purchase conversions increase by four times for Google Wallet users on its Android app after integrating Instant Buy (see story). 

Social commerceMore marketers are also likely to take advantage of mobile and social to drive real-time commerce opportunities.

For example, Amazon recently unveiled #AmazonCart, which turns any link in a tweet on Twitter into a shopping cart that hooks up with an Amazon account (see story).

Additionally, more marketers will be putting an increased emphasis on creating native apps and Web experiences specifically geared toward tablet users since these users have proven to be very active shoppers. 

For example, Beyond the Rack recently unveiled a tablet-optimized Web site to further push what is already the retailer’s best revenue-per-visit platform (see story). 

In-store impactWhile mobile online sales are expected to continue their upward trajectory this holiday season, there is recognition that mobile’s biggest impact is likely to be on influencing in-store sales, which still account for the vast majority of retailers’ revenue.

Beacons were still brand new during the 2013 holiday season but have quickly gained steam so far in 2014 and play a big role in the fourth quarter.

Walgreens and Tesco are two of many retailers currently testing iBeacons in their stores.

The devices use Bluetooth Low Energy technology to recognize shoppers when they enter a store, enabling marketers to send offers based on where shopper are inside a store.  Other potential uses include to drive mobile payments and for customer service purposes.

Initial results are promising, with Shoppers who received location-based beacon messages 19 times more likely to interact with the advertised product than those who did not receive a beacon message, according to a recent report from inMarket (see story).

Bridging online with physicalOne mobile strategy that could be evident during the upcoming holiday season is the use of image recognition and augmented reality to enable shoppers to point their phones at a shelf or display and see relevant product information.

The new Amazon Fire smartphone, Google’s Project Tango and IBM are all working on their own interpretations of how such capabilities might be used in store. However, it is not clear if the experiences are ready yet for widespread use (see story).  

A key goal for retailers this holiday season will be to use mobile as a way to bridge their online and physical experiences. 

For example, Walmart is rolling out a new platform in stores that is designed to help customers store digital receipts on their Walmart applications and interact with the content in a variety of ways, including to build shopping lists (see story).

Marketers will also be making greater use of mobile advertising to drive consumers into stores or to a Web site to make a purchase. Such strategies are getting increasingly sophisticated, with greater use of geotargeting, video and rich media content, native ads on social and gamification a few of the important trends.

“It is getting harder for marketers to be prepared,” Mr. Henderson said.  “Consumer attention span continues to dwindle, and marketers know they have to make a splash this holiday season and grab shoppers’ attention quickly.

“According to the U.S. National Library Association, the average attention span of an adult is eight seconds – and those eight seconds shrink to just four when it comes to online shopping,” he said.

“Fueled by the growth of mobile users, who make quick and abbreviated visits to retail sites, online retailers saw average time spent on sites sink to a new low of just 7:09 in September 2013. Page views per session also hit a new bottom of 6.93 in March 2014, two fewer pages than the same period in 2012.

App Store Optimization (mobilegamemarketeer.com)

It probably wont come as a surprise when I tell you that it’s hard to get a mobile game noticed in the mobile App Stores. It’s an ocean of apps out there, and especially the gaming categories are pretty crowded. Whether it’s Google Play Store, Apple App Store or any of the others, they all have their own search and ranking algorithms and ways of featuring products. Having success as a developer / publisher in the App Stores or any other distribution platform is defined by many things around marketing and your product. But it never hurts to get the basics right.

— Also see the article on “App Store presence” for getting the visuals right on the App Stores to improve conversions. —

One of those basics is in this case the presence of your app in the various app stores. Apart from visuals and a appealing game description, the first most important thing is ‘discoverability’. To make sure potential customers can find your mobile games on the App Store. This process of making your app better visible is called “App Store Optimization” (quite similar to “Search Engine Optimization“). With App Store Optimization or ASO in short, you optimize the visibility and discoverability of your mobile game app, which leads to more organic downloads. Know, that over 60% of the App Store users utilize search to find new apps they might like, which makes it a vital part of your mobile marketing efforts.

Countless of articles have been written on this subject already but I felt like sharing my own experiences and knowledge on the subject. Similar to SEO for websites, ASO is hard to grasp and can be a bit of a gray area. It’s less complex then optimizing for Google’s mighty search engine on the web but the competition is strong. Unlike performance marketing, ASO is hard to measure, optimize and isolate to see it’s success, but it definitely works!

“The first step is to identify important keywords you want your app to rank for”

I’ve split the article up in 3 sections (research, practice and measuring) covering tools, best practices and simple tricks to make your game better findable in the stores through App Store Optimization.

App Store Keyword Research

Regardless of platform, the first step is to identify important keywords you want your app to rank for. Think hard about your game; it’s USPs, competitors, ideal customers etc. Find words that best describe your game  and words that you want users to find your app on. Try to predict your customers’ search behaviour and ask yourself what they could be looking for. More importantly does your app fill that need? Whether it’s a zombie racing game with customizable vehicles or a space flight simulator, the first step is to think like your potential customer and build a solid list of keywords.

However, it can be a though call to choose between more generic keywords or more specific long tail phrases. For example if you have a Football Penalty Shootout game. The phrase “Penalty Shootout” could actually prove to be a much better option to get downloads than the generic word “Football”. Simply because you probably wont be in the top 100 of  search results for “Football” in the App Store, making this keyword completely useless for your app, whereas “Penalty Shootout” is a phrase less people search for, but it will also have lower competition for your game to rank on. Especially when trying to continueesly improve your chart position with ASO in app updates: focus on replacing the keywords that you rank poorly on.

“Over 60% of the App Store users utilize search to find new apps they might like”

Another great way of checking what to rank for is by looking at competitors. There are a couple of great tools for doing this amongst other services that help with App Store Optimization in general.

- Search Man
- Sensor Tower
- Mobile Dev HQ
- Appnique
- App Promo- Mobile Action- App Codes

Another good tool for finding potential keywords for App Store Optimization is Google AdWords Keyword Planner, probably familiar to you if you have SEO / SEA experience. It’s not in any way linked to the App Stores but could give you some new keyword ideas you haven’t thought of at first. A tool that I would personally recommend and does pretty much the same for the mobile app stores is Straply. Very handy to quickly check volume and competition on certain keywords!

Mobile Platform Differences

While many app publishers threat the stores for iOS and Android app the same; there are major differences in store layout, algorithms, ranking, categories and listings. The Apple App Store rankings are way more influenced by the amount of downloads with more fluctuating charts. While Google Play on the other hand is more about ‘stamina’ with more stable charts and slower moving charts. You simply cannot ‘burst’ up the charts in the Google Play Store like in the App Store. There’s more to it. For example good ratings seem to have more weight in the Google Play Store.

App Store Optimization in Practice

There are many ‘tricks’ or best practices that work well that not all publishers are aware of. I have to admit, I’ve made many mistakes with App Store Optimization myself when first starting out and it can be hard to stay on top of the latest changes.

App Title

All words in your app’s title function as keywords and do not need to be added separately to your keywords section. Picking the right app name for your mobile game, plays a big part of marketing and App Store Optimization. Like domains on the web there’re choices to make between going for a catchy brand name or a name based on strong keywords. A brand name has advantages for brand building,  word of mouth and by being memorable and fun. While a name based on keywords is more describing which has it’s ASO advantages.

If you believe that your app name will be hardly searched for, one of the best practices is to add a ‘subtitle’ to the name. For example: if your app is called “Planetarian Defenders” but its not immediately clear from the name what its all about. You might want to add something like“Planetarian Defenders: Space Ship Simulator”. Where, “Space Ship Simulator” could be something that players search for and it saves you a couple of keywords to add seperately. This way, you will still have a strong brand for use in your marketing communications and benefit from a better position in search results at the same time. However, don’t go crazy with this like “Planetarian Defenders: Miley Cirus Flappy Gangnam Style Shooter”. You know what I mean!

“The Apple App Store handles plural automatically, so you don’t have to add keywords twice like ‘Car’ and ‘Cars’”

App Keywords

When filling out (meta) keywords for your mobile game on the Apple App Store make sure you use all 100 characters available, or as close to a 100 as possible. A couple of good things to know; the Apple App Store handles plural automatically, so you don’t have to add keywords twice like “Car” and “Cars”. Also, if your game is a free app, your game will  automatically rank for the keyword “Free”. No need to separately add it to the keywords section!

Company / Seller Name

Your company/seller name that appears in the store functions as keywords as well and do not need to be added to your separate keywords section. There are even companies that update their name to have their apps better findable. (For example, when as a company you only publish sports games, consider a name that has something to do with sports as it will help your App Store Optimization efforts.

App Categories

The categories you pick for your app are a vital part of App Store Optimization. The volumes and competition for each categories differs a lot. Think about the core mechanics and theme of your game and choose your categories wisely, some categories are extremely competitive to rank in and it might actually be better to pick something less competitive that would also go with your game.
Also, the name of the categories your app is in will function as keywords for people to find your game on. You do not need to add these to your app’s keywords section as you will already rank for those words.

Apple’s GameCenter

GameCenter for iOS doesn’t have much to do with ASO at first sight, but if your game uses it, its good to know that there’s a separate GameCenter chart to rank in. Apart from the benefits for your players and for Apple, it makes your app available in an ‘additional’ chart upping the chances for users to find your game.

In-App Purchases

What mobile publishers often don’t actually know is that the names of your in-app purchases function as keywords as well, but only in their full phrase. For example: An IAP named “Big bag of diamonds” will rank you for “Big bag of diamonds” not the words “diamonds” or “bag”. Also, there doesn’t seem to be that much weight on it in general, but still, every little bit helps. So keep App Store Optimization in mind when you start naming your IAPs during development.

App Description

While on the Apple App Store you should mostly focus on the keywords section and not so much on keyword stacking in the texts, the app’s description still seems have a little impact on search results. For the Google Play Store however, it should be your primary focus for stacking some strong keywords! On the Google Play Store there is no separate keywords section and the description plays a crucial role in discoverability. The Google Play Store allows an app description of up to 4000 characters! It sounds silly but try to use as much of it as possible. Keyword stacking seems to help rankings but don’t go nuts with this and make the text unpleasant to read with extreme keyword density… Google and Apple will potentially penalise your app for going overboard with this. A great tool to preview your app’s description and store listing in general is: App Snippet Preview by PickASO.

App Store Reputation

It’s never really been confirmed but there seems to be a sort of ‘reputation’ for developers to rank on certain keywords. Say, if you only make racing games and have published 5 racing games in the past, your keyword reputation could rank all your apps higher for racing game related search keywords in general.

Social Media for Apps

Social media can be an acquisition channel on its own but besides additional downloads it won’t directly effect rankings. However, on the Google Play Store, the Google +’s seem to matter, but other social media mentions do not impact search results. Also, be sure to add a YouTube video there, it doesn’t just help conversions and showing customers what your game is all about, but it also benefits App Store Optimization. Last but not least, think about adding full links to your app description, like “http://twitter.com/xxgamexx” or “http://www.companynamexx.com“. Some blogs and web services directly copy your app description for app listings and will function as ‘link builders’ to your personal websites.

App Ratings

Your mobile app’s ratings definitely play a big part in App Store Optimization. Good content with good ratings will put way more weight on your selected keywords, prioritizing your app over competitor apps in search results. Check your ratings often and try to find ways to improve you game with feedback from your customers.

App Downloads

While getting more app downloads is not really a ‘trick’ you can apply for App Store Optimization, it does play a big part in keyword ranking. Simply put, more downloads will mean more weight on your chosen keywords. For the Google Play Store it’s a wider combination of influencing factors but actual downloads still play an important role in discoverability. A strong combination of App Store Optimization and a user acquisition campaign can really improve your positioning a lot.

App Store Localization

Localizing your app’s description and keywords can have great benefits for reach but will also your discoverability in the stores. In the Netherlands (where I live) and Sweden for example, people are perfectly comfortable with an English store description and even search for a lot of English phrases and keywords. However, many other countries are not. This is where localization comes in, to appeal to these local markets. In certain European countries but definitely in Asia it comes down to “can’t read, won’t download” and you have to adapt your store presence in order to gain traction there. Also, don’t forget to do separate keyword research per country if you really want to maximise your ASO benefits. A tool that can help in this area is: Google’s Global Market Finder (A cross over tool between the AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Translate) showing competition and volume for keywords on the web in multiple countries.

Measuring and Optimizing

App Store Optimization is something that you will need to be constantly doing with every app update in order to keep improving your organic position. Keep checking your chart positions and keywords you rank well or poorly for, and optimize wherever possible by replacing weaker keywords. Great tools for keeping an eye on the charts are Distimo or AppAnnie. Those two are my favourites that I would recommend but there are many other great tools out there that will offer similar services. A paid subscription either of those two will give you the ability to check competitor downloads and revenue but these packages can be expensive.

Also, don’t be afraid to try crazy things like changing your app title post launch or do a complete rewrite of your description etc. just to see if something changes for the good. But keep in mind, like SEO, most App Store Optimization changes are long term investments and it can take a while before you can pick the fruits.

ASO is the new SEO as App Annie adds free app store optimization, plus ad analytics (venturebeat.com)

Above: Mobile apps are taking off.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

How can you leverage mobile to increase profitability for your company? Find out at MobileBeat, VentureBeat's 7th annual event on the future of mobile, on July 8-9 in San Francisco. 
Either it’s Christmas in May or App Annie really wants to win the mobile analytics battle.
The company announced this morning that it is releasing a free app store optimization tool that will help developers make their products more visible on the iOS app store and Google Play. And it also announced updates to its Advertising Analytic tools that help app publishers track monetization of their apps across more than 20 ad platforms.
Ad analytics is something App Annie has been working on for the past half year.
The problem the company is trying to solve is that app publishers are monetizing with multiple ad networks simultaneously, so it’s not always easy to see which networks are bringing in the best return. Our Mobile Games Monetization report found that the most successful developers monetize through the most number of networks — often up to 10 at a time.

Above: App Annie’s app store optimization will show you where your competitors rank.

So App Annie’s ad analytics platform creates one central dashboard where developers can see all their networks and all their stats and compare them to find the best ones.

The challenge for App Annie, of course, is that while it currently supports “20+” ad networks, there are many more in existence. In fact, there are at least 85 that we gathered significant amounts of data on. And as we found, it’s the little guys that often bring in the bigger dollars — not the Googles of the ad world. So while 20+ is significant, it may not be enough for every developer.

The good news? Some of the top-monetizing networks on the planet are on the list, including Ad Colony and InMobi.

App Annie’s other announcement today is a new product for app store optimization: “ASO,” the new SEO.

That’s ensuring that your keywords, your description, your icon, and all your metadata makes your app as discoverable via the app store search engines as possible, helping app developers get more native downloads (as opposed to paying for installs via advertising, incentivized downloads, and other costly methods.)

Above: You can also see which apps ranks for certain keywords.

With more than two million apps on Google Play and iOS, and 82 percent of users never searching past the first 25 apps, developers have a problem, App Annie says. In fact, according to its competitor Flurry, 60 percent of apps are never downloaded at all.

So App Annie’s new ASO tool analyzes your competitors as well as your own apps, discovers what you rank for and what you don’t, and makes suggestions for improvement. It can also provide an ordered list of apps that rank for a certain keyword, so you can see how far down the list you are.

The battle for app analytics is a fierce one, with competitors like Flurry, Distimo, and Localytics fighting App Annie and others for developer mindshare and the big data fruits of having their SDKs integrated into hundreds of thousands of apps living on hundreds of millions of devices, not to mention more private analytics and monetization suites such as that from Swrve.