The app store is less chicken and egg and more massive Apple-controlled poultry farm.
So how does
a developer get featured on the App Store?
Talk to app
developers about the App Store and you are likely to get a range of responses
and emotions. There will be those who love that it gives them a chance to
showcase their talents, and just as many who hate having to jump through hoops
for very little reward.
There are
over 1.8 million apps in the App Store. According to data published by Pocket
Gamer, the average number of daily submissions for the month of July was 1,875
and this month has already seen 33,127 apps submitted for review, many of which
will either be accepted for potential inclusion or rejected for any number of
reasons.
Developers
need Apple to provide them with the tools of discovery. This is normally
achieved by an app being either featured as one, hitting the top lists or by
being chosen as an “Editors’ Choice.”
Understand
What Apple Wants
Apple may
seem like this large, faceless corporation that hides its best practices from
developers. To a certain extent, it is. But that doesn’t mean that Apple
representatives are not watching, looking for the best apps to feature.
Apple reps
are everywhere. They come to gaming conventions and pay attention to developer
communities. Apple reps may not be wearing badges, but that does not mean they
are not paying attention. Knowing an Apple rep can be a huge boon to an app
publisher, but your app needs to be pretty darned good if the rep is going to
pay attention at all.
Now, if you
don’t have an Apple but want to contact Apple to see if it will consider your
app to be featured, you can email appstorepromotion@apple.com with an inquiry
to see what it will take.
Apple wants
apps that are featured on the store to be successful—especially when taking
into account that it has both a new operating system and hardware launching in
the near future.
Developers
can often fall into the trap of building apps that are similar to what is
already out there or even a pale imitation of a blockbuster app and making
something that doesn’t provide value or that doesn’t fit with Apple’s core app
philosophy is a waste of time. Apps that are objectionable and have a religious
or political agenda are not welcome, as are any that look as they have been
built in a lunch hour.
Apple
representatives know what they want to see and what they don’t and developers
must remember that when it comes to submitting their app. It is worth bearing
in mind that Apple is actively looking for apps to feature and while rejection
is often part of the process, the reality is that developers can learn from
mistakes.
Simple
things such as making sure the app is a bug-free as possible, providing screen
shots that highlight how good it looks or even allowing for the possibility of
localization will all score highly. Celebrity endorsement, for example, could
see the app installed by users irrespective of what the app actually does, but
it is worth remembering that popular culture moves at a frenetic pace and
capitalizing on what is hot now may quickly cool.
Have All
Your Marketing Media Ready
If Apple is
going to feature your app in the store, it will give developers a heads up
before it pulls the trigger. An Apple rep may call and ask for your marketing
media—promo art, screenshots, icon, videos, description and meta data—to
include as part of the feature. If you don’t have all of your media material
readily available, Apple is going to call on someone else that does.
The key to
standing out in the App Store is to not just have a great app, but being able
to present the whole package as one cohesive unit. Your app description should
be top notch and compelling while your art should be original. With so much
competition in the App Store, great marketing media is necessary just to get a
seat at the table.
The Quality
Of Your App Is Tantamount
Apps
developers will always believe that what they are working on is better than
what is already available. Irrespective of what category it fits into, then
beating the competition and rising to the top of the ranking is the goal. Being
featured is widely assumed to help with this, but that is not always feasible,
especially when considering the number of apps that exist in each category.
Take games,
for example. According to Pocket Data, 407,161 games are currently
available—which equates to 22.11% of ALL apps in the store—and the vast
majority of them sit there, unwanted and unplayed.
In July,
there were 15,124 games submitted to Apple for review and consideration. If we
take into account that there are major and high-profile brands already in the
space—Minecraft, Rovio, King and so forth—then it becomes clear that developers
have to produce something really special to get noticed.
A quick
stroll through the app store reveals that there are 191,627 business apps,
177,100 education apps, 161,905 lifestyle apps, 37,805 social networking apps …
the list goes on. Developing a weather app? Users already have 6,081 to choose
from. Want to enter the music app space?
Be better than the 54,918 in the store.
Apple’s
iTunes Connect guidelines encourage developers to think about different kinds
of apps to limit copycat behavior. For instance, an app may be rejected because
thousands of other apps already do the same thing (or it competes with an app that
Apple makes itself).
Play By
Apple’s Rules
Building
something awesome is the logical first step. Successful apps become that way
because developers understand not only what the consumer wants but how it fits
into their lives. App users don’t spend their lives going into the App Store to
see what’s new on a daily basis. Often, the best apps find people, instead of
people finding the best apps.
Developers
need to appreciate that while they think they have built something that
everyone wants, the reality is that the majority of apps submitted are less
than stellar and can die a slow death in the store. Apple is notoriously picky in its
verification. If you are not 100% familiar with Apple’s App Store Guidelines,
becoming an expert should be at the top of your list.
Don’t
Obsess Over Being Featured
Being a
success in the App Store has become somewhat of a Holy Grail in the apps
economy. The notion ties in with a widely held perception that a featured app
is a successful app and that developers who get chosen can just sit back and
watch the cash roll in.
This is not
the case.
A recent
panel discussion at Boston’s MobileDevHacker conference questioned the true
value of being featured on the App Store, much of which centered on what
actually defines success.
According
to Kristen Mukai, an associate producer at Proletariat—the studio behind the
World Zombination mobile game, an Editors’ Choice—developers need to take a
reality check.
Mukai said:
Being
featured is not what people expect it to be. There is a certain idea out there
that if you get the top feature, then you are just set and you are going to be
able to continue to mooch off that and be able to kick back while sipping
margaritas. But really, it is a lot of work—not just to get the feature, but
afterwards … maintaining momentum, keeping up organic users and marketing UA.
Michael
Levine, CEO of game developer Happy Giant, says that relying on Apple to push
an app is ultimately a rookie error. Apple, he says, is only interested in
developers when they are new, but is difficult to quantify what works and what
doesn’t.
Speaking as
part of a panel at MobileDevHacker entitled “What’s the recipe to get featured
by Apple?” he said:
It is great
to be featured … it is also important and great to win the lottery. You want to
do everything right to get featured, but that gives you no assurance that you
will be. You can’t rely on being featured. That is kind of the recipe for
death. You have to basically count that you are not going to be featured … but
if you do, it is a huge bonus.
No comments:
Post a Comment