January 28, 2013 at 12:59Practical Recommendations for iOS Developers (Part 1) - Globalization of the Mobile Application Market
The process of globalization is irreversible. Globalization affects all areas of IT technology, including the development of mobile applications. If earlier the market of mobile platforms was shared by at least 5-6 companies (Symbian, Blackberry OS, Android, Palm, iOS, Bada, etc.), at the moment, only 2 main platforms can be distinguished: iOS and Google Android, which share about 90% of the total market. By the way, the share of Google Android in the fourth quarter of 2012 reached 75%, i.e. three out of four smartphones are running a mobile platform from Google.
Globalization also directly affects application developers, including us, Little Beetle. Therefore, we would like to express our opinion on this matter, as well as give a couple of tips based on personal experience to novice developers.
By the nature of our activity, we constantly have to analyze the educational segment of the Russian Apple App Store market. We must monitor the release of new products from other developers, track TOPs, factors affecting the duration of stay in TOP, analyze search queries inside the store, track comments, reviews, ratings, etc. The data obtained by us in the analysis process allow us to draw the following conclusions:
- In the TOP 10 of the paid “Education” category, 5-6 applications have been there for more than three months, the rest, falling into the TOP and lasting there for no more than 1-2 days, begin to smoothly fall down ;
- Almost exactly the same trend is observed in the “TOP Cash Register” in the “Education” section;
- In TOP 10, 7-8 applications in the paid section "Education" - these are children's applications;
- If we take the first 20 applications, then 15 of them belong to 5 companies, i.e. On average, 1 company has 3 of its applications in the TOP-20.
It is the last conclusion that makes you seriously think. After all, a year and a half ago, when we were just starting our activities, this was not the case. Moreover, it cannot be said that all the applications that are in the TOP-20 are better than the others - no, they are simply better promoted . It even happens that some new application of very low quality breaks into the TOP and can stay there for a week. What then determines the natural period of stay in the TOP?
You can immediately say that it is always in the TOP without any advertising and marketing campaigns. Developers of even applications such as Angry birds, Fruit Ninja, etc., are constantly pouring money into advertising or other distribution channels. As an example, you can take one of the most famous games in the genre of “Tower Defense” - Plants vs Zombies, which can stand in first place in the overall story or even fall out of the TOP-100. For ourselves, we made a definite conclusion: the natural period of stay in the TOP directly depends on the quality of implementation of the application and idea, i.e. a high-quality application will stay in the TOP for longer, but, in any case, after a while it will lose ground - this is inevitable if you do not pour additional funds into advertising.
Speaking of globalization, let's take a look at the companyToca Boca , which, of course, occupies a leading position in the "Education" section, not only in the Russian side, but also in almost all others. How can young novice developers compete with such large companies? This seems impossible, but actually worse . Large companies, such as Rovio, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Disney, Toca Boca, etc., are strengthening their positions more and more and more and more inaccessible, as are constantly expanding their customer base (here is a link to one very interesting article published by Distimo). Of course, you can contact a major publisher, for example, Chillingo, but this is not for those who want to create and promote their brand and their brand.
The cost of entering the market has now increased significantly. If a year ago it was possible to get into the TOP-5 within the framework of $ 800-1000, now this figure has increased by 2-3 times.
Let’s now look at an example: 2 about the same applications are released. One was developed by novice developers, and the second by Toca Boca. It is difficult to say what distribution channels the young developers have, but you can say for sure what Toca Boca has:
- 224,000 likes on the official facebook page;
- about 6,000 followers on Twitter;
- More than 3,500,000 video views on youtube;
- A powerful distribution network through its applications (banners, links within its applications), etc.
It is safe to say that promoting a new application for Toca Boca is not difficult, using at least only your own distribution channels. Moreover, for them all this is free. They should post on Facebook a release of their new application or a discount on some old one, and they immediately gain more than 1000 likes.
So what do novice developers do? Below is a list of recommendations that are directly related to further long-term marketing. It is these actions in the future that will allow the developer to achieve certain results.
1. Starting to develop your first application, think about choosing a sectionbecause then you will have to work on the same topic. Do not first make an e-book, then a game, then some useful utility. It is better to devote yourself to a specific section and gain a foothold there. That is how the thematic client base will be gradually recruited. It should be understood that the thematic customer base is important , and not heterogeneous.
2. When developing the first application, it is imperative to provide for and reserve a place for a banner in advance . On this banner, in the future you will be able to advertise your second application. It should be noted that the banner should not be intrusive and in no case should cause negative emotions for users.
3. It is worth thinking in advance about the social componentthe life of the company or the application itself. It is the social factor in the future that will help you recoup new applications in a matter of days. This includes the promotion and promotion of your page on social networks Facebook, VK, Twitter, etc. In other words, traffic should be two-way.
4. When the number of your applications is more than three, then you should think about adding a link inside your applications, which will lead to a page with a list of your applications . Those. Buying one application by the user will stimulate the purchase of another. Again, in this case, the same theme is very important. An example is the usual shelf where you can neatly place all your applications.
5. For some reason, many developers neglect the site, make it just “for the sake of a tick”, but, as mentioned above, traffic is needed everywhere (from the site, from Facebook, from iTunes, etc.), so take care of SEO and SMM in advance .
6. It is very important to understand that all Apple App Store's are different, and each particular store needs its own approach. Therefore, you should not immediately scatter to a few stories, it will be much better and more reliable to gain a foothold in at least one (you can start with the Russian one).
7. All this is done in order to win fans of their applications , so the most important factor is the quality implementation of applications and constant global updates, which will extend the life of the product. Moreover, if the game is interesting, then users will come to it more often and, accordingly, will more often see banners of your other applications.
The above recommendations are designed specifically for the prospective growth and expansion of the customer base. Here we did not consider methods and methods for quickly getting into the TOP. We will try to write about this in our next posts.
In conclusion, I would like to add that the market is gradually narrowing, whether we want it or not. Powerful companies remain on the market (these are the fruits of the globalization process), which will generate the main profit. This is happening now, so it's up to you to decide whether to be in the boat or overboard.
Globalization also directly affects application developers, including us, Little Beetle. Therefore, we would like to express our opinion on this matter, as well as give a couple of tips based on personal experience to novice developers.
By the nature of our activity, we constantly have to analyze the educational segment of the Russian Apple App Store market. We must monitor the release of new products from other developers, track TOPs, factors affecting the duration of stay in TOP, analyze search queries inside the store, track comments, reviews, ratings, etc. The data obtained by us in the analysis process allow us to draw the following conclusions:
- In the TOP 10 of the paid “Education” category, 5-6 applications have been there for more than three months, the rest, falling into the TOP and lasting there for no more than 1-2 days, begin to smoothly fall down ;
- Almost exactly the same trend is observed in the “TOP Cash Register” in the “Education” section;
- In TOP 10, 7-8 applications in the paid section "Education" - these are children's applications;
- If we take the first 20 applications, then 15 of them belong to 5 companies, i.e. On average, 1 company has 3 of its applications in the TOP-20.
It is the last conclusion that makes you seriously think. After all, a year and a half ago, when we were just starting our activities, this was not the case. Moreover, it cannot be said that all the applications that are in the TOP-20 are better than the others - no, they are simply better promoted . It even happens that some new application of very low quality breaks into the TOP and can stay there for a week. What then determines the natural period of stay in the TOP?
You can immediately say that it is always in the TOP without any advertising and marketing campaigns. Developers of even applications such as Angry birds, Fruit Ninja, etc., are constantly pouring money into advertising or other distribution channels. As an example, you can take one of the most famous games in the genre of “Tower Defense” - Plants vs Zombies, which can stand in first place in the overall story or even fall out of the TOP-100. For ourselves, we made a definite conclusion: the natural period of stay in the TOP directly depends on the quality of implementation of the application and idea, i.e. a high-quality application will stay in the TOP for longer, but, in any case, after a while it will lose ground - this is inevitable if you do not pour additional funds into advertising.
Speaking of globalization, let's take a look at the companyToca Boca , which, of course, occupies a leading position in the "Education" section, not only in the Russian side, but also in almost all others. How can young novice developers compete with such large companies? This seems impossible, but actually worse . Large companies, such as Rovio, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Disney, Toca Boca, etc., are strengthening their positions more and more and more and more inaccessible, as are constantly expanding their customer base (here is a link to one very interesting article published by Distimo). Of course, you can contact a major publisher, for example, Chillingo, but this is not for those who want to create and promote their brand and their brand.
The cost of entering the market has now increased significantly. If a year ago it was possible to get into the TOP-5 within the framework of $ 800-1000, now this figure has increased by 2-3 times.
Let’s now look at an example: 2 about the same applications are released. One was developed by novice developers, and the second by Toca Boca. It is difficult to say what distribution channels the young developers have, but you can say for sure what Toca Boca has:
- 224,000 likes on the official facebook page;
- about 6,000 followers on Twitter;
- More than 3,500,000 video views on youtube;
- A powerful distribution network through its applications (banners, links within its applications), etc.
It is safe to say that promoting a new application for Toca Boca is not difficult, using at least only your own distribution channels. Moreover, for them all this is free. They should post on Facebook a release of their new application or a discount on some old one, and they immediately gain more than 1000 likes.
So what do novice developers do? Below is a list of recommendations that are directly related to further long-term marketing. It is these actions in the future that will allow the developer to achieve certain results.
1. Starting to develop your first application, think about choosing a sectionbecause then you will have to work on the same topic. Do not first make an e-book, then a game, then some useful utility. It is better to devote yourself to a specific section and gain a foothold there. That is how the thematic client base will be gradually recruited. It should be understood that the thematic customer base is important , and not heterogeneous.
2. When developing the first application, it is imperative to provide for and reserve a place for a banner in advance . On this banner, in the future you will be able to advertise your second application. It should be noted that the banner should not be intrusive and in no case should cause negative emotions for users.
3. It is worth thinking in advance about the social componentthe life of the company or the application itself. It is the social factor in the future that will help you recoup new applications in a matter of days. This includes the promotion and promotion of your page on social networks Facebook, VK, Twitter, etc. In other words, traffic should be two-way.
4. When the number of your applications is more than three, then you should think about adding a link inside your applications, which will lead to a page with a list of your applications . Those. Buying one application by the user will stimulate the purchase of another. Again, in this case, the same theme is very important. An example is the usual shelf where you can neatly place all your applications.
5. For some reason, many developers neglect the site, make it just “for the sake of a tick”, but, as mentioned above, traffic is needed everywhere (from the site, from Facebook, from iTunes, etc.), so take care of SEO and SMM in advance .
6. It is very important to understand that all Apple App Store's are different, and each particular store needs its own approach. Therefore, you should not immediately scatter to a few stories, it will be much better and more reliable to gain a foothold in at least one (you can start with the Russian one).
7. All this is done in order to win fans of their applications , so the most important factor is the quality implementation of applications and constant global updates, which will extend the life of the product. Moreover, if the game is interesting, then users will come to it more often and, accordingly, will more often see banners of your other applications.
The above recommendations are designed specifically for the prospective growth and expansion of the customer base. Here we did not consider methods and methods for quickly getting into the TOP. We will try to write about this in our next posts.
In conclusion, I would like to add that the market is gradually narrowing, whether we want it or not. Powerful companies remain on the market (these are the fruits of the globalization process), which will generate the main profit. This is happening now, so it's up to you to decide whether to be in the boat or overboard.