Android Market Stats App

We've be running the AndroidStats website for the past 8 months and have collected a large amount of historical data about Apps in the Android Market Place. We have seen the site become more and more popular over that time and have therefore decided to start taking it to the next level.

So yesterday we have released an Android App that allows you to do all the same functions from the website, directly on the phone. You can:

* Find Apps performing well in the Biggest Weekly Movers Top 20
* Find bargain Apps in Yesterday's Price Changes
* See Graphs of each App's history overall and within their category
* Go directly to download the App in the Android Market on the phone

Since we released the app it has been snapped up by a lot of Android users. This only spurs us on to add features. We have category browsing from the phone coming in the next couple of days. We also have some exciting features planned for the website so subscribe to the website and stay tuned!

Can a free version boost sales of a paid iPhone Applications in AppStore?

Many iPhone publishers found that a dual release of a free lite version and a paid pro version of an iPhone app pays off.

Our own experiment...

We wanted to see if the free/pro approach works and have released a location sharing utility called Pinpoint for the iPhone. The Pro version of Pinpoint was released 3 weeks ago with expected download figures. The app was prices at US$2.99 and had reached approximately 150 downloads in 3 weeks.

Our experiment was constructed to see whether a free Lite version of Pinpoint could increase the sales figure of the paid Pro version. We also wanted to see whether we could boost the downloads of the paid app to get it into one of the Apple top lists. So we lined up three things

1. new free lite version

2. drop the price one tier (from US$2.99 to US$1.99)

3. Show messages on our existing apps to our existing user base

As @quamen pointed out it would be not trivial to see the impact of the free app because we have changed 3 variables at the same time. So, to isolate the the impact of the free app we have experimented with prices drop (2) and promotion messages (3) before and know what the impact of each of those changes is. So we should be fine to filter out the impact of the free app release (1).

after 5 hours...

Pinpoint Lite was approved by Apple on the 11th of August and reached 100 downloads within the first 5 hours. For tracking and user notification about the newly released app we are using shoutmob.com.

after 12 hours...

Over the last 12 hrs people have downloaded Pinpoint Lite more than 300 times.

Downloads in Pinpoint Pro have more than doubled. Knowing the impact of the price drop and promotion messages we can say that the impact of the free app alone was approximately 100% increase in paid app downloads.

So far we can confirm the boost and the effectiveness of shoutmob user notifications.

after 2 days...

I did not expect that the Lite version would be so popular. It made it in less than two day in the AppStore to #30 in Australia under Free Navigation apps and #46 in the US. That's a nice side effect but was not goal of the experiment.

The Lite version was downloaded 630 times so far.

So, how is the Pro version going after 2 day?

The conversion rate is lower than we thought. We are converting less then 10

% of the Lite users to upgrade to the Pro version. The price drop should start wearing off by now and all the downloads from now onwards come from Lite to Pro upgraders.

For the Pro version we can see the same download figures as in the first 3 days in the AppStore. The graph shows the downloads in the last week for the paid app. The impact of the price -drop and Lite version release are quite obvious.

[UPDATE]

after 3 days...

The Lite version is still on the "new Releases" page in the AppStore. Downloads decreased slightly compared to yesterday. I would expect that once we get on page 2 that downloads will decrease by 50% - lets see.

Pinpoint Lite ranks #42 in US and #28 in Australian free navigation apps.

Pinpoint Lite was downloaded 1000 times within three days with approx 340 new users a day.

The Pro version is almost unchanged. Even the price-drop should have worn off by now we see similar download numbers as in the previous two days.

The paid app is still going OK and I suspect that most downloads come from people

upgrading from Lite to Pro. Here are some graphs based on

shoutmob realtime analytics.

The total usage per day which trends upwards.

[UPDATE 2]

after 4 days...

The Lite version is no longer on the "new Releases" page in the AppStore. As expected, the number of new has decreased.

Pinpoint Lite ranks #43 in US (-1) and #27 in Australian (+1) free navigation apps.

Pinpoint Lite was installed 1300 times within four days. With 280 new users on day 4 which is 80% compared to the day before .

The Pro version the same user rate as the day before.

From here it will be really hard to stay in the top 100 with the free version.

More downloads than installs

One interesting fact is that the Apple reports show higher numbers than shoutmob. Where Apple reports showed 480 downloads shoutmob showed 350 users. So some 130 users have downloaded the free app but never used it. While Apple's report shows download numbers shoutmob shows the number of app that have been used. So there seem to be people who download free apps but do not use it. Looking at my own app download behaviour I sometimes download in iTunes but may take another day before I synchronise with the iPhone. Maybe that is what other people do too.

[UPDATE 3]

after 5 days...

Pinpoint Lite ranks #44 in US (-1) and #32 in Australian (-5) free navigation apps.

Pinpoint Lite was installed approx 1500 times within five days. With 260 new users on day 5 which is 92% compared to the day before .

The Pro version has now increased the number of users by 33% compared to the previous day.

New website released with focus on iPhone development

After a busy week in Sydney at the CEDIA Expo where we launch of our universal remote iPhone app we have finally found some time to revamp our website.

The new website focuses on our core services around iPhone and Android application development. The design is kept simple and clean and we hope that helps advertising jTribe's iPhone development skills and capabilities.

iPhone Universal Remote app for HAL unveiled

Remote controlling everything in your house from your iPhone is the dream right? Well yesterday we unveiled an app that brings us a step closer to a universal remote for the iPhone. At the CEDIA expo in Sydney we unveiled an iPhone app that lets you control devices like Foxtel, DVD, TV and tuners throughout the house. It integrates with some new hardware (HAL) from OzHifi which handles the routing and amplification of audio and video.

The iPhone app starts up and shows a overview of all the rooms (or zones) configured in your house and lets you control basic functions such as power, volume and mute. Clicking the info button for each zone takes you to a remote control for the device that is currently playing in that room. The screenshot below shows a Foxtel remote being used but the user could also select another source such as a DVD player or tuner and a different remote would appear. You can also link zones together to have the same thing playing in multiple rooms (party!), again all controlled from the iPhone.

The hardware will start shipping late this year so look out for even more features from the iPhone app before then.

Pinpoint Pro for iPhone - an app that finds you and shares your location

Pinpoint Pro uses the new maps on iPhone OS 3.0 to pinpoint your location.

The key feature is that you can select your location interactively using the map. If you want to share your current location the automatic location service does a great job. However, if you are in an area without GPS (e.g. in your office) then the iPhone gives you only an approximate location. With Pinpoint Pro you can adjust the location interactively. Move the map so that the crosshairs pinpoint your desired location - done.
Share the locaiton and address via Email or paste it in any iPhone app e.g SMS or Twitter.

Positioning the map interactively is great if you like to send someone an address to meet at.

I spent much time figuring out the best possible way to email a map. Sharing via the email feature attaches an google map to the email so people can see straight in their email client where you are.

Sharing via SMS is almost as simple as the email feature. Unfortunately, the Apple SDK still does not allow to send SMS programatically. So the only choice I had was to copy the location and map link into the clipboard. Now, the address and map can be pasted in any other iPhone app.

I am using it since one week and may say that sending a location with Pinpint is so much easier than via the Apple map application. If you have tried to drop a pin using the map app you will know what I mean.

I am really proud of the way you can pick a location on the map. Actually, the whole map can be moved using touch gestures. The crosshairs give visual assistance in positioning the map accurately.

More details at firepin.com

jTribe's secret iPhone app will be revealed mid July

Hey, how cool is it to have a secret iPhone project.

We developed an iPhone app for home entertainment automation. That's as much as we can say.

The app will be revealed on the 15th of July 2009 at the CEDIA Expo in Sydney. So more info about the app after the launch date.

Twitter friends on a map - there is an iPhone app for that

I released Mapee Lite. A free show case that demonstrates the map feature of the iPhone OS 3.0. Mapee Lite shows Twitter friends on an iPhone map. The lite version is limited to up to 10 friends on a map.

The experience was great: Flying pins & movable maps using the iPhone MapKit, Twitter API via JSON and Google Map API for Geo-Coding (yes, MapKit does only reverse geo-coding). The twitter profile most likely contains some text describing the location of the user. I need to ask Google what the geo-code for that location text would be (latitude/longitude) and then pin in on the map. I thought it would be simpler.

The pro version of Mapee will be coming out soon. It's basic idea is firstly to show your own tweeps and secondly to discover and follow other tweeps based on location.