Image Credit:  Fast Company

In a past role, I spent time at both EA and Lucas Arts.  I’ve seen their production values.  EA will certainly raise the standards for games on the iPhone.  I just wonder whether there will still be a place for the humble efforts of small shops like ours.  If nothing else, as the Fast Company post suggests:

“…it’ll be harder for mom and pop games to get noticed…”

Is anyone else out there worried about how they’ll compete against the big game studios?

The Wired story linked to above has the money quote:

“This scam was so effective that the applications regularly rose to the tops of charts. One, called ColorMagic, even made it into the Staff Favorites section of the store (which brings some doubt as to whether these are actually staff picks at all).”

It does indeed make me wonder how they go about identifying their “favorites.”

The cynic in me can’t help noticing that Molinker produced 1 app for every 5 units of the iPhone sold during the launch with China Unicom (we’re told that Apple yanked 1000 of Molinker’s apps).  Oh well, 1% fewer apps are out there competing for attention.

Counterfeit iPhone in China

I don’t know how I missed this.  Perhaps I’ve been too distracted by the bright and shiny “Droid” object.

According to a recent story in Fast Company,

“China Unicom will be running its own app store independent of Apple’s, so all the apps that western users have come to know and love won’t be available on the iPhone in China.“

That disappointing bit completely escaped me.  I wonder if this explains why we haven’t seen a single sale to China since the launch.  It certainly makes me much less interested in the iPhone roll-out to the Middle Kingdom.

Apparently, in China, it’s NOT “all about the apps.”

Image Credit:  iPhone Clone or Look-alike from China?

According to AppleInsider, the launch resulted in just 5K new subscribers for China Unicom.

Another story suggests some of the reasons for the “soft” launch.  Although the reporter is still optimistic about the iPhone’s future in China, the excuses include:

• It’s too expensive.  No kidding — US$1,024 for a crippled (w/o 802.11) 32GB 3Gs
• No Wi-Fi (apparently it’s coming in a future version of the device)
• Everyone who wanted one already had a gray-market iPhone.  I’m guessing that this, coupled with China Unicom’s policy of just letting current owners legally activate on the network, was a big factor.

For what it’s worth, we haven’t sold a single app in China since the launch…

Image Credit:  Demotivation.com

I didn’t see any activity from China when I checked yesterday’s daily sales reports on iTunes Connect.  If I assume that the reports use GMT-7 (PDT) for the cutoff, we might have had a few hours of selling in China between the launch and the time the reports were generated.  I guess that today’s report will really give the first indication.  Is anybody seeing an increase in app sales coincident with the launch in China?

Image Credit:  Geek.com:  iPhone Deal with China Unicom

What is a string?

---

I am very new to the iPhone SDK. And I hear the word strings alot, but I have no idea what they are. Could some one explain to me what strings are?
Thanks!

Do we see another flashlight app on the horizon?  The best part is that some helpful members actually made an effort to answer the question.  Amazing.

I guess that you have to start somewhere, but…

As we’ve been pondering these imponderables, this “report” from Retrevo caught my attention.  From a business manager’s perspective, the money quote is:

… they [iPhone owners] use their smart phones more for activities like watching videos, checking sports scores, and texting and they even watch more adult material on their iPhones than BlackBerry owners.

That certainly sounds productive!  (I’m listening to Mötley Crüe on my iPod Touch as I write this.)

A cynic reading the Retrevo post might jump to the conclusion that iPhone owners are shallow, arrogant narcissists.  In fact, the post concludes with the following:

… sure paints a picture of a group of smartphone owners that “think different,” and another more down-to-earth, mainstream group of BlackBerry owners.

I was particularly struck by the final chart presented in the post.  Respondents were apparently asked to rank themselves with respect to several “coolness” characteristics.  I think that the self assessment is very telling:

… iPhone owners rated themselves higher as Intellectuals, Extroverts, and Media Buffs than BlackBerry owners

Source: Retrevo Blog: iPhone vs. BlackBerry Owners: Your Phone Tells All

With that in mind, I’m finally ready to get around to making a point.  The carefully crafted iPhone user experience is unparalleled for media consumption and gaming.  It’s in a class by itself.  The thing is, though, that Apple puts up a whole fortress of barriers to developers that want to build real solutions to business problems and make their software available on a range of mobile terminals.  Sure, you can hammer on your app to fit it into the Apple template (and you might even be able to get it approved), but why bother when you have so many more degrees of freedom and device choices with Android / Linux (unfortunately, I don’t know as much about developing for BlackBerry OS 5.0).  Until recently, the answer boiled down to 40M+ iPhones / iPod Touches, against pretty weak alternative hardware.  Perhaps this is starting to change.

• Spend a bunch of VC money
• Get a bunch of attention (remember eyeballs?).  It doesn’t really matter if we build anything useful
• Exit Rich! (some variation on IPO, or sell to someone greedy…)

Of course, this thinking was completely based on the “greater fool” rationale for business decisions.  Personally, I blame MS and their Hotmail acquisition.  If I had a dollar for every time that I heard someone say, “Microsoft paid $50 per subscriber for Hotmail, so we’ll be worth at least $100M!” I would be developing iPhone apps just for fun right now.

Anyway, as a humble Objective-C coder, I don’t think so much about exit strategies anymore.  However, Justin Williams recently made an announcement that, in a way, reminded me of the old days.  It seems that Mr. Williams has found that he no longer enjoys…

…building software for the iPhone because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure that surrounds it. I can build great software for the Mac without the headaches and bullshit of dealing directly with Cupertino and their AppStore.

While it’s certainly too bad that Mr. Williams is thowing in the towel, I’m completely intrigued by his exit strategy.  Apparently, someone else is so enthralled by the pot of gold available in the App Store, that they’ve purchased his apps:

I’m pleased to announce that BitBQ, also known as the corporate entity in front of Mr. Patrick Burleson (@pbur), has acquired both FitnessTrack and Emergency Information from my company Second Gear.

I don’t know Mr. Burleson.  Perhaps he has the Midas touch, but I can’t help thinking about the lessons learned from technology acquisitions during the silly period of 1997-2001.  I wish both Mr. Burleson and Mr. Williams the best of luck, although I suspect that Mr. Williams got the better end of the deal.

History note for those too lucky to remember: MS was reported to have paid roughly US$400M for Hotmail, which had around 8.5M users at the time of the acquisition.  (Source: Wikipedia).

With v1.1, iPuckLite fully supports the Scoreloop game network.  This means that you can play as part of a global community!  You can compare your scores with other gamers worldwide and even challenge them directly.  You can challenge just about anyone, including your contacts and buddies on Facebook.  Tapping on a name in the high score list initiates a challenge against an existing player.  You can also create and accept anonymous challenges.  Scoreloop will ensure that you play against opponents with reasonably equivalent skill levels.

Scoreloop brings intense competition and a sense of community to iPuckLite.  Being able to compare scores, challenge other players and participate in the Scoreloop community make the game even more compelling.  See if you don’t get a little sweaty when you’re trying to smash a challenger, or finally work your way up to the top of the high scores list.

Changes in iPuckLite v1.1 include:

• iPuckLite now plays for 30 seconds, instead of playing to 7.  The side with the most points when the game timer expires is the winner.  Hopefully, this will encourage more aggressive play.  With iPuckLitev1.1, players are free to score as many points as they can before the clock runs out.
• The player’s actual score is reported to Scoreloop.  Players are no longer penalized for goals scored by the defender.  Run it up!

With this update, iPuckLite is even more of a kick.  We’ve opened the door to some really high scores.  Let’s see what you can do.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, TiltBall, TiltBallLite, iPuck, iPuckLite, iPunt, RingDance, RingDanceLite, Scoreloop

Of course, iPuck v1.3 fully supports the Scoreloop game network.  This means that you can play as part of a global community!  You can compare your scores with other gamers worldwide and even challenge them directly.  You can challenge just about anyone, including your contacts and buddies on Facebook.  Tapping on a name in the high score list initiates a challenge against an existing player.  You can also create and accept anonymous challenges.  Scoreloop will ensure that you play against opponents with reasonably equivalent skill levels.

Scoreloop brings intense competition and a sense of community to iPuck.  Being able to compare scores, challenge other players and participate in the Scoreloop community make the game even more compelling.  When I know that I’m trying to win a challenge, or get to the top of the high scores list, it really raises the experience to a whole new level!

Changes in iPuck v1.3 include:

• iPuck now plays for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, instead of playing to 21.  The side with the most points when the game timer expires is the winner.  We made this change at player request to encourage more aggressive play.  With iPuckv1.3, players are free to score as many points as possible, within the allotted time.
• The player’s actual score is reported to Scoreloop.  Players are no longer penalized for goals scored by the defender.  Just win, baby!

With this update, iPuck becomes even more challenging.  We’re looking forward to seeing a bunch of new high scores posted!  For what it’s worth, my highest score during testing was 37.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, TiltBall, TiltBallLite, iPuck, iPuckLite, iPunt, RingDance, RingDanceLite, Scoreloop