Avtostroenie: windows marketplace, in-app billing and what we have learned over the year
In this paper I will talk about how slowly but surely, evolving published a year ago, the project that started as just a hobby, but now (still) budding.
About the project I wrote here and here. In a few words is focused on car enthusiasts a mobile app for measuring the time of acceleration from 0..100 and a website where you can upload data, view statistics, etc.
Over the year life of the project, we have accumulated some amount of experience, which I want to share with readers.
Begin to share immediately under the cut...
In the articles referenced above, describes the application itself, and the beginning of his life: victory and defeat, unexpected success and false expectations. Today I will tell you what happened next. But first, bring the plan, which was compiled before the release of the application in the light: the plan on which we are moving. Trying to figure out be it good or not. Here:
About items 1 and 2 had a lot written, sums it up: popular Android version in Russia exceeded my expectations, the best way to promote was the creation of a profile on the forums of car enthusiasts.
Slightly ahead of plan, and therefore unsuccessful, attempts were made to communicate with investors and business angels. Is actually apparent: this project is of little interest to those organizations — because if he is profitable, the scale of this profit can be significant for the team of several people, but for a large company — a drop in the ocean. Greater part of organizations where I wrote, answered kindly: the project is interesting, but not for us. The greater was my surprise when I myself was contacted by a representative of the venture capital firm, and has shown interest in Autoscoring. We month was drunk, made a business plan, considered the potential profit, necessary costs (with a fair amount of optimism, of course), and the project was discussed among partners. Invested was not "for internal reasons". However, this event increased the degree of inspiration of the participants and had a positive impact on further development. Because, as you know — whether the project has already brought to mind, in terms of appearance, the breadth of platform coverage and test ways of monetization — all might have been otherwise. It is not necessary to start looking for an investor as long as the prototype does not look complete.
Holivary between the owners of smartphones on different operating systems — an inexhaustible subject for jokes in the team. Android vs iOS — it's funny. In a particularly advantageous position there are people with old school phones without any prefixes "smart" because they can humor in both directions. One of our friend did, not yet purchased, for some reason, Nokia Lumia with windows phone on Board. However, the reason for the smile, mostly, was not the operating system itself, and torn jeans. In a very "ergonomic" shape of the device: the size of a shovel, with sharp corners. His pants are torn in a week, if you carry it in your pocket.
Weather situation: the information providers (e.g. RP5) provide it absolutely free, to some extent of detail. Then — for the money. The genius of the idea Alexei was RP5 to make an offer they couldn't refuse: offer them absolutely free of charge to write an app for WP, and RP5 will give, free of charge, access to premium forecasts for this application. What was written in the letter to the vendor forecasts. "The height of his experience" Manager, I expressed a fair amount of pessimism, explaining why this is a good offer not interested in RP5. But Alex is stubborn and believes in the best, the letter was sent. The rejection response came on behalf of the superior, which is also nice.
To cope with the disappointment, Alex joined our ranks and quickly wrote Avtostroenie for WP. Design has taken from the Android app — still remake will be. Looks for reviews hardened adherents of WP, pretty pathetic — but it works well.
Moderation the application was not the first time it appeared, we do not allow the user to disable the receiving geodatabase. The fact that without them the program could not operate, and it is written, did not help. Had to make a meaningless checkbox for disabling the GPS, and after a few days Avtostroenie was published.
To promote it we became a conventional, proven way: through specialized forums. But immediately noticeable: the interest is significantly lower. The most popular question — "what is windows phone?" (a joke but with some truth). Apps in the windows marketplace much less than in Google Play, and our went straight to the list of new. Went barrage downloads:
By the way, really a lot.
The history of the relationship of our project with Apple products began in September of last year, when I paid a hundred dollars for a subscription of the developer, and wondered what to do next. Something to do need device. After reading the stories of developers came to the conclusion that it is better to have appropriate computer. It is not very cheap, programmers familiar with the good, ready to join the project on equal other conditions, is not found.
An attempt was made to raise money for our analogue kick. To no avail. In the end, I bought an iPad, painfully put on virtualke Mac OS, and started programming, periodically falling into depression from grace and flexibility in Objective C. I Must say, gradually got used, and now the feeling of this language is not so depressing.
As for the development process of the framework, as just done some things that Android had to Tinker — I have to say: iOS is even nothing. The complexity of simple things in Objective C is partially kompensiruet brevity complicated things. Thanks to intelligent libraries, of course. But with the advent of home PC monitor, even IDE became quite comfortable. I want to note a great mercurial client SourceTree, I have it for Windows (Git only).
In General, rolled up his sleeves and almost made making measuring app for iOS, but further time and effort is not enough. Inveterate hatred to GUI programming manifested itself, the project stalled for iOS. Although on the forums people often asked a version for the iPhone.
And recently, I was contacted by a stranger from Peter, and suggested that their participation in the project on an equal footing with other developers conditions (remember, in our case, that means free)! I readily agreed not to charge him money for it, told what and how, he opened the repository, set the task. Was a little confused by the lack of real experience of Sergey, but as it turned out, in vain. If people are passionate about something, it can all to understand and to do. At the moment, the app is almost ready, in terms of functionality, waiting for a designer. I think it will be a separate publication on habré "I PR", so finish about iOS.
From advertising in the app, I immediately refused. To was the clicks on the built-in advertising such as adMob, the user needs a long time to spend in the application. In our case it is not. Use Avtostroenie is episodic, almost one-time in nature. Types of ads AirPush is a great way to ruin the rating of even a good app, what I've seen in your other project. Advertising on the website — why not, but we need attendance. At the moment, the day, the site comes little more than a hundred people. It is negligible. However, we will try: the new design is being designed with the ability to show ads from Google or something else.
The current trend in the world of mobile applications — in app billing. In-app purchases, if in our opinion. To see how well it works, it was decided on the Android version. May 20 this year, posted a update with the appropriate opportunity: buy for 50 rubles "Premium account", making the settings available upper limit speed, the memory and reset the max speed on the GPS and... for now. Since then, about one person a day commits such a purchase. The number of installations per day — about 80. Removals of about 50. Therefore, about 30 users set and immediately remove the app, one of them buys: 3.3% new active users are a source of income. When income (net margin Google) 30 rubles to purchase, have an income of one ruble with only one active installation. This is a very approximate calculation, but it is interesting to understand how much can you generally earn on this program. Some simple calculations show that last summer there were over 10,000 active installations. Therefore, we immediately introduce in-app purchases, could earn about 10 000. What not would pay for even the current costs of the designer. By the way, interesting point: If you take the number of active installations 3 months ago and now, we get a growth of 350 users per month, approximately 11-12 per day. The difference between active installs and uninstalls the day on which we previously relied, is 30, which is 2.5 times more. If you use this indicator, then the income potential could be as high as 25 000. It is clear that this calculation is very approximate, but allows us to estimate the order and pattern before going out on the world stage. Perhaps we should make the cost higher a premium account!
Here's a picture of the statistics of income:
With the windows phone version has surfaced caveat: 7.x does not support in app billing, but many of the existing devices (including existing) — does not support windows phone 8. Given the current distribution of this platform, this app is necessary: otherwise, all feedback get. Decided to do free and paid (Pro) version. It's a slightly different model, see how it works: put observed. Yet to boast of nothing, isn't in demand.
In thinking, for iOS going to experiment with only the paid version: after all, users of Apple devices are more likely to buy than android owners, and they are much more than owners of windows phone. As they say, we will see. About the iOS version will notify separately, and talk about the early monetization in this way.
Everything stated in this section is for us a new and poorly studied. In the comments of the post I will be glad to hear tips, learn about the experience of readers in these matters.
About the mobile apps market and write a lot, and sometimes I wonder. After our app for Android is already "has settled", I started to learn other platforms, read stuff. With the release of windows phone appeared first feedback. Based on all this I came to the conclusion that Android users are the least demanding design applications. In the AppStore without external beauty does nothing to catch, and the owners of windows phone devices get annoyed when I see a traditional system of tiles.
In General, design is the most expensive item of expenditure in this project: a good designer is enthusiastic and can not find, cheap designer freelancer did the work, respectively of cost of services as a consequence remodel completely. The design is not worth saving, they should make a rule that all authors of applications for smartphones.
I'll try to summarize all that we learned and realized during this time, based on a concrete example:
And most importantly — do what you interesting. I finally came up with a good answer to the question of evil skeptics "Why do you need this app!?": for those users who have such issue does not arise. If any is already a good prospect that you want to use.
Article based on information from habrahabr.ru
About the project I wrote here and here. In a few words is focused on car enthusiasts a mobile app for measuring the time of acceleration from 0..100 and a website where you can upload data, view statistics, etc.
Over the year life of the project, we have accumulated some amount of experience, which I want to share with readers.
Begin to share immediately under the cut...
In the articles referenced above, describes the application itself, and the beginning of his life: victory and defeat, unexpected success and false expectations. Today I will tell you what happened next. But first, bring the plan, which was compiled before the release of the application in the light: the plan on which we are moving. Trying to figure out be it good or not. Here:
plans
-
the
- Development and publication for Russian-speaking audience of the Android app, the publication of the site(in the zone ru, in Russian). the
- Promote your app in various ways, the comparative analysis of efficiency. the
- Development and publication for Russian-speaking audience of the app on iOS, windows phone. the
- Testing different methods of monetization. the
- the Ordering of the new design of the website and applications from a professional designer, change the appearance of website and applications — to look seriously and not as a collective hack. the
- analysis of the possibility of attracting an investor, publisher, partner — for the proper application output to the world market. If the opportunity is there — attracted. the
- Development of a bilingual (Russian and English) version of the site, development of a separate English (or add a language selection to the current) version of the application, publication of the project for the whole world (based on the experience obtained in p. 2 and p. 4) the
- Profit.
About items 1 and 2 had a lot written, sums it up: popular Android version in Russia exceeded my expectations, the best way to promote was the creation of a profile on the forums of car enthusiasts.
Slightly ahead of plan, and therefore unsuccessful, attempts were made to communicate with investors and business angels. Is actually apparent: this project is of little interest to those organizations — because if he is profitable, the scale of this profit can be significant for the team of several people, but for a large company — a drop in the ocean. Greater part of organizations where I wrote, answered kindly: the project is interesting, but not for us. The greater was my surprise when I myself was contacted by a representative of the venture capital firm, and has shown interest in Autoscoring. We month was drunk, made a business plan, considered the potential profit, necessary costs (with a fair amount of optimism, of course), and the project was discussed among partners. Invested was not "for internal reasons". However, this event increased the degree of inspiration of the participants and had a positive impact on further development. Because, as you know — whether the project has already brought to mind, in terms of appearance, the breadth of platform coverage and test ways of monetization — all might have been otherwise. It is not necessary to start looking for an investor as long as the prototype does not look complete.
Expansion on windows marketplace
Holivary between the owners of smartphones on different operating systems — an inexhaustible subject for jokes in the team. Android vs iOS — it's funny. In a particularly advantageous position there are people with old school phones without any prefixes "smart" because they can humor in both directions. One of our friend did, not yet purchased, for some reason, Nokia Lumia with windows phone on Board. However, the reason for the smile, mostly, was not the operating system itself, and torn jeans. In a very "ergonomic" shape of the device: the size of a shovel, with sharp corners. His pants are torn in a week, if you carry it in your pocket.
Weather situation: the information providers (e.g. RP5) provide it absolutely free, to some extent of detail. Then — for the money. The genius of the idea Alexei was RP5 to make an offer they couldn't refuse: offer them absolutely free of charge to write an app for WP, and RP5 will give, free of charge, access to premium forecasts for this application. What was written in the letter to the vendor forecasts. "The height of his experience" Manager, I expressed a fair amount of pessimism, explaining why this is a good offer not interested in RP5. But Alex is stubborn and believes in the best, the letter was sent. The rejection response came on behalf of the superior, which is also nice.
To cope with the disappointment, Alex joined our ranks and quickly wrote Avtostroenie for WP. Design has taken from the Android app — still remake will be. Looks for reviews hardened adherents of WP, pretty pathetic — but it works well.
Moderation the application was not the first time it appeared, we do not allow the user to disable the receiving geodatabase. The fact that without them the program could not operate, and it is written, did not help. Had to make a meaningless checkbox for disabling the GPS, and after a few days Avtostroenie was published.
To promote it we became a conventional, proven way: through specialized forums. But immediately noticeable: the interest is significantly lower. The most popular question — "what is windows phone?" (a joke but with some truth). Apps in the windows marketplace much less than in Google Play, and our went straight to the list of new. Went barrage downloads:
By the way, really a lot.
About iOS
The history of the relationship of our project with Apple products began in September of last year, when I paid a hundred dollars for a subscription of the developer, and wondered what to do next. Something to do need device. After reading the stories of developers came to the conclusion that it is better to have appropriate computer. It is not very cheap, programmers familiar with the good, ready to join the project on equal other conditions, is not found.
An attempt was made to raise money for our analogue kick. To no avail. In the end, I bought an iPad, painfully put on virtualke Mac OS, and started programming, periodically falling into depression from grace and flexibility in Objective C. I Must say, gradually got used, and now the feeling of this language is not so depressing.
As for the development process of the framework, as just done some things that Android had to Tinker — I have to say: iOS is even nothing. The complexity of simple things in Objective C is partially kompensiruet brevity complicated things. Thanks to intelligent libraries, of course. But with the advent of home PC monitor, even IDE became quite comfortable. I want to note a great mercurial client SourceTree, I have it for Windows (Git only).
In General, rolled up his sleeves and almost made making measuring app for iOS, but further time and effort is not enough. Inveterate hatred to GUI programming manifested itself, the project stalled for iOS. Although on the forums people often asked a version for the iPhone.
And recently, I was contacted by a stranger from Peter, and suggested that their participation in the project on an equal footing with other developers conditions (remember, in our case, that means free)! I readily agreed not to charge him money for it, told what and how, he opened the repository, set the task. Was a little confused by the lack of real experience of Sergey, but as it turned out, in vain. If people are passionate about something, it can all to understand and to do. At the moment, the app is almost ready, in terms of functionality, waiting for a designer. I think it will be a separate publication on habré "I PR", so finish about iOS.
pen Test to monetization
From advertising in the app, I immediately refused. To was the clicks on the built-in advertising such as adMob, the user needs a long time to spend in the application. In our case it is not. Use Avtostroenie is episodic, almost one-time in nature. Types of ads AirPush is a great way to ruin the rating of even a good app, what I've seen in your other project. Advertising on the website — why not, but we need attendance. At the moment, the day, the site comes little more than a hundred people. It is negligible. However, we will try: the new design is being designed with the ability to show ads from Google or something else.
The current trend in the world of mobile applications — in app billing. In-app purchases, if in our opinion. To see how well it works, it was decided on the Android version. May 20 this year, posted a update with the appropriate opportunity: buy for 50 rubles "Premium account", making the settings available upper limit speed, the memory and reset the max speed on the GPS and... for now. Since then, about one person a day commits such a purchase. The number of installations per day — about 80. Removals of about 50. Therefore, about 30 users set and immediately remove the app, one of them buys: 3.3% new active users are a source of income. When income (net margin Google) 30 rubles to purchase, have an income of one ruble with only one active installation. This is a very approximate calculation, but it is interesting to understand how much can you generally earn on this program. Some simple calculations show that last summer there were over 10,000 active installations. Therefore, we immediately introduce in-app purchases, could earn about 10 000. What not would pay for even the current costs of the designer. By the way, interesting point: If you take the number of active installations 3 months ago and now, we get a growth of 350 users per month, approximately 11-12 per day. The difference between active installs and uninstalls the day on which we previously relied, is 30, which is 2.5 times more. If you use this indicator, then the income potential could be as high as 25 000. It is clear that this calculation is very approximate, but allows us to estimate the order and pattern before going out on the world stage. Perhaps we should make the cost higher a premium account!
Here's a picture of the statistics of income:
With the windows phone version has surfaced caveat: 7.x does not support in app billing, but many of the existing devices (including existing) — does not support windows phone 8. Given the current distribution of this platform, this app is necessary: otherwise, all feedback get. Decided to do free and paid (Pro) version. It's a slightly different model, see how it works: put observed. Yet to boast of nothing, isn't in demand.
In thinking, for iOS going to experiment with only the paid version: after all, users of Apple devices are more likely to buy than android owners, and they are much more than owners of windows phone. As they say, we will see. About the iOS version will notify separately, and talk about the early monetization in this way.
Everything stated in this section is for us a new and poorly studied. In the comments of the post I will be glad to hear tips, learn about the experience of readers in these matters.
About the design
About the mobile apps market and write a lot, and sometimes I wonder. After our app for Android is already "has settled", I started to learn other platforms, read stuff. With the release of windows phone appeared first feedback. Based on all this I came to the conclusion that Android users are the least demanding design applications. In the AppStore without external beauty does nothing to catch, and the owners of windows phone devices get annoyed when I see a traditional system of tiles.
In General, design is the most expensive item of expenditure in this project: a good designer is enthusiastic and can not find, cheap designer freelancer did the work, respectively of cost of services as a consequence remodel completely. The design is not worth saving, they should make a rule that all authors of applications for smartphones.
Conclusions
I'll try to summarize all that we learned and realized during this time, based on a concrete example:
-
the
- If you have an interesting free app, and you attach it to something at least a little interesting, but not crucial for other tasks a paid opportunity, you can count on ~3% of purchases from users. the
- If you have an interesting free app, and you will pay — it should still manage to spin and sell: in this aspect, in app purchase looks better. the
- clothes make the man. Detailed design will avoid the negative reviews from users who don't like — and with the functionality they did not understand. the
- Windows phone is an interesting market in terms of barrier to entry. Our app without much promotion came under the heading "new" and already on the 4th page in the "top free" (right next to "Tickets SDA RF!"), and the number of downloads in the first week more than at Google Play. But about the Android version I wrote much more wherever possible, including on habré the
- do Not rush to engage in dialogue with investors and publishers. For such projects, this should do it when he is already so good.
And most importantly — do what you interesting. I finally came up with a good answer to the question of evil skeptics "Why do you need this app!?": for those users who have such issue does not arise. If any is already a good prospect that you want to use.
Комментарии
Отправить комментарий