The App Store rocks and here's why

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The Apple iPhone App Store has always been a big talking point. It's either because of something great, like hitting a major milestone in the amount of apps available in the store; or something not so great, like an app being rejected, and more recently, because major high profile iPhone developers quitting the developer scene completely. 

While those developers' words and actions may have some merit, there a single point that everyone seems to forget: it's a store. Just like any other store. Software developers (or anyone really) can't just create a product, go to a store, and leave it on the shelf and expect a profit share with the store. Whenever you have to sell your product in a regular store, the store has to approve of the product first. How is the App Store any different?

Another argument one could have is that why then won't Apple allow applications to be sold or installed from other stores? Just like how we have multiple stores in real life. Apple only cares about one thing here: the user's experience. The App Store is a single repository of all apps available for it. From a user's point of view, this can't get any easier. When a user needs to purchase and install an app, all they have to do is search for it in one location. And it's not like they're running a monopoly with the App Store - Apple does not dictate the price - the developer/publishers of the app do.

Before the App Store, a mobile marketplace did not exist. Yes. Any store that may have existed prior to the App Store failed miserably - and I'm measuring that purely by user experience. Previous online stores for Symbian and Windows Mobile devices are a good example of this failure.

As a developer of iPhone apps, do I think the approval process is flawed? In some cases, sure. I wouldn't mind (really wouldn't mind) a shorter approval time for my apps. But overall I'm incredibly grateful there's this amazing platform that allows me to sell my apps so easily. And if you follow the store's guidelines, you can too.
Tagged app store apple opinion

In-App Purchase now available for free apps!

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When Apple announced In-App Purchases at WWDC this year, they required that developers use it with their paid apps only. The deal was, if you downloaded something for free, everything about the app should be free too. That also meant that you couldn't add In-App Purchase to apps that were once free, and are now paid.

In-App Purchase makes it easy for app publishers to allow the user to buy digital content for the app, whilst still in the app; like a subscription, more swords for your character in a game, a book etc.

Today, Apple announced that they're allowing In-App Purchase for free apps too.

But what does this mean?
In addition to the uses I mentioned above, the biggest difference for users will be that they probably won't see Lite and Paid versions of apps anymore.

Developers can now create one app with limited functionality and allow the user to pay to unlock the fully featured version. Like a try- before-you-buy scenario.

This is a huge advancement for the App Store and will most definitely see a major, major increase in revenue on both the app publishers, and on Apple's side.

Tagged app store iphone wwdc

It gets better and better!

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I'm really excited at how well our apps are doing in the South African iPhone app store. RadioPod and RugbyZone are still #1 in their respective categories (Entertainment, Sport) and RadioPod has reached a new high in the overall paid store - Number 2 baby! 

A huge Thank You! to everyone who's downloaded or purchased our apps - and this is only the beginning, we've got a ton more in development and Portfoolio is already in review!

     
Click here to download:
It_gets_better_and_better.zip (84 KB)

Tagged app store apps immedia iphone radiopod rugbyzone

Introducing.... Radiopod!

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RadioPod is a first for immedia - our start in the paid iPhone App Store market. Developed by my colleagues Jitesh Nunnan, Anice Hassim, and stunning artwork by Basil Percimoney and Nirissa Govender. This is Jitesh's first iPhone app and boy is it something. The team really put a lot of hard work and effort into getting this release shipped. It features some of our country's best podcast feeds from both large radio stations and private individuals and groups. 

In this version, you can browse a large repository of proudly local podcast content and mark a specific feed as a favourite for quick access.  You can also search our extensive podcast database for current and archived podcast audio. 

The app currently retails for $0.99. We'll be giving away a few promo codes over the course of the week so look out for it on twitter! You'll be amongst the first to know if you follow me - I'm @kishyr.

Approved apps in the App Store: three. And counting.
Tagged app store apps immedia iphone jitesh nunnan radiopod

iPhone app: ZATV Guide

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ZATV Guide
Last month I submitted another iPhone app that I'd been working on for a few weeks. And two weeks after I'd submitted it, Apple approved it in it's first submission, ie. without any rejections. Yeah, you read right. I submitted an app that got accepted first time round. Legendary, I know. The app, ZATV Guide (link opens iTunes), is the best South African TV guide for the iPhone. And I'm not just saying that because I'm the developer. It's true. The others are painful. One only shows you the SABC channels, and the official one is just a guide and nothing more. Which I guess is what was expected it should be. But you know, I work for immedia. And we just don't do mediocre. We started the app well before the official one was accepted into the store, and finished it before we left for WWDC (San Francisco) in June. I didn't submit it until 23 June because Apple themselves had a bug in SDK 3.0 (which I pointed out to them in one of the iPhone labs at WWDC).

Being the avid TV show-loving geeks we are at immedia, we realised that a guide shouldn't just be a damn guide. We wanted more from it. ZATV Guide is the premier South African TV Guide for the iPhone. It lets you favourite your favourite TV shows and channels for quick one-touch access. More than just that, it also tells you when repeats of your favourite shows are airing. And the icing on the cake? Search. Yeah, a simple thing like search makes a world of difference in a TV Guide. No more hunting around to find your shows, just search for it. If you have an iPhone and love TV like we do - enjoy ZATV Guide - another proudly South African free app with love from immedia.

Approved apps in the iPhone App Store: two. And counting.

Tagged app store apps immedia iphone wwdc zatvguide

My first iPhone app

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Today was phenomenal, and a day I consider to be one of the best of in my life. An immense feeling overwhelmed me this morning as I browsed through the previous night's worth of emails.

One such email that I merely click-glanced at was from Apple. Yes, Apple - the computer and phone manufacturer. Now, this wasn't much of a big deal at first because I had thought it was one of their usual promotional emails. For those of you that don't know (and that's all of you since this was kept hush-hush for a while) I had submitted my first iPhone application for review in the Apple iTunes App Store on 23 January 2009. Since then, Apple has been mailing me alerting me to bugs and fixes, etc, for my app.

Those emails were in a pretty boring serif font. I was expecting my approval letter from Apple to be in the same style. Oh no. No no no. Being Apple, they sent me a very nicely styled email letting me know that my first app was finally in the magnificent App Store.

And what a moment it was.

A flood of emotion touched me as I had just realised the feat I had accomplished (or rather, we had accomplished - I couldn't have done it without our the amazing designs our brilliant designers Basil Percimoney and Nirissa Govender had churned out over and over again). An immedia app was finally in the App Store, and I was a published iPhone App Store developer. Wow. I felt like an author that had just gotten his book published. So amazing and liberating. The app, by the way, is called YFM MobiYze. It's for GP's Hottest Frequency, YFM 99.2. YFM is a hot, trendsetting radio station based in Rosebank, Joburg. From the description in the app store:

The first South African Radio Station to provide iPhone and iPod Touch technology to enhance its users' radio experience on the fly. Catch up on the latest weather, station events, blog postings and even the current song that's being played live on air... or you could just listen to it LIVE straight from your iPhone or iPod Touch! So go ahead and be one of the firsts to experience GP's Hottest Frequency courtesy of YFM 99.2

After this whole approval process, I finally understand and get why there is a need for it. And am very thankful for it. The whole process ensures that the quality and stability of an app is something worthy of an iPhone user using it. So, if you have an iPhone, you can find YFM MobiYze by downloading it in iTunes on your computer, or using the App Store on your iPhone or iPod Touch (check the Entertainment category or search for "YFM"). Try it out, and let me know your feedback so I can push out an awesome 1.1 release soon!

Finally, I'd like to thank Basil Percimoney and Nirissa Govender for their earth-shattering designs and time, Anice Hassim (Head Strategist of immedia), Shashi Pillay (Digital Agency Manager) and Kanthan Pillay (CEO of YFM 99.2) for their groundbreaking ideas and innovation, and to everyone who tested the app while in beta.

Tagged app store apps immedia iphone mobiyze yfm