Month: March 2016

Designing for the Apple Watch: What 11 months of daily use has taught me

Posted on by manitobaninja

I was one of the people who jumped on the Apple Watch bandwagon early, even staying up late to pre-order it the minute it went on sale (something I had never done up to that point, and have not since). It was a product that was full of promise and wonder and one that sparked my own imagination.

But as many Apple Watch users know the experience from 3rd party apps has been poor. Almost none are compelling and most have failed to translate their product from a phone to watch experience in any kind of meaningful way. This is understandable as the watch is a new platform, with a new way of interacting, and it is going to take time to fully understand it.

And finally, after 11 months of daily use and really thinking deeply about how I use and interact with the watch I can now say that I understand it. The watch is a push device, where the most important bits of data and information simply appear, rather one that requires heavy interaction and the constant pulling of information that users do on their phones or computers. The rest of this post will cover how I came to that conclusion by covering my own experience with the watch, and how that informed the overall design an Apple Watch app should take to be a great experience. Read More

Serendipity Way gets a new logo as its launch approaches

Posted on by manitobaninja

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Note: Since this post went up Serendipity way has had to have a full rewrite due to a long list of issues of one of the APIs, a key API, being used. I have left this post up here regardless but in the next few days (June 3rd to be exact) I will post an all new update on the logo and launch of Serendipity Way.

Serendipity Way is now less then a month from launching and in preparation for the launch a new logo is being released for it! The final design will likely change slightly as it evolves to just the right size and proportions for iOS devices but the style and general design aesthetic are now in place.

The logo is meant to reflect an element of the UI that will become very familiar to users. And the colours have been chosen as a throw back to the spirit and design aesthetic of the early 70’s, and to be instantly recognizable on the users home screen. In fact many Canadians might be able to guess where the inspiration for this design came from.

There will be more to come in the next few weeks, including details on how way-finding and navigation will work in Serendipity Way, as well as an exact launch date, so stay tuned to this page to find out more!

Playgrounds…they aren’t just for kids

Posted on by manitobaninja

When Apple announced Swift back in the summer of ’14 they also made quite the fuss about Xcode’s new playground feature. This was going to be a live coding environment where you could work through simple expressions and functions and see the results in real-time. It was charming, and you could see this being a great tool for beginners, but I had a hard time seeing how a developer working on a project would gain much value from it.

Fast forward a year and a half later and now I get it. Today I find myself using playgrounds in my projects, not just for testing out quick little code blocks, but for organizing and keeping a detailed reference of code and other assets relevant to the project. It can actually be a valuable tool for managing your work and being more efficient!

Because playgrounds don’t get much attention I wanted to put together a quick post that highlighted as many of the best resources that I could find to help beginners, and people of all levels for that matter, get an idea of what playgrounds can do. I end the article with some examples of how I have starting using playgrounds in my own workflow, hopefully sparking some people to think about how playgrounds could work for them. It is not a big time investment so this is an ideal subject for a quiet weekend, or over the course of a few evenings. Read More

This will be my shortest post to date

Posted on by manitobaninja

Today I am finally getting back to feeling like myself. I have been sick for a week and most of those days I spent in utter misery as every form of hurt made its way through my body. But this morning I managed to wake up early, drenched in sweat mind you, but still well rested, and once I am done having a relaxing cup of coffee it will finally be back to work for me.

The next month is going to be incredibly busy. I have a deadline to meet so that my newest app, Serendipity Way, can be released by the middle of April and being sick has cost me some valuable time on that. I will be heading to NSNorth at the end of April as well and have a talk to refine and practice. And there will be lots of promotion for Serendipity Way and the start of another new app once April has come to a close.

So it may be several weeks before another post goes up. But there is a lot of interesting things to come in the next couple of months so don’t stray too far.

 

Why todays Apple Event was not about products, and no “journalists” seem to be catching this

Posted on by manitobaninja

Today, 21 March 2016, Apple had a relatively quick 1 hour town hall event. It was notable for two reasons. The first being that it was clearly not about the products, and second, the products will get way more attention in the media then they should.

Apple kicked off the Event with Tim Cook giving the US government another high holy fuck you in their [then] case against Apple. Then Apple showed us solar powered Yaks, robots that get a little rough and freaky with the iPhones, and showed off Health tools to cure every disease everywhere. These are all admirable things, but logging nearly half the running time gives me little doubt that Apple’s prime objective was about ramping up its PR effort to even greater heights. And fair enough, they can do whatever they want and from their perspective it all makes sense.

And then Apple talked about 3 products. Some watch bands, a new 4 inch iPhone and a new 9.7 inch iPad Pro. They look nifty and gee whiz neato, but are they worthy of a keynote event? No, not at all. These are essentially quiet release items and their unimportance really underscores that the second half hour was just filler to get the first half hour of PR out into the media.

[Of course this is now all irrelevant as late this afternoon the FBI dropped their case, so Apple’s done alright today.]

Now at the end of the day I don’t really care that this was a boring event. Apple doesn’t have to make every keynote a blockbuster and that I yawned a few times during it only affects me in the end.

But something else did bother me, and though its a bit of a deviation, and maybe it is just a result of being sick and my brain is filtering bullshit much different then usual, but the the reaction by Tech/Apple “journalists” really made me see that most should not be called journalists. They are advertisers, writing free marketing for Apple in the hope they create juicy link bate to their site, and in the worst cases just fan boys and fan girls pretending to be journalists.

Now, maybe it has always been this way and I have just never noticed. Its probably this way for most Tech companies. More then likely that is probably the case. But watching peoples use of exclamation points, throwing out the words game changer and breakthrough, the stories about cute robots, tiny phones, and neon watch bands. It was the most blatant and misplaced cheerleading I’ve seen (with the possible exception of the FBI case which is entirely different in many ways and a totally separate topic) . Sometimes Apple comes out with something really special that pushes the limits, like iPod or even the iPhone 4, which was a remarkable, evolutionary device, to name some examples that come to my mind. But todays items were the least special products I can remember in quite some time.

I am not annoyed by it. I won’t lose any sleep over it. But it does give me pause and will definitely have me rethinking how much weight and credit I give to many of these people and publications “reporting” from Cupertino today, and where I draw some of my inspiration from.

The App Store has always been pop-ified, and why that is nothing to fear

Posted on by manitobaninja

Last Friday, March 11, 2016 to be exact for those that might read this a few weeks or months out, Rene Ritchie posted an article on iMore titled “What no indie developer wants to hear about the app store”. I suspect most anyone who is an iOS or OSX developer, or even just an Apple enthusiast, probably saw their Twitter feed go bananas for a few hours after the story hit the site.

If you haven’t read it, and you should (it is not a long read), the short version is that the App Store is in danger of succumbing to “pop-ification”, a state of affairs where pop apps have won the day. As a result of this change indie developers are finding themselves struggling to compete with the mega-studios putting out free or freemium content, the opportunities for them to make a living are dwindling by the day. The market is moving away from  “wooden toys in the age of plastic”, as Rene says rather poetically in his article, and that spells big trouble for the smaller design houses.

The contention I have isn’t about the notion of people preferring plastic toys over wooden ones (or Amazon over a local, independently owned store, or Tim Hortons over the small shop down the street brewing coffee one cup at a time in their Chemex). This is absolutely true. What I disagree with is that this is somehow a new state of affairs in the world of the App Store. That there was ever a golden age of indie, a time when pop apps where at the margins, and the one or two person studios lead the charge, is not really true. And that looking back with a sense of nostalgia hinders, not helps, current or potential developers from developing strategies to succeed in 2016. Read More

iOS Developer conference video resources

Posted on by manitobaninja

​Conferences are a big part of many indie iOS developers career track. Aside from the standard networking that takes place at these events, it can be an opportunity to further your education in coding, design or marketing, do some self promotion, and perhaps even give a talk of your own one day (just as I get to do for the first time at NSNorth this year!)

Of course everyone knows about WWDC, the developer conference that Apple holds every year in June, but there are quite a few independent conferences all across the world. The range of topics between the different conferences is wide so how much is relevant at any particular event will depend on the person. Though the original purpose of this post was solely to put together a collection of links to the videos that have been put up for the talks presented, there is an added side benefit. If you are thinking of attending a conference then watching some of the videos can give you a better idea of which ones might be the right fit for you and help make sure you are using your time and money efficiently!

Read More

So how much do indie developers make?

Posted on by manitobaninja

Whether you are starting out, or have been an indie developer for a while, you are probably curious as to how well indie developers are doing in terms of revenue and sales. You may also have noticed that there are not too many indie developers that talk about it either. Finding data is really tough and usually when there are discussions about App Store economics it focuses on the bigger picture, or on the ultra-success stories, like Flappy Bird or Crossy Road or other mega hits.

But knowing how other indie developers are doing is critical to really understanding the business of developing apps. There is a lot that can be learned from their successes and failures. Understanding the famous “hockey stick” curve you will see in most of the posts below is fundamental in understanding the life cycle of app sales.

I have collected posts from the past few years, that indie developers have put on their blog, personal website, or company website, each with varying levels of detail and analysis. These are the best ones I have found, but if you have others then by all means message me on Twitter @manitobaninja or @third_beach and let me know. I would love to build as comprehensive a list as possible because I believe that the insight these posts provide is incredibly valuable to anyone who is just starting out, or looking to better focus their own existing business.

My 2nd Year in the App Store

21 January 2016 – This is from indie developer Trevor McKendrick. It breaks down how he did in 2015 with his Spanish Bible app (there is also a link to a post he did in the previous year with his 2014 figures). He goes into good details with his numbers and does a bit of analysis too. Short but to the point.

 

Life and Death in the App Store

2 March 2016 – This is a very detailed, long form article, written by Casey Newton for The Verge about Pixite, a company who has released many apps into the App Store. This gives numbers and a lot of details about their story, and their successes and failures. A really great read.

Blog post by Dan Counsell

7 May 2015: An article by Dan Counsell, Product Designer and Founder of Realmac Software that shows a snapshot of one day of sales of the companies products, the most popular of which is the Clear to-do app. No real analysis, just an interesting peak at what kind of numbers one of the more successful companies out there gets.

4 Years of Success and Failure on the App Store

7 May 2015 – Derek Clark is an indie developer who wrote a Medium post that details how he has done over a 4 year period in the App Store. This is not heavy in numbers, but he does provide enough for it to be helpful, along with some graphs that show long term ups and downs, and some discussion of his successes and failures along the way and what he attributes to them.

Redacted for Mac launch

5 May 2015 – An infamous blog post by Sam Soffes on his top ranked Mac app, Redacted. It is a short article but provides a pretty interesting, if not bleak, glimpse into the Mac App Store.

 

 

 

 

 

Desk App’s 2014 Year in Review

26 January 2015 – A post by John Saddington on his personal blog which discusses the release of a side project he did. Despite this just being a side project he clearly spent a lot of time working out a marketing strategy and goes into a good amount of detail in his post.

The Shape of the App Store

19 January 2015 – Charles Perry, founder of Metakite software, published this post on the distribution of Revenue versus US Top Grossing Rank for apps on the App Store. It is imperfect data, which he acknowledges, and there is a follow up piece that addresses a number of criticisms. Still, it does provide some pretty interesting insight on where you need to be relative to this graph and app store ranking in order to earn a living solely from the app store.

Monument Valley in Numbers

15 January 2015 – This is a collection of infographics showing how much Monument Valley had made up to that point, as well as other stats such as what percentage of users came from which country and in game usage of the camera. Monument Valley is a big game, and not representative of the typical indie developer experience, but its still interesting nonetheless.

Overcast’s 2014 sales numbers

15 January 2015 – This a post by Marco Armendt which reveals his sales and revenue for 2014 for his popular podcast app, Overcast. This is before it went to a patronage model so it will be interesting to see if he releases those numbers one day. Nothing wildly detailed but he does give out the stats people are most interested in and gives some context and analysis for them.

How HoursTracker earns five figures a month on the App Store

7 January 2015 – A Medium post by Carlos Ribas discussing how his HoursTracker came to be, how much it earns, and his thinking behind its continued development. It does not go into numbers in the same level of detail as other posts, but still an insightful read.

Manual’s 2014 Sales Numbers

January 2015 – A post by indie developer William Wilkinson on how his app, Manual, did in its first 100 days. Colourful writing and some useful graphs as well. (As an aside his homepage has some really great photography that is well worth checking out!)

 

 

Another non-indie developer App Store story

30 July 2014 – This is a post from a hobbyist developer, Mohammad Azam,  who talks about his experiences and earnings from a number of apps he did as side projects in his spare time. There are no ground breaking revelations, but it is one more perspective to add to the list.

A Candid Look at Unread’s First Year

28 July 2014 – A post by Jared Sinclair about his Unread app. This goes into a lot more detail then most other posts do in terms of his numbers and the various marketing strategies he employed. He does a good job giving a context for his target audience and the apps performance.

A Candid Look at the Financial Side of Building Mac Apps on Your Own

28 July 2014 – A post by Tyler Hall which looks at how his company, a side venture called Click on Tyler, has done since it started releasing apps in 2007. He focuses on a few, higher priced apps, and has a different market than most indie developers. Not heavy on the numbers, but interesting to see how someone who has played the long game has done.

A Dark Room for iOS

29 Jan 2013 to 7 Dec 2014 – This is not like the other articles I am posting. One, it isn’t an article, rather it is a collection of blog posts from developer Amir Rajan about his app Dark Room. And two, the posts are written as it happens creating a journal of his experience launching and then promoting the app. You get numbers. You get frustration and emotion. You really see the process and follow the timeline of his apps performance in real time. Though it isn’t polished it is quite interesting to read and to see how it all unfolds.