Apps | Mobile Minute

Posted by ksteineman on May 31, 2013 in Apps, Mobile | 0 comments

Corona Releases In-App Payment Feature via Fortumo

For those of you who are already using this SDK in your app, this may be a nice little treat, or option you can now consider to monetizing your in-app-purchases. It is now available in 80 countries around the world, (with more to come I imagine) and it will work with all Android app and game purchases, including Nook (what’s that? ;)) purchases as well. As mentioned above, the features are made available through Fortumo which announced yesterday that is going to be partnering with Corona Labs. Fortumo specializes in one-click payments that don’t require users to enter credit card #’s (which none of us I’m sure would admit to enjoy doing on a smartphone). Coronoa COO David Rangel had this to say: “There’s an incredible opportunity for developers to generate revenue with Corona-powered apps and games,” “Partnering with Fortumo gives our developers an option that performs extremely well across various markets. The addition of Nook in-app purchases is also highly welcome by a large number of Corona developers...

Posted by ksteineman on May 30, 2013 in Apps, Mobile | 0 comments

3 Rules for Enterprise Mobile Apps

The time has (finally) come where you and your company have concluded that you need a mobile app. Being the smart marketer (or product manager) that you are, you’re already aware of the rich user experience that an app can provide to your customers, employees(colleagues), and maybe even clients. Now that you’re ready to get started, you’re probably asking yourself.. Where do I begin? Well in today’s article we’re going to talk about JUST that. More specifically, 3 key considerations to take with you as you begin this process. But BEFORE we get into that, let’s first acknowledge the 2 different ways that you can approach this. 1) You can build a custom native or HTML5 application for every new idea, and retain a developer for the updates. VS 2) You can invest in a platform that will allow you to build multiple apps, across many operating systems and app architectures (mobile web, native, etc.) and re-use components across all of your apps. The 1st approach requires less of an...

Posted by ksteineman on May 30, 2013 in Apps, Mobile, Startups | 0 comments

Kickfolio rebrands as App.io

Spotted by the folks over at 9to5 earlier yesterday. Kickfolio: a service that allows developers to offer demos of their iOS apps directly in the browser using an HTML5-based platform, announced it’s now allowing developers to embed their iOS apps directly in the Facebook news feed. In addition, the company has just raised over $1 million in seed funding and changed its name from ‘Kickfolio’ to “App.io”. To find out more about Kickfolio (now App.io) you can read this article which was previously written by MobileMinute on how awesome they are. As it stand, App.io currently has about 3000 developers signed up, most of which are using the service as to drive users to the App Store. The company stated: the average user spends about 1 minute, 19 seconds playing the demo with 12 percent making their way to the App Store. Now that facebook is being brought into the picture, it is said that these stats will likely increase as well. Presumably, App.io has plans to integrate its...

Posted by ksteineman on May 25, 2013 in Apps, Mobile, Startups | 0 comments

Appfuel – Fueling Developers Success Since 2013′

Appfuel (formerly AppSpree) is a company that was forged on the foundation of culture, which is something I see as an especially important subject (as well as one that seems to rise to the top of discussion among founders and CEO’s I encounter) in the startup world quite often. Upon discovering that CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Boos and Co-founder Alfred Kam had actually known each-other for more than 10 years, it was clear to me that this type of ‘cultural foundation’ had already been established, not to mention their network in China (Beijing – having been involved in an accelerator). With a current team that has survived a couple pivots, and proven to be persistent despite obstacles (every start-up encounters), I can without-a-doubt say that Appfuel is a company you want to keep your eye on. After all, when it comes to investing most look at these 3 things (in this order): Growing Market Team & Technology Everyone knows China is a growing market (a massive one at that). The cultural...

Posted by ksteineman on May 23, 2013 in Apps, Marketing, Mobile | 0 comments

4 Tips on Launching Your App

Why waste time on this one. Let’s just get into the nitty-gritty so you can be on your way, enjoying the day ahead, and most importantly – launch that App of yours. 1) Track Your Performance. There are various ways of doing this, and it’s critical to your success. Once your app is published it’s important to track initial user experience both quantitative and qualitative. While there are more than enough platforms out there to help you do this, here are a few: App Annie, Localytics, Flurry. To distinguish the two varying methods of ‘tracking’ above quantitative refers to: specific metrics relating to user actions, whereas qualitative would be more of direct user feedback that gauges emotion and interest. 2) Invest in initial User Experience There was an article I wrote earlier that talks about how 57% of gamers brand discovery/awareness is from word-of-mouth. That’s a pretty big number. And if you want ot take advantage of that type of referal-based marketing, then you better focus on...

Posted by ksteineman on May 23, 2013 in Apps, Marketing, Mobile | 0 comments

Word-of-mouth accounts for 57% of New Game Discovery Awareness

That’s right. In a recent survey conducted by Applifier (with 1,800 mobile gamers) it was discovered that 57% of new game discovery awareness is a result of word-of-mouth. That doesn’t surprise me to be honest. Online awareness is considered as: Seeing a facebook post (24%) Watching a trailer for a game on YouTube (18%) Seeing a screenshot shared by a friend (9%) When it comes to the word-of-mouth side of things (and how they influence gamers decisions to download) Reading user reviews (43%) Hearing from a friend/family member (36%) Seeing a friend/family member play the game (25%) Seeing a Facebook post by a friend or family member (24%) The survey also uncovered a ‘sharer’ type of player who compromise about 20% of the mobile audience, and are considered highly valuable (given the nature of what they do – share things). What’s even cooler is that these ‘sharers’ are more likely to convert to paying users and pay on average 7% more on in-app purchases – which makes them a...

Posted by ksteineman on May 23, 2013 in Apps, Marketing, Mobile | 0 comments