Aussie Rules Live Top 2 App of 2009

December 21st, 2009 by Daniel Kagan

We are very proud to announce that Aussie Rules Live has been acknowledged by Apple as the top 2 most popular app in 2009. We were also number 7 in total gross. We would like to thank everyone for your great support and encouragement.

Bring on 2010!

Comments (1)

2010 Media Survival Kit

December 18th, 2009 by Daniel Kagan

In the 2010 Media Survival Guide (Niche Publications), Lookout Mobiles Daniel Kagan was asked to ponder the question ‘what brand or product do you think could be utilising mobile in a really exciting way?’

Response here: as far as mobile applications go, any brand or product that provides good quality content, which is unique, exclusive or hard to find, and makes use of the integral attributes of a mobile – convenience, safety and connectedness – will ultimately be utilizing mobile in a really exciting way.

Here at Lookout Mobile, we have just completed the official iPhone application for the 2009 Melbourne International Arts Festival. The content component isn’t unique, as a patron can choose to lug around a hard copy festival program if they want to. What’s exciting about it is the convenience and connectedness the application brings to the individual.

In addition, the functionality of the device is exciting. For instance, Apple’s iPhone brings a world of funky and useful functions to its native applications that, if programmed well, will blow the user away, causing a viral effect. Melbourne Arts Festival iPhone App utilizes the iPhone’s unique and exciting functionality with the implementation of push notification. This allows the user to be sent text messages informing them of late announcements, reduced price or free tickets and unique content specifically tailored to the iPhone user.

And remember, excitement aside, consumers elect to be communicated with when downloading a mobile application. Usually, the consumer’s initial recognition of a brand or product is what initially compels them to download or purchase the mobile application. Hence, their initial experience is far more positive and expectation high, but be warned; the user’s experience can rapidly deteriorate if the mobile interaction is irrelevant or ultimately not ‘exciting’. We have found at Lookout Mobile, that if the mobile application doesn’t pass the first round of critics or download success, then your offering is ultimately doomed!

Comments (0)

Move over Black Friday and Cyber Monday: the App Store is Here

December 18th, 2009 by Daniel Kagan

I just read a really interesting stat about Black Friday and the comparison to iPhone app downloads. Firstly, Black Friday is an extremely important factor when predicting the U.S. economies health. Whilst Cyber Monday, the tracking of online sales of websites like amazon.com on the first Monday after Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November),has become a second important barometer.

As we enter the holiday season, downloads in the iPhone App Store can also serve as an indicator of consumer spending. Why? Well, App Store sales are small relative to online and retail but Apple’s September announcement that the App Store surpassed two billion downloads demonstrates how quickly this digital market is growing, having doubled in just the last four months (Flurry & Techcrunchies).

Further, according to Admob, the App Store is already generating over one billion USD in annual sales. Furthermore, Flurry estimates that (to date), more than 34 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices have been sold in the U.S. through the end of September 2009. This equates to roughly 10% of the U.S. population.

Interesting findings:

• over the last six months strong patterns of seasonality and an aggressive ramp toward the holiday season were observed.
• The chart below reveals three phases:

1. strong summer downloads
2. second, a dip in September
3. strong growth over October and November leading up to the holiday

Its worth noting that October downloads exceeded September by 30%, and November further grew over October by an additional 16%

Additional point:

Historically, the week after Christmas has been the strongest for data downloads to mobile phones, since consumers load up after receiving new handsets as holiday gifts. With download growth at its current rate, its predicated that that December downloads will exceed November by at least 20%, making it a strong season for Apple.

I feel that the above stats are relevant to the app development market place – it gives us direction to launch or test the marketplace. To know when downloads are going to peak give us the opportunity to plan for a release or update of an application. Or it could work well as a pricing model – when demand is up you could possibly charge more, or charge less depending on your goals. Its important to understand your market place and I believe the above stats give us a great insight into user buying behaviors that cannot be overlooked.

Thoughts?

Comments (1)

Cricket LIVE on iPhone

December 14th, 2009 by Patrick Fitzgerald

We have just completed version 1 of the Cricket iPhone Application. For the moment it will only be covering the Australian Summer of Cricket but we will certainly be looking at expanding our coverage of games as well as functionality.

The app includes the Australian International series against Pakistan & the West Indies. All forms of the game are covered – test matches, one day and Twenty20 matches.

It will be available in the App store soon, let’s wait and see what approval times are like this close to christmas.

Its been approved – its a record, 6 days.

Update approved – in a record, 12 hours

Click here to download.

We would love your feedback and recommendations for the upcoming updates.

Comments (3)

Global App Retention: A Tale of Two Economies

December 4th, 2009 by Daniel Kagan

One of my favorite iPhone analyic’s company is Flurry (www.flurry.com), due to their relevant studies focusing on the smartphone market. The study has demonstrated that retention rates are very low for developed countries compared to developing countries. In actual fact, retention rates are low in general.

This supports Lookout Mobiles credo that content must be relevant, timely and updatable (uniqueness of content also plays a major role). This credo was established for retention;  to encourage the user to revisit and engage with the app. For example, Aussie Rules Live and Rugby League Live have a retention rate of 99%. The reason here is due to the relevance of the application and the need for the user to keep checking the app for ‘timely’ score updates.

However, if you’re a brand and wanting this type of retention, I would recommend you brainstorm on how to encourage users to come back to your app. Or in other words, give them a compelling reason to return. You might want to trickle content on a weekly basis or seed ideas or concepts that require the user to revisit the application. Or you might want to constantly give them a value add by updating unique or exclusive content and/or a special or discount (if its a product or service) into the app . A great example is an application developed for Swedish customers that allowed users to obtain coupons for free biscuits and coffee at local 7-Eleven outlets.

The Study:

In October 09, Flurry looked at user retention by international territory.  As the App Store expands internationally, studying differences between user behavior across territories / states / countries is becoming more important.  Increasingly, app developers are faced with international market expansion decisions, and need to consider the cost of localising and promoting an app in a new territory against the value of capturing those new users. Developers forget the importance of promotion and the cost invloved. So hitting the right territories / states / countries is a must.

The data – captured by location from January 09 through August 09.  The total data set contains data from approximately one billion tracked user session, ranging between millions to hundreds of millions per geographic territory represented.  Flurry measures user retention by the number of users who downloaded an application, at any time in the past, and used that app within the last seven days.

The global average for user retention is 14.8%.

Findings:

It was hypothesized that users in developing economies, which have less wire-line infrastructure and use phones more as PC-substitutes, would demonstrate higher app retention rates. This hypothesis held true.  Regions that can be characterized as developing economies have above average retention rates: Africa (21%), Central America (16%), the Middle East (15%) and South America (15%).

Whereas more developed economies show lower-than-average retention rates: North America (12%), Europe (12%), Asia (13%) and Australia (14%).

In particular, we find that North America and Europe have the lowest retention rates. Because these two markets represent iPhone’s home-base, which comprises a large part of our sample, with the rationale being that the sheer number of available apps in the App Store generates more churn as consumers are presented with increasingly more choices.

In another report by Flurry that  discussed the relationship between consumer choice and retention in which iPhone vs. Android app retention was compared, it was found that Android users demonstrate higher app loyalty, but also have far fewer choices in the Android Market compared to that of the App Store.

Furthermore, it’s probably fair to state that higher disposable income levels in developed economies allow consumers to try and abandon (paid) apps more freely.

Comments (1)