Apple Destroys iPhone Apps Credibility By Encouraging Bad Ratings

May 8, 2009May 11, 2009 Gadi Shamiaapp, app store, Apple, apps, Gadi Shamia, iphone, iphone app store, Ratings2 Comments

I tend to have great level of appreciation to Apple’s ability to design amazing and easy to use products. In most cases, there is a lot of thinking behind each feature, but here is one which is far beyond my understanding: Apple intentionally destroys third iphone delete screen party apps credibility by encouraging bad ratings. Continue reading “Apple Destroys iPhone Apps Credibility By Encouraging Bad Ratings” →

Should you give your iPhone app for free?

July 14, 2008May 17, 2009 Gadi ShamiaApple, Business, Dan Ariely, Gadi Shamia, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone app store, Predictably Irrational, pricing9 Comments

I am in an iPhone mood. Just like the rest of the world. It will go away, I promise. Last week I tried to answer a more fundamental question: Should you build an iPhone app? Now that you built one: how would you price your iPhone application?

Here are some interesting statistics: based on Tech Crunch’s mid day iPhone App Store download statistics from Friday, the top 10 free apps had a total of 68,452 downloads where the paid ones (mainly games) got a total of 4,484 downloads. It means that only 1 of 15 downloaded app was a paid one. I suspect the overall numbers are even lower. Why? The ratio between the number one paid app (Monkey Ball) and the number one free app (Remote) is about 1 paid to 9 unpaid. If you look at the last apps in the top ten list the ratio is now 1 to 25- which means that the longer the tail is, the more unlikely you are to make money on your app. Continue reading “Should you give your iPhone app for free?” →

Should you build an iphone application?

July 10, 2008May 17, 2009 Gadi ShamiaApple, Business, Gadi Shamia, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone app store, iphone applications6 Comments

There is an incredible amount of buzz surrounding the launch of the iPhone app store today. You walk around University Ave. in Palo Alto, CA and it sounds like everyone is building an iPhone app… Before you had out and build one for yourself, here are some things to remember:

Watch the numbers– Apple is hoping to ship 10-12 million iphones this year. This is 1% of the total estimated phones shipments this year. When compared to the total number of phones in the world (3.3 billions), the share is even smaller. If your success rely on mass penetration, go look elsewhere.
Ignore the numbers- Continue reading “Should you build an iphone application?” →