Archive for the ‘Mobile Apps’ Category

Trying to get my Android apps live on Kindle Fire

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

The Kindle Fire is live and it’s a huge success. Even before launch, it was clear that this would be a hit, an Android tablet device at this price point, coming from Amazon.

I figured this could be a nice extra channel to sell our existing Android apps.
About a month ago, as a test, we created a special build of our CLZ Movies app and submitted it to the Amazon Appstore for review. Approval took 2 weeks, but it got approved in one go. So we quickly prepared builds of our other 4 apps and submitted them too, hoping to get them all live before the launch of the Kindle Fire on November 15. We just missed that deadline, but still, on November 17 we received the OK on the other 4 as well.

After which I proudly announced to my Facebook fans that our Android apps were now available for the new Kindle Fire. Some customers had been asking about apps for Kindle Fire, so I told our support guys that they could tell them the happy news.
In the meantime, we had already sold some copies of CLZ Movies through the Amazon Appstore, so things were looking good. More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 2 Comments »

Android app sales still lagging behind

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

About a year ago, I already wondered: Is there a market for Android apps?
The conclusion at the time:
“Yes, there is, but it’s still much smaller than the market for iOS apps.”

Since then, the marketshare of Android devices sold has become much larger. Here’s a chart from a June 2011 article about the worldwide smartphone marketshare:
Worldwide Smartphone Market Shares
See the steady light-blue diamond line (iPhone) and the purple dotted line (Android)? A more recent article at the Android Authority site indicates that the Android Marketshare is now at 42%, vs 27% for iPhone.

It looks like Android is growing fast and has gone way past the iPhone. That is, in terms of devices sold. But how does the increasing Android device marketshare translate to actual sales of Android apps?
Let’s look at the Collectorz.com numbers again. More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 4 Comments »

Is there a market for Android apps?

Monday, November 29th, 2010

If you are developing and selling iPhone apps, you may have been wondering: Should I create Android versions?

Is there actually a market for Android apps?

Well, yes there is, but it may be smaller than you think.

In any case, if you are trying to estimate the potential market for an Android edition of your iOS app, do not just look at the Android market share in terms of devices sold.
And don’t even think about judging the market by the number of user requests. 2 words: vocal minority.

The average Android owner is an animal that is completely different from the typical iPhone owner, and not nearly as app-hungry.

Let’s look at some recent market share news and then at my numbers for the Collectorz.com apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 11 Comments »

CLZ Movies HD for iPad

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

We’re on a roll here. Another new platform : the iPad.
Our first iPad app is now available in Apple’s App Store (after being in their review queue for about a week). Like our CLZ Movies edition for iPhone and Android, it’s a viewer app for movie collections created with Movie Collector for Windows or Mac OS X. Users can export their existing database to the iPad app and then browse their list in several cool looking views, including an “home-built” cover flow view.


More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | No Comments »

Collectorz.com software on Android

Friday, September 24th, 2010

We added a new platform to our already sizable list of supported platforms. Yesterday we released our first mobile app for Android: CLZ Movies. It is a viewer app for Movie Collector databases, similar to our CLZ Movies app for iPhone.

First day sales were good, but a bit less than expected. I was hoping for a higher number for the first day, mainly because the demand for Android apps seemed to be quite high. But maybe Android users just tend to make more noise :-) They do seem to feel a bit “left behind” because of most companies’ focus on iOS development.

I will post more sales results later, when I have more data.
I can’t wait to see how day-to-day Android sales compare to those of our iPhone apps and the upcoming iPad apps.

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Customer survey: which mobile device(s) do you own?

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

About a year ago, we launched Collectorz.com iPhone apps and they are selling well. However, the availability of these apps has caused a lot of requests for similar apps for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and lately, for iPad.

We are already working on iPad editions. The iPad development costs are relatively low because of our in-house experience with Apple iOS programming and because we can share a lot of code with the iPhone editions. Moreover, I strongly believe that the iPad is going to be an important software platform. Especially for our type of software and our target audience.

But what about Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile? Are these platforms popular enough to justify the development of dedicated mobile apps? What is the popularity of these devices compared to iPhone and iPod touch? More importantly: how popular are these devices amongst Collectorz.com customers?

Well, let’s just ask them with a simple survey. More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 3 Comments »

Making Collectorz.com Amazon-Free

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

amazon-logo1Let me give you an update on our issues with Amazon and the iPhone apps. First, a quick summary of what the issue is about exactly:

Our Collectorz.com online media database systems use Amazon searches as a fallback, only for items that are not in our own databases yet. Users of our Windows or Mac software can use that downloaded data (*possibly* containing Amazon data) for cataloging their CDs, DVDs, books or video games. Then, if they also have our iPhone app, they can export the data to the mobile device. Our iPhone apps do not access the Amazon data feed directly.

But last week, I received an email from Amazon, saying that we must stop using Amazon data in mobile apps, because it is a violation of their agreement. Or else they would turn off our access to the Amazon data feed. So to play it safe, we removed our iPhone apps from the App Store.
More »

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Amazon killed our iPhone apps

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

amazon-logo1Just when I thought things were quieting down here at the Collectorz.com office, I received the following email from Amazon:

Subject: Your Amazon Associates Acount

It has come to our attention that you have created applications for use with mobile devices which use Amazon.com content. The use of a mobile application in conjunction with the Product Advertising API or the Associates Program without our express prior written approval is not permitted.

As a result, we must insist that you cease this use of our services immediately. Moreover, because of this violation of both the Product Advertising API License Agreement and the Associates Operating Agreement, your Associates accounts have been closed and your access key turned off.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you the best of luck in the future.

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 2 Comments »

Selling iPhone apps

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

A couple of months ago, I posted about our first iPhone app Clz Movies. In the meantime, we have released four more: Clz Books, Clz Music, Clz Games and Clz Comics.

Clz Comics app for iPhone

Here’s an update on our experience selling iPhone apps.
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Posted in Mobile Apps | 6 Comments »

Our first iPhone app: Clz Movies

Friday, May 1st, 2009

This week we submitted our first iPhone app to Apple for approval.

It’s a companion app for our Movie Collector software, not a stand-alone product. Users can catalog their DVD collection using Movie Collector, then export their collection to the iPhone viewer app, so they can always have their collection with them (e.g. at the DVD store, at friends, etc..).
More »

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Posted in Mobile Apps | 2 Comments »