North England to replace satanic mills with iPhone app factories
On Ilkley Moor baht app
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Offical boosters for the North of England have been looking at iPhone development, and published a guide for entrepreneurial Northerners on how to get their apps noticed.
Regional development body Northwest Vision and Media body tries to promote development of the digital economy up North, and reckons that iPhone application development is worthy of a punt or two. With that in mind it hired some consultants to find out what makes one iPhone app stand out in the galaxy of mediocrity that is the iTunes store.
The consultants spoke to "a few hundred" iPhone users, and interviewed some of the more-successful development companies, before concluding that it really is a matter of sink or swim, as the report explains: "There's no army of developers doing 'quite well' from modest sales; it's all or nothing."
But those who are making money are doing so thanks to a combination of careful pricing (£2.99 is the sweet spot, according to the report) relentless promotion and not a little luck in being selected by Apple for special attention.
What doesn't help is star ratings, which users are coming to ignore: "People are giving 1-star reviews that are factually inaccurate, or 5-star reviews that make no sense." Equally unhelpful is mainstream press coverage which promotes the application to lots of people who don't have iPhones.
But 90 per cent of iPhone and iPod Touch users are buying applications, surprisingly the latter buying more than the former. A quarter of those questioned had also paid for content from within an application, which bodes well for developers thinking of alternative revenue streams.
The full report has some other statistics, and a liberal sprinkling of hearsay from existing developers - it's worth reading if you're planning, or already doing, iPhone development. ®
COMMENTS
@Shaggy & AC
As any Yorkshireman knows Illkla Moor is in the West Riding of Yorkshire. That's what it was when I was born a little south and east of Illkley and attempts by the toffee nosed southerners to minimise and denigrate the heartland of England should be fought against at all costs.
Incidentally, a bar is a gate or gatehouse. York has some fine examples built into the walls. They were very useful for displaying the heads of non-Yorkshire troublemakers. Perhaps the practice could be reinstated?
p.s. could the grenade symbol be changed to a good old-fashioned Mills bomb? These funny yankee things don't really match with a .uk domain
@ShaggyDoggy
Personally, as a fellow Yorkshireman, I'd prefer the correct spelling of the anthem as "On Ilkla Moor baht 'at" :)
Of course, the joke doesn't match the content anyway....
Ilkla Moor is firmly situated in God's Own County of Yorksha - whereas Northwest Vision is all about stuff from the wrong side of the Pennines (from their About Us page: "Northwest Vision and Media works on behalf of the digital and creative industries in the Northwest to grow a world-class digital and creative economy within the region") and is supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency!
Ah'll sithee...
Surely
The best way to make money from iWhatever apps is to create something original and useful that doesn't step on any of Apples copyrighted ideas, past or future and sell for 2.99.
Or, y'know, write a crappy puzzle game and punt it for 99p (one that relays any bank information found on the iWhatever back to you).
Alternatively, if you love Apple that much, why don't you just marry them? Bazinga!
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