Chomp

June App Search Analytics

June was an incredible month for apps. An important milestone was achieved when daily time spent in mobile apps surpassed web consumption and the IDC predicted 183 Billion Mobile App Downloads by 2015. The month was particularly interesting from Chomp's perspective; digging into our query logs here are some of the gems we discovered.

To celebrate the beginning of the summer movie blockbuster season, our query of the month is "movies". Peaks in search traffic for the query correlate with release dates of the major motion pictures X-Men First Class, Super 8, Green Lantern, Cars 2, and Transformers 3.

The dynamics of app pricing remain fascinating. For the second consecutive month, the percentage of paid apps has increased for both Android and iOS by 1% and 4%, respectively. Premium price points showed strength on Android, while the increases for iOS were primarily at the lower $.99 and $1.99 price points.

The distribution of apps across categories saw major churn during June. The social networking category saw a major downtick in app share across platforms, decreasing from 6.6% to 4.6% on iOS and 7.8% to 6.9% on Android. Productivity and reference apps increased their share on iOS, while entertainment and music apps increased their share on Android.

Finally, games dominated June’s top queries, with the queries puzzle games, adventure games, action games, shooting games, and board games appearing in the top 25 queries for both Android and iOS. The strength of games in June is also demonstrated in the Chomp 55.

App Search Analytics June 2011

Have ideas for future versions of our analytics report or questions on the current edition? Let us know by leaving a comment or emailing alex at chomp dot com.

What Your App Searches Taught Us During May

Here at Chomp, we are continuously fascinated by what we learn from our users day in and day out.   Because apps have become such an important value-add to our lives, what we're searching for, when, and what we inevitably download holds key information to not only help us build a better search experience but also helps app developers understand what matters most to you.

May was a particularly exciting month in the world of app search.  The first item in particular that peaked the interest of our analytics team was the abnormally high trend for the word 'bible' (of which there are over 1,700 apps!).  What's more, the volume of searches skyrocketed just before the date of the predicted rapture.  Have a look for yourself on slide 8 of our App Search Analytics report. 

Another search element we were thrilled to include was a comparison of our own search patterns to those of Google's mobile web, which they released earlier this month.  We were thrilled to see that app search traffic on Chomp seemed more consistent that what was projected on Google's graphs. 

Of course no Chomp Charts would ever be complete without the Chomp 55.  Check out which Android and iPhone apps appealed most to the collective Chomp community on slides 19-23.  We'll give you a hint - the #1 apps are not games!

 

App Search Analytics: May 2011

View more presentations from Chomp Inc

Have ideas for future versions of our analytics report or questions on the current edition?  Let us know by leaving a comment or emailing robin at chomp dot com. 

This Week in Apps

Each Friday, Team Chomp kicks off the day with some bagels and candid conversation around the week's happenings, both company and industry-wide. 

As you might imagine, on the heels of an eventful week like this one, several hot topics surfaced.  Everything from WWDC take aways and their impact on industry and developers to the upcoming iPhone in space and beyond were easy candidates for discussion. 

Here are some highlights, thoughts and reactions to "this week in apps":

The week kicked off in high gear with Apple's coveted WWDC.  The enduring line of anxious attendees (including our own, Rob Wills!) started forming at the tender hour of 6am in anticipation of the main event, Steve Jobs' keynote, which began at 9am on Tuesday and lasted roughly two hours.

Jobs unveiled some fascinating stats, including numbers that validate the continued adoption rate of apps (yippee!), even beyond the download of music in iTunes.  Here are some of our favorites:

• There are now over 425,000 active apps in the App Store, 90,000 of which are iPad apps
• 25 million iPads have been sold in 14 months
• 14 billions apps have been downloaded in less than 3 years (even more interesting when compared this to the next point)
• 15 billion songs have been sold in iTunes
• Apple has paid out $2.5 billion to app developers, which is up $1.5 billion from a year ago

For more on WWDC, we recommend this article by Tech Crunch

App milestones:

Congrats to Evernote, the wildly popular note-taking service, for reaching the 10 million user mark in just under three years.  Evernote has its product available on all major platforms including iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and HP WebOS with plans for Windows Phone 7. 

iPhones (and apps!) in space:

Odyssey Space Research has created an experimental app, SpaceLab for iOS which will run on 2 iPhone 4s as part of the final shuttle mission later this year.  The app will contain step-by-step instructions on experiments conducted by astronauts.  This replaces the conventional use of paper print outs traditionally used. 

The takeaway:

This is another great example of how apps are being integrated across a wide variety of industries for a multitude of purposes. 

For more on this, check out the VentureBeat article.

Do you have other interesting news bits to share around apps or the tech industry?  Leave a comment and we'll highlight on our Twitter and Facebook pages. 

Have a great weekend and happy app searching!

Celebrating A Major App Milestone: 500,000 Approved

Early this morning, Apple approved app number 500,000.  For that, we salute the hard working developers and the enthusiastic community of app seekers (you!). 

Because Chomp wouldn't be here without all of these glorious apps plus our amazing community of app seekers, we've put together an infographic highlighting an array of app milestones along the way, including apps you've loved since the beginning. 

Three cheers for Team Chomp member, Stefanie, who is responsible for 'beautifying' all of the 150+ data points into what is now being dubbed the longest (and most stunning) infographic you may ever see.  

 

And while we're excited to share today's milestone, we assure you the journey is far from over.  As more apps continue to enter the market at this incredible pace, our focus on helping you find them easily will remain just as strong as our first milestone, the launch of the Chomp app, back in January of 2010. 

Love this stuff and want to see more?  Chomp and our partners will continue to keep a close eye on both approved and active apps so be sure to check out facebook.com/500kapps for updates and chances to win prizes (yeah, free stuff!).  Happy searching!

 

App Developer Q&A Featuring LaDiDa

In our first app developer sit-down, we spoke to Oliver Waters, Co-Founder of d3i Ltd, creators of Momento (Diary/Journal).

For this installment, we were thrilled that Prerna Gupta, CEO of Khush and visionary behind LaDiDa agreed to share some insight around the success of the app plus offer some insider information about what fans can look for next.

Check out our conversation below:

Q: LaDiDa has been one of only six apps to make the Chomp 55 since it began in October.  How do you feel about that and what are you going to do to keep up the momentum?

A: We feel AWESOME about that! It's a huge honor, and we're amazed. The key for us to keep momentum up on LaDiDa is continuing to improve it based on the feedback we're getting from our wonderful users. 

Q: How did you arrive at the $2.99 price point for your app?  Have you tested other prices and if so what sort of impact did that have on sales? 

A: We have tried a few different pricing strategies, and the $2.99 price has always turned out to be profit maximizing for us thus far. We do plan to add in-app purchases in the future, however, which may change our pricing strategy. We try to be as data-driven about our pricing as possible, but it's a continually evolving space that requires reevaluation at times.

Q: How did you arrive at this idea?  Do you have a background in music?  Are you a singer perhaps? 
 

A: I am an untrained singer and have always wanted to create my own songs, so LaDiDa is quite literally a dream come true for me. But I can't take credit for the idea itself. The technology underlying LaDiDa is actually quite sophisticated and was developed in a music intelligence lab at Georgia Tech, by our CTO, Parag Chordia.

Q: How long has your team been developing mobile apps?  How long did it take you to develop this app?  How many iterations have you had?

A: It took about a year for Parag to develop this technology, along with his students, at Georgia Tech. It then took our rockstar dev team at Khush three months to take the technology from the lab to the iTunes store! None of us had done much mobile development before that, but it's now been almost 2 years since we've been developing mobile apps specifically.

Q:How much do you rely on user feedback to build/refine your app?

A: Quite a lot. User feedback is a critical aspect of our development prioritization. Every decision we make has a strong basis on usage data and user feedback.

Q:What other applications and/or websites influenced your design philosophy?

A: Our design philosophy is constantly evolving, and we try to cast a wide net in our research. We like to spend time with apps from various categories, everything from gaming to photo sharing, to make sure we are keeping up with trends and learning from the best! Interestingly, though, I think one of the most beautiful apps I've seen was an early one - Ocarina.

Q: What has been the most crucial thing you've done from a marketing/advertising perspective to get your app exposure?  

A: Demo videos! Our videos have received over 80 million views on YouTube. You can see some of them at youtube.com/ladidakhush

Q: Would you say that app discovery is a problem for you?  For apps in general?

A: It is a challenge for everyone. Even the apps at the top are constantly vying for attention. You have to think very explicitly about distribution as an app developer. Contrary to popular belief, it's not enough to just make a great product. You have to figure out how to get it in front of people too! It is a major challenge that we think about everyday, and there is not that much expertise around it yet since many of us are still figuring it out. There are no simple answers, but that's also part of what makes this a fun game to play :)

Q: What other apps have you developed?  How have those done in comparison to LaDiDa?

A: LaDiDa is our one and only thus far, but we have a new little secret in the works :)

Q: What advice do you have to other developers that are just starting out?

A: Be creative in your distribution (i.e., marketing!) strategy. Even though it seems daunting, there is still a LOT of room for growth in the app space. Don't be discouraged if you don't get traction at first. Just figure out very systematically who you are trying to reach, and think of creative ways of getting their attention.

Q: Knowing what you know now about developing a popular app, what's the biggest mistake you think you made as a company?  What's the best decision you've made as a company?
 

A: Hmmm...this is a hard one. I think it's too soon to pick out any big mistakes or great decisions. We've had some amazing luck, though, that's for sure. Like our first major YouTube video, which was with Annoying Orange, and has now received over 14 million views (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4GhMYxE2Lc). That marked the beginning of our viral video success.

Q: Any plans to expand the LaDiDa offering to other platforms? 

A: Yes :)

There you have it!  Big thanks to Prerna for agreeing to be in the "Chomp" seat for our developer Q&A.  If you love an app and want to see an inerview with that developer, let us know! 

Stay tuned for the sixth edition of App Search Analytics which features data from both iOS and Android (woo!).  Happy app searching!

Chomp Gets Momento's App Developer Deets

One month ago, we revealed the fourth edition of App Search Analytics, featuring some of Chomp's proprietary app search data including the coveted Chomp 55.  As you may recall, Momento (Diary/Journal) took top honors as the #1 app in January. 

So, on the eve of releasing the next version of ASA and to further spotlight Momento's achievement, we reached out to the d3i developer team to gain insight into their journey, their seriously cool app and what it feels like to be #1 on Chomp 55. 

Meet, Oliver Waters, Co-Founder of Momento, and check out our interview below:  

Q: How did you arrive at your price point for your app? Have you tested other prices and if so what sort of impact did that have on sales?

A: We looked at the price point of similar applications, both in terms of category and quality, to give us an initial guide. We wanted to position Momento at a slightly more premium price point to stand clear of other diary writing apps and indicate a higher quality from the price alone. After careful consideration we decided to test the water with an introductory price of £1.79 ($2.99), falling just under the '£2 ($3) barrier' (which we felt most are willing to part with without too much hesitation). The price proved very effective with plenty of positive feedback from users.

We have experimented with the price on several occasions, both silently and alongside a marketing campaign, and found that the current price of  £1.79 ($2.99) works best for us, sustaining strong sales/day. By dropping the price we did see a spike in sales briefly but once they plateaued we actually found our average income from sales was less than when at the higher price point.  

Q: How long has your team been developing mobile apps? How long specifically for iPhone?  How long did it take you to develop this app?  How many iterations have you had?

A: Momento was our first mobile app project. It started out as a side project which we worked on in the evenings and weekends. The first release of Momento took the two of us about 7 months, most of which was as a part time project. This included the time spent learning iOS development and a couple of iterations of the initial build. To date we're on our third iteration of Momento, two in the initial development and a substantial rewrite for v2.

Q: How much do you rely on user feedback to build/refine your app?

A: We have a clear vision for Momento. Feedback is certainly a very useful part of our development, but it isn't what ultimately guides us. We have a feature roadmap and it takes a lot for a new feature to make it on there. The feature requests and suggestions we receive are all carefully considered by our team but they primarily go towards helping us prioritise the features we have planned for the future. Holding back certain features is an essential part of building what we consider to be a clear and simple user experience - especially on a mobile device.

In terms of developing a good user experience, feedback is invaluable. The interface and UX decisions we make are all very carefully considered and multiple iterations tested internally. Once were happy, we then look to feedback from our beta testers and users to help us refine these choices.  

Q: What other applications and/or websites influenced your design philosophy?

A: Early versions of Tweetie (now Twitter for iPhone) and Reeder were the two apps which I used as reference — mostly in terms of UX. Most of the design influence came from the real world; looking at various paper journals/diaries, their typography, materials, structure and layout. A MUJI notebook I've had for a few years provided the guiding inspiration for the UI. I loved the minimalistic approach of the book and the colour scheme; neutral off white pages bound simply by thread and a brown mottled card cover.

Q: What has been the most crucial thing you've done from a marketing/advertising perspective to get your app exposure?

A: We're really proud of Momento and that has helped a lot when it comes to marketing. We've been the ones to go out there and talk about our app — not only on the web, but also in person. We've done all our own marketing, attended numerous events around the country and demo'd our app to key influencers which has helped spread the word. Showing someone your product in person has a huge impact over an email. If they like it, they'll remember you and they'll talk about it. One mention by an influential tech pundit in a blog or on Twitter can directly put thousands of eyes on your product, and indirectly tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

I'd also say a big part of our exposure has been down to the design of Momento. The majority of feedback we have received, references in blogs and features online have commented about the design. Good design is crucial and for us it's a core part of our business. A great looking app catches the attention of people immediately. People judge things on how they look and making your product stand out visually is an easy way of getting noticed. It also opens up the opportunity for publicity on design related websites and blogs which actually contribute to a significant proportion of our web traffic.  

Q: Would you say that app discovery is a problem for you?  For apps in general?

A: Not particularly. I discover most of my apps through recommendations from like minded individuals through word of mouth, both on and offline. Most of those recommendations are apps which end up getting featured by Apple on the App Store or surface to the Top 100. It's very rare I actually search for an app with a generic search term - often I know which app I'm looking for.

Q: What other apps have you developed?  How have those done in comparison to Momento?

A: Momento is the only app we have developed — it's our core focus and dedication. We have some great ideas for other apps, but for now our concentration is on fulfilling Momento's potential.

Q: What advice do you have to other developers that are just starting out?

A:

• Keep your app really simple and intuitive.

• Fully understand the problem you're building a solution to.

• What makes great software is the features you leave out. Stick to what is essential.

• Make decisions on behalf of your users to limit the number of settings.

• Start small and build over time. Don't try to do everything at once.

• Good design is essential. Structure and interface makes or breaks an app.

Q: Knowing what you know now about developing a popular app, what's the biggest mistake you think you made as a company?  What's the best decision you've made as a company?

A: After our initial release we spent a lot of time working on a number of big new features which took a great deal longer than we expected. The further we developed the app the more significant the changes became. We got to the point where so much of the foundations of Momento had changed, it wasn't possible for us to release small updates to the original version without having to do a lot of re-writing. This lead to users waiting a long time for minor enhancements. With such a small team we should have focussed on releasing small updates more frequently.

The best decision we have made was to focus on one app. It gave us time to carefully craft every aspect of our product. Over the past 12 months we have had some tempting projects and career opportunities offered to us by high profile companies, as well as other ideas we've wanted pursue. Being a part of such a vibrant and exciting industry, especially at this time makes it difficult to stay focussed on one thing but we believe that our dedication to Momento will help us fulfil its true potential.

Q: Now that you're the number one app in the Chomp 55 for January 2011, what are you going to do for an encore?

A: We're working on some really exciting things for Momento which we'll be releasing over the course of this year. Our encore may not be immediate, but we're sure it will be worth the wait!

Q: What was your reaction to the news that Momento was the #1 app via the Chomp 55?

A: In all honesty, one of surprise! January was an exciting month for us with Momento being 'App of the Week' on the App Store, so receiving news of the #1 spot on Chomp finished the month off perfectly.

There you have it!  Big thanks to Oliver for agreeing to be in the "Chomp" seat for our developer Q&A. 

Stay tuned for the fifth edition of App Search Analytics on March 30th plus more from developers who bring you the Chomp 55 each month.  Happy searching!