Jeff Scott

Have you ever wanted to do if-statements in your CSS and say, “if the browser supports border-image, apply these rules and properties, but if it doesn’t then use these other rules and properties instead”? Have you been eager to start playing around with HTML5’s new elements but been held back by the lack of styling control in Internet Explorer? - Jeff Scott

Xcode has two build settings that are very important to supporting multiple versions of the OS (whether we’re talking about the Mac or the iPhone, it’s all the same to Xcode) with a single application binary. These settings are SDKROOT (a.k.a Base SDK) and MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET[1] (a.k.a. Mac OS X Deployment Target). - Jeff Scott

Why was PR important? Everything we read and everyone we spoke with said getting PR was the best driver of downloads in the App Store. With over 50,000 apps to date and only one distribution channel, getting noticed is key. And though it seems like we had a nice launch for our iPhone App, we actually completely botched the launch but hustled our way back to a nice recovery. - Jeff Scott

Parsing XML on the iPhone is the most un-straight forward thing I have ever encountered! It really is a pain for “simple” documents and the overall code required is 4-5 functions that just make a whole mess of you class. Here is my take on how to make life a bit easier and some other ideas. - Jeff Scott

Recently, after passing over 1500 iPhone apps across over 1000 publishers, we decided to investigate what strategies successful developers were employing in order to get their apps noticed. What we discovered was that, although only a handful of apps were achieving critical success, many of their publishers (Storm8, Trippert Labs, Digital Chocolate, I-play, Webworks, etc.) were the same guys releasing success after success, and these publishers weren’t all large brands with huge marketing budgets. - Jeff Scott

Since the debut of the Apple App Store in July 2008, iPhone and iPod touch owners have been able to access a rapidly increasing number of applications, ranging from free apps like Skype to low-priced mobile games and myriad other programs. The App Store’s rise to prominence has not been without controversy, however. The latest minor uproar concerned an application that allowed users to access sexually explicit photos. - Jeff Scott

The App Store is an eclectic blend between highly polished, impressively executed games from large companies and smaller, indie projects that sometimes don't have quite the same fit and finish. Yet the store will give equal weighting to both these types of projects, no matter of their quality level. It's up to the discerning customer to pick and choose their own entertainment, and without a friend's recommendation or gameplay video, they're going to go by the handful of screenshots that were provided in the store listing. ❝It's simply not enough to expect your game to sell on one brilliant mechanic alone.❞ It is, therefore, imperative that not only does the game play well, but that it looks good too. Looks do not make a good game of course, but they help sell the experience and enhance the gameplay underneath. Often, when demonstrating my iPhone I'll pick upon a game which looks appealing and has great gameplay - after all, who wants to play a game that looks unattractive when there ar - Jeff Scott

With the App Store entering its second year, everyone is looking for a slice of the pie. Developers are hungrier for your dollars more than ever. But developing a great game simply isn't enough, and the low cost of many apps and games is rapidly changing the accepted norms for pricing models. With so many games priced at $0.99, it often seems like games don't sell if they aren't budget priced. The proof is in the App Store Top 10 paid apps chart, with 9 out of 10 apps priced at $1.99 or less, and 7 out of 10 priced at $0.99, as of publish time. - Jeff Scott

A new report underscores just how long the long tail is in Apple's App Store. More than half of iPhone applications have less than 1,000 active users and only 5% had more than 100,000 users as of May, according to the latest monthly metrics report from mobile ad network AdMob. - Jeff Scott

When we launched our first iPhone application, TapDefense, we were thrilled as the number of downloads increased by the hour. We got such interesting feedback that we even set up our own Facebook group so we could learn more about our users. Everything was going better than planned. Except for one thing: we needed to find a way to make money from our very popular app. Like many other iPhone game developers, we decided that showing banner ads was a good idea, and went looking for a good ad network to work with. We quickly integrated the ad functionality into our app, and waited for the money to start rolling in. - Jeff Scott

To date, selling an iPhone application required a few simple decisions: developers could either give an app away for free or charge for it. The two most common business models to emerge were free-to-paid and ad-supported, with some companies opting to ship only paid version of their applications. The decision to offer a free version seems correlated to whether a developer has recognizable brands. For example, EA Mobile, which boasts The Sims 3, Tetris and Scrabble tends to release more paid-only versions. By contrast, companies with more original, less-recognizable titles like Digital Chocolate, which makes Crazy Penguin Catapult, Brick Breaker Revolution and Tower Bloxx frequently go to market with free trials of their games to entice consumers to try-and-buy. Overall, much of the learning in the market has centered on what price to charge, when to drop price and whether ad-supported apps earn more revenue than paid apps. - Jeff Scott

What steps do I take in order to make a big jump in the iPhone application industry? I have found an app designer. I know the basics, but is there any other information other than what’s given on Apple’s Web site? - Jeff Scott

At times, iPhone developers might like to test out applications without going through the formality (or challenges) of ad hoc distribution. Ad hoc distribution was introduced by Apple to allow software testing on up to 100 registered devices. It is, admittedly, a bit of a pain. - Jeff Scott

Beginning July 22, AdMob will no longer serve ads requested from iPhone apps that employ ad network mediation layers such as AdWhirl or Tapjoy. This change will enable us to provide our publishers and advertisers, as well as end users, with the best possible experience and results. - Jeff Scott

When I initially launched iCombat in April, I decided to wait on releasing a lite version to first see if I could manage to get up the charts without one. My fear was that a lite version would cannibalize my potential user base if I accidentally put too much of the game’s “secret sauce” out there for free. Looking back, I realize now I was so afraid to get the feature mix for the demo wrong that I irrationally avoided the option much longer than I should have. - Jeff Scott

Earlier today, Apple announced 6 million downloads of the 3.0 OS that launched last Wednesday. We’ve seen this rapid adoption of 3.0 in our network as well. Below is the worldwide distribution of iPhone OS requests in the AdMob network on Saturday. - Jeff Scott

I decided to spend a few minutes looking through the Converbot logs to see what kind of 3.0 upgrade rate we are seeing. I expected to see a fairly good upgrade rate but the numbers I saw are really way above my expectations. To keep a long story short, 5 days after the iPhone OS 3.0 release, we are seeing a 75% adoption rate. Read on below for some graphs and analysis - Jeff Scott

In the world of iPhone app promotion, social networks/forums campaigning and website reviews can only get you so far. This is because the majority of iPhone owners do their app shopping in iTunes or in the devices themselves. Both of these channels are Apple controlled, so you don’t have any way to promote to these kinds of buyers. And while bitching and moaning sometimes works with Apple, it has not proven effective in this case. - Jeff Scott

Lately I’ve been working with both large and small clients to help publicize and market their iPhone apps. Since not every iPhone developer has a budget for a hired gun to help out, I thought I’d put together this list of basic (and free) things you should be doing to promote your iPhone app within iPhone and games media. This isn’t a complete list, far from it, but it’s enough to get a low-to-no budget operation some editorial coverage, and hopefully, consumer interest (read: $$$) in their game. So here goes - Jeff Scott

But iPhone developers, enticed by tales of earning $600,000 in a single month, should face the fact that such breakout success stories are the exception rather than the rule. To use a phrase popular among other online observers who have weighed in on the subject: Don't quit your day job. - Jeff Scott