Egg! 1.2.1, now with iAds

I finally got around to updating Egg! last week to use Apple's new iAds. It's supposed to generate more revenue for developers and make developing free apps profitable. We'll see how that goes. If you haven't already downloaded Egg!, now is your chance.

Next up are graphic improvements to support iPhone4 displays, if I can ever get my hands on an iPhone4...

Also, a friend was telling her friend about Egg! So her friends downloads it and says "my kid loves it." It turns out it wasn't even my app, but a copycat app. Now I know what the original creator of the fart app feels like! Hahaha.

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Egg⁴! sneak preview

It's not out yet, but it should be out any time now. Here's a little sneak preview.

FlashCardz 2.0 & QuoteKeeper 2.0 have been approved

I received e-mail from Apple today, that FlashCardz 2.0 & QuoteKeeper 2.0 have been approved. So look for them on the App Store. These new versions have much better stability than the previous versions (no more random crashes). If you're a developer and are waiting for your apps to get reviewed, send an e-mail to the App Review team and they will likely review your app faster (this has been my experience anyway).

A new feature in both of these, includes the ability to hide individual cards or quotes.

For a student this means that you can build up a stack of cards throughout the semester, then after each exam, you can hide the cards from that exam, but still have them around for the final. This also allows you to hide cards that have memorized to focus more on the ones that you haven't.

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QuoteKeeper updated...

Capping off a productive weekend. I was able to update QuoteKeeper to benefit from some of the common changes in FlashCardz. So another app is off for review. In particular, the data handling has much greater stability; so no more random crashes. Also, added the ability to hide individual quotes from the stack (similar to FlashCardz)

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FlashCardz 2.0 out the door

So I spent the weekend looking into some stability problems I was seeing with FlashCardz. In my frustration, I completely gutted the data handling portion of the code and reworked it. This took most of the day Saturday, and I was still having problems getting things working properly. I revisited it Sunday morning and got it to work. Since it is such vast improvement over the previous version, this new release will be 2.0. In addition to the stability improvements, I incorporated a change that will allow users to hide certain cards in the stack. I believe that this feature will greatly improve the usability of the app for users.

FlashCardz 2.0 has been submitted and is waiting for review.

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Egg⁴! is coming soon...

Egg⁴! is on it's way to the Apple App Store. I was able to get it in working order this week and just submitted it a few minutes ago. So, it should be up some time in the next week, if all goes well.

Egg⁴! is the iPad friendly version of Egg!, and lets you race against your friends and family members to see who can break open the Egg⁴! first. It is a universal binary, so it will run on both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch. It will look like an ad-free version of Egg! on the iPhone/iPod Touch, but the real fun is on the iPad. In the U.S., Egg⁴! will be $0.99.

On a side note, the original Egg! has been well received world-wide. It reached #1 in Indonesia, Israel, & the Philippines; #2 in Costa Rica; #3 in Poland; and #5 in the UAE. I can only hope, Egg⁴! will be as well received.

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How much $ from iAds?

So the big question that I've had since iAds was announced was, "How much $ will developers get for using iAds?" Because, if it is not more than what they currently get, there's not much incentive to switch to iAds. A recent MacRumors article says that Apple is charging advertisers $0.01 for each Ad impression and $2.00 for each click. With this information, we can get an idea of what this means for developers.

Taking some data from my Egg! app which is ad-supported by the banner Ads at the top, this is what I have for the past 30 days.

209,697 impressions & 6,507 clicks for a click through rate (CTR) of 3.1%

To get the revenue from these numbers using iAd prices:

209,697 ($0.01) + 6,507 ($2) = $15,110

Of this total, Apple takes 40% and developers take 60%, so:

$15,110 (60%) = $9066

If the numbers being reported are correct, then this is a significant increase over the $158.21 that I actually received (or will receive) from my current advertisers. What would I give up if I switched to iAds? Analytics & custom ads that promote my other apps. What do I gain, over 57 times my current ad revenue. This could be a real game changer. I guess now would be a good time to start integrating iAds into Egg!.

My calculations assume that I will get the same fill rate and CTR that I get now. This may be affected by how many advertisers actually sign on with Apple. If only a few companies sign on, then people will only see those same advertisements over and over again and the CTR will likely drop. If you notice, the revenue from clicks makes up 86% of the total revenue. With impressions alone, I will still get close to 8 times my current revenue; $1257 vs. $158. Not bad at all.

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