St. Cloud-based W3i is in the app distribution business — in a big, profitable way (33 successive quarters thereof).  But till now that business has been all about desktop apps, and Windows only. Well, mark down yesterday as the day they entered the world of mobile, with this bombshell: W3i Launches New Incented Mobile App Distribution Service for iOS App Developers.  A separate version of the release, for consumers, gets more to the benefit: Consumers Can Now Earn Rewards for Installing Apps.  Those rewards, my friends, would be cash — for consumers who register at a W3i site called Apperang.com.

Naturally, app fanboys and girls everywhere loved the news — after reading about it on some of the sites they frequent the most.  TechCrunch (MobileCrunch) ran this story: Apperang Pays You Cash to Download iPhone Apps… Ka-Ching! And VentureBeat (MobileBeat) ran concurrently — amazing how that happens — with their take: Get paid to install apps with W3i Mobile Solutions and Apperang.  Numerous other sites and blogs picked up on it immediately, and Twitter was going crazy on it (just search on hashtags #apperang and #w3i).  [Oh, sure, there was a story in the StarTrib last week, too, but that didn't light up much of anything... <rimshot>]

I asked the CEO of a local app development company for his reaction to this W3i news, from a business perspective:  ”The model and integration W3i has developed for desktop distribution has been a huge success in the past, so I wouldn’t bet against them on making their mobile version a success,” said Wade Beavers, CEO of DoApp Inc. “For developers wanting to get a core base of users fast, it makes sense to use this service. The key will be how long those users keep your app, because that’s where the return on investment is.”

I also asked one of Minnesota’s most experienced iPhone app developers for his reaction: “Will app publishers readily jump to use this type of service? Small developers, maybe,” said Bill Heyman of CodeMorphic. “But small developers may not have budget to support this type of promotion… Will it be enough to hit the tipping point for more organic sales because of a higher App Store ranking? Well, ultimately, it would depend on how much a company wants to spend to buy a ranking.”

But, actually, W3i signed on some pretty successful big developers for its private beta before the announcement yesterday (the service is now in public beta).  That list of launch advertisers — just those that let W3i use their names for PR purposes — includes these firms, with the name of their app in parentheses: Big Stack Studios (Sigma), Inert Soap (FingerZilla), Booyah (MyTown), Gist (Gist), Thinking Ape (Kingdoms at War), Flixster (Movies), Slacker Inc (Slacker Radio), xCube Labs (My Health Records – Health n Family), and infinidycorp (Zombies vs. Aliens).

I’m sure we’ll be hearing about a lot more, as W3i tells me they are crazy-busy now following up with other app companies who are inquiring.

(Disclosure: the author has had a consulting relationship with W3i for providing PR services.)

W3i Lights Up the ‘Net with Its Latest App News is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This past week, I thought it would be an interesting little project for me to do a survey of sorts as the basis for this blog post. What I did (totally unscientific, I admit) was ask all the Twin Cities-area mobile developers I happened to know just how many apps they have on the two major platforms, Apple and Android, and how many users have downloaded their apps to date.  It turned into a bigger project than I thought!  It required a lot of back-and-forth emails to clarify all their current offerings.  But I’ve sorted it all out as best I can, and you’ll see the results of that survey in the second half of this post.

The two most-experienced mobile app development firms in Minnesota I have known quite well for some time, having been a consultant to both in the past: DoApp and CodeMorphic.  These two firms began developing for the iPhone platform as soon as Apple released the SDK in March 2008, and had their first creations in the App Store from the get-go, in the case of DoApp (July 2008), and CodeMorphic soon after. So, it was no surprise to me, then, that these two have the largest numbers of downloads locally. But many more Minnesota developers jumped in after them, and still are jumping in. In fact, I learn about a new one almost weekly. Some publish apps in their own name, some only for clients, and some do both. (For apps developed for-hire for client companies, developers cannot track ongoing download numbers in real time — only their clients know, unless they tell them or otherwise publicize the numbers. But the developers can certainly make educated guesses, which some of them did for me for my survey.) What triggered this idea for a post was a news announcement one of the two big local development firms just put out …

DoApp Inc. Announces One Million Downloads of Its “Mobile Local News” App

Actually, it’s not one app; there are more than 100 of these DoApp “MLN” apps out there, because that’s how many customers (media outlets) have signed up with DoApp to date to use what is really an “app platform.”  It allows DoApp’s customers — TV news stations, newspapers, online publications, and radio stations — to easily brand the app for themselves and deliver their content via smart phones and other mobile devices, including the Apple iPad.  (DoApp has not yet submitted to Apple an app designed specifically for the iPad, though its many iPhone apps do work on that new device.) In its recent announcement, DoApp counted downloads for all its locally-branded Mobile Local News apps, including both Apple and Android downloads, in saying they have surpassed the one million number. The company first made the Mobile Local News app available in April 2009. For more about all of DoApp’s products, see the company’s web site.   (In the photo: Joe Sriver, center, Founder; Wade Beavers, left, CEO; and Dave Borrillo, VP-Software Development.) I conducted an email interview with DoApp founder Joe Sriver to learn more about the current status of his company’s Mobile Local News app business, which follows….

First, here’s a map showing U.S. coverage of DoApp Mobile Local News apps. Click on it to go a page that also lists, below the map, all the media properties throughout the country that have the company’s app.

Minnov8: Just out of curiosity, Joe, what percentage of the one million downloads you’re announcing for Mobile Local News are iPhone vs. Android?
Sriver: “Currently, the breakdown is about 60/40 in favor of the iPhone. Android has really been gaining a lot of ground in the last year. 2010 is a big year for Android.  We are seeing over 49 different brands of Android phones that are tapping our MLN app — a challenge to maintain.”

Minnov8: How many of your existing customers for this app offer both iPhone and Android versions? Does our local WCCO-TV, your first customer, offer both?
Sriver: “Our platform offers the native iPhone and Android versions for all our media outlet customers — WCCO included. We will also have a Blackberry WAP version debuting in the next month.  We’re seeing a new influx of iPad users accessing the news, too, so let’s just say we will have an iPad solution soon.”

Minnov8: Most all your customers for this app appear to be TV stations. Are any radio stations or newspapers signed up yet? Do you expect more of the latter two?
Sriver: “We have been signing newspapers as well.  In the last few months, we signed Journal Communications, which includes Milwaukee’s Journal-Sentinel, and the Los Angeles News Group, which includes several newspapers in the LA area. Our SBT News app serves the newspaper in South Bend, Indiana.  We have also signed Swift Communications, whose properties include many newspapers in the western and northwestern U.S.  With our recent announcements, a flurry of radio stations are contacting us, and our first radio station app will be out in the first week of May.”

Minnov8: How much are you seeing media outlets developing their own custom, native apps for mobile devices — as opposed to simply skinning your app and configuring it for use with their local audiences?  What’s the difference in time and money with your approach?
Sriver: “We’ve talked to many media outlets. A few of them have decided to do development in-house. Many of them call us back a few months later after they realize all the development requirements for iPhone and Android. They tell us our Mobile Local News solution is the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient method to bring their content to mobile. The money difference is huge for them because its the support that kills them, and we have a solution that fits to scale.  We’ve done nine major enhancements in 12 months already, and for a property to do so is a huge resource drain.  It’s just tough to keep up with technology.”

Minnov8: How does DoApp Inc. make money from this app — licensing?  Revenue share? Where does your “Adagogo” ad platform fit in here?  What portion of your customers for this app have ads appearing on it?  What revenue do you make from ads that appear on the app?
Sriver: “We offer a subscription model where stations can receive 100% of revenue from advertisements, or an advertising revenue share model, where news organizations pay a small set up fee and then share advertising revenue with DoApp.”

Minnov8: Are all current customers for the app in the U.S.? If so, any plans to pursue business in other countries?
Sriver: “Yes, all current news entities who use Mobile Local News are in the U.S.  We do have plans for news organizations in other countries. We can support translations right now, and we are working to reach out to the growing Spanish-speaking consumer market.”

Minnov8: Your original partner for the Mobile Local News platform was Inergize Digital Media of Minneapolis — and I remember having the initial discussion with them on your behalf in the fall of 2008. What role do they play? What percentage of the media outlets that have signed up to use your app were existing customers of theirs?  And what revenue split does Inergize get from this partnership?
Sriver: “Inergize brought many of their existing stations who used their web solution to the mobile platform via DoApp’s Mobile Local News. We’re working to establish other relationships and also extending our direct model to TV news/radio/newspaper properties.  The relationship works like this: DoApp provides Inergize’s partner stations with the DoApp Mobile Local News mobile publishing solution. A percentage of ad revenue goes to the station or newspaper, Inergize, and DoApp.”

Minnov8: What does 2010 hold for DoApp? What portion of your overall revenues do you expect will come from the Mobile Local News and Adagogo combined?
Sriver: “We will continue to build our base of news entities who use Mobile Local News.  MLN is the most popular platform for mobile news delivery in the U.S.  Our Adagogo ad platform is currently being used on all Mobile Local News apps. We will continue to grow Adagogo as well. DoApp is also focusing on mobile real estate. We have created what is arguably the most advanced real estate solution, combining cost savings capabilities for agents with simplicity for their clients — allowing mobile access anytime, anywhere via smart phones and other mobile devices.”

So, what about DoApp’s total stats, for all their apps?  Here are the numbers I got from Joe:

-What is the total number of apps DoApp has had accepted into the App Store? iPhone: 125 (all but about 15 are Mobile Local News apps). Android: 110.
-Paid vs. Free? iPhone: 4 are paid apps, the rest are free. Android: all are free.
-What is the total number of downloads of all your apps? iPhone: 4.5 million. Android: 600,000.  Total= 5.1 million.

So, where do other Minnesota developers stand as far as downloads?  Well, here’s that unofficial survey of mine, with respondents in alphabetical order, by company name.  The first happens to be the other large player in the iPhone market I referred to earlier, who may in fact have the largest number of downloads of all, although that cannot be verified:

CodeMorphic – Bill Heyman, Founder
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 50. (All under the names of clients.)
-Paid vs. Free? 20 paid, 30 free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? CodeMorphic provided a conservative estimate (because its clients have the download figures): 3-5 million.  The most popular of CodeMorphic’s apps has been the NPR Public Radio Player, which the firm said had 2.5M downloads as of two months ago. It also did MPR’s app. Its other popular apps include the “Smarter Agent” real-estate app. Some national brands CodeMophic has done apps for do not allow the firm to publicly disclose them as clients, but these apps have broad reach, too. To see a selection of some of  CodeMorphic’s apps, see the firm’s portfolio page.)
-Do you have apps available now in the Android Market? None yet.

Mentormate – Bjorn Stansvik, CEO
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 1 (“MigraineMate”).
-Paid vs. Free? Free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? 858.
-Do you have apps available now in the Android Market? None yet. (“LocationMate app to be launched, for both iPhone and Android.”)

Mobile On Services Inc. (BuildAnApp.com) – Scott Pearson, VP-Business Development - UPDATED
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 22. (“We’re still in beta.”)
-Paid vs. Free? All free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? 4,000 iPhone, 500 Android. (“Will be a much different story in a couple of months.”)
-Do you have apps available now in the Android Market? Yes, 12.

MobileRealtyApps.com, and Performant Design LLC – Aaron Kardell, CEO
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 4. (“Soon to be 5.”)
-Paid vs. Free? 2 paid, 2 free. (“Soon to be 2 paid, 3 free.”)
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? 20,000.
-Do you have apps available now in the Android Market? No. (“But coming soon.”)

Mobile Roots – Lynn Smith, CEO/Founder
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 5. (Three are under Lynn’s name; two apps were developed by Mobile Roots for clients: “Margaret for Governor” and “Brazelton for House.” Two more apps are in development for political candidates.)
-Paid vs. Free? 1 paid (“What the Funkytown!” – $0.99), 4 free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? 3,270.
-Do you have apps available in the Android Market? No. (“But releasing our first next week.”)

Recursive Awesome – Justin Grammens, Cofounder
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 7 public apps in the App Store; also 5 private apps for one client, which are installed using the limited “AdHoc” distribution method, whereby each app is manually installed on individual Apple devices.
-Paid vs. Free? 1 paid, 7 free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? Estimate provided: 850,000.
-Do you have apps available in the Android Market? Yes, 6 — 1 paid, 5 free, and 1 in private development. Estimated total downloads for these: 60,000.

Refactr – Ben Edwards, Founder
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 2. (“And 2 more submitted.”)
-Paid vs. Free? All free to date.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps? One app built for Mayo Clinic: download number not known. The firm says its own app, “Flashbang,” has been downloaded about 20,000 times.
-Do you have apps available in the Android Market? None yet.

Tiny Mission – Bekki Freeman, Founder
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 3.
-Paid vs. Free? 2 paid, 1 free.
-What is the approximate total number of downloads of all your apps to date? 1600.
-Do you have apps available in the Android Market? No. (But “working on it as fast as we can type!”).

One thing that occurred to me as I was working on this survey over the past few days: it isn’t just software development firms that doing mobile apps — many of those being firms that do development-for-hire, and some of which are doing self-publishing of their own apps.  But there are also other types of local firms that are developing their own apps, some in-house, including startups whose initial product is a mobile offering, or has a mobile version. One such startup I just learned about is this one, based in Stillwater:

Nibi Software – Troy Peterson, CEO
-What is the total number of apps you have had accepted into the App Store? 1. (“An educational app called Nibipedia, which mashes all the educational Youtube channels with Wikipedia articles — so that, when reading an article, the app recommends relevant videos. It also tracks your research path for you so you can review later. We have several other apps in the queue. Apple makes taking an idea from conception to market so much easier than with traditional web apps. We’re stoked.”)
-Paid vs. Free? Paid – $1.99. (“But we’re offering it to teachers in our Facebook Group for free.” Presumably, that would be via the AdHoc distribution method.)
-What is the total number of downloads of all your apps? No specific number reported. (“It was just released, and has not been promoted. But we’ve had several hundred downloads already from people who became aware of it in the educational marketplace. It’s really designed for the larger display screen of the iPad, so we are setting to work to promote that in the next few weeks.” Presumably, that would mean an iPad-specific version of the app is coming.)
-Do you have apps available in the Android Market? Not yet. (“But we’re going to, for sure.”)

A footnote: I only contacted firms that I know to be developing for the Apple or Android platforms, but I make no claims that this is a complete list. One firm I contacted that chose not to report its numbers at this time was Handcast Media Labs, creators of the “SparkRadio” app (one of my personal favs), which is available for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad platforms. Another developer I contacted did not respond: Dan Grigsby, who was head of MobileOrchard.com, a company he announced recently he was shutting down.

Now we want your input: Who have we missed? Are you a developer doing mobile apps? Do you know of a Minnesota company that has released iPhone or Android apps?  Is your mother doing iPhone apps? How about firms based outside the Twin Cities? If so, please tell us in the comments!  Also tell us what apps you like.  And, lastly… is the iPad better than sex?

MN Mobile Developers Clocking Millions of Downloads is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

I grabbed it the day it came out and have used it multiple times since, in a variety of situations — at home, on a road trip, even in a foreign country (Iowa) — and I must say I’m impressed.  Right now, I’m listening to a great station that’s all Grateful Dead all the time, which I discovered via the app. It’s called RadioIO Dead, and “Big Boss Man” has been my favorite track so far.  I’m on wifi in my motel room at the moment, and the sound is perfect — and I’m not even using an external speaker.  On the way down here to Des Moines, I used the app via my iPhone on AT&T’s 3G network (note: I was in the passenger seat!) to tune in multiple stations, including WSL in Chicago, and the sound was way better than any station I could tune in on the car radio.

Spark Radio not only gives you tons of station choices and social media features designed to make radio listening more interactive, but it also features visually stunning animations. Far out, huh? Its robust, visual radio tuner uses the guide from a company called RadioTime.com to give you access to more than 10,000 terrestrial and Internet-only radio stations worldwide.  Handcast says it’s adding new stations to Spark Radio daily, and will support more than 30,000 stations by April.  You can listen to precisely what you want to at any given time — music, talk radio, sports events, public radio, or special programming from around the world.  Its elegant interface lets you search for stations or programs by keyword, location, or the station URL, and you can browse programming by genre or location. (I’m still looking for two of my fav genres: rockabilly and surf.)  A GPS component lets you find local stations in any given city based on current GPS coordinates.

I took the opportunity to dial up the founder of Handcast Media Labs, Terry Anderson, whom I’d met in 2008, to ask if he’d be up for an interview. That follows.

Minnov8: Terry, I know you’re no newcomer to interactive and Internet marketing here in Minnesota. Give us a synopsis of your background.

Terry Anderson: Well, I’ve been involved in technology for almost 30 years now.  I founded e.Media group in 1995 and we were one of the early interactive agencies in the Twin Cities, with a lineup of really great national clients.  That was incredibly fun.  I sold that agency in 2004 (it’s now known as Idea Park) and have been involved in entrepreneurial ventures since.  I got energized by the iPhone platform in 2008 and have been working in that sphere since then.

Minnov8: How did you come to start Tiny Wonder Studios, and then Handcast?  And tell us about the rest of your team.

Terry Anderson: Tiny Wonder is a division of Popular Front, an incredible interactive agency here in the Twin Cities.  I’m involved as a consultant and helped form the new entity and create Pixi, their first iPhone app.  I’ve been close friends with Laurence Bricker of Popular Front since we were young. Laurence is a true visionary in the interactive world and it was great to collaborate with him once again.  HandCast Media Labs is my own startup, specializing in iPhone applications.  I needed a place to pursue my own ideas, so started HandCast in the spring of 2009. We’re trying to push the limits of technology and creativity.  There are a number of people involved, but the nucleus includes Greg Sharp, a visionary and longtime partner of mine, and Jesse Hemmingway, who is simply the best developer I’ve ever worked with.  It’s an incredible group and we’ve been collectively pushing the boundaries for a long time now.

Minnov8: I grabbed that first app from Tiny Wonder, the Pixi drawing app (see screenshot), right when it came out.  Refresh my memory — when did that hit the App Store?  And how has it done since then?

Terry Anderson: Pixi was developed as an experiment and hit the iTunes store about a year ago. (It’s available for $1.99 at this link on the App Store.)  We wanted to learn the intricacies of iPhone development and start figuring out what it would take to successfully market an app on iTunes.  It’s a beautiful and highly creative application.  It continues to sell moderate amounts on the store, but we never really put enough marketing energy behind Pixi.  We get comments all the time that Pixi is the best app on the store and we know we have a significant audience if we can reach them.  Look for a Pixi re-launch in the upcoming months.  We have some very exciting things planned.  One thing we’ve learned is that iPhone apps need a formal marketing plan, just like any other consumer product.  There are simply so many applications available on iTunes that you need to find a way to become visisble.  We’re excited about the future of Pixi.

Minnov8: Did you develop any other apps after Pixi, either for the iPhone or other mobile platforms?

Terry Anderson: Before we began work on Spark Radio, we began a prototype of what I’ll describe as a geo-spatial game.  That project has been put on a back-burner for now.  I believe if we can make it work, it could be a mega-hit.  But the scope is very substantial and we decided to focus on titles we could get completed in a reasonable period of time.  Stay tuned.

Minnov8: So, let’s talk now about the Spark Radio app. What made you decide to do a radio app? What did you think you could bring to this category that others weren’t doing already?  Aren’t there tons of streaming radio apps?

Terry Anderson: When we launched Pixi, we were overwhelmed with the number of people who asked if the Pixi animations could possibly interact with music from the iPhone or iPod.  It turns out that Apple has made that impossible.  We began looking at other ways to make that happen and came up with the idea of streaming radio, where we have control over the audio stream.  We knew that including graphic visualizers would give us a point of difference from the competition.  We also got very excited about the idea of global radio, and decided to include some social features to support that idea.  I think it’s fascinating that someone in South Korea can listen to a hip-hop station out of Paris.  We’re in love with that idea.  The decision to do a radio app was fairly pragmatic.  My research showed that this was a very lively niche within iTunes and that people were looking for quality.  While there were a number of products out there already, we felt that nobody had really developed a robust product with an elegant user interface.  We knew that if we made the experience more fun for listeners, we could succeed.  We launched two days ago and are already #32 on the iTunes list of best sellers, so I think we called that one correctly.  We’re very proud of the product and have some great enhancements coming.

Minnov8: How long did take you to develop Spark?  And do you have plans to do versions of it for any other platforms?

Terry Anderson: It took us eight months to develop Spark Radio.  That was complicated by the fact that our lead developer broke his collarbone somewhere in the middle of the project!  He took a bad fall on his bike one night and it was impossible to have someone take over his part of the project.  So, say seven months if you eliminate the injury.  That was a tense time, but it all turned out well.  We have always planned to do an Android version of Spark Radio.  We’re very excited about Android and hope to support it in parallel with iPhone.  We have some concerns about the graphics performance on Android, but we’ll figure that out as we go.

Minnov8: Being a longtime promotion guy, you have a pretty cool giveaway going on now for the Spark Radio app.  Tell us about that.

Terry Anderson:   I hate to call it a promotion.  We’re simply giving away 500 iTunes gift certificates ($10) to friends as a celebration of our launch, so they can download Spark Radio for free.  If your readers want to participate, they can email us their name & email address and we’ll send them the gift certificate.  It’s a way for us to show appreciation for all the great friends who have supported us over the years.  They can send their info to sparkgift (at) handcastmedia (dot) com.

[Blogger's note to the FTC: no freebie coupon here -- I bought my own app!]

Minnov8: So, Terry, what’s next for Tiny Wonder and Handcast?  What growth plans do you have for your ventures?

Terry Anderson: As I mentioned, we have great plans for Pixi, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the bestseller list by summer.  The success of Spark Radio has been overwhelming, but we’ll keep working until we get to the top of our category.  HandCast will be developing a new title soon and we’re also pitching some ideas that are too large for us to execute on our own.  Given the success of Spark Radio, we’re being contacted for some very interesting contract work as well.  It’s all good.

———–

Thanks, Terry.  A company that develops apps “designed to entertain the senses” can’t be all bad.  And I like how Handcast further describes its vision as “empowering users to explore their own creativity by meeting their entertainment-on-the go needs.”

You can learn more at the Handcast Media Labs web site, and you can follow Spark Radio on Twitter and on Facebook.

Minnesota Startup Launches ‘Spark Radio’ iPhone App is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.