App Savvy

Book description

How can you make your iPad or iPhone app stand out in the highly competitive App Store? While many books simply explore the technical aspects of iPad and iPhone app design and development, App Savvy also focuses on the business, product, and marketing elements critical to pursuing, completing, and selling your app -- the ingredients for turning a great idea into a genuinely successful product.

Whether you're a designer, developer, entrepreneur, or just someone with a unique idea, App Savvy explains every step in the process, with guidelines for planning a solid concept, engaging customers early and often, developing your app, and launching it with a bang. Author Ken Yarmosh details a proven process for developing successful apps, and presents numerous interviews with the App Store's most prominent publishers.

  • Learn about the App Store and how Apple's mobile devices function
  • Follow guidelines for vetting and researching app ideas
  • Validate your ideas with customers -- and create an app they’ll be passionate about
  • Assemble your development team, understand costs, and establish a workable process
  • Build your marketing plan while you develop your application
  • Test your working app extensively before submitting it to the App Store
  • Assess your app's performance and keep potential buyers engaged and enthusiastic

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Table of contents

  1. App Savvy
  2. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
  3. Advance Praise for App Savvy
  4. Foreword
    1. Is an App a Tool or a Behavior?
  5. Preface
    1. Who Should Read This Book
    2. What You Need to Use This Book
    3. How This Book Is Organized
    4. Conventions Used in This Book
      1. Terms
    5. Safari® Books Online
    6. How to Contact Us
    7. Acknowledgments
  6. I. Strategy
    1. 1. You Have an App Idea...Now What?
      1. The “New” App Store
        1. Looking at the Numbers
      2. Evaluating Your Idea
        1. The App Store
          1. Categories and search
          2. App Store listing and customer feedback
          3. Ongoing awareness
        2. Quantifying Your App
          1. Revenue models
          2. App type
          3. Pricing
          4. Your app’s best-case scenario
          5. Gleaning insights through rankings
        3. Know Thyself and Thy Resources
          1. Looking in the mirror
          2. Looking in the wallet and at the watch
      3. Interviews
        1. Digital Post: Mike Rundle
        2. Mobclix: Krishna Subramanian
      4. Recap
    2. 2. Finding Your Inner App
      1. Getting Familiar with Apple Devices
        1. Before That...Think First, Design Later
        2. Breaking Down Devices and Device-Related Features
          1. The “touch” generation
          2. Fundamentals of all devices
          3. iPod touch
          4. iPhone
          5. iPad
          6. Summary
        3. iOS 4
          1. Multitasking
          2. Game Center
          3. iAd
      2. Approaching App Innovation
        1. Your Heart and Brain
        2. When Being Blue Doesn’t Mean You’re Sad
          1. Blue Ocean Strategy
          2. Making it more practical
        3. Other Differentiators
      3. Interviews
        1. Smule: Jeff Smith
        2. Sophiestication Software: Sophia Teutschler
      4. Recap
    3. 3. From Idea to Concept
      1. Customers Are the Key
        1. Why Customers? Why Now?
        2. Who Are Your Customers?
          1. Traits of the right customer
        3. How to Find Your Customers
          1. Your network
          2. Surveys and the “social” web
        4. What to Discuss with Your Customers
          1. Making initial contact
          2. Customer interviews
      2. Creating a Concept App
        1. Artistically Challenged
        2. Understanding Wireframes
          1. Creating wireframes
        3. Reengaging Customers
      3. Interviews
        1. KISSmetrics: Cindy Alvarez
        2. Balsamiq Studios: Peldi Guilizzoni
      4. Recap
  7. II. Development
    1. 4. For Hire: Identifying Help
      1. Your App Team
        1. Skills
          1. Product management
          2. Design
          3. Software development
        2. Vetting Help
          1. Referrals and client references
          2. Portfolios
          3. Agreements and protection
        3. Costs
          1. Reconciling costs
          2. Ways to save
      2. Finding Resources
        1. Streamlining Solicitations
        2. Where to Look
          1. Independent contractors
          2. Agencies
        3. Make Your Decision
      3. Interviews
        1. GetAppsDone.com: Davide Di Cillo
        2. AppStoreHQ: Chris DeVore
      4. Recap
    2. 5. Getting a Working App
      1. The Development Process
      2. Your App’s Roadmap
        1. Releases, Features, and Updates
          1. Get features out of your head
            1. Initial feature list for AudioBookShelf
        2. Defining v1.0
          1. Prioritizing features
          2. Design and development tasks
          3. Cutting features
          4. Creating your initial roadmap
        3. Your App’s Description
      3. Design and Development
        1. Design
          1. User experience design
          2. Human Interface Guidelines
          3. iPhone versus iPad
          4. Translating wireframes to screens
          5. Devices and resolutions
          6. Finishing touches
        2. Development
          1. Technical architecture
          2. Programming and integration
          3. Repositories and source code
          4. Tuning and optimization
      4. Managing Your App’s Progress
        1. Staying Organized
          1. Tasks and tickets
          2. Customer feedback and support
        2. Screens and Prototypes
      5. Interviews
        1. Tapbots: Paul Haddad and Mark Jardine
        2. Agile Web Solutions: Roustem Karimov
      6. Recap
    3. 6. Making Your App Better Before It Reaches the App Store
      1. Installing Your App
        1. UDID
        2. Registering a Device with the Provisioning Portal
        3. Mobile Provisioning File
        4. Development App
          1. Installing through iTunes
          2. Installing through the iPhone Configuration Utility
      2. Going Beta
        1. Cultivating Beta Testers
      3. Quality Assurance and Feedback
        1. Make Testing “Real”
        2. Feedback and Bugs
        3. Going Deeper with Nasty Bugs
          1. iPhone Backup Extractor
          2. Organizer
          3. Finding crash logs on your computer
        4. Funneling Feedback
      4. Interviews
        1. Hog Bay Software: Jesse Grosjean
        2. Mariner Software: Michael Wray
      5. Recap
  8. III. Launch
    1. 7. Preparing for the App Store Submission
      1. Finishing Development
        1. Analytics
          1. Other tools for feedback
        2. Your App Store App “Binary”
      2. iTunes Connect
        1. Checklist for App Store Submission
        2. App Store Submission
          1. App Information
          2. Rights and Pricing
          3. Version Information
          4. App Summary and binary upload
        3. App Store Approval Process
          1. Status and status history
          2. Rejections and resubmissions
          3. Approved and Ready for Sale
      3. Interviews
        1. TapMetrics: Christopher Brown
        2. PoweryBase: Dominik Balogh
      4. Recap
    2. 8. Building Your Marketing Crescendo
      1. Changing Your Marketing Mindset
        1. The Best New Way to Market...Doesn’t Exist
        2. How to Use This Chapter
      2. Your Marketing Crescendo
        1. Phase 1
          1. Use Twitter
          2. Start reading
          3. Keep going
        2. Phase 2
          1. Email marketing
          2. “Splash” and landing pages
          3. Advertising your splash page
        3. Phase 3
          1. Screenshot “sneak peeks”
          2. Start blogging
          3. Recruit beta testers
          4. Initial email outreach
        4. Phase 4
          1. Launch content
          2. Website
          3. Media outreach
      3. Launching Your App (Phase 5)
        1. Promo Codes
        2. Launch Checklist
        3. Additional Promotion
      4. Interviews
        1. tap tap tap: Phill Ryu
        2. Grades: Jeremy Olson
        3. TouchArcade: Arnold Kim
      5. Recap
    3. 9. Measuring Success and Future Development
      1. Into the App Store
        1. Monitoring Feedback
          1. Qualitative feedback
          2. Quantitative feedback
      2. Keeping Customers Engaged
        1. Listening and Learning
          1. Obsessive customer support
          2. App Store listing changes
        2. App Updates
          1. Managing the scope of updates
          2. More “beta” testing
          3. Submitting your update to Apple
          4. What’s coming
      3. Assessing Your App’s Future
        1. Closed for Business?
        2. Beyond Warning Signals
        3. Toward the Future
      4. Interviews
        1. Flurry: Peter Farago
        2. Lumos Labs: Romain David
        3. appFigures: Ariel Michael
      5. Recap
    4. A. Afterword
      1. When Mobile Is No Longer the Exception
  9. IV. Tips and Tools
    1. B. Tips and Tools
      1. iOS Developer Program
        1. Registration and Enrollment
        2. Paid Application Contract
      2. Tools
        1. iOS SDK
          1. Organizer
          2. Building onto a device
        2. Third-Party Tools
      3. Additional Resources
  10. Index
  11. About the Author
  12. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: App Savvy
  • Author(s): Ken Yarmosh
  • Release date: August 2010
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449397333