App Store: Cries of hesitation

CCW Net 21st News "Waiting for this moment for a long time.　　June 25, "non-fish" (net name) on his blog excitedly announced that he wrote the "Easy to remember words" has been on the Apple App Store in China's first place. Non-Fish said his luck was really good. "This program is done, originally just put on the forum for netizens to use, and then there are many netizens said to me: Send to the App Store go up, we certainly buy." I spent 99 dollars to register the developer account, June 12 The program posted to the App Store, unexpectedly, the first day on line into the app store in China's top 10. "In the real work, the identity of the fish is a well-known local administrator of the community website Technical director, his development in the App Store, in fact, more with the" amateurs "nature.　　In addition to the "easy to remember words," the fish in the App Store also released a "Foreigner Learning Chinese" program, every day can sell eight or nine, there are two small games waiting for approval. Compared to the non-fish, the same science and technology CEO history of the satellite's dimensional studio appears to be more professional, more than 20 people of the scale is also considered "huge." Since the launch of the App Store last September, the same technology has started a team to develop entertainment software and reading software based on Apple's platform. "By February this year we found that the most important thing in the App store was game software, so we expanded the group into a dimension studio to develop game software as the core."　　said the history satellite. Now, in the App store China rankings, the gold miners (Golden Miner) and the Palm Book Court, developed by the dimension studio, are ranked second and fifth respectively.　　Gold miners game in the App Store in the United States, the number of software downloads ranked 64th, the revenue is ranked 20th; another game double Ball (Double ball adventure) in the United States, entertainment software download ranking is also ranked in the front position of 74th. "At the end of last year we had a lot of revenue, but very little, not much at the beginning of the year." But by March, incomes had started to rise sharply.　　said the history satellite. The amazing appearance of the App Store not only allows it giants to follow suit, eating "soft rice" and attracting a large number of software developers to join in.　　In China, developers and development teams of different sizes and shapes are also gearing up. The little actor on the big stage, in the Apple App Store, is one of the most eye-catching stories about the App Store on Apple's iphone. Last August, Sun's software engineer, Ethan Nicholas, almost couldn't pay the mortgage, and the baby's medical bills piled up. At the same time, Sun announced the freezing of employee bonuses, forcing Ethan to consider looking for a new job, or evenSell the house. With years of experience in writing programs, Ethan considered writing iphone software and self-study tive-c Grammar on the internet, delving into Apple's software development tools.　　After 6 weeks of tireless, Ethan wrote a shooting game "Ishoot" from drawing and cheap pictures, which was officially approved on the shelves October 19 at Apple's App store. To Ethan's surprise,　　This download amount is 4.99 dollars shooting game software, the number of clicks in a day made him net 1000 dollars, the next day more startling, climbed to 2000 dollars, the third day to 50 dollars, and in a few weeks to maintain the same level; 5 months later, Ethan made a net profit of about 800,000 dollars.　　But for the country's independent developers and small teams, the myth of the overnight wealth does not seem to be enough to spur their nerves. "A Iphone+ Mac + a developer account" is a "standard" for a professional app store software developer, at 13,000 yuan. "For Chinese developers, if you really want to develop for the purpose of making money, the costs will be high, because anytime can't get the cost back."　　"Non-Fish said. The experience of the non-fish is quite a bit of "inadvertently inserted willow shady" meaning. He used the iphone half a year ago to buy for use, not for development purposes, and to develop "easy to remember words" without buying a Mac, but using a virtual machine. From June 12 online to July 14 one months, "easy to remember words" although the average number of downloads per day, but the non-fish also have thousands of dollars of money. "Make a computer money."　　The fish said he was satisfied. According to statistics, in China, such as non-fish costs, to share ideas and entertainment-oriented individual developers and small teams accounted for nearly 60% of the proportion. The vast majority of products released in the App Store in China are published by personal accounts, while products released in the form of company 80%~90% focus on business extensions, such as Sina's News and blog updates in the App Store, Tencent's QQ for iphone chat software,　　Most of these products offer free downloads as business expansion and extension. "The App Store has a very broad stage for domestic developers, and actors on the stage have both large and small scale companies and teams, as well as independent developers of all kinds."　　"The history satellite said," the actor "each has each special skill and the performance way, moves the audience group to be different, moreover different" actor "the performance technique each has the specialty, the variety, but also may mutually complement. For example, although the App Store model is still at an early stage in the country, user demand is not high, but some large companies, such as EA, Blizzard and other large game development companies that launch products in the Foreign App Store, will choose to outsource some projects to Chinese groups.Team to reduce development costs. Xi ' an Chu (alias) is such a project-type programmer. One of his outsourcing companies had built a team of 9 people a year ago dedicated to the development of the App Store. After the Spring Festival, the company CEO found that Google's Android platform also has no small business opportunities, so, there are 5 years experience in Java development, Android has done the use of physical engine 2D games Chu by the CEO entrusted with the task,　　As head of a newly formed 4-person team dedicated to Android development. "Mainly to do outsourcing projects. "Six months, Chu has received four or five outsourcing projects," is basically the United States to the single, responsible for some game of client or server development. "Chu admits that the iphone and Android outsourcing projects are not yet the company's main business, and that the domestic programmers and companies doing application development are also concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai," but overall the number of projects is increasing and profitability is good. "History satellite also told reporters, in addition to Beijing's dimension studio, he also plans to build in Dalian and other software base to develop Android application software studio." "We will consider working with other teams, after all, different team's expertise is not the same, there are good long action games, there are some good long application software." "But with the technology to go the way seems to be a bit farther," we will and other teams to establish a content supply mechanism, content distribution will be the same as the brand of technology unified responsibility. "The satellite of history is very emphasis on its own brand," but a lot of companies to find us, we want to do outsourcing. But we do not do at this stage, we have their own complete product system. Willing to do outsourcing enterprises, often they are broken in some aspects of the chain, but if the enterprise income-generating considerations, this is a good way. "The carrier model is not popular. Starting with the iphone, slowly migrating mature apps from App Store to Android, has become a common thread for developing older development teams and companies. "In fact, both the number of Android developers and the amount of work uploaded are growing rapidly, and the momentum is likely to exceed the iphone," he said. "The Chu that has started Android development is deeper. "Professional iphone development requires a high level of development environment, with MAC and development tools, and a rigorous censorship mechanism, while Android is much less restrictive, software releases are simpler, and Google can provide powerful data analysis tools and be more transparent." "But in the development of the App Store, most developers seem to just stop at both platforms." "A friend of mine used my data to do a Windows Mobile platform back-word software that hasn't been put up yet because he doesn't think it's going to sell at all," he said.　　"Non-Fish said. Domestic developers are accustomed to the applicationThere are two types of shops, one of which is built by operators, such as mobile harsh and China Telecom's Xface developer platform, and mobile phone manufacturing and operating system makers, such as the App Store and Android Mariket.　　One obvious sign is that developers are not "cold" to operator-led app stores. "The three major operators of the software store are very immature, in the application of qualifications, upload methods and technical specifications have not yet formed." "An industry insider told reporters that the traditional dominant model of operators is difficult to ensure the interests of developers." "Even in a split pattern, the news now is that developers in China Telecom's software store are earning 40%, and developers in China Mobile's software store are earning 50% of their revenue, which is much less than the 70% revenue from app harsh." "In addition, and the iphone and Android have established complete hardware specifications, suitable for a variety of wireless networks around the world, the operator's App Store is limited to the operator's network and the area covered, an application to get the maximum number of users, We have to consider the problem of multiple model adaptation. And the different models, it means that the development environment, development language and development characteristics of different, on the consistency of products, the cost of development and technical capacity put forward a high demand. In terms of screen size parameters in this respect, the more diverse the terminal screen, software, especially game development costs and porting costs will also rise.　　The iphone and Android have no problem with the same screen parameters. "I don't want to be the first people to eat crabs.　　"As an independent developer, the idea of a non-fish is simple: Wait until a developer makes money on a mobile app store," he added. "For the fledgling domestic developers, they still need to put their limited energy and cost into the conceptual and creative design of the program, and refer to product expressiveness to impress potential consumers." From this need to consider, the operator's App store is still too complicated.　　Industry insiders say.　　It's not easy, but even the less demanding iphone and Android are not a smooth road for developers. "Apply for an account on the developer's website, choose a 99-dollar version, step by step, go to the bottom of the tip: ' Your area does not have an online app store business, can not pay online purchase, you need to print and fill out an application form, and then fax to 1 (408) 8627602. ' It's depressing. Then print the form, write your credit card number and signature, fax ... This number has been unanswered. Two days dozen seven or eight times, all are no answer. Internet search, in Apple's official Developer Support Forum, for six months to keep complaining about the fax problem, no one has solved, can fax success all by personal ' character '.　”　In order to release products, not less fish toss.　　He first toss one weeks registration success, and then wait for four days to pass the identity audit, and wait three days before finally through software audit, the product on the shelves of sales. Even if software is released, the low threshold for entering a software store does not mean that the threshold for making money is as low. Openness can also pose problems, such as these app stores are packed with countless jagged apps, and people are always accustomed to clicking on the apps in front-so the economics classic "28 theory" also works in software stores. Only 20% of the content can stand out from the vast array of products, widely accepted by users, and occupies 80% of the profits.　　In this way, the software store may not be able to create a group of millionaires, but instead created a large number of mobile development workers. "The largest iphone user forum Weiphone (Granville Front net) above, the development section only 32 posts per day, professional Mac development forum Cocoachina above, is also lifeless, more than 10 stickers every day." "In the eyes of non-fish, domestic software store developers talk about" scale "is too early. "To the QQ group of iphone development, you will find that there are a lot of novices and few mature developers." "Shi Satellite also said that the current domestic to the App store software stores to provide products, and truly profitable companies and teams are very few, probably only 100~200 home." Compared with foreign countries, the domestic developers still have a big gap, basically not even mature engine, and no professional art and sound effects, mostly programmers, art to help fiddle with two, and then a patchwork of music to two.　　said the history satellite. This is not the most critical, the lack of graphics technology or engine immaturity, can be improved with the increase in time and experience. Weixing that cultural differences are the most lethal.　　Since the iphone has not yet entered the Chinese market, so the domestic developer's product development is aimed at overseas markets, especially in Europe and the United States, which produced a corresponding problem: limited by language and cultural differences in factors, overseas markets for domestic developers to accept the product is very difficult. The domestic software store market--the domestic developer from the most beneficial. The domestic software store market has not broken out, user habits have not yet been cultivated. According to statistics, the domestic iphone users are mainly downloaded through the internet cracked Apple App Store software.　　Even users who use the App Store have more than 80% per cent of the itunes or free apps downloaded via Wi-Fi. "When it comes to profit, cracked version of the software is our developers the most headache problem."　　"In the opinion of the non-fish, this problem cannot be solved." It is also difficult for the non-fish and users to buy software payment means. "App store is settled in US dollars, but there are not many users with US dollar credit card in China, many people send me text messages and ask meHow to use Alipay to buy software. "Non-fish said that if unicom and Apple cooperation, can let the App Store support Alipay payment," It will be very good effect.　　"Links: Domestic developers, please note!" 1, whether the game or application software, the subject matter must be close to the needs of European and American groups. After all, the current domestic software store users are relatively few, can not be domestic users as the main user, 2, the initial stage of entrepreneurship to try to start from a simple, avoid the weak link. If the team is not responsible for the art or audio and other developers, the program should avoid these elements. For example, there is a very high download game, is purely to allow users to manipulate a small ball to avoid high-speed movement of other small balls, neither art nor need music, but interesting but very high; 3, pay attention to the user's evaluation and scoring. Most of the program's first version of the online, sales are not ideal. This time can not be discouraged, to pay attention to the user to look at the problem, and constantly modify, improve and upgrade products, this is a step-by-step process; 4, for independent programmers and small teams, it is best to develop applications rather than games in the early stages of entrepreneurship. Although game revenue accounts for 60% of the revenue generated by developers from the App Store, the game is a comprehensive, diverse product that requires high planning, art, and sound effects. And the application software does not need too much art and sound effects, for programmers to be more adept.