My friend Nik Fletcher doing the good work. If you’re anywhere near the process of writing copy for an app, you are on the front lines of communicating to users, and communication is absolutely key:
This approachable name [of “apps”], and the incredible ease of access to apps, means that more people than ever are using our products. As a result, the expectation of knowledge is something we have to consider when we’re writing copy to go into our apps.
Terminology, abstract concepts, implementation details and bad translations are all things that need careful consideration. Understanding your audience is key - for example, an app built for developers might reveal more implementation details as they’re more technically literate. But would you intentionally use the term API in a consumer app?
This is a snippet of a talk he gave in March at NSConference 2013, videos of which are now available.
“Wonder if this movie’s good.” $10.
“Try the new Burginator Deluxe!” $6.
“Haven’t heard of that beer before.” $3-5.
“New restaurant in town!” $30-$200.
“Huh, an app. I really need a free trial.” $0.99”
You App Store people have it easy. The Windows Phone Store is destroying lives!
Ellis Hamburger interviewed a wide variety of app developers, including myself for AgileBits, about the challenges and pitfalls of the free app ecosystem. It’s a great read.
Over two billion app downloads in December alone with a total of over 500 iTunes Store—and therefore App Store—accounts. Keep in mind, Apple has clarified in the past that it only considers the initial download of an app in “downloads”; updates don’t count.
Plus, according to an estimate by analyst Benedict Evans, which he thankfully clarified for me, Apple has likely sold around 525 million iOS devices.
There is an average of 87 apps downloaded per iOS device sold (as of September 2012, Apple has sold 400 million iOS devices and the App Store has seen over 35 billion downloads).
That iOS apps-per-device average is up from 60 in 2011 and 54 in 2010. Way up.
Thing’a beauty. Congrats to everyone at Panic.
