tequila bomb

Apple has started sending notices out to developers for App profiles that are over 90 days old, and have not had a binary uploaded…

You have not yet uploaded a binary for your app, XXXXXXXX. Our records show that this app was created in iTunes Connect more than 90 days ago.

If you do not upload a binary for your app by XX XXXXXX 2010 (Pacific Time), it will be deleted from iTunes Connect. The app name will then be available for another developer to use.

Whilst this could be seen as a good first step towards stopping app name squatting, it is probably more to do with Apple wanting to clean house.

I have an app that has been in development for over 12 months. And one of those app names is one that Apple is informing me it will delete unless I upload a binary within 30 days. It won’t be ready within 30 days either. Just call me a laggard if you wish!

I have artwork, a web site and over 12 months of my life invested in that App name.

I wonder how receptive Apple will be to issues such as mine.

You can now purchase iAd advertising to promote your app to millions of users across the iAd Network. With iAd for Developers, users can download apps from the App Store without leaving the app they’re in. It’s easy to get started, contact us today and learn how you can drive more downloads of your app with iAd for Developers.

Apple.

Interesting. Contact is via a form, and you can expect a reply from an “iAd Executive”.

I suspect it is not cheap.

App Inventor is a new tool in Google Labs that makes it easy for anyone—programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students—to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices. And today, we’re extending invitations to the general public.

This is a great idea. But could also create an avalanche of crap which will make the average iTunes App Store pieces of chaff look like gems by comparison!

Next time you’re investigating an app (which if you’re at all like me will always be sometime within the next 24 hours), take note of what aspects of its website irritate you. There will almost always be at least a handful of annoyances. Then go and take a look at your own app’s site.

See anything familiar? I bet you will.

Some great advice for Indie Developers.

In total the iPad has sold over Two Million units in 60 days.

Or 35,000 iPads on average, every single day, since launch.

It took the iPhone 74 days to sell the same number.

As of today their are 8,027 iPad specific apps in the App Store.

Based on discussions with top-ten iPad app developers, we estimate that the top paid iPad app does about 7,500 unit sales on a Saturday or Sunday, and about 2,500 unit sales on a weekday.

Apple’s apps have consistently been in the top ten for paid apps since the iPad was released. Pages has been no. 1 for much of the time. All three have led the top-grossing listings as well.

So, we did some back-of-the-envelope math:

In a typical week… 7,500 downloads per app x 2 weekend days, and 2,500 downloads per app x 5 weekdays, = about 27,500 weekly unit downloads per app.

We multiplied that by the number of apps — three — and the $10 per app Apple charges, and get about $825,000 per week.

At an annualized rate, that’s about $43 million. So, say $40+ million.

Assuming that the iPad keeps selling at the rate it is, or faster, that maths seems pretty solid. Conservative even.

What is more interesting for me in all those figures is that even going to the ‘Virtual Mall’ of the iTunes App Store, which is open 24/7, 365 days a year, we still do most of our shopping at the weekend.

The first two are real. Rocket Bird 3D and MY BEST FRIEND are other things (although probably keyword spammers). The other six of the top ten results for this game’s name are pure spam. Judging from the number of customer ratings, a lot of people are downloading them — and, reading the reviews, it looks like they’re mostly scams and ripoffs.

Most are from a handful of squatters. InTekOne, LLC has 58 apps, nearly all of which are “cheats” or “guides” for top App Store games, violating nearly all of their name and icon trademarks in the process and ripping off thousands of buyers.

Come on Apple. Do something about this. Kick these companies out of your store.

With almost 200,000 apps, developers have enough problems to deal with already.

If this is happening to you Marco has some advice :

When an app is infringing on your copyright or trademark, the proper procedure is to send a clear notice to appstorenotices@apple.com citing your intellectual property and which apps are infringing it (provide their iTunes URLs to eliminate ambiguity). As part of this notice for trademark infringements, you can request that apps not be allowed to use your trademark to market themselves in search results (keyword spam).

Condé Nast and Adobe spent months creating a version of Wired magazine  for the iPad — only to be to told Apple wouldn’t let the thing anywhere near its gadget. So back to the drawing board: Adobe (ADBE) is laboriously rewriting the Wired app in Apple-approved code, sources tell me.

Embarrassing. Do Wired read the news?

The good news for Adobe is that it doesn’t have to write off all the time and effort it invested in the Condé Nast project. So if Apple approves the Wired app, it will have a solution that works for other clients that want to get their stuff onto the iPhone and iPad.

A silver lining.

The bad news is that the whole point of the Condé Nast project was to create a platform that publishers could use once to produce digital publications that would work on a range of platforms. Now those hopes have been dashed.

What other platforms? There still isn’t a working version of Flash on any mobile platform yet.

I mentioned in a piece last week that I thought Apple may be looking at an App Store model for Mac software. But I was also very clear in saying that I did not believe it would be the only route to distribute your Mac apps, nor would it would mean that apps would necessarily have to be signed by Apple.

Over the weekend some people got their knickers in a twist over some rumours that the opposite would be the case in OS X 10.7. Reported on by 9To5Mac here.

Steve has apparently replied to an email from a concerned developer on this subject :

Hey Steve,

There’s a rumor saying there will be a Mac App Store and no software without authorization from Apple will run on Mac OS X. Is that true?

Steve’s reply :

Nope.

You can read this reply many ways. Which is common for his curt emails.

But it is also worth noting that it’s very easy to interpret this as simply a denial of signing, or of the email’s entire composite question. It is not an outright denial of an App Store.

I am positive Apple have looked at the idea of a Mac App Store.

Whether it materialises or not is another matter.

Early days yet, but makes some interesting comparisons between the iPhone / iPod and the iPad markets. I wonder if this will diverge or converge as the iPad spends more time on the market?

My bet is diverge, because at the moment we have a lot of apps simply being ported to the iPad from the iPhone. Hopefully people will start to expand their creativity, and use the increased leg room the iPad affords ideas.

Let’s also keep our fingers crossed that the average price of apps (particularly on the iPad) rises slightly too. It really will be better for consumers and devs. alike if that happens. Higher prices means apps with more scope, longer development times, and allows more investment in new concepts etc.

• In total, there are 2,385 applications that are available exclusively for the iPad. The largest category on the iPad is Games with 833 titles (35%), followed by Entertainment and Education with 260 and 205 titles, respectively.

• Games and Entertainment applications are more popular on the iPhone than on the iPad: 70% of the most popular applications on the iPhone are published in either one of those categories, compared to 40% on the iPad.

• 83% of applications on the iPad are paid, while only 73% of all applications are paid on the iPhone. The average price of all paid applications that are solely compatible with iPad is $3.61 compared to $3.55 for applications compatible with iPhone.

• Medical applications are most expensive on both the iPad ($9.39) and iPhone ($10.73). On the contrary, Education ($9.10), Healthcare & Fitness ($4.41), Music ($6.86) and Sports ($4.95) applications are significantly more expensive on the iPad. Books are currently cheaper on the iPad than on the iPhone which may be influenced by the iBookstore availability on the iPad.