GetJar Number 2 behind Apple's AppStore

Like revealed in his today's interview, GetJar's Vice President Marketing thinks they'll hit 100 millions download per month soon.
Did I already say GetJar is THE place to release your apps/games ? ;)

He also talks about SE's Play Arena : free content are GetJar's !
I now understand why I got a lot of hits from SE mobile with Poulpytris.

Interesting, Spring (in USA) is also using GetJar since 2 weeks now.

I'm surprised with their recent contract with EA....
EA is a giant, if GetJar is full of EA's demos, it will be hard to find our place....
which is confirmed by "some of [EA] free trial games are in top 10 most downloaded apps"
Imagine GetJar full of Konami, Capcom, EA, Sega and others demos : they'll be no place for small games...
But, after the appstors, it's perhaps the beggining of a big move on the mobile market...It's also perhaps the reason why the price of games is on every company interview this month

The 'new' GetJar

It took me some times, but now, here it is : my opinion of the new GetJar website.
It's a very hard one but I think there are some majors problems existing that GetJar must work on!
In October'09, GetJar switched from a very simple website to an App Store, following the move.

This change was good...and bad for developpers

The good :
- Flash Lite category is no longer existing, we are now mixed within the other categories. (for me, it's a good change!)
- Android support. Unlike the Apple's AppStore, Google isn't the only one allowed to distribute APK file
- It's easier to navigate (with some major limits, see below) and isn't 'for geek only'. (the previous layout missed some Wahoo! effect)

The bad :
- If you don't use the menu on the top, you can't access more content (only the top10 of each category and the sponsored apps)
- The description layout used is so hard to use (since the CSS doesn't work the same way on IE/FFox/Safari...) that you finally use raw text or a single picture....and so you're not indexed by Google or others search engine. It's very surprising from GetJar since they made a webinar to explain how to attract more download making a richest description.
- The search isn't working : try to search for Poulpy...Poulpytris won't load!
- The category filter isn't working : if you're on "Puzzle & Strategy" for example, you can't filter for the newest on THIS category, only on "Games".
- The category filter is very limited : only 'Popular' (wich doesn't mean downloads number! but something similar to the "Best games"), 'Newest' (but unuseful for the previous reason) and 'Supported'....not way to filter by 'Rate'. I would love to see an advanced search to find the game from the latest month with a 4+ rate!
- If you're not on the "Best games" (the new "recommanded by getjar" filter I assume), you download rate will drop fast! Two reasons : you had to pass 3 pages to access to the "Browse for more games" button and for the 2 previous reasons. The side efffect is that if you are on the "Best games" your download rate is awesome! I was lucky enought to be on the 2nd page and I earn in 1 week what I earnt in one month!

The mobile part also changed...and there is nothing good !
- Search doesn't work better
- Mobile auto detects doesn't work : I sometimes opens the PC version while using Opera Mini or it doesn't recognize my Nokia 5310. In that case, you could only choose your brand model (and for Nokia, you only had access to J2ME file!)
- You didn't figure the menu is on the top (since it's white on black)
- same filters (but working!) when you successfully find how to acces the categories!
- to make it short, if you don't know what (the app name) you are looking for, it will take you ages to find it

So the new GetJar AppSite is surely a good news but I see it like an 'unfinished' product...you could even find some 'beta.www.getjar.com' links ;)
Until GetJar is only looking for a way to make money with the top10 and Sponsored apps, I hope they'll improve it soon because GetJar is still THE site to upload your apps/games!

note : I'm talking about the public area, not the developper area which improved also ...but I didn't use it enought to write a post yet

Poulpytris results after 1 month

Poulpytris was released one month ago so, it's time for some analytics !

The main difference with Poulpy's Game is the ads feature : Poulpytis shows up to 4 ads on a 'sponsored by' screen at startup.

Poulpytris is hosted on Playyoo, GetJar, Voeveo, Mobango, Mobile9 & Phoload

In one month, because (?) hosted in more sites than Poulpy's Game, it definitly beat Poulpy's Game result

Downloads
Playyoo : 324 (web) & 88 (premium)
GetJar : 5796 (swf), 3954 (sis) & 1430 (cab)
Voeveo : ?
Mobango : 14488 (swf, sis & cab)
Mobile 9 : 11386 (sis 3rd), 18033 (sis 5th) & 7948 (cab)
Phoload : 22 (sis)

so, in 1 month, Poulpytris was downloaded 63469 times !!!
For info, GetJar was about to be a failure...until it became one of 'Best Puzzle game'
I assume it's because of the old GetJar rank or I'm again recommanded by GetJar ?
GetJar changed a lot of things these last 4 months, for good and bad...but I'll post about this later.


Phone models
Playyoo : ?
GetJar : 5130 (10% of download!), 3110, E71 & still the 6300...N95 & 5800XM close the top 10
Voeveo : ? (N95 ?)
Mobango : ?
Mobile 9 : mainly 5th ed (5800XM)
Phoload : mainly 5800XM

So classics on Asia and Touch/smartphones on Europe ?


Country
Playyoo : Italy ;)
GetJar : Indonesia & India are 40% of download !
others : Indonesia, India, US, UK ?


WillNa connections
1000 from PC
3600 from mobile
so 7.5% convertion rate, better than the 2% of Poulpy's Game
+ the daily users count is near 30 (0 before!)


Ads
About 12000 ads request and about 40% impressions
Revenue on Admob : 14$
Revenue on InMobi : 9$
Revenue on ZestAds : 1$
Revenue on WebMobLink : N/A => still waiting activation of my website (!)
Revenue on AdFonic : N/A => we'll try next month if their servers won some speed
EDIT: fixed, see this post

Of course, this is the result for Poulpytris, we can't assume it will be the same for any others app/games


Results
12K ads from 60K downloads... it seems only 1/5 of the people go throught the 'Allow internet connection' screen...
and, shame on me, I forgot to activate unique visitors analysis so it's perhaps worst !


The VERY important thing to note is how many download you got from 'community' sites.
At first, I said "WOW!, GetJar is nothing compared to them" !
But, looking at ads impressions, I saw GetJar users are more allright with adware than community's users.
Community users are looking for totally free games/apps : an ads and they close the game/app!
and don't even think about selling them the full ads free version !

For this reason, the download rate from mobile9 is impressive but I doubt we won a lot of money with that.
It's very interesting because it means more downloads is not equal to more money.
If you have 100K downloads but 1K ads request, it's no use : you could win more with 20K download and 2K ads request !

So key is ...the target!
but I don't have a clue on this point since, apart for GetJar, others sites don't report by countries :(

The only way I see to make a deeper analysis of this point is to release a version for each host and to look at the results.
I'm pretty sure we'll see something like
Mobile9 => 30K download for 1K ads request
GetJar => 15K download for 4K ads request
For Mobango, I don't know...very interesting host anyway, I'll submit my others (past/future) games on it, for sure!

Poulpytris available on GetJar

At last, after so many months trying to handle in app advertising, Poulpytris is freely available on GetJar

Poulpytris handles several ads networks
- Admob
- ZestAds
- InMobi
- Webmoblink
- AdFonic (disabled right now because their server is so sloooow)

See you in one month for the first report (on Poulpytris success and each ads network)

Thanks again to Alessandro for the ultimate tip which allowed me to finish this project

Poulpy's Game : 9 months analysis

In March'09 I released Poulpy's Game on GetJar.
1 month later, I made a quick analysis of the download.

Just before I release my new one Poulpytris, I thought it was time to make another analysis, with more data on these 9 last month and 15K downloads!
Following current move on Flash Lite world, I wanted to make an analysis of the version download : raw SWF vs SIS packaged vs CAB packaged

Here come the stats


This the evolution of the number of downloads
Apart the big drop after 2 months, you can notice the 'poor' result of the SIS version
More on the SWF and CAB version below



This is the exact percent of each version for each month
Here you can see how the CAB version became more and more important against the raw SWF
After a slow start, the CAB version is near the 50% of the total download each month!

I made this analysis to find if the CAB version was really needed.
You can see it is! This information made me think again about Adobe goal on Flash mobile.

Adobe will stop in 11 months to support the Adobe Mobile Packager, the actually (?) only solution to distribute in CAB format.
From what I understood, Adobe is working on Flash Lite 4 IN A BROWSER, not standalone.
The so waiting solution to distribute is the announced AIR for mobile (and I really hope it won't be as bugged as the first version of AIR for desktop)
But do you REALLY think EVERY phones will support AIR for mobile in 2010 ?
I talk about phones not smartphones, since market like India doesn't use smartphones a lot (see AdMob stats)
We're still dealing with phones based on FL2 while FL3 is arround for 1 year now.
We'll have to wait how many years to see AIR as a global solution ?
More than one year, for sure ! So between the end of AMP and the full AIR deployment, we'll be without solution. It's awful.

I'm just feeling like I lost my time...that Flash on mobile isn't ready enought...
or, at least, that it will change its face on the coming years.

Samir's PTA on GetJar

Samir just released Pocket Travel Assistant (Beta) on GetJar while it was only available to 35 selected people.
Thanks for this, Samir!

For info, PTA is Samir's entry for the ended Flash Lite Developer Challenge.
My (less impressive) one is coming soon.

Some known ways to increase download on GetJar

After the success of Almium Clock screensaver, I tried to find the ways to achieve this goal.
I'm here talking about GetJar only, not globaly since it uses GetJar's specific services...

So, to increase the number of downloads, there are, at least, these ways


Make a the new-thing everyone will talk about

yeah, I know, it's the Holy Graal, but it's a way ;)


Add a link to your app everywhere, waiting for the result of this viral marketing

it's the common way.
Samir was very good at this on the Playyoo contest 2 years ago...and it seems he's still good since its PTA appeared in an India's newspaper ;)
Unfortunatly, it takes a lot of times and you could easily gain the status of "spammer" on each forum you advertize for your app.


Hope GetJar will find your app interesting

I had this chance with Poulpy Game.
As soon as GetJar recommanded Poulpy, my downloads increased to almost 3 times more per day !
Of course, what you think to be a good app may not be recommanded by GetJar.
I (unfortunatly) don't know how they choose their top apps.
Personnaly, I'm asking myself if rejected SE PlayNow apps will be good enough to be recommanded by GetJar...


Use GetJar PPD

What is PPD ? Pay Per Download...
Simply, you pay 1 to X cents each download....and to have your app in front of GetJar store
It seems it could work a lot
What I don't know is how much you must bid on download price ...
If you bid 1cent, does it mean you app will be visible only at midnight when almost nobody comes on GetJar ?
and if you bid 10 cents, when GetJar's servers almost die under the number of connections ?
Side note, minimum payment is 1000$ !!
They made a promotional campagnain when I submitted Poulpy Game so I had a 50$ gift...I'll try it in the future..



I also had to talk about the GetJar rank which give you more chance to be on the top of list in your app category.
How does it work ? well...nobody but GetJar knows , so I didn't add it on a way to increase your number since you have no control on it.
I think it's a factor based on number of downloads between each week : if download number of week X is higher than week X-1, your rank is better
as soon as your downloads drop, rank drops too.

Note I don't know if using GetJar MADI will update your rank or not.


If you see another way, share it with us ;)
ps: I don't know which one Almium used!

SE PlayNow app store, 1st July launch!

Sony Ericsson PlayNow app store submissions seems to have started but I can't use it...not working yet ?!
Hopefully a step by step details and informations are available



The interesting points:

For premium content (end user pays to download) you receive 70% of net revenue from sales, after taxes, service charges and so on. You can also distribute free content

The classic 70/30....but if you read the detailled doc, you'll see SE allows ads-enabled app and isn't against subscribtion-enabled app (and others specific registering models like upgrade,etc...)

To submit content, you need to be a legally registered company or entity.This is required for payment processing and tax (VAT) reasons. We regret that we cannot accept submissions from private individuals.

Sadly, it means I personnaly won't be able to submit to SE App store...
Unlike OVI Store, SE explains why this choice....and shows interest in private individuals (not ignore them).
On the FAQ, they use "At this point"...I don't know if I could dream or not :)

How long will it take for my application to be reviewed once it is submitted?
At present our goal is 30 days

Ouchh! 30 days while people are complaining about OVI Store 'slow' process !

If your application is accepted but not signed, you must now complete JavaVerified™ or Symbian Signed certification

It's a good thing...you only have to pay and go throught the signing process AFTER SE validation.
And yes, Symbian also! for their S60 5th edition's device(s)...




If your app is rejected, you can use GetJar as 2nd option....
It's strange...does it mean GetJar will be the home of middle/low quality apps ?!

I didn't find enought information on how GetJar & SE will work together.
I thought SE PlayNow will 'only' be a filter view of GetJar (read SE PlayNow apps will ALSO be available on standard GetJar).
But it seems GetJar will be the second choice...



For more 'pro' details & guidelines, read the misc documents available.
You'll find which countries is supported and with which payment methods...

SE PlayNow app store submission in July

Finally, Sony Ericsson PlayNow submission website will open 1st July.
I know GetJar is behind the submission process so I can't wait to see how they mix SE PlayNow & GetJar !

Almium luxury clock : 130K in 2 months!

Today, while looking for news at GetJar, I noticed Almium luxury clock screensaver results : 129836 downloads in 2 months

At this rate, they'll beat Kamasutraining (remember, sex based games increase your traffic...but decrease your professional stats!)

I must say I'm VERY surprised...and even more looking at their 2nd screensaver, Aluminium luxury screensaver : only 25500 download

Do we see here the power of the famous "Recommended by GetJar" label ?
Note, it also helped me a lot ...

EDIT : I received an email this morning from FLite Developer Challenge sponsors. GetJar talks about this success. See Alessandro's post about it.

Poulpy Game was downloaded 10K times !

Last week, after 3 months on GetJar, Poulpy Game reached the 10000 downloads score.
We're very happy !

I already made a post about Poulpy's stats so I will only add some new stuff :

I provided SWF, CAB and SIS files....
77% of people downloaded the SWF version
20% the CAB version
3% the SIS version

7500 download in first month
2500 download in 2 following months


Sukodu Classic got the same result in one month


Thanks to everyone who downloaded Poulpy Game!
I really hope you enjoyed it, like you'll enjoy our future releases!

SE PlayNow app store

Via AVIarts, SE launched its "content and service platform" and...will accept submission !
After Nokia's OVI, it's Sony Ericsson and its PlayNow !

I tried to open the Submission page w/o success so no more information right now...

I really hope it won't cost as much fees as for OVI store...

Sudoku Classic by Animion

Yesterday, Animion, who seems to release iPhone apps only until recently, added Sudoku Classic on GetJar.

I'll let you play the game, I'm more interested on how they used this free game to promote their not-free screensaver : apart the classic "more stuff" on the menu screen, a flashy "Get cool screensavers here" button is available on the game screen.

I'm good at Sudoku no ? :)

I would be very interested to know how many people actually click on this button.
It's a good idea to use a (now) classic game like sudoku, there is always a lot of people looking for mobile version. And I think the 2200 downloads on GetJar the first day is a perfect example.

I also notice they used a mobile payment solution I didn't know yet : Bango

Poulpy Game results after 1 month

Poulpy's Game was released one month ago, at the same time we opened WillNa.com
It is our first game so I planned to make some analysis of its results
Poulpy's game is hosted in 4 websites : Playyoo (historic), GetJar, Voeveo and coming-soon-one
This FL2.x+ game is available in SWF, NFL, SIS (using Nokia's Packager) & CAB (using Adobe Mobile Packager) format

Download
+7500 downloads in one month
+300 per day when Poulpy was recommanded by GetJar
-100 per day when not recommanded
20% for the WiMo version

Models (+100 download each)

You'll notice Nokia's 6300 and no FLite enabled phones results.
I also suspect some errors in GetJar mobile detection (7610 or 7610 supernova?)
The first SE phone isn't Capuchin enabled

Countries
GetJar doesn't provide countries stats, so I'm relaying to willna.com results
Indonesia : 54
India : 32
Netherlands : 12
United States : 11
United Kingdom : 10

You'll notice the very important part of Asia.

Unfortunalty, you'll also notice the very low convertion rate : 2%
7500 download vs 150 connections to WillNa.com

WillNa connections (Top10)
6120c : 18
6300 : 15
MSIE 7 : 9
Windows Mobile : 9
E71 : 8
E63 : 8
N95 : 7
E90 : 7
Opera Mini : 6
iPAQ HX4700/Treo700w : 6

Revenue
Poulpy's game was a 'pay-if-you-like-ware' which gives us 0.70$
I also expected some money from the ads shown on willna.com
- PC version : 0$
- Mobile version : 0.6$

Result
I'm very proud our game was downloaded +7500 times in 1 month
To be recommanded really impacts your download rate.
Unfortunatly, I also must face the bad revenue result :
It was fun to make this game but it only generated 1.3$, because people doesn't want to pay for a free game and rarely visits game's website

My next game will try another selling model, I'll see if revenue will increase or not.

ps: I really need a 6300 ! Nobody to send me one ? ;)

Poulpy Game is recommanded on GetJar

I was updating PoulpyGame info on GetJar when I noticed PoulpyGame is now 'Recommanded by GetJar'.

WOW! PoulpyGame now randomly appears on the main part of GetJar, which means more downloads!

I don't know exactly why...
Perhaps because I got 2000 downloads the first week ?
Or because they're good friend with Adobe now ;)

In 2 weeks, I plan to make a report about PoulpyGame on GetJar (stats, pro, cons,...).

Poulpy Game on GetJar

Poulpy Game is now also available on GetJar

I'll upload the WiMo and SIS versions later, when I'll be fully ok with the cab/sis created by Adobe Mobile Packager