BlackBerry World Featured Data

On the December 5-12, while it was being featured in the BfB section, Completionist received 1090 downloads, or a daily average of about 136. Outside of that period, it received 178 downloads, or a daily average of around 8. Clearly, being featured in the BfB section of BlackBerry World will give you a boost in downloads. Sales are quite another matter, however. Despite reasonably high ratings indicating that quite a few people actually enjoy the game, it's never really sold particularly well. In total, the free version with paid upgrades has grossed around $12 this year, which makes my share a whopping $8.40. There were two sales during the week Completionist was featured, which means I earned around $1.40. A conversion rate of under 0.2% is really bad. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's any way to fix things, since people who own BB10 phones just plain don't seem to want to buy what I'm selling.

Featured

Finally, a little recognition. From now until December 12, Completionist will be featured in the Built for BlackBerry section of BlackBerry World.

Right now, it's up at the top of the list, too.

As always, I encourage all of you to download it and have fun. Just click the link or image in this post or open up BlackBerry World and tap the nice Built for BlackBerry tile.

What can Built for Blackberry do for you?

Two of my apps now carry the once-coveted Built for Blackberry designation: Completionist and How Puzzling. But, what exactly does that mean?

Well, I think it means I get some priority in search results, and I get the little Built for Blackberry icon on the apps' info pages on Blackberry World... and that's about it. Oh, they also might be sending me another Z10. But otherwise, BfB has been completely worthless to me. I haven't seen any increase in downloads or in-app purchases for either app. The simple fact of the matter is that not nearly enough people have purchased BB10 phones to make it a viable platform in the long term, and the ones who did just don't seem to care about BfB. I certainly don't.

June Data

July is here, so that means my June download and sales data is now available for your enjoyment. Enjoy it!

Downloads for June were down by about 30%, owing mainly to massive declines in Playbook downloads. As expected, BB10 overtook Playbook as the dominant source of my downloads, and BB10 downloads now make up 63% of the total. I expect that percentage to continue to increase as long as the platform survives.

There was a bit of a shake up in the devices realm this month as 41% of my BB10 downloads went to devices running the Qualcomm GPU, 39% went to Imagination GPU devices, 18% went to Q10 phones, and 2% went to Verizon Qualcomm phones. I'm not sure how things will change in the future, but even without having access to many of my apps, the Q10 tripled its market share in just one month. Also of note, the Q5 accounted for 6 of my downloads this month, despite the fact that it was only available for a couple days in June, and only in certain countries.

The top five download locations this month were Canada at 17.5%, Indonesia at 9.3%, the US at 7.6%, Saudi Arabia at 5.1%, and the UAE at 4.5%. Significant numbers also went to the UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Germany, China, and India. The UAE leapfrogged over the UK into 5th place, but otherwise the numbers were pretty much the same as last month.

Despite my pessimism, sales continued to rise in June, growing an additional 9% over May's massive increase. BB10 sales increased at a slower rate, growing only 2.5% and accordingly they only accounted for 75% of this month's total, but that's still far better than I was expecting. Perhaps the fall-off has been delayed until July.

By device, 51% of my BB10 sales went to Qualcomm phones, 26% went to Q10s, 18% went to Imagination devices, and 4% went to Verizon phones. Once again, the sales and download numbers don't match up, with Imagination phones accounting for less than half the expected sales. Additionally, proving that God is right to hate the Q10, despite going out of my way to port Word Scramble to the Q10, I sold but a single copy. Never again.

By country, Canada accounted for 37% of my BB10 sales, the US for 13%, Indonesia for 10%, Germany for 4.7% and Poland for 2.3%. The UK slipped a substantial amount in June, and I didn't get a single purchase from Saudi Arabia. If that continues into July and August, I may be forced to drop support for that location.

May Data

It's June, which means it's time for me to show off my fancy, new May data.

Downloads were up 55%. The total number increased at a faster rate than last month, but due to the larger number of downloads, the percentage increase was less. BB10 downloads made up 48% of the total, once again increasing their overall share by 20%. I don't expect the same kind of growth in June, but I do anticipate that BB10 will finally overtake the Playbook.

47% of my BB10 downloads went to devices running the Imagination GPU, 45% went to Qualcomm GPU devices, 2.5% went to Verizon Qualcomm devices, and 6% went to Q10 phones. Not all of my apps are available for the Q10, but I've added a couple, so I expect its share to increase a bit next month.

The top-five download locations this month were Canada at 16.5%, Indonesia at 10%, the US with 7%, Saudi Arabia with 5%, and the UK with 4%. Substantial numbers also went to the UAE, South Africa, Colombia, India, Germany, and China. Canada remains dominant, but Indonesia's much larger population may allow it to threaten for the top spot at some point.

For reasons I cannot explain, sales this month were up a whopping 94%. BB10 devices accounted for exactly 80% of sales, and the total sales to BB10 devices were up a ludicrous 157%. I expect sales to fall off significantly in June, but it was nice to get a single-month boost.

60% of sales went to phones with the Qualcomm GPU, 24% to the Imagination GPU, 6% to Verizon phones, and 10% to Q10 devices. The breakdown is very strange when compared to the download breakdown. I'd expect them to be roughly the same, but they're not even close.

Geographically, the top-five countries for BB10 sales were Canada with 35%, Indonesia and the US with 13% each, the UK at 6% and Germany at 5%. One of my apps is really only useful in Canada, so it makes sense that the purchase numbers there would be somewhat higher than other countries. I'm pleased with the growth in all of those countries, but a little disappointed that I only made a single sale to Saudi Arabia.

Surprisingly, Playbook sales remained stable. They're still far below their peak, but it may be a while longer before they finally hit zero.

God Hates the Q10

I got an email a few days ago that I thought I would share with you all:

As you may or may not know, the Q10 is getting shitted on with its lack of apps, excuse my language, but I don't understand why developers are not developing for the Q10 as well. So, with that, can you please develop any of your apps, including word scramble for the Q10? I don't want t be left out with the amazing Blackberry experience because of its dearth of applications.

God

It's nice that God took the time to write to me, but strangely disconcerting that he doesn't know the preferred past-tense of 'shit' is 'shat'.

Anyway, I'm not privy to the number of apps that are available for the Q10, but apparently God doesn't think it's enough. There are a few reasons why that might be the case, and I'll try discuss them here:

1) The form-factor
The screen on the Q10 is square. What this means is that porting apps from the Z10 to the Q10 requires a complete redesign of the UI. In some cases it might be impossible simply because there isn't enough screen real estate available.

2) The adoption rate
We really don't know how many Q10s have been sold. It seems to be a reasonably good device, and there are BlackBerry fans all over the world, so it might have sold millions... or it might have sold 20,000. There's just no way for developers to get that information, which means it's not necessarily worthwhile to develop apps for it. My final May data won't be available for a few days, but in April, the Q10 accounted for less than 1% of my BB10 downloads. Now, that's not necessarily a fair metric since the phone wasn't out for the entire month and not all of my apps are available for the Q10, but when developer devices are accounting for an equal number of downloads, it doesn't fill one with confidence.

3) The money
This is perhaps the most important reason. There just isn't a whole heck of a lot of money to be made in developing for BB10 devices. Most of the other developers I know would consider themselves lucky to net $50/month from their BB10 apps. The BB advertising service is all but useless, and third-party advertising services just don't want to advertise on BlackBerry devices. I made more money from the paid version of GPS Data Master last month than I have in the entire history of the free, ad-supported version. For that reason alone, none of my apps will ever be fully free again. So, the lesson is if you want more apps to be available for your platform of choice, you need to be willing to pay for them.

All that aside, I'm gonna go ahead and make some changes to Word Scramble so it'll work on the Q10. God wills it! And who am I to argue with God?

Drinki is Trending

I don't know what it means or how it works, but Drinki is trending on BlackBerry World. I guess cottage season has begun and a lot of people want to know where to go to buy beer, wine, and liquor in Ontario.

Get it while it's hot!

April Data

It's May, and that means my April sales and download data is now available. It took me a few days to get it, which is why this post is going up so late.

Thanks to a couple new releases, overall downloads were up by 71%. BB10 downloads made up 28% of the total number, increasing their share by nearly 20% of the total.

49% of my BB10 downloads were on the Qualcomm GPU, 47% were on the Imagination GPU, 3% went to Verizon devices, and the remainder was split evenly between developer devices and the mostly unreleased BB Q10. Most of my apps aren't available for the Q10, so I don't expect its share to increase much in the future.

Location-wise, 16% of my BB10 downloads went to Canada, 10% to Indonesia, 10% to the US, 5.5% to Saudi Arabia, 5.4% to the UK and 3.8% to South Africa. US downloads grew as I expected them to, but Canadian and especially Indonesian downloads grew far faster than anticipated. I now expect that either Canada will remain on top, or Indonesia will claim the top spot for the month of May.

Sales were up a meagre 3.4%. Better than nothing, but considering I put out something new, it wasn't an encouraging amount of growth. BB10 accounted for 60% of my sales, which was in line with what I was expecting. Sales on BB10 devices were themselves up by 62%.

The US accounted for 25% of sales, Canada for 20%, Indonesia 12%, Germany 5%, with South Africa and the UK each taking around 4%.

At the current rate, if I don't release anything new and exciting, I expect Playbook sales to continue to drop, and to hit 0 within six months.

March Data

It's April, and that means my March download and sales data is ready to go.

Despite March having three more days than February, my overall downloads were down 7.3%. However, BB10 downloads increased from a 1.85% share to a 8.32% share of the overall number. More of my free apps were available for the platform in March and even more are available now, so I expect the share to increase with time.

In March, 72.5% of my BB10 downloads were on the Qualcomm GPU, 2.4% were on the Qualcomm GPU for Verizon, 24.2% were on the Imagination GPU, and the remainder went to Dev 10 devices.

Canada accounted for 43.6% of my BB10 downloads, followed by the US at 12.4%, the UK at 9.8% and India at 4.7%. Considering that the Z10 was only in wide release in the US for nine days, I find its numbers rather encouraging, and expect it to challenge Canada for the number one slot in April.

On the sales front, my overall app sales were down by 1.7%. However, the share of sales that went to BB10 devices increased from 22% to 38%, and BB10 app sales were up by 65%. 75% of sales were on Qualcomm GPU devices, with the rest going to Imagination GPU devices.

Canada accounted for 60% of my sales, followed by South Africa at 9%, the US at 7% and India, the UK, and Jamaica each with about 4%.

It would seem that the Playbook is continuing to die as a platform while BB10 is on the rise. If current trends continue, more than half my sales should go to BB10 devices this month.

BB10 Sales Data

BB10 phones have been out for around a month now, so I thought I'd present my February sales data to give some indication of what developers can expect.

Now, not all of my paid apps are available for both the BB10 and Playbook platforms, but enough of them are that I feel it's close enough to make a comparison.

So, in February about 50% of my app sales were to Canada, 25% to the UK, and 15% to the US, with the remainder distributed across other countries, mainly in Asia and Europe.

Of my total sales, 78% were for the Playbook, and 22% went to BB10 devices.

Of my BB10 sales, 85% were on devices using the Qualcomm GPU, and 15% were on devices using the Imagination GPU. 78% of sales were to Canada, 15% were to the UK, and the rest went to India and South Africa.

On a month-to-month basis, even though February has three fewer days than January, sales were up about 40%.

It's only been a month, but these numbers lead me to be cautiously optimistic about the success of the BB10 platform, and my own success selling apps for it.

The $10k Developer Commitment

In preparation for the launch of their BlackBerry 10 phones and OS, RIM is running what it calls the $10k Developer Commitment. The gist of it is that they wanted to have as many apps as possible available at launch, so to encourage developers, they made the following offer: If your app is available on launch day and achieves a minimum of $1000 in sales over the course of the next calendar year, then RIM will top you off to $10,000. For example, if you had sales of exactly $2300, they'd give you $7700. This seems like a pretty good deal until you get into the details.

In order to qualify for the $10k deal, your app must receive the Built for BlackBerry designation in time for launch and retain it throughout the calendar year. So, if they change the rules partway through the 12-month period and you fall out of compliance for a period of 120 days, then you get nothing, regardless of how much your app has already earned.

Further, the total amount available for disbursement is only $10 million. Assuming an average payout of $5000, that means only 2000 developers will get anything. If you manage to creep above $1000 on January 29, 2014 but the fund is already exhausted, then you get nothing.

Of course, the real issue is qualifying for the Built for BlackBerry designation in the first place. The list of criteria covers seven areas from 'User Benefits' to 'Security'. I submitted 'Awesome Sudoku' just to check out the process; I didn't expect it to pass, but I wanted to see how the approval process works. It took so long to get any feedback that I wound up submitting pretty much everything I've made for BB10 regardless of my expectations of success. Then, when I finally did get a response, it wasn't terribly helpful. I got an email this morning telling me what changes I could make to qualify. It included the following three bullet points:
· Improved game play

· Better graphics

· More Feature(sic)

As far as I can tell, that basically translates to 'Make your game better'.

Now, Awesome Sudoku is by no means the most exciting app out there. It's sudoku; there's only so much you can do. However, it's polished enough that if its sales translate from the Playbook to phones, it should cross the $1000 barrier. So, I have to wonder just exactly what the point of the $10k Commitment is. If my little sudoku app can clear a thousand bucks, anything with enough flash and pizazz to qualify for BfB designation should easily cross the $10,000 mark on its own.

Ultimately, I think it was a good way to attract developers, but I don't think the program will turn out to be terribly good for the developers themselves.

Port-a-thon 2 Roundup

Over the past two days, RIM held another Port-a-thon, this time for apps. I wasn't entirely clear on whether that included game apps, but it didn't really matter because I had no more games to port.

At any rate, Answer Ball, Awesome Strobe, Awesome Tips, GPS Data Master, and Psychic Test will be making their way to BB10 devices. I'm not sure I'll get the cash award for each of them, but because I'm insane, even though the PlayBook only comes in one screen size and resolution, I initially designed all of them to easily scale to different screen sizes, and I drew most of the graphical elements far larger than they needed to be, so it didn't take me very long to port them over.

I think I should also note that GPS Data Master will -at least initially- not be free for BB10 devices. Having a popular app is nice, but you know what's nicer? Not having to eat cat food.

Port-a-thon Roundup

In an effort to have as many games as possible available at launch, this past weekend RIM ran what they called a Port-a-thon. For every game app ported over to the BB10 platform they gave away $100, and if you published multiple apps you could get things like a free Playbook or a BB10 Dev unit. It was an excellent idea, and I think if they scrapped their $10k guarantee and instead offered $100 for every app submission, I think they'd get a lot more developer interest.

My plan was to port a few apps over at some point just for curiosity's sake, but free money is a powerful motivator, so I wound up doing eight in two days. Awesome Sudoku, Awesome Word Search, Box Games, Completionist, MASH Deluxe, Scooter Wants Cheese, Scramble Master, and Word Scramble will all be available for BB10 when the devices launch at the end of January. Will they be as successful on the new OS as they have been on the Playbook? I can't see how they could be less successful. Perhaps RIM will send someone by to beat me up and steal my wallet, but that seems unlikely.

Top Free

So, once again I made it into the Top Free section on the PlayBook portion of BlackBerry App World. Last time it was the games section, this time it was the apps section. Here's what I've learned:

People want things for free. Moreover, they explicitly do not want to pay for things. Getting into the Top-25 Free on the PlayBook seems to require around 1500 downloads per day. From what I can recall, eking your way into the Top-25 Paid requires only around 40, or 2.5% of what it takes to get onto the free list.

Lots of downloads does not translate into lots of money. Since GPS Data Master is free and wasn't ad-supported, it didn't generate any revenue directly. As far as I can tell, it didn't drive anyone to my other apps, and it most certainly didn't encourage anyone to make a donation. If I could make a single dollar per year off everyone who downloads GPSDM, I could become a full-time app developer and give away all my other apps for free. As it stands now, I'll be exceedingly lucky if I make a tenth of a cent per person per year.

There's no way of knowing what'll become popular. I banged out the original version of GPSDM in about a day if I remember correctly. I didn't think anyone would ever use it. I have other apps that I've put hundreds of hours of work into that get maybe 10% of the downloads it does.

Many users have no concept of how apps generate revenue. I've had complaints about some of the least-intrusive ads I could find. I've had people get angry and say they're going to delete one of my ad-free apps if I don't change it in some way. I've had requests for features that would require several days of work from people who say they wouldn't be willing to pay a dollar to upgrade. It takes some cojones to ask a guy who's giving you free stuff to work for a week so you can have more free stuff, so I have to assume that there are users out there who think developers get paid if they download something or keep it installed on their device.

Perhaps most importantly, I've learned that the PlayBook is a dying platform. It's a good device, but right now no one is making apps for it. Over the last week there have been about 25 new games released. I know this because I released a game a week ago and it's still on the Top-25 New Arrivals page. They're not quality games, either. I reviewed a few of them over on my reviews blog, and they were mainly worthless; not that anything I've ever made is spectacular, but some ugly, broken stuff has come out this week. Right now, the PlayBook isn't succeeding in either the quality or the quantity of apps, and that more or less spells the end for it.

I'll continue to make occasional updates to my current apps, but I don't think I'll be making any new ones. If anyone would like to hire me to do a little freelance work, I have some time, now. The stuff on this blog should serve as a fairly good indicator of what I can do. And, apparently, I'm one of the top PlayBook developers out there. Whatever that means.

Scramble Master

The best anagram game out there! Unscramble the letters as fast as you can! Earn stars! Win medals! Have fun!

Unlike some other anagram games, Scramble Master only uses words you might have heard of. No periblem, no ekpueles, and no murrhine. It's not about adding esoteric words to your vocabulary, it's about having fun!

With thousands of words to choose from, word lengths from three to eight letters, and four difficulty levels, you'll probably never see everything it has to offer.

Available for Android devices and on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Review: Shaw Exo WiFi

Shaw Exo Wifi is a simple tool from Shaw Communications that will show you the locations of any Shaw Exo Wifi hotspots in your area, or anywhere else you might like to look for them. It has an online mode that will show you exact locations and give you directions courtesy of Google Maps, as well as an offline mode that will give you a city-by-city list of locations. You can search by city or by an exact address, and you can refine your search based on what type of building the hotspot is in, such as hotels, coffee shops, and Shaw stores.

UI
The UI is clean, and suitably coloured, but scrolling the list of locations can be a bit janky.

Usefulness:
If you're heading someplace new, or out on the town and carrying your tablet for some reason, and what to know where you can get online with Shaw, then this is the app for you. It's not quite as useful for people such as myself who aren't Shaw customers.

Reusability:
It's always good to know where a wifi hotspot is, so you could find yourself using this over and over again.

What I Liked
-The app notices when you lose your wifi connection and automatically switches to offline mode.

What I Hated
-Some Shaw Exo WiFi zones are accessible to the general public under certain conditions according to the help file, but it doesn't give any way of differentiating them.
-It takes a while to start. The first time I launched it, I thought it had locked up.
-Doesn't recognize that it has access to GPS if it can't get a signal right away.

Final Verdict:
Not particularly useful if you're not a Shaw customer, but if you are, and you're on the go a lot, you might find it helpful.

Shaw Exo WiFi is available for free from Shaw Communications on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: NBA Fantasy News

NBA Fantasy News is a news aggregator app. The news comes in four types RoloWorld Fantasy News, ESPN.com NBA News, NBA Highlights on Youtube and news from NBA.com. Each category gives you three pages of stories, and each page consists of five to seven stories, made up of a headline, a couple lines from the article, and, in the case of the Youtube section, the preview image from the video. Tapping a story brings up a screen that allows you to visit the originating website and read the full article, and lets you tweet the story or share it on Facebook if you so desire. That's the extent of what it does as far as I can tell.

UI
The user interface is clean, responsive, and highly intuitive.

Usefulness:
This is not a particularly useful app. It basically just gives you headlines, and you can more or less get those just by visiting the respective websites it culls information from.

Reusability:
It looks like the information will update throughout the day, so if you like getting your NBA news this way, you'll probably use it a lot.

What I Liked
-The UI design is well done.

What I Hated
-Some of the articles it lists require access to ESPN Insider. I assume that's probably free, but I don't have an account there.

Final Verdict:
A decent news aggregator, but a news aggregator nonetheless, so it's probably not worth the time to download it.

NBA Fantasy News is available for free from Bobby J. Saini on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: Chicky and the Cats: Dorobou Neko

Chicky and the Cats: Dorobou Neko is a puzzle game in the vein of ChuChu Rocket. The object of the game is to guide Chicky the chick around the game board to pick up packages while avoiding obstacles and dodging angry kittens. Chicky will walk in a single direction until he's incapacitated in some way, so it's up to you to place arrows to guide him around the level's obstacles. You place the arrows in advance, then tap the "Start" button and watch Chicky go. And watch you shall, since he's not exactly a fast walker, and you're probably not going to get the arrows right the first time.

Graphics:
Cartoony and reminiscent of old 16-bit era games. They're not flashy, but I found them well-done and suitable to the game's content. The isometric view when Chicky is walking around is a bit glitchy, but looks really nice.

Sound:
The one song is a bit slow, which made the game seem even slower than it already was. There's no option to turn it off, but I have volume controls, so it's not too bad. Sound effects are limited, but appropriate to the game style.

Gameplay:
You begin in an overhead puzzle view with the tile-based game board in the middle, and your various pieces off to the side. Arrows (and Chicky's airplane which allows him to fly over obstacles) are placed by tapping and dragging them onto the board. The pieces are a bit small for my fat fingers, but I managed okay. After you're happy with your placement, you hit the Start button, and the game switches to an isometric view where you watch Chicky walk around the board. It's head-poundingly slow. If Chicky makes it to the goal with all the packages, you win. If not, you lose and have to start over. Seeing Chicky devoured by a cat just as he's about to make it to the end, and realizing that you'll have to start all over again is heartbreaking.


What I Liked:
-The puzzles are reasonably well-designed, and the difficulty seems to scale relatively well as you progress.

What I Hated
-Tapping Chicky will make him change direction, but this change doesn't persist between run-throughs, meaning you have to redo it every time.
-It's slow. Incredibly slow. Watching Chicky walk around the level without having any input is really, really dull.
-Each time you launch, you're met with an unskippable intro scene.

Final Verdict:
A fine start, but needs a few tweaks to be really good.

Chicky and The Cats: Dorobou Neko is available for free from TriHam on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 0.3.1.

Review: Princess dress up

After discovering that nearly every app review site wants you to pay them for the honour of having your app reviewed, I decided that I would choose two apps and two games to review here. Choosing the two most recent arrivals on BlackBerry App World has produced some strange results.

Princess dress up is the latest in a long line of dress up games. Well, latest in the sense that it's new to the Playbook. It's an Android app that runs in the emulator. And I use the word "runs" fairly liberally since I was only able to get it to start once without having to reboot the device; after that it seemed to work fine. But, when it does actually work, it's a pretty generic "dress up" app.

I should also note that the listing on App World is "Dress up Princess" but the app description and icon refer to it as "Princess dress up", so that's what I'm going with.

Graphics:
Fairly simplistic, but good enough for what it's trying to accomplish. You're given a choice of seven girls to dress up, and each one comes with a variety of different clothing pieces. Some bits are generic across all the girls, but most are tailored individually, and fit with the style of the game.

Sound:
One short, annoying song playing on a loop. There's a control to turn it off, which is good. Very good.

Gameplay:
Practically non-existent. You drag and drop bits of clothing onto the girls, and that's it.

What I liked:
-The girls were a little ethnically diverse and of various ages, so there's something for all the girls out there.
-If you want fine movement, there are controls on the side that will allow you to move things on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

What I hated:
-The music was terrible and grating.
-The clothes only really seem to fit in one particular spot most of the time, and there's no option to get them to snap to it.
-Using it made me feel like a creepy pervert.

Final Verdict:
It's not really my bag, but if you're a young girl, this might be your thing.

Princess dress Up is ad-supported and available for free from kidgames on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.0.1.5

Word Scramble

Word scramble brings the classic jumbled words puzzle to your BlackBerry PlayBook.

Unscramble the words, then letters from the words create a new, jumbled up solution. Unjumble the solution to find the answer to a riddle, a joke, or a truly terrible pun. It's fun for the whole family!

Two ways to play: Drag the letter tiles, or just tap.

With more 70+ puzzles, you get more than you'd get from your local newspaper in an entire year! All for one low price. How can you pass up that deal?