AppGratis Was Indeed Pulled By Apple, But “Reports Of [Its] Death Are Greatly Exaggerated”
iOS App Discovery Service AppGratis was pulled from the App Store on Saturday. At the time, commentators were left wondering what was wrong with AppGratis’ app. Founder and CEO Simon Dawlat just wrote a long blog post explaining what’s going to happen next.
“AppGratis, is very much up and running,” Dawlat said. “I want to tell these people the reports of our death are greatly exaggerated,” he continued. While other similar events previously happened, nothing as serious occurred. For example, Apple said that AppGratis was spamming the App Store because it released a different localized app in each country instead of a single app with multiple localizations.
Only a week ago, the iPad app was approves by the App Store review team. That’s why it was a surprised when the app was pulled by Apple over the weekend. AppGratis was about to promote its iPad launch.
On Monday, AllThingsD reported that Apple banned the app for violating two developer guidelines and not respecting the general philosophy of the App Store. As a reminder, AppGratis helps App Store users discover new apps, provides a short description and makes paid apps free for a day.
Dawlat confirms that Apple pulled the app because of those two guidelines:
2.25: Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.
5.6: Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.
Over the past couple of months, AppGratis made a series of key announcements. It has raised $13.5 million in January. In February, it crossed the 10 million user mark with apps seeing up to 1 million downloads in a day.
In other words, AppGratis’ growth improved in a very short period of time. Selected apps now skyrocket to the first ranks of the App Store. Developers have to share their revenue with AppGratis during and after the deal. From the outside, AppGratis looks like a way to pay to promote an app in the Top Apps section.
Yet, it’s probably because AppGratis got big that Apple starting looking into it. But the news that AppGratis was pulled from the App Store came as a surprise. Dawlat even says in the middle of his post: “and as I’m about to push the ‘publish’ button on this story, I’m still in absolute shock as to what is happening to us.”
Developing…
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Get flinging: The original Angry Birds games for iOS are now free for the first time ever
Nice catch from the folks over at Appsfire: the original Angry Birds game is now available for free from the App Store.
This includes both the small-screen version for iPhone and iPod touch (before: $0.99) and the HD version for iPad (before: $2.99).
According to Appsfire, which tracks this sort of thing, this is the first time ever that Rovio, the Finnish company behind the successful game, has made the original iOS game free.
Appsfire expects Apple to start promoting the original Angry Birds game as the ‘free app of the week’ shortly.
Rovio hasn’t yet announced that the mobile games are now available for free on its website, Facebook page or Twitter feed at the time of publication, presumably because it wants – or is required – to wait until the free version propagates across the App Stores in all supported markets. But now you know 
➤ Angry Birds for iPhone and iPod touch
➤ Angry Birds for iPad
Also read:
Rovio releases free, ad-supported version of Amazing Alex for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Rovio hooks up with DreamWorks to launch a new iOS and Android game, ‘The Croods’, on March 14
Image credit: pj_vanf / Flickr
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See the original post: Get flinging: The original Angry Birds games for iOS are now free for the first time ever
It’s A Facebook And Google World On Apple’s App Store, Poke Hits #1 A Day After Its Release
Remember all of this excitement hoopla over Facebook’s latest standalone app, Poke, yesterday? You aren’t the only one that is interested, apparently. As The Next Web reports, Poke by Facebook has hit the No. 1 free app spot on Apple’s App Store, just a day after being released.
Make no mistake about it, the big companies like Facebook and Google are going to have the best holiday season ever thanks to Apple and iOS. It’s very rare to see utility or social apps hold the top free app spot like Google Maps has over the past week, and like Facebook Poke probably will. It’s usually a game, or a boogers app that holds that down.
And they get massive downloads because of it, especially during this time of the year.
What does this mean for consumers…and for Apple? Most iOS users who are getting new devices, or even first-timers, are swayed by what’s hot on the App Store. The leaderboard is very important to onboard new users into the app ecosystem. Apple likes to highlight the best and brightest that shows off their technology, but the leaderboard shows what users are really interested in. Today, it’s all about Poke.
When Facebook said it was focusing on mobile, it wasn’t kidding. Holding the No. 1 free app spot is like having the biggest kiosk in a mall during the biggest rush of the year. This type of crowding from big companies isn’t what the App Store has seen over the years, as we usually have a big game launch right around Christmas, thus ruling the charts since Apple freezes new submissions and releases during the holidays.
Note that Snapchat is holding the No. 9 spot, and is clearly slipping in popularity, and Google is sitting pretty at both No. 2 (Maps) and No. 5 (YouTube). Even Pinger’s free texting and calling app is right up there at No. 6.
It’s also important to note that the new “hot” apps tend to surge up to the top quickly, as Poke clearly has, but remaining there for more than a few days is a real feat. Can Facebook do it? Let’s see as all of those new iPads, iPhones, Touches and iPad minis get opened next week. Also, having a billion users surely doesn’t hurt your distribution and marketing efforts.
Welcome, Facebook. Seriously. Who knew that a Poke would be so important?
[Photo credit: Flickr]
Excerpt from: It’s A Facebook And Google World On Apple’s App Store, Poke Hits #1 A Day After Its Release
Analyst: Just 25 Developers Grabbed 50% Of App Revenues On U.S. App Store, Google Play Last Month; Earning $60M Between Them
Proof, if proof were needed, that the apps gold-rush has resulted in the majority of the riches being concentrated in a few developers’ hands: analyst house Canalys says just 25 developers accounted for half of app revenue on the two dominant U.S. app stores, Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play, over a 20-day period last month.
The finding is an estimate based on Canalys’ daily App Interrogator surveys, and refers to revenue generated in the U.S. in these stores during the first 20 days of November. Between them, the 25 developers accrued $60 million from paid-for downloads and in-app purchases over this period, according to the analyst. All the top-grossing developers — bar one — are games developers. The exception is the Pandora music streaming service with its Pandora Radio app. Games developers in the list include Zynga, Electronic Arts, Disney, Kabam, Rovio, Glu, Gameloft and Storm8’s TeamLava — with Canalys going on to note:
During the same period, games accounted for 145 on average of the top 300 paid apps in the Apple App Store and 116 of Google Play’s top 300 paid apps. Games also accounted for 94 of the top 300 listed free apps for Apple and 110 for Google Play.
It follows that developers not making games have an uphill battle to get their wares noticed and monetized. “Discoverability is a particular issue in the Apple App Store and in Google Play given the huge inventories they boast,” noted Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd in a statement. “With top game developers’ content so prevalent in the stores, it can be hard for other good quality apps to get the attention they deserve. Developers of other kinds of apps need to consider how to promote them. Depending on the type of app, they should consider how best they can exploit social media and social recommendations, tactical sales promotions and discounts, branding tie-ups and targeted in-app advertising.”
If there are any lessons here for striking it lucky by making money with games apps, successful game developers “almost invariably have multiple titles generating revenue,” says Canalys — so, in other words, don’t put your (Angry Birds) eggs in one basket. The analyst notes that Zynga had 15 titles in the list of top 300 grossing iPhone apps “on average” in Apple’s App Store every day, and nine titles in the equivalent list in Google Play. Even Angry Birds’ maker Rovio had “multiple game variants” in the list.
As for games developers who aren’t on the list for November — there’s more bad news ahead: the analyst expects many of the top 25 developers to consolidate their dominant position over the holiday season by “employing discounts and special offers, taking advantage of their ability to cross-promote within their app portfolios.”
“This is expected to ensure that over the Christmas period in the US, the dominance of key game developers will only increase,” added Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones, in a statement.
A recent report by analyst ABI Research predicts that cumulative global app revenues will exceed $30 billion by the end of the year.
See original here: Analyst: Just 25 Developers Grabbed 50% Of App Revenues On U.S. App Store, Google Play Last Month; Earning $60M Between Them
10 workflow apps to enhance your productivity
You know, sometimes a task manager isn’t enough. Sometimes you need something that keeps you work flowing beyond the to-do list. There are several apps that can do just that, and I call them “workflow apps” as they may not be the backbone of a trusted system, but they sure can support the workflow that helps you keep that trusted system intact.
Here are 10 workflow apps you should give a closer look, as they can really enhance your productivity.
EISENHOWER
(Web-based, iPhone)
A different approach to the task management niche in that it relies on the 4 Quadrants approach originally popularized by Dwight Eisenhower. I use EISENHOWER to break down certain projects to make them more manageable, and I wind up delegating or deleting a lot more because of that. (You can also order its paper-based equivalent.)
See the original post: 10 workflow apps to enhance your productivity