CodePromo: Generate/Send Promo Codes From Your iPhone — Beta Testers Wanted

CodePromo is an iPhone app that interacts with iTunes Connect to generate promo codes for easy sharing.

Motivation

You’re chatting with someone. Might be at a bar, conference, or business meeting. You’re talking about your app — paid app to be precise — and decide that you’d like to share a copy of the app with your conversational partner. How would you do it?

Promo code, you’d naturally think. Take out your phone, bring up Mobile Safari, log into iTunes Connect, click through to generate a promo code and… nothing. You can’t generate promo codes from Mobile Safari.

Existing plan-B options are unacceptable: Get their contact info, send it to them later; loss of instant gratification. Take out your wallet, hand them the cost of the app; get 70% back when Apple pays out.

CodePromo

CodePromo makes it easy to generate promo codes and share them from your iPhone. It’s a native app that manages all of the iTunes Connect interactions right from your phone. Once it’s generated a promo code, you can email it right from the app or copy it to the pasteboard and e.g., send it via SMS. This <30 second video demonstrates it in action:

RSS readers: view the video

Beta Testers Wanted

I need a handful of beta testers. Free copy for your help. Beta testers need to be in the US, have paid apps in the store, have promo codes remaining, and have occasion to want to share their apps in-person. Please email me if your interested; please include an iTunes link to your apps (instructions). I won’t need your UDID.

But Wait…

If your reaction to this is, “it’ll never get into the store” please hold your horses. I’ll explain later. Promise.

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/codepromo-generatesend-promo-codes-from-your-iphone-beta-testers-wanted/

Mobile Orchard - Simulate Native iPhone Apps

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHG3NCKyoI8&feature=player_embedded

Simulating Native Apps In iPhone Simulator For Better Demo Videos

As described in this article, the iPhone Simulator combined with screen capture software provide an easy way to record a demo video for your app.

However, if a key part of your app involves launching the Maps application to obtain directions or other native functionality like launching a YouTube video, the iPhone Simulator alone will fall short.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to emulate native apps in iPhone Simulator.

Background and Process

Applications such as Where To? and iGarageSale provide directions to specific locations by launching the Maps application. This is done by calling openURL: in UIApplication with an http://maps.google.com/… URL. The iPhone has a built-in custom URL handler for Google Maps URLs, so when the app is run on an iPhone, the Maps application is launched.

However, when the app is run on iPhone Simulator, Safari is launched and a standard Google Maps webpage is loaded. A similar effect can be accomplished in iPhone Simulator by creating a mock Maps application that uses screen shots taken from the native Maps application on the iPhone.

Outline

Creating and using a mock application involves three steps:

1. Capture screen shots from the native application on the device.
2. Download a mock application from GitHub and customize it.
3. Create a demo build of your application to launch the mock application instead of the native one.

Capture Screen Shots of the Native Application

For every screen shot of the native app that you would like, tap the home button and the lock buttons simultaneously. The screen will flash indicating that a screen shot has been taken. For an added bonus, take a screen shot as the native app immediately as it is launching. This will serve as the Default.png file for your mock application. Then, sync your iPhone with iPhoto to download the screen shots taken.

Download The Native App Simulator Package from GitHub and Customize It

Step 1: Download the Native App Simulator package from GitHub

Either download a zip or clone the Native App Simulator repo by by opening a Terminal window and typing:

git clone git://github.com/performantdesign/NativeAppSimulator.git

There are two Xcode projects provided, MockApplicationLauncher and MockMaps. MockApplicationLauncher provides an example of how to launch your mock native application through a demo build and a custom URL handler. MockMaps is an example mock native application that displays the screen shots you’ll capture.

Step 2: Add screen shots to mock applications

Open the MockMaps application in Xcode. Copy the screen shots into your mock applications Resources folder as shown. If you captured the startup screen, be sure to rename it to Default.png before adding.

Step 3: Update DemoSequence.plist with references to the screen shots

Edit DemoSequence.plist. The property list file consists of an array of dictionaries, with each dictionary representing a screen shot in sequence. The dictionary should contain two key/value pairs – a number with a key of Delay and a string with a key of Image. If Delay is 0, you will advance to the next screen shot by tapping on the screen. If Delay is greater than 0, the screen shot will automatically advance after the number of seconds denoted. This is useful for showing a time delayed Loading… sequence.

Step 4: (optional) Add an icon and bundle display name to match the native app

If the home screen is displayed as part of your demo, you want to make sure your mock application has an appropriate display name and title. Edit the Info.plist file to set the appropriate values. You can grab the Icon.png for the application you are emulating from the SimFinger fake apps repository.

Create a Demo Build of Your Application

The example MockMaps application provided handles custom URL’s with a scheme of mockmaps:. A demo build of your application will be created that will launch the mock application instead of the native application. An #ifdef will be used to detect a demo build to launch the mock application instead. This technique is outlined in the MockApplicationLauncher project provided on Github.

- (IBAction)getDirectionsTapped {
	NSString *urlToLaunch;

#ifdef DEMO
	urlToLaunch = @"mockmaps://localhost/";
#else
	urlToLaunch = @"http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=20807+Stevens+Creek+Blvd,+Cupertino,+CA&daddr=22350+Homestead+Rd,+Cupertino,+CA";
#endif

	[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlToLaunch]];
}

End Result

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/simulating-native-apps-in-iphone-simulator-for-better-demo-videos/

Apple iSlate OS Leaked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgAEGxqL6xI

Why No iPhone Updates? The Tablet, Perhaps.

January 13, 2010

It’s been over three months since Apple last updated the iPhone OS to version 3.1.2. And while that’s not an unheard of amount of time between updates, it is quite a bit of time to go without any word that a new update is coming soon. Why? It could be because Apple doesn’t want to tip its hand about any information about the upcoming tablet, a new report today suggests.

“There hasn’t been an updated iPhone OS build because there’s too much tablet-related code/references in the OS and Apple obviously didn’t want that to leak. Oops,” is what Boy Genius Report says it is hearing from an Apple source it trusts. That news comes with a few other bits, including that the tablet’s multi-touch gestures are “out of control,” that it’s powered by an ARM processor, that it (obviously with the above information) runs on the iPhone kernel, and that it’s basically an “iPhone on steroids.”

The last description seems to be a popular one these days. The Nexus One was first described as an “iPhone on beautifying steroids” by someone last month prior to its launch. For what it’s worth, I ended up disagreeing with that. But if anyone is capable of making a device that can live up to such a billing, it would be Apple. And that description also points to something we first said over a year ago: that the tablet could be like a large-form iPod touch. Of course, they use iPhone rather than iPod touch, but the core idea seems interchangeable. Or maybe Boy Genius’ tipster is suggesting that the tablet will have some sort of wireless connectivity built-in — something which has been rumored plenty of times by now.

This most recent report also goes along with much of what we reported hearing back in May of last year. That included information that the tablet OS was likely based on the iPhone OS. And that it likely used an ARM processor, rather than a more powerful Intel or even Intel Atom chip. We were worried about the prospects of an ARM chip being able to power Flash video, but who knows, if Apple is sticking close to their iPhone roots with the tablet, maybe they won’t even allow Flash on the thing. And this latest report also notes that this ARM chip in the tablet would be “incredibly fast,” and that could well go along with information VentureBeat heard in July that Apple had the team it acquired from PA Semi working on a special chip that would be just for the tablet.

In terms of the tablet OS, that remains a big mystery. It seems a pretty good bet at this point that it will not be running a full version of OS X. Not only might that be a problem using a presumably low-power chip, but it seems like full OS X might be overkill for a device that likely won’t be meant (yet) to do everything a traditional computer can. Others have hypothesized that the tablet won’t run a straight-up version of the iPhone OS either. And that makes sense as well given that the tablet will have a much larger screen and would presumably be capable of more than an iPhone. A variation of the iPhone OS seems like the best bet. And if that’s true and it’s meant to play nice with the iPhone and iPod touch, it’s probably likely that there are code hints in the latest iPhone OS builds that point to the tablet.

For what it’s worth, we’ve heard that iPhone OS 4.0 is definitely in the works and coming soon (something which should be no surprise at all). In the past, Apple has revealed the SDK for its new iPhone OS’ around March, so developers have time to work with it before its released to the public in the summer alongside a new device. But if the tablet OS is closely tied to the iPhone OS, it could certainly unveil a new SDK at the rumored event later this month.

Boy Genius also thinks it has a model number on the tablet: K48AP. Recent reports have indicated that there might be two variations of the device, so it’s not clear which that one would be. But that seems awfully specific for it to be coming from nowhere.

Finally, here’s another video supposedly showing off the tablet OS. Yes, this is almost undoubtedly fake, but it does go along with the other ones from over the Summer. This seems to suggest that the tablet will run iPhone OS apps straight-up, in smaller windows, almost as if they were widgets. This has also been hypothesized a bunch, and might be a good idea if Apple wants to take advantage of the over 100,000 iPhone apps already out there. Again, the video is likely fake, but the concept may not be that far off.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/13/iphone-os-tablet/

Can The Nexus One Add $20 Billion To Google’s Market Value?

by Erick Schonfeld on January 13, 2010

How much exactly is the Nexus One line of Android phones worth to Google? The folks at Trefis have modeled Nexus One sales into their financial forecast for Google and estimate that it will account for nearly $20 billion of Google’s market cap (based on its target price pf $659 per share), accounting for 9.3 percent of the total. That is more than its estimated contribution of ad and search partnerships (5.1 percent), Google Apps (3.2 percent) or YouTube (2.4 percent). Only search ads account for more of Google’s total value (68.1 percent).

How does Trefis come up with these numbers? Trefis is an investing site which comes up with financial models for stocks which translate into interactive stock charts and price targets. If you don’t agree with their model, you can change some of the underlying assumption sin the drag-able charts and create your own model (see below). Trefis is assuming Google will sell 5 million Nexus One phones this year, and that the Nexus One market share will grow from 0.4 percent this year to 3.4 percent in 2016, when the iPhone will have an 11.5 percent global mobile phone market share (as shown by the olive-colored line above) and Blackberry will have an 8.2 percent share (green line).

That seems a bit aggressive, but as I mentioned, you can always change the assumptions to something you think makes more sense. For instance, if the Nexus One even manages to capture 1 percent of global mobile phone market share, it would add 2.44 percent to Google’s market share, or about the same as YouTube. The Trefis model takes into account other factors, such as the unsubsidized price and margins declining over time. Remember, even though HTC is making these phones, Google is the one who is selling them, both directly and through carriers such as T-Mobile (who are subsidizing the $530 unlocked price and offering them to consumers for $180 with a contract). The Trefis model projects Nexus One revenues to be:

2010: $2.8 billion
2011: $5.7 billion
2012: $8.5 billion
2013: $11 billion
2014: $14 billion

While it’s fun to play around with these numbers, nobody can really predict how successful the Nexus One family will be. And it is not safe to assume typical mobile phone margins since Google has other motivations for pushing these phones, namely to increase adoption of the mobile Web where it will make its real money through mobile search. Also, this model does not take into account the software revenues from all the other Android phones out there. It is only Nexus One. Trefis estimats that Googl eis making a $231 gross profit on each phone, based on iSuppli’ s$174 component cost estimate plus other costs such as warranty, R&D ($50), and HTC’s cut ($75). Google has publicly stated that the profits from the Nexus One are minimal. Yet, if two thirds of Apple’s market share can be attributed to the iPhone (as estimated by Trefis), it doesn’t seem like a stretch to think that Nexus One can become 9 percent of Google’s.

In fact, if you look at Google’s stock price on the day before the Nexus One was confirmed, it was $590, and it rose to $627 just before the official launch on January 5, adding nearly $12 billion to Google’s market cap in that time alone. Of course, there were other factors contributing to the stock’s rise during that time, but an extra $20 billion on top of Google’s current $185 billion market cap is not unthinkable. (The stock today is trading at $585, after the disclosure that it might be exiting the China market).

How much do you think Nexus One is worth to Google?

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/13/nexus-one-20-billion-google/

Medialets Vampire Weekend Ad

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvnRSU1jDMc

An iPhone Ad Disguised As A User-Editable Vampire Weekend Music Video

Ads on the iPhone, just as ads on the web, are something most users want to avoid. But some of the ad companies that are specifically targeting newer smartphone devices such as the iPhone are becoming increasingly inventive with their approach to advertising. A good example of this just launched today in the NPR app for the iPhone.

In this app, the mobile analytics and advertising company Medialets is serving up an ad for the new album, Contra, by the band Vampire Weekend. At first, the ad just peeks out at the bottom of the NPR app, but if you click to expand it, it quickly takes up the entire device. So why would you want to do this? Because it’s a video for Vampire Weekend’s new song “Cousins” — and thanks to some of the iPhone’s unique features, you can actually interact with the ad, shaking your iPhone to change how the video looks.

Sure, it’s not a huge amount of customization, but it’s much better than normal methods of advertising and it creates a sense of interaction with the ad. Naturally, you can also click the screen to show an option that will allow you to buy the album on the device.

Companies like Google and Apple, two of the most important players in mobile right now, are scooping up some of these mobile ad companies left and right these days. Clearly, they think there’s a bright future for the medium as well.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/13/iphone-music-video-ad/

iPhone Doubles Up Android On Mobile Ad Click Rates; Both Destroyed By Symbian

When you think about mobile advertising, you might think the iPhone or Android are the hot platforms (thanks to ads like this). But you’d be wrong.

Some new December data from the mobile advertising company Smaato suggests that it’s actually Symbian that kills both the iPhone and Android. Now, I know what you’re thinking: that’s because Nokia, despite the buzz surrounding the sexier smartphone devices, remains the biggest mobile player in the world. But actually, the numbers are for the all-important click-through rates on the various platforms.

As you can see in the chart below, with the average CTR on ads for all mobile platforms set to 100, Symbian led the way by far with a 161 score. This was followed by the iPhone (and iPod touch) with 119. Android? They’re way down the list with a 65. Only Palm and BlackBerry fared worse.

So why is Symbian doing so well with click-through rates? Smaato suspects is may have to do with the high saturation of Nokia devices in emerging markets. But they also note that the CTR in the U.S. are higher for Symbian, though on a much smaller scale since Nokia isn’t nearly as popular here.

In terms of overall usage, Symbian makes of some 46.2% of the phones that Smaato tracks. RIM (BlackBerry) is in second place with 20.6%, but the iPhone is quickly catching up, with 17.8% after experiencing huge growth this year. But Smaato expects Android to the the big mover in 2010, likely going from just 3.5% now to over 10% by the end of the year.

Something else interesting from the report: Quattro Wireless tied Millennial Media as the top-performing mobile ad network in the U.S. That’s significant since Apple just acquired Quattro after Google stole AdMob away from them. Smaato didn’t specify AdMob data in its report.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/13/iphone-android-symbian-click-rates/

RFID Reader

iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo.

 

http://vimeo.com/4147129

iPhone as RFID Tag & Reader: Coming Soon

We began our Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things series yesterday with a look at barcode scanning. We wrote that smartphones are increasingly being deployed as readers for barcodes - in particular via apps available on iPhone and Android. These applications, such as RedLaser on iPhone and ShopSavvy on Android, allow you to scan a barcode on a product or object and get more information about it.

We noted however that RFID tags are more functional and flexible than barcodes. While barcodes are cheaper and getting traction in the U.S. with the QR format, the potential for RFID tags is even greater. Apple knows this and if rumors are to believed, RFID will be integrated into the iPhone 4G later this year.

RWW's Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things Series:

1. Mobile Apps For Barcode Scanning
2. iPhone as RFID Tag & Reader

According to a number of believable blog reports, RFID is set to be a part of the as yet unannounced iPhone 4G. Apple holds a patent for a touch screen RFID tag reader and is said to be testing an RFID-enabled iPhone currently. So RFID could be a feature of the iPhone 4G as soon as Spring 2010.

As MacRumors succinctly explained in November, mobile phone usage of RFID technology will come in the form of Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a new standard based on RFID and it has three use cases: the phone as an RFID tag; the phone as RFID Reader; and peer to peer communication (P2P) between two NFC-enabled phones.

The first two use cases are the most interesting. Using the iPhone as an RFID tag means it can be a deployed as a payment device (similar to a credit card), identity card, security device, and more. This type of functionality is already happening in Japan, where the RFID Suica chip is installed in some mobile phones.

Using the phone as an RFID Reader allows the iPhone to interact with RFID-enabled objects in the real world. Check out this prototype from a Norwegian research organization called Touch, using the iPhone as a Media Player:

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/iphone_as_rfid_tag_reader.php

Nexus One, Week 1: Outsold by iPhone 3Gs 80-to-1

Just one week after Google launched the Nexus One, its entry into the smartphone field, the numbers are in and it doesn't look to be keeping up with the competition. We reviewed the iPhone-competitor the other day and see it as a formidable challenger, but sales numbers from its first week fall drastically short of those same numbers for other smartphones during their first week, according to statistics from mobile analytics firm Flurry.

While Flurry's own analysis of the numbers makes sure to point out that the statistics may not provide an "apples to apples" comparison, the Nexus One's first week sales were a fraction of its top three competitors.

Flurry details the methods used to arrive at these numbers in its blog post and is certain to call the data an estimate. But if they are even close to correct, the Droid, myTouch 3G and iPhone 3GS outsold the Nexus One by a factor, respectively, of 12, three and 80.

Whether it was Google's lack of marketing, the fact that the phone was only available for purchase online, or its $500-plus sticker price without a service contract, Flurry identifies a number of reasons for the slow start. The company also points to the post-holiday release date and the fact that Google did little compared to Verizon's $100 million marketing of the Droid.

We see a few other points that could have contributed to the slow start. For those using AT&T, the Nexus One works in slower EDGE mode, not 3G. And for the contract weary, news about Google charging additional early termination fees certainly holds some scare factor.

We'll have to keep an eye on these numbers as time goes on, but we're curious - what, if anything, has kept you from taking the leap?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/iphone_beats_nexus_one_80_to_1_in_first_week_sales.php

Sunlight Brings Congress to Your iPhone

The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation announced today the availability of its Real Time Congress iPhone app. The app displays an up-to-the-minute feed of updates from the House and Senate floors, Whip notices, hearings scheduled and key government documents as they are released.

Unfortunately all this information is displayed quite simply; there is as of yet no deep personalization as in Sunlight's years-old and fabulous OpenCongress project, there's no search and the app doesn't make use of the iPhone's push capabilities. It's not a bad start, but there is a lot of potential for an iPhone app to make Congressional activity a much more engaging part of peoples' day-to-day lives.

Asked about push notifications, Josh Ruihley, Sunlight's Technical Program Officer told us. "It's definitely on the road map. Currently, every document, hearing and floor update you see in the app is tagged by the piece of legislation it is related to. Our next phase is to actually represent those relationships in the UI."

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sunlight_brings_congress_to_your_iphone.php

Do the Size of Mobile App Stores Still Matter?

According to Mplayit CEO Michael Powers, the size of a mobile platform's app store is now mostly irrelevant. Facebook-based mobile app store Mplayit took a close look at the most popular apps for Android, BlackBerry and the iPhone and found that the most popular apps on all three platforms tend to be very similar. As the popular app stores continue to grow, users on all the major platforms also drift towards the same known brands and hits like EverNote and Pandora.

Mplayit also found that one of the fastest growing app categories across all the major platforms are barcode scanners. Apps like ShopSavvy and RedLaser have clearly hit upon an unfulfilled need.

Size Doesn't Matter

According to Powers, asking how many apps exist for a given platform is now a moot question. All the major platforms now offer more than enough apps and as long as people can find the apps they are looking for - and as long as these apps are good - most consumers will be happy. Most users simply don't need 50 different apps to write their grocery lists.

Looking at Mplayit's list of the most popular apps across the top platforms, it also becomes clear that quite a few of these categories are being dominated by known brands like Shazam, Pandora, Evernote and Facebook. Mplayit, of course, is in the business of giving app recommendations across platforms and doesn't fail to note that it's own store is a good alternative for finding apps outside of the standard top 20 charts.

Or Does It?

To some degree, Powers' comments about the size of today's app stores rings true. Maybe it really doesn't matter that the Android store only features about 20,000 apps and that the Apple App Store now holds more than 100,000. Maybe it is true that consumers tend to gravitate towards the same brands on all platforms.

At the same time, though, having more apps in the store also means that there is a more active developer ecosystem around a given platform. While iPhone developers rightly gripe about Apple's approval process, we've seen a lot more innovative apps for the iPhone than for Android.

Is the size of the Android market holding you back from making the switch? Do you think Android has enough good apps that make up for the smaller app store? Do you think the quality of today's BlackBerry apps is good enough? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_the_size_of_mobile_apps_stores_still_matter.php