Fight the race to .99

There was some talk a while back about the race to the bottom, the pressure to price your app at $.99. There was a lot of talk about various things that some people thought would help. I thought most of the things that were suggested might be helpful. But really what the developers need are marketing tools that allow a developer to leverage a good app into good tools. A lot of this centers around brand success. Here are some simple things that I think would help a lot.

1. Allow developers to link to their apps as a group.

Let's say that I have a good app. People like it and use it. I would like to provide a link from this one app, to my other apps. It sounds simple enough, but isn't possible today. Check out Digital Chocolate. They have implemented a special word in their app descriptions - dhoc - in order to allow them to search for just their apps. The problem is that the iTunes app on the device only lets you link directly to an item and not to a publisher/artist.

Let me build up my brand.

2. Encourage users to rate apps that they run regularly.

My Pinch Media stats tell me that less than 10% of users rate apps that they have purchased. Give users a special app that lets them rate the apps that they run regularly. Make it easy to rate apps.

3. Let developers link directly to the app ratings system.

The NYTimes app attempts to do this. If you run their app a few times successfully (a challenge), then it will prompt you to go to the app store to provide feedback. They did this because it was easier than fixing their buggy app - but I digress. The problem is that the only thing you can do is link to the app description. I would like to be able to put the user right at the screen where they rate the app.

Why is that important to take them right to the app? I have had more than one friend buy my app and say they love it! Then I ask them if they have reviewed my app. They give me this confused look and ask how to do that. These are technical folks too. Engineers, IT folks and such. It is just to easy to give negative feedback on an app and to hard to give good feedback.

4. I'm going to write an app that does this one.

5. Provide some sample code to the developers on how to do the above items easily.

Encourage the developers to do it in a uniform manner.