Thursday 19 February 2015

A Change of Plan!

We are happy to announce that we are about to launch a new app! Yay! We are also announcing that our last app isn't doing as well as we'd hoped, in either its Addition or Subtraction variants. Boo! The market seems to have changed. People are so used to apps being 'free', although most usually aren't... you end up paying somehow, that people just aren't willing to pay even a couple of pounds / dollars / euros for a great app.

We know that people liked our app, because we gave it away for free one day and had around 2,500 downloads! They just don't like paying for it! I talk to other kids app developers and they are finding the same thing.

If I had made apps targeted at adults (games, calendars, weather, photography) the solution would be simple. Put some adverts in the app and make some money with every view and more money with every click. However I personally don't like adverts in kids apps. Even if I know my kids aren't going to click through and buy anything, they occassionally hit an advert by mistake and end up confused about where their game went. I don't suppose advertisers really like kids apps either because they must get a lot of false clicks.

So the solution is 'in app purchases'. This is a bit of a dirty word in some people's minds. They fear children will rack up huge bills buying in app currency. Done responsibly though it can work really well. Our in-app purchases will allow us to give some content away for free, allowing everyone to give it a try, then if they really want more content or features they can buy some, and hopefully that will give us enough money to carry on making great apps. We will protect the child by requiring a parent gate answer to leave the main game.

So watch this space. There should be a new app patch app family member in a couple of weeks time. We think people are going to love it. It's based on space and the Solar System. If offers unique functionality, and you get the first third of the planets for free! After launching that we will work to convert our other apps to this model too. Hopefully everyone's a winner.

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