1. Mobile Mud Pie
Launchup - In the Weeds
Dave Stevenson
@dnstevenson

2. Mobile Quick Stats
• Hundreds of millions of devices
• Over 350,000 new iOS devices each day
• Over 425,000 iOS Apps
• Over 250,000 Android Apps
• Over 600 new iPhone apps each day
• Apple has paid developers over $2.5 billion

3. So you’ve got the next
Angry Birds idea?

4. How Much will it Cost me?
• Twitterific v1.0 - $250,000 est
• Obama App - $50k - $150k est
• Angry Birds v1.0 - $500k+ est
• US iOS Developers: $100+ / hour
• Offshore iOS Developers: $20+ / hour

5. How Do I Make Money?
•Lots of ways, but a few basic ones:
• Free with in-app advertising
• Free with in-app purchases (virtual goods, etc)
• Paid Downloads - $0.99+ per install

6. Still interested?

8. Mobile Mud Pie Recipe
•3 cups programming
• 1 cup idea
• 2 cups design
• 1 tbsp pricing
• 2 tsp socialness
• 1 cup secret sauce

9. 3 Cups Programming
• iPhone/iPad programmed in Objective-C using
XCode. Must have Mac.
• $99 yearly developer license fee
• Android programmed in Java, using Windows, Mac,
Linux
• Cross-Platform kits exist but I don’t recommend

10. Objective-C API

11. Objective-C API
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:
(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil
bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
return self;
}

12. Just Kidding...
• Go to http://developer.apple.com or http://
developer.android.com - those have everything you
need to get started

13. 1 Cup Good Idea
•App is just like any other software product
• Market research, talk to potential customers, follow
lean principles, pivot*, etc
• Know the device limitations and platform restrictions
• Read developer best-practice guides
• Don’t worry about being entirely unique - be better
or better designed
* your first release is your best chance to get noticed - so make it good

14. 2 Cups Design

15. 2 Cups Design
Lacking Design

16. 2 Cups Design
Lacking Design Better Design

17. Good Design
• Simplicity is Key - resist temptation to throw in the
kitchen sink
• Think about when the user will use the app and make
it accessible in those conditions
• Rule of 44
• Follow platform design conventions
• Don’t Let Your Programmer do the Design

18. 1 tbsp Pricing
• Apple takes 30% cut of app sales
• After exchange rate, you may end up with ~$0.32
• It takes a lot of app sales at $0.99 to make a living
• One app sale = customer for life to support
• Price according to category competition
• Lower price = more sales, more sales = higher ranking,
higher ranking = more sales

19. 2 tsp Socialness
•How did you find out about the apps you’ve bought?
• User’s love sharing their apps
• Provide High Score leaderboards, Email, Facebook,
and Twitter sharing

20. 1 Cup Secret Sauce

21. 1 Cup Secret Sauce
• Get Featured by Apple
• How do you do it? Make a good
app, period.

22. Parting Thoughts
• It’s not a gold-mine anymore - it takes work, like any
other business
• Angry Birds was Rovio’s 52nd game and was barely
ranked before Apple featured it
• Average app makes under $700
• Be ready to throw your app out and try again

23. Good Luck
•@dnstevenson
• http://www.stevensonsoftware.com
• dave@stevensonsoftware.com
• I always appreciate 5-star reviews