See why app stores are the way of the future for application distribution. Follow my adventure of submitting my Advice Owl mobile app to four different app stores.

1. App Stores +
Cordova
Get Excited!
Drake Emko
demko@revionics.com

2. Why App Stores?
Old Way:
Y U NO buy my game?

3. Why App Stores?
What game? I never heard of it.
You’re hosting it on GeoCities, how good can it be?
Why wouldn’t I buy a game from a publisher I’ve heard
of?
How do I know it doesn’t have a virus?
You want my credit card? No Way!
How do I install it?

4. Why App Stores?
Now:
Your app is
displayed on same
footing as Facebook,
Twitter, Yelp, etc.
That looks nice!
I’ll click install!

5. Why App Stores?
Basically everyone buys their apps there
Payments are easy!
I need this… Download!
Oooh, cats… Download!
Hmm, monkeys… Download!
Furious birds? OK… Download!
“We know from our user testing [of] tablets
and mobile devices that users quickly
accumulate numerous applications”
- JAKOB NIELSEN

6. The Journey Begins
Enter My App:
Read Advice
Columns!
Actual Screenshot!

7. Android or iOS?
iOS!
“iPhone users spend an average of 19 cents per app downloaded, while Android
users spend only 6 cents per download.”
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/18/iphone-users-pay-average-of-19-cents-per-app-android-users-pay-just-6-cents
Android!
“80 percent of smartphone sales worldwide — especially in developing markets
such as China, where Apple’s iPhone is seventh.”
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/04/iphone-up-windows-phone-up-android-down-in-latest-mobile-marketshare-numbers/

8. Why not both? Yay PhoneGap!
Build your app in HTML5, CSS, and
JavaScript
PhoneGap builds it for:
●
●
●
●
●
Android
iOS
Windows Phone
Blackberry
… And More!

9. Or Apache Cordova, whatever!
PhoneGap or Cordova?
●
Both are Open Source and Free
●
Would you rather type “cordova” instead of
“phonegap” on the command line?
●
PhoneGap build does allow you to build apps in
the cloud (1st app free, pay for more)
(You can think of Apache Cordova as the engine that powers PhoneGap, similar to
how WebKit is the engine that powers Chrome or Safari.)

10. PhoneGap or Cordova?
Doesn’t
Really
Matter
http://phonegap.com/2012/03/19/phonegap-cordovaand-what%E2%80%99s-in-a-name/

11. How does this thing work?
Install Cordova 3.1
$ sudo npm install -g cordova@3.1.0-0.2.0
Create app skeleton
$ cordova create hello com.example.hello HelloWorld
Add platforms
$ cordova platform add ios
$ cordova platform add android
...code code code code...
Run app on Android Device!
$ cordova run android
Run app on virtual iPhone!
$ cordova emulate ios

12. Add to your app: Google Analytics
● You want
analytics
● Can install
with Cordova
plugin

13. Add to your app: Google AdMob
Step 3: Profit!
$$
Can install with
Cordova plugin

14. AdMob: Spend Money
I tried: $2 / day
I get: 5-7 conversions (installs) / day

15. AdMob: Spend Money
Pro Tip: AB test your ads

16. First… Android (Google Play Store)!
Wait time to publish: A few hours
Rejections? No Way
Pain rating: Use Eclipse, but not bad!
Pro Tip: For your app to be showcased in the 'Designed for tablets' list in
the Play Store, you need to upload at least one 7-inch and one 10-inch
screenshot.

17. Android: Google Play Store

18. Google Play Store
First result!

19. Next Step… Kindle!
No Problem: Submit Same Android APK that you
submitted to Google Play store
Wait time to publish: 3 days

20. Amazon Kindle App Store
Rejections? Once, for good reason (AndroidManifest.xml
showed app incompatible with 1st generation Kindle Fire,
but I said it worked on all Kindles).
Solution: Edited device support section on dashboard and
resubmitted.
Pain Rating: Low

21. Amazon Kindle Dev Dashboard

22. Amazon Kindle Store

23. OK! Now… Chrome!
2 Types of apps:
Packaged Web App
●
●
Self contained code package
Strict JavaScript security restrictions
Hosted Web App
●
Basically just points to a web site
My Choice!

24. Chrome hosted web app
Just upload this zip…
app.zip:
adviceOwl-128.png
adviceOwl-16.png
manifest.json

25. Chrome hosted web app
manifest.json:
{
"name": "Advice Owl",
"description": "Read all your favorite advice columns in one app.",
"version": "1.3",
"manifest_version": 2,
"icons": { "16": "adviceOwl-16.png", "128": "adviceOwl-128.png" },
"app": {
"urls": [ "http://d2whqoo26gzkh3.cloudfront.net/adviceOwl/main.html" ],
"launch": { "web_url": "http://d2whqoo26gzkh3.cloudfront.net/adviceOwl/main.html" }
}
}

26. Chrome Web App Store
Wait time to publish: Few hours
Rejections? Once, because I mistakenly published the
same app twice.
Pain rating: Super Easy (for hosted web app)
Any Caveats? See next slide...

27. Chrome Web App Store
Caveat: You can never delete an app from
your dashboard

28. Chrome Web App Store

29. Chrome Web App Store

30. Launching from Chrome Browser
In Chrome,
click this icon
to see apps
My app!

31. Finally... iTunes App Store!
Pain Rating: HIGH
Learn Xcode (kind of intricate)
Generate provisioning profiles
Create signing requests
Various stages of waiting
Rejections? Yes...

32. Submit To iTunes App Store
Submit App
(excited)…
Wait…
1 day…
2 days…
6 days...

33. iTunes App Store
Rejection!
We found that your app only
provides a very limited set of
features. It only provides a simple
RSS with no curation, or other
features. While we value simplicity,
we consider simplicity to be
uncomplicated - not limited in
features and functionality.

34. iTunes App Store
I Wrote My Rebuttal
Thank you for taking the time to
review Advice Owl. I would like to
make the case that while it basically
does provide a simple RSS service, it
is not true that it provides no curation
or other features: 1. The feeds are
all...blah...blah...blah
I completely expected them to ignore it...

35. iTunes App Store
The next day…
Subject: The status
for your app, Advice
Owl (739076106), is
now Ready for Sale.
They Listened! They Listened!

36. iTunes App Store
Live
Version
New
Version

37. iTunes App Store
My App On the
iPad
iTunes rounds your app’s
icon automagically for
you

38. App Store Roundup
Android: Steady Growth, Decent Ad performance
Kindle: Very little sales in Kindle app store, but analytics
show many Kindle users (must be able to get from Android store)
Chrome: Easy to host, light activity (~7 visits /
day)
iTunes: Most likely to reject your app, but Best
growth and Ad performance so far