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Alchemy WP7 Case Study

Kelly White | Silvertail Software Inc. Microsoft MVP – Windows Phone Development Email: kelly@whitepdx.com Blog: http ://kelly.whitepdx.com. Alchemy WP7 Case Study. First Published. Alchemy v1.0 published on March 31, 2011 (2 months + 4 days ago) Alchemy Free

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Alchemy WP7 Case Study

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  1. Kelly White | Silvertail Software Inc. Microsoft MVP – Windows Phone Development Email:kelly@whitepdx.com Blog:http://kelly.whitepdx.com AlchemyWP7 Case Study

  2. First Published • Alchemy • v1.0 published on March 31, 2011 • (2 months + 4 days ago) • Alchemy Free • v1.0 published on April 9, 2011 • (2 months – 5 days ago) • NOTE: 3 business days from submission to approval for new apps.

  3. My Investment • $99 for Marketplace account • 200 Hours (v1.0) • +100 Hours (v1.7) • $500 in graphical assets • Icon pack (IconShock.com) • Individual vector images (VectorStock.com)

  4. WP7 Marketplace • Over 20,000 apps • 18% are games • 39% of apps are free • Average price is $1.78 • Average sale price is $2.93 • Most Xbox Live titles are $2.99 - $5.99 • Doodle God & Doodle Devil are $2.99

  5. Pricing • Couldn’t decide between $1.99 and $.99 • Initially settled on $.99 • NOTE: Did try it at $1.99 after adding Hints. • Why? • Haven’t spent enough time to justify a higher price. • Will sell more than twice the quantity at $.99 compared to what would sell at $1.99.

  6. Updates Process • Most of my updates turn around in 1-2 business days. • Exceptions • v1.6 update took 5 business days • v1.7 update took just over 12 hours

  7. Auto-Publishing an Update

  8. Publish/Delete the Submission • If you don’t select auto-publish • You must login to app hub and then publish your app / update • However, you do get the option to delete the submission instead of publishing it • For updates it means that update never goes live, but the previous version still exists • For new apps it means it never gets published and you will get a new app id if you resubmit

  9. Rolling back an update… • v1.6 included a cheat that unlocked all elements. • v1.6 also included a button that a user could click to crash the app. • NOTE: Support could not interrupt the submission process.

  10. v1.6 was approved. 

  11. What were my options? • Allow people to get the v1.6 upgrade • Submit a new update (v1.7) and hope it quicklygets approved. • Stop people from upgrading to v1.6 • Delete the app and resubmit.* • Remove the app from the catalog. *This would result in a new app with a new app id and I would lose all my current reviews, Zune rankings, etc.

  12. Step #1 – stop the bleeding • Remove the app from the catalog. • No one can see/download v1.6 • I now had time to think.

  13. Step #2 – come up with a fix • Get v1.7 update ready • Republish app to marketplace (v1.6) • Submit v1.7 update • Remove app from catalog (v1.6) • Wait for approval • Publish v1.7 update to marketplace

  14. Rule #1 when submitting • Never say you want to auto-publish!

  15. Back to the case study… • App had been live for about a month • Had fixed some bugs • Had added new features • Positive feedback • Ranked well in Marketplace

  16. Ranking – April 25 (noon) • Paid / Free • Overall: 79 / 49 • Games: 59 / 29 • Puzzles & Trivia: 14 / 10 • Excluding Xbox Live Titles • Overall: 29 • Games: 9 • Puzzles & Trivia 3

  17. Downloads – April 19 • Alchemy • (20 days since released) • Trial Downloads: 1,221 • Paid Downloads: 745 • Alchemy Free • (11 days since released) • Downloads: 9,034

  18. Ad Revenue – April 25 (noon) • Alchemy • eCPM: $.19 • Impressions: 164,793 • Revenue: $31.86 • Alchemy Free • eCPM: $.42 • Impressions: 804,353 • Revenue: $334.05

  19. Trial Conversions – April 25 (noon) • Since the update on April 18 • Installed Trial: 270 • Upgraded to Paid: 50 • 18.5% convert from Trial to Paid • NOTE: 18% is the number Xbox Live targets.

  20. New Feature - Hints • Next update would add Hints. • Only available in the Paid version. • Both Trial and Free would prompt user to upgrade. • Anticipated this would sell like crazy. • Needed custom analytics to track trial conversions.

  21. Update w/ Hints Feature • Alchemy • v1.5 published on May 6, 2011 • Alchemy Free • v1.3 published on May 6, 2011

  22. New Numbers • 2,000+ paid downloads a day?! • Big jump in rankings • #6 for paid • #5 for free • Ad impressions dropped • 100k to 70k per day

  23. Validating the Numbers • AppHub Reports are 1 week behind • After day #8… • After day #9… • After day #10… • After two weeks… • After three weeks… • AppHub was showing only 40-60 paid downloads per day.

  24. What could be causing this? • Users reinstall the app • Users install the app on multiple devices • AppHub reporting is wrong? • e.g. mobile operator billing vs credit card • Silverlight bug in IsolatedStorage? • Piracy?

  25. ApplicationSettings.Save() • I’d never been calling this. • Other features using ApplicationSettings were working. • Wouldn’t hurt to call it… • Don’t have any other ideas… • Might as well submit an update…

  26. IsolatedStorageSettings.ApplicationSettings.Save();

  27. Update v1.6 • Also changed app to be fully featured in free and trial modes. • Hints were limited to every 6 minutes in free and trial modes. • NOTE: Checked to auto-publish

  28. Already talked about this…

  29. Last Update • Alchemy • v1.7 published on May 27, 2011 • Alchemy Free • v1.7 published on May 27, 2011

  30. Ranking – June 4 • Paid / Free • Overall: 72 / 73 • Games: 52 / 36 • Puzzles & Trivia: 10 / 12 • Excluding Xbox Live Titles • Overall: 26 • Games: 7 • Puzzles & Trivia 2

  31. Downloads – May 29 • Alchemy • Trial Downloads: 3,368 • Paid Downloads: 2,492 • Alchemy Free • Downloads: 38,796

  32. Ad Revenue – June 4 • Alchemy • eCPM: $.21 • Impressions: 285,572 • Revenue: $58.76 • Alchemy Free • eCPM: $.76 • Impressions: 3,615,332 • Revenue: $2,749.68

  33. Resources • PreEmptive’s Runtime Intelligence • Certification Guidelines on AppHub • Get a phone and play with other apps • Portland Windows Phone User Group

  34. Contact Kelly White | Silvertail Software Inc. Microsoft MVP – Windows Phone Development Mobile: 503.250.3755 Email: kelly@silvertailsoftware.com Web: http://www.silvertailsoftware.com/

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