Drinks on Intel at an exclusive developer event in London

Posted on 05/10/2011 by softtalkblog

Only one week to go until the exclusive Intel Developer Evening at London’s Sway Bar on Wed October 12th.
Come along for free food, drinks, networking and a chance to check out app opportunities – there are no formal presentations., we promise.
The Intel Developer Evening is not a hackathon; the emphasis is on networking and fun in a swanky central London venue (Sway Bar’s glamorous Milk Bar and Crystal Bar will both be open).
There will be a chance to get hands-on with a range of devices and win great prizes – not USB sticks.
Intel can show you how to get apps hosted on the Intel AppUp center, which can reach audiences in the US and Canada, EMEA and APAC countries, and hopefully help you to make some money.
You’ll discover some of the benefits of the program such as:
• how to easily sell your apps in a competitive market
• becoming part of an active and fully supported developer community
• opportunities to discuss and debate with fellow developers
Just to recap on some of the important bits and to find out how to sign up.
It is on 12th October, from 6.30-11.30pm in the Sway Bar, in Central London.
You need to register for the event, so please drop katy.phillips@intentmedia.co.uk an email to reserve your place.
There are no registrations on the evening so don’t miss out – you need to sign up now.
Feel free to tell a colleague, but note that the evening is strictly for developers only.

Don’t delay because places are filling up fast.

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AppUp Elements 2011 – Getting your app validated on AppUp

Posted on 29/09/2011 by softtalkblog

For any app store, getting your program validated can seem like a dark art – mysterious forces behind the scenes apparently there to halt your journey towards app success. Vipul Chopra at Intel has some tips on the validation process and what common traps to avoid to ensure your app makes it to the AppUp Center as quickly as possible.

The first thing to note is that there are two types of validation: binary and meta – in that order. Binary focuses on the app itself and meta focuses on the meta data you added as part of the submission process, including the app description etc.

The binary tests are as follows:
- Download, install, launch – your app should launch from the store and from a native location such as a desktop icon or program menu
- Primary functionality – buttons, features, menu items, levels, game play should all function correctly
- Check for viruses and malware – obviously, these should be absent
- An actual person will test and validate the app fully
- You can check guidelines on the Intel AppUp developer program website here

Meta validation test, which takes place after the binary validation, includes:
- A check on the content rating, which should be appropriate to the content of your app. Specific guidelines exist to help with this – for example, if the app accesses social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter, it must be rated as 17+
- A check on the long and short descriptions you provided on your app -these should describe the content
- The validation team then assigns categories for your app to feature in (taking into account the suggestions you made during submission)
- If you have only changed the meta data since your last app submission, the binary validation is not needed and your app will be validated much faster

Common pitfalls to avoid:
- Apply for Microsoft code signing as soon as you join the program to avoid the five day wait that this entails when you want to submit your app
- Beta test your app on clean devices, not on development machine, and make sure you use basic factory settings
- Windows 7 starter has basic drivers, so apps cannot assume any resource is pre-installed
- Your app doesn’t launch from store due to relative path in the source code. Use the full path for application drivers and resource files. Beta testing will help to reveal this issue
- Creating MSI with bad shortcuts

Filed under: Intel AppUp Developer Program, Validation | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

AppUp Elements 2011 – why you should localise your app

Posted on 29/09/2011 by softtalkblog

You’ve built your app. You’ve loaded it to the Intel AppUp Center. You’re starting to see a few sales but you’re not really making any money. What can you do to secure more downloads?

Stefan Englet, European developer program manager at Intel, spoke at AppUp Elements 2011 on one of the things developers can do to increase their potential market and monetise their app more effectively: localisation.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the top 50 apps on the AppUp Center get 50% of the total revenue through the store. The top 1000 apps get 98% of the revenue. The wealth is not being shared – great for the top few but not for anyone else. The need to find ways to sell to more users is great, but why should localisation, rather than better marketing or better quality apps, be the route to achieving this?

The reason is in the numbers: 52 percent of AppUp Center consumers speak English as a first language. This is significantly more than any other language
and yet by only building apps in English, developers are cutting out half of their potential market. The total breakdown for the AppUp Center installed base runs as follows:

English – 52%
Spanish – 13%
French – 12%
German – 10%
Italian – 7%

Some apps need only change language in order to localise – Englet used the example of My Little Artist, a drawing app by Dmitri Rizshkov which supports English, German, French, Spanish and Russian.

Other apps need more effort to localise, such as Lugdulo’V by Corentin Chary, an app for finding bicycle rentals in the local area. To extend this app to new audiences has required more extensive modification – new maps and information for different cities around the world. Once updated for new regions, however, the app is instantly useful to people in those locations.

It would be good to understand what the above developers achieved in terms of additional downloads from those regions but unfortunately this wasn’t part of the session.

Given the potential market increase with localisation and the fact that Intel has now localised the AppUp Center and developer program, the company is offering developers some support in getting their apps viewed by non-English language consumers. Support offered includes:

- Validation of localised-only apps – the AppUp Center used to require English language meta data but this is no longer the case
- Support for entering new markets – advice about localisation
- Localisation tools for developers

Certainly something for mobile coders to think about but some case studies showing increases in downloads might help convince developers that it’s worthwhile putting time and effort into localising their apps.

Filed under: App development, Intel AppUp Developer Program, localisation | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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