app store 2 • Nuclear Bits

App Store Sees Record-Breaking Numbers

Apple has announced that its App Store had a fantastic run in 2017, especially during the holiday season leading up to the new year.

App Store customers around the world made apps and games a bigger part of their holiday season in 2017 than ever before, culminating in $300 million in purchases made on New Year’s Day 2018. During the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made purchases or downloaded apps from the App Store, spending over $890 million in that seven-day period.

Apple says that it paid out $26.5 Billion to iOS developers, an increase of over 30 percent compared to 2016. Since its launch in 2008, the App Store has made $86 Billion for iOS developers around the world.

The new App Store introduced in iOS 11 got a lot of things right, and Apple knocked it out of the park with their approach. I’m loving the curation on the US App Store — I just wish I had landed that App Store Editor job I had applied for at Apple India.

January 5, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Apple Increases Pricing of Apps on the App Store in India

iOS App Store

Apple has today sent out an email to iOS developers notifying them of upcoming changes to the pricing on the App Store. According to the email, the pricing of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) will increase in India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Apple mentions that this price change is due to change in tax laws in the India, Romania and Russia, but it doesn’t mention why the pricing is changing in the UK. It’s likely that Apple is merely adjusting the pricing to be in line with the falling value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar.

If you’re in India, here’s what the pricing change means and how it’ll affect you.

(more…)

January 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

The Release Notes of the Reuters TV iOS App

Reuters is one of the most widely known news agencies in the world. They offer an app called Reuters TV on the iOS App Store. Available for both the iPhone and iPad, the app offers a personalized TV news service wherein you can watch on-demand & insightful video programming for the topics you’re most interested in. It makes great use of rich media and graphics to offer an immersive experience and it is one of my favorite ‘news’ apps that I use to keep up with the news.

I also love Reuters TV for its release notes on the App Store. Being a news agency, Reuters takes a clever approach towards the Whats New in Version on the App Store. Here’s what the release notes for the latest version released today (v1.1.2) look like:

EAGAN, Minnesota (Reuters) – Battling the onset of a brutal allergy season and unusually high pollen counts, developers in America’s midwest contended with red eyes and runny noses to release another update to the Reuters TV app.

The new release surprised commentators, who had not been expecting a release so soon after iPad compatibility was added. In brief comments, a spokesperson for Reuters TV said the new app resolves a number of minor bugs and speed issues that had crept into the recent release and claimed it addresses “technical debt”.

A high ranking team member, who declined to be identified, described working through the night to deliver improvements for the new version. He claimed the new app will run “a heck of a lot faster” and “a whole lot smoother”.

Analyst Chance Johnellor said he was “confident” the updated app will perform reliably, pointing to research his team had done to suggest the update delivered improved performance and battery life.

Spokespeople for Reuters TV declined to comment further on the release, noting that they appreciated all user feedback and that further updates are planned soon. The team can be reached at [email protected].

This isn’t a one-off case though, they’ve been doing this since the very first version.

Version 1.1.1

Version 1.1.0

Version 1.0.1

The Reuters TV app is available Free on the App Store and you can read and watch the content for 30 days. After that, a subscription is just $1.99 a month.

June 20, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Thunderspace HD

In case you haven’t already heard about Thunderspace, it is a fabulous little iOS app that replicates thunderstorms using 3D, stereoscopic virtual sounds that you listen to via your headphones. It is a great way to just sit back and relax. Now would be a good time to try the app, as it is current available Free on the App Store. It comes bundled with two thunderstorms and you can purchase additional ones using IAPs.

April 15, 2014 ✚ Permalink

Whisper’s Release Notes

Tell me those aren’t the best release notes you’ve seen for any app on the App Store.

June 14, 2013 ✚ Permalink

Apple Rolling Out INR Pricing on the Indian App Store [Updated]

(See Update at the bottom of the post)

Apple today has started displaying the prices for apps on the Indian App Store in Indian Rupees (INR) instead of US Dollars. @Sirajsoft and @arvindVMA both pointed out on Twitter that some apps on the Indian App Store were starting to display prices with a prefix of “Rs” instead of the regular $ sign. Ever since its launch, the Indian App Store has always displayed the prices of apps in USD and the day’s FX rate is applicable when someone purchases an app.

A few apps are already displaying prices in Rupees as seen in the screenshots below.

The change seems to be rolling out inconsistently though, as not all of the apps are showing the correct pricing. While all the apps are now using the “Rs” prefix, some are still displaying the value in USD as it is. So while $0.99 should be Rs. 55, the value is still being shown as Rs. 0.99.

If you share a link to an app published on the Indian App Store, the price now shows up in Rupees in the browser too. I’m going to go ahead and call this a new feature and not just a bug or test, possibly in preparation of the iPhone 5 launched in India early next month. It’s also interesting to note that Apple is using a flat conversion rate of Rs. 55 per US Dollar and decided to use the “Rs” prefix instead of the now official Rupee symbol.

Update: According to @RajaVijayaraman, Apple has added the following local currencies to the App Store today.

Russian Ruble
Turkish lira
Indian Rupees
Indonesian Rupiah
Israeli New Shekel
South African Rand
Saudi Riyal
UAE Dirham

October 26, 2012 ✚ Permalink

A Fantastic iPhone App for Car Owners

Drive is a fantastic app for iPhone that makes commonly used actions like calling or texting your favorites or playing music while driving easily accessible by giving you big bold buttons to tap on and gestures to control them. If you drive a car with your iPhone docked on the dashboard or windshield, you should definitely grab it. It’s just 99 cents on the App Store.

October 20, 2012 ✚ Permalink