Apple's iPhone TV Ads Boost Individual App Sales

[Manic Mouse]

That's not really a true-true-related statement. Adverts are supposed to have an affect on sales, otherwise people wouldn't spend money on them.

That's like saying Budweiser's superbowl commercials boosting sales of Budweiser must mean that Bud beer is better and people just didn't know about it. Or something like that.

arn

Effect Arn! /grammar Nazi (btw, you need to get on TWiT again, you were great last time)

I think that individual apps could perhaps warrant their own advertisements, considering how wildly popular the app store seems to be. The combination of the quality and low price of the apps compared to what people are used to is phenomenal. Crappy java games cost more on my old phone, and they really were woeful in comparison to iPhone software.

 

[slu]

Advertising works on the weak minded. No surprises there. What a revolutionary article.

You better watch your head up there on that high horse.

 

[Saladinos]

Classics was always a great app. It's the only iPhone ereader that I've actually managed to finish something on. Everything's properly formatted, and it really makes a difference.

I do think that it's hard to find apps. There's supposed to be millions of them, but I don't come across nearly that many when browsing around on my iPhone. I think it has something to do with the lack of a proper 'browse' mode - even when going by categories, you get to look at the top paid/free, or newest.

I'd like better ways to discover apps. Maybe an 'app of the day' or random app would be good. I don't think Apple would do that.

 

[Clete2]

I'm not surprised in the least. In fact, I always stop what I'm doing when an iPhone commercial comes on so that I can see what new apps are featured so that I can check them out. Hey, it works. They are showing off their phone to both non-customers and existing customers. Boosting business for two parties at the same time.

 

[JeffDM]

Thats it, the hardest part is finding the good ones.

The recommendation system is supposed to help, but too often, it's insufficient. iTunes isn't all there. There's no way to specifically search in a particular category, the search bar searches the entire store, then you narrow it down by clicking the category. Nevermind whether or not I really cared to only look in apps, I have to see the options in music and videos too. Then when I do a "see all" on the category, it's not really organized by any apparent way, I don't see the star rating or the popularity unless I click on each individual app and look. Knowing the ratings would provide a good starting point in narrowing out the low rated stuff right off the bat. I don't think there is an equivalent to "genius" for the App store. Also, there aren't subcategories either. The fact that there are iPhone app review sites, and the fact that they're so prominent seems to suggest to me that the iTunes system for discovering a good app is insufficient.

Advertising works on the weak minded. No surprises there. What a revolutionary article.

That's not the entire point of advertising though, some of it is to get word of your existence out there. There are so many iPhone apps that it's easy to get lost, with no apparent starting point. Or you might not realize a particular kind of app is even available.

 

[SeaFox]

The phenomenon appears to extend to iPhone applications as well. Apple's recent iPhone ads have prominently featured a number of App Store apps. Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu's Classics App [App Store] which was featured in Apple's "Read" commercial saw a remarkable boost in sales immediately following the ad's broadcast

NEWS FLASH: Advertising, especially informative product demonstration advertising, boosts sales. News at 2am following the infomercial for the Magic Bullet.

 

[SPUY767]

This sudden rise doesn't surprise me.

Awareness of a product increases sales! Brilliant! I shall call it. . . Advertising.

 

[aerospace]

Is it in the TOS that apple has the right to use your app in advertising if it wishes?

I mean no one is gonna turn down free advertising, but then again if your helping to sell iphones(at around $200 profit a pop) they should at least waive their cut of the app proceeds. Seems fair to me.

After writing that I came to the conclusion that big business and fair rarely go hand in hand, but don't you agree it would make sense?

 

[kage207]

The one drawback is that yes iphones are popular...but they aren't THAT popular...i mean how much of the population has the iphone? 1% -3%? so for now targeted advertising is the way to go, but I think its great for a developer to get some ads on this site, gizmodo, etc... you need to get the word out.

Um, btw... iPhones are more than 2% of the market. Which means over 10million people own one. That's a pretty large audience to sell your product to. If you sell even 50,000 apps that's a pretty penny after all investments of making an app.

 

[JeffDM]

Is it in the TOS that apple has the right to use your app in advertising if it wishes?

I wouldn't be surprised. Heck, some people might interpret being listed in the app store as advertising.

I mean no one is gonna turn down free advertising, but then again if your helping to sell iphones(at around $200 profit a pop) they should at least waive their cut of the app proceeds. Seems fair to me.

After writing that I came to the conclusion that big business and fair rarely go hand in hand, but don't you agree it would make sense?

Your idea of fair belies free market principles though. For any one developer that turns down the deal for free advertising, there would probably be 100 others that would jump at the chance - because it likely increases sales of the app. As it is, all the apps that are only shown as an icon and a name really isn't much to show.