What is the name of your company?
Project Box
What are the names of your app(s)?
Pocketbooth: the photobooth that fits in your pocket â€" an app that turns your device into a vintage photobooth. Cheats & Words: the most incredible Words With Friends cheat app
Introduce yourself â€" Tell us about yourself, your company, and how you got into developing mobile apps?
I studied computer science in college, worked for a string of software companies including some failed startups. After the last failed startup, I figured I could fail just as successfully from the comforts of my own living room, so decided to work on my own. I started and sold a few companies over the years, but when the iPhone was introduced in 2007, I knew I wanted to do something in the mobile space. In 2009 I started Project Box and in 2010 we released our first app, Pocketbooth. We are a small shop and we like to obsess over the little details, so our output isn’t huge. We plan on releasing 3 new apps in 2012.
How many people are on your team? And what are their roles?
The core team consists of me and an assortment of other people â€" we have two graphic designers, a UX designer, 3 programmers, a project manager, and a few testers. We do pull in additional resources as we need them, however.
At what point did you decide you wanted to make apps for the iPhone?
The moment, I saw the first iPhone.
What were you doing before you started developing for the iPhone?
I was working for myself, writing software, making art.
One of your recent apps has broken into the top 50 of its category on the charts. Tell us about that app.
Pocketbooth has done very well. It is an app that simulates the experience of sitting in a 1950s-era photobooth. When it was released in September of 2010, it really caught on and ended up climbing to the number 2 spot in the first week. For the following year, it stayed in the top 15 photo apps. It was chosen as one of Apple’s iTunes Rewind hottest apps as well as one of Canada’s Hall of Fame apps. We continue to enhance the app and it continues to do very well.
What was the best rank position that app hit?
It was 2nd rank in photo (category and 31 overall (in the US).
Were you surprised to see it reach that ranking?
Well, when you create something, and pour a lot of heart and soul into it, I think part of you feels vindicated to see it do well, but sure, there’s still some surprise in seeing something do so well in the face of an appstore full of well-funded and well-known apps from well-known companies.
For your most successful app, how did you come up with the idea for it?
It grew out of my real-world experience: I had been involved with photobooths for a long time. I create art in them, I co-founded the photobooth online repository (photobooth.net), I ran a photobooth rental business and own and repair old-time booths. When the iPhone came out in 2007, it was the first idea for an app that I had (even though at the time it was all web-apps). I actually wrote up a treatment of the app complete with wireframes at the time.
How long does it take for you to write a typical app from start to finish?
Depends on a host of factors, too many to give a universal response. Pocketbooth took our team (of 6 at the time) 5 months from conception to delivery. Actually, the app had been conceived (and wireframed) when the first iPhone came out in 2007 (see above), but with the “lost-iPhone4-at-California-bar†incident, the appearance of a front-facing camera gave us the final kick in the pants to make the thing a reality.
What framework do you mainly use to program your apps?
Cocoa Touch.
How many lines of code does your app have and what programming language did you use?
Lots of lines (I actually don’t have this figure handy as we include lots of 3rd party code). ObjC.
What do you think was the number one thing you did that made your app successful?
We spent a huge amount of time in the inception phase, banging out all the details, obsessing over every pixel. Having a plan from the beginning helps you remove surprise from the equation. We also didn’t just plan for version 1. We just released a Print & Ship feature for Pocketbooth in December (less than a month ago), but it was a feature that was in the plan since day one (in May of 2010).
With so many apps in the app store, what would you say have been your top 3 ways and/or places to help market your app to gain ranking in the app charts, and why?
I wish I could say we engineered our popularity, but other than creating the most amazing and beautiful app we could, we didn’t do a whole lot of traditional marketing for Pocketbooth. It was a perfect storm of timing in a lot of ways â€" Apple took a shine to the app and featured it prominently and for a long time. The App Store is a bit of a rich-get-richer ecosystem â€" once you get promoted, you rise in the ranks. Once you have a high enough rank, more people see you and purchase your app. The more people that purchase your app, the higher you rise in the ranks. And so on. Cheats & Words has been a bit more difficult to market, in large part due to the preponderance of similar apps that came out immediately following its release. We have been working on getting the word out in some different ways.
Have you used any app promotional services, and if so, who, and how did they each work out for you?
Other than twitter and Facebook, we have looked into many of the mobile ad networks, but are still not convinced they are a good option for us. The pay-per-install options (which I think have all dried up at this point due to a crackdown from Apple) seemed to make the most sense from a risk perspective, but not sure how effective they are/were.
Are there any marketing services you have heard about that sound interesting that you have not yet tried? If so, whom or what, and why have you not yet tried them?
Not really.
Our readers are very interested on what kind of download numbers it takes to break into the top 50 of a category. Based on your peak app ranking, how many downloads were you getting daily on average?
As you probably know, every category is different, and there are even seasonal (and daily and weekly) ebbs and flows in the entire app store. So to get an accurate triangulation, you almost need the date of the ranking. My guess is ~150 downloads a day puts you in range for the top 50 of the paid photo category.
If you had to pick the top 3 things app developers should always include in their apps to help with the marketing of their app to other users or something that helps your app jump up the rankings, what would they be, and why?
I think anything that easily lets your users do the marketing for you is great â€" so any sharing features you can add, I would recommend. Also, the freemium model has proven quite successful â€" a free trial so users can kick the tires, then the offer to upgrade if they like what they see. Of course, if your app is terrible, no one will upgrade â€" so there’s that risk as well.
What has been your largest sales day?
It was Christmas, of course.
Why did you decide to go free/paid?
We had to be earning a living and didn’t have any in-app purchase items at the beginning.
Are you creating apps full time now, or do you have another job?
Yes and yes.
What is it that excites you most about developing apps for the iPhone?
Two things: the fact that Apple snuck an amazingly powerful computer (and development platform) into your pocket by calling it a “phone†means that there is so much potential â€" some of the augmented reality apps, for example, are mind-blowing when you first experience them. The sheer amount of possibility is exciting. But also, Apple has done such a fantastic job creating and marketing an entire ecosystem â€" the fact that I can upload some bits from the couch in my living room, and the first day of sales be getting orders from the UAE, South Africa, Vietnam, Australia, and Brazil and everywhere in between â€" that’s exciting too.
Outside of your own apps, what are your 3 favorite apps and why?
Some of my favorite apps, I don’t really use much (see below) so here are the 3 apps I use the most (excluding Apple’s built-in apps): NewNewsWire, BankOfAmerica, Nike+
What is your favorite game app?
I actually don’t play a lot of games on my iDevices. Angry Birds and PvZ certainly stole a few days of my life, but other than that I haven’t really downloaded many games. I nursed a small addiction to Words with Friends for a spell, but after writing Cheats & Words, I kicked the habit. (And that was actually one of the motivations)
Which app has wowed you more than any other, and why?
I’d probably have a different answer if you ask me a different day, but Penultimate comes to mind â€" an app with a much focused mission, and one that delivers on it brilliantly. I’ve used a lot of apps that let you write or draw on screen, but the folks at Penultimate really nailed the finger/screen handwriting interaction. Evernote would be another â€" great idea, brilliant execution. Both apps I should probably use more often.
What’s your favorite iOS based websites you check out on a regular basis for your business?
appFigures. AppAnnie. daringfireball.
What are you working on next?
We are working on a new app that has nothing to do with our previous work â€" I am a father of a small daughter, so it is an app inspired by her and targeted at kids. We also have some upgrades and variations of Pocketbooth on the horizon. And we’re continually bettering Cheats & Words.
Any advice for up and coming indie developers?
Writers always recommend “writing what you knowâ€. I think the same probably applies to the app store. There are two ways to go about it, I suppose: figure out a need/opening in the store and build that app. Or build the app that YOU need and want to use. I’m pretty firmly in the latter camp â€" I think you’ll end up with a better product and a more believable app. Two little nuggets of wisdom: 1) Assume that 5 other people/teams are working on the same idea that you are currently working on â€" this is probably true, and should help to motivate you. 2) Build a great app first, but don’t forget, the 2nd piece (with equal weight, IMO) is figuring out how you are going to let the world know about that app. This should receive some thoughtful consideration and planning.
What is your favorite built-in app?
The app that I totally depend on is the Maps app. I use Maps for all the obvious reasons: maps, directions, distances, etc. but the app’s tight integration with the rest of your phone is what really makes the it shine: it knows about your location, it knows about your contacts, it know to pull relevant information from businesses and locations and group display them as needed. Maps is my dashboard when I’m ordering lunch, navigating the city, calling a business, figuring trips, etc.
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