Nokia, mobile phone giant, is finally getting into AppStore business with the launch of Ovi AppStore. The launch was a disaster – they probably had to much press coming out and experience a huge traffic spike. While I write this post the Ovi home page says ‘We’re sorry, Ovi.com is unavailable at the moment’. I’m sure they will figure it out and get it right in a matter of short time and developers should start getting their hands on (use this link to register as a publisher). It took me about 10 minutes to register our legal entity as a publisher. Way faster then with Apple AppStore.

Applications published on Ovi have the potential to reach 50 MLN of devices right now and 300 MLN of devices by 2012 according to Nokia. This is why you might want to become the publisher ASAP. It looks like there is only 536 applications on AppStore and some of the phone models have a few apps only. This might be a gold rush for early publishers.

Nokia believes that Ovi Store is the best opportunity for Flash developers to reach Nokia users globally, targeting 50 million users at launch in May and up to 300 million by 2012.

Revenue split between publisher and Nokia? Home page says 70% of revenue goes to developer but digging further in terms you find out that it’s true as long as user pays by credit card, once it’s operator billing you end up with 50% extracted for tax and operator fees and the resulting amount is multiplied by 0.7 which leaves the publisher with much lower payout.

Credit Card Transactions
Developer will receive 70% of end user price, less applicable taxes, returns, refunds, and bad debt.

Example Calculation
Purchase Price: 5€
Tax Deduction: 5€ – 10% tax = 4,50€
Publisher Revenue: 4,50€ x 70% = 3,15€*

Operating Billing Transactions
Developer will receive 70% of end user price, less applicable taxes, returns, refunds, bad debt, and operator billing charges ranging from 40% – 50%.

Example Calculation
Purchase Price: 5€
Tax Deduction: 5€ – 10% tax = 4,50€
Operator Billing Deduction: 4,50€ – 40% = 2,70€
Publisher Revenue: 2,70€ x 70% = 1,89€*

Technologies/programming languages supported?

Symbian Applications, Java Applications, Web RunTime (WRT) Widgets, Flash Lite Appications

Useful process start-up links:

Ovi Developer Discussion Forums

Documents: Publisher Guide, Billing Matrix, Supported Device List as well as FAQ section

Developer Wiki

Actual Ovi Store where you can browse published apps.

Signing application issue explained

Good luck with development and see your content on Ovi soon!

P.S. We were lucky to register www.ovidevelopment.com and www.oviappreviews.com domain names a while ago, if you have a partnership or purchase offers for those please feel free to email to peter (at) moveyourweb.net

Tags: ovi, ovi appstore, ovi development
Posted in cool links, flash, game development, iphone development | No Comments »

Apalon, our game development and animation arm is definitely having a busy week launching several projects at a time. There were more then 100 online news and review publications about those projects during this week so I’m going to list major news here:

It started on Monday with the release of Drunk Sniper iPhone Application which was released last weekend and immediately started generating buzz online:

http://www.venturebeat.com/2009/05/11/drunk-sniper-an-unofficial-sequel-to-those-iphone-beer-apps/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/may/13/ifart-iphone-applications-apps-apple

http://www.digg.com/apple/iPhone_App_Turns_iPhone_into_a_Penis

http://www.appleiphoneapps.com/2009/05/drunk-sniper-realistic-beer-relieving-experience-on-your-iphone/

http://www.iphonesavior.com/2009/05/drunk-sniper-the-ultimate-iphone-pissing-game.html

Tuesday – browser based animated MMORPG Disciple released together with Resistor Productions LLC and MMORPG.COM. Disciple had 12.000 preregistered users and during 4 days it raised to 15.000+ :

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/12/disciple-is-a-real-time-player-to-player-fantasy-battlefield-for-adults/

http://www.venturebeat.com/2009/05/12/resistor-productions-launches-a-bloody-browser-based-game-for-adults/

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/405/feature/3030

http://www.digg.com/playable_web_games/New_MMO_lets_gamers_hack_people_s_heads_off

Wednesday – Sparta – iPhone Game developed for Pockey Monkey Games is released and becomes popular the same day. I see it in TOP50 Games USA and TOP100 overall while writing this post.

Looks like half of Apalon folks was working day and night this week – me for sure. Luckily the weekend is here and we can take some rest now.

Tags: apalon, iphone application development, mmorpg development
Posted in cool links, corporate events, flash, game development, internet marketing, iphone development, management | No Comments »

We have 5-8 apps in production simultaneously at the same time now which means that we deliver multiple applications in a month. Now what we experienced during the delivery is that several of our customers didn’t have iPhone developer accounts needed to publish the app or actually they started applying for it but it was not not yet ready. That puts the success of any application at risk, because the number of apps on AppStore is skyrocketing and chances high that competitor will release the same app tomorrow. So get iPhone developer account early if you still don’t have it!

The registration process consists of multiple steps and takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months of time. If you are in USA and quick in furnishing Apple with the data required you might get it during 2-3 weeks time. Here is the brief guideline on what to expect from the registration process:

1. Apply for iPhone Developer program
2. Fax business documents that Apple requests after review of initial application (Apple will email the reqs)
3. Agree to iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (Apple will email the link)
4. Pay the membership fee. If you are not in the list of supported countries email to devenroll@apple.com and ask to provide IDP Billing Form for manual CC processing
5. Receive the account activation code from Apple and apply it
6. Login into iTunes Connect and fill in ‘Free Apps’ Contract, ‘Paid Apps’ Contract, Wire Details for payment, Japanese sales agreement and ‘Available on AppStore’ artwork license agreement as well as W8-BEN form for foreign developers .
7. Mail ‘Paid Apps’ contract, ‘artwork license’ agreement, ‘Japanese sales’ agreement to Apple and wait till they review those and fully activate your account.

Frequently Asked Questions:

- How can I speed up the process?
Reply: If at a certain point you don’t hear from apple for more then a week – start calling them +14089744897 or emailing to devenroll@apple.com. They are overwhelmed with the applications so couple of reminders will not harm

- Shall I receive EIN if I’m a foreign developer?
Reply: Up to you. We’ve been talking to Apple billing department numerous times and they confirmed that providing 000000000 (9 zeros) instead of EIN/TIN is an allowable option. They report AppStore payments to be commission as opposed to royalty so there is no withholding of tax or reporting on form 1042 at year end. There is a big confusion caused by the list of countries that have double treaty but this is valid for iTunes and not AppStore since AppStore sales are put in a different fashion. So you just pay taxes at your country not USA.

Some foreign developers prefer to obtain EIN/TIN (afterall it’s a 10 minute call to IRS 1-(215) 516-6999. Make sure you filled SS-4 to dictate it to a representative).

- Can I pay by wire transfer for iPhone Developer admission fee?
Reply: Not any more

- Are the payments from sales coming in multiple currencies?
Reply: Yes. Make sure that your bank account is capable of receiving multiple currencies and converting those.

- I’m an indie developer and don’t have fax to send documents to Apple. Any online solutions?
Reply: PamFax on Skype – reliable and dirt cheap

- How do I pay for iPhone Developer Program if my country is not in the list?
Email to devenroll@apple.com (make sure you include identification code) and request iDP BILLING: Credit Card Processing Form. You will need to feel it with CC details and fax over to Apple

- If I have further questions on getting registered – will you assist me?
Reply: If you are our customer – email to your Project Manager ASAP! If you are a random visitor to the web site – try posting your question in comments to this blog entry.

Posted in outsourcing | 1 Comment »

Everyone releasing iPhone application should submit URL for the application web site along with the other app data. While we were just adding extra page dedicated to the app description to our customer’s web sites in the past it might be time to consider creating stand alone web sites now. There are 30.000+ apps on the AppStore now and hoving another ’stand out of the crowd’ factor will definitely be useful. The question is to what degree. If you have opinions – please comment.

Developers has already started it, but it’s still hard to find the best sample. Folks from WebDesignerDepot has come up with the collection of 40 best-looking iPhone Application Websites up to date.

Also I would be interested to hear other developer’s thoughts on traffic that AppStore is bringing to the web site and other useful stats on the subject.

Tags: iphone application development, iphone application websites
Posted in iphone development | 1 Comment »