Missing perception in Windows Phone Development?

I quote this from Elbert Perez a successful Windows Phone Developer

2012 plans laid out.

Posted on March 12, 2012 by elbert

I just got back from GDC, which is my annual “know what direction I should take and keep up with the game industry” kind of week. The biggest lesson learned this year from GDC is to be promiscuous with platforms. Don’t just lock yourself into 1 platform and lose all the benefits of the other platforms. What this means is that I will be using multi-platform strategies moving forward. I will be starting with HTML5 and depending on how that goes I might stay with it or switch to the Unity Game Engine. This is not saying that I am dropping Windows Phone Development, I am just including more platforms into my target audience. There are a variety of reasons I am doing this:

1. Multi platform is a no brainer in increasing the number of users playing your games. This is the clear and most effective path at achieving growth without resorting to spending huge amounts of money on advertising

2. The gold rush of Windows Phone is now over. With more and more apps flooding into the market the competition is getting harder. Money is not as good as it was, and the quick development method is less effective. Being stuck monetizing just on ad revenue alone sucks. Windows Phone needs IAP and it seems like it will be forever before it shows up.

3. I have a library of successful games that are screaming to be ported over to other platforms. This makes the porting process easier for me because I already have all the assets and design done for me. So I can concentrate on building the infrastructure of my multi platform strategy. Once I have better understanding on  going multi platform, I can resume creating new games

Don’t worry folks, this is just part of growing up as a developer and keeping with the times. There is a hard road ahead, but it is those hard roads that are worth travelling

I got his point, but if the gold rush is over on Windows Phone it is way over on other platforms, I think as earlier adopters we got the advantage to start in a fresh environment, but not evolving in ideas/quality it’s going to hurt us in the long run, because in some point competition is going to be tougher and new ideas will come out.

As for the gold rush, I think there is going to be a gold rush on Windows 8, but in my opinion since it is the #1 flagship product of Microsoft, the gold rush will be shorter.

It is a continuous creative process with non-stop imagination for the ones that want to stay on top every day, I think everyone can do better everyday, and we won’t be in the process of jumping to other platforms (rather than smart expanding).

It seems odd that this developer is going to an over-saturated marketplaces (iPhone = +500,000; Android = +375,000) while complaining of lots of competition in Windows Phone (Windows Phone = +70,000).

I would like to hear your opinions and I think this is an interesting topic for Windows Phone developer because we need motivation to continue working and when we see other developers complaining somehow some developers lose a bit of that motivation.

Here is an article written in WMPowerUser about Elbert Perez,

http://wmpoweruser.com/elbert-perez-the-gold-rush-of-windows-phone-is-now-overwhy-he-is-wrong/

feel free to post your honest opinion as well.

Sprint and Windows Phone 7 petition

Sprint has been known for the lack of support for Windows Phone 7, with only one device (the HTC Arrive which is a fantastic device) Sprint customers are starting to realize that Sprint may not be the carrier they want and are beginning to switch to other Windows Phone 7 supporter carriers.

Sprint Vice President of Product Realization David Owens expressed his lack of enthusiasm for WP7 and is clearly a sign of the lack of support for Windows Phone 7 in Sprint which leads us to say this publicly.

“We, Neuralnet, developer of these fine products such as  NFL Pro ’12, NBA Pro ’12, NHL Pro ’12, Love Text, Game Scout, Multiple Trivia Games, Theme Park Pro and over 40 applications is on Sprint, we will be switching off Sprint in August if Sprint doesn’t release any kind of information about new Windows Phone 7 devices coming soon.”

If you are on Sprint or if you want to have more Windows Phone 7 choices in the stores, then please go to SignOn WP7 on Sprint and sign the petition! let’s make an uproar and let our voices be heard!

Making Money with Windows Phone 7 Apps & Games

We welcome the new year 2012 with open arms! and it gives us a chance to look back and see how we did in 2011 in Windows Phone 7.

For us (Neuralnet) 2011 was our break out year, actually we started in May with a couple of apps and kept a continuous pace in developing app. We did not have a one-hit wonder game or app that made us a lot of money in one month, we grind it out every month making apps, (at this time we have 38 apps in the marketplace) and we saw that every month we doubled our impressions and revenue. (keep in mind that ALL of our apps are Free Ad-based) which we think is a better way in the type of apps we make.

As you can see, we don’t have any data before May, and every month we doubled our impressions until we reached the 2k ~ 3k impressions mark. As we reached the end of the year we made 11k in revenue, now you may think “That’s not a lot”, but if you consider that we reached the 3k impressions a month and keep it, we should be able to make over 40k by the end of the year. Of course, the beauty about making apps for Windows Phone 7 is that you can grow as much as you want, there is no limit on how much you can make.

During the month of August, we had pretty succesful app in Windows Phone 7 called Mortal Kombat Tactics and we decided to develop that app into the largest mobile market share platform Android.

The results have been fantastic for Windows Phone 7, as we go and do talks about Designing in WP7 and How to make money, one of the points we make is that “Bigger Market Share does not equal Bigger Revenue” and we have seen a couple of different posts about this.

Windows Phone 7 Mortal Kombat Tactics App in 2011

Impressions = 234,936 | Revenue = $174.23 (is not HUGE, but is a small app, for a niche group of people)

Android Mortal Kombat Tactics App in 2011

Impressions = 65,599 | Revenue = $22.67

http://www.wpcentral.com/android-vs-windows-phone-free-apps-case-study

http://www.wpcentral.com/android-vs-windows-phone-free-apps-case-study-part-ii

So what have we learned from last year?

When you are building an app, make it original (in features and content if possible) and Do Not send your app half way done. This to us has been extremely critical and we have experienced this as well. When you are building an app, make it as complete as you can in order to make a GREAT first impression to all of your potential users. Don’t think you are going to send it half way done in order to do updates, trust me, make it as complete as you can, and a lot of users are going to give you feedback with brand new ideas that you can do to your app.

We Love building apps for this amazing platform that is Windows Phone 7, and we look forward to an exciting 2012! we have a lot of great ideas and we’ll continue to share our experiences with everyone out there!

Windows Phone 7 Market Share by 2012

According to this study made by Digitimes, Windows Phone will reach 6% of the market share by 2012. It may not seem like a huge impact but if this research is correct that means that windows phone 7 doubled its market share in 1 year, making it possible that by 2015 Windows Phone 7 will be the number 3 or 2 in the mobile industry.

Let’s  see if this is true, and Nokia can finally push windows phone 7 to consumers and new second and third generation phones from HTC, Samsung and other OEM.