Well it’s been about a year and a half since iDoodle2 and iDoodle2 lite came out and it’s quite amazing that iDoodle2 lite is at the top of the productivity category in Germany and the UK this weekend (with a whole lot of help from MagicSolver’s advent Calendar,  thanks guys!) but today I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my second original app the iDoodle Zombie Coloring Book made it to the app store.

I’m really glad to see it there since I think people will really enjoy some of the art.  Though it’s way to late for Halloween it is my honest opinion that Zombies are a classic that never really goes out of season.  We’ll see how that holds up.  The app is available in the app store here.

I have another app that is coming out soon which I think a lot of people will enjoy and have been collaborating with a few other individuals on apps which I’m looking forward to seeing out in the wild.  Overall things are going well in iDoodle land.

Happy Holidays!

P.S.  iDoodle2 lite is featured in the excellent Advent Calendar created by Magic Solver.  Check it out in the App Store here.

Within that first weekend I found my app on the top entertainment apps list for the first time, but even as I climbed my velocity dampened and I stalled out in the mid 60s on the top entertainment list. Once Finger Paint released a new update I started to slip again. Here’s where I made another business decision and switched categories over to photography. This was a fortuitous decision because my 75 on the Entertainment List became a 20 in Photography. The increased exposure coupled with the sale price led to my best week by number of units sold since last fall. But even then the revenue at that price point, while nothing to sneer at, was only fair when compared to weekly revenues over the past 9 months. The sale ended on April 15th and while my unit sales certainly took a hit I’ve been able to make up for it with the restored price. Furthermore, moving to the Photography list should allow me to stay discoverable far longer than I might be in the Entertainment category.

So a couple lessons learned. Going on sale does drive-up sales, but I had to go down to $0.99 ( over 60% off ) to see a really significant change in my sales volume. Even at that point and with increased exposure the lower price point meant my revenue wasn’t very impressive. It’s very interesting working in a market where there are no significant per-unit costs to contend with and profit can be derived as a function of sales and price only. The other significant take-away is that moving to a less-crowded category can increase your sales and discoverability. If you fall below a certain threshold you won’t show up in the top 100 list for the category and you become much harder to find. For Entertainment that cut-off point seemed to be in the neighborhood of 100 sales a day, it would be interesting to see where it lies for other categories.

Ultimately though I realized I’m not going to become a huge hit in the app store just by dropping my price, even with what I believe is a very good app. This leads me back to what I really enjoy, creating good software people enjoy using. Being a one-man shop it’s challenging knowing how to best allocate my limited resources. This experience has taught me that instead of trying to game the app store I should get back to coding. And with luck if I build it, the customers will come, even if they have to pay a bit more for an app than they would for a McChicken Sandwich.

I think the usability improvements to iDoodle2 make a strong app that much stronger.  One of the first things was to implement a multi-touch zoom and pan system.  This allows the user to zoom in up to ten times to work on allow a quality of work and detail that wasn’t possible with the previous release.  The other great improvement to usability (which I believe was suggested in this blog ) is a smart offset tool.  You can customize the distance the pen is from your finger so you’ll have a much better view of  what you are drawing.  The “smart” comes from the offset’s ability to adjust for the orientation of your phone.  The final new feature to come from a custom suggestion is the inclusion of a “kid mode”.  One father e-mailed me saying that his 2 year old enjoyed playing with iDoodle2, but would hit the other controls and pop up menus.  To activate kid mode touch the screen with 3 fingers and a simple palette appears at the bottom of the screen.  Tap with three fingers again to exit this mode. 

The other improvements fix a few annoyances from previous versions.  All tool settings now save when you exit a session so your perfect tool setup isn’t lost.  The text tool has been improved with new fonts, text shadows, and the ability to handle non standard characters.  Finally you can rotate and adjust the background image in your doodles. 

Anyway those are the basics.  Any feedback on the new version would be much appreciated as would the chance to see some of what you’re creating.  A new version of iDoodle2 lite should be out in the next few weeks and I have a few other projects waiting in the wings. 

From the web app that I wrote last February to the success of iDoodle2 it has been a great learning experience.  There have been over 1 million downloads worldwide of  iDoodle2 lite and I hope that number will continue to climb. 

I’m working right now on a few fixes to iDoodle2 and iDoodle2 lite that should be ready and in the app store in early January.  The feedback of my users has been critical in shaping these updates and I hope that this relationship will continue.

Since Apple’s NDA has been relaxed I’m also hoping to start giving code examples that will help other developers who are working with 2D graphics on the iPhone.  I certainly wouldn’t have finished my app without the advice and guides I’ve found online and I hope that I can also make some kind of contribution in this area.  Look for the first one of these blog posts within the next few weeks. Thanks again for the support and I hope to continue making great iPhone applications in 2009. 

If some of you want to share your art and see what other are doing with iDoodle2 and the other drawing apps on the iPhone you can check out iartmobile.com.  There’s also a poll where you can vote for your favorite iPhone app. 

Right now I’m gathering ideas and features for the next big version of iDoodle2 and iDoodle2 lite. It may be a bit since I have another iPhone app that I would like to finish up first.  I’m having fun with it and I hope some of you check it out when it hits the app store.  Till then, peace.