June 22, 2011

Apple Needs a Better iTunes and AppStore Affiliate Program

Back in the 80s, I was the queen of the mix tape.  My mix tapes were our college party soundtracks and later provided the backdrop for summer vacations.  This has evolved into the playlist, where I’ve been known to spend hours putting together the perfect playlist for every special occasion in my family.  I’ve been frustrated that the only ways to share these playlists have been by burning CDs.  Yes, now there is Ping but honestly, do you know anyone using Ping?

Then I was chatting recently with two friends with iPhones.  One had her iPhone for six months and didn’t have any apps.  The other just got hers and wanted to know what apps to add. I quickly emailed off a list of some beginner apps.  I’ve looked at sharing my app recommendations on Appolicious and Appsfire, but it is a lot of work to curate and I tend to neglect it as I don’t get much of a benefit from it.  I’d prefer everything to be centralized around iTunes/AppStore for my Apple devices since I spend enough time in there anyway.

So once again I got to thinking, why doesn’t Apple have an affiliate program? I did a little searching and it turns out that they do.  Who knew? But unless I’m a full-time blogger, would I bother to sign up for a separate affiliate program, then get approved for the iTunes affiliate program, then create new links every time I share a song or app recommendation?  There must be an easier way.

I’ve spent hours organizing my 250+ apps into folders and probably days organizing my library of 4300+ songs into playlists.  And, these folders vary between my iPhone, iPad, and my daughter’s iPod Touch (actually, it is my old iPhone, we just call it her iPod Touch) because different devices have different uses.  Why, oh why, can’t Apple make it easy for me to share all this work and get rewarded for it?  I don’t feel like recreating it into AppLists on an AppsFire or the like.  I’ve already done the work.  Let me share my folders via social networks and give me credit for all the apps people buy.  Allow me to post my playlists (ok, I’ll use Ping if I have to) and allow people to purchase the entire list in one step, or go song-by-song, and reward me.

Why should Apple reward me?  Think about those two friends I mentioned. If I hadn’t shared app recommendations with them they would still be walking around wondering why they spent so much for a phone that doesn’t do much instead of giving Apple 30% of AppStore purchases and becoming more and more enamored with the iPhone experience.  A recent study from MTV Networks showed that 53 percent of new apps are discovered via word-of-mouth.  It benefits Apple to promote word-of-mouth.  They don’t even have to pay cash, just provide a credit at the AppStore or iTunes.

I’d love to see Apple evolve to become much more social and link these recommendations into the social graph and allow me to share these recommendations on Facebook, Twitter, etc. right from iTunes. Take a page from what AppsFire has done here, but take it a step further.  If a lot of people take my recommendations, maybe that should even influence my Klout score for those categories.  I’d love to see Apple take the brilliance they’ve proven in product design and apply it to creating a more social experience for buying and sharing apps, books, music, and more.  And give me a pat on the back for helping them sell more.

Let me know what you think and what I’m missing.

March 10, 2010

Is Apple’s Halo Slipping?

Apple has enjoyed a long reign as a marketing and product genius. Compared to Microsoft’s evil empire and Google’s big-brother concerns (while claiming to “do no evil”), Apple was a darling and Steve Jobs its Golden Boy. Only a company like Apple can have parents keeping their children home from school (yes, I saw someone tweet this) for a new product launch. But with its moves recently, I have to wonder, is the halo slipping?

Ruler of Apps
I have an iPhone and I believe that I benefit from Apple’s closed environment by having an easy-to-use interface, reliable hardware (for the most part), and an easy-to-access store for digital content. Granted I have to put up with sucky mobile service from AT&T, but overall, I couldn’t be happier with my phone.

But as a developer, I might have a different point of view. Yes, I get access to a large audience (if my app is found), but I am entirely dependent on Apple to approve or reject my app according to their own schedule, not mine. Not to mention that with the proliferation of smartphones, I’d now need to bring on (hard-to-find) developers to build apps for Android, Palm, BlackBerry and others.

You know I’m not a big fan on just jumping on the app bandwagon, but Mark Suster said it best, “App is Crap…Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” I’m with you Mark, mobile web is going to be the new king and Apple’s power play is going to make developers and brands realize it even more quickly.

Dictator of Mobile Advertising
When Apple bought Quattro Wireless, a mobile ad network with a significant in-app footprint, there was much speculation on what this would mean for mobile advertising. Well, we’ve had our first glance. The dictators at Apple are again jumping in to tell application developers that they cannot expose location information for the sole purpose of location-based advertising. (Read more on Mobile Marketer) So yes, companies like Loopt, UrbanSpoon, and Foursquare, that offer location-based results in their applications or okay. But if you offer a pinball game, you are not allowed to access location information to enable location-based advertising.

Talk about crap – this doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe there isn’t a tie in between pinball and location but what if I’m in the New York Times app. Will I find an ad for a McDonalds’ special offer more valuable if it also shows me where the closest location is? NYT doesn’t need my location to deliver national news…but they can deliver more relevant advertising?

So who are we really looking out for here? Apple would say consumers, but I think deep down, they are looking out for Apple and want to control the location-based mobile advertising experience within iPhone apps using their mobile ad network. Why? Some say for a piece of the pie. It hasn’t been part of Apple’s business model before to generate revenue from advertising, but why else would they spend $275 million on Quattro?

The whole point of advertising should be to provide information, utility or entertainment to consumers in a way that is relevant and entertaining. I don’t want to pay for my content so I get it that I’m going to see ads. I’d prefer to see ads that are relevant to me, where I am, and what I am doing. I might actually click on those.

So come on Apple, take a step back and straighten that halo a bit. You don’t have to control everything to be a success.