The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development

SCALING

Prior to release, you will likely have an idea of at least some of the features and content that you weren't able to include in your app on launch. And, if you don't yet, then post-launch customer feedback can help you add new potential features, as well as help you gauge which of your currently planned updates are a suitably high priority.

Releasing New Content

When you are scaling your app for more content (whether paid or free), you should take advantage of both the metrics that you have gathered (how are people using your app, what are they buying within your app, how long are they using it, and so on — Flurry is one popular company that can help, at www.flurry.com) and the user feedback. Once you have a shortlist of new features or content (see the earlier section, “Prioritizing for Updates”), keep in mind some of the following considerations:

• Have the users asked for this feature? If not, you may want to consider temporarily shelving it, and creating content that has shown to be in demand.
• How well is your app doing? Initial launch metrics will help you decide if it could be worth the expense.
• How long will the update take to implement? Keep in mind that your first update should be roughly a week after you launch.
• Will the update require users to update in order to sync with another version? For example, in multiplayer games or multi-user apps, can users of the older version still use the app in conjunction with newer versions? Keep in mind that the more casual the ...