Dirk Dougherty | 9aeb0a81 | 2012-08-20 11:07:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | page.title=Developer Stories: The Opportunity of Android Tablets |
| 2 | walkthru=0 |
| 3 | header.hide=0 |
| 4 | |
| 5 | @jd:body |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | <p>More and more, developers are investing in a full tablet experience |
| 9 | for their apps and are seeing those investments pay off big. The increased |
| 10 | screen area on tablets opens up a world of possibilities, allowing for more |
| 11 | engagement with the user — which can mean an increase in usage as well as |
| 12 | more monetization opportunities. And with the growing wave of Android tablets that |
| 13 | continue to hit the market, it’s an important piece of any developer’s mobile |
| 14 | offering. </p> |
| 15 | |
| 16 | <p>Here are some stories from developers who are seeing real results as they |
| 17 | expand their offering to include Android tablets.</p> |
| 18 | |
| 19 | |
| 20 | <div style="margin-bottom:2em;"><!-- START STORY --> |
| 21 | |
| 22 | <h3>Mint: More screen real estate = more engagement</h3> |
| 23 | |
| 24 | <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px; |
| 25 | -moz-border-radius: 5px; |
| 26 | border-radius: 5px height:78px; |
| 27 | width: 78px; |
| 28 | float: left; |
| 29 | margin: 12px 20px 9px 20px;" src= |
| 30 | "https://lh5.ggpht.com/0xAIZJ1uE05b4RHNHgBBTIH6nRdPTY660T104xY7O2GbHXwab6YVmpU5yYg8yacfBg=w124"> |
| 31 | |
| 32 | <div style="list-style: none;height:100%; |
| 33 | float: right; |
| 34 | border-top: 1px solid #9C0; |
| 35 | width: 220px; |
| 36 | margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;"> |
| 37 | |
| 38 | |
| 39 | <h5>About the app</h5> |
| 40 | |
| 41 | |
| 42 | <ul> |
| 43 | <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint">Mint.com Personal Finance</a> by Intuit Inc.</li> |
| 44 | <li>Financial management app targeting 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li> |
| 45 | </ul> |
| 46 | |
| 47 | <h5>Tablet Results</h5> |
| 48 | |
| 49 | <ul> |
| 50 | <li>Able to offer richer UI features</li> |
| 51 | <li>Much higher user engagement</li> |
| 52 | <li>Longer sessions — more Android tablet users have sessions longer than 5 minutes</li> |
| 53 | </ul> |
| 54 | |
| 55 | <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;"> |
| 56 | <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint"> |
| 57 | <img alt="Android app on Google Play" |
| 58 | src="http://developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" /> |
| 59 | </a> |
| 60 | |
| 61 | </div> |
| 62 | </div> |
| 63 | |
| 64 | <div style="line-height:1.4em;"> |
| 65 | <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">When Intuit was thinking about |
| 66 | expanding their Mint mobile offering to include a version optimized for Android |
| 67 | tablets, they knew that taking the layout that worked for phones and simply |
| 68 | showing an enlarged version wouldn’t take full advantage of the opportunities |
| 69 | that tablets afford.</p> |
| 70 | |
| 71 | <p>“We knew we had a lot more real estate, and we wanted to provide a more |
| 72 | immersive experience for our users” said Ken Sun, Intuit Group Product Manager |
| 73 | at Mint.</p> |
| 74 | |
| 75 | <p>Intuit’s Mint app, which has a 4-star rating on Google Play, brings a number |
| 76 | of features to Android tablets that aren’t available for phones, including a |
| 77 | more visual presentation of personal financial data.</p> |
| 78 | |
| 79 | <p>“Whereas our app for phones is used throughout the day for quick sessions, |
| 80 | we’ve seen a larger percentage of our tablet usage happen in the evening, for |
| 81 | much longer sessions,” said Sun. “People are doing a lot more than just checking |
| 82 | their spending. They’re looking at historical trends, re-categorizing |
| 83 | transactions, analyzing the data and setting financial goals for the future |
| 84 | — digging much deeper and being more thoughtful. One example is how much |
| 85 | users are interacting with their own budgets in the tablet app. Customer budget |
| 86 | operations (view, edit, drill-down, etc.) are 7x higher on Android tablets than |
| 87 | they are on phones.”</p> |
| 88 | |
| 89 | <p>Fifty percent more Android tablet users have Mint sessions of 5 minutes or |
| 90 | longer than they do on phones. “We’ve found that phone usage is indicative of a |
| 91 | customer’s regular financial check-in, while tablet usage points towards more |
| 92 | analysis and interaction with that customer’s personal financial data. This is |
| 93 | the sort of immersive engagement experience we were looking for; the tablet and |
| 94 | phone apps serve as great complements to each other."</p> |
| 95 | </div> |
| 96 | |
| 97 | <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;"> |
| 98 | |
| 99 | <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/mint.png"></a> |
| 100 | |
| 101 | <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;"> |
| 102 | <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">Making the most of tablet screens</span>: Mint used the extra screen area on tablets to offer quick access to additional tools and information.</p> |
| 103 | </div> |
| 104 | |
| 105 | </div> |
| 106 | |
| 107 | </div> <!-- END STORY --> |
| 108 | |
| 109 | |
| 110 | <div style="margin:3em auto"><!-- START STORY --> |
| 111 | |
| 112 | |
| 113 | <h3>TinyCo: Monetization opportunities abound on tablets</h3> |
| 114 | |
| 115 | <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px; |
| 116 | -moz-border-radius: 5px; |
| 117 | border-radius: 5px height:78px; |
| 118 | width: 78px; |
| 119 | float: left; |
| 120 | margin: 12px 20px 30px 20px;" src= |
| 121 | "https://lh5.ggpht.com/mO1TPos65MWJF_n8ZrXMbNCqIqsvN4dQV_rwNOU3pF6N_Ii3lSiCPe_H_MP8C1MK5UKo=w124"> |
| 122 | |
| 123 | |
| 124 | <div style="list-style: none;height:100%; |
| 125 | float: right; |
| 126 | border-top: 1px solid #9C0; |
| 127 | width: 220px; |
| 128 | margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;"> |
| 129 | |
| 130 | <h5>About the app</h5> |
| 131 | |
| 132 | <ul> |
| 133 | <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinyco.village">Tiny Village</a> by TinyCo</li> |
| 134 | <li>Game targeting 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li> |
| 135 | </ul> |
| 136 | |
| 137 | <h5>Tablet Results</h5> |
| 138 | |
| 139 | <ul> |
| 140 | <li>35% higher average revenue per paying user (ARPPU)</li> |
| 141 | <li>Consistent increase in user retention</li> |
| 142 | <li>3x increase in downloads to Android tablets in the last 6 months</li> |
| 143 | </ul> |
| 144 | |
| 145 | <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;"> |
| 146 | <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinyco.village"> |
| 147 | <img alt="Android app on Google Play" |
| 148 | src="http://developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" /> |
| 149 | </a> |
| 150 | |
| 151 | </div> |
| 152 | </div> |
| 153 | |
| 154 | <div style="line-height:1.4em;"> |
| 155 | <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">Over a year ago, developer |
| 156 | TinyCo, makers of games such as Tiny Monsters, switched to a |
| 157 | simultaneous launch strategy for their products. They chose Android as one of their |
| 158 | primary launch platforms because of its large installed base and global reach. They |
| 159 | also knew that the growing base of Android tablet users represented a huge |
| 160 | opportunity. </p> |
| 161 | |
| 162 | <p>Tiny Village was their first title to take advantage of the strategy, and |
| 163 | it proved to be a winning one — especially in terms of Android |
| 164 | tablets.</p> |
| 165 | |
| 166 | <p> “With continued optimization of the gameplay experience and a genuine |
| 167 | commitment to our Android offering through our Griffin engine, all of our |
| 168 | metrics started to rise,” said Rajeev Nagpal, Head of Product at TinyCo. In |
| 169 | fact, they’ve seen Android tablet downloads more than triple in the last six |
| 170 | months.</p> |
| 171 | |
| 172 | <p>One of the first things they noticed about usage of Tiny Village on |
| 173 | tablets was an increase in average revenue per paying user (ARPPU)—about 35% |
| 174 | higher than on smaller-screen devices such as phones. Additionally, average |
| 175 | revenue per user ARPU is now about 35% higher as well. “The game is just much |
| 176 | more immersive on tablet.”</p> |
| 177 | |
| 178 | <p>In addition to an increase in monetization metrics, they’ve also seen a |
| 179 | consistent increase in retention over other platforms. “These are really |
| 180 | important metrics for games — if you can get users to both stay around |
| 181 | longer and spend more while they’re there, you have a recipe for success.”</p> |
| 182 | </div> |
| 183 | |
| 184 | <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;"> |
| 185 | |
| 186 | <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/tinyvillage.png"></a> |
| 187 | |
| 188 | <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;"> |
| 189 | <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">More monetization |
| 190 | on tablets</span>: On Android tablets TinyCo has seen higher ARPPU and user |
| 191 | retention than on phones.</p> |
| 192 | </div> |
| 193 | |
| 194 | </div> |
| 195 | |
| 196 | </div> <!-- END STORY --> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | |
| 199 | <div style="margin-bottom:2em;"><!-- START STORY --> |
| 200 | |
| 201 | <h3>Instapaper: Riding the growing wave of Android tablets</h3> |
| 202 | |
| 203 | |
| 204 | <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px; |
| 205 | -moz-border-radius: 5px; |
| 206 | border-radius: 5px height:78px; |
| 207 | width: 78px; |
| 208 | float: left; |
| 209 | margin: 12px 20px 9px 20px;" src= |
| 210 | "https://lh3.ggpht.com/30KKcrIFO8V_wRfhnHaI9l0CLH_orIVFE7Xywtr9TBxAf0hi2BaZkKyBOs63Yfavpg=w124"> |
| 211 | |
| 212 | |
| 213 | <div style="list-style: none;height:100%; |
| 214 | float: right; |
| 215 | border-top: 1px solid #9C0; |
| 216 | width: 220px; |
| 217 | margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;"> |
| 218 | |
| 219 | |
| 220 | |
| 221 | |
| 222 | <h5>About the app</h5> |
| 223 | <ul> |
| 224 | <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android">Instapaper</a> by Mobelux</li> |
| 225 | <li>Content-browsing utility that targets 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li> |
| 226 | </ul> |
| 227 | |
| 228 | <h5>Tablet Results</h5> |
| 229 | |
| 230 | <ul> |
| 231 | <li>Tablets are now 50% of the app's installed base.</li> |
| 232 | </ul> |
| 233 | |
| 234 | <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;"> |
| 235 | <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android"> |
| 236 | <img alt="Android app on Google Play" |
| 237 | src="http://developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" /> |
| 238 | </a> |
| 239 | |
| 240 | </div> |
| 241 | </div> |
| 242 | |
| 243 | <div style="line-height:1.4em;"> |
| 244 | <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">Instapaper for Android is an app |
| 245 | for saving web content to read later. Developer Mobelux decided that creating a |
| 246 | great UI for Android tablet users would be an essential part of their initial launch |
| 247 | plan.</p> |
| 248 | |
| 249 | <p>The app launched at the beginning of the summer of 2012, just in time to |
| 250 | take advantage of a new tide of Android tablets, including the <span |
| 251 | style="white-space:nowrap;">Nexus 7</span> tablet. The app has since seen huge |
| 252 | popularity among tablet users, in particular, on Nexus 7. On the day that |
| 253 | pre-orders of Nexus 7 began arriving, Mobelux saw a 600% jump in downloads of |
| 254 | its app on Google Play.</p> |
| 255 | |
| 256 | <p>“We saw a promising new set of Android tablets about to hit the market |
| 257 | and wanted to position ourselves to be ready for them” said Jeff Rock of |
| 258 | Mobelux. “It was a market that others were hesitant to explore, but the decision |
| 259 | to prioritize tablets has paid off very well for us.”</p> |
| 260 | |
| 261 | <p>Since that initial 600% jump in downloads, Instapaper for Android has |
| 262 | continued to see a successful run on Android tablets. In fact, Android tablets |
| 263 | now represent about 50% of their installed base. “With more and more Android |
| 264 | tablets coming online, we’re excited to see how our investment in Android |
| 265 | tablets continues to pay off.”</p> |
| 266 | </div> |
| 267 | |
| 268 | <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;"> |
| 269 | |
| 270 | <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/instapaper.png"></a> |
| 271 | |
| 272 | <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;"> |
| 273 | <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">Popular with |
| 274 | tablet users</span>: A great tablet UI and browsing convenience make Instapaper |
| 275 | popular with Android tablet users.</p> |
| 276 | </div> |
| 277 | |
| 278 | </div> |
| 279 | |
| 280 | </div> <!-- END STORY --> |
| 281 | |
| 282 | |
| 283 | |