prime guide: lessons learnt - android app development
DESCRIPTION
greenrobot’s latest app “Prime Guide” brings the TV program to Android Smartphones, Tablets, and Google TV. With a quickly growing installation count, great reviews and very high ratings in Google Play, Prime Guide successfully challenges big players of established brands. We want to present technical and non-technical aspects of app development: • The technical app anatomy • Android and server libraries we used (and wrote) for Prime Guide • Google App Engine as a backend: good and bad sides • Strategies on how to compete with “the big players” • The marketing campaigns we ran and their outcome • Successful customer support and presence in social networks • Stats and numbers http://www.primeguide.tvTRANSCRIPT
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Markus Junginger Android Developer Java Developer Open Source GDG Android Munich Geek & Tech Lead for
Prime GuideChief Android @
So, who‘s this guy?
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Prime Guide – TV Guide App
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Prime Guide: TV Overview
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Prime Guide: Broadcast Details
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Prime Guide: Gallery
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Prime Guide: Tablet
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Prime Guide: Google TV
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Technology Overview
Prime GuideServer Cloud
Prime Guide App
SQLite Database
Remote ORM
Managers
GUI
Eve
nts
EPG Data Source ($$$)
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Libraries used
Action Bar Sherlock Android Support Library EventBus Facebook Several internal greenrobot libraries:
Common Android stuff, bitmaps, cache, … In total: 12 client libraries used Libraries are essential for app dev!
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Libraries written for Prime Guide
greenDAO Fast O/R Mapper (code generation) Object oriented access to SQLite Open Source
Protobuf RPC Binary Client/Server RPC protocol Based on Google Protobuf Multiple remote method calls per request
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Backend – Why App Engine?
The 20:15 peak automatic scalability No OS maintenance / administration High availability Backed by Google and its infrastructure Good Java support Task Queues for background processing Easy deployment / version control
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App Engine: nothing‘s perfect
No SQL (no, that‘s not cool)P.S.: Today there‘s Cloud SQL ($)
Proprietary APIs (no full JEE standard…) Data store impacted our data model
Entity groups, TX consistency, … Request time limits (no long polling etc.) Local server: slow, not 100% compatible Not the cheapest solution
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Some Backend stats
Requests per second, 24h
20:15 New day, Widget updates
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Some Backend stats
Number of serving instances, 24h
20:15 New day, Widget updates
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Are we ready yet?
December 2012: Should we release? Personal impression of the app
About 100 TV channels are plenty Basics OK, some cool features still missing 100+ issues in our backlog, hmm…
OK, let’s release anyway… Before Xmas! Code crunch & last minute PR started Big question: Will people like it at all?
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First day in the store
Beta Release on December, 21st
1,500 installs 4.6 stars rating Phew! Good start, how will it continue?
Can it keep the great rating?
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Our last Minute Marketing…
Trying to spread the word We informed 1,000,000 blogs upfront One bigger mobile blog picked it up It was worth the effort
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As expected, People liked…
Native Android look and feel Simplicity, thought-out UI Speed of the App First class tablet support Features
2D scrolling TV overview Integration of movie related web sites YouTube videos Reminders
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And a few Surprises…
People were happy to give feedback Other features matter to them Most wished: add channel XYZ Top Missing features
Search Support for TV series (reminders, etc.)
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Surprises continued…
Data collected during a 14-day period ending on March 4, 2013
Devices statistics from Google
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Device statistics from Google
Just one problem with these stats:It shows all devices
The real question should be:Which devices install new apps?
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Android Versions, Prime Guide
April, new data
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Marketing Campaign (paid)
CPI campaign with a Android website that also run a 3rd party store
Good impact in 3rd party store:
Downloads over Time
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Marketing Campaign / Play
Prime Guide featured on a big German Android web site plus newsletter coverage
So, what‘s the impact in Google Play? Unexpectedly low:
Downloads over Time
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How to make people rate you
Ratings are essential for success Make it easy for users to rate your app But don‘t force it on them (dialogs, …) Our solution:
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Info Screen
Great place to let users engage
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Customer Support
Take feedback seriously Answer each mail personally (we try to) Value people‘s input, they invested time We track wishes and prioritize accordingly Implement feedback: makes people happy Takes time, about ½ - 1 day per week
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Things underestimated…
Complexity of TV Data Legal issues with TV Data (Germany) Costs of TV Data App Engine quirks General complexity, both app and server
infrastructure
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Optimize for Smartphones, Tablets and Google TV for initial launch.
Lessons learnt
One of our biggest mistakes?
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Pick great new technologies, create them if non-existent.
Lessons learnt
Whatever, that’s the fun part.& Solid base to build upon.
Takes its time…
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Do projects for living, too.
Lessons learnt
Focus and take risks.(If you can afford it.)
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Release before you think it‘s perfect.
Lessons learnt
Reality check!Are you on the right track?
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Release a beta version.
Lessons learnt
People are more tolerant.
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How did we do since?
Rating improved by adding TV channels
~ 100.000 downloads Next milestone: leave beta with V1.0
New features Ads, or paid version
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© Copyright 2013 Markus JungingerAll rights reserved.