Many iPhone developers are monitoring their app’s ranking and reviews. There are some tools to automatically retrieve the ranking (MajicRank) and the reviews (Erica Sadun’s perl script) for all country-specific App Stores using web scraping.

What is missing so far is a solution to retrieve information about feature entries on the App Store start page such as “New and noteworthy”, “What’s hot” and “Staff favorites”. Mentions on the start page have a considerable influence on sales. To avoid monitoring the different country-specific stores manually in iTunes, I wrote a Perl script that can be scheduled to run daily. The script is launched with the app’s iTunes ID (the numeric ID at the end of the iTunes URL you can copy in iTunes using right click on your app title) as a parameter and puts out the current date, country and the type of the mention:

./iTunesFeatured.pl 284940039 Navigation
29.04.2009	AT	Home page, NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
29.04.2009	DE	Home page, NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
29.04.2009	GB	Home page, STAFF FAVORITES

The script takes a while to complete because it needs to fetch 8 9 pages per country. The output is in tab-delimited format to facilitate post processing of the data. In our case, we’re importing the data into a FileMaker database that allows an easy graphic representation (colors to indicate trends) and the creation of all kinds of reports.

So, let’s get to the meat: The script is available on http://github.com/futuretap/iTunesFeaturedCheck.

Do you find this useful? I’d love to know your feedback in the comments or via Twitter!

I’m happy to announce that Where To? 1.7 is now officially released in the App Store. In this release we’ve put our focus beside numerous category and brands improvements on internationalization.

We’ve added the following languages:

• French
• Spanish
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Greek
• British English

Together with English and German, Where To? is now localized in 8 languages. The nice thing about the added localizations: Even if you don’t speak one of these languages, you’ll still profit when traveling into such countries. Where To automatically uses local search terms depending on your current position. As an example, when you’re speaking English and are traveling to Montreal in Canada, Where To will automatically use French search terms although the user interface will remain English. We call this “on-the-fly translation” and we think it’s a huge improvement for travelers.

To make things even better, we have reworked our brands database of more than 1100 worldwide brands to display each brand only in the countries where it’s available. So, all you British users won’t be overwhelmed with US-only brands anymore.

Where To 1.7 is available as a free download for all current Where To owners.

Special note for French and Italian users: In version 1.7 we have an issue that the categories are localized correctly but the labels are still in English. This will be fixed in the next update that is currently waiting for Apple’s approval.

After reading the How-To on CrunchGear to enable tethering on iPhone with 3.0 beta firmware, I immediately tried this with my iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, T-Mobile Germany doesn’t appear in the list of ipcc carrier description files that can be grabbed with:

curl -s -L http://phobos.apple.com/version | grep -i carrier

So I had to create my own ipcc file based on the bundle found on a 2.2.1 jailbroken phone under /System/Library/Carrier Bundles/TMobile_Germany.bundle.

Walkthrough

Here is a walkthrough on how to enable tethering with T-Mobile Germany:
Step 1: Copy the T-Mobile bundle from an iPhone running 2.2.1 with SSH enabled:

scp -r root@iPhone.local.:"/System/Library/Carrier\ Bundles/TMobile_Germany.bundle" /tmp

Step 2: Right click on it and select Show Package Contents. You will find two plist files and two images.

Step 3: In Info.plist, change the BundleVersion from 2.9 to 5.0 and change DTSDKName to (SDK_NAME). Delete MinimumOSVersion. I recommend using Property List Editor for these changes. Save.

Step 4: In carrier.plist do the following and then save:

(a) Add a new Dictionary to the apns Array:

apn = internet
password = password
username = iphone

(b) In the Dictionary with apn internet.t-mobile add the key type-mask with type Number and value -2.
(c) Add a new pair at the top level Dictionary of the carrier.plist file with key AllowEDGEEditing, type BOOLEAN and value YES.

Step 5: grab http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/CarrierBundles/061-4732.20090203.gj3ef/ATT_US.ipcc using Safari and copy version.plist from the bundle into the TMobile_Germany.bundle. Change the CFBundleVersion from 3.1 to 5.0 and save.

Step 6: Create a folder named Payload and copy the TMobile_Germany.bundle into it. Compress Payload using the context menu. Then in the “Get Info” window of Payload.zip change the name to TMobile_Germany.ipcc.

Step 7: Connect your phone and upload the ipcc file via iTunes: Option-click on the Update Button and select the TMobile_Germany.ipcc file. Then eject the phone and reboot it.

Step 8: Now, a new entry appears under Preferences > General > Network. On my first attempt, I received an error to consult T-Mobile on how to setup tethering. On the second attempt though, I was able to successfully enable Internet Tethering.

Step 9: When connected via USB, Mac OS X automatically detects a new Ethernet adapter and the connection comes up using DHCP just flawlessly. One drawback: I have not been able to connect via Bluetooth so far. I attribute this mainly to pairing problems. The Mac thinks it is successfully paired but the iPhone thinks not. I’ll continue investigating this and update the post when I find a solution.

If you think this is useful, please digg it. Many thanks to Steven Troughton Smith and Erica Sadun who discovered it!

In this release we’ve put our focus on fine-tuning the search results for some popular categories. These are the actual changes in this version:

• Improved search results for Taxis, ATMs, Gas stations, pharmacies
• Added US shopping and coffee brands
• Fixed a minor display issue under iPhone OS 2.2.1

The update is available as a free download for all current Where To owners.

In this version we address the following issues:

• Fixed a stability issue with Shake for Surprise
• Fixed an issue with favorite brands using on-the-fly translation
• Fixed a rare issue that could lead to a wrong search language in german speaking countries

So how many new features do we have? — Zero! That’s why we call it Snow Where To.

All current owners of Where To? get the free update in the App Store.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and I wanted to let you know that in that time, “Where To?” has been evolving into becoming more of a FutureTap title. A couple days ago, we released the 1.6 update. This new update adds “Shake for Surprise” and on-the-fly translation among some minor improvements. These were done with the help of Sophia, who I think has done a really incredible job with this update. Details of why the original creator of the app is still working on it, after it had been sold to FutureTap, are here.

However, the update isn’t the only thing that is new. We’ve also been encountering something strange in the App Store, which should serve as a warning to anyone else needing to transfer an App from one developer account in iTunes to another. Apparently, the idea that ownership of an app, including it’s list of customers (to receive free updates) can change, never occurred to the creators of iTunes or the App Store. It seems that transferring ownership of an App is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do in the App Store. As a result, Where To is still listed as being sold by tap tap tap Sophiestication Software (see update below).

This situation has created a ton of headaches for us. On one hand, it can cause confusion for potential buyers, who may search for the App under the FutureTap brand. For the developer, it means that the creation of new Where To releases always requires special steps for Sophia to take, such as signing with her certificate. Sophia has been extremely accommodating in helping us for whatever we ask, but the inconvenience and hassle seems so unnecessary. Our change request with the Apple iTunes team is now exactly 2 months old. We’ve been told that it will be resolved soon. (Still) keeping my fingers crossed!

Update on May, 20: The situation is pretty much unchanged. Only the seller name is indicated as “Sophiestication Software” for some time now. Sophia finally managed to change the name to her company name after the split of tap tap tap.

Update on June, 23: We resorted to pull the app from the old account and publish it as a new one. See “Transferring an iPhone app: last episode” for details.

Version 1.6 offers these features and improvements:

• Added Shake for Surprise
• Added on-the-fly translation: Browse in English, search in German (and vice versa)
• search language automatically set by geo location
• new system preference panel for shake detection and the browse language
• shipping service brands added
• minor category improvements and some new brands

Where To? now contains over 600 categories and over 800 brands. The update is available as a free download for all current Where To owners.

If you like Where To, please tell your friends on Twitter or elsewhere.

Many readers asked me how I came to my company name FutureTap. So I’d like to share the history of the name FutureTap and some thoughts about naming a company in general.

After some brainstorming in a small round of people (and some empty bottles ) I had about 8 potential names on my list. Then I asked some friends about further ideas that would fit our vision of making smart, innovative iPhone apps and extended the list to 11 candidates. I only considered names where a suitable .com domain was available.

How to choose?

It was hard to choose the best name since the „best choice“ is always very subjective and biased. Also it was important that the name would work in all major regions and languages of the world. So I decided to carry out a poll among friends using the fine (german) onlineumfragen.de service. This poll turned out as a huge success. Not only I got a better understanding of how the different names were perceived by a larger group of people. I was also presented 3 more candidates that I added to the poll.

How did we do?

As you can see in the results, we took the best rated name on the list which happened to be my personal favorite, too. How did we do with our selection? — Let us know in the comments.

Available disused names…

What do we do with the other 13 names? – Well, feel free to take them for your business! It just would be nice if you’d give credit somewhere on your page and let us know. (Curious to see how long it takes until the respective domains will be taken…)

When I first came across tap tap tap’s Where To sale offer, I was fascinated and scared as well. Fascinated because it would offer a jump start in the App Store; scared because of the risk involved. And puzzled about all the questions on how to do such a deal: What would be a reasonable price? Can such a transaction really work? — I’ll try to give some answers here.

Why buy an app?

Having strong developer roots, I admit that my first thought was: OK, this app really looks nice but why don’t you develop a similar one on your own? Shouldn’t be that hard. However, my experience at equinux, my former company, taught me that a) most development takes longer than anticipated and b) time-to-market is critical – especially in light of the xmas shopping season.

A second reason in this particular case: Where To is not just a bunch of Objective-C files. It’s a brand that’s well-established in the market and it comes with a really outstanding UI. So buying rather than making-yourself seemed like a good option.

How to value?

This is tough. There is not really any experience how to value an iPhone app. If you offer too much, you’ll never get your return on investment (ROI). If you offer too little, someone else gets the deal.

 
Furthermore, I’m not an investment shark whose daily business is valuing products and companies. So I had to come up with my own ways of evaluating Where To’s value. One traditional model for company valuations is the discounted cash flow (DCF) method where you basically sum up future earnings indefinitely. Future earnings are discounted with an interest rate that takes into account various factors such as the risk and the cost of capital. The problem is that this method heavily relies on reliable forecasts. We didn’t have such forecasts, mainly because the whole App Store market is so fast-paced and on the other hand still in its infancy. So it’s hard to predict even roughly where the whole thing’s heading.

I came up to choose the technique of using EBIT multiples. Of course, I didn’t buy a company but only a product. So I needed to calculate a virtual “product EBIT” first. Given the published numbers and estimated costs for development, marketing, support and various other operating costs, I estimated a yearly EBIT of $45,000-50,000.

My offer

We agreed on my initial offer of $70,000, where a portion of the whole transaction volume goes into services such as training and the development of new features.

This results in a multiple of 1.5 — pretty small at first sight compared to multiples of 52 for Skype and 27 for MySpace (see this summary). However, there are some important differences:

• Where To is not (yet ) as big as Skype or MySpace
• The acquisition is just about a product and no staff
• as stated before the iPhone market is still immature and future sales unreliable
• the whole thing lives off the marketing effort which is not part of the acquisition

So if everything works well, the investment will pay off in 18 months from now. To reassure the valuation, I also calculated the opportunity costs to develop a similar app by myself. The interesting thing about this calculation is that you associate the cost of time-to-market with a real number (basically, I summed the development costs and the loss of income and deducted the operational costs for support). This calculation revealed a higher value (~ $110k) than the multiple approach, so I was on the safe side.

Timing

I knew it was critical to relaunch as fast as possible to participate in the christmas shopping season. I heard rumours of anticipated 5-times higher sales volumes as usual. (I’m curious if some other devs could acknowledge this from the preliminary sales numbers – let me know in the comments.)

Still, all the contractual work took some time (especially because our German contract needed to be translated for John). Then we relied on Apple to manage the transfer of Where To into my account. Since this is a completely manual process requiring synchronisation with people from different departments, Apple was unable to transfer the app so far. Also it is not possible to change the company name once an app is live in the App Store (which is weird since the company name can be defined on creation time for each app individually).

The solution was to relaunch Where To under the old account and wait for the transfer hopefully in January. This is the reason why Where To appears in the App Store under the company Tap Tap Tap, the seller Sophia Teutschler (the account name) and the copyright FutureTap (the only thing changeable).

Risks

The whole transaction is not without risk. Will I ever get my return on investment? How long will it take? Numerous iPhone developers complained about shortcomings of the App Store that affect sales of quality software (see for example: Trouble in the (99-cent) App Store and How to Price Your iPhone App out of Existence). Where To is no exception to this problem.

Future plans

Despite the risks I believe in a bright future for Where To. We have some exciting new features in the pipeline. Sophia thankfully commited to stay on board for some time to implement some of them. Plus we plan to extend our internationalisation efforts. German was just the beginning — we plan to add French and Italian in the first step. (Française(s) and Azzurri, contact us at localisation@futuretap.com if you’re willing to localize Where To in your language.) So stay tuned via our news feed or follow us on Twitter… there’s some cool new stuff to come.

Hopefully, this post was useful for some of you. If you’d like to hear more about how the whole transaction went for me, I’m willing to share some details with you. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And if you think this was useful, please digg it to let others know about it.

We’re happy to announce that Where To is finally available on the App Store again. After ~2 months of abstinence mainly caused by the split-up of Tap Tap Tap and the successive sale process, Where To is now available in version 1.5 with the following new features:

• Added german localization
• Added US bank brands
• Added mobile phone shop brands

Get it now at the App Store.