In-app purchase in spotlight again as boy racks up £1,000 iPad bill: “Eight-year-old Theo Rowland-Fry’s parents thought nothing of letting him play a ‘Simpsons’ game on the family iPad — until a recent bank statement showed charges of almost £1,000, that is.” (Via Apple Insider.) Here’s my question: Why do kids games with in-app-purchase even exist? Why are parents downloading these games at all? “Freemium” games for kids should have zero downloads. As should kids games with ads. Blame Apple if you want, but personally I think…

It was a privlige and a pleasure to chat with Dan and Philipe, organizers of the NSNorth conference last night on their podcast. We talked about the App Store business, how to take the long approach to success, including the need to work on your sales skills, and much more. All of my favorite topics, which will be the basis of my upcoming talk at NSNorth this April. If you’ve never been to the lovely city of Ottawa in the Spring, I urge you to consider heading up there…

Buy More Apps | Outside Xcode: “And just like the friend who explains how good, proper coffee tastes, and that it’s worth the effort… From time to time tell your friends and family that developers put a lot of effort into building well designed apps – and that quality is worth paying for.” (Via. Outside Xcode) Exactly. It seems like a small thing, but just talking amongst your friends and family about what goes into developing a great app, just reminding yourself that this is craftsmanship and that it should be…

In September 2011, I attended 360iDev for the first time. At the time, Fantastical for Mac was a very new app, and I was happy to see that one of its creators, Michael Simmons, would be giving a talk. After his talk, I told him how much I liked Fantastical and that I was hoping he’d make an iPhone version. He gave me a coy “We’re looking into it” response, and I went home thinking it was likely coming in the next six months or so. Fast forward…

Realmac Blog – App Pricing and the Freemium Trend: “So what does this mean for us and the future of apps? Given the right product, a freemium model is something that we may have to consider. To throw in some business speak, the right product matched to the right target market is critically important here, and when done properly going freemium could be a massively successful strategy. That said, how it affects the perceived value of our craft remains to be seen.” (Via. Realmac Blog) While I agree with Rob that…