Application Developers SmartBrief

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February 1, 2013

Serving developers of all types, all languages and all platforms

Top Story

FTC chairman who shepherded COPPA expansion will resign
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz says that he is stepping down later this month. "I felt like this was a good time to leave because we got through a number of things that I wanted the commission to address," he says. Leibowitz's legacy includes cracking down on Intel and scrutinizing Facebook and Google over issues relating to online privacy. He also oversaw an expansion of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (1/31)

Developer Economics

Distimo: Dropping the price of your app can mean a huge benefit
Distimo studied the correlation between iOS application prices and sales and discovered that in the five days after app prices drop, downloads grew 1,665% on the iPhone and 871% on the less price-sensitive iPad. In contrast, when an app raises its price, iPad downloads decrease 57% and iPhone downloads go down 46%. TechCrunch (1/31)

Toolbox

OpenKit meets with game developers to discuss backend solution
OpenKit, an open-source, cross-platform backend services company for mobile gaming, is meeting today with 50 developers to discuss a beta program. OpenKit executives want the platform to be both "good business and developer friendly." Initial features include authentication through Facebook and Twitter accounts, saved-game data stored in the cloud, and player leaderboards. TechCrunch (1/31)

Regulation & Policy

Uber follows Lyft with clearance to operate in Calif.
A day after California's Public Utilities Commission cleared application-based car-hailing service Lyft to roll, the commission announced that it has come to a similar agreement with competing app Uber. But Uber's problems aren't over: Colorado's Public Utilities Commission is proposing a series of rules that would severely disable the service in that state. Uber is recruiting grass-roots support through a petition in an effort to prevent those rules from taking effect. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Bits blog (1/31), TheNextWeb.com (2/1)

Industry Spotlight

Temple Run 2 sets a record for fastest game-app growth
Imangi Studios' Temple Run 2 creamed Angry Birds Space in the race to become the fastest-growing mobile game, hitting the 50 million download mark in only 13 days. Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd says "the game has performed beyond our wildest dreams." Los Angeles Times (tiered subscription model)/Tech Now blog (1/31)

App Developers Alliance News

Alliance member Kinvey releases an eBook for iOS app developers
Interested in building your first iOS app? Or maybe you are an iOS or OSX developer looking to keep pace with the platform. Kinvey's new eBook contains everything a developer needs to know to get started building killer apps for iPhones, iPads and iPods -- from developing a firm concept, to setting up Xcode, to creating and deploying a sample app.

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