Nexus 7 launch doubles sales of Shifty Jelly's Android apps

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | Jul 25 2012 | 11:05 pm  | 25 Comments

Pocket Casts

Application developers at Shifty Jelly have taken to Twitter to let us all know that they have doubled their Android app sales since the release of the Nexus 7 and Google's $25 Play Store credit. The developers of the popular Pocket Casts podcast app and down under weather app Pocket Weather Australia are clearly seeing the benefit of Google selling the Nexus 7 at cost with Play Store credit as a gateway to Google Play, and remarked about the influx of new users.

We’ve noticed that sales of all our apps have doubled on Android, coinciding with Nexus 7 sales and Google giving out $25 for the Play Store

 

Their attention to detail and great communication have made Pocket Casts one of the premiere podcatchers on Google Play, and we're not surprised to see users downloading the app en masse. It's also great to see Google's idea of selling the Nexus 7 as a gateway to Google Play is working -- there's a lot of great content there, and 25 bucks of it for free looks like it was a good move. Great developers deserve this kind of support, and we hope others are seeing the benefit as well.

Source: @shiftyjelly

Jerry Hildenbrand Cowboy

"Fascinated by things that go beep."

2309(articles)

4843(forum posts)
 

There are 25 comments. Add yours.

ayman07 says:

They should focus on getting their app to follow the new Android style guide. Legacy menu button and outdated UI? Is that what you think is great? I've seen better. Good for them though.

mitchger says:

Couldn't agree more. This is a big problem that nobody seems to be discussing especially if using phones with no onscreen buttons and no menu button like the one x

shiftyjelly says:

We agree as well ;)

We're just 2 guys, only one of us works on Android. We spent many months updating Pocket Weather AU. Pocket Casts is now firmly on our radar, and we're going to be giving it a much needed ICS makeover. I think a lot of people just don't realise how many months of effort goes into making an update. If we could press a magical button and create 3 more developers who don't need to be paid (Androids perhaps, get it like the robo...never mind) then we'd have done that already ;)

lionsson says:

I have Dogcatcher, but too iOSish make a good holo theme Pocket Cast and you'll have my money and recommendations.

Hand_O_Death says:

Annnnnnd, you just got yourself another sale my friend.

leif1981 says:

This sounds really good. I'm constantly switching between podcasting apps because everyone is good at something. Doggcatcher was my first app which got constant updating and a new UI whcih works good on phones and tablets. But there big issue is that they put to many features in it which makes it not so enjoyable to use at the end.

Your Pocket Casts is the app I used mostly recently because it's easy to use, works well and you guys have the best podcast database/search. Often had troubles to find some podcasts in other apps, but in yours I've always found what I was looking for. A new UI which looks a bit more ICS like an maybe has a tablet layout would be awesome.

Oh and by the way. On 10th August the weekly Google App Review Show is reviewing Podcast apps. Some suggested yours as well:
http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=1ddd8a&t=1ddd8a.5b&f=1ddd8a.66a87b

gtg465x says:

Even though it's not Holo themed, it's still the best designed podcast app for Android imo. Every other podcast app was ugly as sin last I checked.

I wouldn't say it's really an iOS style app either (other than the fact that the tabs are on the bottom, but I like that because I can actually reach them with my thumb). It has its own style. And it does use standard Android UI elements in its design. There are no iOS looking controls or anything.

mattg1 says:

Nice to see those guys get more support, I agree pocket casts is great!

randall2580 says:

PocketCasts is rocking my GNote - and is how I listen to this fine PodCast every week!

Rence says:

Feels like I'm beating a dead horse here, but Google really needs to make Play Store gift cards available, they would likely drive up app sales a lot.

leif1981 says:

True and I hope they'll come around christmas or so.

With the Nexus 7 they've integrated the Google Play Balance system now so they just need to expand it a bit. To me it looks also like a test drive before they use it's possibilities even more. During this years IO was a talk about monetizing Apps where they also talked a bit about this new Google Play Balance. They mentioned that this is just the beginning and this offers many new ways for promotions and payments.

qhinton says:

I used to use pocket cast a lot, but stopped because I. got tired of searhing for my podcast when changed roms or brought a new device. Now I sync all podcast with google listen and it works perfectly. As long as I'm on android all my favs are saved.

Dr. Droidberg says:

You're still doing it the longer way. Why not just restore the app & data for Pocket Casts (if that's the one you prefer) using Titanium Backup?

gtg465x says:

Don't even need to do that. Pocket Casts can export your podcast list to a standard format and then you just save that file and import it after you flash or wipe your device.

cMarshallGo says:

That's awesome! Pocket Casts has been my favorite podcast app for a long time!Own it both on the Amazon App store and the Play Store.

scottyhifi says:

My free Amazon app of the day version of their Pocket Casts app never got an update. Funny, Google giving away money for people to buy their app is good, but giving away your app when you knew you would not get paid for it is bad. Cut off support...someone got your app for free in a promotion!

shiftyjelly says:

Yeah, keeping a server running for 100,000 users who all got it free and are costing you money, even a year later is terrible support. They should have gone the extra mile and sent all those people a free batmobile replica.

We should get everything for free. Developers should stop being so greedy and charging for apps. Everyone knows developers don't need money, they can just get their food from homeless shelters and garbage cans. If you give me something for free, you should give me updates for free forever, that's the rules that I just made up and you have to live by them. I hate greedy developers.

lionsson says:

Never mind my last reply I take my words back. Just keep developing an iOSish app and expect everyone to love it.

Bogotho says:

Cause you never made a dime from that right? Get off your soapbox with your 'Woe is Me' Amazon bent me over a table drivel you have been blogging about for the last year. You were forced to take the deal? You didn't get paid a dime from the big bad Amazon? Come on just admit you saw a way to get yourself some publicity by agreeing to the deal then make a stink about it,leave with your ball and how your sticking it to the man, MAN!

Yes you didn't get 'paid' for the free app. We get it. But before the giveaway NO ONE knew about your product, not even on the radar. People got to see how good an app it was with the free app an got you a customer base for all of your other apps. So you didn't get paid right away but you can't tell us it was all bad.

And to all the people who will flame me, wait until they redesign this flaccid app and recharge you all again for the app. Cause they "don't owe you free updates!"

scottyhifi says:

Don't blame the users (your customers)...you gave it away and got a lot of exposure for your app. Then you pulled support because you didn't make money. No one forced you to give it away. Don't pull the "poor developers" crap on your customers.

BigNBentley says:

I can totally understand why you guys would do what you did. However, I was one of those 100,000 who was wondering for the past year almost why there were no updates and everything worked like crap. Just would have been nice for you guys to reach out to your customers and let us know what was going on, other than blog posts on your website. Even though I never purchased apps and browsed the free app of the day daily, I would have bought your app if you had let us know what was going on. Got to give your customers a little more credit than just assuming we are a bunch of freeloading whiners.

shiftyjelly says:

"you have been blogging about for the last year"
- Actual last blog post about Amazon 17 August, 2011 on the topic. Yeah totally all year, if all year was last year ;)

"You were forced to take the deal? "
- did you even read the article? We exposed Amazon's practice of telling the media they paid developers for Free App of the Day, when they don't. Techcrunch covers it here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/02/amazons-appstore-youll-make-0-when-we-g...

"you can't tell us it was all bad"
- when did we ever say it was all bad?

"wait until they redesign this flaccid app and recharge you all again for the app"
- *yawn* you're making this too easy for us, we could argue all day but since you don't seem to even want to bother having a real discussion, with you know, facts, then whatever. Allow us to help you with Godwin's law: NAZIS. You're welcome ;)

Tical says:

first off... absolutely awesome that shiftjelly takes the time to respond to comments on the article...

As far as PocketCast itself. Great app. I have an 8hr drive 2x a month. PocketCasts is what I use for the ENTIRE TRIP, even though 50% of it, I don't have a signal (and when I do, it's Sprint 3g, so that doesn't really count :P )

Regarding the Amazon situation, I think it could have been handled a little smoother, but ultimately, understandable. I doubt there was a mechanism in place that they could have used to contact all the users to explain the situation (and possible remedy (e.g. discount purchase from play store). Without a way to communicate directly, they put a very public explaination of not just what they were doing, their rationale for doing so. If only more businesses would take the time out to do so, it would be a much better consumer market.

On the other hand, the replies that they gave here definitely seem a little less than customer oriented (albeit funny preemptive use of Godwin's law). I do think they made the right decision for themselves as a company, and even did the larger android community a favor by exposing Amazon's practices. However, bashing potential customers (however d*ckish they are being), just doesn't seem in that same spirit.

Either way, awesome APP, congratulations on the growth.

DA623 says:

I've been using Pocket Casts for a VERY long time, since I've fully switched from an iPhone to my Galaxy Nexus and needed a replacement for iTunes' podcasts. I use it nearly daily, to listen to many different podcasts as I drive around on the job (I am a on-site computer repair tech). I still think Pocket Casts is one of the best podcast apps I've used and I hope to see Shiftyjelly does well.

I hope too that part of his ICS make-over (and considering its only one or two people doing the developing, which I am still very impressed by), that he'll focus on making the interface look abit better on the Nexus 7 and other Android tablets. It looks good on Android phones (like my Galaxy Nexus), but some of the icons (including the podcast images) look too small on tablets, like my Nexus 7.

Ezence01 says:

Love Pocketcast. It's one of my most used apps. It'd be nice to be able to swipe between screens and I'm sure they're working on it. Until that day comes, I'm perfectly happy with it in it's current state. If something better comes along, I'll give it a try. Until then, I'll continue to use Pocketcast.