How to make $10 million and the cover of The New Yorker
There’s an app for that and that? Not really. Not yet. But artist Jorge Colombo made the June 1 cover of The New Yorker using the Brushes iPhone app created by Steve Sprang. That’ll get an app (further) noticed, and it caught the eye of Creativity Online.
Another recent star turn occurred when developer Mitchell Waite’s iBird app carved out a nice niche by landing a lucrative seven seconds in a recent iPhone commercial … cha-ching! “I look at it like Apple paid me $10 million to show my application on every single major network, every major television show – no, I can’t even put a figure on it,” said Waite to New York Times Digital Domain columnist Randall Stross.
Throngs of creative people want their creation prominently displayed in the iPhone App Store. No amount of lobbying or cash (paid placement) can make it so.
More from NY Times: “In April, Apple celebrated its one billionth download from the App Store in only nine months. For all of its success with the store, however, Apple remains most interested in using third-party software to sell its hardware. Mr. Waite said an Apple liaison told him, ‘We pick apps not for how well they’re selling — we pick apps that will sell more iPhones and iPod Touches because they show off the best features or are something you can’t get elsewhere.’ Fitting that bill is Mr. Waite’s iBird application, which turns the iPhone into an always-in-hand field guide replete with bird calls that a printed field guide cannot provide.”
The App Store rolls with the democracy of good ideas. If they see an app that’s particularly fresh and useful, they lift it up with their considerable marketing muscle.
