Kicking off our period of industry reflection on what happened in 2011 and what might happen in 2012 is Rob Weber, senior VP and co-founder of W3i.

The US company is an iOS and Android app discovery and distribution outfit, which works with developers and publishers to launch and promote free games and apps.

PocketGamer: What do you think was the most significant event for the mobile games industry in 2011?
Rob Weber: Over the long term, I think we’ll look back at Amazon’s launch of its first Android-powered device, the Kindle Fire, as the most disruptive event that occurred in 2011 for mobile gaming.
Why? It signifies the first credible threat to the iPad for tablet market share, and it presents a massive future opportunity for game developers given how many credit cards Amazon has on file.

What was the most significant event for your company?
AppX, the $10 million cash extension of our Recharge Studio fund for accelerating the growth of mobile social games.

What was your favourite mobile game of the year?
I love what our partner Appy has done with SpellCraft School of Magic for iOS. It’s taken the freemium model and made it fun, and also brought a more RPG-style game to the masses by utilising wizards, spells, etc.
As for a game we haven’t been involved with, that’s hard since 16 of the top 25 grossing iOS apps are currently partners. I suppose I’d have to say Halfbrick Studio’s Jetpack Joyride.

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2012?
One trend that will start to have a real impact on mobile game developers’ bottom-line for 2012 will be the widespread adoption of cheap Android tablets, led by the Kindle Fire.

What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?
My New Year’s resolution would be to start playing more games on my Android phone. I still spend almost 100 percent of my time playing games on iOS devices.
The resolution I would enforce on the industry is to stop over-hyping things, and start getting back to the basics of what really drives long-term business growth.

The St. Cloud, MN-based W3i, founded in the late 1990s by the three Weber brothers — Ryan, Rob, and Aaron (the latter has since left to launch another startup) — now has some 70 employees, boasts 33 consecutive quarters of profitability, and is on an annual revenue run-rate in excess of $30 million. CEO Andy Johnson added big-company experience when he joined the company a few years ago, having run the Internet business of Fingerhut, before that company was acquired in 1999 for $1.7 billion by Federated Department Stores. W3i’s business is all about helping app developers increase their user base — read: get more downloads. Until recently, that primarily meant Windows desktop apps (more than 400 million app installs to date). But, in the summer of 2010, W3i made a significant entry into the mobile app distribution business (iOS initially, natch) with the launch of its Apperang business.  (Minnov8 coverage here.)”

[Originally posted on Minnov8 December 24th 2010]

Smart App Marketing’s Rob Weber talks with Michel Kripalani the CEO of Oceanhouse Media about what it takes to deliver hit after hit in the App Store.

Oceanhouse Media publishes e-books and mobile games based on famous characters from Dr. Seuss, the Berenstain Bears and Rudolph to name a few.

The publisher is a media darling, having been featured in both national press and top tech press including: The New York Times, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, FastCompany, Wired and cnet.

Thanks to iPhone/iPad DevCon for press access at the 2010 San Diego conference.”

[Originally posted on Smart App Marketing November 30th 2010, along with my video interview of Michel]

Recharge is planning to invest a minimum of $1 million for outside studios to make social games for the iOS. To sweeten the pot, Recharge only wants a share of iOS profits in return — in other words, it won’t ask for an ownership stake in the company or launches on other platforms, like Android.

“Because you can acquire consumers relatively cheaply, mobile is like the early days of Facebook gaming,” says W3i cofounder Robert Weber. “We think it’s a great opportunity for developers on Facebook, especially if they’re feeling squeezed out.””

Read More…

The Making of a Risk Taker

It is harder to create a hit without a cowboy mentality surrounding you.

Mike grew up in Hawaii before finding his way to Silicon Valley. Mike told me a story about one of his first entrepreneurial endeavors growing up as a kid in Hawaii. He got the supplies together to create a Macadamia nut jewelry business. To his dismay, his mother tossed out his supplies when she discovered his intentions. To this day, Hawaii’s culture of risk aversion hasn’t changed. Mike said a friend of his with a small business in Hawaii says the government there won’t help unless you have at least $5 million in investment. From my perspective, creating a tech company in Minnesota seems a lot like Hawaii. I’m part of a grass roots movement in the Midwest to try to change that.

Fail upwards.

As Mike puts it- “My life was a series of failures, but I always try to fail upwards.” After Mike decided to leave Tapulous prior to their successful sale to Disney, Mike took a job at Apple in developer relations. The Apple gig was much better than the options Mike had prior to Tapulous.

Don’t create a bigger footprint and get trapped in your own wealth.

Once you’ve made your millions of your first blockbuster, resist the temptation you change your lifestyle. You need to continue to focus on creating a company to change the world. You’ll get rich by doing this, not by creating a company to get rich.

Inside the Mind of a Hit Maker

It helps to be a little crazy,  a little delusional.

Don’t be afraid to pivot.

The original plan for Tapulous was to create a social network. As I have observed with the majority of top tech entrepreneurs, you need to adjust your ideas based on the markets response to your initial ideas.

Start with a lot of concepts, then start cutting.

This is actually a pattern I’ve observed with other hit makers. Rather than start building out the first concept for an app that comes to mind, it is best to define some upfront parameters, and then brainstorm a variety of concepts that meet those parameters. Tapulous actually had a portfolio of 34 apps, from which they initially selected 10 to work on, then they cut it down to 3 apps to launch with. Those three were Tap Tap Revenge, Twinkle, Friendbook.

Understand the human side of business.

Mike talked about how Tapulous couldn’t get their apps approved the day of the App Store launch. When he learned the app review team was extremely overwhelmed with submissions during the launch of the App Store, and working without sleep, he backed off. Personally, he said he was not pissed off once he understood the situation. Rather than calling to harass them, Mike dropped breakfast and coffee off for them.

Relentless focus on quality and creating apps that don’t suck.

As Mike puts it- “The crap market is saturated.” With over 300,000+ apps in the App Store, only the bold are going to stand out. What are some tactical things you can do to stand out? Focus on creating apps that don’t suck. Stop doing things that piss users off. A few examples-

• Hurry up and wait- Eliminate splash screens
• Surprise and delight- Add those little things that impress people. 
• Implementation detail- Never let them see how you made it
• Design for everyone- Bejeweled versus Grand Theft Auto
• Don’t be a jerk- spam

If you focus on creating quality hits, you will have a more defensible business. It is much harder to copy something that is of high quality without a lot of effort.

Get Out There and Start Creating Blockbusters

Mike says- “There is money in ripples, but immortality in hits.” and that “Life is finite. Use your time to do something worth remembering.” I couldn’t agree more. The vast majority of all app developers are focusing on creating niche apps because they feel it is a safer bet to ensure they get a positive return on their efforts. I’ve heard this referred to as the “niche buster” strategy. Death to the niche busters. Get out there and start creating blockbusters.

Where are the top three places you spend your time, I imagine your list looks like this:  work, in bed and in the car.

Regardless of which one of those three locations you’re at, applications are a touch, flick or wipe away.

With the killer success of App Stores, apps for handheld devices clearly are on fire. But what does the future look like for apps in cars coupled with car electronics and who’s in the game?

Who better to get the answers from then the CEO behind one of the most successful auto apps in the Apple AppStore, Pete Tenereillo. Pete is the CEO of Trapster, an auto app that is consistently in the top two spots in “Navigation” for the App Store.

Rob Weber, the co-founder and Vice President of Business Development for W3i got a chance to chat with Pete at the iPhone/iPad DevCon 2010 in San Diego to discuss app distribution to cars.

Pete says there are three key players in the game of in car apps. OEM systems who build navs and try to sell them as a “part” for your Mercedes, Chevy etc.–like OnStar, AcDelco and Uniden. Think back to the OnStar campaign, “standard on every new Chevy.” The app came as is on the Chevy.

Car manufacturers are also in the game doing their own thing, but for them they just want access to the app to rebrand and repackage it. Finally you have aftermarket folks like Pioneer where  consumers buy them after they own the car to be installed on their car.

“Most of the next generation OEM and aftermarket supplier nav systems seem to be based on Android, while many car manufacturers are building proprietary connected nav systems based on either standard or proprietary technology,” says Tenereillo.

Tenereillo still contends that users will only want to download apps to one device, a phone or tablet, which can then be docked in a vehicle. The apps would run from the device, rather than be stored in the vehicle.  This seems to be the way Samsung also thinks the market for in car apps will go, their new tablet will also feature in car docking accessories.

“There is another whole school of thought in connected nav systems, where the car simply becomes a UI for what’s already on the phone, clearly voice commands, and maybe even heads-up display at some point,” Tenereillo says.

In the end, all of the players are facing competition from apps like Google Nav on the Droid

Ford seems to be muscling their way into the game after their announcement at CTIA 2010, that they’re inviting more development for car apps.  Where will the auto/app world move to next? Having apps on one device is important, but cost is the biggest factor, sound off below.

UNTETHER.tv: Behind the business of mobile

Interview December 10, 2009
Rob Weber: What Minnesota tech entrepreneurs do you most respect/idealize?
Kris Tufto: Seymour Cray (Cray Research), Bill & Richard Lawson (Lawson Software), and Joel Ronning (Digital River).

Kris Tufto: By the way, did you know that Jasc’s founder, Bob Voit was from St. Cloud? You didn’t know that so many great tech companies had their roots in St. Cloud, Minnesota, like W3i, did you?

Rob Weber: Digital River is truly one of the great Minnesota start-up success stories. I understand that Joel Ronning was on your Board of Directors while at Jasc. For those of us who do not know Joel as well as you do, can you tell us what you see as his greatest strength as a tech entrepreneur?
Kris Tufto: Joel’s greatest strength was his understanding of the power of distribution and how to build an aggressive culture.

Rob Weber: What were the core things you needed to do to grow Jasc Software during your tenure?
Kris Tufto: From an internal perspective, develop a Product Management function, better organize our sales process, and reorganize various employees to different roles. From an external perspective, I had to formalize software distribution channels, change industry trends as it relates to the product cycle, and implement a global release strategy.

Rob Weber: You mentioned software distribution a couple times now. What were your core software distribution strategies at Jasc?
Kris Tufto: We broke them down into four channels, and those were direct, retail, VARS, and International. With our direct channel, we relied on Digital River as our commerce platform. Many consumers expected to purchase Paint Shop Pro direct because it was shareware. In my last years at Jasc, we utilized paid search marketing as well as affiliate marketing, but during my tenure they did not provide substantial growth opportunities. In retail, we relied on big box partners like Best Buy, CompUSA, and Walmart. Best Buy was our top partner. With VARS, we mostly focused on North America, with partners like Software Spectrum and Tiger Direct. International was a compilation of direct, retail and VARS, depending on the country.

Rob Weber: Fast forward four years to today, if you were still running a consumer software company like Jasc Software, what would you expect to change in terms of software distribution?
Kris Tufto: Retail would be only a fraction of what we were seeing back then. We would rely much heavier on direct marketing, like paid search and affiliate marketing. I would also use W3i’s distribution channel.

Rob Weber: In the consumer application world, there is a lot of buzz around social apps and mobile apps. What do you think about using these new platforms in a consumer application business today?
Kris Tufto: At Jasc, we were very Windows centric. We would look to new platforms like Google Operating System. The problem in using alternative operating systems is the development resources they require. When you have a very big legacy code base, it is a tough decision to port to a new Operating System.

Rob Weber: What were the unique challenges you faced in growing Jasc in Minnesota?
Kris Tufto: The Midwestern culture is not a high tech culture. It is not fast moving, it is more engineering oriented and methodical– where you take the time to get everything right. In high tech, you need to create a culture where you expect to get only 80% right. At Jasc, I threw out “Minnesota nice”.

Rob Weber: How did you compete while at Jasc with your Paint Shop Pro application while facing a David versus Goliath competitor in Adobe and their Photoshop application?
Kris Tufto: We looked at Adobe Photoshop as the sun. In order to beat them we always focused on edge markets and motored around them.

Rob Weber: Kris, I think the world’s consumers and designers who use photo and graphic editing software owe you and your team at Jasc a big thank you. Why? You guys came around and lowered the price point significantly in the product category of photo/graphic editing applications. Jasc was in many ways as good as Photoshop, and in some ways better at a much lower price point. Before Jasc, there was no substitute $100 product, there was only Photoshop at over $400.
Kris Tufto: You are right, Rob. Adobe didn’t think Jasc was a real threat until they released Adobe Photoshop Elements as a competitive response in 2001 to 2002 timeframe. This validated our model, and caused us to work even harder.