The Data Product Ecosystem - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 166

Although the sales were never permitted, some bids ranged in the thousands
of dollars—a testament to the addiction that Dong had feared.
But how did Dong launch this app? How did his idea for a simple game go from
virtual anonymity to the devices of millions of mobile users across the world
in little more than a month? The answer is in the incredible data ecosystem
Apple, Google, and others created to distribute apps.
Let's use Apple's App Store as an example because it was the first. With the
smartphone revolution came a huge increase in demand for mobile applica-
tions. For instance, since the launch of the App Store on July 10, 2008, the num-
ber of iPhones sold has grown beyond 500 million. 3 With this many iPhones,
the needs of users have become increasingly clear through top-selling lists
of apps and increasingly clear categories on the App Store.
At the same time, Apple has been careful to provide app developers with a
system that allows individuals and organizations to effectively design and
develop mobile apps for use on the iPhone and for sale in the App Store.
Apple has gone so far as to provide a guidebook for designing Apps called
the iOS Human Interface Guidelines . This topic provides design principles to
(strongly) encourage application developers to create user interfaces that fit
neatly into the Apple ecosystem. Specific guidance includes: 4
“Don't take space away from the content people care about.”
“Use a tone that's informal and friendly, but not too familiar.”
“Focus on the needs of 80 percent of your users. When you do this, most
people won't have to supply any settings because the app is already set
up to behave the way they expect.”
Most important, Apple created an App Store that allowed users to discover
apps, discuss them, and distill feedback in a convenient and meaningful way
to improve future iterations of the app.
Flappy Bird is a case study of the power of Apple's app ecosystem. To develop
Flappy Bird for sale in the App Store, Dong first had to download and install
Xcode, the application in which all iPhone apps are created. Next, he used a
common programming language, Objective-C, to program the functions and
overlay his graphics for the game. In Xcode, Dong could also test the game
in an iOS simulator, try it on his own iPhone, debug it, and distribute a test
version to others. With this process completed, Dong could then purchase
a development account through Apple's App Store for $99 a year. With this