Spring is coming a little early this year, and Apple has already begun cleaning up the house. The current targets for this cleanup are copycat apps, which aren’t bringing real value to the App Store, and in some cases misleading iPhone users.

The fact is that, far too many App users are tricked into buying “fake” apps, expecting them to be the original ones. To make matters worse, some of these apps have even started topping the app charts, making it an unfair game for developers who’ve invested significant resources in creating original titles.

Apple has already pulled apps such as, Temple Jump, a knock off of insanely popular Temple Run, as well as Tiny Birds, a funny rip off of Tiny Wings, from the App Store.

If you’ve done any development work or were really bored at some point, you may have read Apple’s app review guidelines, which are known to be beyond vague. The main problem is that they don’t clearly specify what constitutes a copy of an existing app. One thing Apple has been clear about however, is that they will impose reasonable judgment on apps they find to be misleading. These clone apps are a perfect example of crossing that line.

Developers are becoming increasingly app savvy and are constantly looking for new ways to outwit Apple, albeit for a short enough time for their app to make an impact. So far we’ve seen developers game the App Store by including special characters to reach top search results, “is this any different than traditional SEO?”  give away promo codes in return for positive reviews, and even update apps very frequently to reset negative ratings.

To add fuel to the fire, app developers are also now going after each other over clear copyright infringements. In case you missed the NimbleBit vs. Zynga drama, here’s a short recap – NimbleBit called out Zynga over the release of their new iOS title Dream Heights. Dream Heights is reminiscent of the hugely successful Tiny Tower with a slightly different graphical look and feel. Both of these games require the player to create and nurture an ecosystem within the confines of a tower block.

Of course, hardcore NimbleBit fans wouldn’t have it, and are crying foul over Zynga’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Tiny Tower. The title has been pummeled by poor reviews since the game’s formal release.

As the app stores continue to grow, and the virtual store shelves becoming increasingly crowded, the copycat and knock off trends isn’t likely to end any time soon. We see it in virtually every business that generates serious revenue, seeing it take place on the App Store should come as no surprise.

Written by Oren Todoros, Marketing Communications

According to US research advisory Gartner, mobile payments may be the next “big thing” for retailers. The firm expected 38 percent growth of mobile payment users last year, totaling 141 million.

While this may seem like a lot, the industry still has a long way to go and there are a number of roadblocks ahead, according to Sandy Shen, Gartner Research Director. “The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behavior by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards,” says Shen.

Retailers can play a large role in changing user behavior. While manufacturers can produce the phones to process mobile payments and merchant service providers can set up the networks, a lack of retailer support will lead to little (if any) mobile payment adoption.

The first step for retailers is to educate themselves about the technology, the ecosystem and the opportunity mobile payments afford. Software Advice, an online company that reviews of point of sale systems for small business, hears from a lot of retailers that are curious about mobile payments. Here are the answers to some of the most important questions.

What are mobile payments?
Mobile payments are transactions that take place at the interaction of radio-frequency equipped mobile devices and payment terminals. This connection, called near field communication (NFC) is already popular in MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave transactions.

What is the consumer-facing technology behind mobile payments?
Consumers register a personal virtual wallet (e.g., ISIS virtual wallet or Google Wallet) and access it through a mobile OS application. These devices must also have an integrated NFC chip (a list of compatible phones can be found here). When the consumer is close to an NFC-capable point of sale terminal, a connection is established, the consumer inputs a PIN code and the transaction is completed.

What do retailers need to accept mobile payments?
First, retailers have all the same requirements as they do to accept credit card payments–merchant account and gateway for payments, POS software and hardware). Specifically, retailers need a credit card machine that is capable of conducting ISO 14443 communication. These specifications are integrated in some new, high-end credit card machines. Alternatively, retailers can use a standalone NFC receiver, which is usually the cheaper option of the two.

How do mobile payments benefit consumers versus using credit cards?
The main selling point of mobile payments is its ease of use–consumers have their smartphones handy, why not process transactions with them? This is also one of the biggest debates of the benefit of mobile payments–does this really solve a problem for consumers? Added benefits of mobile payments include an either method of replacing consumer credit card accounts if a phone is stolen, as well as the future potential value-added services that mobile developers can produce.

To read further on the ecosystem of mobile payments, click here: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/retail/mobile-payments-faqs-1012512/

Contributed by Michael Koploy of SoftwareAdvice.com

In Tips on Game Mechanics Session 1, I discussed why your game should allow for the purchase and display of content to create envy between players.

This session I will focus on how to increase user retention that ultimately leads to more opportunities for monetization. One of the simplest mechanics to increase user retention is to add a daily reward to your freemium game. It is surprising how many games that use a currency do not contain a daily reward but many top games that previously did not have an award now have one (Gun Bros. is an example).

There are some variations you can place in your daily reward. In the recently released Recharge Studios game Dolphin Play with Friends, we implemented a daily reward that awards players an increasing amount of standard currency for the first four consecutive days and one unit of premium currency for the fifth consecutive day. Once the player gets
to five days the cycle starts over.

Some games have variations on the number of consecutive days you can come back to earn the maximum currency, and some games award the maximum currency as long as you come back on consecutive days indefinitely until you miss a day. Other applications award a variety of rewards other than currency such as consumables used in gameplay or crafting.

Daily rewards also offer a great opportunity to monetize the user indirectly by offering an ad for a daily free app as you can see in the example below.

Once the user closes the daily reward they are presented this custom interstitial advertisement from W3i’s Mobile App Advertising Platform that offers a new free app each day. Offering this interstitial after a daily reward is the perfect opportunity to present an ad to the user for two reasons. One, they just were given a reward so they must be in a good mood! Two, they will only see the ad once a day just as they see the daily reward once a day.

Does your app have a daily reward? There may be room to increase the retention of your app and possibly include an advertisement that is less intrusive than an ad shown more than once a day or directly on app launch. Retention is the biggest opportunity, I find myself scrambling for my iPhone if the end of the day rolls around and I had been too busy to collect my reward and feed my dolphins!

Jimi Van Guilder, Producer, Recharge Studios, W3i, LLC

Jimi is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Nickelodeon, the NFL, NBC, Marvel, Snoop Dogg and LucasArts. Jimi heads up production at W3i’s wholly owned publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios.

With the recent news of the bucket load of funding W3i is investing in developers’ applications there is a lot of interest in the AppX service. One of the features of the service is the free production support. Sounds awesome but what do you actually get out of it? I am one of the Producers at W3i’s Recharge that offers this free “production support” so I’ll let you in on what goes on in what I’ll call “Recharge Studios Freemium Playbook Sessions” where I’ll present a brief example of one of the playbook elements. Here goes:

Social Freemium Playbook Session 1: Envy  

Your game should allow for the purchase and display of content to create envy between players. The best way to apply envy is to set high price points to special items in your virtual store for customization of a player’s character or world. These special items should have an outlet to display this character to other competing users and friends. These friends see your high priced item and know that you paid big money either by playing a lot and earning your way to purchase or by making a premium purchase.

Much like a leader board that encourages players to “beat” their friends, this will create an opportunity for users to try to earn enough currency to purchase the high-priced item to compete with their friends. Additionally, this item could have a modifying affect on your game such as increasing income by 10% during an income cycle or it could have no affect other than visual stimuli.

Here is an example from SkyVu’s Battle Bears Royale, a Recharge partner.

Users begin with a basic character skin for Oliver. He looks pretty good here, but this is the character everyone starts with. The user wants to differentiate themselves.

No here is an impressive look that will stand out from the crowd.  It is a little spendy so opponents will know how serious the user is about Battle Bears. Since the user already made a premium purchase, he has plenty of joules to spend.

Battle Bears Royale offers an obvious outlet for displaying this envious bear design to opponents in the live online battle arena. Even if the user doesn’t run into every player, since he disposed of an opponent, his icon appears on the right hand side of the screen for all competitors to see.

At the end of the battle there is another opportunity to see who just dominated the competition with nine kills. It was JIMIVG33 and he has the awesome O.C.O Oliver skin that costs 400,000 joules.

There you have it. Envy created by a premium purchase and an outlet to display the item to other users. Stay tuned for the next Social Freemium Playbook Session!

Jimi Van Guilder, Producer, Recharge Studios, W3i, LLC
Jimi is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Nickelodeon, the NFL, NBC, Marvel, Snoop Dogg and LucasArts. Jimi heads up production at W3i’s wholly owned publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios.

Last week we examined the use of threshold alerts. We outlined the various thresholds that can trigger both push and local notifications in your freemium game including: time, decay and maximum thresholds. This week we’re looking at alerting in relation to the social features of your freemium game.

What are social alerts?

Social alerts are notifications, most frequently local notifications that alert a gamer to an action occurring in the game in relation to your games social features. When there is an interaction with a gamer’s network, a social alert can be used to communicate with the gamer and drive the compulsion loop forward.

Kinds of Social Alerts

As freemium gaming evolves so too will the kinds of social alerts you can employ in your game. Freemium game developers are always crafting new ways to engage gamers with their networks in games. Recharge Studios have a few up our sleeve we’ll give sneak peeks to in coming posts. For now we’ll categorize them into these three categories:

• Gifting
• Visiting/Working
• Competing

Gifting alerts can prompt gamers when someone in their network has either 1.) sent them a gift 2.) Requested an “order” (think Trade Nations) or 3.) completed an “order.” These alerts can be both push and local, however with any of the social alerts, make sure that if you use push, it’s a priority so you don’t exhaust your gamers with notifications, keeping in mind the rule of 3 pushes a day across all alert types.

Visiting/working alerts are just what they sound like. Someone has visited your city, village, farm, restaurant, park… you get the point. Additionally, an alert can be used if your friend completed an action in your city, village, farm etc. The use of an alert helps prompt a gamer to carry out a social act in reciprocation.

Competing alerts refer to competitive levels within a game For example leaderboards or any element of competition. For example you can use social alerts to show a gamer how their experience stacks up in relationship to those within their network. This provides a more personal, engaged gaming experience rather than just a global or even local leaderboard.

When to Use Social Alerts

You’ll most often want to use social alerts as local notifications unless you have a time sensitive action or element tied to the social functionality (i.e. have to use or claim a gift in X time or to prompt a user back into a game “Bob6148 just sent you a gift. What is it?!.”)

Alerts are a must.

Whatever you decide that works best in your schedule, make sure you have one. Alerts are an absolute must in driving the success of your freemium games. Do you have a question about freemium gaming or a topic you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments or catch us on twitter @rechargestudios or @w3i.

Matthew Tubergen, Product Manager, Recharge Studios, W3i, LLC
Matt is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Disney, NFL and LucasArts. Matt heads up W3i’s wholly owned publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios