Doodle Jump jumps over 5 million times a day
Posted by Joel Evans @ 11:39 am
Categories: Apple, Portable gaming, iPad, iPhone
Tags: Apple iPhone, Games, Personal Technology, Joel Evans
Everyone knows how popular games on the iPhone are but it’s not until you see stats like the one recently released from Lima Sky, makers of the popular game Doodle Jump, that you really get a full understanding of just what “popular” means.
According to the company’s press release, with more than 3 million copies of Doodle Jump sold to date, the company is recording that its app is played more than 5 million times a day. A closer look at the 3 million downloads reveals that over 1.6 million of them have taken place in 2010 alone. With the App Store having more than 160,000 apps available, according to AppShopper, how has Doodle Jump managed to stay on the top for so long?
One could argue that there are two main factors behind Doodle Jump’s success. First, the company continues to enhance the game–more than 25 free updates so far–that it sells for $0.99. That means that once you pay the $0.99, you can freely enjoy any of the new levels, bosses, etc. that the company dreams up, without having to spend any additional money. Second, gameplay is simple and is designed for all ages.
Will Doodle Jump continue to ride the top 10 wave? With more people buying iPhones daily, and the company most probably working on an iPad-specific version of the game, I would bet yes.
I have been playing Doodle Jump since its first day of release. The concept is very straight forward and the game mechanics couldn’t be simpler with you tilting the device back and forth to keep Doodle The Doodler jumping higher. Since the company continues to enhance the offering, it always stays top of mind for me, too, and it’s one of the main games I recommend to all iPhone users.
Hopefully more iPhone game companies will try to duplicate the formula that Doodle Jump has mastered. In the end we’ll all win, regardless of which company comes out on top.
Excerpt from:
Doodle Jump jumps over 5 million times a day
Apple�s iPhone developer agreement published (updated)
Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 11:18 am
Categories: App, Apple, Developer
Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Agreement, Labor Relations, Human Resources, Jason D. O'Grady
The EFF has posted one of Apple’s most secret and most confidential documents – its developer agreement that all devs must sign in order to access the company’s iPhone SDK.
The EFF found a creative way to legally get and publish the document, an act that would surely invoke the Apple’s legal wrath. Noticing that NASA had an app, the EFF used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to ask NASA for a copy, “so that the general public could see what rules controlled the technology they could use with their phones.”
Originally NASA responded with a March 2009 version of the agreement but the story has been updated with a January 2010 version. Here’s a direct link to the 33 page PDF document. Great bedtime reading.
The contents of the agreement are hardly surprising, the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann summed up the highlights:
- A ban on public statements, forbidding developers to speak about the agreement.
- Apps made with the iPhone software development kit can only be distributed through the App Store, meaning rejected apps can’t be served through the underground app store Cydia, for instance.
- Apple indemnifies itself against developer liability surpassing $50, meaning if developers get sued, Apple will be liable for no more than $50 in damages.
- No reverse engineering, or enabling others to reverse-engineer, the iPhone SDK.
- No messing with Apple products. That means no apps that enable modifying or hacking Apple products are allowed.
- Apple can “revoke digital certification of any of Your Applications at any time.” No surprise there: Your app can be pulled even if it’s already been approved, which we’ve already seen happen a number of times.
Tip: EFF
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Apple�s iPhone developer agreement published (updated)
