Thoughts from appsplit

5 Atypical Ways To Drive People To Your Crowdsourcing Campaign

Solon Harmony Dolor — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:00:59 +0000

No matter how groundbreaking the idea for your app crowdsourcing campaign on Appsplit, or on any other crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platform for that matter, if people do not get informed about it, it will obtain less than the support it should have gotten had the most possible number of people known about it. This is why it is important for you as the owner of the campaign to get the word out to as many people as you can. However, aside from the traditional methods of getting people to see, know, and eventually promote your crowdsourcing or crowdfunding campaign, there exist quite a number of methods which can be equally as successful in promoting your campaign but are often overlooked by campaign owners. In this article, we will list five uncommon ways to drive people to your crowdsourcing campaign and why they can be the right set of methods to employ. 1. Promote By Talking Face-To-Face – Most people do not realize it but they always have a group of people, no matter how small, that personally know them and can help promote their crowdsourcing campaign. It’s good if you have either an extremely large or extremely influential social circle. However, even if your social group is small, it still pays to talk to each of these people in person, explain to them your campaign, and convert them to your own personal army of evangelists. You never really know who your friends know. Their connections may hold the key to your campaign going viral. Talking to people face-to-face gives you a higher chance to let them see your vision and passion. The personal touch of talking to people in person also makes promoting your campaign more sincere to them. 2. Promote By Chatting Over The Phone – Though you would want to personally promote our campaign in person as much as possible, it’s understandable if you don’t get to touch base with all of the people in your circles. Some may have moved to another city or even another country, some may be just too busy for a quick cup of coffee or tea, and some may simply be out of touch and you don’t know where to find them. The second most personal way to promote your crowdsourcing campaign is to call these people if you can’t talk to them in person. Make them see where your project is going and do not forget to give a call to action when speaking to them. Otherwise, they may forget what to do. Furthermore, if you include a call to action, you are giving them ideas on how they can help you and your crowdsourcing campaign succeed. 3. Promote By Sending Emails – Third on our list is sending out an email to the people you have reached out to and the people you cannot contact in person or by phone. For people who you have already spoken to, consider this email to be a reminder about what they can do to help you. For people you cannot contact in person or through phone, this is your chance to tell them about your campaign and get them to help you promote it. Make sure to include in your email the things they can do to get your campaign going. As always, you should not forget to thank people for helping you out. Be as personal as possible in your email and not just send it en masse. 4. Promote By Making A Viral Video – Aside from an inherently good campaign, a crowdsourcing or crowdfunding campaign owner should always make it a priority to make an explainer video for their project. However, most campaign owners do not make this video as potently viral as possible. Why include a viral video to your campaign? That is a question you should know the answer to. In case you are still unsure, however, here is why: as your video spreads like wildfire, the number of people who know your campaign and who can potentially support it also increases. Viral videos primarily have the ability to induce an emotional response, have elements that encourage clicks and shares (e.g. title, thumbnail), have an answer to a current issue, and essentially just very interesting. 5. Promote By Posting On Your Online Groups – This method is not only about posting on your social media feeds but any group you may be a part of. Nonetheless, be sure to promote your campaign through all your social media channels too. If you are part of a special interest community on the internet, post your campaign there. Make sure you are allowed to do so, though, as this ensures your message will not be deleted and you will not get any negative association through your posts. Creating a successful crowdsourcing campaign takes effort. Appsplit is here and always ready to help you with your campaign. Your success is our success so talk to us and let’s make things work. Image from Kevin T. Houle on Flickr (CC)

5 Mistakes To Avoid In Crowdfunding

dilawer-soomro — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:09 +0000

Recent stats show that close 43% of crowdfunding campaigns are successful. Wanna make sure you are part of the 43% that makes it and not the 53% that does not? AppSplit compiled a list of 5 mistakes to avoid in crowdfunding.

1. Asking Too Much Money.. or Too Less

The amount of money you ask for should match the estimated costs of running the campaign, rewards to be provided and funds actually needed to complete your project. You have to show in your campaign description and explain in your video what the funds will be used for. Picking a random number or setting a funding goal that is too high or too low may turn away potential supporters.

2. No Video or A Bad Video

Crowdfunding campaigns should always have a short video explaining the campaign and project. A well executed video can attract a lot of attention and can sometimes go viral taking your campaign with it. Creating a sloppy video or a poorly executed one can hurt you just as much as a good one will help you. If you do not show to your potential supporters a good amount of effort put in behind your video, they may think you will not put any effort behind the project, therefore the money they will be supporting you with will most likely go to waste.

3. Overpriced or Lame Rewards

Your supporters worked hard for their money, always remember that. When offering rewards, always think about the value proposition you are giving. Don't give out rewards priced at levels beyond their value. A $1 reward for a thank you is one think, at $20 its a little much. Try to always give out unique rewards, rewards do not need to be expensive to be unique.

4. No Promotion

Promotion and marketing of your campaign is a must. If you don’t promote your campaign well enough, you have no chance at being successful. Always utilize every promotion channel that you have available, from social media to word of mouth, just keep promoting your campaign. Once it gets the correct amount of views, it will get the correct amount of funds as well. Create a following around your campaign to make it a big hit.

5. Giving Up on Your Campaign

When you’re halfway through your campaign's deadline but only a partial way to your funding goal, do not give up. The last few days of your campaign are crucial and giving it one last go and spreading the word to your network is sometimes all you need in order to get a spike in funds at the end and take you above your goal.

We hope that these tips will help you in your current and future crowdfunding campaigns. Have a nice idea? Why not try putting it up for crowdfunding at AppSplit.

The Power Of The Crowd – Crowdfunding Infographic

Solon Harmony Dolor — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:32:30 +0000

The power of the crowd is an amazing thing. It can overthrow governments or make a world of difference for a community. If you are a small business owner or an enterprising individual, it can become the cornerstone of your success. Evolving from microfinance, microlending, and peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding is already big business and it has helped numerous entrepreneurs develop their ideas and make them a reality. Crowdfunding, according to some estimates, will grow into a $5.1 billion industry this year, almost double its estimated $2.7-billion size in 2012. However, more than just about money, crowdfunding is about the community supporting projects they deem they can use and would make their lives better. Here at Appsplit, we are giving the crowd the power to help bring apps they dream up come to reality. This infographic from Intuit helps explain what crowdfunding is to those who are not familiar with the term. People who want to take advantage of the tools being offered by Appsplit can learn a lot from reading this before they create their crowdsourcing campaign through the site. We would like to concentrate on just one part of the infographic, “How To Maximize Your Crowdfunding Campaign”, though the entire infographic should be read as it offers quite a lot of insight. So how does one maximize their crowdfunding campaign? The Intuit infographic offers six steps to do this. The first step is to “Choose the right site for you”. In essence, it says that people should find the crowdsourcing site that suits their business. For example, Appsplit is primarily aimed at people interested in mobile apps, web apps, Facebooks apps, Mac apps, etc... Step two is “Set a realistic target and time limit”. The right mix of achievability, timing, and sufficiency can go a long way in ensuring that your campaign hits its target. Step three is “Create a campaign video”. Intuit says that “A personal touch pays off. Projects with videos outperform those without by 125 percent.” We could not agree more. The more professional your video is without being too dry, the more engaging and convincing it is for potential backers. Step four is “Offer rewards”. We agree with this but would like to modify it to “Offer value”. More than just offering rewards like items or merchandise, your project should have value to people. Without value, people will not support your project. How can people benefit from your idea? Will it entertain them? Will it create a service that they can use to improve their lives? Step five is to “Connect with friends and family first”. Your personal social network - and we mean those outside Facebook, Twitter or any other social network - plays a big role in the initial spread of your campaign. Capitalize on your personal connections as they make it faster for your campaign to gain traction. Step six is to “Post regular campaign updates”. People are more likely to recommend something they have supported if they see it going along nicely. Some people may also be convinced to back up a project if they see that it is developing. Though not mentioned in the infographic, we would like to venture a step seven. This is thanking people after your campaign ends, regardless of whether it was a success or not. Learn more about crowdfunding through the infographic below and share your thoughts with us. What do you think about the world of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing?

5 Tips To Offer Exciting Rewards For Your Crowdfunding Campaign

dilawer-soomro — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:06:09 +0000

If you are reading this, it's likely that you've had some great app ideas but haven't had an extra pile of cash sitting around to make it happen. It's a tragedy when that tiny little detail - yet arguably the most important detail - holds you back. The good news is, with the popularity of crowdfunding, its never been easier to take that last step and bring that great app idea to life.

Crowdfunding provides a platform to raise the capital you need to get your idea going - and a catalyst to bring it to market. But, you can't get something for nothing, you know. Offering an incentive, a "thank you" in the form of a reward, is crucial to inspiring people to open their wallets and invest in your idea. Think about it, everyone wants to feel appreciated. And sometimes, that little extra something cool is just what a potential investor needs to make the jump.

If you need a little help in the creativity department to come up with cool reward ideas for your campaign, don’t worry - we’ve got you covered. We at AppSplit will be glad to help you brainstorm. Simply get in touch and we'll get started. In the meantime, check out the tips below to understand the basics of how to craft rewards that are feasible and high on the "cool factor."

First of all, make sure that you have relavant rewards for different types of supporters. You can offer products as rewards (cool t-shirts, stickers, etc.) but consider services as well. Does your app help promote events, ideas or other apps? This could be very appealing to others with cool ideas. Service-based rewards can convert potential supporters into serial supporters for your future campaigns as well.
Make sure that you have a "matching" reward for each specific price point. Let’s say your complete target goal is $10,000. You should have the most appealing reward for $100, this way you’ll only need 100 supporters for the specific reward to complete your goal. However, don’t exclude those who would prefer to invest a smaller amount. Make sure that you offer something interesting for lesser prices as well - every dollar counts. The key is to increase the appeal of the reward to match the increase in investment.
Not all your rewards have to be related to your campaign. If you can offer some other service as a reward, that is valuable too! Do you have any particular skills that others can utilize? Think web designing, photography, promotion, editing, etc.
Do you have friends with a large following, perhaps a celebrity? If yes, then you should definitely ask for their help or a little exposure. Lets suppose, Tom Cruise is your friend, then you should offer an exclusive reward for a specific number of supporters to get an autographed photo. Be creative and you will definitely get more supporters that way. Or, perhaps, Tom can post on your facebook page that your app idea is the next best thing. Or you can create a meme that says "If Tom thinks it's cool, it must be." Use your imagination - you can get creative and fun with it - which means potential to go viral and get more exposure. Same for friends with a high number of followers or klout. Ask them to post your campaign (including the cool video you posted) - make it easy for them. Maybe write the post and ask them to re-post. It's all about exposure.
Finally, make your small amount rewards interesting too! An automated thank-you email to your $5-$10 supporters is not interesting Would that be interesting to you? A snail-mail Thank-you card or maybe a personal email that includes insight on the project or your idea on "10 lessons learned for creating this funding campaign" would be more valuable to people that are interested in crowdfunding - and that is why they are looking at your campaign after-all. It’s definitely a bit more work but it will get you more closer to your supporters.

These are just some basic tips for crowdfunding rewards that work. You can be as creative as you want. Check out our currently featured Vevue campaign and see how they’re offering interesting rewards for each level. Have any trouble curating exciting rewards? Shoot us an email or a comment, AppSplit will help you craft exciting rewards for your supporters.

Vevue uses crowdsourcing to bring Street View to life with Google Glass

Solon Harmony Dolor — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:46:34 +0000

When Thomas Olson moved from New York City to California a couple of years ago, he made it a point to regularly take walks along Brighton Beach and the trails near Capitola. He fell in love with the scenery which he describes as “incredible” and began taking videos of his walks and sharing these videos with his close friends. “I thought it would be neat if the videos were public and tied to the Brighton Beach Google+ page for all to see,” says Olson. And so the idea for the Vevue app was born. When Glass was unveiled by Google last year, Olson saw the perfect device for the Vevue app. Glass has a long way to go before it becomes the ubiquitous consumer electronics device Google envisions it to be but Olson and his team is already hard at work building a service they believe will be one of the future uses of Google’s visionary product. Olson himself displays an attitude that welcomes the future with open arms and a desire to build something that helps people. The idea behind Vevue is simple. So Simple, in fact, that Olson says “it’s like why isn't it already there?” With Vevue, users “create public video reviews or Vevues of the locations they visit, share them with the public, their friends and search other Vevues nearby or across the globe,” Olson shares. Here’s a sample Vevue uploaded to YouTube: [youtube MaGhBc0GMos] The Vevue founder says that for example, people who are visiting a new city can “check out Vevues of local restaurants, attractions and landmarks.” “It’s a great way to explore a city prior to visiting it. With our intentions of using Glass it will be in a sense like bringing Google Street View to life,” he says. If you ask Olson how he sees himself personally using Vevue, he enthusiastically says he will use it “to see the world differently, through other users’ perspectives.” “I’ve never been to Paris but if there were Vevues all across the city of restaurants, bakeries, bars, parks, landmarks I would get a pretty real perspective of what to expect without ever having stepped a foot there,” Olson, who operates an eBay PowerSeller business selling thousands of vintage and antique jewelry pieces every month, explains. “When I do go, I’d know exactly what I might want to do, see or eat and I would then be able to share my own 30 second Vevues,” Olson adds. For now, Olson and his team are back on Appsplit to take advantage of the power of crowdsourcing to take the idea behind Vevue further. He found his partner developer through an Appsplit Connect Campaign last year after he found out about crowdsourcing for apps on Appsplit through a TechCrunch article. Crowdsourcing is one Olson’s interests and he is not new to it. One way Vevue can be seen is as a platform for a crowdsourced trove of geo-tagged video reviews that people can use to discover or make their minds up about a certain location. The Vevue team has launched an Appsplit Crowdfunding Campaign to source funds to implement new ideas for the Vevue app which people can actually use now through an Android smartphone. The return of Vevue to Appsplit excites Appsplit founder Hussein Yahfoufi. “Appsplit provides entrepreneurs the platform to connect with the talent they need to build their apps and the funding to support the venture and ultimately bring it to market through an interactive, strategic and fun process,” Yahfoufi says. “Working with the Vevue team has been especially exciting because their goals take full advantage of what Appsplit offers to its campaign owners,” the entrepreneur says adding how great it is to see an app created by a team formed through partnerships built via Appsplit return to the platform to continue to evolve and improve. “It’s been an amazing experience that we were able to build Vevue and are now utilizing the crowdfunding service,” Olson says about returning to Appsplit to raise funds for Vevue’s further development. Currently, the Vevue app - which is available on the Google Play store - allows users to easily record 30-second location-based video reviews called Vevues which are instantly uploaded to the Vevue YouTube page, pinned on the Vevue map and appear on the associated business’s Google+ profile. For the next step, Olson says that they are “in the process of implementing user profiles, creating a robust interactive map and looking forward to offering live video reviews.” The Vevue team wants to integrate Google+ sign-in and Facebook login for users to be able to share their Vevues directly to their social feeds and view Vevues from friends or people nearby through the app. Furthermore, the team will be using the funds raised from the Appsplit Crowdfunding Campaign to improve the Vevue interactive map and search filters, make a version of the Vevue app for iOS, and develop a way for users of the app to broadcast Live Vevues. That last area for development has the Vevue team excited. They envision the app being able to give users the option to send and accept requests for a Live Vevue which will essentially turn users' phones into live webcam feeds. This can become particularly useful in letting people see places they have never been to before through a friend who is already there at the moment, or simply seeing if a particular establishment in an area is busy right now. Nevertheless, Olson stresses that the Vevue team is “ultimately building for Google Glass” adding that they “want to create a way for anyone to connect to live Vevues anywhere in the world.” For business owners, Olson hopes that “the amount of 30-second Vevues created for all these different locations provides a viable API that they can use to compliment and add value to their profiles.” --- To learn more about crowdsourcing and Appsplit, visit www.appsplit.com. Appsplit provides enterprising individuals with the platform to connect with talent, raise funding, or sell their applications. We at Appsplit are here to help and are always available to launch and manage your crowdsourcing needs to make sure your campaigns succeed. Contact:

	*Thomas Olson* Founder upload@vevue.com 872.333.6126
	*Hussein Yahfoufi* Founder & President hussein@appsplit.com 858.324.4404

3 Things To Do Before Your Crowdfunding Campaign Closes

dilawer-soomro — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:05:12 +0000

Well, it's a pretty exciting time as your crowdfunding campaign will be meeting its goal and you have roughly 48 hours left before the campaign closes successfully. Although, you may be thinking about the next steps for your project, how to distribute rewards, getting the money, etc... There is one more opportunity for you to take advantage of that you do not want to miss out on. Once your campaign closes it will still live online, out there in the world on the crowdfunding platform you chose for your crowd sourcing needs (AppSplit, KickStarter, etc...). It will also continue to gain the attention of search engines for months and even years to come. First of all, update your campaign's description because once the project closes, the description will be locked forever. So that means you'll have to update it right before the project meets its deadline. When the campaign was active the main goal of the description was describing your goal, what the campaign was all about, etc... but once it is over, the summary must come second. On top of the summary, you should write more instructions about the campaign. You can include links to the product that you have created, social media and the campaign's website. People don't like missing out on things so keep it updated for the people who arrive late to your campaign. Second, check your emails and comments, make sure that you reply to each of them politely. You just don't want to pass this opportunity, there are many watchers of the campaign who email you or comment first to get more information before supporting your project. Your decent reply could convert a watcher into a supporter. People are supporting your campaign they're putting their money in your campaign, they will definitely have a couple of questions and doubts, so answer them politely. A friendly reply from the Owner would help ease their fears and concerns. Last but not least, say "Thank You" to everybody, not just the supporters but even the people who shared your campaign on social media sites. Start searching for any mentions of your campaign and make sure to say thank you to each and every one of them. Thank you are two most powerful words that can bring two people closer and connect them. By saying thank you, you're not just connecting with people on a personal level but you're also building a much stronger relationship with them that will help you in the long run. It's pretty simple to get distracted when your campaign is on its way to meeting its goal and you may miss out on a couple of things in the excitement but don't worry, there's still time for you to fix it and get it right.

The 3 Main Things Every Crowdsourcing Campaign Starter Should Think About

Solon Harmony Dolor — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:51:34 +0000

Crowdsourcing is great way to make your brilliant idea a reality. We here at Appsplit could go on all day talking about considerations crowdsourcing campaign starters should think about in order for their ventures to succeed. However, when you synthesize all of these ideas, you only get three main points each and every crowdsourcing campaign starter should think about. This thought piece is about those three points that should never be left unexamined by people especially those who are thinking of starting a crowdsourcing campaign.

The Project

Without a worthwhile project, why start a crowdsourcing campaign? Make sure that your idea is worth pursuing. Ask yourself if people will be excited about it and why. This means you need to do your research and see if it has not been done in the past. If it has been done and there are products currently out there that are essentially the same as your idea, what can you bring to the table which gives your project the edge over the competition. What makes your idea different? Furthermore, make sure you have a market. If you don’t, well, we don’t have to tell you no one will buy your product or participate in your project as there is no point in pursuing it. Once you answer these questions, make sure that you plan how you will present your project to potential backers and partners. How do you clearly explain to them why they need to support you? Furthermore, aside from presenting the project well, you need to make sure that you have a plan on how to market your project. How will you get as many eyes as possible to see information about your campaign? You may look at past campaigns on crowdsourcing platforms and see what strategies work. Make sure that you have a great project in mind and be ready to execute your campaign well. The Community The community is the group of people who will support your project and campaign and work with you to make your idea a reality. Make sure you know the community for your crowdsourcing project. This is to analyze information they want and how they want to discover information they find interesting. Remember that different crowds react differently to how you approach them. This is key to getting the right community interested in what you have in mind. By thinking of the community, you also start to think of how your project will look when they see it. Is it interesting? Or is it another run-of-the-mill project you’ll forget after a week? Also, when we say think of the community, make sure that you are targeting the right group of people for your project’s needs. Do you need to source funds alone for your project? If so, you have a very broad target audience. Make sure the way you present your project is attractive to as many people as possible. Do you need certain specialized skills for the success of your project? Make sure your project is appealing to the people who have the skills you need. Remember that the community can make or break your project. This is why it is important to think about them as much as you think about the particulars of the project itself. The Engagement We are not talking of “engagement” here in the nuptial sense of the word. What we mean by engagement is how the starters of the project are engaging with their followers and supporters. Part of what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign is how engaged the community is with the team that started it. One of the biggest mistakes a crowdfunding campaign starter can make is to post a campaign, have a marketing blast about it and then just let it be until the time set for the campaign expires. If you want your campaign to succeed, keep engaging the community which will make it a success. For one, this means that you’re interested in the people who are backing your project. Another advantage of this is that you ensure people will be talking about the project and thus attracting more people to support it because you are starting conversations about the project every day. Furthermore, think about it, how elated will a supporter be if you, the project starter, started talking to him or her? He or she will probably even start telling people she know about your conversation. This effectively creates word of mouth marketing for your project. When there is constant chatter about a certain project, more so because this chatter will be on the internet, people are bound to notice. However, make sure that you also leverage your real-life connections to engage with the community. Contact your friends and acquaintances and cash in on those favors. Create chatter in real life that spills into the internet. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that you should engage the community about your project. We know that a successful crowdsourcing campaign takes a lot of hard work. Here at Appsplit, we’d like you to succeed since a win for you also means a win for us. Talk to us and we’ll help you in whatever way we can for a successful crowdsourcing campaign. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any thoughts about the three points we presented above.

What to do after reaching your crowdfunding goal?

dilawer-soomro — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:58:57 +0000

First of all, congratulations on completing your campaign successfully and reaching your target. We're pretty sure that you are very excited at this moment as your hard work and determination has finally paid off. Although, this is the end of the campaign, it's everything but the end. You still have a long road ahead of you. Maybe all the hard work has distracted you and made you unsure about your future plans, well don't worry we'll help you figure out your next move. You still need to put a lot of work into your campaign to make it successful. Reaching your target is a big milestone as you now have the funds to turn your idea into reality but you need to plan it carefully. Thank your supporters first and tell them how you feel. Keep them updated with all the future progress. Also, make sure you get those rewards out to your supporters in a timely manner, it may take a bit of effort but always keep them in the loop and let them know how things are progress with delivering their rewards. Even after sending out the rewards check with all your supporters if each and everyone of them has received it. Apart from that, you'll also have to actually begin working on your app. You may already have a team of developers or you can hire one with the funds you have accumulated. Several development companies browse the appsplit site for connect campaigns to find projects to work on. You can consider posting a Connect campaign and find a developer here or browse the net for companies you can hire. Finally, after development of your app make sure that you email your supporters again to let them know what their money has built. You can start another campaign to raise more funds by offering something extra with new rewards. Not sure what to do next? Send us a note and we at AppSplit will help brainstorm.

4 steps to follow when planning your crowdfunding campaign

dilawer-soomro — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:47:40 +0000

Interested in launching a crowdfunding campaign? If you are working on an idea and looking for tips and advice on crowdfunding, you've come to the right place. Appsplit is all about helping campaigns succeed. As a starting point, take a look at a few tips that may help you get ready for launching your campaign, leave a comment and contact us if you need any additional help. We are here to help!

1 - Simple and straightforward crowdfunding pitch

This may sound pretty obvious but believe me, a clear pitch is required for properly kickstarting your campaign. It will boost the success of your campaign by engaging potential supporters, and helps you sell your idea to your audience. Write a concise and clear pitch. Explain what you're trying to do, what you want to achieve and why your idea is worthy of being supported. Don't go off on tangents and stick to the point. Explain the goal of your project in the first paragraph, so if anyone reads a few lines, he/she gets an idea on what you're trying to do right away. Don't forget that you are reaching and engaging with supporters from around the world so keep your language as simple as you can. If you are able to impress supporters they will support you and often times be advocates for you and will help spread the word.

2 - Attention grabbing and interesting crowdfunding rewards

This is an important aspect of any crowdfunding campaign and attracts most supporters. When planning your rewards, make sure that you have something for everyone. Always aim for 4-6 levels of rewards ranging from low ($2 - $5) to high ($100 - $500). Each reward should be unique and reflect the amount of money being promised. Always keep your lower tier rewards simple while making your higher tier rewards premium and exclusive to attract VIP crowdfunding supporters. You can also add value to your rewards by promising early access to your app, giving free subscriptions, adding supporters' name to credits, etc - that will definitely bring in more attention. Make sure that you calculate the costs of the rewards and offer what you can actually deliver. Don't spend all your funds on rewards alone, remember that you have to develop your campaign with the same bucket of money.

3 - Engaging on social media

Make sure that you engage your audience through social media before and after the launch of your campaign. Keep them in the circle and update them with all the news. You should dedicate a small amount of time everyday to social media alone to promote your campaign and build a strong community around your campaign. Check out our social media tips here to learn more on how to use social media effectively for your campaign.

4 - Be active after the launch

Most people think that all the work they have to perform for a crowdfunding campaign is pre-launch. That's so wrong. You have to be more active after the launch of the campaign and keep your supporters in the loop on what you're doing, how your campaign is performing, stats, etc. Don't let the project take over your other activities but give it a decent amount of time and promote it. You have to promote it both online and offline to make it a success. Have a clear marketing strategy for your campaign and execute the strategy. Use the appsplit team for help and advice, we are always here to help. If you plan your crowdfunding campaign the right way and follow all of the above steps, your campaign is more likely to succeed. You will also get an interested community that will help you in your future campaigns as well. Still unsure? Contact us, we can help you plan your campaign and give you step by step instructions on how to be successful at crowdfunding, because your success is our success.

Top 3 benefits of crowdfunding, money is not one of them!

hussein yahfoufi — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:58:52 +0000

We all know the main benefit of raising funds via crowdfunding, money. That's an obvious statement but what are the other benefits to crowdfunding? Are there any? Those are the questions I seemed to find answer for and I conducted a few interviews with people who've tried crowdfunding to do just that. You may be very surprise to know that most found a lot more benefits to running a crowdfuning campaign than just the money their raised. Here are their thoughts. Mary Ratliff, a writer and director for Nine Hour Films says one of her projects, Good Game, reached its funding goal but that was not the main attraction for them. In fact some of the backers of her project did not even come through with the funding so they raised less money than expected (read more about that here). However, since they were actively promoting their campaign, they got many other benefits to their campaigning which made it worth their while. The main benefit was building an audience and following for their project. The second was getting the attention of the press and online communities which increased the visibility of their project. Roberto Torres, of Black & Denim, says there are several benefits to crowdfunding outside of the funding itself: proving that there is a market need for your idea or product, creating brand ambassadors for you, allowing you to connect with direct customers and giving you the opportunity to listen to feedback from your supports. The campaign also gives you a lifetime of marketing potential since the campaign will remain up online forever. Alex Kennberg, co-founder of Shopstarter, says the additional benefit is that it gives entrepreneurs a go to market and validation strategy. There are enough people that sponsor a successful campaign to get the attention of prospective users/buyers/clients and it also helps validate your idea. Alex, is a strong believe in the "other" benefits of crowdfunding, so much so that he founded his own company that caters to that market! In summary, the top 3 benefits of crowdfunding, putting the money aside, are: 1- Build a fan base and brand ambassadors for your project, product or app 2- Get the attention of the press and online communities which will increase your reach 3- Prove, validate and test your idea before spending too much time and money on it Have you given crowdfunding a shot yet? What was your experience like? Please let us know by leaving a comment below. If you are currently debating wether or not crowdfunding is right for you, consider the added benefits described in this article. If you are still unsure, you can contact appsplit with any question you may have. We are always happy to help and will provide you with additional insight and feedback if needed.

5 Tips To Effectively Use Facebook and Twitter for your Crowdfunding Campaign

dilawer-soomro — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:56:20 +0000

So, you've started a new crowdfunding campaign but you're worried that you won't get supporters? Well, don't worry, we at AppSplit will do whatever we can to help your campaign succeed. We also have some tips for you in order to get the funds rolling in. Success in crowdfunding depends on the community around your campaign. The more you engage with the community, the better the odds for success. In order to engage with the community, there are social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc... available to you. You can build a large following before even launching your campaign - that's pretty important for your campaign's success. Good use of social media is imortant for any business/campaign. We've compiled a list of 5 tips to help you in using social media for creating a community around your crowdsourcing campaign. 1 - It's about everyone: You may be compelled to talk only about yourself and your project but that will be totally boring for others and they will stop following you. Instead, share content that keeps them engaged, you can share other campaigns too that will give you more credibility. Start polls, ask questions, just keep them engaged so they don't lose interest. 2 - Start chatting: Building a social following is a tiresome task that requires a lot of patience and dedication. You don't just get followers out of nowhere. Start following other relevant people and they will follow you back. Their followers will also show interest in you. Start following relevant services and businesses and chat with them about their products. Show interest in other people's campaigns and talk to them about them, they will be more likely to show some interest in your campaigns in return. 3 - Be Consistent: Keep your consistency and don't leave your pages/profiles inactive for long periods of time. Keep them updated with relevant info. If you stop updating, your followers will lose their interest and move on to something else. Keep them interested by posting interesting content and mixing other stuff in as well. Keep them posted on your campaigns statistics. There is a very fine line between being consistent and spamming so make sure your posts and updates are relevant, engaging and not repetitive. 4 - Talk to everyone: Sometimes campaign owners talk to their supporters privately and many other potential supporters are left out. Always talk about relevant stuff publicly, so everyone is able to see and participate in your conversations. Ask for everyone's opinion and thank them for their support. When others see the interactions, they will most likely jump in and participate in the discussions too. 5 - Track the interest: Keep an eye on your followers and measure the interest. Check the interaction on your content and see which type of post/tweet/pin gets more attention (retweets/likes/comments) and post more of the similar content. Also, check to see if there are certain times in the day when users are more active. Check if videos, images, etc get more attention then regular text content. Keep doing this and you'll find the sweet spot soon. There are numerous other ways you can use social media to increase the success of your crowdfunding campaign. We will let you experiment and find the perfect style that suits you. Follow these 5 basic steps and you'll get more out of social media than ever. Have you tried these or other techniques for using social media in crowdfunding? If so, we want to hear about it. Please leave a comment below and let us know about it. When you start a campaign on AppSplit, you are not on your own. We help in every way possible because your success is our success. We'll help you build a community for your campaign.

10 Steps To Know If Your Crowdfunding Campaign Is Set For Success

dilawer-soomro — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:38:21 +0000

Crowdfunding may sound easy to you, post an idea and people will start dishing out their hard earned money to help you develop it. Well, that's not mostly the case, people will not fund your idea unless it interests them. So, make sure that before you ask for any funding from others, your idea is unique and brings something new to the table. To determine if your crowdfunding campaign will work, ask yourself these 10 simple questions: 1- Is it a good idea? Would most people be interested in it? 2- What makes your idea different from existing competition? Is it unique or does it expand on something that's already available? 3- Do you have something to show that will help people visualize your idea, like a video? 4- Have you calculated the total amount of money you need to launch your idea? 5- Are you certain that you'll fulfill all your promises such as launching the project in the promised timeframe, delivering all the rewards on time, etc... 6- Do you have some great rewards in place to get the attention of potential supporters? Are your rewards worth talking about? 7- Do you have any social media, public relations and marketing connections? 8- How will you promote your project before and after its launch? How will you keep the buzz going about your project? 9- Are you familiar with all the personal and professional traits that a campaign demands from its creators? Are you ready to put in 100% effort into making your campaign a hit? 10- Finally, have you looked at other crowdfunding campaigns to understand what strategies work and what steps lead to failures? If you answered "yes" to all these questions, are willing to put in the effort, believe in yourself and your ability to deliver on all the promises, then there's a very decent chance your campaign will hit it out of the park. As you make a decision on which crowdfunding platform to use for your funding needs, please feel free to reach out to appsplit with any questions you have. We are always happy and ready to help. Using appsplit for your crowdfunding needs means getting a full support service from beginning to end. We can review your campaign idea and materials before it goes live on our site and during as well. Contact us if you need more information (its free). Before moving forward don't forget to also read our 3 tips for a successful crowdfunding campaign for additional help and tips on being successful at crowdfunding. Do you agree or disagree with these steps? We want to know your thoughts, leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

Three tips for a successful crowdfunding campaign

hussein yahfoufi — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:22:26 +0000

So you want to launch a successful crowdsourcing campaign but don’t know where to start? The key my friend, lies with inspiring “the crowd.” Many people believe that the beauty of crowdsourcing is that one can simply post an idea on a crowdsourcing site and the money will appear over night! The reality is, potential investors need to be inspired to believe in your idea – and in you. Otherwise, they certainly won’t feel inspired to reach in their wallets and support your idea with their hard earned cash. Here are three things you can do today to increase contributions from a wider audience than your parents. TIP #1 Use Video to Compel Your Audience When was the last time you were inspired by a text ad? Nothing “sells” like video. Videos are a compelling way to show your audience why you and your idea are worth their investment. Video is more engaging than text and it appeals to more of the senses. Video provides a platform for you to communicate about your idea in a conversational way, make a connection with your audience and build trust. People like to know the brains behind the ideas and the personal touch that a short video provides is priceless. Keep it simple. It can be as easy as using your smart phone or digital camera to capture 30 seconds of footage. Take a moment to introduce yourself, your idea and why it’s going to be the most addictive app to hit the market. Or, stage an interview where a friend asks you about your app idea. Be creative. Be direct. Be whatever you want. The sky is the limit. Once you’ve got some post-worthy video, review the material and do a quick “gut check” by asking yourself the following questions: 1) Was the video interesting to listen to/watch? 2) Did the video explain how you plan to use the campaign funding? 3) Did the video explain your background and why you will actually succeed? TIP #2 Use Cool Rewards to Lure the Cash! If you try to run a crowd-funding campaign by simply asking for money and offering little or nothing valuable in return, you are the king of wishful thinking. Few people will contribute cash simply out of the goodness of their heart, for the sake of doing a good deed or just because they are looking for something to support. Taking the approach of “if I post it, cash will come” will get you nowhere, and fast. Investors expect something in return so inspire them with incentives. Offer something compelling, fun or interesting in exchange for their money. Some easy and well-established sample reward ideas: - Advanced or early access to the product before it’s available to mainstream audiences - Enhanced editions of your product – think “director’s cut” or a dedication page - Merchandise - printing t-shirts, stickers, ball caps are cheap, easy to make – and provide advertising for you - Photos from behind the scenes – are there any pics of your design team at work? Something exclusive is always fun. - Make your backers part of the product – is there potential to make your highest donor a character within your game? Can you integrate their name into the graphics or background of your app? - Make it easy for would-be contributors that are cash-strapped. Always have a $10 and less reward. The consistently effective rewards are the one that have a personal touch or are unique. The more creative the better. Choose your rewards based on your product and inspire the crowd to make your idea a reality. TIP #3 Leverage Your Personal and Professional Circles to Spread the Word! People that like you will want to help you. Your personal network is your strongest tool and the most important one. Did you share your campaign on Facebook, twitter and Pinterest? Did you send a personal note (including your video!) to all of your friends, colleagues and contacts asking for their support? and asking them to ask their network for support? If not, you need to. Consider writing a personal email asking your friends and fam to help your cause by 1) making a contribution to your campaign – it can be as small as $10! 2) “Liking” your campaign and sharing it on their online social networks 3) Tweeting about the cool new campaign they saw (include the url for easy sharing) – include all the ideas you can think of for spreading the word. If people don’t have the money to help, they can certainly help spread the word - for free. A Last Word These three steps will help you personalize your campaign and inspire backers to believe in your idea. Remember, the key is to inspire your audience and the best ways to do that are: 1) Showcase you and your idea with a short video 2) Offer cool rewards as a thank-you for your supporters’ generosity 3) Leverage your social network to spread the good word about your campaign If you are considering a new campaign or want to give a previous campaign a second chance, get in touch with the appsplit team. There is nothing we want more than to see successful crowdfunding campaigns on appsplit so contact us if you want help getting started. We look forward to it. Have you tried any of these tips? Have tips of your own? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Staying in the Know, When You’re on the Go

dilawer-soomro — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:54:44 +0000

When you’re in transit, whether it is to work or to another destination, you don’t want your time spent in commute to go wasted. Whether you have a 20 minute trek to your office, or 20 hours on a flight across the world- there are apps of convenience that will keep you up on all of the information you’d like to know. These useful apps will allow you to be productive, rather than wasting your time with games or naps. Radiolab Radiolab is an app that will allow you to escape your commuting lull and enter into a stream of creative and knowledgeable energy. This radio show, which is broadcasted on over 300 radio stations around the country, is available for download to your mobile device. By having the app you can listen to all podcasts from the show (from the oldest to the most recent). As a Radiolab devotee you’ll be able to share podcasts via email, Facebook and Twitter. So while you’re moving about you can fill your brain up with beneficial information so you never skip a beat. Ted Talks After you’ve taken in enough of the daily news and you want to broaden your interests, open up Ted on your device and become riveted by the specialists available at your fingertips. This app let’s you watch videos of talks given by a variety of gripping individuals. Sit back and go through the catalogue to find a video that you think will interest you and plug your headphones and yourself into the crash course. Reeder While you’re busily trying to get from point A to point B, you simply don’t have time to go through all different websites in order to read everything you want to read. With this gem you’ll be to sync your Google reader account (and access it), so you’ll be receiving content that you’ve subscribed to all in one easy place. Browse through at your own leisure and pause on the things that you want to read further about. Flipboard By using this app, you’ll be able to access many different stories and topics in one convenient location. Breaking news will be delivered to you along with stories ranging from sports to travel and much more. You are able to pick some topics that interest you and then you will instantly receive stories that fall into said categories. There is also a search bar where you are able to look for other stories that aren’t in your feed. Sit back, relax and learn something new. Sound Gecko Want to be able to multitask while you’re on the go? This clever app will read a news story out loud to you. You simply send the URL from the specific article and Sound Gecko will read it to you. Now you’ll be able to listen to what you want to know via your headphones while you’re working on another task. Captio Have you ever had a really great idea and then five minutes later can’t remember what you were thinking about? Well you can now save all of your idea and never let them get lost outside your brain ever again. After a long day of work you just want to relax on your train ride home, but of course your mind is still going and churning out ideas. With Captio you can you write down your ideas into this app and they will send them to your email so you can remember and elaborate on them at a later time. Any.do Keeping your thoughts and ideas organized is a big necessity. With Any.do you can either type on your device or speak into it and organize a list of what you need to do or remind yourself of. While you’re transporting, you’ll be able to quickly make a list of things you need to do at a later time. Don’t let those ideas go to waste- if something inspires you be sure to write it down. Make sure your down time geniuses get put to use. If you find that you’re precious time is limited because you’re always on the go, then make your travel time worth while by checking out some of these apps.

Kpop Lyrics – Handy Lyrics Finder+Viewer For Kpop Lovers

Eko Mirhard — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:52:41 +0000

I have been a K-pop fans for a few years now, long before the immense popularity of Gangnam Style around the world. I got a handful list of songs from this genre in all my devices, and if its one I like to sing, I usually search for the lyrics and incorporate them right into the song file, which can be viewed from all iOS devices' default music player. Well, sometimes it feels like a pretty dull task, to manually search for lyrics, copy to the file, and re-sync my music collection every single time. I've tried a couple of lyric apps in the AppStore, and none of them fit ever my preferences until now. I just came across a new app, Kpop Lyrics, obviously tailored for K-pop genre, and decided to give it a try. The main screen displays all songs in your device, each with its respective album cover. Selecting a song brings up a new screen with the search result for its lyric, where you also have a simple music player to control songs playback. You are also given the option to group the words, whether in 2 words, 3 words, or an entire line. In case you want to have quick access to a lyric page, you can also mark it as one of the favorites, which can be accessed in the future from the favorites section. The lyrics are displayed with both Korean characters as well as its romanized counterpart side by side. You can even save the lyrics as images and send them by email to your friends! There is also a stand alone section if you want to search for lyrics manually, by entering the artist, album, or the song title information you will get a list of search results, which will display the same lyric screen once selected. For those who also need to translate lyrics, you can use the translation tab, where you will need to enter the artist and/or song title information, which will bring up a list of search result. The results aren't displayed right in the app. Instead, it will open the link in Safari. One handy guide for good pronunciation is also included in the app (from the About section), which might be pretty helpful for those unfamiliar with the Korean language. You can grab Kpop Lyrics from the AppStore for free in a very limited time (it's still free when this article is being written). The last price before it went free was $0.99. A lite version is also available. Video trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IrDmMb_NbXc AppStore link (Plus version): AppStore link (Free version):

Paintrala for Android – Review

dilawer-soomro — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:34:31 +0000

So, do you love playing DrawSomething and drawing stuff? Are you good at painting on your Android device? Well, if so then Paintrala could satisfy all your painting needs while keeping you entertained at the same time. Paintrala is new app that lets the users paint whatever they want and showcase it on Paintrala’s official gallery for the whole world to see. It is a Social Network for art and paintings.

Paintrala offers a simple but attractive layout, once you sign-up you can look-up paintings from all around the world created by different people, you can follow other people, you can like and comment on other paintings and you can share all this on Facebook as well. The fun part is painting something of your own, you can draw anything from a simple doodle to a full-fledged masterpiece. There are so many painting tools available for you to choose and you can actually choose a picture from your Gallery or snap one directly from Camera and paint it over. There is so much you could do with this app. If in the end you’re happy with your artwork, you can easily upload it to Paintrala’s Gallery for the whole world to see and give their feedback. There are also contests that you can participate in and the painting with most points wins a feature on the main page. All in all Paintrala is a unique and fun app to use for all who enjoy painting as a profession or just a hobby. Although, there’s a catch, at the moment it only supports Samsung phones for the painting tool but other phones will be added soon. Best of all, it is Free so you have nothing to lose. Go ahead and get the app from Google Play and see for yourself how it stacks up against other painting tools. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=74h8hNE5XrI

DesignYourBody – Workout Trainer + Tracker On The Go

Eko Mirhard — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:59:14 +0000

Having a generally healthy and fit body is a dream for many, although it's indeed something which is not that trivial to accomplish without a proper training, and it takes more than just a strong will power. While this can be achieved by hiring a professional trainer, some people just want to do it by themselves with the help of a digital trainer. With the rise of mobile technologies, having one of these right in your pocket might be pretty tempting. That's what DesignYourBody is made for. In a nutshell, DesignYourBody has what you need for directing and tracking your training in order to achieve your desired target, and everything is customizable based on your need and body stats. We will dive more into this later. There are also photos and videos to enhance your training. To use this app, you will need to be connected to the internet and have an account, which you can register right in the app on the login screen. For those who prefer to just use their social networking account, there are also the options to connect via Facebook or Twitter. This is also beneficial for those who want to share their progress with fellow workout friends. Upon login, you will be directed to a quick-start screen where you can input some of your personal details, such as age, gender, height and weight. This will be used to determine the right training set for your body. The app will also show your BMI (Body Mass Index) detail. After that, the app will bring up the main screen with several tabs on the bottom, which you can use to access various features of the app. In the home screen (DYB tab), you can set up your ideal body image, taking your before-after photos, or you can access the quick start screen again if you need to change your previous input. There is also a button to access the app setting. The tab which you will access frequently, are the next 3 tabs. In the program tab, you can see the list of body problems or goals, each of them consists of managed training sessions, grouped in days of week. For each training session, you can track and record your training progress, as well as viewing your previous trainings data. If you need a visual guidance, you can also view the video guide for each session. You can also add these training sessions to your personal training screen in the My program tab, which you can use to quickly access selected sessions. The exercise tab will display a list of exercise related stuffs, including training sessions for standard workout activities. You will probably use this tab if you want to have your own, custom training. The sessions are also grouped, and it has a similar interface to the managed training screen. You can also track your personal training based on workout equipments you use. And the last tab consists of several important features, such as viewing your workout history. There is also the measurement tracker which you can use to input your body measurements in the current period, so you can use it to easily track your training progress and body changes. To track other details such as changes in weight and height, there is a separate section as well for it. With all these features, there is no doubt that it is a complete package for those who need a guidance or tracker to manage their workout activities and other physical training programs. You can get DesignYourBody in the AppStore for $1.99. Video trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnHjdv5bIQ AppStore link :

Google Is The Place To Be Pay-Wise If You’re A Software Engineer

Solon Harmony Dolor — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:58:16 +0000

If you’re a software engineer, Google is the place to be if you want to be more likely to receive a higher pay than your peers. That’s according to a study done by Glassdoor, a website that specializes in job listing and information. The study reveals that Google is seeking to stay ahead of the competition in attracting top tech talents by offering higher pay. Glassdoor reveals that the average salary of a Google software engineer is at $128,336. Take note that that is base salary. The tech industry has become very competitive when it comes to hiring the right people with the right sets of skills and talent for the job. That is why Google and other companies attract talent by offering high pays and other perks like great work conditions. Nonetheless, Google’s nearest competitor when it comes to average salary per year is not that far behind with Glassdoor saying that Facebook, which comes in at second, offers an average yearly salary of $123,626 to its software engineers. Furthermore, Facebook is closing in on Google with the difference in average yearly salary between the two companies decreasing from $6,582 to $4,710. This is after Google announced earlier a 10 percent across the board pay raise for all employees. Meanwhile, Apple is at number three with an average base salary of $114,413. eBay comes next with $108,809 and Zynga is fifth with $105,568. Those figures are comparatively higher than the national average base salary for software engineers which is at $92,648, Glassdoor reveals. Furthermore, it’s looking brighter for software engineers as a whole in the US as Glassdoor says that based on its collection of over 5,000 salary reports, software engineers increased their base salaries an average of 2.5 percent this year. Here’s a table from Glassdoor detailing average base salaries for software engineers. Source: Glassdoor Image 1 from mjmonty on Flickr (CC)

HTC J Butterfly Is World’s First Full-HD Display Smartphone

Solon Harmony Dolor — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:10:16 +0000

HTC is now the proud holder of the title of being the first smartphone maker to officially announce and likely the first to release a 1080p full-HD-screened smartphone with the announcement of the HTC J Butterfly for the Japanese market. The HTC BJ Butterfly has the rights to brag as it features a 5-inch screen that has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. That’s the resolution of a full HD television set crammed into a relatively miniscule 5-inch smartphone display. We say relatively small as 5-inch screen has an area of 10.68 square inches while a 32-inch screen, for example, has an area of 439.19 square inches. Nonetheless, the screen of the HTC J Butterfly is huge when compared to smartphones today as it’s verging on the brink of being a phablet. Anyway, with this screen resolution, the pixel density of this new smartphone is at 441 pixels per inch. That’s very impressive when you take into account the pixel density of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, which have become sort of like benchmarks for screen quality with their Retina Display panels. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S have 330 pixels per inch while the iPhone 5 has a slightly lesser pixel density number at 326 pixels per inch. The screen is clearly the star of this smartphone. However, it’s other features are no pushovers too. The HTC J Butterfly comes equipped with a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and 2GB of RAM for the Japanese market. Internal storage is at 16GB which can be supplemented via a microSD card. We don’t know yet, though, how big a card this new smartphone can accommodate. The cameras of this beast are an 8-megapixel rear unit which can take 1080p videos and a 2-megapixel front unit. There is also a 2,020mAh battery crammed in a svelte 143 x 71 x 9.1 mm chassis that weighs 140 g. Said to be coming exclusively to Japanese carrier au KDDI this December in red, black, white, the HTC J Butterfly is one smartphone we’ll be waiting for worldwide release. Any thoughts on the HTC J Butterfly? Tell us in the comments section. [cb]HTC[/cb]

Here’s Why There’s An iPhone 5 Shortage

Solon Harmony Dolor — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:55:26 +0000

There is currently an iPhone 5 shortage around the world. That’s not surprising considering that IT IS an iPhone. Apple, which has been on a hot streak since it launched the iPod in 2001, says that the iPhone 5 is a major success with the smartphone becoming its fastest-selling iPhone to date. The smartphone was released late in September and now that October is coming to a close, you’d expect that supply would have caught up with demand. That’s not the case though and here’s why. There’s still a shortage of iPhone 5 units around the world not because of demand still surging feverishly (though that definitely contributes to Apple’s predicament) but because the iPhone 5 is just too damn hard to make. That’s the revelation made by a Foxconn official, a report by The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog says. “The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled. To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated,” said this unnamed Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. official, the Journal says. “It takes time to learn how to make this new device.” By the way, Hon Hai is the parent company of Foxconn. Foxconn is a registered trade name of Hon Hai and is used by the Taiwan-based company for its factories in Mainland China. However, this official, who declined to have his name printed says the Journal, says that their workers are getting better and better at making iPhones so it seems we’ll see an uptick in production yields from their factories soon. “Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day,” he said. Image from Sean MacEntee on Flickr (CC) [cb]Apple[/cb]

EPEAT Green Registry Certifies MacBook Air, Other Ultrabooks

Solon Harmony Dolor — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:14:51 +0000

The EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) has certified the MacBook Air and rival Ultrabooks from Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba as devices which pass its “stringent” criteria for certification under its green registry. In a press release, EPEAT said that Ultrabooks and the MacBook Air have come under scrutiny in the public discussions in the past summer. “Products from Apple, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba were investigated in this verification process. All products investigated met the requirements of the criteria reviewed,” EPEAT said. Robert Frisbee, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement that “EPEAT is committed to foster greener electronics and to give purchasers the tools to evaluate green claims.” “The system’s rigorous environmental assessment processes result from a powerful stakeholder collaboration that includes purchasers, environmental advocates, government, manufacturer, recycler and academic participants. This latest series of stringent investigations demonstrates the power of that approach,” he explained further. “The findings released today are the culmination of a lengthy review of a number of specific criteria – and of a broad array of notebook products registered in the EPEAT system. Specific areas of concern addressed included whether products could be upgraded, if tools were commonly available to accomplish upgrades, and whether materials of concern including batteries could be easily removed from ultrathin products,” EPEAT said further. Just recently, Apple pulled out of the EPEAT registry without explaining why. After harsh disapproval was thrown in Apple’s way for its decision, Bob Mansfield, its senior vice president of engineering, said that the move was a mistake on Apple’s part. Apple subsequently went on the EPEAT registry again. It’s also worthy to note that critics are asking why Apple products are certified under the EPEAT registry. This is because Apple products are not exactly that easy to disassemble, a procedure you need to do efficiently when you want to recycle parts of consumer electronics products which have reached the end of their lives. Nonetheless, EPEAT says that Apple products are green. For the full EPEAT press release, look after the break. EPEAT Announces Findings in Ultrathin Notebook Investigations Green electronics rating system confirms that all products tested met rigorous environmental criteria Portland, OR, October 12, 2012 — EPEAT today released the results of a verification process that tested five different “ultra-thin” notebooks to ascertain their conformance with the green rating system’s stringent requirements. These products had come under close scrutiny in public discussions this past summer. Products from Apple, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba were investigated in this verification process. All products investigated met the requirements of the criteria reviewed. “EPEAT is committed to foster greener electronics and to give purchasers the tools to evaluate green claims,” said Robert Frisbee, CEO of EPEAT. “The system’s rigorous environmental assessment processes result from a powerful stakeholder collaboration that includes purchasers, environmental advocates, government, manufacturer, recycler and academic participants. This latest series of stringent investigations demonstrates the power of that approach.” The findings released today are the culmination of a lengthy review of a number of specific criteria – and of a broad array of notebook products registered in the EPEAT system. Specific areas of concern addressed included whether products could be upgraded, if tools were commonly available to accomplish upgrades, and whether materials of concern including batteries could be easily removed from ultrathin products. To ensure the integrity of the registry, EPEAT undertook a number of fundamental inquiries. These included:

a request for formal clarification of the standard requirements from the independent Product Verification Committee (PVC) – a group of experts on electronics and environmental issues who provide interpretation of conformity requirements and rule on verification findings
a comprehensive review of publicly available technical information for notebook products in the EPEAT registry.
an independent verification investigation for those products where public information did not resolve questions of potential nonconformance.

For the verification investigation, EPEAT contracted with a technical test lab to independently purchase these devices on the open market, and disassemble them according to the instructions provided. Following their disassembly investigation, the test lab recommended that all the products be found to satisfy EPEAT requirements. After reviewing the data and recommendations provided by the lab, the PVC found all investigated products to be in conformance with EPEAT criteria, clearing the way for all the products investigated to remain on the EPEAT registry. Additional details of the investigation may be found below. The information garnered through these investigations will help stakeholders currently engaged in updating the PC/Display standard to ensure that the criteria address the market direction and design innovations leading toward thinner, lighter products. * * * Clarification of Standard Requirements The EPEAT PVC determined that, based on the clear wording of the relevant criteria, products could be considered upgradable if they contained an externally-accessible port through which additional capacity could be supplied to the registered product (or if they could be upgraded through physical replacement of parts). The PVC also ruled that tools required for disassembly or upgrade of registered products are deemed ‘commonly available’ if they can be purchased by any individual or business on the open market, are not proprietary and do not require agreements between the buyer and seller. The PVC declined to specify precise parameters for what constitutes “easy and safe” disassembly or removal of components, because they noted such terms could encompass different details depending on the specifics of the product class in question and must be demonstrated in action. Comprehensive Review and Surveillance EPEAT staff performed a detailed surveillance review of all small and light products registered in the system. This review identified specific types of ultrathin construction that seemed most likely to encounter issues meeting the criteria of concern. This eliminated the majority of products under review, and left five products from four manufacturers with significant unresolved questions relating to conformance. Verification Investigation of the remaining five products was conducted through a formal verification investigation. In keeping with EPEAT’s standard approach, manufacturers subject to investigation were not notified in advance, and investigation was based on product registrations prior to the verification notification. (For more about verification in EPEAT, see http://www.epeat.net/learn-more/verification/) EPEAT requested standard disassembly instructions from each manufacturer for the products in question, then commissioned a technical test lab to independently purchase these devices on the open market, and disassemble them according to the instructions provided. Lab personnel were not trained recycling professionals, so they could be expected to provide more universally applicable data regarding questions of time and ease of disassembly than would a demonstration by a recycler. The lab disassembled each of the purchased products with full documentation of each disassembly process, including its overall duration. Time for total disassembly of each of the products was under 20 minutes in all cases; for the removal of batteries the time required was between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. As noted above, these times probably exceed what a skilled recycler would require. Given their findings, the lab recommended that all products be found in conformance with EPEAT requirements. Source: EPEAT Images from bangdoll@flickr & Stratageme.com on Flickr (CC) [cb]Apple[/cb] [cb]Lenovo[/cb] [cb]Samsung Electronics[/cb] [cb]Toshiba[/cb]

Chinese Company Will Make Computers In The US

Solon Harmony Dolor — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:55:06 +0000

Apple has long been criticized for employing cheap labor from other parts of the world. The most popular of countries which has this economic advantage is China, a country which hasn’t exactly been lauded for its exemplary work conditions and high pay. Other American companies like HP, Dell and the like which make consumer electronics products have also had this problem Apple has. However, being the most high-profile tech company in the world doesn’t do any favors for Apple here. Criticisms against the company for making products out of the U.S. have been harsher precisely because of the height it has attained. Apple is America’s largest consumer electronics company and it has taken the flak for that when seen in this context. As such, Lenovo’s announcement that it will make computers in the U.S. may come as a shock, to say the least. Lenovo is China’s biggest computer manufacturer and it has revealed that it will open a computer manufacturing line in the U.S. There has never been a more apt time to describe an event as a “role reversal”. Furthermore, the company’s planned facility is not just a small-time manufacturing line. In the press release Lenovo published, it said that the facility “will be capable of turning out some of Lenovo’s newest and most innovative products, such as the recently announced ThinkCentre M92p Tiny desktop and ThinkPad Tablet 2.” A Chinese company will be making a tablet in the U.S. What struck me is this: Why can’t Apple make the iPad in the U.S.? Let’s get back to that question a little later. Lenovo says that the manufacturing line is for its future. In a statement, Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said that “Lenovo is establishing a U.S. manufacturing base because we believe in the long-term strength of the American PC market and our own growth opportunities here.” “As Lenovo expands globally, we are establishing even deeper roots in each major market. In addition to localized sales and marketing teams, in our major countries we are establishing an even stronger manufacturing footprint, investing in R&D and ensuring that we hire top local talent,” he said. “This global reach with local excellence helps us become even faster, more innovative and more responsive to our customers around the world,” he added. The move has been lauded by politicians in North Carolina where the manufacturing line will be built. The facility which will be put up in Whitsett, North Carolina, near Greensboro. “Lenovo’s decision to create electronic manufacturing jobs in North Carolina is a tremendous vote of confidence in the great skills and productivity of our state’s workforce,” North Carolina Governor Beverly Purdue said. “We have a strong track record of commitments to education, training and economic policies that promote growth in our state’s manufacturing sector. This decision by Lenovo clearly demonstrates that North Carolina is an attractive place where leading global businesses can thrive,” she added. In a statement, Senator Richard Burr was equally appreciative of Lenovo. “I am very pleased with this announcement, and I congratulate Lenovo on their growth and on making the wise decision to invest in North Carolina and in our state’s workforce,” he said. “The trend lately has been for manufacturing jobs to be created abroad, but some of the brightest and best trained talent in these high-tech fields can be found right here in America. I am proud of Lenovo for recognizing the talent and the potential here in North Carolina, and I look forward to even more growth in this sector in the years to come,” he added. That’s like a dig at other companies – Apple included – for NOT “recognizing the talent and potential here in North Carolina”, and by extension, the U.S. The facility itself is huge and will be housed at Lenovo’s recently expanded 240,000-square-foot U.S. distribution center in Whitsett. The new manufacturing line will create 115 manufacturing and related positions, which will be filled starting later this year as the line is expected to open early next year. Some may say that that’s just a small number of people. However, those are still jobs created in the U.S. which otherwise would not be there had this Chinese company decided not to build computers in North Carolina. So why can’t Apple make some iPads and some Mac computers in the U.S.? They can make the iPads, iPhones, and Macs which will otherwise be shipped from abroad in America. Some may argue that it would make life more complicated for Apple and not to mention less profitable. However, if a company like Lenovo is willing to take on that complication and less profit, why can’t Apple which has a ton of money in the bank? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below. Images from xiaming & kerolic on Flickr (CC) [cb]Lenovo[/cb] [cb]Apple[/cb]

Apple Can’t Hide How Profitable The iPhone Is Anymore

Solon Harmony Dolor — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:15:05 +0000

US District Judge Lucy Koh is telling Apple it must disclose exactly how much money it makes on each iPhone and that Apple must comply. That is, if Apple still wants the over $1 billion in damages awarded to them by a jury in August. Apple has actually filed for more damages stemming from the verdict. Apple wants about $3 billion from Samsung because it was judged by the jury to have “willfully” infringed on patents Apple owns. That’s all the more reason why Apple needs to disclose the information asked by the court which includes device-specific profit margins. Here’s the juicy part of Judge Koh’s filing on October 17: C. Confidential Financial Information Finally, Apple seeks to redact product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data from its Damages Motion, as well as from the Robinson Declaration and Exhibit 8 to the Robinson Declaration. As this Court explained in the August 9 Order, Apple has not established that public availability of its product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data would actually provide its competitors with an advantage, as would be required to find the information sealable under the “compelling reasons” standard. August 9 Order at 5-6. In seeking the very large damages award it sought at trial, Apple stipulated to the introduction of JX1500, a partial summary of its damages calculations, which contains some product-specific unit sales and revenue information. See ECF No. 1597. As Apple appears to have realized in introducing that exhibit, it cannot both use its financial data to seek multi-billion dollar damages and insist on keeping it secret. Further, this Court previously found that the financial information was essential to Apple’s damages calculations, thus increasing the public’s interest in access. August 9 Order at 6. Apple’s present Damages Motion also requires detailed financial analysis, and the public’s interest in accessing Apple’s financial information is now perhaps even greater than it was at trial. Apple’s motion seeks to permanently enjoin the sale of 26 Samsung products that have already been on the market for varying lengths of time, and seeks an enhancement of $535 million on top of the $1.05 billion in damages awarded by the jury. Such remedies would have a profound effect on the smartphone industry, consumers, and the public. As the extensive media coverage indicates, this is a truly extraordinary case of exceptional interest to the public. Apple’s reasons would have to be very compelling indeed to overcome the unusually robust public interest in access. Beyond continuing to assert that its financial data are ‘trade secrets,’ Apple has not provided any new arguments for why this information should be protected. Accordingly, consistent with the August 9 Order, this Court finds that Apple’s unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data do not meet the ‘compelling reasons’ standard. Apple’s motion to seal is DENIED as to the proposed redactions on page 27 of the Damages Motion, page 9 of the Robinson Declaration, and Exhibit 8 to the Robinson Declaration. For the reasons explained below, this denial is without prejudice.” Just to repeat, the judge is asking “product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data” not to be redacted from Apple’s Damages Motion. Apple’s argument that those are confidential “trade secrets” data has been rejected by the judge. Judge Koh also says that since this case directly affects the tech industry and that there’s a huge amount of public interest in it, the data should be revealed to the public, which makes sense if you ask us. You need to show how much damage an infringing product has caused to your business. In order to do so, the court must have the profit margin in order to compute this. Furthermore, since consumers will likely be affected by a damages award of this scale and not to mention the changes in consumer electronics devices that will spring about because of this decision, the public needs to know the data Apple so wants to keep secret. What are your thoughts about this? Share it with us in the comments section below. Source: Filing via ZDNET Images from Twyford & samsungtomorrow on Flickr (CC) [cb]Apple[/cb] [cb]Samsung Electronics[/cb]

E-Ink Android phone promises a week long battery-life

dilawer-soomro — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:17:01 +0000

If you’re an Android user like Me then you definitely have experienced a poor battery life at one time or another. Android eats up battery very fast because of the ever growing display technologies, power hungry processors and GPUs. Well, a chinese e-reader manufacturer, Onyx has come up with a solution to make Android smartphone’s eat less battery by giving it an e-ink display.

E-ink display will provide battery back-up like your old feature phones that go about a week on a single charge - that’s quite impressive. However, there’s a catch to the E-ink display as well, it is only available in black and white, so you won’t be able to do anything colorful with your black and white smartphone. As you can see in the image Onyx has already manufactured one Android smartphone using the E-ink display it looks sharp and the display is phenomenal in sunlight. The company is planning to launch this phone sometimes next year. so keep an eye out for it if you want a greater battery back-up then you already have.

Let us know what are your thoughts on this new smartphone idea?

iPad Mini Rumor Roundup: What Is Out There

Solon Harmony Dolor — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 06:35:40 +0000

The rumor mill is churning out rumor after rumor at full speed about Apple’s purported smaller iPad. Indeed, even some friends who do not follow the latest developments in the tech industry have asked me when the iPad Mini might come out. That, of course, still isn’t clear even to us who religiously track updates in the industry. What also struck me though is that these friends knew there are rumors about a certain “iPad Mini”, the name the blogosphere has christened this rumored smaller Apple tablet with. As such, let us compile here what is currently out there about the iPad Mini. The most recent word out there is that Apple has ordered over 10 million iPad Minis to be made. That reportedly comes from Asian suppliers Apple have, The Wall Street Journal says. This report also notes that “strong consumer demand for Samsung…and Amazon’s 7-inch [tablet computers] show that there is demand for a smaller tablet.” That makes sense. Because Apple will be competing with surprisingly affordable smaller tablets from Samsung, Amazon and Asus (remember the Google Nexus 7?), the specifications sheet for the iPad Mini will not be that great, reports say. “Apple may need to limit its features, storage space, or processor speed,” MacWorld says. MacRumors adds that the iPad Mini may run on Apple’s cheaper A5 chip. Not that something is wrong with that. It is just that people should not be expecting an A6 chip powering this tablet. As for the screen, it is rumored it will have a 7- to 8-inch display panel, says Bloomberg in the report which was one of the starters of the rumor. The current buzz suggest that the new tablet may have a 7.85-inch unit, as the New York Times suggested. This screen size was also noted in a report from Taiwan United Daily News from October of last year saying Samsung and AU Optronics have sent Apple prototypes of a display panel of that size. As mentioned above, though, Apple will be keeping costs down so no Retina Display is expected for the iPad Mini. But wouldn’t it be a deal maker if Apple chose to make the iPad Mini with a Retina Display and still have a low price? Meanwhile, just for the fun of it, if you are looking for the first report that mentions a 7-inch screen for the iPad, iLounge said way, way back in 2009 that the iPad actually started as a 7-inch tablet. Of course, there is also DigiTimes which has been at it since 2010. The publication, which has had quite a lot of things reported right (and a lot of things wrong too though), said in April of 2010 that Apple may launch an iPad Mini in 2011 that has a screen that measures 5 to 7 inches diagonally. There’s CNET which chimed in on November 2010 saying “lot of original design manufacturer activity around a 7-inch iPad” and Reuters which said in December 2010 that an iPad “about half the size of the current tablet computer” is being prepared. DigiTimes also said last year that Apple may launch a 7.85-inch iPad during the fourth quarter of this year, which is now. Back in February, The Wall Street Journal said “people familiar with the situation” have told them Apple is making an iPad that has an 8-inch. As for the unveiling date, it was said back in August that the iPad Mini may be released in October. In fact, there was buzz then that Apple may unveil its new tablet together with the iPhone 5. Alas, that rumor proved to be wrong. The sites which reported about this were All Things Digital and Bloomberg. Rumors point to this month as the most likely time frame that Apple will launch the new tablet with a release date two weeks after the launch date. As for pricing and definite specifications, those are still up in the air. How do you want the iPad Mini, if it really is being developed by Apple? Tell us in the comments below.

iPad Mini renderings from the talented Martin Hajek whose work you can see on Flickr here. This man previously got the iPhone 5 right and even managed to fool tech news sites, which he did not intend to do, into believing his renderings are really leaked photos of the iPhone 5.

[cb]Apple[/cb]