From time to time we like to approach the founders of the best apps and ask them a few questions about their experience with iPhone ecosystem. Today we're happy to present an interview with Metro Paris, one of the most popular free and paid app in the French App Store. They were actually the very first app to come up with an augmented reality app
Enjoy the interview
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Can you introduce yourself, your company and the apps you have created?
My name is Michel Morcos, I’m a software engineer and cofounder of Presselite development studio based in Paris. Since November 2008, my brother (who has the same job) and I are developing several applications for the iPhone. Our first application was Métro Paris which is a navigator app used to travel in the metro of Paris. This app was released during the end of 2008, and it is the number one paid app in France in 2009. We also developed similar apps for other cities in the world (London, New York, Tokyo, etc.).
Recently we released a new navigation app called Bionic Eye for the iPhone 3GS, which includes an Augmented Reality functionality, the users can now visualize nearby stations or Points of Interest using the camera. It’s very simple.
So far how was the experience on the App Store? Any stats you can share?
The App Store is a great place for developers (especially for small developers), everyone can create an app and put it online on iTunes, it is amazing how simple it is to reach million of users in the whole word using the AppStore. The iPhone is a great hardware, the AppStore is the killerapp that makes this whole concept very efficient for the developers and the users. We are really happy to be developing on the AppStore. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about stats for the moment.
How was the certification process with Apple?
The certification process at Apple is something we think is important in order to keep the quality high on the AppStore. However, this approval process is basically a black box, even for certified iPhone developers, we really don’t know what is going on inside, and everyone heard those weird stories about rejected app. We hope Apple will do their best to make it more understandable for developers, I am sure everyone could be happy with a little bit more communication.
How did you promote your Apps? How do users find them?
There are more than 70.000 apps in the AppStore. So it is very difficult for small developers to promote their apps (big game makers usually have budgets for marketing, etc.). We at Presselite are trying mainly to focalise on innovation, we are really pushing the hardware to get innovative results, and we also want each of our app to evolve to be even better, with more functionalities, not just a one shot app.
Any new apps or improvement coming up?
We have developed an Augmented Reality engine for the iPhone, we recently launched Bionic Eye which is using that engine. We should announce more projects in a couple of weeks we hope. I think you will like them :)
Any tip to a new App developer?
Take some time to think about a unique idea, before developing something. Some developers are excellent in programming, but unfortunately they don’t spend enough time to really think about the concept before. Eat a lot of apples :)
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