Interview with Trellisys: Makers of hit iPhone app - SAS Survival Guide

Play long enough with apps on an Android or iPhone, you’ll eventually get to wondering how to make apps. A team of two Indians from Stanford were able to make a hit iPad app recently, we got in touch with a Bangalore-based software firm Trellisys, to know more about the app making and marketing process. Their $6.99 app, SAS Survival Guide, takes a book by by former SAS soldier and instructor, John "Lofty" Wiseman, and converts it into an instructional and interactive e-book that is optimised for the iPhone. Part 1 of our Q&A with Arun Benty, feel free to leave any questions in the comments and we'll try and incorporate it in our next round of questions.

There is a free version with one free chapter if you want to browse.  Key features include:

• 16 videos providing invaluable survival tips from Lofty himself

• Photo galleries of edible, medicinal and poisonous plants

• Morse Code signalling device

• 100 + question quiz to test if you've got what it takes to survive

• Survival Checklist

• Sun Compass

• Search tool to scan entire book by subject

• Extreme Climate Survival: sections on surviving Polar, Desert, Tropical, and Sea

• Comprehensive First Aid section

1. "The application is currently listed in the top 20 list over 60 countries worldwide with top sales in the UK and the US."

The SAS Survival Guide has, as a matter of fact, has opened a new dimension in ebook sales for Harper Collins. This SAS Survival Guide App is a far cry from the standard text based e-books and tries to bundle content into a richer experience with videos, photos and micro apps in an entirely new format. Late 2009, during a series of discussions with Harper Collins, we chose the SAS Survival Guide for this foray into the ‘e-books bundled with micro apps’ concept. ?The SAS Survival App is currently in the Top 20 in many countries but more impressively has been an ‘Apple Featured Application’ and also has hit the #1 Lifestyle Application in almost every geographic location.

2. When was the app first launched on the Apple iTunes app store?

The app was first launched on 14th of March. The Lite / Free version came a few weeks later in April and the iPad version has also been launched a few weeks ago.

3. Is there a place where you can monitor top free and payware iPhone apps?

The base data for monitoring apps is available only with Apple and the iTunes AppStore. There are a few aggregator sites that are available for developers to keep track of their own applications but these require Apple credentials to pull data from the Appstore. The other method of monitoring available on review sites only tracks the current ‘rank’ on the Appstore but is highly inaccurate and can be used only to get a general idea of the popularity

4. How does the iPhone environment translate in terms of sales and revenue, can you give us an idea of how much can be earned by a top 20 app?

The iPhone economy is quite robust and attractive for developers. The challenge to be in the Top 100 out of 225,000 applications is a challenge but can be very lucrative. The revenue and sales for a top application can range anywhere from $1 to $20 million a year We are not in a position to give you exact numbers but we are closing in on 100,000 sales for the SAS Survival Guide which retails for $6.99

5.  What are your experiences with publishing on the iTunes platform?

The iTunes Platform is quite an impressive publishing platform. The platform does all the heavy lifting of payment, deploying, updating and maintaining the security of an application on an end-user’s mobile phone. This leaves the developer free to focus more energy on the quality of the application itself. That said it does have quite a few issues. ? ?The iTunes review process takes anywhere from 4 to 10 days to be reviewed and can be rejected for sometimes very arbitrary reasons. The iTunes environment has often been equated to a ‘walled garden’ where you have to stay and work within their rules to enjoy the benefits.

6. What's the ratio of paid and freeware apps in terms of downloads?

It’s a bit difficult to say because the Lite application has not been on the stores for the same amount of time. However the trend seems to be a 2:1 ratio of Free versus Paid apps

7. I notice that the price of the app has not stayed the same could you elaborate as to why? ?SAS Survival Guide is priced at $6.99  ?SAS Survival Guide Lite is Free ?SAS Survival Guide for iPad is $8.99 We generally change the price of the app during promotional campaigns. This is done to increase sales and to climb the listings.

8. Could you tell us about the tools and the development environment that SAS survival guide was made in?

The SAS Survival Guide is built using XCode which is an IDE on the Mac. The programming language on XCode is Objective C. The SAS Survival Guide is compiled for iPhones that run iPhone OS 3.0 and above and is also compatible with latest iOS 4.0

9. Any web resources you would like to share with our readers?

www.sassurvivalguide.com www.facebook.com/SASSurvivalGuide Some press reviews (temporary URL): www.sassurvivalguide.com/newwebsite/press.html

10. Any plans to publish the SAS survival guide onto other platforms?

The SAS Survival Guide has just been launched for the Apple iPad in an format optimized for the larger screen. There are plans to introduce the application on the Android platform later this year.

11. Any further plans to reversion other books/guides into similar apps,

Yes, we have at least 4 more books in partnership with Harper Collins that are currently under various stages of development.

12. Could you tell us about some of the challenges you met in designing the functions of the apps

- Adapting the 400+ page SAS Survival Guide for the iPhone screen size is quite a challenge. Reading a large book on the iPhone is generally not practical unless it is well structured, indexed and divided into easier reading. The search, bookmarking and resume reading features help the reader find relevant chapters that interest them.  ?Linking the photos and videos in the book to the gallery for items like how to build a fire, list of tropical plants, snakes etc... are educational and provide a great relief while reading the book. ? ?Micro apps like the Morse Code and Sun Compass were chosen because they were practical and entertaining.

13. The success of this app is rather ironic, everyone points out first that an iPhone/iPod touch won't survive more than a day of use.. how is this app superior to a book?

Well this is a very odd criticism of the application and we have been trying hard to dispel this notion. The reviews talking about the iPhone battery are somewhat shortsighted and not the general consensus among survivalists and enthusiasts. The reviews are generally by app reviewers who assume the app is built with the primary purpose of being a reference “during” an emergency though it definitely can be used for that purpose. Let’s take an example. We have a chapter on how to handle a brake failure. We obviously don’t expect someone to whip out a phone and read up when faced with such an emergency situation. The SAS Survival Guide is primarily to prepare someone for any eventuality. Surviving out in the wilderness is about study, preparedness & practice. Most survivalists and generally all of our users, read the SAS Survival Guide multiple times and practice the techniques taught in the guide in controlled environments; Like practicing making fire, First Aid techniques or even what to do in a car crash. These are often learnt and sometimes even practiced repeatedly.The first chapter called “Essentials for Survival” includes a whole section on the ‘use of equipment’ in survival situations that includes GPS receivers, Radios, Mobiles etc. This also explains how, during a search, to use a radio or walkie-talkie in bursts to relay your position while saving battery life as much as possible.