【51CTO編者按】Evernote（著名筆記軟件）開發(fā)者Phil Libin分享了Evernote在蘋果新應(yīng)用商店Mac App Store躋身熱門應(yīng)用前五強(qiáng)的一些感想：1）走精英化路線（Macbook用戶的安裝需求）2）平臺(tái)才是開發(fā)者成功的關(guān)鍵 3）跨平臺(tái)的效能好（如和iphone)  4）絕不讓用戶體驗(yàn)大打折扣。

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Evernote

1.精英路線很正確

我在80年代早期上高中那陣子，讀過一篇關(guān)于計(jì)算機(jī)的文章，里面有一項(xiàng)針對(duì)我們這些書呆子的讀者調(diào)查，“你會(huì)為自己的電腦購買軟件嗎？”就是其中的第一個(gè)問題。答案選項(xiàng)分別是：A）經(jīng)常會(huì)購買；B）偶爾會(huì)購買；C）很少，我情愿自己編程。C答案對(duì)那時(shí)的軟件消費(fèi)行業(yè)來說是一個(gè)很可行的選擇，但這已經(jīng)是過去的事情了。

在隨后二三十年中，多數(shù)軟件開發(fā)者都已在市場(chǎng)上站穩(wěn)了腳跟，而且對(duì)后來者設(shè)置了很高的準(zhǔn)入門檻，但隨著手機(jī)應(yīng)用的大量涌現(xiàn)，開發(fā)者的這種好日子終于到頭了。

去年有70%的Evernote新用戶是從手機(jī)應(yīng)用商店過繼而來的，多數(shù)人是iOS和Android手機(jī)用戶。這種現(xiàn)象讓我們意識(shí)到，對(duì)獨(dú)立開發(fā)者來講，手機(jī)是一個(gè)極富吸引力的產(chǎn)品投放平臺(tái)。我們產(chǎn)品在上周的市場(chǎng)表現(xiàn)更是印證了這種看法，但我們的觀點(diǎn)也有一些微妙的變化，那就是手機(jī)并非最關(guān)鍵因素，最有價(jià)值的應(yīng)該是手機(jī)應(yīng)用商店。在一周以前，幾乎所有不錯(cuò)的應(yīng)用商店都登陸到了手機(jī)平臺(tái)，剛得到Macbook的用戶想安裝最熱門應(yīng)用的迫切心情，一點(diǎn)也不亞于iPhone新用戶。

對(duì)開發(fā)者來說，面向一個(gè)沒有可靠應(yīng)用商店的平臺(tái)開發(fā)應(yīng)用軟件，實(shí)在是一個(gè)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。如果要在這種平臺(tái)上獲得成功，開發(fā)商除了在產(chǎn)品開發(fā)環(huán)節(jié)上不能含糊，另外還得在拓展渠道、后勤工作、業(yè)務(wù)合作和廣告營銷上投入大量時(shí)間和金錢。只要一個(gè)應(yīng)用商店在某平臺(tái)上得勢(shì)了，這個(gè)平臺(tái)的軟件市場(chǎng)就會(huì)向呈現(xiàn)精英化的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)。這一點(diǎn)很難做到，但專注于針對(duì)某個(gè)應(yīng)用商店創(chuàng)建出色的應(yīng)用，這倒確實(shí)是最好的策略。在過去兩年中，各種類型的軟件開發(fā)者獲得了了空前的發(fā)展機(jī)遇，也直接造成各種手機(jī)應(yīng)用和服務(wù)的數(shù)量飛速膨脹，是時(shí)候讓臺(tái)式電腦也加入戰(zhàn)局了。

2.桌面應(yīng)用軟件重新得勢(shì)

我們花了幾個(gè)星期的時(shí)間，頗費(fèi)了一番周折才把原有的Mac版本應(yīng)用投放到了這個(gè)新應(yīng)用商店。當(dāng)時(shí)我們的開發(fā)周期非常緊張，12月份也并不是個(gè)理想的發(fā)布時(shí)間，但蘋果工作人員為我們提供了很多幫助，應(yīng)用審核流程也安排得很合理。

Evernote's new user registrations per day

這一努力所收獲的結(jié)果就是，Evernote首周在Mac App Store露面，就獲得了32萬次的下載量。其中有12萬的用戶之前從未使用過Evernote，這次下載都創(chuàng)建了新的使用帳號(hào)。也就是說，Evernote上周的新注冊(cè)帳號(hào)增加了50%以上。Mac新用戶注冊(cè)人數(shù)之前還排在iOS、Android和Windows平臺(tái)之后，但現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)升到了第一位。

現(xiàn)在我們才知道，一個(gè)擁有出色應(yīng)用商店的平臺(tái)，才是第三方開發(fā)者獲得成功的關(guān)鍵。如果你要說一個(gè)運(yùn)營良好的第三方應(yīng)用軟件市場(chǎng)是這個(gè)平臺(tái)獲勝的條件，那也行……

我希望Windows也能迎頭趕上，在該平臺(tái)打造一個(gè)卓越的應(yīng)用商店。

3.跨平臺(tái)用戶數(shù)量最為可觀

Mac App Store新店開業(yè)不但為我們帶來了更多客流量，也為我們?cè)械挠脩魟?chuàng)造了更多價(jià)值。 Evernote在該應(yīng)用商店第一周的32萬下載用戶中，新用戶就占了12萬人。另外還有8萬人是從我們直接下載版的Mac客戶端轉(zhuǎn)過來的，或者說是他們下載了這款應(yīng)用但并沒有完成注冊(cè)流程。還有10萬人是原來的用戶，他們之前在其他平臺(tái)使用過Evernote（注：他們多數(shù)為iPhone用戶），這是他們首次添加Mac版本的應(yīng)用。

這種結(jié)果很值得玩味。它的有趣表現(xiàn)在兩個(gè)方面：1）大部分用戶都已經(jīng)擁有Mac電腦；2）這些用戶之前已經(jīng)接觸過Evernote的Mac版本，但一直到Mac App Store登場(chǎng)了才安裝這款應(yīng)用軟件。它的重要性則在于，多數(shù)通過不同平臺(tái)使用過Evernote的用戶都喜歡先試用一陣子，但最終都會(huì)掏錢購買付費(fèi)版本。這就說明，在免費(fèi)模式的前提下，多數(shù)用戶會(huì)選擇購買自己需要的內(nèi)容，他們?cè)谠蕉嗥脚_(tái)上使用過Evernote，就越容易對(duì)它產(chǎn)生依賴性。

Mac App Store帶來的另一種效應(yīng)是，許多新用戶是通過Mac App Store了解到這款產(chǎn)品，并將其下載到自己的手機(jī)上。在Mac App Store上線的同一個(gè)星期內(nèi)，我們?cè)趇Tunes的iOS版本下載量居然上升了54%，要知道這個(gè)iOS版本當(dāng)時(shí)并沒有進(jìn)行更新，也沒有提高任何曝光率。

4.絕不讓用戶體驗(yàn)大打折扣

假如Evernote的臺(tái)式電腦版本客戶端是用Adobe AIR編寫的話，我就會(huì)有所擔(dān)心。但Mac App Store以及iPhone App Store的超高人氣，讓我更加確信，用戶在面臨多種選擇的時(shí)候，他們會(huì)更青睞那種提供全方位用戶體驗(yàn)的產(chǎn)品。根據(jù)極不統(tǒng)一的技術(shù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)開發(fā)跨平臺(tái)應(yīng)用軟件真的很難，而讓這款應(yīng)用面向不同平臺(tái)提供與原版本無異的用戶體驗(yàn)，更是難上加難。

作為一家軟件公司的CEO，我真希望這不是真實(shí)的說法。我其實(shí)很樂意創(chuàng)建在任何平臺(tái)都能有效運(yùn)行的應(yīng)用軟件，但我們實(shí)際上還是選擇了針對(duì)Windows、Mac、Desktop Web、iOS、Android、BlackBerry、HP WebOS和Windows Phone 7等各個(gè)平臺(tái)，開發(fā)不同的原版應(yīng)用。這么做是因?yàn)檫@種策略可以有效保證產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量，這一點(diǎn)對(duì)我們來說最為重要。如果我們選擇一個(gè)統(tǒng)一的跨平臺(tái)客戶端，就有可能節(jié)省70%的開發(fā)成本，但同時(shí)也極有可能流失80%的用戶。這樣一來，我們就有可能被大部分應(yīng)用商店拒之門外，就得開始擔(dān)心產(chǎn)品發(fā)售渠道的問題了。

Mac App Store的問世是否意味著網(wǎng)頁應(yīng)用已經(jīng)走到了末路？完全不是，但我認(rèn)為最成功的網(wǎng)頁應(yīng)用應(yīng)該是那些具有突出功能，可共享信息、促進(jìn)溝通、集成內(nèi)容，同時(shí)還能無縫植入網(wǎng)頁的產(chǎn)品。順便說一下，我們的下一個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)目標(biāo)就是開發(fā)Evernote的網(wǎng)頁客戶端。

手機(jī)應(yīng)用商店的興起當(dāng)然打破一些舊的行業(yè)慣例，但我很高興我們并不采用那種禁止用戶復(fù)制內(nèi)容、發(fā)售現(xiàn)成軟件、定期更新收費(fèi)的運(yùn)營模式。如果是在三年前，像Evernote這樣的公司根本無法取得堪比現(xiàn)在的成就。但應(yīng)用商店、云服務(wù)、跨平臺(tái)用戶和免費(fèi)模式讓這些都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。Evernote的下載量在第一周以后肯定會(huì)有所下降，但目前的狀態(tài)還比較穩(wěn)定，我只想說，Mac App Store必將持久地造福開發(fā)者。

注：原文來自 techcrunch；全文如下：

Four Lessons From Evernote’s First Week On The Mac App Store

Editor’s note: The following guest post is written by Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, which is currently the No. 5 app in the Mac App Store. It also didn’t hurt that the app has been prominently featured by Apple.

We just finished our first week on the Mac App Store and it might have been the most important week in Evernote’s history. Here’s how it went and what we learned:

1. Meritocracy is sweet

I remember one of the first computer articles that I ever read (maybe it was in Byte Magazine in the early 80s while I was in junior high). It had a little survey aimed at my fellow nerds. “Do you buy software for your computer?”, was the first question. The choices were, “A) Yes, frequently. B) Yes, sometimes. and C) Rarely, I prefer to write my own.” The fact that C was a viable choice pretty much sums up the early euphoria of the consumer software industry. You just had to make something great and the rest would follow. That was a long time ago.

The following twenty or thirty years brought us monopolies and barriers to entry and this happy state of affairs became a dim memory. Then came the mobile app explosion.

Over the past year, about 70% of Evernote’s new users came from mobile app stores, mostly iOS and Android. This led us to the understandable conclusion that mobile was the crucial thing that made a platform attractive to independent developers. Last week made us realize that the reality is a little bit more nuanced. It isn’t mobile that’s overwhelmingly important, it’s the app store.

Until a week ago, all the good app stores just happened to be on mobile devices, but someone with a shiny new Macbook is just as eager to get the best apps as someone with a shiny new iPhone.

A platform without a well-formed app store presents a huge challenge to developers. To succeed on such a platform, the developer has to spend as much time and money on channels, logistics, partnerships and advertising as on actually making a great product. Once an app store takes hold, the software market on a platform starts moving towards a meritocracy. This is imperfect, of course, but focusing on building a great product is the best strategy for succeeding on an app store. This is a huge boon for software nerds of all types, and has resulted in the explosion of mobile apps and services in the past two years. It’s about time that desktops joined the party.

2. Desktop software is viable again

It took a few weeks of non-trivial effort to get our existing Mac application ready for the app store. There’s never a convenient time to take a few weeks out of a busy development schedule, and December is as inconvenient as it gets, but Apple’s developer relations folks were helpful and the approval process itself worked reasonably well once we’d worked out the kinks.

The results speak for themselves. About 320,000 people downloaded Evernote in the first week of the Mac App Store. Of this number, about 120,000 had never used Evernote before, and created new accounts. This represents more than 50% of all the new Evernote accounts created last week. The Mac platform—which used to be in fourth place for new user registrations behind iOS, Android and Windows—has now jumped to first.

It’s obvious in hindsight, but the presence of a well-formed app store is the single most important factor for the viability of a platform for third party developers. If you want to take this a step further and say that a robust third-party software market is the most important factor for the success of the platform overall, well…

I hope Windows gets a good app store soon.

3. Multi-platform users are the best kind

Not only is the Mac App Store getting us new users, it’s making our existing users more valuable. Neat, but how?

So 320,000 people downloaded Evernote in the first week and 120,000 of them became new users. What happened to the rest? Well, about 80,000 people were either switching their Mac client from our direct-download version to the app store version or had simply downloaded the app and didn’t complete registration. Another 100,000 people were existing users who had previously used Evernote from other platforms (mostly the iPhone) and added the Mac version for the first time.

This is both interesting and important. Interesting because the vast majority of these people must have (1) already had Macs, and (2) known about our Mac version from previous interactions with Evernote but hadn’t bothered to install it until the Mac App Store appeared. Important because people who use Evernote from multiple devices are much more likely to stick around and to eventually pay for the premium version. This makes intuitive sense and the data is clear: in a Freemium model, people choose to pay for what they love and the more devices they use Evernote from, the more likely they are to fall in love with it.

The Mac App Store effect works the other way as well: many of the new users who first found us on the Mac App Store went on to also download Evernote on their mobile devices. Our iTunes downloads for iOS devices were up by 54% during the same week that the Mac App Store came out and that’s without any new versions or noticeable change in iOS app visibility.

4. A strike against lowest common denominator

If Evernote’s desktop clients were written in Adobe AIR, I’d be worried right now. The immediate popularity of the Mac App Store, and the iPhone App Store before it, reinforces my belief that in a world of infinite software choice, people gravitate towards the products with the best overall user experience. It’s very hard for something developed in a cross-platform, lowest-common- denominator technology to provide as nice an experience as a similar native app.

As the CEO of a software company, I wish this weren’t true. I’d love to build one version of our App that could work everywhere. Instead, we develop separate native versions for Windows, Mac, Desktop Web, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, HP WebOS and (coming soon) Windows Phone 7. We do it because the results are better and, frankly, that’s all-important. We could probably save 70% of our development budget by switching to a single, cross-platform client, but we would probably lose 80% of our users. And we’d be shut out of most app stores and go back to worrying about distribution.

Does this mean that web apps are doomed? Not at all, but the most successful web apps will be the ones that emphasize unique benefits—sharing, communications, integrations—that are better implemented on the web than in native code. This is the main design goal for the next version of the Evernote web client, by the way.

Lost among all the gloomy economic news of the past few years is the fact that there’s never been a better time to be in software. Sure, the emergence and inevitable dominance of app stores will permanently disrupt existing industry practices—I’m glad we’re not in the business of preventing people from making copies of bits, shipping shrink-wrapped boxes or charging people for periodic upgrades—but a company like Evernote simply could not have attained a fraction of our current momentum even three years ago. App stores, cloud services, cross-platform users and Freemium economics made it all possible. The download numbers are certain to decline a bit as the excitement of the first week finds a sustainable steady-state, but the launch of the Mac App Store will have a major, and permanent, positive impact on developers.（source:techcrunch）