Low-End Competition

[mikelove]

So it's officially been 6 months since Pleco for iPhone came out, and while I think we can now safely claim to rule the roost among high-end Chinese dictionaries on iPhone, we seem to still be lagging somewhat on the low end. Our free app gets fewer downloads than KTDict even here in the US, and in some markets lags behind several others as well, and we continue to come in depressingly low on the list of search results for "chinese dictionary" (though that may partly have to do with Apple's sort algorithm heavily favoring paid apps, which Pleco isn't technically considered to be, and apps that have been out for a longer time).

I suspect a big part of the problem is interface complexity, or the perception of it - a single toolbar with a search box and one or two buttons is a lot less scary than what we present people with - but there's not all that much we can do about that aside from explaining things better / streamlining the settings screen / etc; we certainly don't want to make our software less useful for paying customers for the sake of attracting more non-paying ones, so dispensing with a lot of the toolbars / making some options harder to access would probably be a bad move. Startup time may also be a factor, and we can't do much to improve that at this point either (opening lots of files takes time), but it should become considerably less of a problem with multitasking support in OS 4.

But what I'm wondering is: is there anything else the other free / low-end Chinese dictionary apps on iPhone actually do better than us, or any useful feature that they offer that we lack? Or something they give away / charge very little for that costs a lot more in Pleco? Is there something about our default UI configuration - the large / widely-spaced search results, say, or the use of tone colors, or the large font in definitions - that people who don't know how to change Pleco's UI settings are likely to consider a turnoff? Is the built-in PLC dictionary deficient enough in some way relative to CC-CEDICT that we ought to build both into our basic application? And are there any particular areas of UI complexity / confusion that we could improve on without making things less functional for our "power users"?

I suppose this shouldn't be much of a cause for concern - the only real function business-wise of the free app is to convince people to pay for the non-free upgrades, which it seems to be doing quite well - but we're also in the business of making great software, and if people are only going to spring for a free / low-cost dictionary anyway I'd rather it be ours than somebody else's. So candid feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[numble]

Despite some of my comments about complexity, I honestly don't think that lower downloads are due to that. I always think that the complexity just makes it harder for all users to take full advantage of the program.

I've always thought the name was kind of a turn-off, one looks at it on the App Store and isn't exactly sure what it is (or even how to pronounce it) while other apps have "dict" and have icons that look like dictionaries (even though I think those are uglier). I think 鱼 is elegant, but I don't think it says "dictionary" as well as other things do.

I've still encountered iPhone Chinese learners who have never heard of Pleco. Anyone I can take 3 minutes to show just the reader function thinks its awesome. I think a lot of casual users rarely sync and rarely browse the App Store, they have a need for something and then install the first good-looking app that pops up. So it may be marketing that affects a lot of other apps as well.

If there is a tendency to list paid apps higher, you might consider listing some non-free versions (instead of in-app purchase ones), though I can see how that might cause a lot of confusion. Or spin-off some of your sections into separate Apps to create brand awareness. $3 CC-CEDICT-based reader, CC-CEDICT-based web browser, CC-CEDICT-based flashcard program, or whathaveyou. People are willing to pay for good standalone flashcard programs--many are paying $25 for the Anki iPhone app, for example. Besides making money, it might do well to increase "brand-awareness," that when they see the word Pleco, or that fish icon, they know they are dealing with someone that does a lot of work in Chinese learning programs.

 

[character]

Our free app gets fewer downloads than KTDict even here in the US, and in some markets lags behind several others as well, and we continue to come in depressingly low on the list of search results for "chinese dictionary" (though that may partly have to do with Apple's sort algorithm heavily favoring paid apps, which Pleco isn't technically considered to be, and apps that have been out for a longer time).

I've read there is inertia/momentum built into the top X rankings, so it wouldn't surprise me if something like that was in the search results as well. Some of those apps may have had a year or two versus Pleco's 6 months. Perhaps it's time to try to get more reviews on the web/in blogs so Pleco shows up well in search results outside the app store. If I Google "iphone chinese dictionary" Pleco is at the bottom of the first page (and there's no adsense ad for it).

You know keywords are what get searched in the app store, so have you tried to figure out what your competition is using and for a second opinion, what adsense says are the most expensive relevant words, so you can optimize your keywords?

The app name and icon, followed by the screenshots, and finally the description, are IIRC what free app downloaders look at before deciding to download/install. I think the existing name and icon work well here. The screenshots might be a bit offputting to new learners (the first screenshot shows a Chinese character in the searchbox, something new learners might wonder how to do. Admittedly your next screenshot shows a handwriting entry screen, but it may give the impression that searching in Chinese requires knowing how to write Chinese characters). Of course you have to try to show the benefits of Pleco in 5 screenshots, so you've got a lot to consider.

"The product of 10 years of continuous improvements, Pleco is the definitive Chinese dictionary for iPhone [...]" This may erroneously set off people's BS detectors as the iPhone hasn't been out that long. Perhaps say something such as "...improvements on various mobile devices, Pleco is now the definitive..." In general, shorter sentences with one idea per sentence are easier to read. If you have the space, highlight your features in a list or two, followed by paragraphs describing the features.

I suspect a big part of the problem is interface complexity, or the perception of it - a single toolbar with a search box and one or two buttons is a lot less scary than what we present people with [...]

I think you've simplified the initial UI as much as you can. Have you considered adding a tutorial walkthrough like a lot of video games have, showing the main features and how to navigate through screens? You could also see if everything is intuitive to a first time user without reading the manual. How would someone know how to add flashcards and start a flashcard session, for example? Change from Chinese to English? Etc.

Is the built-in PLC dictionary deficient enough in some way relative to CC-CEDICT that we ought to build both into our basic application?

The value of adding CC-CEDICT is that comparison shoppers would see that Pleco has it too.

In general, given the quality of the product and the difficulty of standing out in the app store, I would recommend making it easier for users who've not read the manual and finding ways outside the store to drive people to buy the app. A series of instructional videos on YouTube, for example. If you could swing some cross-promotion with Cheng & Tsui/Integrated Chinese, I think you would be set for life.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments.

numble - that's probably true about complexity, people are unlikely to be dissuaded from downloading a free app by the fact that it looks complicated from the screenshots. The question is why they aren't downloading it... Your point about the name is interesting, but unless we want to rebrand our entire product line there may not be a whole lot we can do about it. We could go back to "PlecoDict" but that doesn't seem like much of an improvement, there's still that "Pleco" bit in there; keeping "Pleco" prominently located somewhere in the name is important for leveraging word-of-mouth, we want to capture more of the wandering-by-looking-for-Chinese-dictionaries crowd but we also still want people who find out about Pleco from their friends to be able to easily find us.

Paid apps are an interesting idea too, but the big worry there is market fragmentation - if they cannibalize downloads of our main app we'd end up worse off, could drop even farther down in the rankings. But for certain projects they might make sense - a separate branded app for a very well-known dictionary like Oxford or 辞海, say, or a topic-specific app for Chinese medicine or law or business or what have you. But I do like the idea of having a couple of Pleco icons high up in the search results to increase the likelihood of people recognizing us; several of the titles that are ahead of us have multiple apps with identical icons. Maybe we should just launch a self-contained Basic or Professional Bundle app (or both), OS4 should take care of the don't-have-WiFi-and-can't-install-add-on-data-files problem but we could still stand to make the purchasing process easier for people.

character - inertia-wise, it'll be interesting to see what happens once the other people offering popular iPhone dictionaries release iPad apps, particularly if some of them are universal like Pleco instead of being offered as separate purchases; right now we're #1 for "chinese dictionary" on iPad, but if another title that's currently ahead of us on iPhone starts supporting iPad it's not clear who'll come out on top.

I believe our keywords are pretty well optimized - honestly there's so little room that we had to give most of them over to can't-do-without obvious things like "mandarin" and "plecodict" - but worth investigating again I suppose. A Pinyin-only search in the first screenshot might make sense, was trying to show off our cool character-plus-Pinyin feature but nobody else ever seems to get as excited about that as I do anyway.

We used to run quite a lot of Adwords ads, but our analytics suggested they weren't translating to a lot of orders, so we tried turning them off for a week and after we saw no drop in downloads or sales we left them off (and more than a month later still haven't seen a drop) - we're putting the rather sizable amount of money we're saving towards a lovely new dictionary license. Better SEO / more reviews are definitely something we need to work on, though if you reword that as "chinese dictionary iphone" we're halfway up the page

That description was indeed sorely due for a rewrite, which I've just made a first attempt at (already live on iTunes) - needs some more tweaking though. There's a very thorough static tutorial in the instruction manual, though a video one should be forthcoming once 2.2 is out. Integrated Chinese already has some software partnerships, I believe, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to send them an email - there was another textbook series in development we were talking to the publisher of / getting very excited about, but its release seems to keep getting delayed.

 

[character]

I believe our keywords are pretty well optimized - honestly there's so little room that we had to give most of them over to can't-do-without obvious things like "mandarin" and "plecodict"[...]

Do you need "plecodict" if your app would be found by "pleco"?

A Pinyin-only search in the first screenshot might make sense, was trying to show off our cool character-plus-Pinyin feature but nobody else ever seems to get as excited about that as I do anyway.

It is a great feature, I often use it. But that sort of power might be best to surface in the Description.

Better SEO / more reviews are definitely something we need to work on, though if you reword that as "chinese dictionary iphone" we're halfway up the page

Have you looked at sending out an iPod Touch with Pleco installed with a printed manual (and a postage-paid return container) to selected potential reviewers? Make it easy for them.

There's a very thorough static tutorial in the instruction manual, though a video one should be forthcoming once 2.2 is out.

I think it's worth installing some free games to see their tutorials. IIRC, Rolando had a good tutorial.

Integrated Chinese already has some software partnerships, I believe, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to send them an email [...]

Even if your agreement with them is a $3 in-app purchase of chapter-by-chapter flashcards for all the IC books, with the bulk of the money going to them, I think getting into their catalog (and being able to market Pleco) as a recommended Chinese study aid for IC on the iPhone would bring new customers running.

Is there a particular demographic you feel you're not reaching?

 

[stonemountain]

I think the name is a factor. Pleco is a fish, not a CE-EC dictionary. The only reason I knew about it was through my brother. I have had the program since around 2008 and love it on my windows mobile. I am still hoping you will eventually get a version out for the Android system (however, I understand from reading your other entries the massive undertaking it would be). Unfortunately you have developed a loyal fan base over the years so I am not sure how they would feel with a name change.

 

[numble]

Yeah, I realize rebranding is probably a no-go, but the name does feel like a disadvantage to my eyes.

Whenever I show off the program to someone (especially Chinese people who are interested in it nowadays), and they ask me what the program is called, I have to say something like:

"It's called Pleeko or Plecko. Wait, let me spell it out for you: P-L-E-C-O."

Not something that someone can instantly recall or respell, let alone pronounce. Whereas something like Chinesepod or Qingwen feels more simpler, at least to me.

 

[mikelove]

character - some people still search for "plecodict," at least they do on Google; iTunes will match prefixes, but unless we want to rename the main app to "plecodict" we have to use up the keyword space on it.

Sending reviewers hardware is an interesting idea, though I worry a lot of those iPods wouldn't be returned - maybe if we went with some really old used ones, but then we're not presenting the product in the best possible light. Rolando did have a good tutorial... so the idea would be that we'd have interactive overlays that walked people through entering searches / switching dictionaries / etc? Lots of work but I guess it might be easier than reading the manual... which is incidentally long overdue for a more broken-up / mobile-optimized version.

If C&T were amenable to a marketing alliance I suppose that would make sense... have to write her about that. As far as demographics, it's not so much about those (though there are a few - K-12 students for example - where we ought to be doing a lot better) as it is about generally doing better with low-end iPhone users; it's frustrating to give away for free something that we've been working on for years and still have more people download a simple SQLite-based app that someone put together in a few weeks.

 

[character]

[...] I worry a lot of those iPods wouldn't be returned[...]

It's certainly a possibility. I don't know if you can identify reviewers worth the risk. I wouldn't send something less than an iPod Touch 2nd gen model (refurbs are $150 on Apple.com). Perhaps just start with one and see how it goes?

Rolando did have a good tutorial... so the idea would be that we'd have interactive overlays that walked people through entering searches / switching dictionaries / etc?

That would be ideal, but you could also have a series of static overlays, one or more for each screen, just so people would know what the buttons do without first digging through the manual.

[...] though there are a few - K-12 students for example - where we ought to be doing a lot better [...]

Perhaps a special price for K-12 educators to seed classrooms with Pleco? Are there online sites for K-12 Chinese education or related associations you could target for reviews? I suspect it will be a hard market to crack, as kids are such great memorizers, instructors from a Chinese-speaking country may not feel Pleco is necessary/helpful.

[...] doing better with low-end iPhone users; it's frustrating to give away for free something that we've been working on for years and still have more people download a simple SQLite-based app that someone put together in a few weeks.

I think the early Chinese apps have built up reviews (outside the app store) and downloads in the app store. Plus, one doesn't need to read a manual to use them. :wink:

 

[gato]

Just searched for "Chinese dictionary" in the app store and Pleco Chinese Dictionary came up number 23 or something. I thought it would be a lot higher. Didn't it used to be higher at one time?

On PlecoDict vs Pleco, couldn't add "plecodict" as a keyword so that a search for "plecodict" would return Pleco, as well?

Another immediate thing I can is that you need to simplify your product. I think a bullet-point format would be much crisper and attractive to someone browsing and only to willing to give you 30 seconds of their time before moving on. Compare the two descriptions below. The second one is obviously much easier to read. You need short, punchy summary descriptions and not long sentences.

http://www.topappcharts.com/341922306/a ... ionary.php
The beloved mobile Chinese dictionary / flashcard / document reader software is now available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Pleco features a mature, fast dictionary search engine: results are returned instantly, all installed dictionaries are searched if a result can't be found in the currently-selected one, Pinyin can be entered with or without tones / spaces, and you can use wildcards, mix characters and Pinyin in the same search query, or search the full text of dictionary definitions.

Pleco's user interface is extremely powerful and flexible; you can tap on any character in a dictionary entry to instantly bring up its own definition, allowing easy cross-referencing / breaking-down of words into their component parts. Characters in headwords are colored based on their Mandarin tone to help improve your tone memorization. There's also a "Character Info" screen, with lists of words starting with / containing a particular character and frequency / alternate pronunciation / stroke count info from the Unihan database. And just turn your iPhone / iPod sideways for a combined search results + definition view.

http://www.topappcharts.com/376507528/a ... ese-hd.php
HEdictionary English Chinese HD is a superlative dictionary not only for Chinese to learn English but also for English to learn Chinese. The comprehensive dictionary contains 4 built-in dictionaries and two famous Chinese web dictionaries – Dict.cn and Google. Moreover it can work as useful online translator for your instant need.

MAIN FEATURES:

► Smart Searching
• Fast and effective with the powerful algorithm
• Search by Pinyin and ABC
• Gather definition from other dictionaries by one search
• One tap to lookup word in the definition screen
• Auto detect keyword and lookup word in appropriate dictionary
• Spell-check for English keywords
• Wildcard and Anagram search
• Phonetic search (sound-like searching, English only)

I think the screenshots you use can be improved, too.

For the first screen shot of a Chinese word lookup, I think it would be better if you can have more words per page. (See my preferred look here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2280#p17723 and viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2280#p17764). "你hao" might also be a confusing choice for a lookup because there are few words starting with 你, so you end with many others. You might want to search for something like 学习, which will return lots of familiar words like 学校, 学员, etc. The tone color might also be confusing to people. You might want to turn it off for the screenshot.

The second screen of a handwriting lookup, I think you should turn on the display of search results underneath the handwriting, so it will be more obvious that you are doing a lookup.

The third screen of the reader, I think you should replace that with reading a web page (live mode) or readily identifiable article. The current screen shot is that of dictionary entry for "hello" or something. It's not at all clear that you are in the reader.

The four screen of the flashcard, I think you should replace it with something more identifiable as a flashcard (maybe one where you have the right and wrong buttons). The current screen shot is for tone testing and unfortunately looks like an IME or sort, for someone who don't know what it is.

The last screen with the English word lookup, I have the same comment as for the first screen for the Chinese word lookup.

 

[trickyt]

Why Pleco ranks too low

For a long time I was searching itunes for a program which has the features pleco offers. I only found it after a personal recommendation of a friend. I bought all the add-ons after trying the free version.
1) It does not appear in the first ten applications if you search "Chinese Flashcards"
2) Same if you search "Chinese dictionary"
3) There is no video demonstration of its capabilities
4) I use the Swiss itunes website and the number of customer reviews is only 3. Most of them are in German! I am sure most countries have their own language specific feedback, which means I can not get a balanced view.

I love the flashcard testing system. It would be great if you could throw in a little reward for correct answers like one shot in the angry Birds game or similar. Then I wouldn't stop using it.

 

[mikelove]

character - overlays like that would be quite easy, only challenge really would be coming up with a straightforward way for users to invoke them. K-12 is getting easier since the teachers are getting younger / more interested in tech, but probably the best bet there is to find educators who already have iPhones / iPods and hook them all up with free samples.

If I'd realized that early apps would have the sort of sustained advantage they've had in search results / reviews / etc, I probably would have pushed to get an app out earlier, at least over the summer of '09 instead of waiting until December - wouldn't have had a document reader, and a few areas like text rendering would have been discouragingly slow / unpolished compared to the finished product, but it still would have beaten anything else available at the time (still would have had fullscreen handwriting) and we would have still eventually improved things to their current level of polish. Though if we'd chosen not to release Pleco 2.0 on Palm OS we could have had an iPhone version of Pleco ready within a few months' of the App Store's appearance, so there's no point in playing the regret game now.

gato - it's been closer to 10-15, it dropped quite a bit on Monday with the iOS 4.0 update for reasons we're not sure about - Cambridge also jumped ahead several places to #1 at that point, and Qingwen actually fell back quite a bit, so I think the results may been changed to favor a higher average selling price / gross revenues instead of # of copies for paid apps. But our gross revenues are almost certainly ahead of all of those guys, so it would be nice if they'd count in-app purchases in that formula...

We need Pleco in the app name so that people looking for our app will recognize it; if we just named the app "PlecoDict" that would catch the "Pleco" searches and save some space, but "PlecoDict" seems even more problematic memory-wise than "Pleco" which is at least nice and short.

I see your point about further simplifying the description - it really needs a better rewrite than the quick-and-dirty one we just gave it.

On screenshots, the change to more words per page would have to be reflected in the default settings too - otherwise people would get annoyed that the app they downloaded looked different from the screenshots - so that's a somewhat bigger decision; certainly other apps have smaller search results, but I continue to feel that there are significant readability benefits to having everything on three separate lines; your eye knows exactly where to go to find each part of the entry and can do so with absolutely minimal movement.

Transparent handwriting still doesn't work smoothly enough to promote it to the level of a default / screenshot setting, though I'm hopeful the support for background thread UI processing in iOS 4 will allow us to change that. The reader / flashcard screenshot points are well taken, though, those could definitely be confusing / disappointing in their current form.

trickyt - the poor search result placement is something we've been trying to fix for a while; we hoped that the change from a 17+ to a 12+ parental controls rating in 2.1 would improve matters, and it seems to have done so a little (we went from the mid-30s to the mid-teens), but then we fell back 10 places at the start of this week and we're not entirely sure why - we've written Apple about this but don't know how long it'll take them to respond / how fruitful the response will be. Good point on the product reviews, there are websites that collect / automatically translate these for you but we really ought to have a link to one of them on our own site.

For video demonstrations, though, there's a video demo linked right from the product page at http://www.pleco.com/pleco2ip.html - does that not work correctly for you or is it just that it needs an update for the latest version / latest features?

As far as rewards, that's an interesting idea, but I think it might be better served by just taking advantage of the built-in multitasking in iOS 4.0; running Pleco on that, you can hit the home button in the middle of a flashcard session, play a round or two of a game (also left off in the middle, ideally), then go right back into Pleco when you're done and continue reviewing without leaving the flashcard screen.

 

[gato]

We need Pleco in the app name so that people looking for our app will recognize it; if we just named the app "PlecoDict" that would catch the "Pleco" searches and save some space, but "PlecoDict" seems even more problematic memory-wise than "Pleco" which is at least nice and short.

Isn't there a keywords section in the description that is used for search ranking? I was thinking you could add it there without changing the name.

 

[character]

character - overlays like that would be quite easy, only challenge really would be coming up with a straightforward way for users to invoke them.

I think the usual way is that they come up each time the app starts until the user presses a button to make them stop doing so. When they press that button, a message displays indicating how to invoke them again, which could be something such as Menu | Settings | [a new first Settings option to turn them back on]

 

[character]

Just saw a good tutorial on the free (only?) version of Convertbot.

 

[mikelove]

gato - my point was that we already have "plecodict" as a keyword there, but it's taking up about 10% of the (very small) number of characters we get for keywords - all came out of an earlier post about keyword optimization.

character - I suppose that might work, yeah. The other possible issue with an interactive tutorial, though, is that there's so much stuff to explain that it might take a while; with Convertbot you need maybe three or four sentences' worth of explanation and you're fully covered, but with Pleco, unless you want to stare at the screen for an hour while it slowly takes you through all of the features we may not be able to cover a lot of the stuff that people actually have trouble with. The basic tap on the search bar / type in characters interface should be familiar to most iPhone users already, so it's the next step after that - a whole lot more buttons etc to explain - that's the big problem really.

 

[character]

character - I suppose that might work, yeah. The other possible issue with an interactive tutorial, though, is that there's so much stuff to explain that it might take a while [...]

The perfect is the enemy of the good in this case. Just having a tutorial which showed users how to look up words, make/use simple flashcards, buy addons, and access the user manual should be the goal. If you want to compete with simple apps, IMO the tutorial should lower the barrier to using Pleco's version of the same functionality as those simple apps provide. All the advanced functionality can be learned from the user manual, or preferably, from some YouTube tutorials you can put together.

I realize it takes some planning and some hours to make, but each YouTube video is a powerful sales tool to demonstrate the power of Pleco. Perhaps make a total of 10 videos, covering simple topics to advanced ones. Having more videos on YT in general is a good idea, even if it's just a video of your standard sales pitch, if you have one. No reason not to put up "commercials/demos" of each "version" (iPhone/iPad), esp. now that you have a 720p camera. :wink:

 

[mikelove]

The perfect is the enemy of the good in this case. Just having a tutorial which showed users how to look up words, make/use simple flashcards, buy addons, and access the user manual should be the goal. If you want to compete with simple apps, IMO the tutorial should lower the barrier to using Pleco's version of the same functionality as those simple apps provide. All the advanced functionality can be learned from the user manual, or preferably, from some YouTube tutorials you can put together.

Fair point - people don't know how to use most of Microsoft Office's advanced functionality either but they still like knowing that it's there. YouTube videos should finally happen once 2.2 is out - I'm hesitant to put in the time to do them now when there are lots of UI changes coming, but I recognize that they're a very useful sales tool. Though our original demo seems to have served mainly to generate a lot of comments / emails asking for a Japanese version of Pleco

 

[character]

FYI: http://www.tuaw.com/2010/06/28/apple-hi ... =px-iphone

"Apple has posted a new web page highlighting some third-party apps made for the iPad, complete with their own Apple-produced demo videos. Each highlighted app gets a description, App Store link and demo clip. [...]"

Can't hurt to contact Apple and offer to fly out and help make the video...

 

[mikelove]

Can't hurt to contact Apple and offer to fly out and help make the video...

Heh, right now I'm just trying to get them to help with the whole dropping-15-places-in-the-search-results thing. Though that actually doesn't seem to have hurt downloads or sales at all - given that it happened at the same time that iOS 4.0 / the iPhone 4 came out, though, it's possible that it might indeed have hurt our numbers but that that was canceled out by the bump we got from the new OS / new phone.