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1page.title=Developer Stories: The Opportunity of Android Tablets
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7
8<p>More and more, developers are investing in a full tablet experience
9for their apps and are seeing those investments pay off big. The increased
10screen area on tablets opens up a world of possibilities, allowing for more
11engagement with the user &mdash; which can mean an increase in usage as well as
12more monetization opportunities. And with the growing wave of Android tablets that
13continue to hit the market, it’s an important piece of any developer’s mobile
14offering. </p>
15
16<p>Here are some stories from developers who are seeing real results as they
17expand their offering to include Android tablets.</p>
18
19
20<div style="margin-bottom:2em;"><!-- START STORY -->
21
22<h3>Mint: More screen real estate = more engagement</h3>
23
24  <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
25            -moz-border-radius: 5px;
26            border-radius: 5px height:78px;
27            width: 78px;
28            float: left;
29            margin: 12px 20px 9px 20px;" src=
30            "https://lh5.ggpht.com/0xAIZJ1uE05b4RHNHgBBTIH6nRdPTY660T104xY7O2GbHXwab6YVmpU5yYg8yacfBg=w124">
31
32  <div style="list-style: none;height:100%;
33  float: right;
34  border-top: 1px solid #9C0;
35  width: 220px;
36  margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;">
37
38
39    <h5>About the app</h5>
40
41
42    <ul>
43 <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint">Mint.com Personal Finance</a> by Intuit Inc.</li>
44      <li>Financial management app targeting 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li>
45    </ul>
46
47    <h5>Tablet Results</h5>
48
49    <ul>
50      <li>Able to offer richer UI features</li>
51      <li>Much higher user engagement</li>
52      <li>Longer sessions &mdash; more Android tablet users have sessions longer than 5 minutes</li>
53      </ul>
54
55    <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;">
56<a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint">
57  <img alt="Android app on Google Play"
58       src="//developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" />
59</a>
60
61    </div>
62  </div>
63
64  <div style="line-height:1.4em;">
65    <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">When Intuit was thinking about
66expanding their Mint mobile offering to include a version optimized for Android
67tablets, they knew that taking the layout that worked for phones and simply
68showing an enlarged version wouldn’t take full advantage of the opportunities
69that tablets afford.</p>
70
71    <p>“We knew we had a lot more real estate, and we wanted to provide a more
72immersive experience for our users” said Ken Sun, Intuit Group Product Manager
73at Mint.</p>
74
75<p>Intuit’s Mint app, which has a 4-star rating on Google Play, brings a number
76of features to Android tablets that aren’t available for phones, including a
77more visual presentation of personal financial data.</p>
78
79<p>“Whereas our app for phones is used throughout the day for quick sessions,
80we’ve seen a larger percentage of our tablet usage happen in the evening, for
81much longer sessions,” said Sun. “People are doing a lot more than just checking
82their spending. They’re looking at historical trends, re-categorizing
83transactions, analyzing the data and setting financial goals for the future
84&mdash; digging much deeper and being more thoughtful. One example is how much
85users are interacting with their own budgets in the tablet app.  Customer budget
86operations (view, edit, drill-down, etc.) are 7x higher on Android tablets than
87they are on phones.”</p>
88
89<p>Fifty percent more Android tablet users have Mint sessions of 5 minutes or
90longer than they do on phones.  “We’ve found that phone usage is indicative of a
91customer’s regular financial check-in, while tablet usage points towards more
92analysis and interaction with that customer’s personal financial data.  This is
93the sort of immersive engagement experience we were looking for; the tablet and
94phone apps serve as great complements to each other."</p>
95  </div>
96
97  <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;">
98
99    <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/mint.png"></a>
100
101    <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;">
102      <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">Making the most of tablet screens</span>: Mint used the extra screen area on tablets to offer quick access to additional tools and information.</p>
103    </div>
104
105  </div>
106
107</div> <!-- END STORY -->
108
109
110<div style="margin:3em auto"><!-- START STORY -->
111
112
113<h3>TinyCo: Monetization opportunities abound on tablets</h3>
114
115  <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
116            -moz-border-radius: 5px;
117            border-radius: 5px height:78px;
118            width: 78px;
119            float: left;
120            margin: 12px 20px 30px 20px;" src=
121            "https://lh5.ggpht.com/mO1TPos65MWJF_n8ZrXMbNCqIqsvN4dQV_rwNOU3pF6N_Ii3lSiCPe_H_MP8C1MK5UKo=w124">
122
123
124  <div style="list-style: none;height:100%;
125  float: right;
126  border-top: 1px solid #9C0;
127  width: 220px;
128  margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;">
129
130    <h5>About the app</h5>
131
132    <ul>
133                <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinyco.village">Tiny Village</a> by TinyCo</li>
134            <li>Game targeting 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li>
135    </ul>
136
137    <h5>Tablet Results</h5>
138
139    <ul>
140      <li>35% higher average revenue per paying user (ARPPU)</li>
141      <li>Consistent increase in user retention</li>
142      <li>3x increase in downloads to Android tablets in the last 6 months</li>
143    </ul>
144
145    <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;">
146<a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinyco.village">
147  <img alt="Android app on Google Play"
148       src="//developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" />
149</a>
150
151    </div>
152  </div>
153
154  <div style="line-height:1.4em;">
155    <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">
156
157<p>Over a year ago, app developer TinyCo, makers of a suite of games such as
158Tiny Monsters, decided to prioritize launching across multiple platforms
159effectively. They chose Android as one of their primary launch platforms because
160of its large installed base and global reach. They also knew that the growing
161base of Android tablet users represented a huge opportunity.</p>
162
163    <p>Tiny Village was their first title to take advantage of the strategy, and
164it proved to be a winning one &mdash; especially in terms of Android
165tablets.</p>
166
167    <p> “With continued optimization of the gameplay experience and a genuine
168commitment to our Android offering through our Griffin engine, all of our
169metrics started to rise,” said Rajeev Nagpal, Head of Product at TinyCo. In
170fact, they’ve seen Android tablet downloads more than triple in the last six
171months.</p>
172
173    <p>One of the first things they noticed about usage of Tiny Village on
174tablets was an increase in average revenue per paying user (ARPPU)&mdash;about 35%
175higher than on smaller-screen devices such as phones. Additionally, average
176revenue per user ARPU is now about 35% higher as well. “The game is just much
177more immersive on tablet.”</p>
178
179    <p>In addition to an increase in monetization metrics, they’ve also seen a
180consistent increase in retention over other platforms. “These are really
181important metrics for games &mdash; if you can get users to both stay around
182longer and spend more while they’re there, you have a recipe for success.”</p>
183  </div>
184
185  <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;">
186
187    <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/tinyvillage.png"></a>
188
189    <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;">
190      <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">More monetization
191on tablets</span>: On Android tablets TinyCo has seen higher ARPPU and user
192retention than on phones.</p>
193    </div>
194
195  </div>
196
197</div> <!-- END STORY -->
198
199
200<div style="margin-bottom:2em;"><!-- START STORY -->
201
202<h3>Instapaper: Riding the growing wave of Android tablets</h3>
203
204
205  <img alt="" class="screenshot thumbnail" style="-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
206            -moz-border-radius: 5px;
207            border-radius: 5px height:78px;
208            width: 78px;
209            float: left;
210            margin: 12px 20px 9px 20px;" src=
211            "https://lh3.ggpht.com/30KKcrIFO8V_wRfhnHaI9l0CLH_orIVFE7Xywtr9TBxAf0hi2BaZkKyBOs63Yfavpg=w124">
212
213
214  <div style="list-style: none;height:100%;
215  float: right;
216  border-top: 1px solid #9C0;
217  width: 220px;
218  margin: 4px 20px;padding: .5em;">
219
220
221
222
223    <h5>About the app</h5>
224    <ul>
225                <li><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android">Instapaper</a> by Mobelux</li>
226      <li>Content-browsing utility that targets 7- to 10-inch tablets and phones</li>
227    </ul>
228
229    <h5>Tablet Results</h5>
230
231    <ul>
232      <li>Tablets are now 50% of the app's installed base.</li>
233    </ul>
234
235    <div style="padding:.5em 0 0 1em;">
236<a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android">
237  <img alt="Android app on Google Play"
238       src="//developer.android.com/images/brand/en_generic_rgb_wo_45.png" />
239</a>
240
241    </div>
242  </div>
243
244  <div style="line-height:1.4em;">
245    <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:12px;">Instapaper for Android is an app
246for saving web content to read later. Developer Mobelux decided that creating a
247great UI for Android tablet users would be an essential part of their initial launch
248plan.</p>
249
250    <p>The app launched at the beginning of the summer of 2012, just in time to
251take advantage of a new tide of Android tablets, including the <span
252style="white-space:nowrap;">Nexus 7</span> tablet. The app has since seen huge
253popularity among tablet users, in particular, on Nexus 7. On the day that
254pre-orders of Nexus 7 began arriving, Mobelux saw a 600% jump in downloads of
255its app on Google Play.</p>
256
257    <p>“We saw a promising new set of Android tablets about to hit the market
258and wanted to position ourselves to be ready for them” said Jeff Rock of
259Mobelux. “It was a market that others were hesitant to explore, but the decision
260to prioritize tablets has paid off very well for us.”</p>
261
262    <p>Since that initial 600% jump in downloads, Instapaper for Android has
263continued to see a successful run on Android tablets. In fact, Android tablets
264now represent about 50% of their installed base. “With more and more Android
265tablets coming online, we’re excited to see how our investment in Android
266tablets continues to pay off.”</p>
267  </div>
268
269  <div style="clear:both;margin-top:40px;width:auto;">
270
271    <a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/instapaper.png"></a>
272
273    <div style="width:600px;margin-top:0px;padding:0 90px;">
274      <p class="image-caption"><span style="font-weight:500;">Popular with
275tablet users</span>: A great tablet UI and browsing convenience make Instapaper
276popular with Android tablet users.</p>
277    </div>
278
279  </div>
280
281</div> <!-- END STORY -->
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