The minimum requirements of every app in the Alliance

This page will list the characteristics that every app part of the IAA Network must present. You will agree that some points are hard to evaluate in an objective manner, but we try our best to keep the line between quality apps and non quality apps at a fair level. As a general guideline, all the apps in the network must:

• Be created by an individual or a company that makes no more than 100,000 USD per year. Reviewers will research the name of the company before allowing an app to be approved in the network and will deny those requests that come from big companies. If you are a big company you shouldn't be here in first place.
• Be of higher quality compared to the majority of the other apps in the market. Graphics and UI should be well polished and it must have a purpose and a good value (for example you will never see an iBeer app in our Alliance).
• Be a full version. Lite/demo versions will not be accepted. If you want to promote your app by inviting your users to try the lite version before they buy, there's a specific field for that when you submit your app that will link your lite/demo version with your full one.
• Incorporate the IAA logo in your Default.png image so that it gets shown during the startup. Check this page for design ideas or visit our artwork page. You may modify the colors and appearence of the artworks to fit your Default.png image. Adding a splash screen containing the logo of the Alliance is recommended but not mandatory.
• Implement the IAA Network API (check this page for additional information).

A little clarification on what we mean by "higher quality"

We don't want to create a restricted club (for that you can check out the people at AppTreasures who don't even bother to answer their e-mails), instead we are open to give everybody the possibility to join. And we would love to include everybody in our network without a review process (that would save us so much work), but including everybody would not allow us to create a quality network, which is our final goal. I'll include a few examples here of what kind of apps could / could not be allowed to join the IAA Network.

Example #1: Hopple

Hopple is a very simple game. Nothing too fancy, using the touchscreen you hop the squirrel to collect nuts. I chose Hopple as an example because it describes very well the concept that to join the Alliance you don't need a Sim City app or a Need for Speed.

Hopple was created by Vecheslav Silagadze, therefore it's an indie app.

If you play Hopple for a while you will note that the graphics are well drawn. The UI is easy and intuitive and the music is finely tuned. It's a simple game, but a quality game. If Silagadze ever decided to join our network he would probably be accepted by submitting Hopple.

Example #2 Awesome Ball

Awesome ball is "a cool little toy to show off what your iPhone can do" (Brian Pratt). Even though the graphics and UI are decent, the app doesn't really have a purpose. You could argue "well, it shows what you can do with the accelerometer", but that's not really the kind of purpose that we are looking for. Cool app, but would probably not be accepted in the network.

Another little thing that could be improved to this app and that would raise a red flag to one of our reviewers is the settings UI (above). Take a look at the string "Bounce count:". It is split in two lines and the number 51 is not aligned with the label. This means that the app is not perfectly well polished. And no, we will not deny a very good app just because a label is not perfectly aligned, but an app admitted in the network should present very little or no graphic "defects". The key here is: polish your app before you submit it.

Example #3 Deep Green Chess Lite

Deep Green Chess (Joachim Bondo) is probably one of the best chess apps you can ever try for the iPhone. The graphics are so well polished that you can see the ivory in the chess pieces and you can see gears spinning in the back of the board when the CPU is thinking. The controls are intuitive and very user friendly. This app however would not be approved, because it's a Lite version. Joachim should have sent the full version for review, which would have been accepted into the network very easily. You get the point.