So 2017 felt more like treading water for ampers apps, or if anything it went a bit backwards.

There were no new apps this year and I pulled one of my most successful app because Crossway filled the void and made an official Andriod app for the New City Catechism. On Amazon, my Inductive Bible Study app got suppressed as it was claimed that I was breaking copyright for using the ESV – even though I am using a legitimate Bible API (it’s even open source so you can see how it works). I told this to Amazon but they said I had to contend the claim with Crossway, and I kinda didn’t bother as my Amazon presence is really small. Besides if you want to sideload any of my apps, this site has the APK’s.

Life also got in the way a bit. I stepped up my role at church a little and sold and bought a new house. 2018 looks no different with time restraints as I am now working one day a week at Church as a youth minister, still working my normal job and have my normal family commitments.

Below are how my apps went over the course of 2017 (not including APK downloads from this site):

321
A simple gospel presentation by Glen Scrivener
Total installs for 2017: 187 (Google) + 17 (Amazon)

Australian Daily Prayer
Displays the 1995 Australian Anglican Prayer Book morning and evening services and uses the 2005 Weekday Lectionary.
A few typos were corrected throughout the year, but a new app is not needed for the changes to take place.
Total installs for 2017: 401 (Google) + 129 (Amazon)

Communicate Jesus
Displays content from the Communicate Jesus blog run by Steve Kryger… (I’m thinking I should really pull this app as it doesn’t really work and was more going to be a test for push notifications which I never got round to)
Total installs for 2017: 20 (Google)

Inductive Bible Study
An easy to use method to study the Bible on your own or in a group.
Total installs for 2017: 891 (Google) + 268 (only until 22nd July when it was suppressed on Amazon)

Mobile Multiply
Simple discipleship program written by Francis Chan.
Total installs for 2017: 4,038 (Google) + 176 (Amazon)

New City Catechism
A modern weekly catechism written by Tim Keller.
12th April (Final version) was pulled from the Play Store
Total installs until 12th April: 2,207 (Google) + 1,336 (in doing these stats, it seems I never pulled this from Amazon)

OpenSpritz Bible
Allows you to quickly read the Bible without moving your eyes.
Total installs for 2017: 337 (Google) + 53 (Amazon)

Two Ways To Live
Simple gospel presentation by Matthias Media
3rd May (1.1.1) Fixed a typo
5th December (1.1.2) Fixed another typo
Total installs for 2017: 2,502 (Google) +22 (Amazon)

Who Will Be King?
Children’s version of Two Ways To Live by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2017: 69 (Google)

Comparing from last year, it seems my apps are on a decline. While overall installs have gone up about 10,700, active apps, those used in the last 30 days, has gone down by about 3,000 this year. Still, that is with no advertising, removing one of my most popular apps and not introducing anything new this year. Really things are just ticking on.

Ampers apps has had some ebbs and flows in 2016 year. I started out keen by making a Twitter account (I now have 261 followers), doing some patching and released the Inductive Bible Study app. But then life happened, I had some family members in hospital and we had our third child. So things got a bit busy.

In May I set up an Amazon app account, so people with kindles can download my apps. I have still left the APK links on my site, for people who still want to side load my apps. I don’t really count these downloads in my stats, as they are pretty small.

In the later half of this year I made a concept app for a para-church organisation, but they said to hold off till they updated their website. This still hasn’t happened (although I have seen a screen shot of the new layout). Someone from Twitter has offered to do a Hungarian translations of an app, so if they get back to me with the text, I’ll update that app.

Another thing I am working on is a website that displays the Bible text cleanly, without distractions.

I do have more ideas for 2017, but I am going into this year a bit less ambitious. I now have three children, and other responsibilities, so this app thing is going to be pushed back a little in the hobby basket.

Below is an overview on how my apps went in 2016. Overall the stats suggest they are down from 2015.

321
A simple gospel presentation by Glen Scrivener
10th Nov (1.2.1): fixed broken links
Total installs for 2016: 121 (Google) + 5 (Amazon from May)

Australian Daily Prayer
Displays the 1995 Australian Anglican Prayer Book morning and evening services and uses the 2005 Weekday Lectionary.
9th May (2.1.0): Send daily readings to the Inductive Bible Study app
Total installs for 2016: 360 (Google) + 120 (Amazon from May)

Communicate Jesus
Displays content from the Communicate Jesus blog run by Steve Kryger
Total installs for 2016: 45 (Google)

Inductive Bible Study
An easy to use method to study the Bible on your own or in a group.
12th February was the initial release (1.0.0)
9th May (1.1.0): receive passages  the Australian Daily Prayer app, landscape tweak
Total installs from initial release: 1,021 (Google) + 497 (Amazon from May)

Mobile Multiply
Simple discipleship program written by Francis Chan
2nd May (2.6.0): a few visual tweaks
Total installs for 2016: 6,006 (Google) + 89 (Amazon from May)

New City Catechism
A modern weekly catechism written by Tim Keller
17th Jan (4.1.2): widget date patch
25th Jan (4.1.3): minor widget update again
Total installs for 2016: 4,583 (Google) + 270 (Amazon from May)

OpenSpritz Bible
Allows you to quickly read the Bible without moving your eyes.
21st Feb (1.1.0): a few visual tweaks
Total installs for 2016: 677 (Google) + 34 (Amazon from May)

Two Ways To Live
Simple gospel presentation by Matthias Media
12th Sep (1.1.0): Added Chinese
Total installs for 2016: 2,370  (Google) + 20 (Amazon from May)

Who Will Be King?
Children’s version of Two Ways To Live by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2016: 62  (Google)

Below are screen shots of my Google Play dash and my Amazon app dash.

With the Google Play stats you can see that my total downloads is now over 50,000 (up more than 15,000 from last year) however, my active installs in 2016 (15,742) is less than last year (22,097). This means, compared to last year, there are about 6,000 less of my apps out in the world being used.
These Amazon stats are only from May, but as you can see, it’s reach is much smaller the the main Google Play platform. Total installs since May on Amazon is 1,005

As I did for 2014, I thought I should post on what I achieved in 2015. Last year seemed to be the year of the update with no new apps released. I don’t feel that bad as some of the updates were as big as whole apps. Also two of my apps crossed over the 10,000 downloads mark.

I am working on a new app that should be out by the end of the month (hopefully!), stay tuned…

I also just started a new twitter account, @ampers_apps which will hopefully give more updates about what I am up to for 2016. Feel free to follow that.

Anyway, below is a quick rundown of how my apps went this year.

321
A simple gospel presentation by Glen Scrivener
Sep 16 (1.2.0): Added in 9 more languages
Total installs for 2015: 357

Australian Daily Prayer
Displays the 1995 Australian Anglican Prayer Book morning and evening services and uses the 2005 Weekday Lectionary.
Dec 11 (2.0.0): Whole new interface rewrite, now in Material Design.
Total installs for 2015: 315

Communicate Jesus
Displays content from the Communicate Jesus blog run by Steve Kryger
Oct 15 (2.0.0): Updated interface to Material Design
Total installs for 2015: 81

Mobile Multiply
Simple discipleship program written by Francis Chan
Apr 15 (2.5.0): Added Spanish translation
Total installs for 2015: 6,400

New City Catechism
A modern weekly catechism written by Tim Keller
3rd Feb (4.0.1): Added in Spanish introduction
2nd Jun (4.1.0): Added in a home screen widget
23rd Jun (4.1.1): Tried to fix a widget bug
Total installs for 2015: 5,688

OpenSpritz Bible
Allows you to quickly read the Bible without moving your eyes.
Total installs for 2015: 453

Two Ways To Live
Simple gospel presentation by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2015: 3,247

Who Will Be King?
Children’s version of Two Ways To Live by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2015: 117

I also added a websites portfolio to this site to showcase a bit more than the android apps that I make. In 2015 I updated this site, Canberra Christian Conventions and Body@Work Physio websites. I don’t really have the stats for all three of those to say how much exposure they all got.

For a general overview of how my apps are going, here is how they stood on the 1st of January 2016. From the table below it seems that there are nearly 22,100 ampers apps currently installed on android devices*. Comparing the below table with one from October 2014 (Total: 14,423/19,499) , you can see that the retention rate has dropped to 57% from 74%, but overall numbers has increased (as you should expect) and most apps have doubled in total installs.

* Current installs does not including the direct downloads from this site, and it does not include inactive devices. This means someone may have installed one of my apps and then bought a new phone and just threw the old phone out without uninstalling it.

I think 2014 was a pretty good year for my android app development – considering all the other things that happened in 2014. I managed to update a few of my apps and even released a few more. Hopefully there will be a bit more movement in this area for 2015, but we will see. Below is a quick summary on how my apps went in 2014.

321 (new for 2014)
A simple gospel presentation by Glen Scrivener
27th February was the initial release (1.0.0)
21st July (1.1.0): added seven more languages
Total installs between initial release and 31st December: 334

Australian Daily Prayer
Displays the 1995 Australian Anglican Prayer Book morning and evening services and uses the 2005 Weekday Lectionary.
13th Jan (1.1.0): added pinch to zoom
1st April (1.2.0): added a menu, 39 articles and you can go to any date
Total installs for 2014: 349

Communicate Jesus (new for 2014)
Displays content from the Communicate Jesus blog run by Steve Kryger
10 June was the initial release (1.0.0)
Total installs between initial release and 31st December: 27

Mobile Multiply
Simple discipleship program written by Francis Chan
11th May (2.3.0): added support for Gingerbread, fixed pdf links
12th May (2.3.1): fixed missed pdf links
4th Sept (2.4.0): fixed the order of chapters listed, removed broken video links
Total installs for 2014: 7,632

New City Catechism
A modern weekly catechism written by Tim Keller
11th May (3.1.0): added support for Gingerbread
7th Dec (4.0.0): added Spanish, bible version options, video thumbnails
Total installs for 2014: 6,590

OpenSpritz Bible (new for 2014)
Allows you to quickly read the Bible without moving your eyes.
22nd June was the initial release (1.0.0)
15th Oct (1.0.1): removed ESV, minor 2 Tim searching bug
Total installs between initial release and 31st December: 206

I have put on hold both Two Ways To Live and Who Will Be King? for a number of reasons, but they are still on the play store for download.

Two Ways To Live
Simple gospel presentation by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2014: 1,553

Who Will Be King?
Child version of Two Ways To Live by Matthias Media
Total installs for 2014: 129