My Talking Tom is an adorable app from Outfit7 Limited where you raise a cat from kittenhood, play mini games, and decorate a home for him. Recently, Outfit7 has created an animated web series based on the app that includes characters from the company's other releases.
Talking Tom, by Outfit7, is a super-popular simulated cat that's reached two billion downloads this Fall, 2014, and had 14 apps launched within four years. You can raise Tom from a kitten into a fully grown and opinionated cat.
Outfit7 and Toyze have signed an agreement to make 3D replicas of Tom possible. You will be able to use the upcoming Toyze app to turn your favorite Talking Tom and Friends into 3D models and share them with your friends online. You'll be able to pick out features for your model like eye-color, hairstyle, clothing, and accessories. Tom even comes in eight different poses and 25 colors. The toys can be printed in sizes between one and eight inches tall.
Currently the Toyze site says the price of the models will depend on the size. Models that are around 2-2.5 inch are going for $50.
The Toyze app is available for free on the app store, so you can print up your favorite Talking Tom models for the holidays.
Outfit7 is celebrating its fourth birthday by unveiling a new trailer, announcing that an even more creative and interactive app is on its way, named My Talking Tom. The app is set to release on November 14, and will feature a more life-like and engaging Talking Tom.
“We are constantly listening to our loyal fans to make our flagship product even more engaging. Combining the creativity of our team and the latest technology, we will deliver a totally unique character experience in the new My Talking Tom app, which will delight our users across the world,” said Outfit7’s CEO Samo Login in a press release.
Make sure to check out the trailer below!
Outfit7’s Talking Friends series of apps has reached one billion downloads.
Seriously. The talking cat apps that feature characters like Talking Tom, later expanded out to a host of other characters, have been downloaded over one billion times. That’s an absurd number of downloads, and the series continues to look upward and outward, as it continues to expand from just being an entertaining toy app to something more substantial. I spoke to Outfit7 CEO Samo Login about this milestone.
148Apps: Did you ever imagine that you’d ever get anywhere near this point, getting one billion downloads with your apps?
Samo: I would say that when we started, that was one of our objectives. It sure seemed a lot with seven billion people in the world, but we didn’t set any limits where we should stop. So far, we have doubled the number of downloads every half-year, roughly. I spoke to a guy [recently], he can see us getting to two billion, but four billion would be a challenge! [laughs] I don’t think so because we are introducing new apps, so I don’t see a problem with four billion, so, why not?
148Apps: What is it about the Talking Friends series of apps that you think has led to this kind of success versus some of the other “talking cartoon-y character” apps that are out there?
Samo: I think that our objective was always to create something funny, and we invested always a lot into quality [with] all these apps, not only the graphics but the whole user experience. And I think that users notice that. It’s something that for sure, always differentiated us from other companies that had created talking apps.
We also plan in the future, always, some kind of hidden educational aspect, especially for preschoolers. If you create an app that’s a straightforward educational app, the kids can smell it. It’s like when you teach a child something, if you just cover it up into something funny and entertaining, the kids will have fun and learn about something at the same time. That’s the added value that we intend to give our users with our apps in the future.
148Apps: So really with your apps and going forward in the future, you’re really trying to use the likability and the familarity of these characters to branch out into other kinds of apps, but to also have, maybe to say, positive goals to them?
Samo: Well, we learned about our characters that we were lucky from the beginning. I wouldn’t say we have actually planned it. It’s pure luck that we have picked up Tom and later characters that are easily lovable, and people can really connect to. So we already developed a series of webisodes in partnership with Disney, and a couple of music videos also in partnership with Disney Records, and our audience really loves them. The webisodes have over one hundred million views on Youtube, and the music videos also.
So obviously our audience wants all different kinds of entertaining content, not just the Talking apps. And for sure, we’ll be working in this direction in the future to create different kinds of apps, mostly with entertaining but also some gaming content to bring our characters into movies, music, merchandise, to increase the number of touch points are audience has with our characters.
148Apps: So this is something where you’ve taken this simple idea of, this kind of talking cartoon character that people can interact with, and now you’re bringing it to all sorts of new avenues, taking it to places that seem unexpected with the launch of the original app, but here you are.
Samo: I would say ‘unexpected’ when we started, then when we saw the power of our characters that with big distribution we’d compete with TV, with one billion downloads of our apps, and over 170 million monthly unique users, we actually compete with TV stations. And with apps, it’s much easier to get to a global distribution, than with any other technology before. So we are taking this from here, expanding this into other verticals, which is in my opinion, a logical next step. We didn’t expect it at the very beginning, but later on we became aware there is much more behind our characters than just talking apps.
Outfit7 must be the most downloaded app company on the App Store with well over 100 million downloads across all of their apps. Their series of talking animal apps are hugely successful with kids and adults alike.
Andrej Nabergoj, Outfit7's CEO remarked "With more than 55 million downloads and a cameo on ABC's hit Modern Family, it's clear that Talking Tom Cat has fans around the world eager to see how his character & story will evolve,Talking Tom Cat 2 not only offers a new look and story for Tom but also makes it really easy and appealing for people to create and share their stories. We are really about empowering our users to become story-tellers themselves through original characters and creative interactions."
Amazing success. While these apps are not the kind of app we generally report on, the amazing success has to be noted. Congratulations Outfit7!
There are some absolutely mammoth numbers to consider: a lineup of 8 apps has surpassed 60 million downloads. 35 million of those belong to Talking Tom Cat, which has garnered enough attention to even show up on a recent episode of Modern Family. They've had 6 apps be listed in the iPhone's top 200 grossing apps, 5 apps in the top 60 of the iPhone App Store's top paid list, and 3 apps show up in the iPhone's top 100 free list. As well, the app is popular with international users, with 67% of downloads coming from outside the US, compared to an average rate of 30-45%. While many of their apps are free, they are seeing an average of 10% conversion rate on in-app purchases within those apps, so they're making some money off of
What do Outfit7 attribute to their success? The CEO of Outfit7, Andrej Nabergoj, says that it's in part due to their apps' appeal to kids. "Our growth is powered by what I would call the Law of Unintended Consequences. Kids are using smart phones in ways that were never anticipated. While observing kids playing with our apps, we realized we were no longer an app developer, but a mobile toy maker." As well, the international appeal can be traced to apps like Talking Tom Cat being based off of manipulating the sound and touch of users, allowing the apps to be easily adapted for use in non-English speaking countries.
It's mind boggling to consider just how popular and lucrative these simple little apps are - they may be simple little toys for smartphone owners to play around with or entertain their kids, but there is clearly some serious business in these apps, and it is a good time to be making these apps.
