The newest entry into the crowded field of conversion utilities is from the developers at Tapbots. That alone is worthy of our attention and Convertbot does not disappoint.

Mobile Orchard Interviews Tapbots About Custom UI and App Promotion

Mobile Orchard have posted the latest installment to their excellent iPhone Developer Podcast. This time they interview Mark Jardine and Paul Haddad of Tapbots. The 20 minute interview is available either through their podcast or directly on their site.

The interview covers a great deal including the inspiration behind Weightbot (iTunes Link), their Best App Ever award winning weight management app, and some interesting info on sales spikes due to blog mentions. The interview is in three parts: (1) the origins of the app, (2) creating custom UI controls and (3) promoting the app. The last part is virtually a step-by-step guide to successfully promoting an app. The timeline of the interview is below:

* 1:55 – Avoiding the mundane and the tedious in utility apps
* 2:20 – Inspiration from Wii Fit and Wall-E
* 3:20 – Creating utility that “do one thing really well and are fun to use”
* 4:50 – Communicating the design for implementation
* 7:00 – Programming custom UI controls
* 8:45 – Making the “flicking” behavior of a custom scroll-like view work properly
* 10:45 – Moving the bounds of a view to create the spinning/scrolling effect
* 14:00 – Pre-launch buzz
* 14:40 – TUAW picking up the pre-release screen shots
* 15:30 – Viral buzz from a demo video on YouTube
* 15:45 – Getting on Daring Fireball
* 17:15 – More sales on the weekend
* 17:30 – Big jump in sales from getting on Lifehacker
* 18:00 – Mac Rumors boost
* 18:10 – New Years resolution bump / importance of Europe and the UK
* 18:45 – Making a good amount of money even when not in the top-100

[via Mobile Orchard]

A fantastic, functional and fun interface on a seriously great app. Weightbot does an excellent job of helping you keep track of your weight in a beautiful app.