About Us

Welcome to the Bottle Rocket Blog! Find the latest news, announcements, shop talk and general iPhone discussions that affects our industry.

Archive for December, 2011

Ready, Aim…. FLOWER! Thruster announces their latest game, Freddie Wong: Flower Warfare!

Friday, December 30th, 2011


Thruster’s newest YouTube gaming collaboration features the VFX superstar Freddie Wong (FreddieW) on a fast paced rampage through endless levels to escape the clutches of Rico. The Flower Warfare app for iPhone / iPod touch brings Freddie’s hit video to life as you skillfully time treacherous jumps over spikes, toxic waste and bottomless pits while firing petals of destruction at your enemies. Rico’s men will stop at nothing to end your quest for higher consciousness… so fill them full of lead before you take a permanent dirt nap under the Double Rainbow!

Freddie’s team has worked with several Hollywood celebrities such as Kevin Pollak, Eliza Dushku, Jon Favreau in bringing his visions to life. Over 2.7M people have subscribed to FreddieW’s YouTube channel and the original Flower Warfare video, which the game is based on, has been viewed over 8.4M times. Since the the game’s release last week, over 8 months of time has been spent in the game, over 330K games have been played, 2M enemies have been killed and 2.2M boxes of cereal have been collected! FreddieW will be further unveiling the mystery of Rico’s stuff. You can check the latest video out here.

Grab your copy of the game on the iTunes App Store.

Thruster is a division on Bottle Rocket Apps focused on social, entertainment and gaming.

iOS & Android Shatter Records on Christmas Day

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Our friends at Flurry, provider of one of the leading analytics platforms for mobile apps, periodically analyze the aggregate usage data that they collect to gain insight into device and app usage meta-trends.  The statistics they collected on Christmas Day are truly astounding.  A few highlights:

  • Apple’s App Store is on pace to exceed 10 billion downloads in 2011, which will double the number of downloads in 2008, 2009 and 2010 combined.
  • The Android Market more than tripled its life-to-date downloads of 3 billion, reached in May 2011, to now over 10 billion cumulative downloads reached this December.
  • On Christmas Day 2011, more than 6.8 million new iOS and Android devices were activate, a 353% increase over the 1.5 million per day average for the first 20 days of December, and a 140% increase over the previous single-day record of 2.8 million device activations set on Christmas Day 2010.
  • About 242 million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day, compared to an average of 108 million per day during the rest of December 2011.

Read the full story on Flurry’s blog.

2011 has been a record-breaking year in mobile, and 2012 looks to be even better!

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals: Our December Charity of the Month

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) was founded in 1866 as the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. It was also the first humane organization to be granted legal authority to investigate and make arrests for crimes against animals. Their mission is simple… “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.” The ASPCA works to rescue animals from abuse, pass humane laws and share resources with shelters nationwide.”

Sevilla Garza, a Project Manager at Bottle Rocket, nominated the ASPCA because “how can those ASPCA commercial of crying puppies and kittens not melt your heart?” She is a pet lover and adopted her cat, Sophie, from the local SPCA and says, “she is the sweetest thing ever!”

Animals all over Dallas, and the rest of the nation, are in need of a home. Check out their website (http://www.aspca.org/) to find out how you can make a difference in your neck of the woods!

Bottle Rocket’s Laser Cats Live Wallpaper for Android Benefits Operation Kindness No-Kill Shelter

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Bottle Rocket Apps has released the Laser Cats Live Wallpaper app for Android phones and tablets.  Laser Cats Live Wallpaper combines the majesty of cats with the power of lasers in a way never seen before! Marvel as cats float across your device’s desktop, shooting lasers in response to your touches.

Laser Cats features many of the cats owned by the team members at Bottle Rocket Apps (www.bottlerocketapps.com), one of the world’s leading full-service mobile app development firms, focused on creating hand-crafted apps for the world’s most discriminating brands.  Exclusively for Android,  Laser Cats Live Wallpaper contains more than a dozen cats with unique laser colors, with biographies for each cat visible in the wallpaper settings. Tablet-optimized cats are included as well!

Laser Cats Live Wallpaper is available for $0.99 on the Android Market. Bottle Rocket Apps is donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this app to Operation Kindness, the oldest and largest no-kill, non-profit animal welfare organization in North Texas.  Operation Kindness is a nonprofit shelter that cares for homeless or unwanted cats and dogs in a no-kill environment. They never euthanize an animal to make room for another. They care for all the animals they take in until they are adopted. To learn more, visit www.operationkindness.org.

Liven up your Android desktop with Laser Cats, and help support a great cause at the same time!

The Civil War Today Named One of Top 15 Mobile Apps of 2011

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

The editorial staff of FierceMobileContent, a daily update on the innovations and trendsetters pushing the boundaries of the mobile content industry, has compiled a list of the Top 15 Mobile Apps of 2011, and we are proud to announce that A&E Television Networks Mobile’s The Civil War Today for iPad, developed by Bottle Rocket Apps, earned the #4 spot on the list.

Executive editor Jason Ankeny wrote:

The Civil War Today doesn’t simply revisit and reconsider history–it’s bound to make history as well, going down in App Store lore as the gold standard for how tablets can render conventional textbooks irrelevant by illuminating our shared heritage in new and unprecedented ways.

The Civil War Today, one of three apps by Bottle Rocket featured by Apple in the iTunes App Store Essentials Hall of Fame, is available for $5.99 on the App Store.

Some Magazine Mobile Questions

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

The mobile device boom has promised traditional and digital publishers a new road to revenue, but amongst all the hype, actionable solutions aren’t always obvious.  Some questions to be answered include:

  1. What technology platforms should I use?
  2. What tools enable mobile advertising success?
  3. How can I manage mobile subscriptions?
Is mobile the new newsstand?  Which paid content model is having greater success, one-time app downloads or subscriptions?  Should I focus my time and energy on e-readers, smart phones, tablets, or all?  What are the key characteristics of successful paid content mobile offerings?  How do I price my mobile offering?  What technology platforms are available to help me create mobile offerings?