Mobile App Success Story: Play ABC

Children no doubt, enjoy learning through play. With the Play ABC app, this is exactly what they get. As children are set to go back to school, we look forward to ways to make them enjoy learning. The Play ABC app gives players a chance to play with letters, words and sounds with Alfie Atkins.
It is a known fact that children learn better through fun ways. Play ABC app offers players that. The game stimulates a child’s learning ability by creating a link between learning and fun, putting together words and letters in a playful way. The game, which centers around the Alfie character is a fun one. It is structured in a way that Alfie, the fictional character possesses some extraordinary devices in his room. These devices include a word machine, a puppet theatre, and a word machine.

Developed by Groplay a winner of the Swedish Living Green Award and a company that has continually shown its commitment towards easy learning; Play ABC app was put together by a number of language teachers and game creators with interest in the educational sector.

Brilliant Idea

The Play ABC app centers around a fictional character, Alfie Atkins. Created by Gunilla Bergstrom, a Swedish author in 1972, Alfie Atkins is one fictional character which has featured in a number of animated cartoons and books.
A lot of teachers and school children in Finland and Sweden were extensively consulted prior to the creation of the app. The developers had a plan to come up with something to make learning easy and that is exactly what they achieved. The app is no doubt at all time high, in terms of downloads, especially as it is the back to school period for school children.
Children’s needs were adequately considered upon the app’s creation, with the major issue being to facilitate learning without pressure. Little wonder the app does not feature time limits, points and any other element which could induce stressful or pressured learning. The children are allowed to use the app, learning in the process, on their own terms. Now children have the opportunity to learn anywhere, be it at school or at home.

Basically, the app features an ability for children to play and learn:

• How to spell as many as 100+ different words
• How to clearly pronounce and read simple words
• How letters sound, their phonemes, and their names
• The difference between upper and lower case letters
• Imaginative storytelling
• Creative motor skills
• And basically all the intricate of literacy

How Play ABC Did It

Groplay, is not only a xEdu.com alumnus and company is also a member of the Swedish EdTech Industry trade organization. As a result of her interest in education, the company occasionally collaborates with the University of Helsinki’s Playful Learning Center, to develop and improve game-based learning.
Currently, Play ABC app is available in 6 different languages with efforts underway to increase this number. The app also allows for the creation of a profile for each child, with space for as many children as possible. Basically, the app features three major devices. They include;

• The letter tracer: With this, children will gain knowledge of how all letters appear and sound,  with an opportunity to improve their muscle memory and motor skills by tracing and drawing letters on the screen.
• Word Machine: Alfie’s homemade machine will enable children to spell new words which will be sent to the puppet theatre. These new words would be created using letter tips and phonemes.
• Puppet Theatre: This is where children would be allowed to put their imagination and creativity into good use. They will be given an opportunity to tell lovely stories like they imagine it.

With several concrete results, this platform is known to have a lot of motivational effects as it spurs children to be their best,  apart from that, children will be allowed to learn at their own pace with an opportunity to improve their language skills.

Business Model

Groplay, an app development company leveraged on a number of factors to come up with an app as inspiring as Play ABC. Available on both iOS and Android  Play Stores, a whole lot of factors provide this app with a competitive advantage, thus distinguishing it from other educational apps.

• In-app Purchases

The game generates most of its revenue from in-app purchases. On the iOS store alone, the game is recorded to have raised as much as $3.2k from in-app purchases. With about $1.3k in revenue from the Android play store through in-app purchases; the game is estimated to have generated about $4.5k in revenue through in-app purchases since its creation.

• Massive Followership

The Play ABC app is one app that has been able to garner a lot of followership within such a very short time. This followership is very visible in the number of downloads the game has witnessed on both Apple and Android stores. This growth has even spiraled as a result of the back to school period.
On the iOS Store, Play ABC has a total of about 23.7k downloads, with about 5.8k daily active users and 11.6k monthly active users. This figure has been on the rise over time. On the other hand, the game has witnessed about 1.6k downloads, with about 356 daily active users and 605 monthly active users. Both figures have been recorded to have grown by 100%.

• Regular Updates

Through regular upgrades, the Play ABC app has continued to come up with better ways to satisfy its users. Released in August 2018, the app has been updated three times, with dates being 8th, 16th, and 23rd August 2018. The versions were moved from version 1.0.2 to version 1.0.3 and version 1.0.4.; which is the most recent one. The app is about 87mb on the Android play store and supports Android version 16 and above.

Final Thoughts

Groplay, is a company dedicated to giving every user a wonderful gaming experience, essentially focusing on children. The company developed the Play ABC app with the aim of inspiring children while entertaining them. This makes it a very viable tool for learning. The Groplay company intends to create a happier future through enjoyable learning. To a very large extent, they have been able to achieve this through the Play ABC app. Critiques, however, say the app could be better, but the regular updates by Groplay are geared towards addressing this. The game is no doubt garnering a lot of interest and is expected to be even more appreciated now, as it is the back to school period and a lot of children would love to play and learn!