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Yes, I did. What I was expecting to see for free apps was something along the lines of using, say, AdMob metrics (http://metrics.admob.com/ http://metrics.admob

Yes, I did. What I was expecting to see for free apps was something along the lines of using, say, AdMob metrics (http://metrics.admob.com/ http://metrics.admob.com/) and his estimate of the number of free apps to come up with some rough idea of what the average iPhone ad-driven app makes as revenue. That would have been more in line with the section of the post about paid apps. Simply saying that targeting an iDevice leaves out 97% of the total population might be meaningful to an advertiser trying to gain a wide reach, but it means less to a developer, who is mostly interested in 1) getting an app installed on the device and 2) getting impressions. The fact that the average iPhone user has downloaded 80 free apps is a good thing for a developer.

alttab 16y ago
As a developer trying to make money on an app through advertising - you're an advertiser. Let me know how much money you make doing iPhone apps with AdMob. I'll be here.
- briancooley 16y ago
  I'm not sure I understand the confrontational tone. So maybe developers are advertisers, but they are not buying ads, they are selling ad space in their app. The numbers for iPhone and iPod Touch devices from last September should be interesting to developers (http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/admob-is-approaching-100-million-in-revenues-google-thinks-it-can-make-it-billions/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/admob-is-approaching-100-mi...): In September, AdMob served up 10.2 billion ad requests across 15,000 mobile Web sites and apps. About 28 percent of those were from iPhones and iPod Touches, with Android growing fast, making up another 7 percent. And if you look at only smartphones, Apple devices accounted for 48 percent of ad requests, with Android coming in second at 17 percent. That's nearly 3 billion iPhone/iPod impressions in a month, just from AdMob. There are some key pieces of missing information - like the breakdown of the 15,000 request sources, especially web app versus native app - that would enable some more interesting analysis. But just saying that the iPhone reach is small doesn't really address the usage patterns of iPhone users versus other smartphone users. Maybe you can't make decent money on ad-driven apps. I don't know. I haven't tried. The closest I can come to any information are a few anecdotes from usenet posts that claim anywhere from 10's of dollars to 100's of dollars a day in ad revenue. Not useful at all. But that doesn't make saying that iPhones are only 3% of the market a "full analysis."
  - alttab 16y ago
    I'm confused by the limited focus of your statement. Wide reach is important to a marketer who helps their company by making an impact on sales but a developer doesn't care about reach because ... why? As a sole developer, you require not only the technical knowledge to complete the initial job of writing the software that attracts the traffic to generate revenue, but you also must rely on yourself to place and promote it adequately to have significant returns enough to cover both investments of time and energy. "80 apps" is great news for a developer if a good percentage of them are yours, serving your ads. Otherwise, its at best 1/80th of a chance they are running your ads, but probably worse as each app is not created equal. If yours is a "killer app" that is use most often, its more than likely not ad-driven unless a guy likes playing iChess on the shitter. All of the data you provided is great - but none of it ties to money paid. 10.2 billion ad requests means dick if there wasn't any money exchanging hands. You said yourself there's no definitive evidence of people making a lot from mobile app advertising, so I'm not sure what point you were defending in the first place.

alttab 16y ago

As a developer trying to make money on an app through advertising - you're an advertiser. Let me know how much money you make doing iPhone apps with AdMob. I'll be here.

briancooley 16y ago
I'm not sure I understand the confrontational tone. So maybe developers are advertisers, but they are not buying ads, they are selling ad space in their app. The numbers for iPhone and iPod Touch devices from last September should be interesting to developers (http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/admob-is-approaching-100-million-in-revenues-google-thinks-it-can-make-it-billions/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/admob-is-approaching-100-mi...): In September, AdMob served up 10.2 billion ad requests across 15,000 mobile Web sites and apps. About 28 percent of those were from iPhones and iPod Touches, with Android growing fast, making up another 7 percent. And if you look at only smartphones, Apple devices accounted for 48 percent of ad requests, with Android coming in second at 17 percent. That's nearly 3 billion iPhone/iPod impressions in a month, just from AdMob. There are some key pieces of missing information - like the breakdown of the 15,000 request sources, especially web app versus native app - that would enable some more interesting analysis. But just saying that the iPhone reach is small doesn't really address the usage patterns of iPhone users versus other smartphone users. Maybe you can't make decent money on ad-driven apps. I don't know. I haven't tried. The closest I can come to any information are a few anecdotes from usenet posts that claim anywhere from 10's of dollars to 100's of dollars a day in ad revenue. Not useful at all. But that doesn't make saying that iPhones are only 3% of the market a "full analysis."
- alttab 16y ago
  I'm confused by the limited focus of your statement. Wide reach is important to a marketer who helps their company by making an impact on sales but a developer doesn't care about reach because ... why? As a sole developer, you require not only the technical knowledge to complete the initial job of writing the software that attracts the traffic to generate revenue, but you also must rely on yourself to place and promote it adequately to have significant returns enough to cover both investments of time and energy. "80 apps" is great news for a developer if a good percentage of them are yours, serving your ads. Otherwise, its at best 1/80th of a chance they are running your ads, but probably worse as each app is not created equal. If yours is a "killer app" that is use most often, its more than likely not ad-driven unless a guy likes playing iChess on the shitter. All of the data you provided is great - but none of it ties to money paid. 10.2 billion ad requests means dick if there wasn't any money exchanging hands. You said yourself there's no definitive evidence of people making a lot from mobile app advertising, so I'm not sure what point you were defending in the first place.