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As someone who's had apps break the top 50 in the iPhone store (for a while, Reflexion) and currently has a top 25 in its category in the Android store (NewsRoo

As someone who's had apps break the top 50 in the iPhone store (for a while, Reflexion) and currently has a top 25 in its category in the Android store (NewsRoom), I can say that the economics aren't fantastic. On the iPhone the competition is fucking insane and it depends on a lot more than just your product. First, yes, you need something that is amazing, better than Reflexion for sure, but you also need to have the connections to get it pushed at launch so you get in the top 25. Once there, if your app is brilliant, then you will make bank, no doubt about it. But there's a lot of if's there. You'll notice that the players doing well in the AppStore now (repeatedly) are the ones that can leverage previous hits to catapult new ones. To give you an idea of scale, the few days we were a top 25 game we were making over $1k a day. On Android, the money just isn't there yet. The culture so far doesn't seem to encourage paid apps to the same extent as the iPhone. We've floated up and down in popularity in the Paid Applications section and have done ok, but nothing you can really base a business on. Somewhere around $3k/month I believe. The figures in the article using 'average' are way way off. My experience, as well as what I've heard from others is that the 'average' paid app makes nothing at all. Perhaps if you are in the top 5% then you are making a little bit, but a pittance, and the top .1% is rolling in it. This is especially true in the iPhone store, divide by 100 for the Android store. It's a tough way to make money, no two ways about it.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago
"if your app is brilliant" Yeah, that's really the bottom line. Good stuff just finds it's way to the top. Even good fart apps, or moron tests, or funny novelty camera effect utils. You can't polish a tur- umm bad idea. But you can polish a decent idea or a quick, good idea into a performer. People are making a living on the app store (some a really good living) and they don't even chart. Wasn't there a guy doing a gardening app that was making 6 figures on his own just by word-of-mouth? I don't think he charted except perhaps in his category. I forgot his blog or app name but he sold in-app purchases to re-energize his sales.
- nicpottier 16y ago
  No I think you are simplifying it a bit. Just because all the stuff making money is good (well not all, but most) does not mean all good stuff makes money. There are some really fantastic apps and games where people are making nothing at all. The problem is it is too binary as it is, it just isn't very predictable. All the random articles you see on the web of people making good money ignores the thousands upon thousands of people who aren't.
gregholland 16y ago
First off, congratulations on your success on both the iPhone store and the Android market. As an aspiring app developer for Android, i'm wondering if you are willing to share some specific marketing/sales strategies that lead to your success. I noticed that for your android app, there is a trial as well as paid version, does the trial drive a lot of traffic to the paid? How are the return rates like on your android app? I heard that a lot of people does the "buy-app, backup with astro file manager, return app , restore app" trick to get freebies. I also noticed that you have a website for your app, does this help sales at all? Thanks for your insights
- nicpottier 16y ago
  Sorry for the late reply, hand't seen this.. On Android it is fairly easy to some word out, only because it is a much smaller ecosystem. So hitting up all the standard blogs once your app is well reviewed and polished up will generally get you a mention. From there it is pretty much organic, we did a bit of tweaking of our application name based on what we think common searches are 'news', 'rss'. People like trials, though it is probably mostly relevant for an app like NewsRoom, where the real utility comes from using it for days. For smaller games I'm not sure it makes much of a difference, though that it is surely true that the Android market is especially harsh to the amusing for 10 minutes kind of games that sell quite a bit in the App store for 99c. Those apps make nothing on Android, as people return them within the 24 hour window. The trial was also useful for international customers, as we allow people to get an unlock key from our website. Paid apps aren't available in a lot of countries that the Android marketplace lives, so this lets those users who want the full version have a way to buy it. We don't get a ton of sales that way, but a few a day. I don't think the website helps much at all, though the video might help give people an idea of how it works. We consider those to just be checkboxes for getting blog coverage, most purchasing decisions are made on the phone I think, where people aren't googling the app first.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago

"if your app is brilliant" Yeah, that's really the bottom line. Good stuff just finds it's way to the top. Even good fart apps, or moron tests, or funny novelty camera effect utils. You can't polish a tur- umm bad idea. But you can polish a decent idea or a quick, good idea into a performer. People are making a living on the app store (some a really good living) and they don't even chart. Wasn't there a guy doing a gardening app that was making 6 figures on his own just by word-of-mouth? I don't think he charted except perhaps in his category. I forgot his blog or app name but he sold in-app purchases to re-energize his sales.

nicpottier 16y ago
No I think you are simplifying it a bit. Just because all the stuff making money is good (well not all, but most) does not mean all good stuff makes money. There are some really fantastic apps and games where people are making nothing at all. The problem is it is too binary as it is, it just isn't very predictable. All the random articles you see on the web of people making good money ignores the thousands upon thousands of people who aren't.

gregholland 16y ago

First off, congratulations on your success on both the iPhone store and the Android market. As an aspiring app developer for Android, i'm wondering if you are willing to share some specific marketing/sales strategies that lead to your success. I noticed that for your android app, there is a trial as well as paid version, does the trial drive a lot of traffic to the paid? How are the return rates like on your android app? I heard that a lot of people does the "buy-app, backup with astro file manager, return app , restore app" trick to get freebies. I also noticed that you have a website for your app, does this help sales at all? Thanks for your insights

nicpottier 16y ago
Sorry for the late reply, hand't seen this.. On Android it is fairly easy to some word out, only because it is a much smaller ecosystem. So hitting up all the standard blogs once your app is well reviewed and polished up will generally get you a mention. From there it is pretty much organic, we did a bit of tweaking of our application name based on what we think common searches are 'news', 'rss'. People like trials, though it is probably mostly relevant for an app like NewsRoom, where the real utility comes from using it for days. For smaller games I'm not sure it makes much of a difference, though that it is surely true that the Android market is especially harsh to the amusing for 10 minutes kind of games that sell quite a bit in the App store for 99c. Those apps make nothing on Android, as people return them within the 24 hour window. The trial was also useful for international customers, as we allow people to get an unlock key from our website. Paid apps aren't available in a lot of countries that the Android marketplace lives, so this lets those users who want the full version have a way to buy it. We don't get a ton of sales that way, but a few a day. I don't think the website helps much at all, though the video might help give people an idea of how it works. We consider those to just be checkboxes for getting blog coverage, most purchasing decisions are made on the phone I think, where people aren't googling the app first.