5 ms·

My experience selling apps on the Android Market

34 points by starnix17 16y ago

watmough 16y ago
Thanks for the post! It seems like you have a great opportunity, at low risk, to try some things: - Cranking the price up to say $5 - Adding in license server code, and logging piracy - Defeaturing your free version. Any of these tests would make for a really interesting post, and also indirectly promote your app. I'm not at all disparaging your efforts, but it seems like an instapaper client should be able to make a lot more money than $130. I'm also wondering whether, in general, quality Android apps will settle out at higher prices than comparable iOS apps, just simply due to there seemingly being fewer people willing to spend.
jscore 16y ago
Interesting post. How many hours would you say it took to write the app?
- starnix17 16y ago
  I'm not sure of the hours, but I would definitely make more money of I was doing contract work for someone else.
dpcan 16y ago
Don't worry about it, it's still early for you. My first Android app made $198 in 6 months. My second app made $65 in 5 months. Then another is at $256. (all games) I have some more games out that don't have this problem :) It's like throwing darts at a board and hoping one sticks, then after one sticks, and you have it figured out, you start going for the bulls-eye. NOTE: To hit the bulls-eye you'll need to create something of great value and high quality, plus it should take time and passion to build. My best app took the longest amount of time to develop, has the most polish, required the most logic, and I am still updating it often.
- warp 16y ago
  Do you maintain websites for your apps? (I looked in your profile, no links there). I may want to try your stuff.
  - starnix17 16y ago
    Not really, I have this: http://endlesswhileloop.com/apps/ http://endlesswhileloop.com/apps/ but it's more of just a web page that lists everything.
tieTYT 16y ago
If I were you, I'd explain what Instapaper is on your post. I had to google it separately. Basically, it lets you save a website page to read later on any computer you have the plugin installed on.
rahim 16y ago
Can you--or any other Android app developers--share what your active install* percentages are? I'm curious what's normal for the Market. You're fairing a lot better than I am. I put my first Android app out a month ago (Gas Log) and have made a whopping total of $2.80 in ad revenue. (With an active install rate that fluctuates in the 40%-50% range.) * active installs are the number of people that downloaded the app and kept it (i.e. did not uninstall or return the app).
- metachris 16y ago
  40% to 50% active installs seems to be common
- starnix17 16y ago
  40%-50% seems standard, some novelty apps my friends have out only have like a 20%-20% install rate
makeramen 16y ago
here are my numbers to compare, including install base, etc. I wonder how representative these are of the market as a whole. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620072
nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
Thanks again for Hard Copy. It's the best Instapaper app for Android. Well worth the price. :)
kostmo 16y ago
For anyone interested in getting detailed metrics on revenue, I just released an app for making plots of income from the Android Market over time. It grabs data automatically from Google Checkout, allows you to distinguish between apps, and overlays price curves. I've made about $5K over the last year on 4 paid apps. I've posted a bunch of revenue plots here: http://sites.google.com/site/droidful/my-apps/devrev-developer-revenue http://sites.google.com/site/droidful/my-apps/devrev-develop... There's also a QR code for the revenue tracking app.

34 points by starnix17 16y ago

Thanks for the post! It seems like you have a great opportunity, at low risk, to try some things: - Cranking the price up to say $5 - Adding in license server code, and logging piracy - Defeaturing your free version. Any of these tests would make for a really interesting post, and also indirectly promote your app. I'm not at all disparaging your efforts, but it seems like an instapaper client should be able to make a lot more money than $130. I'm also wondering whether, in general, quality Android apps will settle out at higher prices than comparable iOS apps, just simply due to there seemingly being fewer people willing to spend.

jscore 16y ago

Interesting post. How many hours would you say it took to write the app?

starnix17 16y ago
I'm not sure of the hours, but I would definitely make more money of I was doing contract work for someone else.

dpcan 16y ago

Don't worry about it, it's still early for you. My first Android app made $198 in 6 months. My second app made $65 in 5 months. Then another is at $256. (all games) I have some more games out that don't have this problem :) It's like throwing darts at a board and hoping one sticks, then after one sticks, and you have it figured out, you start going for the bulls-eye. NOTE: To hit the bulls-eye you'll need to create something of great value and high quality, plus it should take time and passion to build. My best app took the longest amount of time to develop, has the most polish, required the most logic, and I am still updating it often.

warp 16y ago
Do you maintain websites for your apps? (I looked in your profile, no links there). I may want to try your stuff.
- starnix17 16y ago
  Not really, I have this: http://endlesswhileloop.com/apps/ http://endlesswhileloop.com/apps/ but it's more of just a web page that lists everything.

tieTYT 16y ago

If I were you, I'd explain what Instapaper is on your post. I had to google it separately. Basically, it lets you save a website page to read later on any computer you have the plugin installed on.

rahim 16y ago

Can you--or any other Android app developers--share what your active install* percentages are? I'm curious what's normal for the Market. You're fairing a lot better than I am. I put my first Android app out a month ago (Gas Log) and have made a whopping total of $2.80 in ad revenue. (With an active install rate that fluctuates in the 40%-50% range.) * active installs are the number of people that downloaded the app and kept it (i.e. did not uninstall or return the app).

metachris 16y ago
40% to 50% active installs seems to be common
starnix17 16y ago
40%-50% seems standard, some novelty apps my friends have out only have like a 20%-20% install rate

makeramen 16y ago

here are my numbers to compare, including install base, etc. I wonder how representative these are of the market as a whole. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620072

nuclear_eclipse 16y ago

Thanks again for Hard Copy. It's the best Instapaper app for Android. Well worth the price. :)

kostmo 16y ago

For anyone interested in getting detailed metrics on revenue, I just released an app for making plots of income from the Android Market over time. It grabs data automatically from Google Checkout, allows you to distinguish between apps, and overlays price curves. I've made about $5K over the last year on 4 paid apps. I've posted a bunch of revenue plots here: http://sites.google.com/site/droidful/my-apps/devrev-developer-revenue http://sites.google.com/site/droidful/my-apps/devrev-develop... There's also a QR code for the revenue tracking app.