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My business partner makes over $120,000 a year with just three apps in a very particular field where a limited number of users are willing to pay 19.99 for it.

My business partner makes over $120,000 a year with just three apps in a very particular field where a limited number of users are willing to pay 19.99 for it. Don't just join the 99c app game -- if you are looking at joining the app market, examine what unique expertise you can bring to it and target a niche.

sumukh1 15y ago
Yes. This is probably the biggest mistake that people make as newcomers to the app store. If you believe that your app is worth $X, you should be charging $X.
- tsunamifury 15y ago
  Unrelated: I see that you helped the Freemont Unified build an app. A guy on the board of directors there helped me get off the ground on creating education apps, are you still working there or was it a one-off project?
  - sumukh1 15y ago
    A little of both? Shoot me an email and I'll love to give you more details. my hn username @ gmail.
ryanwaggoner 15y ago
Speaking as an iOS dev with a couple apps in the works (one done and ready to submit, one in development), the issue I see with that is that it seems to be higher risk. What if I pour so much time into this super-premium app and then it doesn't sell? Whereas I can do five .99 or 1.99 apps in the same amount of time. But then I think about how crowded the app store is and how bad discoverability is, and maybe going after a super-small niche with a high price is actually the only low-risk strategy left (long tail). And maybe since it's so niche, you win just by showing up, not by building a super premium app. Which then begs the question of how you find ideas like that. I'm rambling, but I'd love thoughts from those who have dabbled in the tiny-niche-but-high-cost model on the app store.
- eps 15y ago
  > Which then begs the question of how you find ideas like that. One option is to go after a professional audience, i.e. create apps that are likely to be paid from a corporate account. Look at LogMeIn - they have a remote desktop access app aimed at sysadmins and it sells for $99 with 5 star rating. Look at Office-like apps - $10-$20 a pop and they sit firmly in top grossing charts. Anything useful that qualifies as a business expense just begs for a higher ticket price.
- sumukh1 15y ago
  > What if I pour so much time into this super-premium app and then it doesn't sell? The advantage of being able to set the price dynamically will let you experiment. What I've found is that holding the quality of the app constant, you can experiment with the pricing. You might get 10 sales at $5 or 50 sales at $1. If you believe your app really does provide $5 worth of value, it will probably sell. If it doesn't you can experiment with the pricing. It's only "super-premium" if users think it is. >> Whereas I can do five .99 or 1.99 apps I'd discourage going this route. For most people this will make more money ... Wait! Don't stop reading. What it won't do though is increase the quality of the applications you put out. You'll end up with 4 or 5 mediocre apps in most cases that roll on getting a few bucks a day. You might get lucky and have an app with better sales, but it's not the same as a rockstar performance by one app. OP's example is a good illustration of this. >> win just by showing up, not by building a [great] app. Nope, that's unfortunately not how it works. Sorry. You can win by executing on idea that you have validated. It's much like a startup. >> how you find ideas like that You see a need and you fill it. I think that's the best way to put it. Since I can't really help you find an idea, I can tell you this much, you should validate your idea first if you want to reduce risk.
  - ryanwaggoner 15y ago
    Thanks for your comments. I just wanted to clarify something: win just by showing up, not by building a [great] app This is explicitly NOT what I said. I don't think you can win in the long run without creating something great, but great and super premium aren't the same thing. I've bought apps for $1.99 that were great that I would never have paid $19.99 for because they just didn't provide that much value. So what I was trying to say was that if you're going to try and create something worth $19.99 in value, you can either pick a saturated area and try to be the super premium offering, OR you can pick a completely underserved but hungry niche and create something good that solves a need.
cageface 15y ago
If you're working solo this is a much better approach, particularly if you don't have a real graphic designer on board.
epaga 15y ago
My experience with our educational app is that we actually sold less units(!) when we tried going down from $3 to $1 - we changed nothing other than the price so we have to assume our target group (teachers, mainly) is more attracted to apps > $1 - presumably because they assume them to be higher quality (and may actually be right about that). Has anyone had a similar experience?

sumukh1 15y ago

Yes. This is probably the biggest mistake that people make as newcomers to the app store. If you believe that your app is worth $X, you should be charging $X.

tsunamifury 15y ago
Unrelated: I see that you helped the Freemont Unified build an app. A guy on the board of directors there helped me get off the ground on creating education apps, are you still working there or was it a one-off project?
- sumukh1 15y ago
  A little of both? Shoot me an email and I'll love to give you more details. my hn username @ gmail.

ryanwaggoner 15y ago

Speaking as an iOS dev with a couple apps in the works (one done and ready to submit, one in development), the issue I see with that is that it seems to be higher risk. What if I pour so much time into this super-premium app and then it doesn't sell? Whereas I can do five .99 or 1.99 apps in the same amount of time. But then I think about how crowded the app store is and how bad discoverability is, and maybe going after a super-small niche with a high price is actually the only low-risk strategy left (long tail). And maybe since it's so niche, you win just by showing up, not by building a super premium app. Which then begs the question of how you find ideas like that. I'm rambling, but I'd love thoughts from those who have dabbled in the tiny-niche-but-high-cost model on the app store.

eps 15y ago
> Which then begs the question of how you find ideas like that. One option is to go after a professional audience, i.e. create apps that are likely to be paid from a corporate account. Look at LogMeIn - they have a remote desktop access app aimed at sysadmins and it sells for $99 with 5 star rating. Look at Office-like apps - $10-$20 a pop and they sit firmly in top grossing charts. Anything useful that qualifies as a business expense just begs for a higher ticket price.
sumukh1 15y ago
> What if I pour so much time into this super-premium app and then it doesn't sell? The advantage of being able to set the price dynamically will let you experiment. What I've found is that holding the quality of the app constant, you can experiment with the pricing. You might get 10 sales at $5 or 50 sales at $1. If you believe your app really does provide $5 worth of value, it will probably sell. If it doesn't you can experiment with the pricing. It's only "super-premium" if users think it is. >> Whereas I can do five .99 or 1.99 apps I'd discourage going this route. For most people this will make more money ... Wait! Don't stop reading. What it won't do though is increase the quality of the applications you put out. You'll end up with 4 or 5 mediocre apps in most cases that roll on getting a few bucks a day. You might get lucky and have an app with better sales, but it's not the same as a rockstar performance by one app. OP's example is a good illustration of this. >> win just by showing up, not by building a [great] app. Nope, that's unfortunately not how it works. Sorry. You can win by executing on idea that you have validated. It's much like a startup. >> how you find ideas like that You see a need and you fill it. I think that's the best way to put it. Since I can't really help you find an idea, I can tell you this much, you should validate your idea first if you want to reduce risk.
- ryanwaggoner 15y ago
  Thanks for your comments. I just wanted to clarify something: win just by showing up, not by building a [great] app This is explicitly NOT what I said. I don't think you can win in the long run without creating something great, but great and super premium aren't the same thing. I've bought apps for $1.99 that were great that I would never have paid $19.99 for because they just didn't provide that much value. So what I was trying to say was that if you're going to try and create something worth $19.99 in value, you can either pick a saturated area and try to be the super premium offering, OR you can pick a completely underserved but hungry niche and create something good that solves a need.

cageface 15y ago

If you're working solo this is a much better approach, particularly if you don't have a real graphic designer on board.

epaga 15y ago

My experience with our educational app is that we actually sold less units(!) when we tried going down from $3 to $1 - we changed nothing other than the price so we have to assume our target group (teachers, mainly) is more attracted to apps > $1 - presumably because they assume them to be higher quality (and may actually be right about that). Has anyone had a similar experience?