8 ms·

The market for paid iOS apps isn’t dead

78 points by nikunjk 14y ago

socmoth 14y ago
I once had someone pitch me an idea for an app, which coincidentally I had actually built and was selling on the app store. He wasn't willing to pay 99cents for it (but had previously been willing to quit his job to make it hypothetically with me). It is a weird world. (for the record I like marco's work)
- wahnfrieden 14y ago
  What's the app or idea?
- ja27 14y ago
  I hear app ideas all the time. I think at least a third of the time I can pull out my phone and find an app that does that already. If they haven't even looked at competitors, they're not serious. I've learned that one quick way to filter people is to ask to see what apps are on their phone. If it's just Facebook and Angry Birds, they're useless. Out of all the app pitches I've heard, I'd say 33% are already done reasonably well by other apps. Maybe 25% or more are not possible to do on the iPhone (but sometimes on Android). At least 90% have a marketing plan of "just put it in the store and wait for the sales to explode."
rbritton 14y ago
It's not dead, but discoverability is a huge problem. I still make decent money ($5-6k per month) on an app I first released in 2010, but the two additional ones since then are probably not even collectively over $1000 for their lifetime. Unless you're featured, have significant word of mouth, or are on Top Free/Top Paid/Top Grossing, the number of people that actually find your app is small. It takes significant publicity to get enough momentum in sales to where word of mouth even works. Edit: This isn't to say I won't make anything else. I have other apps in progress, but I'm going to apply the lessons I've learned to make them work. They are somewhat niche apps, but I've found those work for markets that are accustomed to paying for tools/software. None will be under the $14.99 price point. It's unlikely I'll ever make another one that is -- it's just not worth the effort.
- orangethirty 14y ago
  I'm curious. What kind of marketing have you done? Or do you only rely on the app store?
  - rbritton 14y ago
    I'm highly ranked on organic search (#1 for most terms), have paid ads, pursue articles when the opportunity arises (these have historically helped a lot), limited giveaways, and watch google alerts for mentions of the app and respond as appropriate. The main app is generally in the top 30 grossing for its category, and I've found being high in that to be self-reinforcing. Being in the primary field the app is for has definitely helped since I have friends and contacts there. One notably potential source I have not really pursued much is social media, Twitter in particular. I'm one of those people that pretty much never uses it and doesn't understand the allure.
    - danielrakh 14y ago
      What App is this? If you don't mind me asking?
      - rbritton 14y ago
        I'll have to think about it. I'm not sure if disclosing it puts me at any disadvantage, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something.
        yoster 14y ago
        It wouldn't hurt considering it would be free advertising. If I generated steady income off a popular app, I would be letting everybody and their momma know about that app. I would even throw a sales pitch right now!
        ludwigvan 14y ago
        It might cause more competitor apps to be made, which might put that constant stream of money to danger.
fbpcm 14y ago
I put my first app into the App Store last July and had it selling for free until 2 months ago when I set it to $1.99. People continued to buy it even though I don't advertise it. After that success (2 figure revenue!), I built another app and put it on the App Store for $9.99. People are downloading that as well. I admit that I am making more off of contract work, but based on my estimates the App Store converts really well, even at >$5 and has the potential to be profitable with paid apps. (anecdotal evidence based on my sales of http://free2goapp.com/download http://free2goapp.com/download)
- gregorious_c 14y ago
  Do many people sell their app for free first, and then increase the price? Interesting model. Can you provide some more specific data about the sales? That sounds like a good idea to get some traction and reviews. Were people upset at all with the price increase? Congrats on the success!
andrewtbham 14y ago
Here is my app. Location based time tracking. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onsite-time-tracker/id470803110?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onsite-time-tracker/id470803... Here are my sales https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asp1Qlg4fVlzdFk2TUN4MU81NHdyWmFvMnJ3OU1Qanc&usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asp1Qlg4fVlzdFk...
- arthurrr 14y ago
  what did you do (if anything) to get 270.2 in apr (apr is not even finished yet)? and 155 in mar? why are some months missing?
  - andrewtbham 14y ago
    I am putting the months I will collect the money. The 270 collected at the begining of April was from sales in February. I got picked up on app advice in February, and got about 10,000 free downloads. That had positive effects. The missing months is cuz i made the app free for a few months.
- draugadrotten 14y ago
  Thank you for sharing - for me ,this was an interesting view of the economics of a niche app. I happen to be a user of your app myself, which makes it even more interesting. I downloaded your app as part of your free promotion that you mention in the spreadsheet. I have since recommended your app to several colleagues, of which several paid for the app, so your promotion was probably successful. I also use a similar app, "TimeSheet". This app is ad-sponsored. I found this app by browsing the app stores lists of most popular apps, and because it was free, this was the app I started using. Seeing the economics of your app seems to be barely viable, I would offer some food for tought. You have minimal expenses already, so you can't boost profits by minimizing expenses. You can however do what you seem to be doing and just "wait" until the app is profitable. Your app has a decent focus and is streamlined to do one thing and do it well. You can improve the app by doing customer interviews, but that will be costly and may not provide a ROI. You could change the price of your app. If someone is using your app, it doesn't matter if the price is $1 or $5, it's peeanuts for anyone using it as a business app. This would hurt the "I'll try it out-downloads" though. You can expand your user base by promoting your product more. This seems to me to be the most attractive option. What are your own thoughts about increasing the revenue stream for the app?
danielrakh 14y ago
As an iOS developer I speculate that it's not the price that hinders people from downloading an App, it's the psychological barrier of paying for something (regardless of the price) that they haven't experienced yet. Sure reviews and screenshots help ease this tension as well as the standard $0.99 price tag, but I don't think it's enough. It would be really great if users could download the App and play around with it for a couple of minutes to "test drive" it and then be presented with an option to buy it.
- cageface 14y ago
  This is a huge shortcoming of the current app store model, I agree. That Apple hasn't done anything in this direction for years strengthens my suspicions that they don't really care if the typical dev makes money on the store as long as the big players earn and the users keep buying phones.
  - danielrakh 14y ago
    I agree. If not for the dev, they should do it for the sake of the user experience. A "Try It Out" option would prevent customers from feeling duped when they buy an App that they think looks good but turns out to not be of their liking. Which right now contributes to the customer to be more hesitant of purchasing the next app tomorrow.
    - tonyedgecombe 14y ago
      I suspect try it out would only reduce sales further, it adds a delay in the process and gives the customer more chance to change his mind. It might help for expensive software but for something that is a few dollars I'd see it as a negative as a developer.
      - cageface 14y ago
        What's happened in practice is that the market is moving towards free apps + IAP to make money. I think this tends to ruin most games but for a lot of other categories I don't think it's a bad model.
ruswick 14y ago
Marco seems to make this unjustified and unelaborated assertion that price has no bearing on popularity, and the only differentiation between prices in free vs. paid. I'm not sure why this would be so for the App Store. Purchasing software, like purchasing any product, is necessarily a balance between utility and price. I, as a value-oriented consumer, have a finite amount of money that I wish to conserve, yet want to maximize my utility from the product. I could buy a BMW, which would make me happy and increase my utility, but would also put me massively in debt and be fiscally untenable. Because of this, I'm more likely to purchase a low-end sedan, which will function adequately but not break the bank. At the more minute level, I have to decide between superior name brands and cheaper generics. This also entails evaluating cost and utility. The same is true of apps. If I'm presented a choice between an app that does 100% of what I want but costs $3 and an app that does 70% of what I want and costs a single dolar, I will be forced to evaluate the utility of that added utility of that app versus the larger price. That is how decisions in commerce work. People make purchasing decisions based partially on price... I'm not sure why (or how) Marco is trying to refute that fact.
- danielrakh 14y ago
  I agree with you. I also think the "evaluation of utility" of Apps is poor. IMO, You can't really evaluate the utility by just the screenshots and reviews. It would be great if just like a car, you could "test drive" the App. Download a version that would work for x mins and would automatically present you an option to buy or delete after x mins.
  - benjiweber 14y ago
    Google play lets you return apps within 15 minutes. Does the app store not have anything similar? http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=134336 http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&...
    - myko 14y ago
      There is no official way to get an App Store refund, but it does apparently happen, here is a guide on how one might do so: http://gizmodo.com/5886683/how-to-get-a-refund-from-the-app-store http://gizmodo.com/5886683/how-to-get-a-refund-from-the-app-...
fpgeek 14y ago
Translation: Sure, the odds have gotten longer. Ticket prices might be higher. Consolation prizes might be smaller. But don't worry. If you pick your numbers just right you too can still win the lottery! I understand things look different from his vantage point, but I just don't see a healthy market in what he wrote - I see a dying one. With the climb getting steeper and the asking prices getting higher, that just shrinks the potential market for paid apps more and more. That helps a culture of not buying apps (other than games) keep growing. To me, it seems clear where this will end.
- phil 14y ago
  You're mistaking the micro for the macro. Sure, the odds have gotten longer and ticket prices might be higher -- but from the app buyer's perspective, that's because there are just so many rides and they're so damn good. Can't try 'em all!
homosaur 14y ago
Easy to say for the one man company.
itry 14y ago
The Site has an almost unreadable font for me. Its ugly when in normal size: http://browsershots.org/http://www.marco.org/ http://browsershots.org/http://www.marco.org/ (Check the Firefox 22 shots) And gets worse when I increase the font size: http://i.imgur.com/jU1swoq.png http://i.imgur.com/jU1swoq.png Why is that?
- SG- 14y ago
  your browser has issues.
- swombat 14y ago
  It looks great here. Change your browser, or perhaps change your font rendering settings if you're on Linux or Winblows?
robomartin 14y ago
I experimented with one of my apps (www.TommyTeaches.com). I made the mistake of releasing it as a paid app at first. It didn't do so well. I switched it to free and it took off. Everyone at my kid's school got it and they let others know. Through analytics I can see it is being used for long periods of time by many kids every day. Tried the teaching approach with kids with mild learning disabilities and it made a difference in a number of cases. All of that is good, however the problem is that in order to be able to justify completing the series I have to show revenue. Placing ads in apps for 3~5 year old kids is not an option. One thought was to place ads in screens off the main game (Settings, etc.) to at least capture a minor revenue stream. I have that build but haven't released it yet. The problem with the expectation of everything being free is what it does to the ability to innovate and explore. Apps don't cost zero to develop. As much as it hurts me to think it, I am not sure I can justify attempting to innovate at the early education market because there's virtually no money in it for the vast majority of developers. Even paying for logo and graphic design is impossible when your revenue is zero or near zero. For me at least there seems to be far more traction and revenue in the specialized utilities segment. On the other hand, it is hard to pay the iOS software world attention when we can charge $250 to $350 per hour for mechanical, electronics hardware and software development in certain verticals.
- swombat 14y ago
  Just a thought, without knowing your app very well or the usage the kids make of it, but it sounds like some kind of new feature unlocked via an IAP may make sense. Right now it looks like you're releasing each content pack as a new app, that's also free. There's your problem. Release content packs as IAP, give 3 away for free and charge $1 each for new content packs. There's your revenue stream. If the app is really teaching the kid stuff, parents will probably pony up and pay a few bucks now and then, since they care about their children's education.
wben 14y ago
I have an app in the iOS photography category ranked about 100 in sales on iPhone and iPad. My monthly sales are $6000.00 US (after apple's cut) selling for 2.99. Not bad, I'm happy and all, but it's disappointing to think that there are only 100 developers in the photography category making more than 6000.00/mo (assuming that they have only one app) The user interface that iTunes provides on the phone, tablet and desktop is super clunky and slow for exploring apps. Click, wait, click, wait. etc. Why no tabbed browsing so users can load and look at 50 app descriptions in the background?
- chj 14y ago
  wow, this is amazing!
- rbritton 14y ago
  And don't forget that many of the top 100 are Apple, Adobe, and large magazines.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
melling 14y ago
Does selling an app at $2.99 vs $1.99 reduce app sales? I can see where that might not affect sales in the US and Europe but what about Asia and other emerging markets?
facorreia 14y ago
A very thorough analysis. I think it's lacking an important category, though: the free apps that generate revenue by (usually compulsive) in-app selling, a la Farmville. They seem to be common among the top grossing.
youngerdryas 14y ago
I have a very niche app that brings in a small but fairly consistent revenue stream, whenever I hear crickets in the sales department I raise the price from .99 to 4.99 and slowly come back down every week tripping the "app on sale" wires. Usually works.

78 points by nikunjk 14y ago

I once had someone pitch me an idea for an app, which coincidentally I had actually built and was selling on the app store. He wasn't willing to pay 99cents for it (but had previously been willing to quit his job to make it hypothetically with me). It is a weird world. (for the record I like marco's work)

wahnfrieden 14y ago
What's the app or idea?
ja27 14y ago
I hear app ideas all the time. I think at least a third of the time I can pull out my phone and find an app that does that already. If they haven't even looked at competitors, they're not serious. I've learned that one quick way to filter people is to ask to see what apps are on their phone. If it's just Facebook and Angry Birds, they're useless. Out of all the app pitches I've heard, I'd say 33% are already done reasonably well by other apps. Maybe 25% or more are not possible to do on the iPhone (but sometimes on Android). At least 90% have a marketing plan of "just put it in the store and wait for the sales to explode."

rbritton 14y ago

It's not dead, but discoverability is a huge problem. I still make decent money ($5-6k per month) on an app I first released in 2010, but the two additional ones since then are probably not even collectively over $1000 for their lifetime. Unless you're featured, have significant word of mouth, or are on Top Free/Top Paid/Top Grossing, the number of people that actually find your app is small. It takes significant publicity to get enough momentum in sales to where word of mouth even works. Edit: This isn't to say I won't make anything else. I have other apps in progress, but I'm going to apply the lessons I've learned to make them work. They are somewhat niche apps, but I've found those work for markets that are accustomed to paying for tools/software. None will be under the $14.99 price point. It's unlikely I'll ever make another one that is -- it's just not worth the effort.

orangethirty 14y ago
I'm curious. What kind of marketing have you done? Or do you only rely on the app store?
- rbritton 14y ago
  I'm highly ranked on organic search (#1 for most terms), have paid ads, pursue articles when the opportunity arises (these have historically helped a lot), limited giveaways, and watch google alerts for mentions of the app and respond as appropriate. The main app is generally in the top 30 grossing for its category, and I've found being high in that to be self-reinforcing. Being in the primary field the app is for has definitely helped since I have friends and contacts there. One notably potential source I have not really pursued much is social media, Twitter in particular. I'm one of those people that pretty much never uses it and doesn't understand the allure.
  - danielrakh 14y ago
    What App is this? If you don't mind me asking?
    - rbritton 14y ago
      I'll have to think about it. I'm not sure if disclosing it puts me at any disadvantage, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something.
      - yoster 14y ago
        It wouldn't hurt considering it would be free advertising. If I generated steady income off a popular app, I would be letting everybody and their momma know about that app. I would even throw a sales pitch right now!
        ludwigvan 14y ago
        It might cause more competitor apps to be made, which might put that constant stream of money to danger.

fbpcm 14y ago

I put my first app into the App Store last July and had it selling for free until 2 months ago when I set it to $1.99. People continued to buy it even though I don't advertise it. After that success (2 figure revenue!), I built another app and put it on the App Store for $9.99. People are downloading that as well. I admit that I am making more off of contract work, but based on my estimates the App Store converts really well, even at >$5 and has the potential to be profitable with paid apps. (anecdotal evidence based on my sales of http://free2goapp.com/download http://free2goapp.com/download)

gregorious_c 14y ago
Do many people sell their app for free first, and then increase the price? Interesting model. Can you provide some more specific data about the sales? That sounds like a good idea to get some traction and reviews. Were people upset at all with the price increase? Congrats on the success!

andrewtbham 14y ago

Here is my app. Location based time tracking. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onsite-time-tracker/id470803110?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onsite-time-tracker/id470803... Here are my sales https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asp1Qlg4fVlzdFk2TUN4MU81NHdyWmFvMnJ3OU1Qanc&usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asp1Qlg4fVlzdFk...

arthurrr 14y ago
what did you do (if anything) to get 270.2 in apr (apr is not even finished yet)? and 155 in mar? why are some months missing?
- andrewtbham 14y ago
  I am putting the months I will collect the money. The 270 collected at the begining of April was from sales in February. I got picked up on app advice in February, and got about 10,000 free downloads. That had positive effects. The missing months is cuz i made the app free for a few months.
draugadrotten 14y ago
Thank you for sharing - for me ,this was an interesting view of the economics of a niche app. I happen to be a user of your app myself, which makes it even more interesting. I downloaded your app as part of your free promotion that you mention in the spreadsheet. I have since recommended your app to several colleagues, of which several paid for the app, so your promotion was probably successful. I also use a similar app, "TimeSheet". This app is ad-sponsored. I found this app by browsing the app stores lists of most popular apps, and because it was free, this was the app I started using. Seeing the economics of your app seems to be barely viable, I would offer some food for tought. You have minimal expenses already, so you can't boost profits by minimizing expenses. You can however do what you seem to be doing and just "wait" until the app is profitable. Your app has a decent focus and is streamlined to do one thing and do it well. You can improve the app by doing customer interviews, but that will be costly and may not provide a ROI. You could change the price of your app. If someone is using your app, it doesn't matter if the price is $1 or $5, it's peeanuts for anyone using it as a business app. This would hurt the "I'll try it out-downloads" though. You can expand your user base by promoting your product more. This seems to me to be the most attractive option. What are your own thoughts about increasing the revenue stream for the app?

danielrakh 14y ago

As an iOS developer I speculate that it's not the price that hinders people from downloading an App, it's the psychological barrier of paying for something (regardless of the price) that they haven't experienced yet. Sure reviews and screenshots help ease this tension as well as the standard $0.99 price tag, but I don't think it's enough. It would be really great if users could download the App and play around with it for a couple of minutes to "test drive" it and then be presented with an option to buy it.

cageface 14y ago
This is a huge shortcoming of the current app store model, I agree. That Apple hasn't done anything in this direction for years strengthens my suspicions that they don't really care if the typical dev makes money on the store as long as the big players earn and the users keep buying phones.
- danielrakh 14y ago
  I agree. If not for the dev, they should do it for the sake of the user experience. A "Try It Out" option would prevent customers from feeling duped when they buy an App that they think looks good but turns out to not be of their liking. Which right now contributes to the customer to be more hesitant of purchasing the next app tomorrow.
  - tonyedgecombe 14y ago
    I suspect try it out would only reduce sales further, it adds a delay in the process and gives the customer more chance to change his mind. It might help for expensive software but for something that is a few dollars I'd see it as a negative as a developer.
    - cageface 14y ago
      What's happened in practice is that the market is moving towards free apps + IAP to make money. I think this tends to ruin most games but for a lot of other categories I don't think it's a bad model.

ruswick 14y ago

Marco seems to make this unjustified and unelaborated assertion that price has no bearing on popularity, and the only differentiation between prices in free vs. paid. I'm not sure why this would be so for the App Store. Purchasing software, like purchasing any product, is necessarily a balance between utility and price. I, as a value-oriented consumer, have a finite amount of money that I wish to conserve, yet want to maximize my utility from the product. I could buy a BMW, which would make me happy and increase my utility, but would also put me massively in debt and be fiscally untenable. Because of this, I'm more likely to purchase a low-end sedan, which will function adequately but not break the bank. At the more minute level, I have to decide between superior name brands and cheaper generics. This also entails evaluating cost and utility. The same is true of apps. If I'm presented a choice between an app that does 100% of what I want but costs $3 and an app that does 70% of what I want and costs a single dolar, I will be forced to evaluate the utility of that added utility of that app versus the larger price. That is how decisions in commerce work. People make purchasing decisions based partially on price... I'm not sure why (or how) Marco is trying to refute that fact.

danielrakh 14y ago
I agree with you. I also think the "evaluation of utility" of Apps is poor. IMO, You can't really evaluate the utility by just the screenshots and reviews. It would be great if just like a car, you could "test drive" the App. Download a version that would work for x mins and would automatically present you an option to buy or delete after x mins.
- benjiweber 14y ago
  Google play lets you return apps within 15 minutes. Does the app store not have anything similar? http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=134336 http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&...
  - myko 14y ago
    There is no official way to get an App Store refund, but it does apparently happen, here is a guide on how one might do so: http://gizmodo.com/5886683/how-to-get-a-refund-from-the-app-store http://gizmodo.com/5886683/how-to-get-a-refund-from-the-app-...

fpgeek 14y ago

Translation: Sure, the odds have gotten longer. Ticket prices might be higher. Consolation prizes might be smaller. But don't worry. If you pick your numbers just right you too can still win the lottery! I understand things look different from his vantage point, but I just don't see a healthy market in what he wrote - I see a dying one. With the climb getting steeper and the asking prices getting higher, that just shrinks the potential market for paid apps more and more. That helps a culture of not buying apps (other than games) keep growing. To me, it seems clear where this will end.

phil 14y ago
You're mistaking the micro for the macro. Sure, the odds have gotten longer and ticket prices might be higher -- but from the app buyer's perspective, that's because there are just so many rides and they're so damn good. Can't try 'em all!

homosaur 14y ago

Easy to say for the one man company.

itry 14y ago

The Site has an almost unreadable font for me. Its ugly when in normal size: http://browsershots.org/http://www.marco.org/ http://browsershots.org/http://www.marco.org/ (Check the Firefox 22 shots) And gets worse when I increase the font size: http://i.imgur.com/jU1swoq.png http://i.imgur.com/jU1swoq.png Why is that?

SG- 14y ago
your browser has issues.
swombat 14y ago
It looks great here. Change your browser, or perhaps change your font rendering settings if you're on Linux or Winblows?

robomartin 14y ago

I experimented with one of my apps (www.TommyTeaches.com). I made the mistake of releasing it as a paid app at first. It didn't do so well. I switched it to free and it took off. Everyone at my kid's school got it and they let others know. Through analytics I can see it is being used for long periods of time by many kids every day. Tried the teaching approach with kids with mild learning disabilities and it made a difference in a number of cases. All of that is good, however the problem is that in order to be able to justify completing the series I have to show revenue. Placing ads in apps for 3~5 year old kids is not an option. One thought was to place ads in screens off the main game (Settings, etc.) to at least capture a minor revenue stream. I have that build but haven't released it yet. The problem with the expectation of everything being free is what it does to the ability to innovate and explore. Apps don't cost zero to develop. As much as it hurts me to think it, I am not sure I can justify attempting to innovate at the early education market because there's virtually no money in it for the vast majority of developers. Even paying for logo and graphic design is impossible when your revenue is zero or near zero. For me at least there seems to be far more traction and revenue in the specialized utilities segment. On the other hand, it is hard to pay the iOS software world attention when we can charge $250 to $350 per hour for mechanical, electronics hardware and software development in certain verticals.

swombat 14y ago
Just a thought, without knowing your app very well or the usage the kids make of it, but it sounds like some kind of new feature unlocked via an IAP may make sense. Right now it looks like you're releasing each content pack as a new app, that's also free. There's your problem. Release content packs as IAP, give 3 away for free and charge $1 each for new content packs. There's your revenue stream. If the app is really teaching the kid stuff, parents will probably pony up and pay a few bucks now and then, since they care about their children's education.

wben 14y ago

I have an app in the iOS photography category ranked about 100 in sales on iPhone and iPad. My monthly sales are $6000.00 US (after apple's cut) selling for 2.99. Not bad, I'm happy and all, but it's disappointing to think that there are only 100 developers in the photography category making more than 6000.00/mo (assuming that they have only one app) The user interface that iTunes provides on the phone, tablet and desktop is super clunky and slow for exploring apps. Click, wait, click, wait. etc. Why no tabbed browsing so users can load and look at 50 app descriptions in the background?

chj 14y ago
wow, this is amazing!
rbritton 14y ago
And don't forget that many of the top 100 are Apple, Adobe, and large magazines.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

melling 14y ago

Does selling an app at $2.99 vs $1.99 reduce app sales? I can see where that might not affect sales in the US and Europe but what about Asia and other emerging markets?

facorreia 14y ago

A very thorough analysis. I think it's lacking an important category, though: the free apps that generate revenue by (usually compulsive) in-app selling, a la Farmville. They seem to be common among the top grossing.

youngerdryas 14y ago

I have a very niche app that brings in a small but fairly consistent revenue stream, whenever I hear crickets in the sales department I raise the price from .99 to 4.99 and slowly come back down every week tripping the "app on sale" wires. Usually works.