It’s no secret: there’s some Benjamins to be made on the App Store. In fact, the App Store is now a $2.4 billion dollar per year business, according to AdMob’s monthly mobile metrics report. Here’s another fun fact you probably already know: most app developers fade into the App Store abyss long before they ever find fame and fortune. Even if you ignore the junk apps and the million e-books each published as a separate app, you’ve still got a solid 5-10,000 apps clamoring to grab a piece of the App Store pie. Many developers feel like the App Store is akin to high school: an anarchic and ruthless popularity contest to see who’s got the biggest, well, um, you know what I mean.
That brings us to the $2.4 billion question: how do you succeed on the App Store? We’ve spent the last few weeks trying to answer that question and have come up with a list of tips and tricks that’ll help you edge your way into App Store glory. Now, none of these will replace making a good product or compensate for a million-dollar advertising and PR budget, but they’ll likely help you get noticed or keep your current momentum.
1. In this race, the Hare beats the Tortoise. Develop fast, release often. This message was delivered loud and clear from every developer we talked to: don’t waste a lot of time on one app. Spend 1-2 months max on an app and then let that puppy go. If it sticks and users like it, iterate and release updates to keep users engaged and loyal. Dave Castelnuovo of Bolt Creative (makers of the wildly successful Pocket God) wrote a story in IndustryGamers in which he provides 10 tips to succeed on the iPhone. He writes, “Don’t expect your game to be a hit, and move on if it doesn’t fly… There are lots of really incredible games out there and even though people might give you a lot of positive feedback about yours – well, compliments are free. It’s hard to predict what people will actually buy. Just move onto the next one, keep your momentum, and focus on a new concept.” However, when you do get a hit, make sure to update frequently. The graph below from Bolt Creative’s blog shows you what an effective updates can have.
2. Make sure the price is right. If developing fast and often was the most agreed upon subject, pricing was the least. Honestly, nobody understands the mess that is pricing on the App Store. So instead of pulling a bullcrap decree out of our behind, we’ll just give you all the wisdom we heard. First, from Ian Marsh of NimbleBit: if you’re app is in the top 100, price it at $0.99. You want to get your app in the top 25, so price it low and watch it soar. Second, if it’s not in the top 100, compare yourself to other apps in the same genre: users can’t tell the difference between your app and another’s, so you kind of have to play the race-to-the-bottom. For most of you, that means you should price at $0.99. Third, watch your damn metrics. Whether you use Pinch Media or TapMetrics or some other App Store metrics provider, you should know how prices affect your app’s sales. Do the math regularly and change your price whenever its not working.
3. Show off your feathers. Back to the high school analogy: a nice pair of stilletos and some sexy lip gloss can definitely help you get noticed on the App Store. Imangi Studios, which made the top-rated Harbor Master (iTunes link), described it best at iPhoneDevCamp. They said that Harbor Master’s icon really “popped” on the App Store list, so users would notice it over other icons that were more drab or busy. They spent hours with their artist refining and perfecting the icon for Harbor Master. Ultimately, this makes sense: the icon and the name of the app are the only things a potential customer sees when browsing through the store, so you better make a good impression or you probably won’t get a second chance.
4. Partner for success. This was perhaps the most innovative tip we heard. A group of five indie developers noticed something: all of the big shops (such as Glu, Gameloft and ngmoco) have a “More Games” section in their apps. Those sections encourage users who liked the game they’re playing to buy other games by the same developer. Well, these indie developers didn’t have enough apps to cross-promote effectively, so they decided instead to band together and create App Treasures. App Treasures is a “label for indy games” that acts as a seal of quality for these five developers. If a user is playing one of their games and likes it, they can tap the “More Games” button. Out pops a screen that promotes all of their apps – not just the app of the specific developer who made the game. This allows them to cross-promote their games and share in each other successes.
Over the past few months, as Harbor Master has stayed in the Top 25, fellow App Treasures games have seen an uptick in sales as well. The App Treasures landing page gets between 5-10,000 hits per day, and though conversion rates are small, it is still a great way to keep your app on the map. Don’t have enough developer friends to create your own mini-label? Piggy-back on another: Social Gaming Network (SGN – the dudes who made F.A.S.T.) recently announced on their website that you can partner with them to cross-promote your game in theirs. According to SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar, SGN is now on 1 in 3 iPhones + iPod Touches. Basically, even if your game gets promoted on 1/10 of those iDevices, you’ll be in good shape. If none of that works, cross-promote other games you like in your “More Games” section and earn an affiliate fee for each sale. You won’t get a whole lot of cash from it, but it’s nice to have an additional revenue stream.
5. PR isn’t all its cracked out to be. This is more of a time-saver than an App Store-buster, but still important. Every developer we talked to was surprised that getting coverage on blogs or gaming sites was hardly a boon for long-term success. Each saw a short spike in sales (usually, less than 20) after an article went out, and not much after that. Of course, firing off a few solid e-mails to game reviewers is a must-do; coverage from a well-read blog is still better than no coverage at all. However, this may mean that hiring a dedicated PR team or firm for the App Store is probably not worth it. There’s a great graph from Streaming Colour Studios below that shows exactly what effect certain review sites have had.
BONUS Half-Tip: 6. Get sponsored by Apple. Yeah, we don’t really know how to achieve this, but it’s obviously the holy grail of App Store success. The developers we interviewed agreed; one said, “Getting featured on the App Store is kind of critical to success on the App Store, but we don’t know anything about it.” Another developer said, “It’s a black hole.” Ultimately, playing nice with Apple can really boost your chances of glory so don’t forget to send them a basket of fresh-baked cookies when your app gets released. Other than that, we’ve got no clue what gets you sponsored.
All in all, this is just a snapshot of some ways to succeed on the App Store. There are definitely other great strategies, as well as counter-examples to our points above. Let us know what you think in the comments. Who knows? Maybe you’ll walk away with a nice pair of bluetooth headphones.
[Flickr / AMagill]
2.4 biilion is a total BS. Do you guys have a basic math skills? It means that average iPhone/iTouch user must spend $50-100 per year. I will give you my own estimate which are more close to reality than AdMob numbers.
As far as I remember the last total downloads number we got from Apple is 1.5 billion. Paid downloads are much less than 10% I think,but suppose that the number is -10%. It give us 150 million paid downloads. The average price of a craplet is less than $2. Therefore the total amount of cash is less than 300 million. Not a 2.4 billion.
Pilot, you’re forgetting ad-supported apps… Plus, with “business” all the monetary activity surrounding an iPhone app is considered, i.e. selling the app, marketing the app, even reviewing the app, ads within the app, pr/marketing firms working for app developers, etc.
The figure does seem a bit misleading though. As an app developer, we’re fighting over a pie that’s a lot smaller than what’s being represented with these figures that just lump every sector of the industry together.
Certainly makes the platform look more attractive though.
On face, the $1.2B definitely seems a bit off. But it’s important to note that this simply a forecast of the upcoming year based on AdMob’s numbers from July 2009. We know that the App Store has been growing exponentially over the past year or so, which means it is likely that the number of downloads from July 2009-June 2010 will be much greater than 1.5B.
Furthermore, if you’re going to disagree with the numbers, you have to talk about the methodology (not simply present your own analysis). There are definitely arguments as to why AdMob’s sample size was insufficiently low (~600 iDevices) and that their methodology lead to sample bias (those who decided to answer their questionnaire may have recognized the AdMob name or were already engaged in iPhone apps to begin with).
50-100 dollars per user is nothing. I know some people who have spent several thousands in the past year.
drum up interest, drop price to give illusion of a great deal. Pretty much?
This is useful advice for games, and to a degree, other apps. But the focus on quick hits obscures the value of really useful apps whose value, and popularity, persists long after the initial pop.
HairBallTamer wrote:
“But the focus on quick hits obscures the value of really useful apps…”
Precisely.
I disagree with the premise of this article. This is like the app-spammers guide to selling iPhone apps.
How about, invest some real time and some money in making a really useful application that ads value.
The iPhone app market needs to mature. These flash-in-the-pan apps may have a one-trick-poney gimmick but are ultimately of no value at all.
Beyond the pre-installed, the iPhone has yet to get it’s killer app.
I have about… I was going to say 45 apps, but I just checked iTunes and I actually have exactly 100 apps on my iPhone. Most were free. Only a fraction were Pay-Apps.
The only Pay-App that I use with daily regularity is Pro RSS.
I also frequently use Recorder, but Apple basically killed Recorder by including “Voice Memos” in iPhone OS 3.0 release. I occasionally listen to Tuner. I sometimes use Night Camera.
I look forward to the coming Augmented Reality apps. I expect some of those to be must haves, that make their owners a small fortune.
There’s definitely something to say about useful apps that are popular over time. I actually believe that you should always strive for quality.
However, being highly successful (>$10,000 in revenue) seems to be more predicated on immediate success. This is primarily because of the nature of discovering apps on the App Store: there is a significant weight put on timing. You can’t be featured in the top 100 or top 25 unless you’ve had success recently. Furthermore, when trying to discover apps independent of the featured lists, users often see things in a “Most Recent” format, meaning that those apps that are either new releases or have been updated recently are most likely to appear in front of the user.
Ultimately, the App Store’s pseudo-recommendations engine (i.e. the top 100 list, the what’s hot, what’s new, etc. etc.) are all about recency. An app has to be doing well now for it to be featured, and thus it significantly encourages developers to make quick hitters over long-term value apps.
If highly sucessful is defined as > $10,000, then appstore is a failure. I would define sucess as > $1,000,000.
Of course, Now-a-days Apple’s approval process is a great issue and getting an approval is indeed worthy of celebration. Hope this post would help the app developers get through the Apple’s app approval process easily.
Speaking from experience consulting for a #1 app store app, featured apps are usually chosen if the app makes top 10 status in the app store. I think it wasn’t until we hit #1 that Apple actually contacted us to provide graphics for the featured app store placement. (does this mean I get my bluetooth headphones?) :-)
Can you say which app it was?
For games, a free/light version is a must. This get the name out there and 10-12% conversion to paid customers.
And to reiterate, you gotta have a good product. No amount of marketing witchcraft can sell a crap product for the long-term
I’ve heard both sides to this. A few weeks ago, a report came out about an app that had 8% conversion rates. When I floated that number across to folks at iPhoneDevCamp DC, they were shocked. They had seen conversion rates in the 1-2% range from free/light to paid. For me, the jury is still out on free/light versions.
In terms of a good product, you’re dead on. No doubt about that one.
So, basically 1-2% conversion rate means that for every 50-100 free download we have only 1 paid. Correct? In this case, 2.4 billion sounds like a super BS.
Partner with relevant podcasts. They tend to hit the same audience. We have seen nice sales increases that way and there are tons of them out there.
How about that story where a firm was willing to astroturf App Store reviews in exchange for cash?
http://apprebates.com/publisher
I am surprised to hear about how dropping the price will have such an increase on sales. A lot of the iphone users I know are rich and price does not make a difference to them.
Yeah, but nowadays with the internet everyone’s used to getting things for free, and the tens of thousands of free apps don’t help any either.
Yeah, definitely. Also, even the rich are price sensitive. If you are deciding between two undifferentiated products, and one is $1 and the other is $5: which would you buy? Even if you’ve got tons of money, people still often choose the better deal.
The key is: how do you differentiate your product on the App Store? If you can figure out how, then you can definitely command a larger price. Many big shops such as Glu, Gameloft, etc. can do this with their brand name. Others, however, are having trouble competing at the higher price points and thus there is a race-to-the-bottom for price.
As far as I remember the last total downloads number we got from Apple is 1.5 billion. Paid downloads are much less than 10% I think,but suppose that the number is -10%. It give us 150 million paid downloads. The average price of a craplet is less than $2. Therefore the total amount of cash is less than 300 million. Not a 2.4 billion.
This is a good article topic, but the writing is pretty bad. You didn’t even explain or analyze the graph. There’s a lot of insight in just that visual. Bad writer, but good topic.
Sorry you didn’t like it, Boomer. I usually feel that charts explain themselves especially given the large amount of text on the charts I pasted in. Furthermore, there are links to the blogs of those who made the charts – and I think they do a far better job than I ever could to explain them. Feel free to read those if you want more content about the charts!
It’s pretty common knowledge, that SOME of the major publishers simply buy enough of their own product in the 1st 3 days to boost their title into top 25 range.
There are even firms that will do it for you.
There was a blog by a CEO of one of these companies that talked about handing out iTunes cards, but that entry disappeared rather quickly.
Wow, they are willing to loose 30% of revenue just for that kind of exposure (we’re talking at least 5-10k/day to get that high in the App Store ranking list). I really hope they know what they’re doing, since that’s at least $1500 ($5000 *.30) of money per day they are never getting back.
But then again, in a well funded operation, that’s nothing right?
They would not need to fund that amount every day. They simply need the initial boost of roughly 500 sales to reach into the Top 100 Top Paid. From there, the games usually gain self-sustaining momentum and can “generally” make it on their own.
I don’t know, I think it really depends. Some of the time, the app store is all about luck. The problem lies in that it depends on volume and silly consumer habits. It seems that they don’t really want to buy “quality” games, but quick 3-5 minute games and be done with it.
Which leads me to my next point, if you are making a game, do NOT put a ton of effort into it. The player needs to be having fun IMMEDIATELY! Creating large stories turns people off, especially when the controls don’t support playing for hours on end.
On the other hand, if you’re making at app that isn’t for gaming, put a ton of time into and price it accordingly. Do be aware that there are magical price barriers which most people will refuse to pay, no matter how good your app is. Also, it’s better to drop your app to X price than to launch at X price. It’s the perception of increased value for less money at play.
I speak about all this from personal experience (my first app launched 10 days ago: http://bit.ly/nLqoc). Though I personally find the game market to be too cluttered, I think there are better opportunities out there (particularly in utility apps).
Getting featured on App Store is simple: you either have to have a fantastic (and I do mean GREAT) app which wows them, or else you have to be a company and pay them to do it. You’ll note that all apps that fall into the Featured areas are either awesome titles from small developers, or else so-so titles from huge companies. It’s that simple.
You give us a deep analysis. Thanks a lot.
There are other ways to get your app out there. You can create an interest by submitting it to sites like appfire or http://www.iwikiphone.com. The later is a social network where people share and discuss their apps. The reviews are completely independent and you can view a number of users’s review for different apps. People in the community trust the other’s review and will go and buy it in the app store. In fact you can actually go get to the app store directly from the review pages.
I also found it very interesting that you think that a drop in price does not make a big difference to sales making apps price elastic. This does not surprise me as many apps are actually act like a fashion accessory and a shelf-life (this does not include the likes of facebook/skype apps) that mature very quickly.
That is a true fact that one has to be fast to suceed here or in the App store.
Very informative!
Thanks for this lovely post. In fact, it has sparked the fire within me to go back to software development again. Although, I have never programmed in Objective-C, I think with my Java skills, I should be able to make a decent income on the Android platform.
That’s very well of you to share this article to us.
This is something I’ve been seeing a lot of trends on – it seems like more of these mobile applications developers are making good living turning their passion into nice business.
I should give it try myself – you never know :)