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The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

bloomberg.com

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Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#31

Post by bdcravens »

danso wrote: post #16

Anyone else reluctant to buy through the Mac App store because of the perceived lack of uptake? For example, I've been a longtime owner of a Transmit license...it's worked for years now. If I don't keep up with OS X releases, I can still download past binaries and use the key (within a limit...for example, Transmit 3 owners were required to upgrade to 4.x). But what if the developer decides that it's not worth mainta…

The publisher of Transmit will likely do the right thing. See another title of theirs, Coda:

http://www.panic.com/blog/introducing-coda-2-5/

Other publishers have done the same thing. (with regard to upgrade pricing, usually, but I'd assume a similar approach to avoid backlash if they left the MAS) However, your concern still stands, as not everyone will do that.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#32

Post by DrJokepu »

hellbanner wrote: post #25
DrJokepu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually done exactly that. Twice. If I can do it, anyone can.

Mind sharing? I didn't see apps on your site.

I don't want to get into specifics because I have abandoned their development and support a long time ago. The first one was a developer tool priced around $10, the second one was a more generic IT productivity tool priced around $5. They've both made around $10-15K over the years. In the end I had to abandon them because sales started to drop more and more every month and continued development didn't seem to stop that.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#33

Post by bdcravens »

suby wrote: post #17
bdcravens wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously doubt you could design, develop, prep, submit app, and market for 30 hours and have anything that anyone would download for free, let alone pay $5 for. The sheer volume of users doesn't obviate the fact that there's a minimum level of quality for discoverability to kick in.

30 hours is the amount of time the author of Redacted claims to have spent developing the app.

That's just development. There's time spent on support, marketing, prepping app store submission, responding to interview questions, etc.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#34

Post by aaronbrethorst »

xienze wrote: post #23
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #5

The bit I found most interesting about this whole Redacted app story, but haven't seen mentioned anywhere, is that the app also happened to be at #1 on Product Hunt for a good portion of that same day.

The thing I've found most interesting is this guy has found success by whining about how little he's selling. This has to be the third or fourth separate news source where I've seen this story run.

I think that's an unfair characterization of the situation. Sam hasn't mentioned it since it happened. News outlets keep picking up the story because it's about Apple (hot topic), app stores (hot topic), and what most people would assume would be a source of obscene wealth (trending at the top of the chart).

But, it's a man bites dog story! The outcome defies typical logic, and so news websites keep running the story.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#35

Post by dilap »

danso wrote: post #16

Anyone else reluctant to buy through the Mac App store because of the perceived lack of uptake? For example, I've been a longtime owner of a Transmit license...it's worked for years now. If I don't keep up with OS X releases, I can still download past binaries and use the key (within a limit...for example, Transmit 3 owners were required to upgrade to 4.x). But what if the developer decides that it's not worth mainta…

nah, I figure it's not going anywhere, and a lot of the software I bought using homegrown licensing schemes I ended up not using, since it's just too much of a pain in the ass to try to hunt up the licenses and restore everything on a new computer.

edit: i do wish apple would relax the sandbox strictness a bit and other editor review criteria so it was a more attractive alternative to self-publishing.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#36

Post by bdcravens »

hellbanner wrote: post #25
DrJokepu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually done exactly that. Twice. If I can do it, anyone can.

Mind sharing? I didn't see apps on your site.

(responding to child comment)

> I have abandoned their development and support a long time ago. > sales started to drop more and more every month and continued development

So there were obvious support and continued development costs, so I expect that the true hours you'd add to the ROI calculation are well more than 30.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#37

Post by bdcravens »

hellbanner wrote: post #25
DrJokepu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually done exactly that. Twice. If I can do it, anyone can.

Mind sharing? I didn't see apps on your site.

(responding to child comment)

> I have abandoned their development and support a long time ago. > sales started to drop more and more every month and continued development

So there were obvious support and continued development costs, so I expect that the true hours you'd add to the ROI calculation are well more than 30.

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#38

Post by Karunamon »

thebouv wrote: post #26
marvel_boy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An app in 30 hours? Believe me that this is not the usual time it takes to build an app !

That's not what all the articles and media are telling me. I can spend almost no time on an iOS app and make myself rich. Even kids can do it. According to the hype. So it must be true.

I'd be curious where you're getting any kind of hype that states "I can spend almost no time".

Re: The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

#39

Post by pidg »

xienze wrote: post #15
patmcguire wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Redacted, which peaked at No. 2 on the Mac App Store, sold 1,845 copies through May 19 and earned $6,600" That seems to be a low ceiling on success, no?

That's not bad for a passive income stream, and for only having spent 30 hours on it.

And for an app that just lets you selectively blur out bits of images. GIMP can do that in seconds, for free.

It's indicative of the state of the App Store that there are so many apps like this. The worst culprits - in my view - are 'distraction-free text editors'. I guess if the market is there for a $20 text editor that does nothing, then people are going to try to exploit it.

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