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I just think of something like Monument Valley - not a throwaway - tons of work - and it DID make them rich. Rightfully so. I guess I'd like to see at least SOME mention of that aspect of it.
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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.
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> Apps that stay at the top for weeks on end make lots of money -- up to several millions per year. The article claims the Mac App Store sales is measured in thousands for the top apps. Care to point to your sources which claim three magnitudes more?
I can back up his claim. I work for a large entertainment company that has a top 50 app, (in top grossing) and it consistently brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. When it was at its highest, around 15, it was bringing in about 400-500k per week.
Great, you're #8 on the App Store for an app that allows you to blur photos... you're so excited that you're going to get rich... Leaves me thinking: Who cares what rank you are on the App Store, making an app that does basically very little (though useful) should NOT make you rich. I just think of something like Monument Valley - not a throwaway - tons of work - and it DID make them rich. Rightfully so. I guess I'd…
This confuses getting to the top (which depending on the algorithm could just need a small initial spark aroudn your app) with staying at the top. Apps that stay at the top for weeks on end make lots of money -- up to several millions per year. As for the App Store, just like ANY OTHER marketplace, it won't make you rich in itself, just for appearing there and "putting the work"...
> Apps that stay at the top for weeks on end make lots of money -- up to several millions per year. The article claims the Mac App Store sales is measured in thousands for the top apps. Care to point to your sources which claim three magnitudes more?
I could hypothesize about ways for Apple to turn the ship around... but I doubt they care. Apple's happy to have something conceptually coherent with iOS - an Apple Store employee can show a college freshman to "just update apps like on your iPhone". They decided long ago not to chase gaming. It's a pretty updating app.
Great, you're #8 on the App Store for an app that allows you to blur photos... you're so excited that you're going to get rich... Leaves me thinking: Who cares what rank you are on the App Store, making an app that does basically very little (though useful) should NOT make you rich. I just think of something like Monument Valley - not a throwaway - tons of work - and it DID make them rich. Rightfully so. I guess I'd…
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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…
If a story is in syndication and "evergreen" in nature it could run on it's own for quite some time. [1]
Doing a google search for this particular article it's clear what has happened (although the results are mainly it appears around May 2015)
[1] I was featured in a story in the late 90's and could tell every time it hit a new town newspaper because orders would predictably come in from the new area. It all started with a story from the local paper and that was then distributed (Knight Ridder iirc) for any paper anywhere in the US to pick up. In this particular case it did translate into real dollars as well as many years of repeat business.
However I learned the hard way how dysfunctional the Mac App Store is mainly because Apple ignore it compared to the iOs app store and because their Sandboxing is so opaque it's hindering a lot of good innovation resulting in a lot of apps fighting for the same space.
I was top 10 in paid apps for a while and top 5 in productivity apps. On iOS it would normally be pretty good but that meant nothing for my mac sales as such.
I realized that the mac app store is purely a distribution channel. It's my product but it's their store and so I am now thinking about them as a Wall Mart with no specific importance as such.
I found Google ranking to be much more important plus the ability to sell your product a lot of other places.
And so this week we are going to start selling directly from the website with a 14 day trial. We are using paddle.com for that an amazingly good service.
I am planning to do a writeup about all this as soon as I have some more numbers.
Also as a side note. I would like to see Apple undergo the same scrutiny that we treat our politicians with. When you say you create so and so many jobs you really need to be talking actual jobs that people can live off for that to have any meaning.