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The Mac App Store Won’t Make You Rich

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

#101
post #54

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…

How about the problem discussed in the article? "One Mac app developer made it up to No. 8 with just 59 downloads" If you make it to number 8 with so few downloads, there probably isn't much of a market.

I've been hovering around the top 30 in the Graphics category with anywhere between 1-5 sales/day of the $0.99 app Quick Resizer[1]. It's not that hard in certain categories.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quick-resizer/id498486288?mt...

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

#102
post #93
post #91

This is complete bullshit. My app (Dash) has been in the Top Grossing on the USA Mac App Store at pretty much any rank. There's a huge difference between climbing to the top and then instantly failing and actually staying at the top. A full day in Top Grossing on the Mac App Store gives you something like this: Ranks #10 to #20: at least $2-4k per day. Ranks #30 to #80: around $800-1k per day. Ranks #80 to #150: arou…

Don't you think that you're probably a special case, rather than a typical example?

Oh yes, he is a special case alright.

See, some time ago (feels like ages now), I contacted him to see what would it take to add Chicken Scheme to the list of docsets. His response was quick and helpful.

My company got "bought" and I suddenly had zero free time to follow up. But that boosted my respect for Dash considerably. A assume other people will have similar experiences. I've recommended it to every single developer with Macs that I've met.

Now that I got reminded of it, let's see what I can do about that docset...

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

#103
post #91

This is complete bullshit. My app (Dash) has been in the Top Grossing on the USA Mac App Store at pretty much any rank. There's a huge difference between climbing to the top and then instantly failing and actually staying at the top. A full day in Top Grossing on the Mac App Store gives you something like this: Ranks #10 to #20: at least $2-4k per day. Ranks #30 to #80: around $800-1k per day. Ranks #80 to #150: arou…

Off topic, but I never knew that Dash existed. I frequently look up APIs through google, which always involves a few clicks, and Dash is going to make my life so much better! As I went down through the API list, I was amazed how many times I thought, 'adding that will save me some google searches'. I just bought a copy, thanks!

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

#105
post #91

This is complete bullshit. My app (Dash) has been in the Top Grossing on the USA Mac App Store at pretty much any rank. There's a huge difference between climbing to the top and then instantly failing and actually staying at the top. A full day in Top Grossing on the Mac App Store gives you something like this: Ranks #10 to #20: at least $2-4k per day. Ranks #30 to #80: around $800-1k per day. Ranks #80 to #150: arou…

Thats not really the point as I see it.

The point is that being in the top doesn't mean what it means on iOS. On iOS you will be able to stay in the top purely by being in the top because people use the app store much more frequently.

On the Mac app store you being in the top is more a product of a lot of other things you do.

If you hit a nerve just like you did and I to some degree did you will do well even if you aren't in the top of the app store.

At least that's how I understood it, but perhaps I am putting too much of my own bias into it.

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

#106

I have been lucky and is doing fairly well with Ghostnote on the mac app store. My product is also lucky to be the only one of it's kind as far as I am aware, which means no competitor and plenty of room to grow it. 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 in…

You should post back tomorrow how high you climb based on this post. I never heard of Ghostnote, but I just bought it after watching your video online.

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

#107

I have been lucky and is doing fairly well with Ghostnote on the mac app store. My product is also lucky to be the only one of it's kind as far as I am aware, which means no competitor and plenty of room to grow it. 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 in…

> top 5 in productivity apps. Mobile purchasing is ruled by iOS in the states, at least. Desktop purchasing, especially in regards to productivity, is ruled by Windows. Those fancy macs you see everywhere are little more than dedicated facebook machines. Those people are interested in your product, generally. Or if they are, it'll be for their work computer and paid for by the IT department. Do you have a windows ver…

As someone who has used a Mac (vs. Windows) box as a working machine for as long as I've had a choice in the matter, this is abject nonsense. Yes, Windows is still a huge presence in the software industry. But denying that people do serious work on Macs is just plain trolling.

If we're going to throw around anecdata, virtually everyone I know who uses a computer to work on these days uses a Mac. This is a vast turnaround from just a few years back, when Windows was virtually compulsory. For much longer than that, it's been University Student => Mac laptop, only rarely Windows. When I meet with folks from Very Big(tm) software companies, they invariably have Macs.

There are definitely domains that are Windows strongholds. AFAICT, none of the major CAD/CAM suites run on OS X (e.g. Solidworks, Pro/E, Geomagic (nee Alibre) Design, etc.) Stuff like major site planning software (e.g. that keeps big airports running) is virtually all Windows.

For all that, it's easy to miss that Mac has for a very long time been on a user-driven vs. enterprise-mandated upwards trajectory. This seems similar to the forces that pushed acceptance of iOS (and Android) into the enterprise: where user demand ultimately broke the stranglehold that the entrenched, enterprise-friendly solutions had. (I'm looking at you, Blackberry.)

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

#108

I have been lucky and is doing fairly well with Ghostnote on the mac app store. My product is also lucky to be the only one of it's kind as far as I am aware, which means no competitor and plenty of room to grow it. 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 in…

You should post back tomorrow how high you climb based on this post. I never heard of Ghostnote, but I just bought it after watching your video online.

Thank you so much and I appreciate it. Litteraly in the process of submitting update for app store review. So a bunch of new features and improvements coming your way.

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

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> top 5 in productivity apps. Mobile purchasing is ruled by iOS in the states, at least. Desktop purchasing, especially in regards to productivity, is ruled by Windows. Those fancy macs you see everywhere are little more than dedicated facebook machines. Those people are interested in your product, generally. Or if they are, it'll be for their work computer and paid for by the IT department. Do you have a windows ver…

As someone who has used a Mac (vs. Windows) box as a working machine for as long as I've had a choice in the matter, this is abject nonsense. Yes, Windows is still a huge presence in the software industry. But denying that people do serious work on Macs is just plain trolling. If we're going to throw around anecdata, virtually everyone I know who uses a computer to work on these days uses a Mac. This is a vast turnar…

Throwing in some data here,according to stackoverflow Mac is en pair with Linux,but both still behind windows. Anyway seeing the "normal" desktop marketshare on desktop,both Mac and Linux are way more common in the developers world. http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2015

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

#110
post #91

This is complete bullshit. My app (Dash) has been in the Top Grossing on the USA Mac App Store at pretty much any rank. There's a huge difference between climbing to the top and then instantly failing and actually staying at the top. A full day in Top Grossing on the Mac App Store gives you something like this: Ranks #10 to #20: at least $2-4k per day. Ranks #30 to #80: around $800-1k per day. Ranks #80 to #150: arou…

Hey, just bought Dash (iOS) a couple of weeks ago. Haven't used it too much yet but looks great.

Since you're here: have you considered adding Kickstart file syntax? RHEL's pages tend to be pretty bad (the CentOS ones are better I know).

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