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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

#111

Post by emsy »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #90
emsy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the second article and I think you should take it with a grain of salt. I don't want to elaborate much but I think it's targeted at the "quantity developers" which pump out low to mid quality games, hoping for a hit. On the other end of the spectrum you have quality developers like ustwo who don't need to finance 9 unsucessful games. Of course in reality it's much more complex than that but I don't think th…

The designer who wrote that article is behind the wildly popular Triple Town. It speaks to the reality of development for small development teams.

That doesn't contradict my point that ustwo might not need to make ten times more money than they spent developing the game to run the company (and to be considered succesful).

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

#112

Post by kapeli »

Poiesis wrote: post #110
kapeli wrote: 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).

Please contact me about this: https://kapeli.com/contact

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

#113

Post by kapeli »

ThomPete wrote: post #105
kapeli wrote: 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 a…

Not sure how it is on iOS, but I'd assume your app has to deserve to some extent to be in the top. If you're in the top because of a fluke (e.g. you got featured in some blog post), you'll fall as soon as the hype fades. No idea really, the most "high-ranked" I've been on iOS was around rank 80 Top Grossing in the Productivity category, which I lost as soon as the launch hype faded.

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

#114

Post by saidajigumi »

Bouncingsoul1 wrote: post #109
saidajigumi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wow, super interesting data set, thanks for that!

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

#115

Post by ThomPete »

kapeli wrote: post #113
ThomPete wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Not sure how it is on iOS, but I'd assume your app has to deserve to some extent to be in the top. If you're in the top because of a fluke (e.g. you got featured in some blog post), you'll fall as soon as the hype fades. No idea really, the most "high-ranked" I've been on iOS was around rank 80 Top Grossing in the Productivity category, which I lost as soon as the launch hype faded.

On iOS you are much more likely to stay in the top if you first get there. I.e. it has it's own mechanics internally and externally because more people visit the iOS app store.

Also much more sites are looking at the top in the app store and so your exposure for getting there is many many times more.

Further more much more iOS apps are inherently social so that helps too.

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

#116

Post by Bamafan »

kapeli wrote: 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…

I'm curious about marketing costs for your app.

Did you simply release that app and customers come after? Or did you have to pay a certain amount to acquire customers (i.e. paid advertising)? Or did you acquire customers some other way?

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

#117

Post by danso »

kapeli wrote: 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…

I second the thanks for divulging your numbers...always great to see what's behind the veil here. Perhaps you should contact the OP's author and see if they'll write a followup about you.

And you shouldn't be shy about direct-linking your app (as well as the blog post)...I didn't know about it until now but it looks right up my alley. Thanks!

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

#118

Post by kapeli »

Bamafan wrote: post #116
kapeli wrote: 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…

I'm curious about marketing costs for your app. Did you simply release that app and customers come after? Or did you have to pay a certain amount to acquire customers (i.e. paid advertising)? Or did you acquire customers some other way?

No marketing really. At the beginning, almost all users came from the Mac App Store.

I've tried different marketing things along the way, like sponsored posts or Google Adwords. Probably spent around $500 in total on marketing during the lifetime of the app. None had a meaningful effect so I kind of stopped trying.

I mostly focus on engaging my users as much as I can and trying to make them happy, so that they will recommend Dash to others.

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

#119

Post by kapeli »

danso wrote: post #117
kapeli wrote: 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…

I second the thanks for divulging your numbers...always great to see what's behind the veil here. Perhaps you should contact the OP's author and see if they'll write a followup about you. And you shouldn't be shy about direct-linking your app (as well as the blog post)...I didn't know about it until now but it looks right up my alley. Thanks!

> Perhaps you should contact the OP's author and see if they'll write a followup about you.

I don't think they care about someone making a living on the App Store. They either care about failures or about getting insanely rich.

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

#120

Post by kapeli »

ttcbj wrote: post #103
kapeli wrote: 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!

Thank you! <3
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