$100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success • Hacker News Board

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#21

Post by nhangen » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 3:26 AM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #3

100K in 4 months is impressive. Keep in mind that that app was featured by Apple though. It makes a huge difference.

Still requires a decent app to be featured, and furthermore, to back up the feature. I don't think it's fair to caveat every app store success story with a comment about being featured.

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#22

Post by nhangen » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 3:27 AM UTC

alexro wrote: post #10

I understand this isn't really comprehensive, but money wise, 2 people spent about 1.5 years on the apps and finally made 100k. Seems like they are just starting to get decent ROI and the battle for profitability is yet ahead.

That's a nice return compared to many startups that spend years without being profitable at all.

They built, learned, and re-built. They're now ahead of the game. I admire that.

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#23

Post by stretchwithme » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 3:32 AM UTC

modmax wrote: post #15

stretchwithme wrote: post #14

I'm curious how the app in the last five months not covered.

Sales have slowed down as our niche market got a bit saturated. We've hit almost $180K total so far.

thanks

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#24

Post by modmax » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 3:39 AM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #3

100K in 4 months is impressive. Keep in mind that that app was featured by Apple though. It makes a huge difference.

If you look at the chart, you'll notice the 3rd feature didn't affect our sales much at all. We've pushed out 12 major feature updates since launch and I believe that had an impact on our sales as people can feel confident that we stand by our product.

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#25

Post by dangrover » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 4:29 AM UTC

My app Etude sold about $100K in maybe 8 months. http://etudeapp.com

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#26

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 6:33 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#27

Post by chanri » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 7:52 AM UTC

modmax wrote: post #17

chanri wrote: post #8

If the author is here, could you comment on how often people use your app? Are these statistics commonly measured for iOS apps?

Last time I looked it was averaging about a 1000 active users a day.

Congratulations! $100k in 4 months is definitely a success. Also, thanks for sharing your numbers and crafting an excellent writeup.

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#28

Post by Concours » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 8:16 AM UTC

Could you comment on how often you update your app and how this affects the sales?

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#29

Post by fbailey » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 11:02 AM UTC

I think iPad Apps are difficult breed - I bought your app because I thought it sounded interesting, but I didn't actually use it.

-do you know how many users start using it regularly?

Re: $100K in 4 months: A niche app's path to App Store success

#30

Post by kschua » Tue, Jan 11, 2011, 10:59 PM UTC

modmax wrote: post #17

chanri wrote: post #8

If the author is here, could you comment on how often people use your app? Are these statistics commonly measured for iOS apps?

Last time I looked it was averaging about a 1000 active users a day.

Congrats! IMHO, that is a success