Alex, I think the answer to your question is pretty simple: 99.99% of the apps users download are the same 100-200 top apps. This is the case even in the appstore/iTunes - the big difference there, of course, is that there are much better tools available there to facilitate browsing and discovery. Actually, I may be giving too much credit to the Android market, because in practice it does not support app discovery. I'd almost say that the few successful developers are successful in spite of the Android ecosystem, rather than because of it. The large number of apps that blatantly break the Android market TOS together with the huge number of spam apps (30%, according to appbrain in March) are all symptoms of an eco-system that is far from friendly for independent developers.
One reason, I don't like to discuss how much I earn (beyond the obvious reasons), is that earnings are extremely variable - especially with ads; for instance, I've seen fluctuations of 300% revenue from one day to the next, so anything I might write now could be completely inaccurate in a week. It can also easily comes across as bragging. I have 2 apps on the market (both free); one pretty much finished (haven't done anything on it for a while), the other still being improved upon. The latter is the successful one - it is high enough on the market that a user might find it if he scrolls down the relevant category for long enough (most new users still find it through updates, though). It's currently up to around 90,000 users (it's about half a year old). No idea what the install base is - I do not trust Google's numbers at all any more (cf. other discussions here). According to Flurry, the app currently sees some 10K active sessions a day. It is currently making double digits per day in ad revenue, though still a good distance away from Doug's triple digits. Still, assuming the growth in active users continue over the next 3-4 months (possible, though the market gets ever more competitive) and that the current eCPM is maintained or improved (very uncertain), I think three digits is possible. A lof of ifs involved, but it is still pretty amazing to me, as a couple of months ago, the game was not making more than $2-$3 a day. I would certainly consider a paid version on the market, if this was an option at all. Even a 2% conversion rate would probably double the daily income; more than that (Polyclef has about 5-10% conversion, from what I can gather) would certainly place the game within reach of three digit income a day. Based on my own experiences, I can certainly see how someone could make a pretty OK living from simply focusing on developing Android apps, although I don't feel the least bit tempted myself (I've poured a lot of work into my apps, but it's still been out of my free time). I still find it inspirational to read stuff like Polyclef's blog, though. Regards, Michael A. On Sep 18, 10:59 am, Alex <[email protected]> wrote: > I am very interested in the responses to this thread. > > I only have one app on the market, a simple home page widget. It is > free, and it has been downloaded 13,937 times with an active install > percentage of 47%. > > Obviously, I would like to make some money from my apps, but when I > look at paid versions of similar apps to mine, the download numbers > are pitiful. > > We are constantly reading about the massive growth of Android and the > 10s of millions of devices out there, so why do most apps struggle to > even grab a tiny percentage of that user base? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
