In short, apps are like show business. How many actors/musicians even get to give up their day jobs?
On Sep 22, 3:55 pm, Indicator Veritatis <[email protected]> wrote: > You make some very good points in this post, supplying the balance > lacking in all the previous posts on this topic. But there is one > thing I have to correct: I said "rosy picture of glowing > success...that doesn't really tell us much". I did not say > 'outlandish'. > > The two are not the same. Even if we take at face value all the claims > made about such-and-such app making such-and-such figure, it really > doesn't tell us much. Why? Because as you yourself pointed out (thanks > for that, BTW), only about 3% of apps even break 1000 downloads. The > money makers are all doing far more downloads than that. So they are > quite the minority. > > That is an excellent example of the balance lacking in all the > previous posts on the topic. > > But here is another example: have you noticed how free apps in general > get more downloads than paid apps? Or what about apps that start out > free and turn into paid apps? Don't the download numbers then tend to > drop like a rock? > > I haven't actually checked the numbers on Google's Android Market, but > I did notice both these trends on SlideME. I can think of no reason > why the same trend would not occur on both (though I know Google > discourages turning free into paid). > > On Sep 22, 1:50 am, "Michael A." <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sep 21, 10:35 pm, Indicator Veritatis <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > So the moment the first post in this thread went up, I knew we were > > > going to see some responses painting a rosy picture of glowing > > > success. But that doesn't really tell us much. > > > I haven't seen any claims on this thread that I find outlandish by any > > means. > > > At, e.g., $3 a sale, $100 per day is only 33 sales per day = about > > 10-15K downloads over a year. There are several hundreds of paid apps > > that have broken the 10K downloads mark, so I am not surprised to see > > several people reporting such income. Note that both niko and Doug - > > the two who have cited >$100 a day, specifically point out that their > > apps have been on the market for a long time = most likely top ranked > > apps. These are not apps that have made big money for years - most > > likely their current level has only been reached in recent months as > > the number of Android devices has gone through the roof. > > > Of course, one should put their success in perspective by noting that > > of 45K+ paid apps, only about 3% have >1000 downloads and less than 1% > > have >5000 downloads (according to Androlib). So obviously, success of > > that kind is rare and not to be expected for the average app. > > > The sad thing is that, by iPhone standards, these tales of "glowing > > success" are laughable. Consider for instance Trism (big hit on the > > iPhone - sold 50K units in its first 2 months @ 5$) has yet to break > > the 500 download mark on Android. Obviously, success is all about > > being in the right place at the right time with the right product, but > > but such a huge disrepancy in sales can hardly be put down to only > > luck. I am looking forward to reading Polyclef's blog when he takes > > status of sales on iPhone/Android for his latest cross-platform app > > whether he finds the trend of iTunes being immensely superior to the > > Android market continuing. > > > Currently (again according to Androlib), Android has 27 paid apps with > > more than 50K sales. Only 1 (Robo Defense) has gone over 250K in > > sales. That should really tell people everything they need to know > > about the profitability of the market for a regular starting > > developer. > > > If you have the name recognition, of course, big hits are still > > possible. Angry Birds will certainly make a killing when it comes on > > the paid market. Judging by their download data, the Moron Test is > > making well over $600 a day now (5000 downloads between Jun 29 - Jul > > 11; 40,000 downloads from Jul 11 to Sep 7 @ $0.99). So really good > > sales are clearly possible, if you have the right IP. > > > Regards, > > > Michael A. > > > > On Sep 17, 7:40 am, TreKing <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 5:22 PM, William Ferguson <william.ferguson.au@ > > > > > gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Very droll. > > > > > Perhaps =P > > > > > But it's a good question. > > > > > Yes, it would definitely be very interesting to see some stats from > > > > various > > > > developers. > > > > > But it IS a fairly private / personal question not many people are > > > > going to > > > > be willing to answer. Notice how no one has actually answered the > > > > question, > > > > including the OP, save for the one person that was already blogging > > > > about it > > > > anyway. > > > > > BTW, poly, thanks for sharing and congrats on the success. When I'm > > > > making > > > > that much I'll be flaunting it too =P > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > TreKing <http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking> - Chicago > > > > transit tracking app for Android-powered devices -- 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
