

Convert first month sales  - scarface548
http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/convert-first-month-sales/

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Tichy
So 100000 people _need_ a unit converter on their phone? Seriously? I "need"
one perhaps once a year, and then I just use Google (which would be available
on an iPhone, too). (Need as in "hmm, gee, I wonder what x is in y", not as in
"oh my god, I need to know this ASAP!!!").

I think there is another story hidden there - taptaptap has become so famous
that people just buy whatever they put out there. Good for them, but hardly
something to draw parallels from.

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cakesy
Only being 99c helps. Who cares, if it is only 99c, you probably spent more on
coffee in the last hour, or at least a lot of people have.

I think the big attraction is the great design. it is a beautiful looking app.
There are plenty of free apps that do the same thing, but loop rubbish. People
pay for beauty, otherwise that $10 hooker down the road would be laughing.

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rudd
I think this is the first time I've understood some of the path to
profitability for the iPhone App Store. It's not about making a great app and
keeping it up forever. It's about having a hit, milking it for all it's got,
then moving on to another app. Even if your app barely took off at all.

For another example, look at Tapulous. They started off with a bunch of small
apps, and one of them, Tap Tap Revolution, took off. They've turned that into
quite an app with numerous versions. Note that it's not just updates to the
app but a bunch of more limited, artist/genre-focused apps. This kind of stuff
is the key.

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allenp
I think having the right PR chops is a huge benefit - visibility is so
difficult. Building product anticipation is the key there I think. It is
really hard to time things right with the app store approval process so I'm
curious if they got their apps approved first and delayed the release date
until building enough interest.

Regarding the milking/moving on - one of the most frustrating parts of iphone
app dev is the incredibly long feedback loop. The app store means you aren't
agile and can't respond to customer feedback as fast as you'd like. I think
you're dead on with the model Tapulous used - cast a wide net, nurture what
works, and milk the living hell out of it until it dies.

~~~
DenisM
Surely you could use ad-hoc beta for feeback loop?

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allenp
100% Yes you can and should use ad-hoc testers. I think the real problem isn't
in finding bugs, but in changing direction/adding value which isn't always
surfaced in QA.

The hard part is that if we assume the "live fast/die young" model it becomes
increasingly difficult to change/grow the further we get from launch since we
are falling further below the more recent apps, below more recent items on
blog, social bookmarking, and pr sites, and our buzz is wearing off. Unless we
can re-invigorate the buzz the work put in to updating the app might be better
spent creating version 2 (w/ it's own buzz and launch) six months down the
road.

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gsaines
I agree with you Tichy, it often seems hard to believe that what people spend
their money on, but the numbers are nothing to scoff at. I'd be interested to
know if the sales numbers for a hit and run product cycle are linear or
asymptotic, as in, will they get $130k, and then $110k out of it in months 2
and 3, or will the falloff be much sharper, say $100k, $70k, $20k etc etc? It
seems like if revenue diminishes rapidly, it's an absolutely brutal and
cutthroat market, not one that I'd like to be in. However, if marketing
efforts can keep the app riding high for a few months, the proposition looks a
lot sweeter.

Regardless of the sales falloff, nice work guys, and congratulations.

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dbatch
Good article, I remember seeing these guys awhile back with their first couple
apps. They definitely have it down, useful tools with user friendly designs.

