

Ask HN: Windows phone dev success/failure stories? - codedivine

Has any of you made any apps for Windows Phone 7? Any statistics, insights or anecdotes to share?
======
ttrashh
I plan on blogging some detailed numbers soon for all my apps. Here is an
example. This app does really well as a free app with ads. I have others that
have done better as paid apps.

Sticker Draw Blog post with video <http://ideaindustries.net/sticker-draw-for-
windows-phone-7/>

Marketplace link to free version
[http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=e80104a9-c243-e011-854c-0023...](http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=e80104a9-c243-e011-854c-00237de2db9e)

I targeted the app at kids in the 2-8 year old range. I started out by making
it a paid app priced at 1.29$. I released it early February. My thought was
there is so much garbage out there something with a little bit of quality
might do ok. It didn't. I also had trouble getting press from any of the wp7
sites. I added a free version using pubcenter ads in March as an experiment. I
also put a "buy the full version" link on the menu.

Paid

93 purchases for paid version. It hasn't done well and I haven't seen an
uptick from the buy the full version link. I did screw up here. I know some
tricks now for getting better numbers for freshly released apps.

Ad Supported

89k impressions since launch 603$ in revenue Avg eCPM is 6.82$ (this is
abnormally high but pubcenter does have high eCPMS) I'm getting 600-1000
impressions a day now.

As far as the development tools and process... I work in a shop that does all
3 platforms. I have some experience with Android and even less with iOS but
I'm going to say this anyway: Windows Phone has the best platform and tools
for mobile development. That may be hard to believe since the platform is so
new but Silverlight is great and the tooling is mature.

~~~
xpaulbettsx
(Disclaimer: former MS employee): Writing WP7 apps has always been a really
awesome experience - making your app look awesome with animations and
transitions as well as custom styles is really easy compared to iOS and
Android. Being able to replace the look and animations of a control without
having to subclass it (i.e. rewrite the interaction logic) is really powerful.

~~~
ttrashh
I saw your tweet. WTH happened? You do something you weren't supposed to? What
happens to Rx?

~~~
xpaulbettsx
Haha, didn't get fired, just moving to another job. Rx will be fine :)

------
nksw
I have 2 free add supported and 1 paid apps up:

Mustachio -
[http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=3adc071...](http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=3adc0710-8a86-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8)
Mustachio Pro -
[http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=0ed1faf...](http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=0ed1faf3-4694-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8)
Square Attack -
[http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=a35d2c6...](http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=a35d2c6d-eb9a-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8)

Mustachio has been up for about 2 months, has about 4.5K downloads, and has
made about $80. eCPM is about $1 with 2K impressions per day. Mustachio Pro is
a paid version ( $0.99) without ads. It's sold about 70 copies so far.

Square Attack has been up for about 2 weeks, has about 2.5K downloads, and has
made about $200. When first released, the eCPM climbed to $6-7 but has dropped
a lot lately ($1-2). I'm guessing it has something to do with # of new users
per day which has also dropped a lot. Square Attack is about 150 in the free
games list so it's very hard to find even though its getting pretty good
reviews. I'd love to know how the top apps got there since being the top apps
list looks like the best way to advertise and the best bet at success.

~~~
watmough
I clicked on your link and got some confusing page about zune software.

[http://social.zune.net/redirect/preferences/clientrequired?R...](http://social.zune.net/redirect/preferences/clientrequired?ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fsocial.zune.net%2fredirect%3ftype%3dphoneApp%26id%3d3adc0710-8a86-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8)

I guess this isn't like iTunes App Store preview pages where it goes straight
there, and anyone can look.

Poor Microsoft, you just have to face palm. Ballmer you idiot, did you ever
think people might buy your phone based on cool apps? I would have loved to do
some WP7 development, I think the metro look is great, the tools sound good,
there's just no damn way now.

------
latch
Of the games powered by mogade.com (they are all WP7 games as far as I know),
I can tell you that:

-The most unique devices 1 game has seen is 129824 (more than twice the next)

-The most game starts a game has seen in a day is 9928

-The most unique devices a game has seen in a day is 4914

Of course, exactly how/when developers are calling the stats tracking
functions, I don't know. For all I know, the guy's got a for loop killing my
server on game start...

------
sinhpham
Well I found some numbers here:
[http://www.farseergames.com/blog/2011/5/26/krashlander-
numbe...](http://www.farseergames.com/blog/2011/5/26/krashlander-numbers.html)

------
runjake
App development is great. Unfortunately, I've only ever seen 2 WP7 phones in
the wild.

The low resale value of WP7 phones on eBay and CL suggests things aren't good,
either.

~~~
pilgrim689
WP7 is definitely a "good" platform. I've preferred having a WP7 over an
iPhone for everyday use. If you're saying "things aren't good" in terms of
sales, then you might be right...but the low sales are definitely not an
indicator of the OS' quality in this case... but more an indicator of the lack
of trust from the public in MS consumer products.

~~~
troymc
"an indicator of the lack of trust from the public in MS consumer products."

That doesn't sound right. Consumers are buying products like Windows 7 and
Xbox 360 in droves, but they wouldn't be doing that if they didn't trust
Microsoft. There must be some other explanation.

~~~
pilgrim689
I was speaking relatively to Apple and Google products. When Apple announces
something, millions of people flock to the nearest Apple store to marvel at
the shininess of the products that "change everything...AGAIN". When Google
announces something, millions have nerdgasms and scour the net for any bit of
rumor or info they can find. When MS release something, millions go
"WP7...what's that? Is that like an iPhone?"

------
kenjackson
Here's a gamasutra article on the various mobile OSes:

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6440/smartphone_and_ta...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6440/smartphone_and_tablet_rundown_.php?print=1)

The interesting quote from the article is from PopCap:

 _"It certainly hasn't resonated with consumers as anyone would like," says
PopCap's Stein, who uses a WP7 device as his everyday phone. "Given the
install base of Windows Phone devices, our games have actually sold quite
well, and it monetizes very well for customers who have a Windows Phone. There
just aren't enough of them right now."_

~~~
nextparadigms
I expect a good game or app to do pretty well on any platform that has little
competition and where the average app price is pretty high.

~~~
kenjackson
In general I agree. Although in terms of games, I think Windows Phone may
already be on par with Android with respect to their marketplace. The Windows
Phone games are quite impressive. Not iPhone yet, but moving quickly.

------
ReadyNSet
We released an app around march

[http://www.bitsabound.com/GlutenFreeRecipes-Windows-
Phone-7....](http://www.bitsabound.com/GlutenFreeRecipes-Windows-Phone-7.html)

There have been sales but not a lot which is expected given its a niche total
sales are still sub 3 digits.

Development tools and development itself is awesome and I can say that given
that I've apps for iPhone as well.

I use a WP7 device for daily use and it hasn't disappointed me for any use
expect maybe that skype is still not available and MS has let carriers have
too much control.

~~~
watmough
That looks pretty neat, but how do you buy it? I couldn't see a buy link on
your page.

------
httpitis
Installed the beta2 the other day. Built the usual hello world app so can't
tell much about building larger apps. What I can say is I find the IDE and
Emulator really snappy. Visual design is really smooth, much better imo than
for example Android development using Eclipse. My $.02

------
bignoggins
Just based on what I've seen around the net, on a per-user basis WP7 is more
profitable for devs than android, but there just aren't enough users.
Hopefully that changes soon. 3 competing (and equally large) platforms will be
great for users as well as devs.

------
gspyrou
For the following 6 apps :

-Earthquakes Monitor <http://plusapps.eu/Earthquakes-Monitor.html> -Frankfurt Airport <http://plusapps.eu/Frankfurt-Airport-Information.html> -Berlin Airport -Munich Airport -Athens Airport -Child Growth Standards

Trial Downloads : 1027

Purchases : 295

In my opinion the main problem with the Windows Phone Marketplace at the
moment is the low sales numbers of devices. With the new version of the OS and
the addition of NOKIA hardware Microsoft hopes that they can achieve a bigger
market share.

------
csomar
For a reason that I don't know and don't understand, their developer program
is not supporting all countries in the world or most of them. That is why I
can't start (I want to get into Mobile Development and I know C#), I can't
publish my apps.

~~~
sinhpham
Look at Yalla Apps. Among 3 official third-party publishers, Yalla Apps has
the lowest price. They have a list of "focused" countries, but you can publish
via them regardless of where you from.

------
dklionsk
The development experience has been extremely good. Visual Studio + Expression
Blend is perfect for rapidly prototyping apps and fine tuning animations.

As for downloads, I've found it's a lot easier to get your app noticed in the
smaller marketplace. Also for a while ad revenue was very good. I made $50/day
using PubCenter for ads in my games for a few months. After March 2011,
however, something in the system changed (or maybe advertisers just started
paying less) and my eCPM has dropped a lot.

------
untog
The smaller audience for W7 is a both a negative and a positive. Negative
because (obviously) there are less customer out there. But positive because
there is less development competition out there- you could probably carve out
a decent niche with a good app.

------
ashbrahma
If you build a free apps with ads and use the MS mobile Ad Exchange, the
eCPM's are pretty good.

------
joeshaw
underthings

------
silveryllium
Heh, I think it's actually incredibly telling that this question has 20
upvotes and has been around for an hour, yet no one has anything to say.

~~~
Limes102
I think that implies Windows Phone was a bit of a failure perhaps?

Everyone wants to know how it's done, but maybe no one knows :(

~~~
de90
Purely from what I've read it's capabilities atm are a bit of a failure.
Honestly though, with Mango being release in about a month, that could change
dramatically.

~~~
polyfractal
I also disagree. I have a WP7 phone and absolutely love the OS. The apps are
lacking, and there are a few irritating missing features on my phone (no
custom ringtones, can't turn off camera sound, apps can't access compass, etc)
but on the whole, I really enjoy the experience.

~~~
de90
I'm glad to here you like the OS, unfortunate about lacking apps though.
Hopefully Mango changes that (thoughts on it?)

I'm actually getting a WP7 phone Tuesday myself. Any recommendations for apps,
or anything once I get it?

~~~
polyfractal
Some of my often-used apps:

-Rowi (for Twitter)

-Wooter (woot.com app)

-YouTube

-Yelp

-TransitFinder and StopGoStopGo for Boston MBTA service alerts/schedules

-Skyview is a sorta-decent celestial constellation app

Games: -Shuriken Ninja, Angry Birds, geoDefense, Beards and Beaks, Plants vs.
Zombies, Krashlander, Pandas vs. Ninjas (free Angry Birds clone)

