

The Revenues of a Moderately Successful iPad App - peteforde
http://www.remembary.com/blog/remembarys-return-the-revenues-of-a-moderately-successful-ip.html

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alanfalcon
Really fantastic article, complete with graphs and solid numbers, as well as
detailed explanations of those figures.

The underlying theme in all app pricing advice I've seen is that if you're not
in the top 100, the actual price of your app matters very little. That is
completely borne out here, with price increases resulting in more revenue and
about the same rate of units sold.

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rendezvouscp
It’s bizarre, but I’ve had this experience as well. Last October, I started
raising the price of my app by $1 every week or two. The total number of
purchases per week varied very little, so I ended up leaving the price at
$9.99 (the highest I tried).

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randomdata
I experience something different. From $0.99 up to $9.99, no matter what price
I set, my daily income remained essentially the same. Before you ask, the
amount was greater than $0.

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peteysd
Thanks for sharing. The diary/journal app space is pretty crowded, otherwise I
think you would be selling a lot more apps. The one thing that I noticed is
that there aren't many reviews. I think that reviews are key when someone is
evaluating your app for purchase.

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ajlburke
(BTW I'm the author of the article and the developer of Remembary)

Thanks for reading. It is true that the diary space is crowded - and the lock-
in on a diary app is pretty strong once people pick one. Getting reviews is of
course a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: reviews help get users, but you
can't get reviews without users in the first place. I've got a link in the app
for the review page, but I thought an interruptive pop-up box wouldn't be
appropriate for a personal diary.

I've worked hard on distinctive and powerful features for the latest releases,
but I have a nagging suspicion that my big boost in sales recently was from
rearranging the screenshots on the app page to highlight the "Jane Austen"
handwriting font.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the "lite" iPhone and Universal
versions work out - but I have to find some time to build them first.

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alanfalcon
I can definitely imagine you picking up some sales from people searching "Jane
Austen" and finding this app, then seeing the screenshot and making an impulse
buy.

That said, I can hardly imagine using a font like that, personally. It's
fairly strongly illegible.

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ajlburke
It actually gets easier to read over time - but I'll admit I didn't include it
for legibility but rather how distinctive it looks. App sales seem to be a
balance between well-implemented innovative features and flashy-looking hype.

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iaskwhy
Nice read. I am very curious about iPad apps and their revenue, some time ago
I asked around here about the profit ratio between the iPhone and the iPad for
those apps focused on both platforms but I got no response and I did get some
upvotes so I guess it's something people would like to know a little better.
Anyone?

Original submission: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2845158>

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floppydisk
I'd definitely be curious to see a comparison from someone who wrote an iPhone
and iPad optimized version of an application and released in the same time
frame.

The other thing I'd be interested in seeing is if someone did a study on the
buying habits of iPad vs. iPhone (heck, lets generalize and say tablet vs.
smartphone) application buyers. I have a feeling we'd see more apps being
purchased in the smartphone arena as people buy-try-dump apps on the go,
whereas there'd be a more stable market in the tablet space where people
research which apps to buy because they use the tablet for longer durations.

~~~
ajlburke
My next step is to extend Remembary to be a Universal iPhone/iPad app, and to
build a cheaper 'impulse buy' iPhone version with only a few of the key
features. I'll definitely be writing a follow-up with the details of how that
goes.

I just need to find some time to actually build these versions!

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cageface
My iPad app got a bunch of good reviews, was featured in stores all over the
world, and pulled close to 100 sales a day for the first week. It's looking
like lifetime revenue is still going to be in four figures though. When I
consider how much time it took to write, I could have easily made 10x the
money consulting.

I know there are indie devs out there doing well on the app store but
statistically speaking I'm not sure it's a smart investment of time compared
to other options. Prices are too low and there's just too much competition.

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ajlburke
Addendum: Having a post about your app on the front page of Hacker News =
several thousand hits, but no extra sales. Funnily enough, this is the exact
same experience I had with AdWords.

Have to say I feel much better with the hits from HN than AdWords.

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MicahWedemeyer
Thanks for the writeup and the honesty.

