

My last Android app sales figures and why it's still great to start a mobile app - barredo
http://blog.edward-kim.com/my-last-android-app-sales-figures-and-closing-thoughts-on-starting-an-android-app-business#

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dangero
Interesting hypothesis on app sales. The apps that I've seen do well more long
term are not necessarily apps that are ever seen as "hot", but more of a brand
growth steady increase while providing lasting and growing value. Example
would be Spotify, Kindle, or Instagram. They have a service attached that
makes their iOS app not their identity. This makes sense because iOS apps are
usually a product, and service oriented offerings are more of a complete
company offering. Products even outside of a mobile app store have a shelf
life. I think if you want to make sustained sales in the current mobile market
you need to think beyond a small iOS app and into a larger service style
offering.

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edawerd
Agreed. Products that are pure mobile apps without a service attached to it
will rely very heavily on marketplace rankings for sales. And marketplace
rankings always have a time-based decay factor as a part of the algorithm.

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sumukh1
This is a hidden secret of the "App Store economy". To see how strongly the
"Hot & New" dynamics are embedded into App Stores, check out the sections of
the iOS App Store (Featured -> New & Noteworthy) or Google Play (Top Grossing
New Apps)

If you are able to catch onto a foothold, you can reap a lot quickly - but the
fall will be just as fast as the author saw here. The apps that are able to
stay on top have a very strong hook with increasing value (ie the popular
social gaming apps with in-app purchases or the social/messaging apps).
Anything else will result in the inevitable fall in rankings and therefore
sales. This is why "app development companies" often have many many apps in
the app store to continually reap from this cycle. There's another aspect to
the publishing cycle and it's in-app purchases. The #1 paid app on the iOS app
store is #31 top-grossing. 28 of the 30 before it are all free apps (which
aren't ranked all that high in the free charts)

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fuzzywalrus
I know this a captain obvious:

Some of this smash-n-grab shovel-app development would be negated if the Apple
App Store simply offered more meaningful app discoveries.

Also thanks to author for posting stats like this.

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hoi
Very true that the lifecycle of an app can be very short due to the need for
the app store economy to constantly unleash new blood. However, couldn't he
have used his momentum to build a base of loyal users to help his future apps,
rather than (as the article tends to suggest)(, start from the beginning again
each time.

The successful app, should have yielded him a customer base of which would
make it easier to seed a new app, rather than fstarting again from zero? More
interestingly, more analysis into the cost benefits of when to do further
updates, and when to release a newer version would be insightful.

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edawerd
This is exactly what I did when releasing new apps. By the time I had built
Car Locator, I had built a following of loyal users who were willing to try
out other apps I released. It made releasing and promoting subsequent apps
much easier.

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fxthea
Is there a way to 'push' your new apps to customers or do you just have to
wait for them to discover it themselves (pull)?

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edawerd
Sometimes what I'll do is include a "see more apps from this developer" link
within my apps.

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DigitalSea
Wow, you can actually do pretty well for yourself on the Android marketplace
with the right app, a lot better than I honestly expected. Most people keep
this kind of info a secret, so I appreciate the insight into the marketplace.

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mikecane
Seeing the list of apps he's selling explains much. He has cast a wide net.
Hell, at least one of his apps was already on my list to get when I finally
have an Android tablet.

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drtse4
Here is the list of all the apps he's selling:
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Edward+Kim>

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shocks
This seems to be the money maker:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edwardkim....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edwardkim.android.carlocatorfull)

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bluedino
I see there are no 99 cent apps. The "screen shot, no root" app is $4.99.
Fairly expensive, isn't it?

It also has more 1-star reviews than 5-star reviews.

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cygwin98
Surprisingly, that one has been making lots of money though. That fact changed
my impression that Android users don't pay much for non-game apps.

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joonix
How do you get an app into the "Top New apps" in the first place? I wouldn't
have a clue how to stand out from the saturated mass of apps out there.

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chii
i hear that there are black market places you can buy faked reviews and
download so that you get a foot in the door. one you'd get on the top app
page, then merit will take over.

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anoncow
>then merit will take over

That seems so fair.

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skeletonjelly
Edward is answering questions over on reddit

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1e7el0/my_last_andr...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1e7el0/my_last_android_app_sales_figures_57kmonth_peak/)

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ebellity
Are you still making 30K$/ month or am I reading the graph wrong ?

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edawerd
I stopped updating the chart in February. As the trend indicates, sales have
continued to decline since then. My latest figure is 15k-20k/month.

~~~
coryl
Still ridiculously good for an indie.

Any suggestions on how to find profitable niches?

