
AppStore Secrets - epi0Bauqu
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/
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pxlpshr
Wow, a great presentation that really quantifies how insane the appstore
economy is. I think we might be bucking one or two trends mentioned in the
deck, but for the most part we've had our share of success and failure with
various app pricing strategies.

The question I struggle with is whether or not these consumer trends are
created due to the AppStore's hit-driven structure, or simply the purchasing &
usage habits of a VERY large demographic driving the economy on iTunes. ie:
people ages 16-21. look @ the top music/movie charts.

Here's where we are winning. If you're going to do a free app (and you produce
paid apps), do your own internal marketing and banner ad system. Don't pay
someone else if you don't have significant volume. AdMob ROI is too low for
most small shops with small budgets. With our ad system, we're saving a lot of
money and it's responsible for roughly 25% of our premium app sales. Plus, we
get a 5% commission through linkshare, so we take back profits from Apple's
30%. For the record, we're currently delivering ~2M ad impressions a month.

It doesn't take much to setup your own system. You can do it easily with a
Webkit frame + Google AdManager or OpenX. We use AdManager, the interface is
easier IMO and GOOG hosts everything (no costs).

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wallflower
"Usage time declines by almost a third in the first month after use,
stabilizing at just under five minutes"

I would argue that the presentation is biased to those iPhone app developers
who are casting a very wide net to people who download/buy apps to satisfy a
short-term impulse (e.g. people who download or buy a (cheap) application and
lose interest after a couple times.)

I believe there will always be room for quality in the AppStore. For me,
quality means that I actually like using the app because it is useful. There
are many learn Spanish apps that I bought - that I do not use. Because they
weren't as good as I wanted them to be. I don't use them anymore but because I
bought them I hate to delete them.

For example, Tweetie's integrated Summize search alone made it well worth the
nominal initial cost and I still use it. I'm sure it's supporting the
developer well.

I love iPhone Pano for easily taking panoramic photos up to 3581 x 586px (you
used to have to manually stitch in Gimp/PS).

My point is quality niche apps will have a better long-term market. If your
app only makes $150-$200/month - that's good - you can build a suite of apps.
That's what I'm planning on doing once I get past the memory
management/graphic design/etc. learning curve.

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gyardley
The presentation combines data from a lot of sources, including some of the
quality applications you've mentioned. I didn't break out the retention
characteristics by decile, but late in the presentation there's a slide on
cumulative sessions over time by decile. As you can see from it, there's a
small percentage of kick-ass applications people return to disproportionately.

I honestly can't tell you what's best for your business - a series of quick
applications that many people will buy on impulse, use once or twice, and
uninstall, or a quality application that's lovingly supported, sold at a
higher price point, and gains additional users gradually through a growing
reputation. Luckily, the AppStore supports both styles.

Greg Yardley Co-Founder, Pinch Media

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tlrobinson
Great info.

They say only the top 5% of apps are suitable for the free / advertising
model, but I wonder about the apps using the freemium model. i.e. release a
free version to get publicity, and charge for the better version. Data on that
would be pretty interesting.

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DenisM
One take away from this for me is that users don't care about being monitored
in their iPhone apps. This is a drastic departure from desktop world where any
such thing would be either labeled "spyware" or heavily skewed by self-
selection bias.

This is nice as it allows collecting actual usage stats and fold this into
product design - a luxury not avaiable to desktop apps. This may be the best
thing Apple has achieved with their rigid review process, knowingly or not.

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patio11
_This is a drastic departure from desktop world where any such thing would be
either labeled "spyware"_

Do my eyes deceive me or did Netbeans and Eclipse come with "anonymously share
usage statistics" these days?

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DenisM
Are these opt-in? I know that Visual Studio is opt-in.

Depending on your market, the most desirable customers might be the ones the
most likely to turn it off (opt in or opt out). That can skew your data a
great deal.

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joshwa
Interesting-- I don't recall agreeing to submit usage statistics to either app
developers or third parties--- was that in the app store EULA?

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jfarmer
You didn't. This is data from people who use Pinch Analytics.

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joshwa
Yes, developers put this in their apps, which I've downloaded, and collect and
share this data without my consent.

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boucher
The law does not require disclosure of the collection of non personally
identifying information. If it did, server logs would be illegal. Pinch
analytics performs exactly the same function as Google analytics, and you
don't agree to that on any of the websites you visit either.

~~~
joshwa
True. I suppose I am conditioned to expect, on downloaded apps, a little
dialog box asking if I'm OK with sharing anonymous usage information.

I think the standard is slightly different with desktop apps (with the spectre
of 'spyware' to be avoided)

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ashot
so, it looks like from slide 9 it takes 20k downloads in a 24 hour window to
get into the top 25, so lets say then maybe ~50k to get into the top 10.

I wonder if the returns from being on that list pretty much guaranteed to get
you more than 50k downloads?

If so would it make sense to essentially buy your way into the top 10 (either
with advertising or literally "we'll pay you 2 dollars to install this 1
dollar app in the next 24 hours") and then make money on your way down?

~~~
gyardley
Well, keep in mind that those are the figures for free applications. The
barrier for paid applications is a lot less - about a tenth.

I've seen application developers experiment with this approach, generally
using in-application advertising, but the conversion rates aren't compelling -
and if you fail to get ranked, then you've blown a lot of money. I'd only try
it in conjunction with a lot of simultaneous free press, working whatever opt-
in e-mail list you've built up for your app business, etc. And I'd stop for a
bit when you get onto the top 100 and let the natural benefits of just being
on that list carry your application higher.

Greg Yardley Co-Founder, Pinch Media

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auston
That presentation is so good I had to log in to upvote it.

