

Top 100 iPhone app dev posts sales (~200k sold to date) - jsatok
http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/convert-second-month-sales/

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mrshoe
I must say that this article kind of turns me off to iPhone development. They
made a _huge_ marketing push for that app. Somehow they got press coverage all
over the web. They ran a laptop giveaway for people who retweeted the launch.
Their website and blog had great marketing materials. It seemed like everyone
clued into the web heard about Convert the day it came out. This all resulted
in a big spike that quickly died off after earning them about $100k. Now that
the app is about to drop off the Top 100 list and they're going to raise the
price, I imagine that sales will plummet even further.

People in the comments mostly say things like "to be honest I don’t use it
that much" and "I originally purchased convert to support great app design".

It really paints a picture of the App Store being about gimmicks or quick hits
that grab a bunch of attention long enough to rake in some cash before they
fade into the past and out of our collective memory.

I'd like to build something more lasting. I'd like my sales curve to look just
like theirs, except flipped around the Y axis.

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netsp
I get the feeling that we don't have the right vocabulary for thinking about
iphone apps. They're a little more like albums or films then like software.

~~~
patio11
I have the hardest time convincing my software developer friends that just
because I sell people software for $30 doesn't mean my customers expect me to
be Best Friends Forever with them for life.

"But you don't have an explicit license term!"

My customers don't even know what that _means_. They'll use it until they
don't feel like using it. Then, they'll stop. Its a fairly cheap consumer good
for them, akin to a new toy for the kids, which might have a shelf life in
weeks (or days) for the same price point.

This isn't totally a horse of a different color from iPhone apps, except the
typical iPhone app is expected to last about as long as a frothy coffee
creation from Starbucks.

