Dapple developer finds iPhone App Store no bed of roses
Being in business for yourself is rarely easy. A case in point is the fact that, although a relative handful of have made big money, most of the individuals writing applications for the iPhone make little if any money.
With a sunk cost of about $36,000 and first month revenues of just $535.19, in spite of good reviews for his product, Canadian game developer Owen Goss wrings his hands a little—the first sale went to crackers (See also: Crackulous: One click iPhone app cracking) who then uploaded his game to pirate sites and, as best as he can reckon, a review on a top shelf Web site resulted in a conversion rate of 0.03 percent.
As far as that conversion rate goes, it’s actually pretty normal. For example, if you have a Web site and it generates 10,000 pageview, count yourself lucky if 300 people click your ads and actually buy something, generating anything more than a micro payment to you.
So, Owen’s apparent problem isn’t quality or relatively poor returns (his numbers aren’t “bad” per se), it’s simply that he hasn’t managed to get his app, a color matching game called Dapple (iTunes) reviewed by any of the Top 3 iPhone app Web sites — Touch Arcade, 148Apps, and AppVee. That is, he’s not generating sales because he hasn’t gotten his game in front of enough eyeballs — it’s a numbers game.
What’s a guy to do? Well, for better or for worse, Owen’s confessional blog post covering his tale of woe has been Slashdotted and his Web site has slowed to crawl (it will probably be unreachable by the time you read this). That probably means today will be his best sales day ever (See also: iPhone gold rush rages on) and that folks at Touch Arcade, 148Apps, and AppVee are now more likely than ever to give him the review, good or bad, he desperately needs to succeed.
Pity all of the other iPhone developers who will now post confessional blog posts hoping to emulate Owen’s success…
What’s your take?
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March 10th, 2009
Very good apps, thanks for the post
March 10th, 2009
I think if they want to get their apps know they need to advertise just like everyone else.
They can’t just post a game and expect to have it sell great.
I would get a bunch of friends to download it and write reviews in the app store for it.
Also do a youtube video for it.
Every new app shows up in the new section doesn’t it?
I check it almost daily and it seems to be the same games?
I don’t pay for a game now until I try it or if it gets lots of great reviews and looks nice in the screen shots.