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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
