I had my first app launched in the App Store in December 2008. If you're interested in my overall sales figures since day 1, check out my latest blog post.
I had my first app launched in the App Store in December 2008. If you're interested in my overall sales figures since day 1, check out my latest blog post.
Chris.
Congrats, nice and positive post! I wish you good luck for your apps in the future!
I’m a professional programmer since 1992 and I started developing for the App Store in August 2008.
Cool! Obviously you have much experience of programming and have a good start on App Store.
If you have other ideas besides of photo apps, you may get much more revenue. But it is ok if you just make apps for fun.
I've developed in a lot of different languages: C, C++, C# (.Net), Java, Flex, ... Objective-C is not that hard to learn if you know C or a C variant. Be sure to take your time to learn the fundamentals. There's a lot of excellent documentation available in the iPhone Dev Center. And don't forget to check out some of the samples!
You said in your blog it's extremely low per hour. How much time did you invest into these app?
In hindsight it might have been interesting to know how many hours I've spent on each app, but I never kept track of it.
I can make a rought estimate though. I started working on my first app in August 2008. That's about 140 weeks of work at an average of 10 hours a week (that's probably on the low side) = 1400 hours.
Note that those 10 hours are not only for development and testing. There's also giving support for the apps, making and maintaining a website, staying up-to-date with everything that happens in iOS land and last but not least promoting the apps.
1.4k hours for $26k is not that low That is x2 minimum wage in US. And developing app is a lot more interesting than making Big Mac in McDonalds if you ask me
And the Lessons learned section is very insightful and helpful. Being very new to App Store, I learned a lot from that.
I also made massive major changes to some of my most important apps. Let's see how it will turn out.
1.4k hours for $26k is not that low That is x2 minimum wage in US. And developing app is a lot more interesting than making Big Mac in McDonalds if you ask me
I agree.
When I said "extremely low per hour", I was comparing it to what a developer normally gets paid per hour.
I had my first app launched in the App Store in December 2008. If you're interested in my overall sales figures since day 1, check out my latest blog post.
Chris.
Chris,
Thank you for sharing your stats!
You've mentioned that you've spent some money on advertising too. Would it be possible for you to describe what exactly did you pay for and whether it was worth it?
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Just remember that US AppStore is not the only AppStore in the world.
Interesting that an update with more features results in more sales. I don't understand why this is. I've not looked at the apps in any detail but I would expect a user to buy an app if it looks like approximately what they want. The price point is so low for apps I think most users buy them without doing too much research... an additional feature or two isn't going to change the app to such an extent that a browsing customer is suddenly now going to buy it when previously they would not have?
Interesting that an update with more features results in more sales. I don't understand why this is. I've not looked at the apps in any detail but I would expect a user to buy an app if it looks like approximately what they want. The price point is so low for apps I think most users buy them without doing too much research... an additional feature or two isn't going to change the app to such an extent that a browsing customer is suddenly now going to buy it when previously they would not have?
Increasing features increases conversion rates. Out of every 100 people that sees your landing (description + icon), x number of people will buy it based on various factors. Features being one.
So adding features won't necessarily expand the top of the sales funnel but will help in increasing your conversion out of the people that do get there.
Increasing features increases conversion rates. Out of every 100 people that sees your landing (description + icon), x number of people will buy it based on various factors. Features being one.
So adding features won't necessarily expand the top of the sales funnel but will help in increasing your conversion out of the people that do get there.
Ok thanks, it's interesting that the difference is measurable, particularly when dealing with quite small numbers.
You've mentioned that you've spent some money on advertising too. Would it be possible for you to describe what exactly did you pay for and whether it was worth it?
Most of the advertising money went to online ads on Mac and/or photography related sites. The majority of them did not result in enough additional sales to pay for the ad. At best it was a break even. So, my experience is that online ads for iPhone app are not a good idea.
Blog post about my App Store revenue
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