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Skyfire Rakes in Nearly $1 Million in First Weekend

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Apr 12, 2001
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Last week, we reported on the launch of Skyfire Web Browser, a new browser for iOS that enables viewing of Flash video content. The app, priced at $2.99, was quickly yanked from the App Store due to its popularity overwhelming Skyfire's servers used to convert Flash content to HTML5 format, but has since returned in limited "batches" as capacity allows.

MobileCrunch notes that Skyfire pulled in gross receipts of nearly $1 million from the App Store over the app's launch weekend.
The company isn't sharing exact numbers, but they did just tell me that their download numbers for their first weekend on the store were well over 300,000. At $2.99 a pop, that works out to one hell of a bounty. SkyFire isn't walking away with that whole million, of course; Apple's going to get their 30% cut, which brings SkyFire’s share down to somewhere between $600-700,000.
Click to expand...
The company has already revealed that it is working on an iPad-native version of Skyfire Web Browser, which will apparently not be released as a universal version of the existing app, as the company recommends that those who use the iPad as their primary iOS browser hold off from purchasing until the release of the iPad version.

Article Link: Skyfire Rakes in Nearly $1 Million in First Weekend
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/10/skyfire-rakes-in-nearly-1-million-in-first-weekend/
Corbin052198

Corbin052198

macrumors 6502
Mar 13, 2010
285
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Awsome! Just wait until the iPad version comes out. I'm sure their servers will shut down for a couple weeks after the launch, though.
 
vvebsta

vvebsta

macrumors 6502a
Sep 27, 2006
505
0
just goes to show people still want to be able to see flash on their iphones reguardless of how bloated
 
parapup

parapup

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2006
1,291
49
guzhogi said:
I wonder what battery life will be like.

Also, how many people downloaded it just so they could watch porn?
Click to expand...

No smart person will watch porn with a browser which does server side decoding of the videos ;)
 
P

paradox00

macrumors 65816
Sep 29, 2009
1,411
827
vvebsta said:
just goes to show people still want to be able to see flash on their iphones reguardless of how bloated
Click to expand...

I got it just to test it out, and I suspect many others did the same.

Processing Flash on a server means the bloat isn't on the phone, so this doesn't actually mean people want flash at any cost. That said, click to flash would be nice, but we'll never see it.
 
R

rmwebs

macrumors 68040
Apr 6, 2007
3,140
0
This is all well and good but what happens when the cash dries up? The servers go down, leaving you with an expensive Safari.

Anything that you pay for one-time that is reliant on a 3rd party funding its operation is bad news :/
 
Don Kosak

Don Kosak

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2010
860
4
Hilo, Hawaii
What's with all the developers that won't do Universal Apps?

If you're supporting both platforms anyway, it's actually far less code, and less testing to just do a Universal App. (I know, I've done two of them so far.)
 
B

batchtaster

macrumors 65816
Mar 3, 2008
1,031
217
vvebsta said:
just goes to show people still want to be able to see flash on their iphones reguardless of how bloated
Click to expand...

Nonsense. It means nothing of the sort. Check back in 6 months, 3 months or even 1 month and see a) how many ppl are still using it, and b) how many ppl are buying it once the first blush of excitement is over.

Opera's browser went nuts when it was released. It was the Bellepheron to the Chimera of Apple's Safari lock-in. Now where is it? It doesn't even appear on the Top 200 Free list.
 
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crisss1205

crisss1205

macrumors 6502a
Oct 7, 2008
931
267
NYC
Don Kosak said:
What's with all the developers that won't do Universal Apps?

If you're supporting both platforms anyway, it's actually far less code, and less testing to just do a Universal App. (I know, I've done two of them so far.)
Click to expand...

So I can charge more money for 2 platforms! Thats why (I think) the SlingPlayer app will not be universal. If you want to get the iPhone and iPad app it will be $60 instead of $30
 
Whorehay

Whorehay

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2008
631
1
crisss1205 said:
So I can charge more money for 2 platforms! Thats why (I think) the SlingPlayer app will not be universal. If you want to get the iPhone and iPad app it will be $60 instead of $30
Click to expand...

And that's exactly why I will buy neither!
 
Xian Zhu Xuande

Xian Zhu Xuande

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
941
128
So sincere curiosity here: I've read the reviews and it seems like this browser can't do all the Flash-related stuff a personal would normally want to do, ranging from some popular video sites like Hulu to Flash games. I'm not missing Flash on my iPhone or iPad one bit, but I'm also a little curious at this browser's success. Is it mostly people downloading something because they feel like they're getting a thing they were told they couldn't get? Or does this product actually offer something excellent?
 
atticus18244fsa

atticus18244fsa

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
279
0
Waterloo, ON
Didn't they state in that one video that was posted on the homepage that they spent something like $25 million on R&D for this app? They're 1/25 of the way there:D
 
I

ipodtouch-user

macrumors member
Sep 9, 2009
49
0
Flash much?!

Hey Apple - ya think your user base might be interested in Flash??

Lol.

Yeah, you know what's best for us users though - so we should be elated that you are resisting support for it tooth and nail.
 
T

tranceme

macrumors 6502
Jan 10, 2006
250
201
California, US
But does it work?

The reviews have been bad. My buddies at work can't get most sites to work. So, does this mean refunds? Or have people been getting this to work? Just curious.
 
vvebsta

vvebsta

macrumors 6502a
Sep 27, 2006
505
0
batchtaster said:
Nonsense. It means nothing of the sort. Check back in 6 months, 3 months or even 1 month and see a) how many ppl are still using it, and b) how many ppl are buying it once the first blush of excitement is over.

Opera's browser went nuts when it was released. It was the Bellepheron to the Chimera of Apple's Safari lock-in. Now where is it? It doesn't even appear on the Top 200 Free list.
Click to expand...

Ok I'll rephrase. People want their CONTENT regardless if its playing on bloatware or the latest trend. Allot of content just happens to be encoded in flash.
 
G

globalist

macrumors 6502a
Aug 19, 2009
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Xian Zhu Xuande said:
So sincere curiosity here: I've read the reviews and it seems like this browser can't do all the Flash-related stuff a personal would normally want to do, ranging from some popular video sites like Hulu to Flash games. I'm not missing Flash on my iPhone or iPad one bit, but I'm also a little curious at this browser's success. Is it mostly people downloading something because they feel like they're getting a thing they were told they couldn't get? Or does this product actually offer something excellent?
Click to expand...

You're absolutely spot on here. Nothing excellent, just a short-term sense of victory over a perceived hurdle for lots of folks. I persinally have no use whatsoever for Flash on my iphone so I did not buy this app.
 
S

Seo

macrumors regular
Jun 1, 2009
125
0
Cupertino, California
vvebsta said:
just goes to show people still want to be able to see flash on their iphones reguardless of how bloated
Click to expand...

Not an accurate deduction from this app's popularity.

See, this app is a very slick implementation of Flash on the iOS. No bloat, and everything's fast and battery efficient, because iOS sees it as HTML5. All the bloat and processing is on the Skyfire servers.

All you can tell from Skyfire's success is that people want Flash as long as it is as good or better than HTML5.
 
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