Developers Get First Monthly Sales Report for Apps

[MacRumors]

iPhone and iPod Touch developers have received their first full month of iPhone sales reports from Apple. Prior to this Apple had started providing developers with daily stats, but only since approximately July 31st. Stats for the lucrative first two weeks had remained a mystery to most small developers.

With the release of the monthly stats, developers now have access to all their sales for the first month. For one developer we spoke to, their sales for the first two weeks were significantly higher than the last two weeks. Obviously, individual sales trends may vary depending on press coverage and availability of the app, but it seems large revenue opportunities are available to many independent developers.

Two developers have been quite public about their sales stats thus far.

Eliza Block's crossword app, 2 Across [$5.99, App Store], was generating over $1800/day in revenue. Block told TGDaily that she had generated $16,000 in one week alone. Not bad for the 4th year philosophy graduate student.

Meanwhile, TapTapTap's John Casasanta revealed early sales stats for his applications over the course of a week:

- Where To? [$2.99, App Store], find nearby locations of interest - $9,547.07
- Tipulator [$0.99, App Store], a tip calculator - $349.47

If you are a developer and would like to share your sales numbers, please contact us. Numbers can be reported only by type of application (game, utility), if desired.



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[TuffLuffJimmy]

Good for them. I think that Apple should give as much feedback as possible, financial wise and app stability wise.

[samh004]

Hopefully this will drive people to make more apps for the store and then they'll get their share in the profits. If a developer can make something revolutionary or useful, they're going to make a lot of money here.

[FaustArp]

looks like I am going to be working on an application myself.

[OneMike]

some nice sales number there. didn't think about it that much but seeing those number not bad at all

[bigmc6000]

Wonder if they'll bother to update her profile so it doesn't read "Eliza has been writing useless programs for Mac OS X."

I really wish I would have jumped on this and figured something out - I've got a decent programming background but didn't have the motivation. If I would have known that I could net over 1k a month I would have been all over it!!

[arn]

Originally Posted by bigmc6000

If I would have known that I could net over 1k a month...!

1k a day.

arn

[Sijmen]

I now want an App Store for Mac. This thing is 'huge', as Steve would say. The perfect opportunity for iPhone and Mac developers alike.

[bigmc6000]

Originally Posted by arn

1k a day.

arn

Well that's what they are making but I was factoring in my potential and downgraded it to 1k/month

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Originally Posted by Sijmen

I now want an App Store for Mac. This thing is 'huge', as Steve would say. The perfect opportunity for iPhone and Mac developers alike.

As nice as that'd be I'd worry that if Apple did make an App store they might close OSX down more. Making it the ONLY way to install apps, and ONLY Apple approved apps.

[Consultant]

Originally Posted by tuffluffjimmy

As nice as that'd be I'd worry that if Apple did make an App store they might close OSX down more. Making it the ONLY way to install apps, and ONLY Apple approved apps.

Nope, not happening.

iTunes store is a convenience. You can buy music from iTunes but it's not the only place to get music in OS X.

Reason iPhone is more controlled because you don't want some app to crash your phone.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Originally Posted by Consultant

Nope, not happening.

iTunes store is a convenience. You can buy music from iTunes but it's not the only place to get music in OS X.

Reason iPhone is more controlled because you don't want some app to crash your phone.

I'm not seeing your logic. Are you saying you'd want an app that crashes your computer?

Really, the only difference between my phone and my computer is Steve jobs' reality distortion field. I'd rather have the ability to install any app on my phone that I want, that isn't necessarily allowed on the app store. Just because it's not allowed in the store doesn't mean it'll crash your phone. Any way your statement makes even less sense considering that apps on the store CAN crash your phone.

[Buschmaster]

As a point of interest my app (Mint Nutrition) didn't hit the store until the 21st but managed to make $1,900.50 in the US. Smaller numbers in other areas of the world, but I'm still pretty excited about that!

[admanimal]

Originally Posted by tuffluffjimmy

As nice as that'd be I'd worry that if Apple did make an App store they might close OSX down more. Making it the ONLY way to install apps, and ONLY Apple approved apps.

That would be platform suicide, never going to happen.

[bob_hearn]

Any other developers not get a financial report yet covering Canada? Edit - Apple says the Canada reports will be ready tomorrow evening.

I can report that sales for Subway Shuffle have settled to around 100 units / day (at $2.99), although I think that will drop if I don't keep updating it.

The way the system works, whenever you update an app it goes to the top of the list in its category. E.g., when I update Subway Shuffle, it appears at the top of the "most recent" listing, which is what you get by default when you look at Games / Puzzles (or just Games on the iPhone app store itself). That extra visibility generates a big sales spike. So there is constant churn with apps pumping out updates. The only thing keeping it from being really annoying from a user perspective, I guess, is that it takes several days for Apple to review an update before posting it. (Maybe that's the reason for the delay?)

[Project]

John Casasanta just posted their July figures (the three weeks that the AppStore was up)

http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/final-numbers-for-july/

Where To?

* what it is: makes your iPhone behave more like a real GPS device by helping you find points of interest around you
* price: $2.99
* number sold: 24,094
* gross sales: $72,041.06
* net sales: $50,597.40


Thats a nice chunk of change

[Nall]

Originally Posted by bob_hearn

Any other developers not get a financial report yet covering Canada? Edit - Apple says the Canada reports will be ready tomorrow evening.

So now I guess the followup question is, when do the developers get their money?

[bob_hearn]

Originally Posted by Nall

So now I guess the followup question is, when do the developers get their money?

From Apple:

By contract, the Financial Reports are due 45 days from the close of our fiscal month. So July sales are due by mid September. In practice, we attempt to have all reports placed in your iTunes Connect account by the 15th of each month.

We make payments throughout the month, by currency, normally within 15 days of your Reports posting, as long as your account balance reaches $250 USD or its currency equivalency per territory.

[ibwb]

Originally Posted by Sijmen

I now want an App Store for Mac. This thing is 'huge', as Steve would say. The perfect opportunity for iPhone and Mac developers alike.

The fiercely competitive nature of the App Store, combined with relatively massive profits to innovative small developers, suggests possible benefits to everyone from such an equal-access retail environment.

I don't think it's reasonable to make it the only avenue for Mac apps, but it could be an important one.

[Markleshark]

Holy ****, $50k?

There is money to be made.

[zoetropeuk]

Yeah, and considering most apps are rather poor. I've not yet found a single really impressive application. Seems at this stage that developers are simply porting existing apps to an iPhone format and removing most of the desktop features

Matt