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iPhone App Store Sales for #1 Spot Revealed
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I'm sure someone in this thread could squeeze one out in no time. It probably wouldn't cause such a stink if they know what they're doing.
Absolute madness, I might invest in the iPhone Dev License if that much money can be made, even with a small time app that doesn't get high in the charts, it's still a bit of money coming in
I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing, but there was a small segment on the local 11 o'clock news last week (when this article hit the stands: http://www.newsweek.com/id/174266) about the people making a quick buck through the App Store. Who would have ever knew this would have so quickly become so ingrained into our culture.
This just shows that anything is possible with the programming for the App store. Great to hear about this success story.
Spare us, please. With games like SimCity ranking at #2 this complaint has grown old and quickly. There is more than enough demand for high-quality iPhone apps that produce high-level sales, and if these numbers hold true, just think what games like Spore have made. EA isn't complaining about how little money they're making on the App Storethey're shoveling in new games, and other major companies are coming in to join them.
Absolute madness, I might invest in the iPhone Dev License if that much money can be made, even with a small time app that doesn't get high in the charts, it's still a bit of money coming in
I never made close to the amount of money iFart did, but my app LifeTimer paid 2 mortgage payments (therefore paying for the dev license AND the iPhone.)
My suggestion is to download the SDK first, play with it, and if you get a good start on an app then pay the $100.
Pathetic idiots buying these stupid apps rocketing that developer to #1, there are so many better and more useful ones out there.
Doesn't have to be 99 cents
I have 7 apps in the app store. Sales have been as high as $6500 a day and as low as $2000 a day. My apps are priced at $4.99, $9.99 and $19.99. The $20 app is generating 2/3 of the income so I don't buy the idea you can only make good money at 99 cents.
Here is my question -
Why is the number of reviews for app shown in the list of apps so much larger than the number of reviews shown on the apps product page?
I have 7 apps in the app store. Sales have been as high as $6500 a day and as low as $2000 a day. My apps are priced at $4.99, $9.99 and $19.99. The $20 app is generating 2/3 of the income so I don't buy the idea you can only make good money at 99 cents.
Here is my question -
Why is the number of reviews for app shown in the list of apps so much larger than the number of reviews shown on the apps product page?
Well, not really considering where farts are generated.
True.A fart is the same in every language
Snort!
Fish farts. Cool.
What apps?
Death and taxes, man. Count on them.
Looks like up to now, he's grossed a little over $30,000. That's a 25% tax bracket, so he owes about $7500 in taxes. (If he keeps up the sales, he'll soon be in the 33+% brackets.)
But wait, there's more. It's his own business, so he owes 12% (another ~$3600) in self-employment tax for social security, for a total of $11K in taxes so far. (Rough calculation)
The good news is he can take half the S-E tax off his original gross income for calculating the original tax.
If these brilliant developers had any brains, they'd create a ton of 'crap' apps that will allow them to rake in 20k per day, giving them plenty of funding for the more complex apps they'll want to release.
I'd say that's far better than just sulking and passing up opportunities.
Wow, thats pretty impressive.
It is definitely not supposed to be that way. It has been that way since the App Store came out. I don't know why Apple won't fix it. At some times, I have seen some of the free Apps say they have 15,000 reviews when they really only have 1,000.
Mind sharing which apps are yours, or at least which category? Those are impressive figures! I have 3 apps in the store and 2 in review... it'd be great to be seeing half that much
I think it is from the anonymous, no-text reviews people leave when they delete your app and are prompted for a review. I partially draw this conclusion because the star figure is almost always lower when you're seeing the larger number... and people who are deleting your app are almost certain to leave a lower-star review than those who keep it and choose to write a review in the app store.
Oh, also, to the SimCity poster a while back: I think it was porntipsguzzardo, not pirntopsguzzardo...
I have 41 cheap and simple (but useful) apps on the App Store right now and have been growing my catalog since late July. Each app took me less than a day to do. Some days I've cranked out five apps (and no, they are not the stupid "Countdown till Easter, Countdown till Christmas" apps). I easily have pulled $10k/month for the last 6 months in a row, quit my day job, and now do iPhone stuff full time. I have no employees, no costs (besides tax), minimal no-cost marketing, and no time schedule. I work MAYBE five to ten hours per week on this stuff.
Lately I have starting working more towards full-time on developing. I'm starting to develop some apps that will probably make me a lot more money and be even more useful to people, I've hired my brother as a contract employee for some basic work, and I expect to triple my monthly earnings by the end of 2009, especially with the sales of iPhones increasing daily worldwide. I'll have so many apps on the store that if one tanks, I have a catalog of others to back me up.
It can be done. And the apps can be simple but useful and still make you great money.
Lately I have starting working more towards full-time on developing. I'm starting to develop some apps that will probably make me a lot more money and be even more useful to people, I've hired my brother as a contract employee for some basic work, and I expect to triple my monthly earnings by the end of 2009, especially with the sales of iPhones increasing daily worldwide. I'll have so many apps on the store that if one tanks, I have a catalog of others to back me up.
It can be done. And the apps can be simple but useful and still make you great money.
The larger review count includes the ratings people are asked to give when they delete an app. The smaller count is just the written reviews.
41! I have never seen a company with that many apps in the App Store. What is your company name in the App Store?
That's awesome, you are making good money. Question though... what is your plan once your $20 app rapidly drops in sales?
There is probably a relatively small market for people who want to spend $20 on a single app on the App Store, so although your numbers are high now, will they be 2 months from now when your market is dry and you're at the bottom of the release list?
I'd love to hear what you plan to do, especially if your next app doesn't take off like you may hope, because I've run into similar problems and it's partly why I stick developing the cheaper $0.99 apps myself.
Where did you learn to write Apps? Did you ever develop for OS X?
I'm just wondering if it is possible for absolute beginners to "hop on the bandwagon", but somehow it must be harder than it looks.
I won't be revealing what my company name is on the App Store for competitive reasons.
As for beginners to hop on, probably not at the rate of apps I have been able to put out. I've been in programming for about 10 years prior to this, so it was a quick transition for me. I came from C# on the Windows side. Plus, if you have a day job that isn't related to this, it's going to make it even harder for you to pick up and run with it.
That being said, just grab a book, read, learn, and go. If you have a good idea, take a month or two and put out your first good app. After the first one if just gets easier. From there you can make the transition.
Death and taxes, man. Count on them.
Looks like up to now, he's grossed a little over $30,000. That's a 25% tax bracket, so he owes about $7500 in taxes. (If he keeps up the sales, he'll soon be in the 33+% brackets.)
But wait, there's more. It's his own business, so he owes 12% (another ~$3600) in self-employment tax for social security, for a total of $11K in taxes so far. (Rough calculation)
The good news is he can take half the S-E tax off his original gross income for calculating the original tax.
Please reference the difference between "average tax rate" and "marginal tax rate".
You sound like Joe the Plumber.
This is what the free market is all about. If people are going to spend $0.99 on a fart app, then people should be producing fart apps. Does it reflect poorly on today's society, maybe, maybe not. How much can you get for a buck these days? Not much. Why not have something sophomoric? Do we really need to be THAT serious ALL the time?
I have been doing software development for almost 10 years now and have worked on some small, several thousand dollar projects and some large, several million dollar projects. If you can pump out some code that farts and make 30K in 8 days, do it. That is a pretty good ROI. Do 3 of those a year and you are making 90k, not a bad salary.
I have been doing software development for almost 10 years now and have worked on some small, several thousand dollar projects and some large, several million dollar projects. If you can pump out some code that farts and make 30K in 8 days, do it. That is a pretty good ROI. Do 3 of those a year and you are making 90k, not a bad salary.
Well done!
Well done to the person/people who developed it!
The app may not be my cup-of-tea, but who cares, that's what the app store is for... custom apps for everyone! If people want to buy a fart app; good on the developers for giving them one! They clearly know their market, and a big thanks to apple for doing all their advertising for them! LOL
Great to see someone publish their sales figures too, very interesting!
Well done to the person/people who developed it!
The app may not be my cup-of-tea, but who cares, that's what the app store is for... custom apps for everyone! If people want to buy a fart app; good on the developers for giving them one! They clearly know their market, and a big thanks to apple for doing all their advertising for them!
LOLGreat to see someone publish their sales figures too, very interesting!