iPhone App Store Sales for #1 Spot Revealed

[SolRayz]

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.

You are absolutely correct when describing the free market, with the presumption however, that some consumers are dumbasses and will buy anything.

I am personally still waiting for more useful applications from the app store, a video recorder being one of them.

 

[kk1ro]

I think this guy deserves it.
He came up with the concept a long time ago and he had to wait half a year for his app to be approved.

We don't have to be "grown-up" all the time, we can have some stupid fun with friends, once in a while.
Having said that, I bought the app and already pulled some "pranks" with it. It's great, stupid and childish fun that is worth the $1 price tag, IMO.

 

[koobcamuk]

At least we know that the application isn't crap.

I just hope the developer doesn't follow-through.

 

[kockgunner]

Great

more incentive to make crap apps.

 

[Zmmyt]

Sad.

 

[sushi]

I think this guy deserves it.
He came up with the concept a long time ago and he had to wait half a year for his app to be approved.

We don't have to be "grown-up" all the time, we can have some stupid fun with friends, once in a while.
Having said that, I bought the app and already pulled some "pranks" with it. It's great, stupid and childish fun that is worth the $1 price tag, IMO.

Agree.

Nothing wrong with having some fun at times with your iPhone/touch.

 

[Bentov]

Why do people think that a crapload of cheap, pointless apps make people not want to buy better, more useful apps. "Yea, I bought iFart, now I can't buy i<insert name of useful app here> because wtf iFart is only $.99" What kind of logic is that?

After being a phone and ipod, what is the iPhone really? *gasp* a mobile entertainment platform perhaps? Just because :

a)you don't have any use for it. (Does anyone really?)

b)you didn't think of it. (the real reason people are bothered by this)

doesn't make it the bane of all iPhone development. Adapt to the market, quit your whining, and create what the people want. If you apps don't sell, guess that means you misinterpreted the public.

If someone creates a pointless, mind numbingly stupid app, but now can afford to pay their mortgage, make a car payment, or buy their kid an iPod; that is what I want.

 

[oticon6]

I tried Pull My Finger... and deleted it 30 seconds later. The App Store needs a big change to restore consumer confidence in more expensive apps (as well as the revenue change suggested by Tapulous). I'm considering delaying the release of my game until this happens (I'm confident it will) so that it doesn't get forgotten before it even has a chance...

 

[dragossh]

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 heard this is the best book for learning Objective-C / Cocoa.

I, for one, followed some tutorials on the internet and then made some small apps in Xcode. But I also developed in Delphi and C# for a while, so while it felt a little bit strange at the beginning, I picked up quickly. I still remember how I couldn't understand Navigation Controllers or delegates

So yeah, I suggest you buy that book and jump in.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

Man, I'm in the wrong business.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Ummm...

yeah...

$10,000 is a lot of money.

I mean, how much money do you think they invested in making the application? Probably just $100 for the iPhone dev membership. Maybe $600 for a Mac Mini to make it on, but they probably already had the Mac. Maybe $400 for the iPod Touch to test it on, but they probably already had the iPod Touch.

So, hell yeah, that's an awesome return. Almost no effort going in, huge amounts of money coming out.

And the incentive to make quality products? Well, how about the fact that the programmer themselves want quality products? I'm not releasing Void Masters until I'm content with the quality and it's something I'd be willing to spend $50 on (though I'll probably only charge $10 for it... doesn't matter though because thus far I've spent nothing but time on it. I'll probably spend $400 for an iPod Touch to test on and $100 for the dev fee... so it's costing me just $500. With just 72 sales I make all of that back. I may just go and look into getting me a real drummer to play the soundtrack rather than using Garage Band loops. May just go get me some voice actors too...)

 

[ikermalli]

C'mon, everybody loves farts!

 

[macFanDave]

I am loving my major in college. I'm double majoring in Computer Information Systems and Computer Science. One more year left and I'll have my bachelors. I can't wait until I get my Masters because App Store here I come! LOL.

Nearly $10,000 in a day- wow.

And if you live in a dorm that was anything like what I lived in, farting was elevated to a form of high art. So, in reality you have a TRIPLE major going!

Butt, you'd better get in on fart app trend early, because when that bubble bursts, it's gonna be pretty smelly.

 

[nik.martin]

While $10,000 in one day may sound like a lot. it isn't because it will not continue at that rate for long.

Thanks Mr. Obvious.

 

[ImageWrangler]

Well... this story reversed my mind about Apple being the bad guy about banning and/or not allowing certain apps in. I stand corrected, Apple was right to keep stupid apps out, because stupid apps show how stupid humans are.

Like the others too expressing the sentiment here "I weep for humanity," indeed, me too. Despite the backlash, maybe should pull a 'Netshare' on these apps, i.e. yank them. A little bad publicity but save the app store from looking like total junk of banal stupidity.

 

[macus3r]

i think a lot of you are failing to realize that iPhone is selling at an EXPONENTIAL/ACCELERATING rate.

Talk about "the market drying out" or "market saturation" is nothing but crazy talk. There are over 7MM iPhone subscribers on AT&T's network and growing. It's clearly obvious Apple is on a warpath with the phone, kicking ass, taking names etc.

The fact that Apple constantly advertises Apps and the App store function via the web + TV is practically free marketing for everyone who's got an App on the store--Apple has gone as far as segmenting their consumer's choices for them... I can't see how any of you could perceive this as negative.

Sure, it's a FART app, but it's still a program and still generating decent daily revenues, and as the developer has indicated, revenues are increasing day by day. As far Apple is concerned, they could probably care less that it's a FART app any more than if it were anything else--their commercial terms are clearly stated they net 30% of revenue--sell all the fart apps you can! Apps like these are clearly driving their revenue line and I'm sure they've got NO complaints with that.

I think a lot of you posters need to get off your high horse. There's plenty of useful apps out there, and as EA or the folks at GameLoft could probably explain, the Top 10 ranking, in the grand scheme of things, will not dictate the revenue performance of their App on the store. After all, if your App provides a solid, enjoyable UTILITY, then it will by all means reach #1, even though it's started all the way at the bottom, just like everyone else. Design and create a decent app folks. Anyone can reach #1.

Case in point: New York Times. Arguably the best print news, easily one of the worst Apps in the store. Still, downloaded thousands of times.

 

[blilly]

Totally not getting it, are you?

While $10,000 in one day may sound like a lot. it isn't because it will not continue at that rate for long. The problem here is that with Apps selling for $0.99 there is no budget for "serious" software. "real" software is very expensive to make. It takes a team of people months and years to write and all the while you are paying them a middle class wage. and payroll taxes and insurance and rent of the office and so on. In fact you don't get much software written for $1,000,000. -edit-

No, YOU are wrong in thinking that putting an app in the store is the end of the story and the rest is left to users to find it. Any smart, serious developer WILL devote time to develop a great app for this platform, but they will have to market it just like their other products.

Look at some of the solutions to tap into larger systems like Basecamp, Salesforce, etc. ... if well planned, built, and marketed, ANY app can be a success without being "#1".

 

[MacToddB]

Next big app: Koi Farts in Beer

Yeah, I was thinking of Koi Farts in Beer... X-ray edition!

Hey, my app, 100sounds, is #13 in Entertainment! It has a couple of fart sounds, but that's only 1% of the 200 (and counting) sounds! Guess I should've stopped at 1sound.

Combine this with Koi Pond for a new app named iBubble.

 

[tveric]

Guess I should've stopped at 1sound.

Well, when it comes to marketing, you've hit upon a truth.... Keep It Simple.

 

[Digitalflick]

Anyone see idiocracy? Kind of reminds me of the movie theater scene.

 

[irun5k]

It is income, therefore it isn't tax free. I hope these developers aren't blowing all the money they earn or else they're seriously going to be hurting when April 15th rolls around. Probably get stuck with a fee too if they aren't paying estimated taxes.

Does Apple report a 1099 or something to the developers? Back when I was in shareware development, I set up a sole proprietorship.

This involved, but wasn't limited to:

1) Filing for a fictious name
2) Getting a zoning permit, since work was being done in my home
3) Periodically mailing myself my software in a sealed envelope with a postmark, in case there was any copyright disputes
4) Having someone do my taxes, because doing a schedule C for two states in a year that I moved and one state having state income tax became overwhelming

This, IMHO, is the absolute most simple way to legally set up a software outfit. Most will want to set up an LLC at a minimum. For example, what if I sue the iFart developers for crashing my phone or something. Do they have protection?

My guess is that most of these peeps are just kids in their bedrooms with no intention of every paying any taxes. They'll be in for a rude awakening if they're ever audited though.

 

[goofy166]

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

Ok that sort of makes sense, but how about this - we've given out a lot of promo codes and many have written reviews that have not appeared even after 3 days. Are promo reviews ignored by apple?

 

[goofy166]

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.

I have to be careful because all my competitors are lurking. Definately have a solid plan that will grow our income stream as I can lock in my position. I see tons of oppurtunity in this space and not from fart programs,

 

[NOV]

Anyone see idiocracy? Kind of reminds me of the movie theater scene.

LOL was about to post the same thing. This is Idiocracy in full effect.

 

[pawn3d]

That's mind blowing. An application for a phone only 1 1/2 years old in Apple's iTunes App Store has made $9198 in a single day and it's primary function is humor from fart noises!!! Unbelievable.

I'm actually quite dissapointed in the Mac community.