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'Redacted' Hits Number 8 Spot in Mac App Store With Just $302 in First-Day Profit

jpgr15 said:
No, I didn't miss any point. Nobody wants to pay for anything therefore it takes very little revenue to make it to the top. Where is the surprise in this? Where is the point I missed? Of course it's going to be easy to get to the top putting a halfway interesting app out there.
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The point is even when you factor in that people don't like to pay for things the Mac app store is still doing comparatively pathetic sales-wise. The point is that people are obviously not going to the app store to get their Mac apps, not that people don't want to pay money. If people didn't want to pay any money the iOS store wouldn't be the huge sucess that it is today (yes there are ad-supported apps, but even the ones that aren't ad-supported are seeing more revenue than this).
 
In San Francisco, that only gives you enough square footage to guarantee that your tootbrush has a place to sleep at night.
 
cppguy said:
Are you kidding me? $36500 a year? That's $3000 a month, before taxes. My rent is almost that much for a tiny 1-bedroom. And if you have a small business, you have to buy your own health insurance, at a much elevated cost. Besides you're not going to be in the top 10 apps for a very long time.
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You should try living away from the city some time, preferably in the middle of nowhere where renting is dirt cheap. I have a relative that pays $390 a month to rent a 3-bedroom house. And yes I do mean a house.
 
The Mac app store is a joke. Apple needs to let people who already have apps from other sources link them to the Mac app store in order to gain interest in the store. Add iAds surport as well to increase the amount of apps being made along with them being free.
 
Parasprite said:
The point is even when you factor in that people don't like to pay for things the Mac app store is still doing comparatively pathetic sales-wise. The point is that people are obviously not going to the app store to get their Mac apps, not that people don't want to pay money. If people didn't want to pay any money the iOS store wouldn't be the huge sucess that it is today (yes there are ad-supported apps, but even the ones that aren't ad-supported are seeing more revenue than this).
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You can't compare the iOS and Mac App Stores apples to apples like that. How many millions more iOS devices are out there accessing the iOS App Store than Macs accessing the Mac App Store? Of course there will be a disparity in sales between the two.
 
Having recently purchased my first Mac (last week) I was SHOCKED at how much Mac "apps" cost. Even apps I had previously purchased and used on my phone.

I had to keep reminding myself it's still a computer and even without buying $30-50 apps it will still do everything my old PC would.

Just not planning on purchasing any apps.
 
cppguy said:
Are you kidding me? $36500 a year? That's $3000 a month, before taxes. My rent is almost that much for a tiny 1-bedroom. And if you have a small business, you have to buy your own health insurance, at a much elevated cost. Besides you're not going to be in the top 10 apps for a very long time.
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Don't forget he's also employed at Venmo.
 
BruiserBear said:
You live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Not exactly a reasonable comparison for most people.
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Sounds like he lives in just about any large city on the United States or Canada. $36k annually, subjected to self-employment tax and paying for you own health insurance, is not a comfortable living. It is a meager living for a single person and practically poverty (by U.S. middle class standards) for a family.
 
kilcher said:
Having recently purchased my first Mac (last week) I was SHOCKED at how much Mac "apps" cost. Even apps I had previously purchased and used on my phone.

I had to keep reminding myself it's still a computer and even without buying $30-50 apps it will still do everything my old PC would.

Just not planning on purchasing any apps.
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They are about the same as on Windows. Yes, apps on a mobile device and apps on a desktop are different prices. Mac apps require a lot more work than iOS apps, and can also do a lot more usually.
 
jpgr15 said:
You can't compare the iOS and Mac App Stores apples to apples like that. How many millions more iOS devices are out there accessing the iOS App Store than Macs accessing the Mac App Store? Of course there will be a disparity in sales between the two.
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According to Tim Cook (2014), 800 million iOS devices and 80 million Macs. This isn't meerly a proportional difference in revenue that we're seeing, the number of sales made from the Mac app store are basically non-existent.
 
nick42983 said:
If he can bring in $100-200 a day for a year he can comfortably live off of that. I'll bet he makes more than $302 ...
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Very unlikely over the long haul average.

The first few days earnings for a new app, or just after a big PR boost, has very little to do with how much the app can bring in per day on average.

The typical app's revenue can very quickly drop down to a few bucks per day, maybe enough to pay for a cup of coffee... and even that requires luck for a small indie OS X app developer.
 
nick42983 said:
$4.99 seems pretty steep for something you can do for free on Skitch and isn't something most people often need to use. If he can bring in $100-200 a day for a year he can comfortably live off of that. I'll bet he makes more than $302 thanks to this MacRumors story alone.
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Pretend that he didn't tell you what the app did because it's irrelevant to this conversation.

He sold product X and it went to #8 and he only made a few hundred dollars. That says a lot about the size of the market. You won't attract too many companies to your platform if #8 doesn't generate more revenue.
 
This is EXACTLY why I believe that ALL software should be free, with exceptions for business-specific enterprise software.

It is virtually impossible to make a living from selling your independent software, and by charging for it you are prohibiting many people from using it who could really benefit from it. The more people who use it, the better you should feel, and the more it will spread.

It's like music. I write music as a hobby, and sure I could put it on iTunes or whatever and charge 99 cents per song. But why would anyone listen to it? I would much rather upload it for free to Youtube so that as many people can enjoy it as possible. When it's up there for free, people can listen and share it with their friends, and maybe I could gain a following. But if I only charged for it, maybe one or two people would pay for it and that would be the end of it. I'd have no fans and maybe two dollars.
 
Parasprite said:
You should try living away from the city some time, preferably in the middle of nowhere where renting is dirt cheap. I have a relative that pays $390 a month to rent a 3-bedroom house. And yes I do mean a house.
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$3000 a month would be the mortgage payment of a Mansion with an estate of land in the Midwest. You'd be lucky to a get a single family home in the suburbs for that here in LA. San Franscico? I wouldn't even try living there.
 
That is not a lot of money!

I was thinking of starting to program for IOS, not any more.

He was top! Wow, I am shocked at how little revenue was generated.

I am sorry for the developer, I know he put a lot into it.
 
But Apple still gets its 30%, right?

And Apple wants to "help" the streaming music industry now, by killing "freemium" streaming?

So it can get 30% from those starving musicians, too.....
 
It seems to me, based on the article, its not really cost effective to be a full time developer for the Mac. I was surprised to see how low the proceeds were, yet he was initially ranked so high. Now that he's settled down into a much lower ranking, his proceeds are presumably much lower as well.
 
nutmac said:
The market has spoken. With few exceptions, the future of app pricing is (1) free with IAP to unlock features, (2) free with IAP for game tokens, (3) free with subscription, (4) free with ads, and (5) totally free without ads.
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There is a better solution for 1) : Apple should allow users limited trial use of apps on the store. Microsoft already does this, and Apple is failing its 3rd party developers big time by not doing the same.

The problem with your suggestion for 1) is that when every app feels forced to offer an "unlock" in-app purchase, the IAP designation on the App Store becomes meaningless. Is this app using IAP for a single unlock, or is it using it to gouge its users repeatedly. Who would know?

Apple knows there is still value in non-IAP software. The iOS App Store is running a front page banner advertising games without IAP right this moment. And as both a user and an app developer, I loathe IAP.
 
jpgr15 said:
Big surprise. Nobody wants to pay for anything on the Mac App store.
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FTFY.

Everyone re-read the article. This is on the Mac App store. On iOS, it's a whole different story. The Mac App store has way less traffic... because there are way fewer macs.
 
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