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

[Rafagon]

I don't understand the purpose of this app. Does it merely facilitate the placement of a black rectangle on a document over the piece(s) of information you wish to redact? Does it do anything else that I'm unaware of?

I've been doing the same using Skitch for a long time, on both iOS and Mac. It seems to do everything that this app does, plus a whole lot more — and it's free.

Skitch for iOS - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch-snap.-mark-up.-send./id490505997?mt=8

Skitch for OS X - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch-snap.-mark-up.-share./id425955336?mt=12

 

[gotluck]

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.

I always get a smile when these articles come up citing SF's insane living costs as some kind of necessary business expense. The fact that this app was created in SF is completely irrelevant and unnecessary, it's just waste. This could have been written in a barn in Iowa.

 

[jpgr15]

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.

Well aware it's the Mac App Store. I don't remember ever saying it was the iOS store. Maybe you can show me where I did?

 

[akac]

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.

If all software is free and I can't make a living from it…then what software would exist? Very little. If the world today was at a level of GIMP and other free software made by hobbyists, nobody would be using computers because we'd be stuck in the 80s.

If my day job was doing something else other than developing software, I can tell you I'd have no time to do anything more than a few knick knack software pieces.

I enjoyed the time back in the 80s when i'd type in computer software from Compute's Gazette on my C64…but I could do that as a kid. I have no time with a family to do that today.

 

[scottwaugh]

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.

This is for the Mac App Store (not the iOS App Store), so don't call off the iOS App store if you're really interested.

That said, I think its very difficult to do iOS apps on your own where you make a decent living - unless you strike the lottery and hit one out of the park. It's not impossible, but its certainly not likely.

Probably better to view it as a hobby - have a living on another job - then hit it out of the park in your spare time (and you've got a career moving along if the iOS app gold doesn't pan out).

 

[Gasu E.]

An annualized revenue of $110k for a $5 app that does nothing but let you draw black rectangles (or blurs, or pixelate) parts of an image? That sounds remarkably good to me...

Even with sales falling off, it sounds like he did pretty well for an afternoon's work.

Even if it took him a month, and $110K is the total lifetime revenue, that's a very good return for a one-man shop. Of course, to sustain this as a full-time business, you need to keep coming up with $100K ideas.

 

[Lictor]

You live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Not exactly a reasonable comparison for most people.

Other cities are expensive too... Moreover, you have to pay taxes and business expenses. Our of $100 earned, less than $50 will actually end up in his pockets.

 

[Gasu E.]

Wouldn't revenue be the right word here ?

He has no significant expenses. He's not paying himself for his own time. So revenue and profit are pretty close.

 

[RichardH1]

An annualized revenue of $110k for a $5 app that does nothing but let you draw black rectangles (or blurs, or pixelate) parts of an image? That sounds remarkably good to me...

Even with sales falling off, it sounds like he did pretty well for an afternoon's work.

The sense of entitlement these whining developers have is totally out of place.

 

[Lictor]

I don't understand the purpose of this app

That's kind of the point. This app is pretty useless. Yet it easily climbed to the top sales on the Mac App Store. And this translates to a tiny amount of money.

I have paid a couple of applications on the Map App Store, such as Dash. These took a lot of work to program and they were done by companies, not individuals. I can't figure how they can make a sustainable living out of so little money... Actually, that's probably why Dash now has an iOS version...

This show that the Mac App Store is mostly a failure.

 

[macUser2007]

An annualized revenue of $110k for a $5 app that does nothing but let you draw black rectangles (or blurs, or pixelate) parts of an image? That sounds remarkably good to me...

Even with sales falling off, it sounds like he did pretty well for an afternoon's work.

So, why don't you do it, "in an afternoon," instead of wasting time here fantasizing about other people's money?

Yep, your "annualized revenue of $110k" is a fantasy.

Or better yet, why don't you start your own store? That way you don't have to write anything after the first afternoon, just collect 30%, like Apple, from everything sold?

 

[Gasu E.]

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.....

Nice job stringing together a bunch of random thoughts into something that makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Lictor]

He has no significant expenses. He's not paying himself for his own time. So revenue and profit are pretty close.

Computer was stolen ? Office space is free ? Taxes are free ?
If you're operating any business, you have expenses. You have least have taxes to pay...

 

[Jessica Lares]

The amount of times your app is downloaded cannot be compared to how much profit it gains. And when developers are complaining about how their simple todo list and photo censor apps aren't doing very well, then they honestly don't get the Mac community as a whole and aren't paying attention to the ecosystem in general.

 

[wigby]

You missed the whole point of the article then. The point is how easy it was to get into the top paid apps list, with so little money being made: "Redacted was eighth in overall paid apps and first in top paid graphics apps"

The point of the article SHOULD be that without context of other competing apps, this developer's story means nothing. Everyone knows the app store and even podcast rankings are based on volume within a given time frame. So small developers can actually break into the top 10 if they time it just right and they're lucky.

Back in the day, I had my podcast jump into the number 7 spot briefly because I went to an Apple store and subscribed to it on every Mac in the place all at once. I don't think it's as easy to game the system these days but it still works the same way.

 

[ob81]

I remember when the App store first came out. The iOS version. It was a sad day for me. All of the top paid apps were games. I clicked the productivity tab, and literally, some of the same productivity apps from then are there. I use a few of them, but even back then I knew that i better get used to it, because the real development was going to be in the $.99 range, and pointless.

 

[RichardH1]

It seems to me, based on the article, its not really cost effective to be a full time developer for the Mac.

So you believe that ONE pretty-much useless app (actually, just a little utility) should generate enough income for the develop not to have to do any other work?

 

[ConnYoungy]

Were you paid to post this? Seems a bit odd for front page news, plenty of apps climb the app store charts!

 

[winston1236]

$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.

And people in Mississippi can get a massive house for 1000 a month. Too bad they will only earn 1500 a month. It's all relative...

 

[peteo]

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.

You could say this about pretty much any indie developer on any platform. Look at steam, most of the indy games go for $10-20 and then they constantly have these crazy sales where stuff goes for $3-$8.
Its very hard to make it on your own as a programer

 

[nrose101]

And what color is the sky in your world? How are people supposed to live while they give away their hard work for free?

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.

 

[KdParker]

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.

If you need a plugin or an application to do whatever, the first stop for most people is to 'Google it'.

Most of the time (if not all the time) you can find something for free that will do what you want.

 

[kwikdeth]

most people in the world would do backflips to make $300 in a day.

 

[peteo]

And people in Mississippi can get a massive house for 1000 a month. Too bad they will only earn 1500 a month. It's all relative...

Thats the whole point, where you live its NOT related to how well the app does in the app store. You could be pretty much anywhere. So if you wanted to make a go at living off an app you coded you could move to a place where rent is way cheaper.

 

[maadmole]

Reasons this is entirely unsurprising

1) Unlike iOS, the Mac App store does not have exclusively; you can distribute apps directly and avoid Apple's 30% cut. This is far more significant than the disparity in platform size. I'm sure Apple would love to change this but don't dare.

2) Desktop users are not accustomed to using an App store in the first place (mostly history and inertia). The only reason for a developer to even list an app there would would be to get free publicity for a (free) app.

3) Desktop apps can be binned into: bundled; free; subscription; perpetual license. The last is declining as apps with sufficiently high barrier to entry shift to subscription (usually using the "cloud" as camouflage for the real reason: greed) and everything else goes to free.

4) this app would have made more sense for iOS/Android, where someone might conceivably spend .99 to avoid learning a graphics editor. Mobile apps are closer to songwriting both in terms of talent and sales: for every Beck/Bowie/Simon, a million (n)one-hit wonders.