iOS Real money or hype?

[HiFiGuy528]

I started with a partner yesterday on an iPhone app. He will be doing all the coding and I am the business guy. We agreed that we may or may not make any real money on this so it is considered a hobby, for now.

Anyways, I just want to get a feel from everyone who has a fee base app on iTunes on the following questions. You don't have to disclose the name of your app if you don't want to. Just a ball park and your opinion is greatly appreciated.

-Did you get the amount you expected (+/-)?

-What helped and what hurt your app in terms of making money?

-Would you do it again?

Other comments that may help me or others like me.

Thanks!

 

[dougdawson]

I started with a partner yesterday on an iPhone app. He will be doing all the coding and I am the business guy. We agreed that we may or may not make any real money on this so it is considered a hobby, for now.

Anyways, I just want to get a feel from everyone who has a fee base app on iTunes on the following questions. You don't have to disclose the name of your app if you don't want to. Just a ball park and your opinion is greatly appreciated.

-Did you get the amount you expected (+/-)?

-What helped and what hurt your app in terms of making money?

-Would you do it again?

Other comments that may help me or others like me.

Thanks!

Your first app out the door will be an experiment in learning what to expect from the App Store (both mechanically and sales-wise.) I feel that we're a lot better off for having put out an app that, while useful to its target audience and very well-designed, was not critical to the success of the company, and not capital-intensive (if you consider under ten grand in graphic design costs to be not capital-intensive.)

We had absolutely no idea what to expect from sales. We didn't know if anyone would "get" what we were trying to do. As it turns out, the appearance of simplicity is not a virtue, economically. I can introduce you to my friend, and you can sit down on the sofa and have a perfectly good conversation with him about the relative merits of German vs. Italian opera, but it's only when I inform you that he is actually my German Shepherd in disguise, that you would be impressed.

The number one sales tool for iPhone apps is to get on the App Store home page, and stay there. Some people do it by releasing update after update to stay in the "What's New" subview. This is IMO not so good, because it makes you look like spam, and it's fairly transparent. We don't do that, and we won't do it. [app]Call Now[/app] had been in the can for a long time, and was a final product when it was released, and the flaw that it does have will be addressed by Apple when they fix a standards compliance problem they have right now. We could violate the DMCA and fix it ourselves, but we won't.

Be an ethical organization.

Doug

 

[forcesteeler]

You want to make money. Think Games!!.

Come up with a good game and the money will pile up.

Some guy made a popular crossboard game and makes about $2700 a day. Times that by 30 days and you just made more money then some people make in 2 years.

 

[Mac Me Up]

Expect nothing...get something

My best advice would be set your expectation very low, plan to make no money whatsoever, except maybe your $99 developer fee back. Then when the daily sales figures come in you will be pleasantly surprised. I'm not making anywhere near enough to quit my day job, but I am making enough to be happy with my efforts.

My other piece of advice is prepare to be dissapointed with Apple. They take forever to approve things, sometimes reject things for the tiniest of reasons, and then take forever to approve it again. I've had an app 'In Review' since the 8th of September, and it's just frustrating to know that there is a non-transparent middle-man between you and your customers over whom you have no control. I have a product I know my customers want, my customers want to buy my product, but until Apple puts it's rubber stamp on it, there's zilch I can do to get it out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the app store and the opportunity it brings, but I just don't like dealing with Apple to do it. It's just a real pain.