To be honest, it seems these days like Apple is trying their best to reduce the number of [small] developers that publish to the App Store.
I have been selling on the app store for close to 3 years, and in the last 6 months, pretty much every thing that somewhat levels the playing field has been taken away by Apple.
The new releases list used to be every apps's chance to be visible for at least 24 - 48 hrs, and if enough people bought your app, it made its way to the top in category list, which in turn gave it visibility as long as people kept buying your app.
Apple has removed the new releases list, and have made it very difficult for people to find the top in category lists. The only prominent lists now, are the hand picked apps in the featured category.
I find it hard to believe that all this is not intentional.
My advise to anyone seeking to develop mobile apps right now? Think it through before you jump in.
Fuck this mentality. What do we, as a collective community, say to the companies that can't mutate their business models because a player in the field has changed things up (for better or worse)? We tell them to change or die.
Why is this any different? So what you can't depend on a "New Release" list anymore - do something else to get attention. That's basically a fundamental part of our creed, as hackers and as creators.
iOS is fundamentally a business, it's within their rights to do as they please. It makes sense to make the most profit and that probably means moving from small iDev businesses to large ones (ie SEGA etc) that are happy to spend a lot of money pushing their apps.
I agree with you though and I think the hackers will move elsewhere. Im excited to see if people move across to android etc for exactly this reason.
iOS will taper off eventually but Apple will milk every cent before that happens.
Why would a developer move to Android? Even today it's harder to get sales on Android. I would expect devs to move to the web or possibly make a bet on one of the other platforms.
I'm saying that eventually Android and other platforms will grow to match or exceed the spends of iOS customers.
If it were me doing it now, I would develop for iOS because thats where the money is at the moment. Having said that, you need to deal with the hoops that this developer is talking about. To my mind that is just part of doing business though.
>I'm saying that eventually Android and other platforms will grow to match or exceed the spends of iOS customers.
Android playing with low margins has so far just resulted in it wining a huge share of the demographic that doesn't buy many apps and don't much care for smartphones anyway.
The App Store can probably be more profitable than Android apps even with 1/10 the users -- as long as those are the right users.
Not sure. It's been thirty years since the "desktop PC" market and Apple still commands the majority of the profits from personal computers sold.
(Lots of techies and tinkerers also choose Android for it being more "open", but those are an insignificant minority that doesn't mean anything money wise).
I've said this many times here before but I'll say it again - the way to make money on the app store is to build apps on contract for other people.
If building and selling your own products is your goal then there are other platforms and distribution channels that are much less hostile to the small indie dev.
Actually all platforms that have enough volume to support products with customer live time values above $.99.
Otherwise you can't put meaningful money into customer acquisition.
It's very product specific. For example, I'm interested in music-making software so I'm looking at VST plugins. A web-based SAAS app might make more sense for other people, etc.
Am I missing something or is everything you are saying wrong ?
Apple hasn't removed the New Release section, it was two taps for me to find the Top Free/Paid apps in each category and the process for registration for single developers hasn't changed.
I also don't agree that getting into mobile apps is a bad thing right now. If you can make something great you have every opportunity to do well.
