July, 14
1000+ Apps in the iTunes Store. Like throwing dirt at a fence? There are several tactics for generating revenue from the iTunes store, be it the ever-popular freemium model, advertising dollars from a free application, or in-app content sales. An interesting model we explored this week is what we like to call the “Dirt at the Fence” approach. If you throw a bunch of dirt at a fence, some of it’s going to get through. If you throw enough apps at the iTunes store, you’re going to make some sales. In case you may be wondering, as of a couple weeks ago the vendor with the largest number of apps for sale in the store offered 1616 applications (about 10.8% of the TOTAL store inventory). That’s a wee bit above the average of 3.79 apps per publisher. More than a few people have figured this approach out, with the numbers 2 and 3 spots occupied by vendors offering 1061 and 928 apps in the store, respectively. Twelve other vendors each display more than 200 applications for download in the iTunes Store, pricing them generally at the $0.99 or $1.99 levels. Many of these vendors have created a simple framework and generated numerous apps with slightly different content. For example, a book reader app that contains a single novel, or a news aggregator with each individual app focused on a different major city or sports team. A publisher that offers that many applications for sale is bound to make some money. Even if the leader here is selling just 1 of each app per day, that yields over $1100 in revenue, and that’s after Apple takes its cut. Selling 1 unit a day from just 100 of those apps probably brings in enough to pay rent for the month, and that is less than 7% of the vendor’s inventory. Under the same assumptions, pricing an app at just $1 more could bring in nearly $40,000 per month in revenue. One of the vendors we are referencing here has set the price of an app in his model at $4.99. We’re guessing he codes from his yacht in the Caribbean and submits to iTunes Connect via satellite. So our belief is that there is a way for some people to make money selling iPhone apps. We hope, however, that this model doesn’t overwhelm the iTunes store so that generating cash comes before providing an incredible user experience. For the sake of the store, we wish that developers continue to find rewards for creating engaging software apps to keep us sane in airports and lines at the DMV. TapMetrics helps developers make their apps better and, as a result, reap their rewards.

1000+ Apps in the iTunes Store. Like throwing dirt at a fence?

There are several tactics for generating revenue from the iTunes store, be it the ever-popular freemium model, advertising dollars from a free application, or in-app content sales. An interesting model we explored this week is what we like to call the “Dirt at the Fence” approach. If you throw a bunch of dirt at a fence, some of it’s going to get through. If you throw enough apps at the iTunes store, you’re going to make some sales. In case you may be wondering, as of a couple weeks ago the vendor with the largest number of apps for sale in the store offered 1616 applications (about 10.8% of the TOTAL store inventory). That’s a wee bit above the average of 3.79 apps per publisher.

More than a few people have figured this approach out, with the numbers 2 and 3 spots occupied by vendors offering 1061 and 928 apps in the store, respectively. Twelve other vendors each display more than 200 applications for download in the iTunes Store, pricing them generally at the $0.99 or $1.99 levels. Many of these vendors have created a simple framework and generated numerous apps with slightly different content. For example, a book reader app that contains a single novel, or a news aggregator with each individual app focused on a different major city or sports team.

A publisher that offers that many applications for sale is bound to make some money. Even if the leader here is selling just 1 of each app per day, that yields over $1100 in revenue, and that’s after Apple takes its cut. Selling 1 unit a day from just 100 of those apps probably brings in enough to pay rent for the month, and that is less than 7% of the vendor’s inventory. Under the same assumptions, pricing an app at just $1 more could bring in nearly $40,000 per month in revenue. One of the vendors we are referencing here has set the price of an app in his model at $4.99. We’re guessing he codes from his yacht in the Caribbean and submits to iTunes Connect via satellite.

So our belief is that there is a way for some people to make money selling iPhone apps. We hope, however, that this model doesn’t overwhelm the iTunes store so that generating cash comes before providing an incredible user experience. For the sake of the store, we wish that developers continue to find rewards for creating engaging software apps to keep us sane in airports and lines at the DMV. TapMetrics helps developers make their apps better and, as a result, reap their rewards.

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