Games
Earlier this year, Apple released its list of top iPhone apps at the one billion download mark. Downloads just hit two billion, making Apple's "All-Time" Top Apps label even sillier than it was at the time -- but that aside, it's a very interesting list and there are a lot of good lessons to be learned from it.
We know that developers of some top apps have earned from $350,000 (Pocket God) to $800,000 (iShoot). Some have probably earned much more. It's difficult to estimate income even if the number of downloads is known, because app pricing bounces around a lot. Koi Pond has been downloaded about 900,000 times and Enigmo over 800,000. Even at, say, a dollar a time, that's very good money.
Timing is everything. Of course, some of this is just a matter of physical
reality -- if you sell 5,000 apps a day for 100 days, that's 500,000 sales; if
you only have 5 days, you can only reach 25,000. But there's more to it than
that. There are simply so many apps now (over 50,000) that it's very difficult
to be seen. Apps that came out early, and gained traction, had a huge advantage
over competitors, and that kind of advantage is often maintained long-term.
Interestingly, this entertainment is generally not mindless. Most of the games
are complex, requiring skill and concentration, and quite a few have many
permutations or constant updates (Pocket God). Complex games include Pocket
God, Fieldrunners, Texas Hold'em Poker and Monopoly. The simpler games, like
the memory matching game Bejeweled 2 or the skateboard app Touchgrind, still
require skill and concentration.
Four of the top paid apps were orphans or close,GAMES with only 1 to 2 apps per
developer. Far more common, though, were developers with stables of 3 to 10
apps. Only 1 developer had more than 10 apps. Successful developers leveraged
existing products and apps, building on one to create others - but adapting an
app to make very similar WEBDESIGN
spin-offs (iBeer, iMilk, iSoda, Magic
Wallet), while smart, seems a little too opportunistic. The app developers that
have developed several unique, compelling games are far more likely to have
multiple successes.