IOS development: 60% (or more) of applications do not beat costs

Original author: Chris Foresman
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From a translator : This is a full translation of an article by Ars Technica, a small part of which was cited yesterday by the esteemed alizar. It seems to us that it contains many interesting facts that were missed in a summary.

There is no dearth of stories of lone developers who have developed an application for the iPhone or iPad and have made overwhelming success. But in the real world, most mobile app developers do not break even, says a recent study by marketing firm App Promo. Although the research methodology embellishes the picture a bit, the numerous developers we spoke to described the results - 59% of the applications are not profitable, and 80% of the developers cannot support the business only on applications - as fairly accurate.

High expectations



Apple often boasts that the App Store offers users hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from. However, while the great variety helps users, being spotted in a large market can be much more difficult for small developers.

“Over the years, I have seen how the visibility of the applications I'm working on has been noticeably reduced,” says developer Pat McCarron. “Right now, your application will never be seen unless you are in the Top 100 or Top 200 list. Users don’t want to forever scroll down to find your lone app at the end of the list. ”

Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba agrees that the App Store is becoming more and more a lottery, giving less chance for small developers to succeed compared to established companies.

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“The App Store is very much like a lottery, and only a very few companies top the charts,” says Kafasis. “This is a hit business. Just like in music or books, there are several big winners, a few more minor successes and a full set of failures. ”

Some developers even say that the App Promo statement about 59% of applications that do not beat off costs, even a slightly embellished picture. Former NetNewsWire developer Bren Simmons suspects this figure is "close to 85%," while Lucius Kwok suggests that it may be in the "range of 90% and above."

Apple offers almost everyone to try themselves in the development for iOS. For just $ 99 a year, Apple gives you access to a development program, development utilities are free to download, and numerous shelves (both physical and virtual) with books offer a ton of information for iOS developers. While this forms a large base of developers for the platform, it also creates a large group of developers who greatly underestimate the amount of time, effort and money that a high-quality application will require.

“Development costs are typically much higher than people imagine,” says Kafasis. “Application development still requires tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not easy to pay back such amounts with 99 cents - or in reality with 70 cents. ”

Part of the problem may be related to consumer expectations. The fact is that the price of $ 20-30, which is common for desktop software created by small developers in the recent past, was quickly reduced by the App Store to 99 cents or $ 1.99 that we pay for mobile applications. There are many more free apps that monetize through ads or freemium purchases within apps.

“Paid apps, despite being priced at just $ 1, have an amazingly high barrier to entry,” writes McCarron.

Kafasis agrees. “Users still expect a lot, even from the app for 99 cents,” he says. “The worst thing is that everything that is more expensive than a couple of bucks in iOS already falls into the rank of premium prices and you will receive negative reviews only for the price itself from everyone - from users and from journalists. This makes cost recovery very difficult, not to mention making a profit. ”

Discovery, demos, and marketing



Another part of the problem is that Apple has not changed the way the App Store works in four years. Detecting applications for users is a real problem, and search algorithms have led some developers to try and play with the store in SEO (even a similar term for search engine optimization in stores, App Store Optimization , has been introduced , for which there are already special applications and offices, focused on this), for example, rewrite headings, description, and metadata with given keywords.

As an illustration of the problem, McCarron says the Words Play app is not even on the first line in the search for the phrase “words play”. Instead, apps that are called “Words With Cheats for Friends ~ The Best Word Finder For Games You Play With Words And Friends” are now at the top of the search.

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“We knew that such results would be issued according to these words when choosing a name,” says McCarron. “But we assumed that since our name exactly matches the search phrase, we will get first place in the search no matter what. Instead, we seem to accidentally jump on the top five, I have not seen us in first place since the first week we started. ”

The developers agree that Apple can improve viewing and detection, and it seems that the company itself understands this, taking a number of efforts in this direction. Recently, Chomp was purchased , a service that helps in shopping on various mobile platforms. Last week, Apple removed the Chomp application from the Play store, so it’s likely that closer integration with the App Store is waiting for us very soon.

In addition, Apple needs to offer some demonstration mechanism for paid applications. Desktop or commercial software on desktops was sold mainly due to time-limited or limited demo versions. Although Photoshop costs hundreds of dollars, a user can at least download a 30-day demo to decide whether such an investment makes sense or not.

“I have met many situations in which I would buy an application to perform certain tasks,” writes McCarron. But he thinks that consumers would be willing to pay both $ 5 and $ 10 for the application, if they could make sure that the application is useful in the demo version.

Of course, the developers themselves could help themselves by more focused efforts. Many developers, inspired by the App Store lottery effect, are developing several applications in the hope that one will be a hit. But they could benefit greatly if they honed to the brilliance the capabilities of one that performs its application functions.

“It would be better for developers to invest more in fewer applications, in better ones, to build a real business,” Simmons echoes.

“I think the best answer is to create narrowly targeted and limited applications that do one thing but do it well,” adds Kafasis. “It can result in creating great targeted applications.” But he warns, however, that the continued adoption of this approach will leave much room for applications with wide functionality that can be successful. “Deeper, more expensive applications will find their place.”

The reason for App Promo to do this research is to show the importance of marketing for the success of the application: 51% of developers don’t allocate any marketing budget at all. The developers with whom we spoke agreed that this is crucial in the initial stage of distribution of the application and this, subsequently, can lead to getting into the charts.

“It used to be easier to enter the market without spending money on marketing, but now it's pretty hard to break through without it,” says McCarron.

“If the application is not included in the charts and it is not supported by Apple , then the developer’s marketing efforts are the only way to get to the user,” adds Kafasis.

And even with them, success is not guaranteed.

“I think that there is only a small correlation between how much time and effort you put into the application and how successful it is,” writes Kwok. “My most successful apps were pretty easy to make, but they just ended up in the right place at the right time. The applications in which I put the most effort and time ended in failure. ”

Developer Jonathan Rentzch gave more cynical advice to programmers who are trying to “hack” the iOS market. Instead of starting a business yourself, consider working for a large company with a large budget.

“It's no secret that the money in the App Store is made on contracts for writing applications, and not on selling the applications themselves,” he adds.

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