Our iPhone app Pocket Lists brought us $13500 in first 3 months (after Apple’s 30% cut).
Category: Productivity (to-do & checklist app)
Price: initially priced at $4.99, then settled to $1.99
Developed in: 10 months from scratch to version 1.0
Team: 2 people (1 designer and 1 programmer)
Money spent on advertising: about $1000 on efforts to get the app noticed (mostly on paid app reviews)
Funding: Self. We are indie developers. If you are low on a promotion budget, our experience may shed some light on sales numbers you may expect in the beginning.
App localizations: English, Russian. The app was initially released and promoted in these two languages, and in two App Stores: US and Russia.
The first month $1263
The application was released on December 1st, 2011 and priced at $4.99. We were complete newbies in releasing iPhone apps, so we did not care about hyping the release. We were hoping that the app will be featured in its category right from the start, but it wasn’t. When the app was released, it was immediately lost among other apps in the App Store. Sales were about $5—10/day.
A week passed, and nothing was changing. Reducing the app price to zero (free) for one day helped a bit and brought about 10’000 free downloads. The app went up in top charts, and when the free offering ended, sales kept on a $100/day level for a couple of days, but then returned back to $5-10/day. Free giveaway was worth it, because it quickly brought the app a bunch of positive customer reviews, and allowed to catch some bugs we couldn’t find while testing the app.
We ordered a few paid app reviews in blogs about iPhones and apps, but that was vague. There were a couple of paid reviews which paid for itself, but generally they didn’t help the app to get noticed by the big guys.
We submitted the app to most websites which publish app reviews on a free basis (based on how interesting they find the app), and it gave the first positive sales experience. A short article on appadvice.com pushed the app sales to $613 for one day. It was a relief after the first month full of silence!
Obviously we realized that no matter how good our app is, no matter how positive customer feedback is, there will be no move in sales without the buzz about the app.
The second month $9576
The situation changed when we released an update to version 1.1, in which we changed the app screenshots and introduced location-based notifications for to-dos. Apple introduced APIs for location-based notifications only in iOS 5, and apparently that helped — the Pocket Lists app was featured in the New & Noteworthy section in both Russian and (hooray!) US App Stores. The sales figures picture above shows how it affected sales: on the top day the app made $1251!
Sales shortened 2—3 times when the app went from the New & Noteworthy to the What’s Hot section.
148apps.com published a review of the Pocket Lists app, but that did not affect sales.
By the end of the second month the app went off the featured shelves of the App Store, and sales went back to “normal” $10/day level.
The third month $2565
In the beginning of the third month we published a development story of the Pocket Lists app on iphones.ru (a popular blog about iPhones; in russian), and this pushed the app to #5 in the overall Top Paid chart in Russia, which was bringing about $450/day in sales.
To make the app move further, we offered another free giveaway, and this time the app was downloaded about 35’000 times!
US and Russian App Stores
It is widely known that the US App Store is the largest. Based on the Pocket Lists experience, same positions in the US App Store generate approximately 10-15 times more sales than in the Russian App Store.
If you plan offering your app exclusively in a non-US App Store, that may be a very hard sales experience. Today (beginning of March 2012) top paid positions around #10—20 in the Productivity category of the Russian App Store generate about $20/day.
The price
During the first two months we were experimenting with the app price varying it from $4.99 to $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, and zero.
Since we implemented so many cool features in the app, we initially wanted the price to be $4.99. But very soon we realized that this price will not allow the app to move up in the charts and effectively compete with hundreds of other to-do & checklist apps. We decided to set the price to a minimum — $1.99 — in order to have freedom in reducing the price to $0.99 on special occasions and promotions.
It’s all similar to songs and movies. No matter what kind of movie you are watching and how expensive the movie was to produce, either it is a blockbuster or an art house film, the ticket price is the same. App Store’s model for apps is much the same. Really.
Things we’ve learned
- App Store apps are packed like sardines. Even if your app stands out, don’t think that it is going to get featured automatically, fly up the charts and sustain there. Rather be prepared for a “ping pong” in the App Store top charts.
- Paid app reviews does not work. We are not going to waste time and money on them anymore.
- Focus on the US App Store. If you get featured in the US, other App Stores will likely to feature your app too.
- The goal to sales is a position in top charts. The goal to a higher chart position is a continuous buzz about your app.
- Positive app ratings do not really lift you up in the App Store’s top charts.
- Do not overestimate your app. Focus on volume, not the price.
- At the first hand, release the app for yourself and your friends. If they don’t use (like) your app, it is hardly that anybody else will.
Pocket Lists
Pocket Lists app is the ultimate to-do & checklist app featuring comprehensive to-do management tools, collaboration options, due and location-based notifications, smart to-do input (“meeting tomorrow morning”), OCR (photo to checklist), and more.
Get your copy today on iTunes.
App website: http://www.pocketlistsapp.com
All screenshots were taken using appfigures.com.
A little about me
My name is Vladimir Tuporshin, I’m from Moscow, Russia.
Pocket Lists app is developed by 2 people: me and my friend. I do most of the design work, and my friend is responsible for coding.
Our team site is www.1312.ru
My personal site: www.vofka.ru
Contact email: vofka@vofka.ru
This post is part of iDevBlogADay, a group of indie iOS development blogs. You can keep up with iDevBlogADay through the web site, RSS feed, or Twitter.
Hi Vladimir,
It was nice to read about your experience. I think you also posted about your charts on iphonedevsdk, but this is detailed one and very helpful.
I think there is no point in paying sites to review your app. Irrespective of the outcome , it seems little bit unethical to me. But , it’s good that such tricks no longer work. This way developers will focus more on creating great apps, instead of relying on cheap marketing tactics.
Very useful article Vladimir. Thanks 🙂
The most surprising for me is that appearing on 148apps didn’t make a difference. I thought that 148apps was one of the most important sites about iOS app reviews.
Your conclusions are very interesting. Good luck!
As Toni says. I thought that been reviewer by 148apps would increase your sales.
The best you can do to increase your sales is develop a good application.
Vladimir –
Thanks for sharing your experiences — much more helpful than the usual “10 Ways To Promote Your App” piece.
We’ll try to adopt some of your strategies when we release our next app.
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Very good article and lot of great learning. Thanks for sharing. We have a business app which is right now free but will soon become fremium model and so would love to get your feedback on documents.me
Hi
Thanks so much for sharing our experience. As an end user I have no insight into the backend side of things and getting a glimpse into the behind the scenes workings of the iTunes app world is really a privilege.
Keep up the good work and I hope your app takes off!
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