Month: September 2012

Categories
Platforms

You knew? The App Store in iOS6 is new

iOS6

Apple pushed out iOS6 to its customers earlier this month. According to Pocket, a popular service that lets you “bookmark” articles you might want to read at some point in the future, over 60% of their users have already updated to iOS 6. Chitika, an analytics company, reported similar adoption rates. Within 48 hours of iOS6 launching, they saw 25% of all iOS devices in the U.S. and Canada using the new version of the operating system. In other words, because Apple controls the software update experience, they’re able to migrate a significant portion of their customers to newer versions of their software practically overnight.

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Categories
Business Tips

Developing for Android? You better choose your ad network wisely!

android development

SwiftKey, makers of a third party keyboard for Android, joined up with two technology publications to survey over 17,000 smartphones users about the number of paid applications they have on their devices. Back in 2011, 12% of Android owners said they had zero paid apps on their phone. Only 10% had 20 or more paid apps. This year, those figures are now 7% and 19% respectively. Translation: Android users are slowly becoming more willing to pay for apps, but if any serious money is to be made here then you’re going to have to make free apps that are ad supported.

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Categories
Platforms

Revenue and cost breakdown per platform

revenue costs per platform

In a previous article, we discussed revenue and costs for app developers overall. Here, we add some more detail for each platform individually.

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Categories
Business

Planning your development costs

app development costs

The bar for successful apps is high: if you want your app to stick out among a million others, it needs to be well designed, user friendly and working flawlessly, all of this comes with significant development costs. In this article, we give an indication of the types of costs you need to take into account when planning your app.

Costs can differ wildly depending on your platform and type of app. A mobile game with 3D graphics will have a radically different cost structure than a weather app. The range goes from $5,000 for very simple apps to hundreds of thousands for extensive apps. Often cited, Twitterific estimated their development costs as high as $250,000 back in 2010. Use common sense when thinking about your costs, be realistic and plan for cost overruns.

Here are some costs you need to take into account.

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Categories
Business Platforms Tips

11 revenue models that bring in more cash

revenue models, developer salary

Developers have a range of options to choose from when it comes to generating revenue. This choice is, to some extent, dependent on business model, scale and target market. Which revenue models are most popular, and which are most profitable?

Key insights and recommendations:

  • Selling your app B2B (commissioned apps or pre-loaded on a handset) is typically much more lucrative than selling the app directly to users through app stores.
  • Models with recurring revenue from users (subscriptions, in-app purchases) come out ahead of the ‘traditional’ models like pay-per-download, freemium or ad-supported. Despite this, they’re less popular with developers, although in-app purchases are on the rise across platforms.
  • You can use multiple revenue models concurrently. It’s not an either-or decision. On average, app makers use 2 models concurrently.
  • Your choice of revenue model should be tuned to the category you’re in and the platform you’re using.
  • For iOS, an opportunity exists to produce expensive niche apps. Also, in-app purchases are more popular on iOS than on other platforms.
  • It’s more difficult to make money on Android. Your best bet is commissioned apps or a subscription model.
  • The viability of revenue models changes extremely fast. Keep a constant eye out for trends in your category.

Related tools: In-app purchasing and virtual goods | Ad networks and mediation engines

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