App sales revisited

About a year ago I posted detailed app sales. Let's see how things evolved in the last 12 months.

GeoTagr (blue)

Spikes are no longer caused by major new releases. The biggest spike in the last months came from the Aperture Expert Live Training 017. It's too early to see where the downward trend after the April ad campaign will stop. But the slow decline in sales that lasted for about 18 months was stopped with a big spike. 

Scotty (green)

In the fall of last year the price went from $1.99 to $2.99, but probably the major cause of the downward trend from June 2011 until March 2012 was the announcement and introduction of the Photo Stream feature in iOS 5.
Just as in the past, Scotty sales are subject to huge spikes. Example: The latest mention on macstories.net resulted in 100 downloads in just 2 days. Scotty seems to have the biggest potential but how do I give it traction? The fear I had that the introduction of Photo Stream in iOS 5 would make Scotty totally obsolete was wrong. Overall promotion and the ad campaign in March have given it some new oxygen.

WiiPhoto (yellow)

A sleeping app. I don't expect major sales bumps. But with approx. 1 download per day, it still makes a couple hundred dollars a year.

2 new apps introduced: PhotoMeta (red) and Visage (purple)

PhotoMeta was initially free with a $2.99 in-app purchase but became a paid app (also $2.99) in January. The graph shows the number of paid downloads (in-app purchases before January). The ad campaign in April certainly had its effect and May was even a better month. There is a pretty significant PhotoMeta update in the makes which will make the app interesting for a larger audience.

Visage sales numbers are very disappointing (32 downloads in 3 months), but hopefully this will change after today. Visage is part of the June 2012 AppEvent and is free just for today. Hopefully that will give it a significant boost.

Lessons learned

The lessons learned from my year-ago post are still valid, but there are some new ones.

Adding features is no longer enough. I worked full time on my apps for 4 months with several app updates going live. There was no impact on downloads whatsoever. That changed a lot once I started promoting the apps. The golden rule that you need a good app in the first place is still true. But promotion/marketing (in whatever form) is also essential.

Noteworthy

4 months ago I decided to go ahead as a full time iOS developer. I had a simple plan. In order for my apps to be successful enough to pay the bills, they needed some major improvements: a more compelling UI, intuitive new features, attractive for a larger audience. Part 2 of the plan was to invest in app promotion, but only after the first part was successfully and completely finished. There is nothing original about that plan, it's what I learned from following Apple closely all those years. It all starts with great products.

Since PhotoMeta already had a nice UI, I improved it by adding some cool features. The reactions from existing users were very positive. App sales stayed unchanged though. But that's ok, I'm convinced that PhotoMeta is now a unique photo metadata app with real added value for professional and advanced amateur photographers.  

Next in the list is GeoLogTag. The app underwent a real metamorphosis. The UI is completely redesigned, numerous features were added to make it a really versatile geotagging app and it has a new, professionally designed app icon. And last but not least, it's now a universal app.
While I worked on the GeoLogTag iPad app, it became clear to me that no other geotagging app in the App Store is so versatile and above all no other app offers the possibility to geotag iPad photos. On top of that the iPhone and iPad app work seamlessly together.
When I submitted GeoLogTag to Apple 3 weeks ago, I was convinced that it was a valid candidate for the "New & Noteworthy" section in the App Store. Appearing in that section is tremendous promotion. But nothing happened. App sales stayed at the same level as before. But that's ok. GeoLogTag is now a unique solution for anyone interested in geotagging photos.

Currently I'm working on a brand new universal app that will go to beta testers next week. It's also a photography related app with a potentially very large audience.

Next app in the list is Scotty. I'm going to make an iPad version and add some really cool features. 

Part 1 of the plan will be finished around mid-March. Part 2, app promotion, is something I'm preparing right now. If you have experience with app promotion, tips or advice is highly appreciated.

I'll certainly keep you up-to-date in the coming months. Exciting times!