Everything you need to know before developing an application

Today we are going to analyze the wonderful or unfortunate world of being a developer in these times. This article may motivate you or make you question whether it is worth pursuing., everything will depend on your expectations before and after reading us. It is true that occasionally an application reaches viral stardom like Flappy Bird, however, others have the download counter to zero, but what about the middle ground?

We'll start with Jared Sinclair, the creator of the "Unread" RSS reader, Sinclair decided last year to publish on his blog his earnings with the application as well as the experiences he had obtained throughout the process, with its ups and downs, as a little guide for future developers.

This is an unusual measure, perhaps somewhat hypocritical, since it is usually the developers who are successful with their applications who decide to make this type of data public, of course no one is going to offer us an autobiography with embarrassing numbers, but looking on the positive side, we will have in account that successful developers can guide us.

We get going

Sinclair, from the hand of Unread reached $ 10.000 in the first 24 hours, but six months later they had only amounted to just over $ 32.000 (to which we will add $ 10.000 for the iPad version). What leads us to First lesson, most apps hit peak sales in the days after they launch.

Do not launch your application at a reduced price as an offer, you may need it later to attract users again

In the case of the developer's "Overcast" podcast app Marco Arment, the graph repeats.

However, this is a logical reality, but not an absolute truth. There are a series of factors that can greatly determine the peaks of sales and profits, not everything is going to be prices in this life. In the following graph about Dan Gray's highly acclaimed graphic adventure "Monument Valley", we can see that events such as the Apple Design Awards or the summer summer sales in the AppStore relatively increased sales peaks. Much more helped its second update "Forgotten Shores" or the Christmas offers, which practically touch the sales peak of the launch. Once again, the downgrade to reposition works.

Even so, launch sales are still the most relevant when it comes to positioning the application and generating profits with it, as Sinclair points out.

However, we are not yet facing "The goose that lays the golden eggs" from the developersSinclair believes that there is something more important still, bloggers.

Coverage of influential bloggers can drive far more sales than any promotion on the AppStore

Is the job done?

Nothing is further from reality, If you want to get real money with your application and you think that writing the code with a good idea and blowing it up is all you need, you are very wrong. Kapeli, developer of «DashThe app that raised nearly $ 270.000 last year provides an insightful graphic on the man-hours required to carry out development and maintenance of your app. Although we see moments of hard work and others of great relaxation, we find that it is highly unstable, so we must be prepared to face any type of situation.

What goes in for what goes out

Expenses are a factor to take into account in the equationThe more successful it is, the higher the expenses, but by no means because it is a simple application or self-employment we guarantee that it is free of cost. Monument Valley, with its about eight workers, and eighty-five weeks of work between the two editions has generated costs of 1,4 million dollars. Notably increased if what you have is the idea for the application but not the capabilities for its development.

From this last case we have the example of Brian conklin, the promoter of «SiK Robot«, Who was faced with developers asking for about $ 50.000 to carry out the project and who has already spent more than $ 12.000 on its development on the doorstep of its launch, a great risk. No?

The advice that Conklin offers us to reduce costs is contain the list of requirements or flourishes, up to the bare minimum to make the application attractive but without throwing the initial idea down the sink, since if the application gains enough popularity these features can be added in the form of an update, which could also continue to attract buyers.

Motivated or disappointed after reading us? I leave you one last quote from a guru who may make you make that decision.

I am convinced that half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones is perseverance - Steve Jobs

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