To sell your mobile app
In the past few weeks, I have received many emails asking about the business of selling mobile apps. Having seen the success of others, they are motivated. One students wrote: “I have been playing games on my phone for few months and I think I can do better than that. If I create an app, how can I sell it and where to sell?"
Answer: Today most mobile businesses are conducted via the company's app store. To develop and sell mobile apps, you need to register with the company such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Blackberries, Nokia, Samsung etc. Currently there are over hundred thousand app developers, with over a million apps for sale in app stores so competition is tough. However, since there are over a billion download each year which means the market is still growing strong.
Of course, creating the app is one thing but selling it is another issue. You must promote it so customers know about it. There are many commercial websites that conduct review of mobile apps and recommend apps for people to buy. Some of these websites are honest with their own opinions. Some are created by the same company that develop and sell the apps so it is a clever way of marketing their product. Of course, nobody will stop you from create your own website, conduct your own reviews, and suggests people to buy your own app too. Please note that success is not about creating app but how to sell in large quantity (the number of download). If you sell for $1, you only make 70 cents (The store will take 30%) and if you only have 100 download, you only make $70. But if you have 1 million download, you can make $700,000. The rule is how to price your app competitively and how to encourage more download.
In my previous article, I suggest that you should not develop app for one platform but several platforms for more exposure. The more people buy, the more money you make. However there are good things and bad things about selling apps so you need to know. Since I wrote a separate article for Apple already, in this article I will focus on the others:
1) Google Android platform: Today Android is the fastest growth app store with more apps then Apple. Developers only have to pay $25 to register. Most Android apps are either free or relatively low cost. Because many people developed apps for android so price continues to decrease. Google does not test their apps carefully, many apps have low quality and vulnerable for hackers or virus. Google only allows few countries to sell apps in their store but you can put your free apps (No money) to the store. Today, Google's app store is accessible only in few countries but it is changing.
2) Microsoft Window platform: Microsoft is not doing well in this market. Developer has to pay $99 to register with Microsoft. However, Microsoft only accept developers from certain countries due to certain money transferring issues. Developers can sell their app only in one specific country. German developers can only sell apps in Germany, Japanese developers can only sell apps in Japan. If they want to sell their app in more than one country, they have to pay $10 per country. Microsoft tests every app carefully before allow it to be on the app store. If you want to develop app for Microsoft, you could do it for window 7 but if you look ahead, you may want to develop for the new operating system Window 8 too.
3) Blackberry Platform: The market for Blackberry has declined since the introduction of Apple iPhone. The company is trying many ways to compete but not so successful. Blackberry 's app store is the only store that accept Paypal and the only store that pays developers 80% of the sales (All other take 30% and pay 70%). However it charge developer to pay $200 to register the account with them. Most apps for this platform are quite expensive.
4) Nokia Ovi Store Platform: Nokia is the late comer in this business. It puts a lot of effort on their app store so user can access the Ovi services from his mobile device, via the Nokia Ovi Suite on his PC or even through the Web. Nokia does not charge money for register and will promote the developer's app, at no extra cost. The main disadvantage about the Nokia Ovi Store is that currently it has very few apps.
5) Samsung Application Store is also a late comer in this market. It supports both the Symbian and the Pocket PC platforms. The store also test every apps thoroughly. Today, it only has limited number of apps and the store is only accessible in Italy, UK and France. It seems that they want to make sure the market is settle down before expanding to other places.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
