webOS app sales: how are my apps doing?
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2011-08-17 20:30:00
Tags: palm essay palmpre projects
Words: 541

After seeing this post about webOS app sales on PreCentral, I thought it would be a good time to look back at my apps' sales. And in this post, you get real numbers, because...why not? :-)

Summary: App sales since the TouchPad release have been impressive. My numbers are a little weird because my paid apps have separate versions for phones (i.e. Mojo) and the TouchPad (i.e. Enyo).

I have four paid apps for the TouchPad, and here are their approximate sales (by number - all apps are 99 cents except FlightPredictor HD, which is $1.99) in July and August:

• App sales are going up - if you project out to the end of the month, since August is around half over, all of my apps will sell more in August than they did in July.


• This is probably because of the $50 app credit HP gave to early adopters. I cannot stress how awesome this is for app developers - on par with the amazing 50% off sale they had last summer. Probably these numbers are somewhat of a high water mark and will decline over time.


• These numbers totally blow away phone-sized apps. Even with the recent launch of the Veer, FlightPredictor (my best-selling phone app) sold 8 in May, 13 in June, 20 in July and 12 in August.


• The success of Simple Alarms confuses me. The TouchPad didn't ship with a Clock app (which includes an alarm clock), so I get that part. But webOS 3.0.2, which included a Clock app, shipped in the very beginning of August, and sales are still strong. The only advantages I see are:
  
  
  • can configure snooze time
  
  
  • can choose custom days of the week for the alarm to go off
  
  
  • ...umm, the icon looks nicer, I think?
  
  
  This just goes to show that I don't know anything.


• I wish I had a way to quantify this, but I'm pretty sure my apps having high ratings is helping them a lot. FlightPredictor HD is 4.7 stars (and bounces between second and third on the top apps list for Travel), Simple Alarms is 4.6, We the People HD is 5! (...and Private Browser HD is 3.3. Yeah, that one needs some love.)


• In retrospect, making them separate apps and then sending promo codes to current users who ask was the right decision. Of course, I didn't have much choice at the time because of timing, but "fat apps" _still_ aren't showing up as "For TouchPad" in the App Catalog. I was worried about the impact of losing all my ratings from the phone-sized versions, but that seems to have worked out well. Also, I'm guessing the psychological impact of getting a free app makes people more inclined to give a good rating. (HP DevRel: I hate to say it, but you probably shouldn't allow users who got promo codes to review apps. Just my two cents!)

2 comments

Comment from cifarelli:
2011-08-17T21:59:29+00:00
Being able to choose custom days of the week for an alarm to go off sounds awesome. That would be great for things like getting my son to preschool on T/W/Th but not M/F. :) Being able to set it once and have it go off on all those days (as opposed to three times, once for Tues, once for Weds, and once for Thurs) would rock :)

Comment from gregstoll:
2011-08-17T22:06:07+00:00
Hmm, good point! That feature wasn't in the initial version - I only added it after a user complained in a review. (more evidence for my not knowing anything :-) )

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