🧑🏻‍💻 Remove your Apps from the Store!
After 9 years iOS mobile development, 3 startups and 100+ apps as a freelancer it’s now time to start something different.
Sure, the main time of my work is still dedicated to my company appsAndYOU.com, where we develop apps for various clients around the globe and also on the other startups, im still part of it.
But since i wrote games for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, my heart and passion was always about. I wrote several of them also on iOS, some gets published, some never reached the AppStore. One of them (FatMan Boo) was even a very successful one in Asia in kind of downloads.
I was very early in the AppStore with Client Apps like “20 Minutes”, but i have not reached so far an AppStore Hit with a game as the ones get glory like Spiders, Doodle Jump, Tiny Wings, Cut the Rope, Monumentum Valley etc. and i was always thinking one time i do the same ;)
I know, now there are so much more apps in the App Store, especially games. Mostly everyone told me, it’s not possible anymore to get a huge success without a big marketing budget. And even with that, to earn money and not just downloads, it is another hurdle to take: The freemium model that even pushed the 1 USD category to dead!
And i think it’s true. But i will try something else. But first i do what i think is needed as a preparation: A “Clean the AppStore” task with the following rules:
- I do not longer create free apps or games
- No matter how complex they are or how much time i need to develop, each of them will be available for 1.99 USD
- If I don’t have time to update the app or game i remove it from the AppStore
- If it’s not a success either in downloads or revenue i remove it
- If i think it’s no longer a “good” app, i remove it
I have started today with this. From my 11 Apps just 1 remains in the AppStore (a Game) and the price i have changed to 1.99. That means the earnings payed out is 1.40 and with 1000 downloads per month it generates the minimum revenue I need to continuously work on it. Part time of course. Everything below is unrealistic and I would better focus on other things then.
There is too much hobby level and outdated stuff (like some of mine was too), which makes it very difficult for the users to find what they search and for the developers to make their app visible. If every developer does the same as me (I know it will not be the case) but if… then the AppStore can become again what it was, 8 years ago. The possibility to make a living not only for the big ones, but also for a lot of Indie’s like me.
That was step #1, The cleanup of the AppStore. Step #2 I will describe in my next article and it will be even more drastic…