Dancing App Stores - Android Open 2011

Dancing App Stores Jesse Vincent @obra jesse@bestpractical.comWednesday, October 19, 11

Dancing App Stores?Wednesday, October 19, 11

“That company in Brooklyn is so hip they have dancing app stores on their website”Wednesday, October 19, 11

Wednesday, October 19, 11

There are many, many Android App StoresWednesday, October 19, 11

(not quite as many app stores as dancing hamsters)Wednesday, October 19, 11

I almost called this talk...Wednesday, October 19, 11

88 Lines About 44 App StoresWednesday, October 19, 11

If I spent 20 seconds on each Android App Store, this talk would run over timeWednesday, October 19, 11

http://amazon.com/appstore http://www.appitalism.com http://yaam.mobi http://andappstore.com http://www.applanet.net https://bloomworlds.com http://android.pdassi.de http://www.camangimarket.com https://market.android.com http://andspot.com http://www.docomo-market.info https://marketplace.cisco.com/apphq http://appoke.com http://www.eoemarket.com https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com http://apps.fasmicro.net http://www.explorepda.com/products.php? http://f-droid.org http://appslib.com OS=Android http://m.sonyericsson.com/playnow http://m.djuzz.com http://www.fastapp.com http://www1.orange.co.uk/entertainment/ http://market.android.com http://www.getjar.com OrangeWorld http://mjelly.com/apps/tags/android http://www.goapk.com http://mobile.optuszoo.com.au/cocoon http://mplayit.com http://www.handango.com http://www.nexva.com http://open.app.qq.com http://www.handster.com http://emocion.movistar.es/mstore http://promo.appcity.com http://www.maopao.com http://www.ubi-nuri.com http://sc.hiapk.com/himarket http://www.mobango.com http://www.mmarket.com http://slideme.org http://www.mobihand.com http://hyper.biz.tr/ http://soc.io http://www.mobile2day.com http://mikandi.com http://store.handmark.com http://www.mobileapps.com http://www.lgworld.com/web.gateway.dev http://storeoid.com http://www.mobiles24.com http://www.insydemarket.com http://wandoujia.com http://www.mobspot.com http://www.esdn.ws http://www.airtel.in/apps http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/ http://droydmarket.com SHOP4APPS/US-EN http://blapkmarket.com http://www.androidpit.com http://www.nduoa.com http://www.appstorehq.com http://www.androlib.com http://www.nn4d.com/appwarehouse http://www.apptown.com/Add_App.html http://www.apktop.com http://www.pocketgear.com http://www.92apk.com http://www.appchina.com http://www.samsungapps.com http://www.appia.com http://www.whiteapp.comWednesday, October 19, 11

(73)Wednesday, October 19, 11

(Yes, I left out a screenshot so the grid ﬁt)Wednesday, October 19, 11

Some markets are for speciﬁc placesWednesday, October 19, 11

Some are for speciﬁc types of appsWednesday, October 19, 11

Some are tied to a carrier or manufacturerWednesday, October 19, 11

Some are tied to a free software ethosWednesday, October 19, 11

I am an Android hobbyistWednesday, October 19, 11

K-9 is my open source hobby projectWednesday, October 19, 11

K-9 MailWednesday, October 19, 11

4-5 active committersWednesday, October 19, 11

4 Google Summer of Code studentsWednesday, October 19, 11

There are around a dozen forks of K-9 on the Android MarketWednesday, October 19, 11

...like Kaiten MailWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten Mail is my commercial hobby projectWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten MailWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten usually gets 1-2 hours of my dayWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten earns $5000-$6000 per monthWednesday, October 19, 11

90+% of that comes from the Google Android MarketWednesday, October 19, 11

My experiences so farWednesday, October 19, 11

Amazon App StoreWednesday, October 19, 11

Initial Posting of K-9 took weeksWednesday, October 19, 11

Every change needs to be manually reviewed and approved by AmazonWednesday, October 19, 11

Amazon edits your proseWednesday, October 19, 11

Amazon reserves the right to discount your app dramaticallyWednesday, October 19, 11

Even if they give your app away free, you still get 20% of list price...Wednesday, October 19, 11

...except it looks like mostly, you don’t.Wednesday, October 19, 11

App review time is unpredictableWednesday, October 19, 11

You can’t refund unhappy usersWednesday, October 19, 11

Stats are very limitedWednesday, October 19, 11

There’s no provision for an emergency releaseWednesday, October 19, 11

Posted Kaiten by Amazon’s review deadline for their App Store launchWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten appeared about 2 weeks after the App Store launchedWednesday, October 19, 11

Initial Kaiten Mail Release Price: $20Wednesday, October 19, 11

Initial sales...Wednesday, October 19, 11

...I had no idea.Wednesday, October 19, 11

Amazon’s sales stats were down for the ﬁrst 2 weeks Kaiten was upWednesday, October 19, 11

First two weeks...Wednesday, October 19, 11

I sold 5 copiesWednesday, October 19, 11

I dropped the price to $5Wednesday, October 19, 11

...I put in a request that Amazon drop the price to $5.Wednesday, October 19, 11

It only took them 2 days to approve the pricing change!Wednesday, October 19, 11

Sales picked up a bitWednesday, October 19, 11

I sold 28 copies in the second two weeksWednesday, October 19, 11

Currently the #6 paid communications appWednesday, October 19, 11

I now make $100-$300/month from AmazonWednesday, October 19, 11

Listing Kaiten on Android MarketWednesday, October 19, 11

Sales suckedWednesday, October 19, 11

I suckedWednesday, October 19, 11

I did no marketingWednesday, October 19, 11

I did no advertisingWednesday, October 19, 11

Slowly, Kaiten crept up the chartsWednesday, October 19, 11

It got into the top 100 communications appsWednesday, October 19, 11

Sales started to get a lot betterWednesday, October 19, 11

Two things made for a “good” sales dayWednesday, October 19, 11

A new release improves salesWednesday, October 19, 11

Functionality doesn’t matterWednesday, October 19, 11

Usually #30-40 paid Communcations appWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten MailWednesday, October 19, 11

That’s 10 days with no new uploadWednesday, October 19, 11

I did it for you guysWednesday, October 19, 11

Currently #56 paid Communications appWednesday, October 19, 11

Tomorrow, time for a new uploadWednesday, October 19, 11

Good, recent reviews improve salesWednesday, October 19, 11

★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ = SALESWednesday, October 19, 11

★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ = SADNESSWednesday, October 19, 11

Reviews with comments matterWednesday, October 19, 11

Past a certain point, average rating doesn’t matterWednesday, October 19, 11

AndroidPITWednesday, October 19, 11

2nd tier App MarketWednesday, October 19, 11

They pay, but not as fast as GoogleWednesday, October 19, 11

They approached me for a paid promotion in SeptemberWednesday, October 19, 11

For EUR1000, they’d advertise Kaiten in their weekly newsletterWednesday, October 19, 11

They asked to discount Kaiten from $5 to $3Wednesday, October 19, 11

Lots of people bought Kaiten during the promo periodWednesday, October 19, 11

(Saw an uptick on the Android Market, too)Wednesday, October 19, 11

I made my money back and then a bitWednesday, October 19, 11

Nothing earth- shatteringWednesday, October 19, 11

I sell a couple copies a day on AndroidPITWednesday, October 19, 11

They just launched a second Kaiten promoWednesday, October 19, 11

Currently #2 paid Communcations app & #9 top paid appWednesday, October 19, 11

AndroidPIT earns me around $400-$600/moWednesday, October 19, 11

Motorola Shop4AppsWednesday, October 19, 11

Country-speciﬁc app storesWednesday, October 19, 11

Automatic and manual Vetting processesWednesday, October 19, 11

Even less feedback than AmazonWednesday, October 19, 11

They used to have Central- and South- American app storesWednesday, October 19, 11

They still have a Chinese app storeWednesday, October 19, 11

I posted Kaiten with a full Chinese listingWednesday, October 19, 11

In 3 months, I’ve sold...Wednesday, October 19, 11

...one copyWednesday, October 19, 11

UPDATE!Wednesday, October 19, 11

I checked todayWednesday, October 19, 11

I’ve now sold...Wednesday, October 19, 11

three more copies!Wednesday, October 19, 11

SlideMEWednesday, October 19, 11

Others have had lots of success with SlideMEWednesday, October 19, 11

It’s the place to take your NES Emulator when Google pulls your accountWednesday, October 19, 11

Their UI is awfulWednesday, October 19, 11

Their performance is awfulWednesday, October 19, 11

Their app selection is awfulWednesday, October 19, 11

They have a weird, complex “inventory” schemeWednesday, October 19, 11

I sell O(1) copy per week there.Wednesday, October 19, 11

The warez sceneWednesday, October 19, 11

apktopWednesday, October 19, 11

Kaiten often ends up on apktop before shows up on AmazonWednesday, October 19, 11

Pirates are brazenWednesday, October 19, 11

They write for free tech supportWednesday, October 19, 11

...and then tell me they had pirated Kaiten, but bought the app because the support was goodWednesday, October 19, 11

Other app stores I’ve dealt with...Wednesday, October 19, 11

...are less awesome.Wednesday, October 19, 11

Many don’t support paid appsWednesday, October 19, 11

Many are operated by shadowy, sketchy companiesWednesday, October 19, 11

Not all of those are Mobile carriers!Wednesday, October 19, 11

The app stores with the tightest carrier relationships seem to be the most painfulWednesday, October 19, 11

It took months for one of them to tell me they hadn’t posted my app...Wednesday, October 19, 11

...because I was missing a marketing assetWednesday, October 19, 11

So, what do I recommend?Wednesday, October 19, 11

A a s s a a SWednesday, October 19, 11

Android app store submission as a ServiceWednesday, October 19, 11

Please start an AassaaS company!Wednesday, October 19, 11

I Will Pay YouWednesday, October 19, 11

Don’t limit yourself to the Google Android MarketWednesday, October 19, 11

Amazon’s going to become more prominentWednesday, October 19, 11

(I like safe predictions)Wednesday, October 19, 11

Pick a couple more markets to tryWednesday, October 19, 11

F/LOSS Apps onlyWednesday, October 19, 11

Based on APKtorWednesday, October 19, 11

Some folks like GetJARWednesday, October 19, 11

(they don’t do paid apps)Wednesday, October 19, 11

App store directories • http://www.wipconnector.com/appstores/ • http://www.android-markets-info.com/Wednesday, October 19, 11

Thanks! Jesse Vincent @obra jesse@bestpractical.comWednesday, October 19, 11

Dancing App Stores - Android Open 2011

by obrajesse on Oct 19, 2011

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Dancing App Stores - Android Open 2011 — Presentation Transcript