Each month, millions of people are getting an iOS device and opening the App Store for the first time and are unfamiliar with the apps that were popular 6 months ago, let alone 1-2 years ago. Doodle Jump is popular but it's actually extremely similar to Super PapiJump, an iPhone game that was huge a few years ago. Same exact mechanics, slightly different graphics & execution.
The mentality that you need an original, unique idea to succeed in the App Store is rubbish. A common algorithm for succeeding in the App Store is take Popular App A from 2009 and re-implement it with new graphics and perhaps an additional gameplay mechanic and release it as Hopeful Popular App B in 2011. Apps that were entertaining and popular (but have fallen off the charts due to lack of updates) were based on game mechanics that are probably still alluring to new audiences in 2011.
Not disagreeing with you, but isn't this the common algorithm for most things? I can think of TV Shows, movies, books, websites etc. that use the same algorithm.
Sometimes it is a mixture of these.
PapiJump was a free game and it came out in summer 2008. Later the developer released PapiJump Plus, a paid version of the game. It never was all that successful in the grand scheme of things, at least compared to Doodle Jump. Doodle Jump is a clone that came out one year later. It cost money from the start and it felt a lot more like a sequel than a straight up clone.
All gamers love sequels. All gamers love variations on a theme. The story of PapiJump and Doodle Jump is not in any way surprising and, I think, also not in any way something that defines the whole iOS ecosystem.
I don't know whether to make an Electronic Arts, Activision or Zynga joke here.Suffice to say: you're absolutely right in a business sense and that's a damn shame.
It is great if you can make something new, but if you can't, and have a good idea on how to improve something old, I say go for it. We need that too.
The problem of EA/Activision/Zynga is that they take ideas, make almost no improvements, and then use their marketing power to come on top anyway.
“iOS users buy more apps and pay more for them than Android users.”
but instead this is about
“iOS users buy more apps and pay more for them than last year.”
