Thank you for this post. First, because I use your apps with my kids and they love them. Almost certainly one of the reasons your applications sell is because they are very good. It was recommended to me by a relative who is a teacher and I know she recommends it to others. These types of applications are the reason I purchased a tablet device: I am a very stingy person, but if a tool will engage my children in learning, I am happy to separate with my cash. (we use the app with our kids together)
Second of all, it is just good to have this perspective on the market potential for a well made app. I'm disappointed about the Android market, I hope it improves.
Based on some research that I have done, iOS revenue is about 2:1 for phone apps, with the gap closing quickly. If the app has strong international appeal, it is probably closer to parity. For tablet apps, iOS has something like a 10:1 revenue advantage.
I wouldn't write off Android if the app is designed to be used on phones, but for tablet apps, it is currently a waste of time for most indie devs.
That being said, this type of software is completely evergreen. You can't reach saturation because there are always new kids and new parents searching for apps. It is conceivable you could launch an Android app, make $10k this year, but then the app earns $100k five years from now.
The bigger problem is other devs poisoning the well with high quality free apps. Which is why I believe this type of post is a mistake if maximizing income is your priority. This type of post is an invitation for talentless hacks to hire people from elance to clone your app. All it takes is someone to figure out how to game the app store rankings better than you. I could probably pay $40k to clone an app, with the twist that modules are unlocked if you rate the app, and then out rank Pierre's apps.
> Apple still has the most lucrative app store, with Distimo estimating that on a typical day in November 2013, global revenues for the 200 top grossing iOS apps were more than $18m. That compares to $12m for Android's Google Play store, although the report notes that a year ago, the respective figures were $15m and $3.5m. The gap is narrowing.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/18/android-io...
Would you say that the most important reason of your success is you penetrated a relatively new market with a good product early, and it was easier to gain traction and build a large user base that you can now cross-promote your other apps?
Merci d'avoir partager l'histoire de ton succès. C'est toujours inspirant et surtout éducatif ;)
Bonne continuation!
This is HUGE for the educational market. With all the word of mouth that goes on, it's important to do something good. All the tweaking of pricing and viral strategies doesn't help if the core app isn't good.
Thank you for the GOOD software Pierre.
Perhaps a good alternative is to create two apps: one free with IAP and one paid (but I don't know if Apple is still OK with this).
We do this with our primary education maths apps[1], one version unlocked fully and paid (marketed as 'for schools') and one with a certain amount of content free and more unlock able with IAP. Apple have not had a problem with this.
My wife is a Montessori teacher and would flip her shit if a parent ever substituted the real montessori numbers/letters (usually sand paper letters) for an app. Montessori would've surely been incredibly against an app for children young enough to learn anything from sand paper letters.
Your apps, if nothing else, are an excellent way to distract our kid if we go out for dinner :)
Kudos for making an app that actually has the kids learning instead of some trippy cartoon to watch.
2.99 is a good price to pay for a decent app any more and I probably would look for something else, the days of .99 across the board are long gone.
But those were extremes most families would take away the tablet during the meal or after. Kids tend to get crazy in anticipation of the food, the tablet calmed them.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exotic-pet-puzzler/id7178059...
I've heard that the download:rating ratio for iOS apps is around 30:1 and you can, therefore, estimate an app's downloads by multiplying ratings by 30. Do you have any thoughts on this?
You seem to have a higher ratio based on your numbers and the ratings in the app store.
Thanks again.
I don't have any fake reviews (although there might be two or three from friends and family) and while I don't have metrics for the number in active use the number of updates downloaded on a recent update was 130 times the number of reviews I have and the total number of downloads is well over 400 times the review count.
Review counts and download numbers global. A user generally only sees the reviews in their own country's app store I think.
I really don't want to do it to the user experience but I might have add a pop up requesting rating when a user has used the app enough, I've only had a couple of reviews in the past few months.
I wish more parents and educators actually understood the benefit and potential of computers in classrooms. Thank you for helping the cause in a huge way!
