Day 1 Of Unretina In The Mac App Store … Wowsers | Hacker News Reader

Day 1 Of Unretina In The Mac App Store … Wowsers

bonobolabs.com

65 pointsstuartkhall19 comments

Imagine what it will be like in 12 months time.

Crowded with fluff, multiple applications servicing the same 'need', and lacking the novelty factor that drives day one numbers.

Of course, having said that, it makes even more sense that there's some kind of first mover advantage, and it's always great to read a positive story.

Didn't Apple say that they weren't going to accept apps that already do the same thing as other apps, at least at some point? And that there had to be a minimum usefulness to anything that's let in?

Of course, this will be arbitrary, but still.

Didn't Apple say that they weren't going to accept apps that already do the same thing as other apps

That would be very annoying.

Choice is good - and with proper categorization and search it would only add value, not remove any. The user-votes should bubble the good stuff to the top, right?

Theoretically. See section 2.8: http://pastie.org/1236378

> Apps that duplicate apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them

I've been kinda down on users voting on things, lately. I mean, on Reddit, does voting ensure that the best things actually go to the top?

Also, you're assuming that users actually want this; most people want a decision made for them. At least, that's what the data I've seen from a few different sites has shown.

That reminds me of patents. Do/Discover something first, have an exclusive right on it for many years.

Yeah, sort of. If they decide it, I don't think that it'll be used in a "There are only 5 word processors" way, more like a "1000 fart apps" way.

I wonder how applications in the $10-20 did. We are going to launch soon a couple of apps in that range, and priced at $15 those are definitely out of the impulsive/just-to-try zone.

Hmmm... I'm at $10, and I sold a whole 5 copies. YMMV.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dubplate/id409514028?mt=12

Well, to be fair, I'd be surprised if the number was any larger than that. Recording straight to CD in this day and age isn't what one usually calls a compelling proposition. Don't blame the store; don't generalize to others.

(NB, I'm sure the app is well-crafted and highly functional. But it seems fairly outdated, and the price point appears to be a little optimistic.)

That said, though, $35 a day after Apple's cut is $12775 a year for said app, assuming these scorching sales hold as average for the duration of the calendar year.

String enough of these apps together (or dust them off the archives), and you've got yourself a cottage industry. It's the iOS app store all over again!

I loved your icon.

You can do some crude approximations by looking at reviews and ratings. (Reviewing or rating is only possible if you downloaded the app from the store.) Those are obviously very problematic metrics so take this with a grain of salt.

Unretina was downloaded 3,283 times in the US App Store, it was rated 16 times and reviewed 8 times. 0.5% and 0.2% of all downloaders rated and reviewed it, respectively.

Here are some top paid apps which received a similar amount of ratings and reviews (excluding Apple’s apps):

1. Compartments ($10, 17 ratings, 7 reviews, 4 stars, #16 in Top Paid)

2. Contacts Cleaner ($5, 15 ratings, 8 reviews, 4 stars, #18 in Top Paid)

3. Courier ($5, 19 ratings, 7 reviews, 5 stars, #20 in Top Paid)

(…)

All those apps are bunched together pretty closely (all are between #16 and #70, none have any lower spot on the Top Paid list; the number of ratings and reviews generally tapers off on the list). That certainly supports my hypothesis that there is a relationship between ratings, reviews and downloads. I would dare to speculate that all those apps sold a few thousand copies on the first day.

You have to take into account, though, that those are the successful apps. You probably could expect to sell a few thousand copies of your $10 app only if you made it into the top 70 or so. (Unretina is similarly one of the more successful free apps. It has the #39 spot on the Top Free list.)

TUAW puts the number of available apps in the UK App Store at about 1,000 (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/06/mac-app-store-by-the-numbers-...), if we assume that number to apply in the US App Store, too, you would have to have been in the top 7% of all apps to sell a few thousand copies on launch day.

Paid applications has a higher rate of reviews per downloads. When you pay for something you want your voice to be heard.

That sounds plausible but I’m not sure whether it’s true. Many factors are imaginable, which could influence the amount of reviews an app receives, I think it could go both ways.

Does anyone else misread Unretina as Urethra?

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

Normally I would thank you for linking to a cache of an unavailable article, but this text-only cache is useless without the graph images they reference.