IPhone Sales Figures - 78x One-Day Jump
mobileorchard.com
mobileorchard.com
So - the call was just to get the change in description, not to notify of the placement. Which makes me all the more grateful Apple was persistent, and that they didn't just write it off even though they wanted the change.
I've also heard other accounts of Apple calling to request "special builds" for TV spots, etc. but don't have any first-hand direct knowledge of that.
I had some upfront expenses for a custom icon, the website design, a license for the song for the background music for the demo video (including the questionable MP3 freebie), and to run a one day roadblock on the Fusion ad network. Prior to being featured, I hadn't yet broken even on my costs (let alone my labor). The first day of being featured pushed sales past the breakeven point. If sales were to remain steady at this level, the yearly revenue for the app would be much better than an average engineer's salary. There will, however, likely be a very predictable drop in sales once it's no longer featured.
What that means over the long term, we'll see. If the data's interesting - e.g. significant drop or significant lack of a drop in sales, or more key inflection points, etc. - I'll throw up another post about it and consider including dollar figures at that point.