BB10 phones have been out for around a month now, so I thought I'd present my February sales data to give some indication of what developers can expect.
Now, not all of my paid apps are available for both the BB10 and Playbook platforms, but enough of them are that I feel it's close enough to make a comparison.
So, in February about 50% of my app sales were to Canada, 25% to the UK, and 15% to the US, with the remainder distributed across other countries, mainly in Asia and Europe.
Of my total sales, 78% were for the Playbook, and 22% went to BB10 devices.
Of my BB10 sales, 85% were on devices using the Qualcomm GPU, and 15% were on devices using the Imagination GPU. 78% of sales were to Canada, 15% were to the UK, and the rest went to India and South Africa.
On a month-to-month basis, even though February has three fewer days than January, sales were up about 40%.
It's only been a month, but these numbers lead me to be cautiously optimistic about the success of the BB10 platform, and my own success selling apps for it.
Friday, 1 March 2013
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
The $10k Developer Commitment
In preparation for the launch of their BlackBerry 10 phones and OS, RIM is running what it calls the $10k Developer Commitment. The gist of it is that they wanted to have as many apps as possible available at launch, so to encourage developers, they made the following offer: If your app is available on launch day and achieves a minimum of $1000 in sales over the course of the next calendar year, then RIM will top you off to $10,000. For example, if you had sales of exactly $2300, they'd give you $7700. This seems like a pretty good deal until you get into the details.
In order to qualify for the $10k deal, your app must receive the Built for BlackBerry designation in time for launch and retain it throughout the calendar year. So, if they change the rules partway through the 12-month period and you fall out of compliance for a period of 120 days, then you get nothing, regardless of how much your app has already earned.
Further, the total amount available for disbursement is only $10 million. Assuming an average payout of $5000, that means only 2000 developers will get anything. If you manage to creep above $1000 on January 29, 2014 but the fund is already exhausted, then you get nothing.
Of course, the real issue is qualifying for the Built for BlackBerry designation in the first place. The list of criteria covers seven areas from 'User Benefits' to 'Security'. I submitted 'Awesome Sudoku' just to check out the process; I didn't expect it to pass, but I wanted to see how the approval process works. It took so long to get any feedback that I wound up submitting pretty much everything I've made for BB10 regardless of my expectations of success. Then, when I finally did get a response, it wasn't terribly helpful. I got an email this morning telling me what changes I could make to qualify. It included the following three bullet points:
· Improved game play
· Better graphics
· More Feature(sic)
As far as I can tell, that basically translates to 'Make your game better'.
Now, Awesome Sudoku is by no means the most exciting app out there. It's sudoku; there's only so much you can do. However, it's polished enough that if its sales translate from the Playbook to phones, it should cross the $1000 barrier. So, I have to wonder just exactly what the point of the $10k Commitment is. If my little sudoku app can clear a thousand bucks, anything with enough flash and pizazz to qualify for BfB designation should easily cross the $10,000 mark on its own.
Ultimately, I think it was a good way to attract developers, but I don't think the program will turn out to be terribly good for the developers themselves.
In order to qualify for the $10k deal, your app must receive the Built for BlackBerry designation in time for launch and retain it throughout the calendar year. So, if they change the rules partway through the 12-month period and you fall out of compliance for a period of 120 days, then you get nothing, regardless of how much your app has already earned.
Further, the total amount available for disbursement is only $10 million. Assuming an average payout of $5000, that means only 2000 developers will get anything. If you manage to creep above $1000 on January 29, 2014 but the fund is already exhausted, then you get nothing.
Of course, the real issue is qualifying for the Built for BlackBerry designation in the first place. The list of criteria covers seven areas from 'User Benefits' to 'Security'. I submitted 'Awesome Sudoku' just to check out the process; I didn't expect it to pass, but I wanted to see how the approval process works. It took so long to get any feedback that I wound up submitting pretty much everything I've made for BB10 regardless of my expectations of success. Then, when I finally did get a response, it wasn't terribly helpful. I got an email this morning telling me what changes I could make to qualify. It included the following three bullet points:
· Improved game play
· Better graphics
· More Feature(sic)
As far as I can tell, that basically translates to 'Make your game better'.
Now, Awesome Sudoku is by no means the most exciting app out there. It's sudoku; there's only so much you can do. However, it's polished enough that if its sales translate from the Playbook to phones, it should cross the $1000 barrier. So, I have to wonder just exactly what the point of the $10k Commitment is. If my little sudoku app can clear a thousand bucks, anything with enough flash and pizazz to qualify for BfB designation should easily cross the $10,000 mark on its own.
Ultimately, I think it was a good way to attract developers, but I don't think the program will turn out to be terribly good for the developers themselves.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Port-a-thon 2 Roundup
Over the past two days, RIM held another Port-a-thon, this time for apps. I wasn't entirely clear on whether that included game apps, but it didn't really matter because I had no more games to port.
At any rate, Answer Ball, Awesome Strobe, Awesome Tips, GPS Data Master, and Psychic Test will be making their way to BB10 devices. I'm not sure I'll get the cash award for each of them, but because I'm insane, even though the PlayBook only comes in one screen size and resolution, I initially designed all of them to easily scale to different screen sizes, and I drew most of the graphical elements far larger than they needed to be, so it didn't take me very long to port them over.
I think I should also note that GPS Data Master will -at least initially- not be free for BB10 devices. Having a popular app is nice, but you know what's nicer? Not having to eat cat food.
At any rate, Answer Ball, Awesome Strobe, Awesome Tips, GPS Data Master, and Psychic Test will be making their way to BB10 devices. I'm not sure I'll get the cash award for each of them, but because I'm insane, even though the PlayBook only comes in one screen size and resolution, I initially designed all of them to easily scale to different screen sizes, and I drew most of the graphical elements far larger than they needed to be, so it didn't take me very long to port them over.
I think I should also note that GPS Data Master will -at least initially- not be free for BB10 devices. Having a popular app is nice, but you know what's nicer? Not having to eat cat food.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Port-a-thon Roundup
In an effort to have as many games as possible available at launch, this past weekend RIM ran what they called a Port-a-thon. For every game app ported over to the BB10 platform they gave away $100, and if you published multiple apps you could get things like a free Playbook or a BB10 Dev unit. It was an excellent idea, and I think if they scrapped their $10k guarantee and instead offered $100 for every app submission, I think they'd get a lot more developer interest.
My plan was to port a few apps over at some point just for curiosity's sake, but free money is a powerful motivator, so I wound up doing eight in two days. Awesome Sudoku, Awesome Word Search, Box Games, Completionist, MASH Deluxe, Scooter Wants Cheese, Scramble Master, and Word Scramble will all be available for BB10 when the devices launch at the end of January. Will they be as successful on the new OS as they have been on the Playbook? I can't see how they could be less successful. Perhaps RIM will send someone by to beat me up and steal my wallet, but that seems unlikely.
My plan was to port a few apps over at some point just for curiosity's sake, but free money is a powerful motivator, so I wound up doing eight in two days. Awesome Sudoku, Awesome Word Search, Box Games, Completionist, MASH Deluxe, Scooter Wants Cheese, Scramble Master, and Word Scramble will all be available for BB10 when the devices launch at the end of January. Will they be as successful on the new OS as they have been on the Playbook? I can't see how they could be less successful. Perhaps RIM will send someone by to beat me up and steal my wallet, but that seems unlikely.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
October Data
For a long time, I've been looking for a way to monetize my Playbook apps. It has not been going well. Anyway, since it's November, I thought I'd share my download and sales data for the month of October.
In short:
28646 downloads
142 sales
$0 in ad payouts
From October 1 to 31, my Playbook apps received a total of 28648 downloads, or around 924 per day. About 9000 came from Canada, 7000 from the UK, 3000 from the US, with the rest split amongst various other nations all over the world, including a single download in Brunei.
Mid-week days tended to produce about 30% more downloads than the ends of the week, with Thursday being the most popular day, averaging more than 1300.
My most popular app was GPS Data Master, and my least popular was Psychic Test.
On the sales front, I sold 140 apps and 2 in-app purchases. Purchases come in multiple currencies, so it's hard to figure things out exactly, but after fees I should net about $90. I sold at least one copy of 10 different apps. The top-seller this month was Awesome Sudoku, which moved 60 copies.
On the advertising front, the various ad networks I use on my blogs combined for around 10000 impressions, 100 clicks, and earnings of $1.88, which I will not receive because it's nowhere near the payment threshold. The ads on my Playbook apps had around 38000 impressions, 370 clicks, and earnings of $7.60, which I also will not receive. These amounts will roll over, and I should be eligible for some kind of payout in 4-5 months. Maybe.
Admittedly, the fill rates haven't been great, but based on the CTR and EPC I've been getting, to make a living on ad revenues, I would need every single Playbook owner out there to use one of my apps five times per month. And that's a bachelor apartment-style living, not champagne and caviar. Suffice it to say that I'm not second-guessing my decision to abandon development for RIM products.
In short:
28646 downloads
142 sales
$0 in ad payouts
From October 1 to 31, my Playbook apps received a total of 28648 downloads, or around 924 per day. About 9000 came from Canada, 7000 from the UK, 3000 from the US, with the rest split amongst various other nations all over the world, including a single download in Brunei.
Mid-week days tended to produce about 30% more downloads than the ends of the week, with Thursday being the most popular day, averaging more than 1300.
My most popular app was GPS Data Master, and my least popular was Psychic Test.
On the sales front, I sold 140 apps and 2 in-app purchases. Purchases come in multiple currencies, so it's hard to figure things out exactly, but after fees I should net about $90. I sold at least one copy of 10 different apps. The top-seller this month was Awesome Sudoku, which moved 60 copies.
On the advertising front, the various ad networks I use on my blogs combined for around 10000 impressions, 100 clicks, and earnings of $1.88, which I will not receive because it's nowhere near the payment threshold. The ads on my Playbook apps had around 38000 impressions, 370 clicks, and earnings of $7.60, which I also will not receive. These amounts will roll over, and I should be eligible for some kind of payout in 4-5 months. Maybe.
Admittedly, the fill rates haven't been great, but based on the CTR and EPC I've been getting, to make a living on ad revenues, I would need every single Playbook owner out there to use one of my apps five times per month. And that's a bachelor apartment-style living, not champagne and caviar. Suffice it to say that I'm not second-guessing my decision to abandon development for RIM products.
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Snippet.java
I had a problem that was causing me no end of trouble, and today I found the solution:
If, when you try to copy a project in Eclipse, pasting it creates a new file called Snippet.java, then try disabling Skype Click to Call in Chrome. I was going insane trying to figure out what was causing that behaviour.
stackoverflow is awesome.
If, when you try to copy a project in Eclipse, pasting it creates a new file called Snippet.java, then try disabling Skype Click to Call in Chrome. I was going insane trying to figure out what was causing that behaviour.
stackoverflow is awesome.
Free Updates
Today, I logged into the App World Vendor Portal and saw the latest comment on GPS Data Master. I decided that I would share it with you:
This sort of thing does not encourage me to make any updates to free apps, and in fact it just outright pisses me off.
Here's a person who liked the app enough to continue using it through at least one update cycle, but didn't take the time to rate it. Then, when future updates weren't coming fast enough, they went ahead and gave it 0 stars. Why would you want any kind of update for an app that you'd rate a 0?
Incidentally, whoever this is hasn't updated to the latest version. They're using version 1.1.102 and the current version is 1.2.1. Regardless, 1.1.102 was released less than a month ago. How the hell often do you expect free apps to be updated?
Here's what you'll see when you start GPSDM:
See that white rectangle there on the right? That's where an ad should be. But no one wants to advertise on the Playbook, so the ad fill rate is so low that most users see it as blank space. While I appreciate what I get, my earnings this month from that ad slot will be less than $2. It's getting harder for me to justify making updates, and comments like that one aren't pushing me in that direction.
free updates
0 Stars out of 5
Created Date: Oct 28, 2012 12:11:05 PM
Release: 1.1.102
Review Body:
what happened no free updates anymore?
This sort of thing does not encourage me to make any updates to free apps, and in fact it just outright pisses me off.
Here's a person who liked the app enough to continue using it through at least one update cycle, but didn't take the time to rate it. Then, when future updates weren't coming fast enough, they went ahead and gave it 0 stars. Why would you want any kind of update for an app that you'd rate a 0?
Incidentally, whoever this is hasn't updated to the latest version. They're using version 1.1.102 and the current version is 1.2.1. Regardless, 1.1.102 was released less than a month ago. How the hell often do you expect free apps to be updated?
Here's what you'll see when you start GPSDM:
See that white rectangle there on the right? That's where an ad should be. But no one wants to advertise on the Playbook, so the ad fill rate is so low that most users see it as blank space. While I appreciate what I get, my earnings this month from that ad slot will be less than $2. It's getting harder for me to justify making updates, and comments like that one aren't pushing me in that direction.
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