In the middle ground stand a host of simple-concept games with great graphical interfaces. If you look at the App Store's top 10 sellers for paid apps at any given time, most of them are games. Games that either educate or temporarily amuse, especially ones that anyone from age 4 to an adult can understand and appreciate, are almost always in demand.
Dig Deeper: A Guide to Multimedia Marketing
Making Money on iPhone Apps: Flaunt What You've Got
Once your shiny new app is available in the App Store marketplace, visibility is vital to profitability. Getting into the App Store's top 100 – much less top 10 – list is of course the best way to see sales soar. If that's just not happening for you, start small. Build an audience from the ground-up.
"It's not necessarily the day that comes out that it needs to have blockbuster sales," Trefry says. "Think about what audience you're going after, and how that person interacts with their device."
Some key tips:
• Generate pre-release buzz. Have a website up and running before your app even launches. Make sure information is available for any interested parties. Existing social networking you or your company use can be beneficial in generating buzz, too.
• Do your own marketing, or enlist help. Craft a press release, or have all relevant information, including your contact info, available online. Create a list of blogs and websites that might be interested in reviewing your app, and ping them to spark interest. Be casual but informative – confident but never pushy. If being your own PR person sounds like a drag, enlist a tech PR firm that specializes in product releases on a contract basis.
• Plan for tie-ins or cross-app promotion. If you have existing apps, building in promotions for a new product is a simple way to get its name out to customers who already like your work. In-game advertising isn't a quick-fix to boost sales, though; it's more of a way to create a longer tail for your product's sales. Separately, think about other companies who aren't direct competitors you could form a mutually beneficial relationship with once you launch.
• Create an infrastructure that will support momentum and future growth. Consider what will keep customers coming back as well as what will attract new ones. Are there promotional tie-ins or giveaways that can help attract new interest on your website and in the App Store? What level of connectivity with buyers are you expecting and can you maintain? Trefry stays in touch with his app's fans on Twitter and Facebook, and since hearing input from them modified Gigaputt for use on the iPod Touch. "From social games on Facebook to iPhone games, there's no longer the old-school concept of putting it out there and then it's done," he says. "Now it's all about interacting with your fans, and making appropriate updates based on feedback."
Dig Deeper: iPhone Apps for Small Business
Making Money on iPhone Apps: Entering a Contest or Get in a Festival
This year, New York City invited programmers and developers to dig through their data and create urban apps. Offering $20,000 in prizes, the city hoped to spur technological innovation. For app developers, though, it was a big chance not just for a cash prize, but for exposure. When the prize winners were announced, everyone from politicians to venture capitalists were there taking note.
If you're a member of a tech or academic community, speaking on a panel or holding events in which you can discuss innovation in your field (and in your app) can hone in on your ideal audience. As a bonus, you'll gain clout in the community, and possibly open yourself up to future business opportunities. For example, Saul debuted Retronyms' iPhone game Seek 'n Spell at a New York big-games festival, where he introduced dozens of gamers to his location-based competitive spelling game. This year, he is speaking on a SXSW panel, and regularly hosts meet-up events to play Seek n Spell in San Francisco. "Even just talking about the market and space we're working in gets people excited and creates a market where new people will buy the app," Saul says.
Dig Deeper: Even a Kid Can Make an App
Making Money on iPhone Apps: Additional Resources
Check out 31 example apps to get your ideas flowing at appsamuck.com.
See a fairly exhaustive guide to making an iPhone app in one month.
Check out the O'Reilly guide Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Making App Store Apps Without Objective-C or Cocoa by Jonathan Stark, 2010.
iPhone Application Development For Dummies by Neal Goldstein, 2009.
The Business of iPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps that Succeed by David Wooldridge and Michael Schneider. Apress, 2010.
Inc.com's additional coverage of the iPhone and app development.
