Goodbye, App Store.
Saying goodbye to independent app development
Writing this post is not easy. It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about in the past year and it’s time to come out and say it. Goodbye, Apple, I’m leaving you. It’s been fun…mostly.
Who am I? I’m an iOS developer and I make apps…those little things that help others accomplish everyday tasks. In the past 6 years, I taught myself how to write code in Objective-C & Swift languages and went on to self-publish numerous applications that spanned the travel, productivity and utilities categories.
Most of these apps were originally created for myself and then made available in the App Store. I made TripList to help travelers pack their bags, RoadCam to help drivers drive safer, Serial Plus to catalog household items and most recently, Peach & Pit to help users save their unique memories.
I never thought I would be saying goodbye to something that so close to my heart, but alas, it’s getting increasingly difficult to make it in the App Store economy and it’s time for me to hang up my indie developer hat.
Why I’m leaving
It’s quite simple. It’s just too difficult to get noticed in today’s App Store. You can spend months creating mockups, coding and marketing your app, then finally release it and have no one download it. Why? Because no one can find it.
If no one can find it, it doesn’t exist.
It’s sort of understandable. The App Store is overflowing with worthless apps and it’s only getting worse. Some haven’t been updated since iOS 3, but are somehow allowed to take up space in the App Store, slowly rotting away with time.
My time in the App Store has been marked by just as many failures as successes, although it should be noted that success is a relative term. My accomplishments do not include making the next big social network or having a million downloads in the first day/week/month, I’m not that guy. I’m the guy that was able to earn a modest living doing what I loved most: making software that helped others.
The goal of every app that I’ve ever made was to help users accomplish things faster and easier than before. Most of the time I’ve succeeded, but not always.
This article is not meant to discourage people from becoming an app developer, rather it is meant to highlight some of the challenges and realities app developers often face.
The app that broke the developer’s back
In Spring of this year, I visited my friends and family in Oregon. We were invited to dinner at our friend’s house. As we sat around the dinner table with them and their children, they told us about a little routine that they did every night called Peach & Pit. They explained to us newcomers that a peach is something good that happened to you during the day and the pit is something that could have gone better. Everyone then took turns explaining their own Peach & Pit for the day.
I thought it was a really cute idea that brought everyone together and enabled families to talk about their days.
After this trip, I began thinking about the possibility of saving my own daily Peach & Pit memories. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could look back and see my good and bad moments? It was at this time that I began thinking about making an app.
I’ve never been big into journaling. I wrote in them as a child, then stopped. Picked it up again as an adult, then stopped. I bought the Day One iOS app a few years ago and even made a few dozen entries, then stopped. It’s always been a on and (mostly) off affair.
Once I got back to Berlin, I spent about a 6 weeks creating Peach & Pit and in this time my idea went from a simple mockup to a full fledged application that looked good and worked great. My beta testers were also liking the app and using it everyday. I created a Facebook page, registered a domain name and made a fancy website. I was satisfied, happy even.
As one does with any new app, I started individually e-mailing blogs and websites to see if they would be interested in the trying out the app. I politely e-mailed over 20 websites and got zero responses. I emailed dozens of smaller bloggers and again got zero responses.
Perhaps my e-mail wasn’t working. After a brief test, my nightmare was confirmed, my email worked just fine.
I’m not naive to think that my app is the best thing in the world, or that every single person would be interested in an app like Peach & Pit. That’s not how apps work, and that’s okay. Peach & Pit is a niche journal app that isn’t shit and an app I think many people could enjoy. That is, if they could find it.
After a number of disappointing weeks on the marketing front, I decided to launch the app without any publications lined up to talk about it.
As expected, the launch was uneventful. Peach & Pit gained a handful of downloads which likely came from my signup form on the website but failed to gain traction in the App Store. It just wasn’t seen by enough people.
As far as app launches go, this was probably the most difficult one I’ve been through. I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get exposure for apps in the last 2–3 years and there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. It seems like no one wants to write about apps that aren’t Uber/Tinder for [insert stupid idea here].
While I consider the launch a failure, I don’t feel the same way about the product. It’s a solid app that I’m going to continue actively developing for because I really love the idea.
That being said, it’s safe to say I won’t be bringing anything new to the App Store in the future. It’s a shame too, because it’s quite fun being an independent developer.
It comes down to being all risk and very little reward and for this reason I’m saying goodbye to the App Store.
What I’ve learned about being an app developer
Building an app is not hard. Yes, there are times where you can be stuck for days on a technical issue, but that’s part of the job. The hard part is getting noticed in a world of nearly 2 million apps.
Marketing is the hardest job
In my opinion, making a successful app it comes down to just a few things. Let’s put aside the fact that your app needs to be useful, that should be goal number one. If your app is not useful or doesn’t help someone in some way, just toss it in the dumpster and start over.
It’s helpful to know the right people
I’m an introvert and in general a private person. There I said it. I am keenly aware that no one likes to be talked at. Conversations are two way streets which may be why no-one got back to me when I e-mailed them. I admit that over the past few years I didn’t make a big enough effort to get to know the right people in the tech industry. Because of this, I did myself a big disservice. Other people can help you in areas where you can’t help yourself. This was my number one mistake…doing it alone.
Luck plays a part
When Apple reviews your app for inclusion into the App Store, they decide whether it is unique enough to be featured. That is, shown to millions and millions of potential users in prominent areas of the App Store. If it is, it gets noted and eventually the higher-ups gather around a big beautiful glass table in Cupertino to debate which of the previously noted apps will get featured in the App Store.
Disclaimer: I don’t actually know how featured apps get chosen.
Being featured by Apple is the ultimate goal of any quality developer. If your app is good enough, or Apple simply forgets about it, it can be featured for weeks or months at a time. It is quite simply, a massive amount of free advertising that can be the difference between a developer making it big or falling into the shadows.
I was briefly featured in the “New and Noteworthy” category back in 2010 for another app that I made. That week was the best week that I ever had in the App Store and one that I have been unable to duplicate.
Advertising is necessary
For the vast majority of developers who don’t get featured by Apple and also get ignored by internet publications, paid advertising is (unfortunately) where they end up.
App Review Websites
There exists an entire class of websites which exist only to part app developers from their money. These websites generally allow a developer to submit their app and then try to sell them on “expedited” reviews to ensure their app gets coverage.
Any website that wants to charge you to review your app is worthless. If you ever encounter this while promoting your app, just move on. Out of principle, I’ve never paid for a review like that and I hope you don’t either.
There are reliable, trustworthy websites out there that can help you tell the world about your app. I’ve had good success in the past with AppAdvice, iMore, TheNextWeb and few of the bigger tech blogs.
App Install Advertisements
A few years ago, app installs were all the rage. These were the advertisements inside your Facebook or Twitter feeds that promoted a certain app and jumped right into the App Store. They were inexpensive, effective and really awesome. You could spend .05–20 cents on an app install, which was brilliant. Unfortunately for developers, those days are long gone.
Here is an advertisement campaign I made for Facebook recently. It was created for the Peach & Pit app, which sells for $2.99 on the App Store. For each individual app sale, $2.10 (70%) of it goes to me and 90 cents(30%) goes directly into Apple’s coffers.
Paid advertising is pretty simple, in the case of Peach & Pit, I needed to make sure the advertising doesn’t go over $2.10 per user acquisition. Anything over that amount and I would lose money. If every user I acquired from a Facebook advertisement cost $1.50, I would still make a little money.
Here is the reality of the situation: App install ads are generally so expensive that it is impossible for independent developers to utilize them. The example advertisement below warns that my bid is too low and suggests I increase it to $30.00 per install. WTF — Yeah, that’s not happening.
I don’t blame Facebook or Twitter for the sky high bids. I realize that these app install ads are aimed primarily for high roller apps like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush. These “free” apps get players to pay huge amounts of money for in-app purchases. Kudos to them for absolutely killing it in the App Store, but these types of freemium apps indirectly hurt small developers, especially paid developers who choose to forgo in-app purchases.
The Paid vs. Free debate
It’s no secret, over the past few years, it’s been getting harder and harder to sell paid apps.
When the App Store debuted back in 2008, the app landscape was very different. There were not very many apps there and more often than not, they were paid apps. As the race to the bottom happened, apps started being free and people quickly got used to it.
App pricing is an interesting topic. Even though a person may spend four dollars on a fancy coffee at their local coffee shop, this doesn’t mean they value software or apps the same way.
Will this same person spend the same amount on an application that they could theoretically use everyday for a year (or longer)? I think most would hesitate and have an internal dialog with themselves about whether it was worth their hard earned cash.
Why risk paying for an app, when you’re not sure the value is there?
As much as a loath it, the iOS App Store has largely moved to the in-app purchase model / freemium model.
As is now evident from the Peach & Pit app launch, it probably would have been a better decision to make the app free up-front and charge for in-app purchases. Of course, if the app did get featured or had lot of coverage, my feelings on this would have been different.
My advice for Apple
I’ve been thinking a lot about developing for the App Store and what could be changed to help both users and developers have a better experience. My hope for this article is that someone in Cupertino reads this and takes note.
Out with the old
I think most people can agree that it’s time for a massive app purge. Time to clear out the App Store, because quite frankly, it’s full to the brim with crap.
I’ve got a few ideas on how Apple can do that:
- Remove any app that has not been updated in the last two years. If a developer does not care enough about its users to update it at least once every two years, it doesn’t deserve to be put in front of users.
- If an app has not been updated to support newer devices (like iPhone 6/6 Plus) within a reasonable amount of time (say 6 months), these apps should (at a minimum) lose ranking in the App Store.
Let’s find an example. Search the App Store for “tally app”. About 20 places down, we find a prime example of an app that has been utterly abandoned by its developer. The app hasn’t been updated since April 14, 2011. That’s over 1900 days. To put it into perspective, the screenshot the developer used was taken with an iPhone 3GS!
If you remember only one thing from this article, I hope it’s this: Apps like this hide newer, more modern apps from being seen by users. This in turn, reduces revenue to developers who are actively involved in the App Store (i.e. trying to make a living).
Apps like this fester in the App Store and make it more difficult for other developers to get noticed.
Take a look for yourself, there are some really nice modern apps that are ranked lower than this dinosaur.
This happens in every single category of apps. Try it with any keyword you like, apps like this are a dime a dozen.
Ask yourself this: Why would an app that hasn’t been updated in 1900 days rank higher than one that was released this year and is available on all modern iPhones (and maybe even the Apple Watch)? This is a good example of how out of touch Apple is with the modern App Store.
Leaving abandoned apps in the App Store wouldn’t be so bad if Apple put them at the very bottom of the list. But they don’t. The algorithm that Apple uses to rank apps is utterly broken and as an independent developer, it’s both incredibly frustrating and disheartening.
Remove the bloat
It’s not just old outdated apps that clog the App Store, it’s also modern ones.
In the travel category of the App Store, spamming the App Store with different apps is commonplace. Take Ulmon, Wallpaper* Apps and mTrip to name a few. Each one has roughly the same product, basically, a city guide.
These companies create a separate app for each city they support. This goes back to the original problem of App Store visibility. The only way (they think) they can succeed is to submit as many app versions as possible with different keywords.
Apple’s own guidelines even suggest submitting a single app with in-app purchases instead of multiple apps to keep bloat to a minimum.
4.3 — If your app has different versions for specific locations, sports teams, universities, etc., consider submitting a single app and provide the variations using in-app purchase.
I know from experience that Apple enforces this guideline. They will reject apps that they think are better suited as a single app, with one exception. If the developer makes the app icon different for each app, they seem to let this guideline slide.
You may not think this is necessary a problem, but imagine if Yelp made a separate app for each city they supported. It would be considered spam and promptly rejected from the App Store. Why aren’t other apps held to this standard?
Allow feedback in the App Store
One thing that has consistently eluded iOS developers is a way to respond to feedback left by users in the App Store. It’s kind of incredible that the App Store has been around for 8 years and this feature is still missing. This should not be a talking point. It would be so mind numbingly simple for a company with the resources of Apple to implement, that it is shameful that it isn’t.
If you leave a review for an app, it’s thrown into a black hole. The developer might see it, but that’s not guaranteed.
Let’s create an example situation and assume that a user is frustrated because they can’t find the feature they wanted inside your app.
Example:
“The app is good, but I’m rating it 3 stars because it doesn’t have [insert feature] which I really wanted.” -iOSUser
It’s entirely possible that this user will delete your app because their expectations were not met.
Keep in mind that other users will see this review, may possibly relate to it and not download your app in the first place. Now it’s not just one user you’ve lost, it’s multiple. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Let’s pretend that we can respond directly to that user. Here are a few examples of things that could be said to the user:
“Hi there! This feature is available, just tap the icon that looks like a [whatever].”
“Hello and thanks for your feedback, we plan on adding this in the next update.”
“Hello! Thanks for your feedback. We would love to know how you would use a feature like this, please e-mail us directly at xxx@xxx.com”
It really doesn’t matter what the developer says. Any response is better than nothing. The user feels engaged and knows that the developer cares about the app enough to support it. The developer (hopefully) keeps a user that cares enough to write a review. It’s win-win.
The Google Play Store has had it for years. Which leads us to the question: Why doesn’t Apple want users to have a better App Store experience?
Fake reviews
There are thousands of apps in the store that game the App Store review system. Apple has largely stamped out the fake reviews coming from offshore click-farms, however, less obvious problems still exist.
What they haven’t done yet, is figure out a way to stop developers from fraudulently obtaining reviews by real users. Usually it works by the app offering to unlock additional functionality simply by leaving a five-star review. The user is prompted from inside the app and the reviews come from valid users so to Apple, they look genuine.
I don’t think this type of abuse is necessarily hard to discover, it just takes someone looking for it and I don’t think that is happening right now.
Implement measures to increase reviews
Getting reviews for your app is hard. I don’t know how many users review apps, but if you told me it was 1 person out of every 100, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Apple’s Apple Store partially ranks your app depending on the amount and quality of its reviews & ratings. Because of this, it is extremely important for developers to make an effort to get users to review their apps.
The problem is that the only things users hate more than reviewing an app, is being pestered by the app to do so.
Currently, Apple puts the responsibility of soliciting reviews directly onto the developer. If the developer wants the user to review the app, they have to prompt the user.
Proposal:
Create a system that rewards the most active reviewers on the App Store. Allow App Store users to up-vote helpful reviews and reward the users that have the most helpful votes as well as number of reviews. These users receive a special badge which is shown in the App Store next to their username when reviewing. Other users see these badges and know that they can trust the review to be fair and thoughtful.
Charge developers more
This one may be controversial, but I think it may be a way to stop the giant stream of shit that flows to the App Store.
Developers pay $99 per year to Apple to keep their apps in the App Store. I like to think that for most developers it’s not hard to make that up in sales. However, there is a type of developer that pays their yearly dues to Apple and then proceeds to spam the App Store with crap applications.
Currently, if a developer makes a few worthless apps one year and barely broke even, the next year, they would probably pay again because there is little downside.
The more money Apple charges developers for using the App Store, the more these developers will have to take pause and ask themselves: “Is it worth it for me, as a developer, to keep these (unsuccessful) apps in the App Store?”.
I think it’s worth having a discussion about whether a fee per year, per app would be helpful to the App Store economy. This system works well with domain names. A person can register a domain name and pay around $10 per year for the privilege. If that person decides in a year that it’s not worth it to pay again, they don’t get to keep the domain.
If Apple charged enough, this would effectively clear a large portion of crap applications out of the App Store. This means that active developers would be more likely to have their apps placed in front of potential users. How much would I personally be willing to pay? That depends on how many more users would be viewing my apps, but I could see myself paying $50–$100 per year, per app.
Increase developer profit share per sale
“Wait a minute, didn’t I just read that developers should be charged more?”
Yes, you did. Hear me out.
Apple handles billing and hosting of all apps and for this charges the developer 30% from each sale. Recently, they have announced that a new subscription model will be introduced and developers will take 85% of all subscriptions after the first year.
Let’s put the subscription model aside for a minute and focus on that big round number. Thirty percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but as the economics of the App Store has changed over the years, so must this number.
It is estimated that Apple has taken in over 72 billion USD in App Store sales and in the process has paid developers over 50 Billion. This means Apple has earned around 22 billion dollars from the App Store since its inception. This is pure speculation on my part, but I imagine Apple probably makes a tidy profit on this amount.
Dear Apple, give your developers a raise, they deserve it.
I think it’s time that developers ask Apple for a raise. Raising the revenue share only for subscriptions (over one year) is not good enough. If Apple doesn’t listen, I hope Google does. If Google decided to give developers a raise, say by changing their revenue split to 85/15, I think Apple would be forced to follow suit.
If Apple decided to charge per app, per year and also gave users a revenue bump to 85/15, low quality/spam applications would still struggle to overcome the yearly fee, which is a good thing.
That’s all folks.
If you’ve managed to get this far down the page, I applaud you [INSERT APPLAUSE]. Besides a few random e-mails to Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, I’ve never voiced my opinions about app development. Writing this article has been a cathartic experience and I hope to write more in the future.
If you’re an aspiring developer, I hope my words made you a bit wiser to the challenges and realities of being an app developer.
If you’ve already developed an app, successful or not, I would love to hear about your own experiences in the App Store and how you think it could be changed for the better.
If your e-mail address ends in @apple.com (either now or in the past), I want to thank you for building the App Store and enabling developers around the world to make a living doing what they love.
Where do I go from here? I’m not quite sure. As I stated earlier, I will continue to developing my existing apps but won’t be bringing anything new to the App Store. Maybe I will take a long-needed vacation and eventually start taking more freelance work or maybe even find a cool startup in Berlin.
I’ve had a fantastic time developing for the App Store and I will look back on this period with (mostly) fond memories. I went from adding a simple button to a screen on the first day to eventually creating complex applications that people really seemed to enjoy.
The languages and skills I’ve acquired from being an independent developer are invaluable and I look forward to honing them on new challenges. While I may no longer be making my own apps, I am more determined than ever to be a helpful, thoughtful voice for developers around the world.
[UPDATE: In the end, I ended up switching the Peach & Pit journal app to free + in-app purchase and it seems to be working out better.]
Thanks for reading!
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