The Elephant in the Dark Room
Publishing an app is a strange thing. Although not an unfamiliar experience to many of you, the act of putting your work in front of people, thousands of people, always creates tension. Many of us naturally shy away from putting ourselves into a position to be criticised. And it only gets worse when you’re emotionally attached. And then you add money into the mix and things get really messy.
One of the best things about software development is how it blends the technical, the creative and the pragmatic business side. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in any of these, but at least I have an education and experience in working creatively. The world of writing code and version control is still very new to me, but most of the time it’s pretty clear if something is working or not (the why is always more complex). There’s still a touch of imposter syndrome but I’m getting more and more comfortable every day.
When it comes to the business though.. That I have no experience with. Not only do I not know what to do, I don’t even know where to start. But I’m so very curious. It took me a year to get comfortable with development, maybe it’ll be the same for teaching myself business.
In the 2 months since Obscura’s release, it’s seen almost 25,000 downloads. Woo. The response has been great and people seem to enjoy it. They’re also producing some beautiful photographs. But for all that, it’s only made about $600 by way of selling filters as In-App-Purchase. In the same category of camera apps, Manual, by William Wilkinson made $123,413 in revenue with 95,621 total sales. Manual launched at a very opportune time with the release of iOS 8, and it had a fantastic promo video. While I don’t see Obscura as ever being likely to make the same money, at least it’s proof that the market exists.
We all know that it’s not a good time to be making a living on the App Store. I don’t expect to Obscura to be some breakaway hit that defies the odds, and I certainly don’t want anyone to think that I’m whining about the situation. I’m already thrilled with the reception Obscura has had, but I’m also genuinely curious about the process of improving it financially. Making piles of money has never been the primary goal of Obscura. Learning, building my experience and growing an audience have been the real aim, and it’s been a tremendous success in that regard. But I want to work on increasing revenue in much the same way I want the UI and the performance to get better over time.
Which leaves me with a number of options to explore over the next year. From a paid up front model to subscriptions or advertising, there are many ways of generating income on the app store, and perhaps experimentation is the only way to really know what’s best for me, for Obscura, and for the users. For now things will stay as they are as I head back to college and the time I have for Obscura decreases.
Your thoughts, feedback or suggestions would, of course, be very much appreciated. If you’d like to try Obscura, it’s available on the App Store (for free) or read more about it at ObscuraApp.com
