Marketing Mobile Applications

Just So We Know What's Possible on Android... $640k Per Month

Inside Mobile Apps reports that Android app Paradise Island has hit $640k in monthly revenue.

Game Insight, which makes Android’s top-grossing app in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, said its hit title “Paradise Island” raked in $640,000 in net revenue this May.

This gives developers a sense of the current upper revenue bound on the Android platform — at least through in-app purchases and paid apps. (The top-grossing list doesn’t include revenue from offer walls or advertising, so there may be other higher-earning titles with ads such as Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds.)

For comparison’s sake, it’s possible for a game on iOS to earn more than $3 million per month, according to conversations we’ve had with leading third-party advertising and analytics providers and top developers.

So with these assumptions, we’re looking at a 5:1 ratio when comparing potential run-rates on both platforms for a single game right now.

While there's still more money on iOS, it's nice to know that there's potential for big money in Android apps...

The Lack of Android Tablet Apps is a Huge Opportunity

There was some buzz about the lack of Android tablet apps, but I think it's an opportunity. From carpeaqua:

My criteria for considering an app for this list is that it either requires Android 3.0 or have its user interface be specifically designed for a tablet experience. I didn’t count games or existing Android apps that are just upconverted to take advantage of the existing screen real estate. While it is a marginally better experience than trying to run an iPhone app on an iPad, I’m not counting it given that Apple doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands of iPhone exclusive apps in its 65,000 iPad app count. There is little point in buying a $600 - $800 device just to run larger versions of apps you run on your phone.

It'll be easier to be noticed if your app is one of the first to be designed for Android tablets, and if you're early you'll see more reviews and sales as the market grows. The Android tablet app market is smaller, but given the fast rise of Android phones I expect we'll see a lot of sales of tablets to Android phone owners.  

The Value of An App User on iPhone & Android

If you've been looking for some data points for your business plan, or have just been trying to figure out if you'll make any money on ads, Mobclix has put together a handy infographic that shows the average revenue for an iPhone or Android app user.

It's interesting to note that iPhone users were worth more than Android users, and that utility customers are better than game customers. The apps profiled for the data had 500k downloads and/or 75k daily users, and are free "top 10" apps.

You can view the full-size image on the mobclix website.

via Mobile Marketing Watch.

Google Android Market Client Update Coming Soon

On the Google Developer blog Dirk Dougherty announced that they will be rolling out a new Android Market client in the next two weeks to all devices running 1.6 and higher.

This new Market client introduces important features that improve merchandising of applications, streamline the browse-to-purchase experience, and make it easier for developers to distribute their applications.

With a focus on improving discoverability and merchandising, we’ve introduced a new carousel on the home and category screens. Users can quickly flip through the carousel to view promoted applications and immediately go to the download page for the application they want.

Merchandising is another dirty word to most developers, but it's an incredibly important part of marketing and crucial to sales. When you see a product placed in a store at eye level or at the end of an aisle, that's merchandising. The design of your icon, quality of screen shots, the copy describing your application -- all of this is key to getting potential customers to download or purchase your app.

Once the new store is live we'll take a look at some good and not-so-good details pages.

300,000 Android Phones Activated Every Day

If you weren't thinking about an Android version of your app after learning that the free Android version Angry Birds is on track to earn $1 million per month in ads, you might want to start thinking about it after reading this:

via Daring Fireball.