The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development

INTRODUCTION

WITH ROUGHLY HALF A MILLION active apps available for download and a current pace of 20,000 new apps approved every month (according to 148apps.biz), the iOS App Store has been without doubt a phenomenal success. From its launch in 2008, it's seen exponential growth both in revenue generated and apps created, and it continues to flourish.

You may have heard the early success stories of lone programmers making thousands per day in revenue off of experimental apps. From then on, it wasn't long before larger sums of money were being thrown at app development from more major players and venture capitalists, and it's been that way ever since.

Though the App Store is showing no signs of weakening, it is becoming increasingly top-heavy. For example, depending on your niche, the top 20 percent of apps may do well in terms of numbers of downloads, but as you'll see later in the book, after that, the numbers drop significantly.

The type of success that many developers aspire to (such as the success of the “Angry Birds” application) is relatively unique, but there is still great opportunity in the App Store frontier, and lessons to be learned from both success stories and failures. Trends are shifting greatly from old business models to new, and, in this book, you will find them covered in detail.