Jared Sinclair, in an excellent article about the launch of his RSS application Unread:
If you want to make “real money” from a paid-up-front app, your launch week has to be be a box-office smash.
All of Jared’s piece is interesting, but that statement really hit me. I’ve heard it said before, but his data really backs it up.
It’s a shame Jared hasn’t made more on Unread. As he points out, the app was both featured on the App Store and garnered a fair bit of media attention. I can’t imagine how rough it is for developers of less popular paid apps. The whole thing really highlights how the free fall of App Store prices has affected developers.
It’s not good for anyone, really. Without good money coming in, developers can’t make the kind of apps they want to make, which in turn, drives the price further into the ground and hurts the ecosystem as a whole. I fear the App Store is in some weird chicken-and-egg downward spiral.