A few things everybody should know (goodies inside)!

[ffMathy]

Hi there.

Having developed 8 apps now, I ran all of them through an experiment. With each of the apps I did the same procedure over a course of a month as part of a research project. Each test was run through first on the Windows Phone 7 store and then the Windows Phone 8 store. This is what I did with each of my apps:

- First I tried releasing the app as a paid app at the minimum price. After 3 days, every app I tested had 0 downloads. The app had a basic white icon with a transparent background as its store icon.
- I then made the app free for a period of 5 days. The average download count on WP7 then went to 500 a day, and 400 a day on the WP8 version.
- Once the app had 5 ratings (in my scenario they were all 5 star ratings), I made the app paid again at the minimum price.
- Downloads fell to around 5 a day on average on both WP7 and WP8.
- I then updated the icon of the app (not the apps icon in the app itself and on its tile, but the icon shown in the store). It was updated to having a blue background (or a more complex icon, non-metro style).
- Downloads (still paid) rose to 30 a day on average for both platforms!

For one of the apps I then tried making it free and adding in app purchases instead. The revenue in my case for the app was worse.

Things I can conclude from this:

- WP7 versus WP8 doesn't really matter a lot despite WP7 apps being runnable on WP8. It is easier to make good apps on WP8 so stick with that.
- The icon of the app matters surprisingly much!
- Make all paid apps free first or offer a trial until they get good reviews.

It would be interesting to run some experiments with tiles and so on. I will do that next and get back to you!

 

[alv3st3r]

Make all paid apps free first or offer a trial until they get good reviews.

^^This!! I absolutely hate it when some developers just offer the "buy" option without even letting us to try the app once.

 

[JoelBennett]

I'd be curious to know how total revenue would compare to strictly an ad-supported version of each app. I suppose it depends partially on the type of app, but if you can keep users coming back to your app, I might hazard a guess and say that an ad-supported version might generate more revenue in the long run.

Interesting experiments, and thanks for sharing!

 

[Catholic Tech Geek]

Yes, thank you for sharing your experience. For my next app, I will try something similar to what you have done.

 

[hopmedic]

I'd be curious to know how total revenue would compare to strictly an ad-supported version of each app. I suppose it depends partially on the type of app, but if you can keep users coming back to your app, I might hazard a guess and say that an ad-supported version might generate more revenue in the long run.

Interesting experiments, and thanks for sharing!

I'm at work and work blocks this site with the category "games", so I can't see if the link still works, but if it does, here's a study for you from a couple years ago. I read it back then, and it has some really good stuff.
Krashlander: Numbers — Farseer Games