Hi! I just posted on my site: http://cramzy.com/news.php So, what do we devs do now? Go to Android? - Iliya
Good points - the App store is acting nuts. I just saw that it updated finally. Seems like in order to make waves you'll have to release an entirely new game. I've heard sales for Android apps are absolutely terrible though, with the top Devs only making $50 - $100 a day. I don't think its time to switch yet... Top devs on iPhone are making thousands per day. Still quite a big difference. Maybe in a year things will be different.
But how do you become a big dev on the iPhone? It takes luck or money. How many of us have these two? Not me!
i lol'd @ this thread. First off, lots of devs claim that being on the release date list doesn't make a noticeable impact on their sales. I'm sure Apple thoroughly investigated that factor before making this move. Secondly, it is not entirely up to Apple whether or not your app is successful. Here is how to boost your sales from a dev standpoint: 1. Make a good app. 2. Design your keywords perfectly. 3. Make a good app. 4. ??? 5. Profit.
How many apps do you have? How much do you earn? Make a good app- of course! We have the best jokes app ever made (seriously!). It sells well but if it does not appear on the recently released list once a month it drops in sales. And it's still the best jokes app ever made. It has great rating for the last few updates, so it's sure people love it. Keywords? 100 000 apps and 100 characters keywords limit? Seriously?
I see this as a good thing, a lot of developers are coming out with tiny updates just to knock themselves to the front of the release list. Now actual NEW things will be featured. If you come out with an update to your app, especially a huge one, there are other ways of people finding out
If your keywords are good and your sales are as decent as you say, you should come up in the first few results when people search for "jokes" regardless of when you released
The part where I said, "Make a good app" does not mean make the millionth joke app with default interface elements.
Press releases, twitter updates, website updates, facebook fan updates. If you aren't building your brand and you're relying entirely on being at the front of the release list all the time you're doing it wrong FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 18,000 Jokes now has 18,001 Jokes in latest update! blah blah blah link link link $$$
I actually like this move. There are far more apps abusing the update-and-stay-atop feature than there are developers getting benefits. It stings a little bit when you put in a good update, but you're also not having the top of that list flooded with "A Crocodile Dentist" updates.
If apple wants to decrease the amount of new apps showing up each day this isn't going to work in my opinion. You will now get devs spamming the store with new apps instead of updating their existing apps. The devs that release updates with little or no changes will continue to find a way to exploit the new release exposure. If they are trying to get more new apps on the store this will accomplish that.
Dude, search is not that popular actually. People just want to be told what to see, not to think and search for something (for the better part of the time). People just hit the "Recently released" list, browse there, buy stuff and that's it...it's so rare that they think of a specific app to search for. But when you see "hmm, a new jokes app...cool. let me try it.." this is what leads to sales! Not "hmm, i think i want a jokes app right now, lets find one". I say this with quite a lot of experience on this platform!
I dunno, compiling web results is way easier than writing actual content. Hang on, let me find a latin quote for this...
We didn't see any change in downloads by appearing under New Apps, after trying so hard to get there on the 2nd attempt (we didn't understand how the release dates worked). If you want to make any money at Android, I would suggest going now, BEFORE the market pops. At this point, even really crappy games can make money because there isn't any major competition and it is still a novelty (remember iPhones Fart App?).