Hi All, I'm new to this forum and all of my apps & games were developed for the Android platform. I've developed a cool little game for Android called Noogra Nuts and currently I'm getting close to submitting it to the app store Here's a short video of it in action (Android version): It is free on the Android market (With in-app purchase) and has about 180,000 downloads so far: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bengigi.noogranuts In the iPhone I'm planing to sell it at $0.99 without any in-app purchase. Is that a good strategy? From looking at what developers are saying it seems it is very hard to get your app noticed and some developers are making their app for free to gain some recognition. On Android I had to make it free because most users won't buy a game, is this the same situation on the App Store? I thought that the App Store is better than the Android market, but maybe this assumption is wrong? I'll be happy to hear your feedback about the game, and also would like to hear developers who developer for both of the platform who can tell which one is better and what works for the App Store that doesn't on Android. Thanks & It seems like a great forum! Oren
I'd suggest releasing on iOS as paid with iaps too. And if you feel sales have not been what you wanted you can always set to free after a couple of weeks/months. So far I have one game on the appstore which has been 0.99 most of the time. As an experiment I set it free for a couple days and the difference in downloads was huge. So now I'm just about to release an update with an advert and an iap and set to free again. And then gradually add more content and iaps.
Yes, it is a great feature that lacks from the Android Market, to make a free app paid, and vice versa. In Android once an app is free is cannot be paid. Currently I didn't implemented any of the in-app purchase items like in the Android version, but I'll try adding it in an update. I'm using Cocos2d-x for the porting, and it is awesome, almost didn't written any ObjectiveC code, maybe a few lines for Game Center integration and Facebook score posting.
If you take some of these articles point of view http://blog.flurry.com/bid/79061/App-Developers-Bet-on-iOS-over-Android-this-Holiday-Season http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2011/12/13/androids-weak-monetization-means-developers-are-still-choosing-ios-in-droves/ iOS monetizes much better than Android so a similar strategy should theoretically net you more right?
I'm not sure, since there are many differences between the platforms and the users habits are different too. But from reading what developers are saying about the app store, it seems like it is becoming more and more like the Android Market. The main problem is overcrowding of the App Store, since there are too many apps, developers are going for the freemium model to get more downloads and that's makes it hard to charge money on your app. Anyway, my game just got approve by apple Once it will be there enough time, I'll share my impressions on how the two app stores compare.