It is no secret that success in the various app stores is pretty much a lottery. While there are many things that you can do to guarantee failure, there isn’t much you can do to guarantee success. In fact, a recent survey by App-Promo.com suggests that 60% of developers don’t even break even (meeting development costs). And, horror of horrors, 80% of the app developers did not make enough money to support a standalone business.
Personally, I think these numbers are pretty damn good. That means 40% of all app developers surveyed broke even (or better). And, 20% of app developers surveyed made enough money to support a standalone business. In the world of brick n’ mortar, in the world of storefront business start ups how many succeed? By comparison these numbers are pretty good. And, if you stand around a room of competitors and don’t believer you are in the top 20% of those present, you don’t belong in business. “Damn right, I’m better at what I do than four out of five of these other schmucks.” Is this a proper attitude? It is gracious to think this way? No. However, if you take the time to ask the winners in the room, they will confess (if they are being honest) that they do believe they have a definite competitive edge.
So yeah, 40% don’t make the cut, and half of those don’t make the grade. If you look at the limited stats reflecting the action steps taken by app developers to market their apps, it is no secret why so many fail — 50% had $0 (yes zero dollars) marketing budget. To me, that means that there are a large number of app developers that are not business savvy. 90% of the developers surveyed said “Yes, marketing is necessary for success.” But half of these folks did not do any marketing. That means they have heard rumors about marketing, and they are able to parrot the rumors they have heard. They themselves are no marketers and they don’t have personal business savvy. No secret why the failure rate.
So, what is the point to the title of this post? Why isn’t the title something like: “App Development no different than the rest of the world. It takes business savvy to succeed at business”?
The title of this post is “App Success a Lottery” reflects my belief that after you pour blood, sweat, tears, and copious quantities of business savvy into an app development project the real “stand up and shout” success is pretty much a lottery.
The elements that make one app a run-away success and another a moderate success are so up for grabs that they are basically chance.
So, let’s admit that run-away success is something that just happens when the gods are smiling and don’t worry about it.
And where does this leave us? A little more sober about the prospects of making zillions of dollars with little or no effort, and back to the realization that success is something that will be built on a foundation of sound business practices — applied in a new arena.
That is sound business practices — applied in a new arena. The nature of what constitutes sound business practices has not changed. The adage “market or die” is still there.
What has changed is the arena — no question about it. Selling apps in an app store is very different than selling fruit in a farmer’s market. This much is pretty much self-evident. The part that is a little slipper is “applied”. How exactly does one apply these sound business practices in this new arena? That is where the learning is. That is where the make or break ah-ha moments are found. This is the place to concentrate effort.
Let me repeat the points:
1) You do not have to worry about finding out what the new “sound business practices” are. They have not changed.
2) Yes, the arena is different, in fact there are many new arenas — and they are all different than they way it was.
3) The trade secrets, the “my god, I’m glad we figured that out”, make or break secrets are going to be found in the area of how exactly the aforementioned sound business practices are applied.