Appular: Apple needs to improve the buying experience on iPad
Not enough discovery; revenue skewed to top spots
With the iPad, and its associated App Store, into their second week of commercial operations, the number crunchers over at publishing and marketing agency Appular have been analysing how things are shaping up.
And what they see ain't pretty for most developers.
Even more so that on the iPhone App Store, sales are dominated at the top spots of the charts.
Appular calculates that the #1 top grossing app earns about 70 times that of the #100 top grossing app.
It estimates the top position is worth $70,000 per day in revenue, with sales of around 7,000, although this obviously fluctuates across the week.
Dude, where's my HD app?
Discovery is also a major issue, especially on-device, where the lack of charts for the top apps within categories, means the only available slots are the top 50 (paid, grossing and free), plus featured apps.
"If a developer isn't lucky enough to be featured, they really don't stand a chance," says Dino Decespedes, Appular's CFO and director of publishing.
"One theory we have is that Apple wants to prevent the iFarts of the world from muddying up the iPad experience. I can't really blame it, but it comes at the expense of creating a meritocratic presentation of what's available."
[source: Appular]
