Do You Have iOS Market Experience?

Who here has experience developing iOS versions of their Android apps? Say you made app ‘XYZ’ on Android, and decided to make an iOS port also. How did this pan out for you?

What type of numbers did you get (Android and iOS; downloads, income, ads, etc.)?

I port my apps to iOS but I am not sure why. Maybe I expect a miracle to happen? Anyway, my most popular apps on Android get almost zero downloads per day on iOS. Why do I pay $100 per year then? Because I can always earn that $100 easily by porting a new paid app - the first three days it will be bought a lot of times, after that it will drop to almost zero. If someone knows how to avoid such drop I would be grateful. Anyway - I’ve stumbled on some forum where iOS developers were discussing things and according to them iOS store now shows only 100 or so apps on their lists and new apps have 0 chance of getting there even if you throw thousands of dollars on ads.

eCPM on iOS is better for my free apps but they don’t get downloads, so it doesn’t earn me much.

Interesting. I suppose I’m just looking for a reason to learn Swift and a new market.

Or maybe that’s enough reason in itself? Although it would be nice to get some decent money out of it, too. :wink:

What type of apps did you put on the iOS? Could be a lot of factors at play here, i.e. market over-saturated for type of app.

On a side note, I could have swore I read somewhere that iOS users were more likely to pay for an app.

Same as Magnesus, we have had horrible experiences on IOS. We have port about 7-8 apps, none of them gets any downloads now. Seriously, we get 0 downloads for most of the games and 15/day for our most “successful” one

We did not spend any $$ on promotion though…

Games. Some simple, some complex, various types, all do poorly.

On a side note, I could have swore I read somewhere that iOS users were more likely to pay for an app.

Yes, but first they have to find it. Which is not easy on iOS store. As I said I sell a lot of copies the first 3 days (which is equivalent of the first 30 days on Google Play) which easily pays the fee but that is it - after that almost none.

I read the iOS forum and find out the same answer too. Some get download increase for unknown reason. Did you try to promote yours apps/games at other PR websites or blogs? Maybe it will get boost a bit after getting reviewed, ratings and listed in search engine.

Well I have had mixed results. I recently ported 3 of my apps (not the most popular) over to iOS as a test. 2 of them were downloaded slightly less than on Android but the third, a unique title, had over 1000 downloads in 3 days. 3x times more than on Android. Im averaging around $2 per day on banner ad income for the unique app which is pretty dismal. I need to figure out full screen ads to improve revenue.

So as long as your app is unique, the iOS market will generate a lot of downloads. However, if its the 500th flappy bird clone it will disappear into the abyss. :slight_smile:

The worst thing about iOS is the minutia involved in creating seemingly endless icons for the xcode submission and ‘provisions’. Android submission is a walk in the park compared to iOS. However, all three of my apps were approved within 48 hours so its not too difficult to follow their submission specs - just tedious.

Launching date is essential in iOS. You should have made the press release, created a lot of buzz, paid advertisements, etc. all pointing to the launch date. The first week after going live is the most important, unlike in Google Play where you can still get downloads from “recommended” and “similar” categories which is spoon-fed to the users. My experience is that the first three days of going live will have a burst of downloads. It’s up to you to maintain that burst.

As I said, the first 3 days on iOS get you many downloads/sales but after that - nothing.
If you are happy with that 1k of downloads then good for you, will it earn you $100 per year to pay the fee at least though?

@yattamove - how to maintain it though? Some of my games started really good but then nothing, zero, nada.

That’s my problem @Magnesus. Hahaha!

Maybe make something really really awesome that has not been made yet. Or hope the buzz you’ve created before launch sticks. I don’t know…

Agree with Magnesus and yattamove. I am also in same boat. Initial downloads on iOS are like 700-1000 daily and after 4-5 days, 60-80. After 2-3 weeks, 20-30 and then some days 0.
I read a post on blackhat forum today and a guy named BigBuddy is buying installs and choosing categories which get installs and that recent thread by him posted last month only.

Holy sh*t, that’s no good - I’ve spent the last month or so porting my main game to an architecture that supports iOS lol (and haven’t finished it yet!)

IOS market is dead.
App approval process is like asking for their kidney. Lots of f**king unnecessary rules.

I created App icons by myself in photoshop and it says that “They are licenced material.Though noone has claimed yet”

Can you believe it??

Their App reviewers are bunch of idiots across all over the globe.

I would say that it’s better if you tell you that something is wrong before you publish it than simply banning your app after few weeks/months without warning.