Great article. One maybe naive question since I have no mobile app development experience: it seems that many apps experienced a spike in downloads when they were first launched; but the downloads tapered off in the long run. It is quite the opposite of websites where the traffic start to build up only after a period of time.
Could this have something to do with the lack of app search engines/recommendation engines to direct users to niche apps? Or is it due to the fact that mobile users only care about the latest (and presumably best) apps out there, hence the shorter life cycle of mobile apps? Thanks.
You are getting initially some good exposure when the app is first released and the app appear on the first page of the AppStore. If you are super lucky your app can feature in the noteworthy section or fully featured. But getting fully featured is not easy and it is up to Apple only to decide on that.
One thing that I will definitely recommend is to add some localization for a few other languages. Yes the US AppStore generate potentially the largest source of revenue but other non English speaking countries can be another way to climb in the chart and get some coverage to get your app noticed.
One of my app was featured one time on an italian web site and there was definitely a nice side effect on sales + ranking in the Italian store.
It's due to the nature of the market place: hits-based due to the charting nature of iTunes. So you typically get a huge boost in exposure when you launch (it's in the "new" chart as well as due to the PR that is drummed up externally) and as long as the resulting sales is enough to give a boost to it's ranking (in the "top X in category" chart, "top X in app store" charts, as well as being featured, which is really another chart), it keeps climbing. If downloads is sustainable at a certain level, the app settles at a particular ranking and earnings. Otherwise it fades and becomes forgotten. Some type of apps — games, novelty apps — are more susceptible to this.
Think of it like music or books. Apple is selling apps (to buyers) like it sells music.
Could this have something to do with the lack of app search engines/recommendation engines to direct users to niche apps? Or is it due to the fact that mobile users only care about the latest (and presumably best) apps out there, hence the shorter life cycle of mobile apps? Thanks.