A return to the App Store →

Several developers have recently shared information about their sales, including the company behind Saved, a budget tracker for the iPhone.

While Saved’s numbers are far smaller than some recently shared figures, Allen Ding’s bit about the first version of app jumped out at me:

Just one problem. We just didn’t make any money. The conversions sucked. The app sucked. The business model sucked. I don’t really know. And I was still answering all these support emails. In multiple languages. I tried everything. Hundreds of emails to friends. Display Ads. More Ads. Sponsorships. But nope. Nada. There just wasn’t any traction.

That moment when you open up your sales figures after launch day and see that you’ve made $2.10 on the first day, and $6.40 on the second – that is when your world comes crashing down. You’ve never seen an App Store spike this blunt.

Depsite that, the team recently launched version 2.0 of the app to a level of success not enjoyed by the initial app.

When I think about the App Store, it’s easy to just think about the hits — the apps that make good money off the bat and are enjoyed by a wide user base. The truth is, however, that the App Store is full of people working really hard to see their dreams fail to take flight the way they were hoping. It’s sobering, but I think it should make the victories all the sweeter.