How do I charge for my app?
This is a very difficult question, and one that I've gone back and forth with Cat a lot. There are many variables, and data points, but honestly, contrary to anecdotal evidence from specific developers, there is no clear cut answer.
A lot of fuss has been made about iOS making more than Android for developers. There are a select few, but very vocal set of developers that have come out and said as such. And as anything Apple related, they've gotten a whole lot of publicity for it.
However, the story is not nearly so clean cut.
Some of the conclusions that people have come to are that Apple users have more money and are more willing to pay for apps. This, I believe, is absolutely incorrect. What I DO think we're seeing is the superiority of iTunes over the Google Market in the general case.
There are two main things at work. Up until recently, the Google market sucked badly for discovering apps. In fact, I would still argue that it needs a lot of work. iTunes isn't perfect, but it certainly does a lot better job of putting content in front of people's eyeballs. (Note: Watch the new Amazon Android app store. Things are getting interesting.)
Secondly, Apple markets the hell out of their app store. Their TV spots advertise getting apps ALL THE TIME. They have tied the idea that one of the main reasons to get an iphone is to BUY apps. This is very powerful.
But, there are other interesting data points. A lot of developers are finding that their ad spots make more money on Android then they do on iOS. Additionally, ads can pull in some astronomical numbers for some devs (Read: Rovio - Angry Birds) where the revenue from Ads on Android is quickly over taking the sales revenue on iOS.
But perhaps even more baffling is the story of the guys who made Pocket Legends. Pocket Legends uses the micro-transaction model. Even more hilarious is that Google hasn't even launched their micro transaction service, so they had to build their own.
But amazingly... Pocket Legends on Android is destroying it's iOS counterpart. Not only are Android users more likely to download the game, they spend a great deal MORE per person on in-app purchases than iOS users, and are more likely to click on Ads referring to the game on Android than on iOS.
So what does this all mean? Well, for one it means that there is some complex demographic information here to be extracted, and I can only hazard a guess.
I believe that the android platform is very polarized. On the one hand, you have a lot of casual people who walked into a Verizon store and picked it up because they liked the way it looked. These make up the vast majority of Android users and account for its explosive growth. They could be anyone, but are most likely value/budget users upgrading from a feature phone and taking advantage of some family plan or 2 for 1 deal. They haven't taken to the idea of buying apps yet. They might get there in time, or they will never acclimate to the idea of buying apps. But they DO love playing games. (We'll assume most everyone does) This accounts for the volume of money being pulled in by Ads.
The second group of Android users are the techies/PC Gamers/"Geeks." These are the people who know about all of the phones out there and actively decide to go with Android. This isn't an enormous user base though. These users are very comfortable with buying digital goods. They've been buying games since XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) launched, they've been using Steam, and they would rather pay for the app than have ads annoying them. These incidentally are the kinds of people that play MMOs.
I think with Pocket Legends is that we're seeing what happens when a game targets a specific demographic. In this case, the type of people who play MMOs and are comfortable with in-app payments are exactly the kind of users that are likely to get Android phones.
In the average case, I do believe that Apple users are more comfortable with buying apps in general. Apple's marketing has done a great job in that regard, though if I'm developing a game, there is NO way I would not try to go multi-platform, ESPECIALLY with the Amazon app store having just launched. Amazon KNOWS how to sell stuff on the internet. Probably better than anyone else. If you're making an app, I think now's the time to go multi-platform, and you should definitely try to get it up on Amazon.
Secondly, consider your demographics and what type of game you're making. Our game is going to be decidedly casual. It's going to be cute and family friendly. That said, we're going to charge for it on all platforms. We're still debating whether to make an ad-supported free version for Android, or if we just make a free gameplay limited demo. We'll let you know when we release how things are playing out, but it's my personal expectation that the iOS version will out perform the Android version, all things equal. Of course, if it gets featured on iTunes, or Google Market, or Amazon, then obviously THAT version will win hands down.
And that would be awesome. One can only hope.
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