There are now over 15,000 iPhone apps available from the App Store. Some are good, some are bad, some are fun, and some are serious. Between them all, they’ve been downloaded over 500 million times, but the individual sales tallies for each app vary wildly. Some are hugely popular, making their developers small fortunes. iShoot is the latest success story.

The iPhone App Store has enabled everyone to become a software developer, at least if they have the tech skills and creative talent to begin with. But how do you make your app stand out from the increasingly large crowd? That takes a combination of marketing genius and luck.

It seems that Ethan Nicholas, the developer of iShoot has exhibited more luck than anything in getting his original app to number one of the Top Paid Apps chart. IShoot has been there for around a week now but the app didn’t have quite such an auspicious start.

IShoot is a combat game where you take on the role of a tank commander charged with shooting other tanks into oblivion. Nicholas originally put the game on the App Store in October, 2008 priced at $2.99. A fair price for a fair game. But after just a few downloads the app disappeared into virtual obscurity like so many others before it.

Things changed over Christmas, however, as according to iPhone Saviour, Nicholas took the opportunity of some time off from regular work to throw up iShoot Lite, a free trial version of the game. On January 11, 2008, eight days after going live, iShoot Lite rose to number one of the Top Free Apps chart. And the original iShoot consequently rocketed to the top spot of the Paid Apps.

IShoot was downloaded over 16,000 times in just one day, earning Nicholas $33,000 or so in the space of 24 hours. That’s after Apple had taken their 30 percent. To stay at the top, it’s estimated iShoot is shifting 10,000 downloads a day, meaning Nicholas has likely earned more money in the last week than I will in five years.

Nicholas is now quitting his job at Sun Microsystems to develop apps full-time. Up to now, it’s just been a hobby, and iShoot was developed on an old Macbook by a man with no experience with Objective-C programming. Which just shows how the App Store can turn anyone into a software developer, and make them a lot of money into the bargain.

Will there now be a trend for giving away free trial versions of apps in order to push the paid version?

Related:

$20 premium games section coming to iPhone App Store?

Now iPhone and iPod Touch become TVPhone

Apple rejects many applications for iPhone developer program

iPhone Developers: App Store launch deadline announced

iPhone 2 aka iPhone 3G just $199 with contract

Entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 6:42 pm under Commercial Software, Free Apps, Games, Opinion, iPhone.  Print This Post

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