Tap Tap Tap recently reported that Convert had fallen out of the top 100 despite getting a minimum of 1,100 sales per day. As they noted, this is a huge change from the app store’s early days where it took a mere 100 sales to get you in.
The implications are pretty crazy. On one hand, it means that your app has a miniscule likelihood of getting there—your app has to be an extremely radical hit (its not something you can plan on). On the other hand, it means that top 100 apps make a killing but you don’t need to be there to sell 1,100 copies a day. I would love to hear more about Convert’s post-top-100 sales going forward.
This also means that developers need to develop marketing strategies that don’t rely on the app store—something I’ll be exploring further on this blog.
Another dynamic to add into the mix are the free+ apps (free trial apps with in-app purchasing to upgrade). How do those affect the top 100? Right now they are not included. Will the top free apps become the new top 100? Its hard to say but I have a hunch things will go that direction in the near future.
If you have been trying the free+ strategy, I would love to hear from you (either in the comments or email).
