Mobile Entertainment has spotted a fascinating development: the Apple’s App Store now apparently has a ‘top grossing’ ranking.
Why is this so important? One of the things that we think is critical is a ruthless, relentless focus on the data; what do the facts tell us? One of the most common metrics used is market share, but here’s the very first question you should ask yourself:
- volume (units)?
- or value (revenue)?
In mobile phones, for example, these can mean very different things: Apple has ranked as high as #3 by value (and #1 or #2 by profit), despite having only a small share by volume. Whenever you see market share data, ask yourself if it’s market share of volume, or market share of value.
In mobile applications, where many are free, it’s not enough to just know ‘Top Free’ or ‘Top Paid’, you really need to know revenues to understand the economics well.
Moreover, if rankings on this chart at least, correspond to market share of value, rather than market share of volume for paid apps, it enables developers to re-price to maximize revenues. Compare, for example, Top Paid versus Top Grossing for today; Madden NFL is #2 on Top Paid at $7.99, but #1 on Top Grossing, as AppBox Pro only costs $0.99. Moreover, TomTom at ~$100 was always going to find it hard going to make it into the Top Paid (it’s not there now, at least down to #50), is #5 amongst Top Grossing.
Top Paid
Top Grossing
This may help stall the rush to the bottom which has been the cause of so much unhappiness amongst developers.
Michael A M Davies
Brad W Hagedorn
Moe Kelley
Amy Bullard Davies
