Yep, paid apps are dead →
Jeremy Olson:
I have been talking to a lot of the most successful app makers out there — who many would assume are millionaires off their top apps — and I’m hearing the same thing again and again: people just aren’t buying as many apps anymore. …
People are downloading more apps than ever before and there are still incredible opportunities. Developers who can adapt have an extremely bright future!
Exactly.
Since publishing that article, I’ve heard from tons of developers by Twitter and email. Almost all confirmed that their paid-app sales in 2012 and especially 2013 (so far) were much worse than the previous years.
Some reported switching from paid-up-front to free-with-IAP. All of these reported not only a huge increase in downloads (of course), but a substantial increase in revenue.
This isn’t the end of making money in the App Store — it’s just the end of selling mass-market apps for a few dollars up front from five screenshots alone.