The Shape of the App Store →
Compelling analysis and correlation of App Store revenue data from Charles Perry, half of one of my favorite indie-developer podcasts:
I didn’t actually expect App Store revenue to obey the 80-20 rule. In fact, I expected it to be a much sharper curve, representing even greater disparity in the distribution of revenue than the 80-20 rule would suggest – maybe a 90-10 split, or even a 95-5 split. As it turns out, the revenue distribution curve of the App Store is even sharper than I imagined. …
Luckily, there’s a lot of money to be made in that long tail.
Had I known my data would help something like this, I would have released it sooner.
The great thing about estimates like this is that even if they’re only accurate within a wide error range, they’re most likely in the ballpark by enough to make the conclusions that matter: namely, that there’s a lot of money being made in the App Store, and a lot of opportunity for independent developers, that we’re not seeing on the top-25 lists.