When you see an application with an average rating of 1 star after 2157 ratings (and hundreds of reviews saying “don’t buy this”) in the top 50 paid applications, when there are an alleged 100,000 applications on the store, you have to ask “How Relevant is Quality on the App Store?” I haven’t used this application myself, so I cannot comment on whether it deserves the rating or not, but it definitely surprises me that it’s in the top 50 with so many bad reviews. In the early days of the App Store there were many fart and boob apps soaring up the charts but we soon began seeing higher quality games, ports from big studios, and some really fascinating stuff surfacing. If you look at the top 100 apps there are some really great products, but it appears that despite immense competition, there are some low quality products still making a lot of money.
You are probably expecting me to complain about the app mentioned above and cry about ours not selling as well. Not the case at all, I’m writing this entry to share that we are seeing a similar result amongst our own products.
Everyone likes different things and that’s part of the reason why there are so many different kind of apps out there. I’m proud to have my name attached to all our apps, but I think that Flying Pigs is our best, Hint Sprint runner-up and The Mood Setter third (Just as they rank in app store ratings). However, much to my surprise The Mood Setter has not only had the best first month launch, but is currently our highest grossing application out of the three. The worst ratings, and the highest sales. Go figure.
I do believe that Flying Pigs will outsell The Mood Setter in the long run because it is the type of game that you really need to play to understand. As said in one of the quotes from an iTunes review “just play it and you see” and I think that is a quality that will lead to a lot of word of mouth and sustain long term sales. Just like a retail, most consumers buy the box, not the product. If something looks catchy and cool in the App Store, they download it. If it sucks, they tell their friends not to buy it or simply forget about it. If it’s awesome they go and show everyone what they can do with their iPhone and people say, “OooOo I want that too, what’s that app called again?”
After analyzing what I see in the App Store and what we’ve experienced with our own sales, it would suggest that quality is not necessary to make a quick buck with an iPhone app, even with a gagillion apps out there. But while Sobits doesn’t have the data to support it yet, I’m still going to say that you need a high quality app to have prolonged sales and repeat customers.
-Stephen