Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)

Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by curiousigor on Thursday September 19, 2019 @02:14AM (#21013745)

Snaplight is a free app though, so while the 10k number is high I think it would be hardly reached if he had placed a 99 cent tag on it, given the niche. Some people (me included) like to download and try new apps, only to remove them after the utility hasn't proven valuable enough.

That shouldn't stop you from finishing your app though. Building and later publishing an app to your audience can be an awesome experience. Go for it!

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by rkho on Thursday September 19, 2019 @02:32AM (#21013837)

From the original screenshot in the post, it looks like it debuted at $0.99, I wonder if there's a way to look up App Store price history

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by curiousigor on Thursday September 19, 2019 @03:31AM (#21014111)

You're right, totally missed from the screenshot and based my comment on the current App Store data.

I looked the app on Appannie (non paid account) and the pricing history is quite interesting:

26 Mar 2017 - 0.99 to Free

29 Mar 2017 - Free to 0.99

19 Jul 2017 - 0.99 to 1.99

20 Jul 2017 - 1.99 to Free

02 Aug 2017 - Free to 0.99

04 Feb 2018 - 0.99 to Free

10 Feb 2018 - Free to 0.99

03 Mar 2018 - 0.99 to Free

27 Mar 2018 - Free to 0.99

04 Dec 2018 - 0.99 to Free

03 May 2019 - Free to 0.99

05 Sep 2019 - 0.99 to Free

From the above details, it was a paid app for most of it's time. I wonder why the developer played with the pricing as much though?

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by tannerc on Thursday September 19, 2019 @08:49AM (#21015637)

I just looked at the lifetime stats for the app and in total it only ever generated ~$4,000 in profit.

I would often change the price to 1. See if I could squeeze a few more dollars out of the work and 2. Generate more downloads.

A fun "trick" for getting more downloads is to temporarily make a paid app free, as many, many people follow "Apps Gone Free" type of bots or directories and if your app has any substantial numbers behind it more people tend to notice when it switches to free.

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by datenhorst on Thursday September 19, 2019 @04:22AM (#21014363)

Probably to allow it to pick up some steam when sales slow down

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by tiborsaas on Thursday September 19, 2019 @06:09AM (#21014843)

That looks like just generating numbers for income models to predict what might work best.

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by test1235 on Thursday September 19, 2019 @03:13AM (#21014024)

In the spirit of the discussion, maybe there's an opportunity for an app that does that ...

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Re:Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best... by lvturner on Thursday September 19, 2019 @03:18AM (#21014041)

I'm not sure if it is still the case, or if my memory is lying to me, but I think AppAnnie did/does this.

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