"huge selling point" is exactly the problem. I liked the post as well, it was very descriptive. But, I feel like he gave up by making it free. I'd be more interested if he can turn it around to profit. Although this was much easier to do in the early days of the app store. Less so now.

This is my thought as well. Even at his previous $20-30/day seems quite reasonable. If the author could keep that sustainable, that's adding nearly $10k/year in passive income, definitely not a figure to shy away from. If adding a $.99 IAP with a 2% conversion works as well, that would be even more.

As an app developer, overall I feel these posts only encourage the current app store ecosystem of free or freemium.

Yeah, I still suspect there was another, unknown factor at play when the app was made free. I've seen tons of paid apps trickle along at the same rate of downloads after reverting to free. I'd love to know what the catalyst really was.

He said that 2nd step (marketing, promotion) was useless and sales didn't change. But perhaps it was the catalyst. Perhaps people were made aware of the app and added it to their mental wish list. Then, when they noticed it became free, they wanted to get it ASAP.

Perhaps, without the "useless" 2nd step, going free would've been equally flat.

Just a thought.