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One of Android’s biggest knocks is that it doesn’t attract the big name development houses, users are stingy, the platform is so open that there is a lot of garbage, the relaxed rules allow free alternatives that screw some developers out of funds they might have otherwise earned, and piracy exists. There are counterarguments against each one of those points but let’s focus on the good side of things – there ARE innovative, independent developers making bank on the market.
We told you about the Motorola Droid LED Flashlight success story and now we’ve got one of larger proportions: Car Locator on Android Market makes $13,000 each month. The app was started as a side project by Edward Kim who offers a free version of the app (70k downloads) and a paid version ($1.99 bumped to $3.99, 6,500+ downloads).
Kim notes that he was making about $100/day until becoming “featured” by Google, boosting his earnings to $435/day and at one point earning $772… Valentine’s Day. You’ve gotta love that…
Read more on Eddie Kim’s blog.
Congrats to the dev. Haven’t actually used the app but it is a great concept.
Well done to the dev, i wish i had knowledge on how to create apps! lol
Bravo, good sir. This would be great motivation to other developers out there.
It will be funny to see how many new car locator apps appear in the market after this.
Hmm, I have an app out there that solves an important limitation of Android Contacts application. I sell it for $0.99 and don’t get nearly as many downloads as Kim does.
Would love to learn how to get my app “featured”.
@gnugu
– Update it regularly
– work very hard
– try your best to add new features regularly
– release a lite version (i.e. free limited version)
– give it away for free to top android app reviewing sites, word of mouth and good reviews will definitely get it
The people who whine about the market being too competitive are the ones who aren’t innovative enough themselves or thinking creatively. All this competition is good for consumers in the end.
Personally I think this is bullshit if the different in profit is that big by just being featured. My app has the same price and daily income he was having before the google gods blessed him. This has nothing to do with hard work. This was luck of the draw getting featured.
@Maj RE:give it away for free to top android app reviewing sites
Can you recommend some of them?
I think Maj’s suggestions are spot on. I did all of them except give it away to review sites, though I think that is a good idea.
This site was immensely useful when starting out with my app. I remember the video tutorial on making the icon according to Android’s best practices was stellar.
Hi Edward,
thanks for chiming in.
And congratulations to you!!!
Also I hardly think one month of 13000 is a trend where we can say he makes 13000 a month..it was only one month…