Over the past year I’ve been developing an iPhone app called Box It up. It was built upon a framework called Titanium Appcelerator, and was initially created as a learning experience for mobile development.
Sales over the past year have been sparse. Priced at only $0.99, I averaged around four sales a day, with peak sales between 20 and 30 during the spring cleaning/moving season. In the year since I started, I’ve only made around $300 total. With development of the app stalled since March and sales declining, I decided this past week to try something: take Box It up off of the app store and then release it as a free app.
In just two days Box It up has received over 3,000 free downloads – more than all downloads completed in the past year – and has skyrocketed to become one of the top 50 Productivity app in the iTunes Store. It’s also been mentioned on numerous websites and forums, and has received a lot of positive feedback from users. With 10 times the amount of free downloads in two days than paid downloads in a year, it’s become clear to me that free apps will have a better chance of success in the iTunes Store than paid apps.
Next time launch an app as a free, ad-supported version, with an option for users to upgrade using an in-app purchase. Not only will you get more exposure, but it will be more profitable in the end.
To develop Box It up further and add some long requested features before placing it back on sale for $0.99. I’ll then be able to see if the new user base and exposure as a free app increases overall sales. Stay tuned!