Almost half of developers (49%) in our survey decide which apps to develop based on their own needs. Those same developers end up generating the least amount of revenue per app per month, indicating that they have a lot to learn in how they plan their app business. Naturally, planning a business based on own needs may yield a good customer understanding, but lacks the rigor of market research or of extending proven app recipes into new countries or verticals.

With some types of mobile app, getting a user to download it is just the beginning of the problem. If the application is going to be personalised to a user’s preferences, or allow them to interact with others via some online service, then they’ll need to provide some data before they can start using it. Typically the more information a user provides about themselves, the better job an app or service can do of tailoring the experience to them. Unfortunately, the more steps a user has to go through before they can start using an app, the less likely they are to complete the signup process. Getting this wrong can catastrophically alter the economics of user acquisition.

Andreas Pappas takes another look at the results of VisionMobile’s Developer Economics 2012 survey and comes up with interesting new insights on app monetisation: how does app revenue vary by app-category and by country? Is there a correlation between time spent developing an app and they money it makes?

We’ve previously discussed the major opportunities that are emerging for developers globally, fueled by rising demand from BRIC countries and other emerging app economies, representing at least half of the world’s mobile subscribers. In order to capture these opportunities, developers can focus on two broad strategies: to “reach-out” or to “search within”. Developers that “reach-out” […]

In a recent post on the app localization opportunity we highlighted the potential for targeting growth markets in the emerging world. Not all apps are equally suited to doing so though. For some high-profile apps such as Facebook, Google Maps or Angry Birds the demand is  global and these apps easily penetrate local markets. For […]