Don't Blame the Marketplace if You Can't Sell Your Product

When the App Store was new, it was pretty easy to find a mobile app for the iPhone since just about any new one will be published, talked about, reviewed, and dissected by the technology blogs. Today, there are tens to hundreds of thousands of apps on each of the the major mobile application store and only notable developers are making serious money out of creating and publishing apps. Is discovery a problem and if so, how can developers overcome this?

Blaming the application store and its layout for lack of discoverability is probably the easiest way out but developers also need to realize that application stores are just like supermarkets. Apps are displayed on stores like food or personal hygiene products in supermarkets. Difference is the stores will feature particular apps according to the editors' decision whereas supermarkets will feature products according to business deals.

Are apps difficult to discover on application stores? It really depends on what discover means. When you walk into a supermarket you often go in already knowing what to buy with a list of items spelling out each product's names. Opening an application store, rarely do people go and explore to try out each app or game.

The one advantage application stores have over supermarkets is that there are free apps and on most stores, there are apps with free trial periods so you can download them and get a feel of the app before paying for them. Supermarkets don't do that. Some times there are product samplers but this happens very rarely.

Application stores also publish lists of apps based on publishing date, based on popularity, it even breaks down these lists into categories. On top of that, the stores have editors and reviewers, people who go through all these hundreds of thousands of apps and decide if the apps are worth featuring on the front page or rolled into a promoted collection. As a marketplace, they've done their job.

Publishing an app or game on a store doesn't guarantee that people will find it and buy it. Most of the time people will download apps that they've heard or read about from a number of sources such as blogs or other publications or through friends and sometimes from television shows. Media coverage and word of mouth are crucial to the success of an app. However, one must keep in mind that these will still not guarantee success. They are only steps to discovery. People must know about a product before they make the decision whether to make a purchase.

What is even more important to the success of a product is the quality of the product itself. All the publicity in the world can't buy success unless the product meets or exceeds the expectations of the intended consumers.

Take Iconfactory for example. Iconfactory is a design studio which specializes in creating desktop icons for software programs but eventually became a software company itself, making apps and games for iOS. Its first app, Twitterrific was a roaring success over the years. It was the very first native platform Twitter app ever made back in 2007, months before Apple officially allowed developers to create apps for the iPhone.

Twitterrific was a massive success not only cause it was the first product of its kind but it was also a terrific product. Critics and consumers loved the app throughout the years because it does exactly what it's supposed to do, does it very well, and it provided an unbeatable user experience as well as design. Few apps could get close to its popularity until a couple of years later when Tweetie came to town and cleared the market.

Iconfactory also made a game called Ramp Champ. Ramp Champ is a game that emulates the kinds of games that you see on fairgrounds or carnivals. You shoot at cardboard cutouts of ducks, throw balls at bottles or rings and receive points. The game received an award from Macworld for being the best designed game of 2009, it was widely publicized and covered by many blogs and publications which covered mobile apps, iPhones, and Apple in general.

Ramp Champ was critically acclaimed, immaculately designed, yet it didn't gain the expected commercial success. Why? Skee-Ball happened. You can read the story at Iconfactory co-founder Gedeon Maheux's blog. Never mind that the Iconfactory had won various kinds of awards before or had been staffed with some of the most talented developers and designers on the planet. The app had zero problems being discovered on the App Store, but it just wasn't popular among consumers.

Arguing that discoverability issues on application stores is the cause of an app's lack of downloads is like blaming Google for not putting your website on the front page. It's not Google's fault your website can't get to page one or two, or three, of people's search results, you have to make sure that it does by promoting your website, getting people to read it and link back to it from all over the web.

If your app doesn't get the number of downloads you expect, your website doesn't get the hits, your blogpost doesn't get the page view numbers you want, nobody knows about that store you opened on that online mall, or… whatever, you get the point, it's not the fault of the marketplace, most of the time it's your own damn fault, other times, you're just out of luck.

The marketplace works exactly as the way it's supposed to. It provides a place for people to sell things, but it's your app, your product, and therefore your responsibility to make sure it gets sold.

[Image by Robin Lee on Flickr]