I have received quite a number of questions on whether or not one can make money from mobile apps. This is certainly a tough question to answer, but there is an increased evidence that proves that it is extremely difficult to monetize your mobile app, particularly, getting people to pay for premium versions.
Here is the reality. People will always prefer free apps and based on a report by Gartner, by 2018, after all is said and done, only 0.01% of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers. This is quite revealing if you look at the total number of apps that are currently in the Windows, Android and iOS stores. In that same report, Gartner predicts that 94.5% of all apps download will be free.
It is important to state that one factor, making it difficult for people to pay for apps, is the sheer number of mobile apps that users have to check before making a decision. Another factor are the new responsive web platforms powered by HTML 5 which appears good on all screen sizes.
Let us bring this home. My candid advice is that you should only invest in apps if it helps drive sales or traffic to your current product or service. If you are a developer, I advice you to go local at investing your time in developing other stuff instead of apps except, of course, you are developing the app for a paying client.
What I stated above is my candid opinion. What do you think? How many apps are you on and how many of these, are you on their Premium version?
