subject: Mobile Application Development: Freemium Games [print this page] The app market is a booming business, with over half a million apps in the Apple store alone. Add to that billions of downloads across both Android and Apple markets. But the biggest market among mobile application development are games. Games make up more than 75% of the top 100 grossing apps. Just look at your friend's phone, look at your phone! How many of those apps are games? Probably a good amount. And with kids and adults alike wanting to be entertained and kept occupied, the market needs to supply quality gaming applications.
Now when the Apple store was first blowing up years ago with the iPhone 1, most app developers were pushing for lite and paid versions of the games created. The lite, or free, version included basic game play and was usually riddled with ads. Naturally many were willing to settle for the lite version, but companies still made quite a profit from paid apps.
Fast forward to today and there has been quite a shift in the app market. Instead of seeing lite and paid versions, the battle has switched to what is known as freemium and premium. Premium is just another word for paid. But a freemium app is one that is free to download but offers in-app purchases for consumers. After some analysis, one app developer tracked the revenue generated by some of the top grossing apps in 2011. In the beginning of the year premium apps were garnering the most cash. However, it wasn't long until the percentage of revenue earned by premium and freemium apps did a role reversal. The freemium app market is quickly growing and earning a lot more money.
But it's important to understand how this is so and how you can continue turning a profit on these games. A freemium app gives you, the creator, an opportunity to enhance the game and keep people playing. We live in a world of rather short attention spans so you have to provide a game that is engaging on its own but can be even better and more fun with the right add-ons for a reasonable price. How much people are going to spend depends on the user. Only 0.5% to 6% of consumers will purchase add-ons. But whether they spend a few dollars or fifty, it's a lot more than the 99 cents you wanted to originally charge.
With quality application development services creating already enticing games, companies can continue turning a profit by following this new tactic. The gaming market is ever changing and freemium apps are taking over the app stores.
