Christmas 2011 Showed Significant Sales Boost for iOS Developers

670577 largeEach year, iOS developers scramble to position themselves well ahead of the iTunes Connect shutdown/freeze in order to benefit from any boost in sales from the holidays. NYTimes wrote of the phenomenon this year, as explained by iOS developer Bryan Duke:

“It’s typical to see a jump on any major holiday, but Christmas is the biggest one,” Mr. Duke said. “I’m certainly hoping for a nice big Christmas bump this year.”

This boost is what drives many of the massive holiday sales as developers jockey for position before the iTunes Top 200 charts freeze for the holidays. Major companies such as Gameloft and EA get in on the action to flood the charts with their apps.

Camera+ developers TapTapTap shared their iOS app sales numbers with us again this year which shows the effect in dramatic fashion:

cameraplus
TapTapTap's app sales figures for Christmas week

TapTapTap's Camera+ [App Store] application had been floating around the ranks 4-8 and settled at position #8 in the Top 200 list during the holiday freeze. Their average sales had been around 18,000 sales in the days prior to the holidays, but shot up to a peak of 73,808 sales on Christmas day. The graph above also includes sale figures for Faces and Voices 2, though the vast majority of sales were for Camera+. At a $0.99 sales price that means $51,665 in revenue for the company on the Christmas day alone after Apple's 30% cut.

The increase in sales is reflective of more iOS device activations and the gifting of iTunes Gift cards for the holidays. As shown in the graph, this sales boost does sustain for some time after the holidays.

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Top Rated Comments

Buckeyestar Avatar
173 months ago
In other news today, rain is wet.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
michaelvoigt Avatar
173 months ago
my app DinoBoy saw a 50% increase in sales also

Now that itunes connect is back up, I was able to verify my sales numbers and I to saw a 50% sales increase for our children's book DinoBoy.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FrizzleFryBen Avatar
173 months ago
My sales numbers for my app Shuffle+ doubled, from an average of 1 unit a day to 2 units on Christmas. Damn you TapTapTap.

I just checked out your app. I will be your average of 1 for today. Nice work.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mms13 Avatar
173 months ago
My sales numbers for my app Shuffle+ doubled, from an average of 1 unit a day to 2 units on Christmas. Damn you TapTapTap.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bettaboy123 Avatar
173 months ago
I usually don't buy apps, but I got an iTunes gift card and I definitely bought some apps. Glad to be helping out these developers. :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MorphingDragon Avatar
173 months ago
in other news today, rain is wet.

lies, lies all of them>
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)