There is no doubt that app development can be one of the most rewarding areas of technology. If you think about it for just a moment, what industry can you think of that doesn’t use an app in one way or another? Even Walmart uses a new curbside pickup app for orders placed online. Customers place their orders, choose a pickup time and when they arrive, they log in to their app, click on their parking spot and color of their vehicle and that’s all it takes! A customer service rep brings out their groceries, puts them in the vehicle and you can drive away literally contact-free. All of this was brought about by covid, but imagine just how lucrative the field can be for an innovative techie? If you are an app developer, here are some things to consider when selling your app.
1. Keep Selling Your App as a Priority from the Very Beginning
You may be looking to develop an app for ongoing, residual income. As a result, you need to think about the various pricing models and ways to monetize the app that will entice users to pay. One of the most common monetizing models at the moment is in-app sales, where the app can be downloaded and installed free of charge but the user must agree to in-app advertising. This brings revenue to the developer because companies pay for marketing within your app. It stands to reason that the more popular your app becomes, the higher price you can charge for in-app marketing. This is the most common monetizing model for games found today in the app stores.
However, another popular pricing model is an app that is free to start but will allocate charges to various levels within the app. Games also commonly use this pricing model and this is why it is important to think about this from the very beginning of development. Bear in mind that the more money a user is willing to pay, the higher the selling price you can ask when it comes time to sell the app.
2. You May Want to Sell Your App at Some Point
In the beginning, you may have started developing the app because it was something you were interested in, and it brought pleasure to do so. Apps, in fact, have become the most popular software to develop simply because they are as useful as they are fun. Maybe it’s a game or even a how-to or research app. No matter what kind of app you developed, that newlywed phase just might wear off one day and you’ll want to be onto the next app and the app after that. There’s no keeping creative genius down, so always keep it in the back of your head that you may want to sell your app at some stage of the game. From pricing models to innovative ways to monetize your app, this will be a key selling point when the time comes.
3. Understand Why You May Not Be Able to Sell Your App
Another reason to keep selling your app in mind from the very beginning is that there are some apps you will not be able to sell. When it comes time to sell your app, you should know that you cannot sell your app if it has:
- iCloud entitlements
- Apple sign-in
- Passbook entitlements
And also, you cannot sell apps developed for Mac in which you used Mac Catalyst or apps based on iPad apps. These you cannot transfer ownership of.
So, as you can see, things to consider when selling your app should have been present throughout the entire creative process. If you have any questions at all as to how to sell your app, you can enlist the services of an M&A advisor. Apps are indeed fun to develop and can be quite a lucrative venture, but there is much to keep in mind during development to ensure being able to sell them when the time comes.
