Edible Apple

When Apple first introduced the Mac App Store, they released a promotional video wherein Scott Forstall explained that the Mac app store would usher in the same sort of developer goldrush that accompanied the roll-out of the iOS app store.

To call that an overstatement would be, well, an understatement. That’s not necessarily because the Mac app store has been a failure, but rather a reflection of the unparalleled success of the iOS app store.

In any event, some developers have famously made some nice chunks of change on the Mac app store, but the overall sales numbers of even popular apps pales in comparison to what developers see on the iOS app store.

Highlighting this dynamic, developer Martin Schultz recently described his experience on the Mac app store with his Hard Rock Racing app which was featured on the Apple front page for one week and eventually rose to become the third highest ranking game in the US store.

Now to the interesting part – sales data. I was quite astonished that a #3 game in the US (the most important market in terms of sales volume) does not make more sales than 743 on one day. Shocking! From the beginning of the Mac App Store (MAS) in january I knew from friend developers sales volumes of 3x and more of my sales and I would have expected that these numbers have grown, not sunken. Reason _might_ be that the overall sales volume on the MAS is currently quite low compared to the launch months. Will be interesting to see what effect OSX Lion will have on the overall usage of the Mac App Store once it comes out in july.