This week we submitted our first iPhone app to Apple for approval.
It’s a companion app for our Movie Collector software, not a stand-alone product. Users can catalog their DVD collection using Movie Collector, then export their collection to the iPhone viewer app, so they can always have their collection with them (e.g. at the DVD store, at friends, etc..).
Why iPhone apps?
You may be wondering why Collectorz.com is moving into this market. Do I really expect to generate serious profits by selling iPhone apps?
No, I don’t. I think it is quite hard to make money selling iPhone apps.
Of course we all know the success stories of developers making millions with a small app selling for $0.99. But in my opinion the growing number of apps in the AppStore makes it harder and harder to reach serious sales volumes. Your chances of getting any visibility in the AppStore are just too low, even for a brilliant mass-market application. And for niche apps like ours it’s next to impossible.
And the trend for iPhone apps to be priced between $0.99 and $4.99 doesn’t exactly make it easier to make some profits. And of course Apple wants 30% too.
So why are we developing iPhone apps anyway?
- iPhone apps are a perfect fit for our cataloging software. One of the reasons people catalog their collections is to prevent duplicate purchases. Users print lists to take with them to the store, or export their list to CSV files on their phones or PDAs. A collection viewer app on the iPhone makes this easier (and cooler looking).
- Our iPhone apps are add-ons for our existing Windows and Mac apps, so we can sell them to existing customers and promote them to new customers on our website. No exposure in the AppStore needed.
- Because it’s a niche application, we can go for a price that is a little higher than that of the average iPhone app. We have set the price at $9.99.
- We will be creating five Collectorz.com iPhone apps, for which we can share most of the code. This helps to keep development costs relatively low.
- Offering iPhone apps will be good USP for the Collectorz.com software, something our competitors do not have. In other words, they may help sell more of our of Windows and Mac software.
Clz Movies blurb and screenshots
Did you ever come home with a new DVD, only to find out that you already owned it? Annoying isn’t it? And costly too.
And did a friend ever ask if you have this or that movie…
… and you couldn’t remember?Movie Collector and this companion iPhone app Clz Movies can help you avoid embarrassing situations like this, in 3 easy steps:
1. First catalog your DVD collection with the Movie Collector software (available for Windows and Mac OS X).
2. Then export your collection list to the Clz Movies software on your iPhone or iPod Touch, including movie information, edition details and the DVD cover images.
3. Now just always take your iPhone or iPod Touch with you to the store, so that you can check which DVDs you already own and which ones are on your wishlist.
– Avoid Duplicate DVD Purchases
– Manage your DVD Wish List
– Show off your DVD collection
– Have cool movie facts at your fingertips
Let’s hope Apple approves it soon. I can’t wait to see what happens when it’s finally available in the AppStore.
The price for this application is rediculous. If you want to catalog your music, enjoy having to fork out again about the same price. Most other similar apps include categories for your books, movies, music, etc., which are included in the original price. Reducing the price by 50% for this application would still be way to expensive. That’s scary!
Thanks for your feedback on the pricing on our iPhone apps (though my personal blog is not the right place to post such feedback. I’d recommend to use the Collectorz.com forum instead).
I am afraid that you are one of the few who find the apps are too expensive. The apps are very succesfull and we are selling lots of them. There is no indication that we would sell more with a lower price. And on top of that, if we would reduce the price by 50%, we would have to sell twice as much to make the same amount of money. That’s never going to happen.
At the current pricing, we have just been able to make this profitable, barely. At a lower price, there wouldn’t have been iPhone apps, or at least we would have had to kill off this project after the first release. Now, we are able to update the apps, spend more time on them, take them to a higher level.
I hope the above explains the current pricing. You are welcome to still find our apps too expensive though. In that case, just don’t buy them and go for the cheaper alternative you mentioned 🙂