Under The Bridge

Just in case you were wondering whether this iPhone thing was really going to take off, here’s a good example for you: The guys behind MacHeist have two applications up on the App Store — and they’ve posted the sales numbers for the most recent week. Let’s see how this stacks up:

1) Where To? — “makes your iPhone … find points of interest around you”

• price: $2.99
• number sold: 3,193
• net sales: $9,547.07

2) Tipulator — “the tip calculator that’s actually fun”

• price: 99¢
• number sold: 353
• net sales: $349.47

Let us compare to their marketing expense, which they have likewise provided — they’re just too kind, aren’t they — for us:

And for tap tap tap we put out under $2,000: $1,250 for the Daring Fireball ad, around $200 to send a mailing out, and around $300 in iTunes Music Store gift certificates sent to potential reviewers (Apple NEEDS to provide us with a better way of doing this).

This is really incredible when you think about it and calculate the margins.