OzWeather, best-selling Australian app for the iPhone
In January Apple announced there had been 500 million downloads from its app store. That would have been a wonderful result for a store that had been open for only half a year; but it’s astounding when the figure stood at “just” 300 million downloads a month before.
OzWeather is the most successful Australian iPhone app in the Apple store. Priced at $2.49, it hasn’t been out of the Australian store’s top 10 since its launch in November last year. At the time of writing, it had the top spot.
It’s author, Graham Dawson, is a self-taught app developer, having made a career from developing niche software on other platforms. He estimates development costs at $15,500 (the amount he would have had to pay another developer to do what he did). That put the break-even point at just a few months from the release date. (After taxes and Apple’s cut, Graham makes roughly $1.60 per copy sold.)
“There’s certainly a market for more Australian apps,” Graham told me. “Every country has its own needs and cultural aspects. There are lots of niches out there.”
Aside from proving a demand for local apps, Graham has shown that users will pay for Australian content even when they’re getting something similar for free: the iPhone comes with a Yahoo-powered weather app as standard but its data is not as authoritative as OzWeather’s, which comes directly from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. There are plenty more sources of trusted Australian data that could be converted to an app.
“You just have to go out and look at what those niches are,” says Graham.
Beyond sales, there is the benefit to companies developing apps of getting their content in front of influential customers who will pass on what they like, making recommendations to their friends.
“iPhone users are passionate, viral, they’ll share their information and their findings,” says Keith Ahern, CEO of Australian-based Mobile 2.0 developers MoGeneration. “It’s easy to think iPhone owners are just 300,000 users out of a population of 19 million they can — and do — use iPhone apps to share content with people who don’t have iPhones. So they’re ‘only’ 300,000 people but their sphere of influence goes well beyond that.”
Graham seen first hand the passion of the mobile community. “Typically I get half a dozen emails a day from the feedback button in the app,” he says. “It’s extremely valuable.”
Graham Dawson will be speaking at our Entering the Mobile Ecosystem seminar on 2 February.
Graham should post his numbers if he is claiming to be the top selling Australian iPhone app. Pocket Weather AU also occupied the top 10 list (and #1) for many weeks before his application was even released.
Either that or the author of this story has mis-represented what he has said?
You might like to check out Graham’s blog where he’s been very open about his stats and stuff – it’s really worth a read.
http://ajnaware.wordpress.com/
I’m aware of his blog, and he has been more open than most. He has not recently posted his total downloads though, which I think he would need to do if he was going to claim to have been the number one downloaded app in Australia. Pocket Weather AU, Metro Melbourne, and many other good Australia apps could have well been downloaded more than Oz Weather. The iTunes top 10 shows recent downloads, not total downloads.
Case in point: Pocket Weather AU was in the iTunes Top 10 Apps of 2008, which is based on total downloads, so we know that in 2008 at least, Oz Weather was the second most successful Australian app, not first.
This might all seem academic to most people, and largely it is, but I think it’s still important to report on the facts instead of inferred facts.
Hi Russell – Despite being so transparent with my data, it seems you are demanding even more! Wouldn’t be anything to do with you being a competitor would it?
This article hasn’t actually claimed anything about being the most downloaded paid Australian iPhone app to date, although I suspect that it is anyway. However, it is definitely the most successful app currently as is obvious from its #1 ranking.
The iTunes top 10 of 2008 was based on downloads only up until end Nov 2008. I do congratulate you and your team on making that list. However, Oz Weather only launched on 1st Nov, and has consistently outranked Pocket Weather since then, so your comparison isn’t very meaningful or relevant.
I think it’s pretty clear from the blog post that the reference to OzWeather as the “most successful” is a reference to its position in the Top 10 at the time of writing. Surely the clue is in the immediately following text, “it hasn’t been out of the Australian store’s top 10 since its launch in November last year. At the time of writing, it had the top spot.”
As they say, Russell, it’s hard to argue with No. 1.
Most successful is a very definite term, which would imply exactly what it states, most successful. It is not a term with much room for interpretation.
@Graham I wasn’t demanding anything of you, nor did I hide the fact that I’m a pocket weather developer (I linked our site in my profile). All I was asking is that the author consider other Australian apps before making such a statement. I do wonder at times for example how many copies Metro Melbourne has sold, and that app has a higher price and has been out longer than both of us, for all we know it could be the most successful.
@Steven I stand by what I said. I think it’s even more important to validate your claims if you are affiliated with the subject in any way shape or form, which the author clearly is, since he’s speaking at some events advertised on this site.
Having said all that, I congratulate Graham, because he did in fact post all of his figures after this post was made, and he has done very well. I know we compete, but it’s great to see another Australian developer doing so well. I find having at least one other application like yours drives innovation and better features, not necessarily rivalry. I think you can read our posts two ways, either I am being very petty, or we I am simply asking the author how he justifies such a claim. I can see an argument either way, but my intention is the latter, not the former.
