I understand the title change for HN, but it's definitely a takeaway point from this article that if you're an iPhone developer, it's well worth picking up the phone for any unknown 408 number ;-)
Also, if you're trying to start a startup (and aren't living in Silicon Valley) - you should probably answer 408 numbers even if you're not an iPhone developer. Lesson learned.
Does Apple actually contact every developer that they feature on the front page in the same manner, or was it just because of that "Free MP3" promotion part?
I know the developer of Alien Splat, which is also in the same New & Noteworthy section this week. He didn't receive a call, and wasn't otherwise notified by Apple that the app was featured. He was surprised when I brought it to his attention.
So - the call was just to get the change in description, not to notify of the placement. Which makes me all the more grateful Apple was persistent, and that they didn't just write it off even though they wanted the change.
I've also heard other accounts of Apple calling to request "special builds" for TV spots, etc. but don't have any first-hand direct knowledge of that.
They do _call_ over any issues with the App Store. For example, I got a friendly call having in my description: "free version will be up as soon as it's approved."
You can basically glean the gist of what the figures mean from the following information. Sorry to be vague, but hopefully this gets to the context you're hoping for.
I had some upfront expenses for a custom icon, the website design, a license for the song for the background music for the demo video (including the questionable MP3 freebie), and to run a one day roadblock on the Fusion ad network. Prior to being featured, I hadn't yet broken even on my costs (let alone my labor). The first day of being featured pushed sales past the breakeven point. If sales were to remain steady at this level, the yearly revenue for the app would be much better than an average engineer's salary. There will, however, likely be a very predictable drop in sales once it's no longer featured.
What that means over the long term, we'll see. If the data's interesting - e.g. significant drop or significant lack of a drop in sales, or more key inflection points, etc. - I'll throw up another post about it and consider including dollar figures at that point.
Cool to know there are so many iPhone developers doing well in the Twin Cities. Found out about @akardell through @dcgrigsby's tweets. Any other iPhone hackers around the Cities?
