So you’ve come up with the perfect mobile app idea, and it’s going to make you millions, just like Candy Crush or Clash of Clans has done for King and Supercell with the latter reported to make around $2.4 million per day at the height of its popularity. 

While this sort of turnover would interest even the most affluent of investors, Gartner have recently calculated that in real terms only one 1 in 10,000 apps ever make any money, that’s 0.01%. That’s hardly an inspiring figure, yet the fact that one of these apps can earn millions of dollars a day is enough of a prospect that ambitious indie developers will give it a go.

The interesting spin on these figures is that not all apps within the app store are there to make money.  Very often, they are used as marketing tools raising awareness of events, charity drives or upcoming offers, or they are designed to accompany an already existing product or service that operates outside of the mobile space. For many organisations this makes perfect sense, as an app can provide a short term boost for relatively little investment.

Ken Dulaney, a VP at Gartner said the following, “The vast number of mobile apps may imply that mobile is a new revenue stream that will bring riches to many. However, our analysis shows that most mobile applications are not generating profits and that many mobile apps are not designed to generate revenue, but rather are used to build brand recognition and product awareness or are just for fun.”

It would seem that apps are used both to make money and drive traffic.