The iTunes App Store is an ever evolving market and changes to the ecosystem impact your changes of success.  As Apple changes the rules, developers and entrepreneurs must adapt to the changes to create successful apps.

As of January 2015, app reviews and a high number of app downloads over a short period of time go a long way to making your way onto the iTunes top app lists.  If your app gains placement on the Top 200 Overall app list you are positioned for success.

The Top 200 App list is also a great resource to get a pulse on the current App Store market conditions and trends that we can use in our own iOS app development.   Luckily for us Apple makes the Top iPhone App List information available via an open data RSS feed so we can easily review the data to interpret market trends.

Looking at the data provided by Apple we can see that 104 of the top 200 Paid apps are in the Games category.  Notice the drop-off to the next highest category, Health & Fitness, with only 19 of the top 200 Paid apps.  That’s quite a decline from the 104 games.

If you are looking to release a Paid game right now you will have challenges in getting your app noticed.  At the same time, there is an opportunity for success if you can get your app noticed and have a successful marketing plan for launch.  People are buying Games and if the market likes yours you will be pleased with the results.

Categories such as Books, Medical, Productivity, and Travel do not see a great deal of mass market appeal for Paid apps with each category only having 1 app each in the Top 200 Paid app list.  However, this also means that you will have less competition in these categories so if you have an app that clearly differentiates itself you may be poised for success.

The Top iPhone app RSS feeds are just one source of information and data to help with your app market research, planning, marketing, and development.  Doing your research before actually developing your app will pay dividends later and improve your odds of success as an app entrepreneur.

We’re working on developing a new tool to help bring even more information like this into your hands.  Signup for our email list below or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be one of the first people to get invited to our beta release soon.