Every time when somebody asks me if it is possible to earn money by selling application on [mark]Windows Store[/mark] that are targeted on Polish users, I say that in most cases you are unable to do this. Polish people have quite specific attitude for buying mobile applications and their evaluations. Ideally, the app should be free and without ads.

I wonder how many times have you seen the following comment:

[box][quote]…great app, but it has ads…[/quote][/box]

And of course, undervalued score and review…

Long time ago I have checked business model that relies on placing ads in the app. This approach works only for certain type of applications – those in which users spend a lot of time. In most cases those are games. In other types of applications it does not work. Another way is to sell application. I decided that I will try this model before 4Developers conference. I wanted to have some data for my lecture – My first million – how to earn money on mobile applications.

The choice was obvious – Kursy Walut. The app which has been downloaded [mark]over 30 000 times[/mark], reviewed by [mark]over 1000 people[/mark] with average score greater than 4.5. The price for application has been set to minimal level – 0.99 $. The application from the very beginning has been promoted as one of the best paid applications. In business category it took first place and the 3rd place in whole ranking of paid applications.

You can see the result of this action on a graph – the paid period is when the number of downloads is close to 0. To be more precisely, [mark]application has been bought only by three people[/mark]. Average number of downloads has been reduced from 100 per day to 0.

Please let me know and be invited to discussion if you still have some doubts whether it is worth to publish applications that are targeted on Polish Windows Store.