10 Most Lucrative iPhone Apps–for Apple : Apple’s 2nd Most Profitable App: Bejeweled 2

By Anthony Celeste , published on June 10, 2009 at 12:51 PM
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We rank Bejeweled 2, perhaps the most popular puzzle game of all time, as the number two cash cow for Apple’s App Store. While ranked as number four in Apple’s all-time top 20 paid downloads List, Bejeweled 2 sells for $2.99, which we feel has bumped it ahead, in terms of gross income, of the two 99 cent games in front of it in Apple’s list.   

We spoke with Garth Chouteau of PopCap, the publisher of Bejeweled 2. Garth pointed out: “Bejeweled 2 is, according to Apple, the number four best-selling paid app of all time. As of this morning (May 26, 2009), [PopCap’s] Peggle is the number 11 top paid app for iPhone, number 10 for iPod Touch, and number eight top paid game.”         

The massive public interest in puzzle games began for most gamers when Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984. Tetris led to 1989’s Columns (also called Jewels), which placed jewel images in Tetris-styled columns.  PopCap freed jewel images from their columns and placed then in a Web-based Flash game with the introduction of the first Bejeweled in 2001, then Bejeweled 2 followed in 2004.  As the developer of both Bejeweled and Peggle, PopCap and Apple appear to be doing quite well for each other.

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Comments
Anonymous 06/10/2009 9:08 PM
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Maybe people don't realize the pure amount of drivel created on the internet nowadays. Having a $99 dollar fee to put up any app, including free ones, limits the selection to those created by people with the earnestness to create something remotely worthwhile. If anybody could create an app and put it up for free, there would be no way for apple to sort through the shear number of crap programs. It would turn the app store into youtube; a few thousand videos worth watching in a sea of millions of idiots with camera phones.

CR0W M@GN3T 06/10/2009 9:12 PM
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aggie11 :
Maybe people don't realize the pure amount of drivel created on the internet nowadays. Having a $99 dollar fee to put up any app, including free ones, limits the selection to those created by people with the earnestness to create something remotely worthwhile. If anybody could create an app and put it up for free, there would be no way for apple to sort through the shear number of crap programs. It would turn the app store into youtube; a few thousand videos worth watching in a sea of millions of idiots with camera phones.



Nicely said. The fee is definitely important as quality control for the app store.

theuerkorn 06/10/2009 9:41 PM
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aggie11 :
Having a $99 dollar fee to put up any app, including free ones, limits the selection to those created by people with the earnestness to create something remotely worthwhile.


Agree.

TCeleste 06/11/2009 12:45 PM
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"Maybe people don't realize the pure amount of drivel created on the internet..."

Rest assured that I'm painfully aware of the drivel. But it's important to keep in mind that Apple has a process in place for screening apps (and yes, that process needs some fine tuning).

My opinion is that this process should be what weeds out the useful from the drivel. To me, the $99 fee just weeds out lower income developers, and those willing to create low price or free apps.

anamaniac 06/11/2009 8:47 AM
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Wow...

All of those seem like a complete waste of time...

Jailbreak that damned thing already...
Free homebrew FTW!

td854 06/11/2009 11:48 AM
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TCeleste :
To me, the $99 fee just weeds out lower income developers, and those willing to create low price or free apps.



Seems to me like a "developer" would have to be pretty low budget (living in a cardboard box?) to not be able to afford a measily $99.

DjEaZy 06/11/2009 3:06 PM
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... with most of the games is like '90 are back... almost the same resolution and 3D graphics... there would be interesting to see such games as NFS 1 & 2, Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem 3D and stuff like that ported to the iPhone...

TCeleste 06/12/2009 10:05 PM
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td854 :
Seems to me like a "developer" would have to be pretty low budget (living in a cardboard box?) to not be able to afford a measily $99.



Actually, living in a college dorm, or just being laid off, may be sufficient for $99 to be a lot of cash. I think there's a bit of a double standard at play here.

I know it's not possible because of the licensing, but what would happen if Linus Torvalds suddenly demanded $99 from everyone wanting to develop a Linux application? The entire open source community would be up in arms (and rightfully so, in my opinion).

What about if Bill Gates demanded $99 from every Windows developer? He'd be accused (again, rightfully so) of abusing his position to pilfer $99 from every Windows developer.

But Steve Jobs gets a free ride, no questions asked, like it's some kind of corporate entitlement.

Primus462 06/12/2009 10:51 PM
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I just checked out Enigmo in the app store and it is listed as $2.99. This article is only 2 days old and claims the app costs $0.99. What gives?

TCeleste 06/13/2009 12:34 PM
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Apparently a change in price. App developers are permitted to put apps on sale, and to change prices.

Steven Bancroft 06/15/2009 4:25 PM
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Primus462 :
I just checked out Enigmo in the app store and it is listed as $2.99. This article is only 2 days old and claims the app costs $0.99. What gives?



Oh please. This is an app STORE, and its not like Apple started charging the fee overnight. This has been in effect since day one. I do not develop apps but I agree with the first couple statements about needing the fee to weed out the useless Youtube like environment. If you cannot round up the cash, it's simply not for you. If you are really talented and cannot afford it, I'm sure someone would be willing to invest in you. Comparing Steve Jobs to Linus and Bill in that scenario is not at all accurate.

Steven Bancroft 06/15/2009 4:33 PM
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TCeleste :
Actually, living in a college dorm, or just being laid off, may be sufficient for $99 to be a lot of cash. I think there's a bit of a double standard at play here.I know it's not possible because of the licensing, but what would happen if Linus Torvalds suddenly demanded $99 from everyone wanting to develop a Linux application? The entire open source community would be up in arms (and rightfully so, in my opinion). What about if Bill Gates demanded $99 from every Windows developer? He'd be accused (again, rightfully so) of abusing his position to pilfer $99 from every Windows developer. But Steve Jobs gets a free ride, no questions asked, like it's some kind of corporate entitlement.



Sorry, this is what I meant to quote.

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