So last time I talked about a successful app.  One that people actually use.  Well this time I went back to something a little more popularist.  My friend who is also a developer, had just created Amazing XRay FX and it was going great guns.  Even making it into the top 10.  It was obviously not a real X-ray machine, just a simulator.  So I was trying to think of what I could make that was similar but different.

I decided to make Army Night Vision.  By now you might have realised that nearly all my apps start with the letter A.  Why is that?  Well they appear in the iTunes store alphabetically, and the ones at the top get more exposure and seem to sell better on the first day or so.  There's no point hitting the store for the first time, and people have to search through 4 screens to see it.  Most people just don't bother to look that far down the list.  I'm keen to one day create an app called "Aaron's Aardvark Adventures".  Just have to work out what the games about.

Army Night Vision is a Night Vision simulator, it's designed to look like night vision goggles, but obviously the iPhone app doesn't have night vision capabilities.  It looks through the actual iPhone camera and is a type of Augmented Reality.  At the time these types of apps were not approved by the iTunes store because it used undocumented techniques in the code.  With version 3.1 of the iPhone OS you can make these types of apps legally which is what I've done for Augmented - Wanted Dead or Alive. But at the time this illegal app somehow slipped through the review process.  Later when I tried to do an update to add more features it was not approved.  Luckily even though it's not approved apple let's me keep the original app in the store.

Although there's been no update on this app for many months, it consistently earns around $20 AUD profit a day.  I'm not sure why?  Maybe it's the sexy girl in my marketing?  Maybe people think it uses real night vision.  I'm not sure.  I'm now working on an upgrade so that it actually helps you take a photo at night.  But I'm worried if I make too many changes then whatever the magic formula is that keeps this app selling might be lost.

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