Acknowledged

App Downloads: Please show a more exact number of app downloads in the CIQ store

I have recently made my own watch face and uploaded it to the Connect IQ store, however, it is very difficult (and a little frustrating) as a developer to not be able to see the amount of downloads I have. For a number of days, all I knew about my watch face's progress was that it had "100+" downloads. Then when I checked yesterday, I saw that it was finally "1K+". But that's all we as developers see. A developer who has "100K+" won't know how many downloads they have until they reach "500K+" - and that is a very massive gap that could take months before the developer really finds out a better approximation of how many downloads they have.

I have really enjoyed being able to make this watch face and I am very thankful that Garmin has provided means for independent developers to do so, but it is very difficult to gauge what audiences want if we don't know anywhere near how many people are actually interested in the product. Even just showing "1.2K" or "534K" is better than having to wait tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of downloads (and many months later) before knowing how many downloads we have.

Please consider adding this feature as it would really make marketing a little easier for independent developers. Thank you!

singularity

  • Does anyone have an email I can write Garmin to ask them to provide me with this information for one of my apps?  I am compiling a resume and would like to get the approximate number of downloads (I believe before they changed to the new system one app had over 6k downloads, but now it only shows >1k).  Garmin, can you please help!  As developers, we are YOUR customer, and we give you ADDITIONAL customers, so please take care of your customers!  Garmin is still my favorite, please help us out!

  • Yes, it would certainly help to see a graph of the quantity of downloads over time, so I can analyze my business model.  Without any information on quantity of sales other than basic 1k, 5k, 10k, I feel I am developing "blind". 

    Not knowing how one app sells compares to another prevents me from understanding my market, and focusing on one trend over another.  As we should all know is true, successful entrepreneurs rely upon research and understanding of the market, so by withholding this information Garmin is really just harming it's developer community.

  • It would be simple to show the precise number but caveat the value with a statement that this may be subject to change and cannot be replied upon in the calculation of payment due.

    I think the point is to hide the exact number from *people other than the app dev*. Garmin didn't do bc they're worried that the dev of a monetized app will be misled about the number of downloads, they did it so people other than devs will have a tougher time estimating the revenue of such an app. And by doing so, they also hide the number from the devs themselves, which obviously sucks.

    Showing the precise value with a caveat wouldn't accomplish their goals here.

    What they could do is show the precise value, but only to the app dev.

    As I have pointed out elsewhere:

    - the google play store does the exact same kind of "severe rounding" (e.g. 1+, 5+, ..., 10K+, 50K+, ...)

    - the iOS store doesn't even show download numbers, only download ranks

    All my apps are free and  I have declared that they are so during submission so there really is no good reason not to provide this information.

    It's easier for Garmin to apply a blanket policy / implementation rather than carving out special exceptions. What if your app starts out free but becomes paid?

    Again it would be a lot simpler if Garmin were to just provide devs with the same precise stats we had before, but it remains to be seen whether this will happen.

  • I agree the loss of this feature is unhelpful to developers but I can't see how to upvote this request on this site.

    It would be simple to show the precise number but caveat the value with a statement that this may be subject to change and cannot be replied upon in the calculation of payment due.

    All my apps are free and  I have declared that they are so during submission so there really is no good reason not to provide this information.

  • in reply to flowstate

    No problem, I understand :D

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