It should be abundantly clear by now that it's not enough to just think up a good idea for an app, build and ship it in order to be successful. The question, then, is:

What can you focus on to make sure you're prioritizing the right goals and tasks and making progress on a regular basis?

Simplifying and focusing your approach requires understanding the math behind your app business. When you understand the core drivers of your business, it's much easier to measure your progress and to identify when you need to make a change in order to achieve your goals.

Over the past year, the Apptentive team has worked closely with developers on the iOS, Android and Mac OS X platforms to understand the core drivers of the emerging app business.

As more software purchases are made by consumers and large brands embrace the importance of being on consumer handheld devices, some common themes have emerged that give us confidence in our understanding of the overall app business landscape.

We hope that by sharing what we've learned with you and being concrete about actions you can take to improve your business, we'll help the entire ecosystem of developers grow.