Just a quick heads-up to prevent other indies from making the same mistake I did. Background: I wrote a game which is quite successful on the Dutch App Store, being rated #1 in the Kids games section and seeing 4500 sales in the first weeks of 2011. This was an unexpected and unexplained peak in sales, and things were leveling off at slightly below 100/day. My developer account was up for renewal, and I bought another year on Jan 17th (expiration date was 24th). Last Thursday, sales were suddenly down to 12 - sobering, but not alarming (this was the average daily sales number during most of last year). But the next day, I got ZERO sales - which hadn't happened ever since the release of the app. No sales either during the weekend. I had no idea why, until a friend warned me that he tried to buy my game on his new iPhone, and got a "This app is currently unavailable" message. I had already checked iTunes Connect, but the app was still listed as "Ready for sale", and it also showed up in the App Store - he got the message when he actually clicked "Buy". So I went back to iTunes Connect again, and noticed that my "iOS Paid Application" contract was no longer in the "Contracts in Effect" section - I had to update the "contacts" information. As soon as I did (nothing was changed - I just selected the existing information and hit Submit), the app was available for sale again. I double checked my inbox, and had not received any message from Apple about this. Unfortunately, my ranking has plummeted by now, and I'm now at #78 in the Kids category. I hope I will be able to climb up again, but it's going to be tough. I've updated my web site article about iPhone development (originally about ad-supported app monetization) at So how much does an iPhone developer make? - please keep your fingers crossed for me...
