Did Sling Media Already Make Over $200,000 From SlingPlayer Mobile?

SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone has been discussed and dissected more than any other application at the App Store in recent memory, and for good reason.  SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone was in development for what seemed like an eternity, Sling Media then announced that the application would only support new models of their popular Slingbox, only to go back on that statement and tie in limited support for legacy devices, and finally the application got stuck in App Store limbo due to its use of 3G, which had to be removed before it could be released only a few days ago.  With all of this attention, one would expect the application to sell well, but at the high price of $29.99, how well could it really do? To answer that question, surprisingly well.  The application launched on May 13th at the App Store at the price of $29.99.  SlingPlayer Mobile was able to climb its way up the charts all the way into the top 10 paid applications list at the App Store, landing at #8 in only a single day.  That is an amazing feat considering that since the App Store's inception, there has never been an application priced above $19.99 even in the top 25. Considering the application costs so darn much, we wanted to see how much cash Sling Media could possibly be raking in.  Since there is really no easy way to go about finding actual download data, we had to do a little digging.  Using as many sources as possible, we were able to get a rough estimate as to how many downloads SlingPlayer Mobile has received since its launch. An application in the #8 position at the App Store may see about 5,500-7,800 downloads on any given day.  If we take those numbers and multiply them by the retail price of $29.99, SlingPlayer Mobile was able to generate about $165,000-$234,000 before Apple's 30 percent, which means that after Apple's cut, Sling Media was able to profit about $115,500-$163,700 from the application in a single day at its best position at the App Store. Those are some pretty huge numbers, but it seems that the initial hype of the application was what propelled it up the charts so far and so quickly, because the application has already peaked.  Since hitting the #8 spot, SlingPlayer Mobile has started to slowly drop, now sitting outside the top 10 at #14.  Still, even if we were to assume that SlingPlayer Mobile was downloaded only about 1,000 times per day the other two full days, that would put Sling Media's total revenue from the application around $200,000 in only three days! These numbers simply represent our best guesstimate, but it at least gives you an idea as to how successful the application has already been.  Just imagine how much better SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone could have done without 3G support being stripped away.  The sky is the limit for applications like SlingPlayer Mobile on the iPhone, but only if AT&T allows them to flourish.

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