Jason Pontin for Technology Review:

So we created iOS and Android apps that were free for use; anyone could read our daily news and watch our videos, and people could pay to see digital replicas of the magazine. We launched the platforms in January of 2011. Complimenting myself on my conservative accounting, I budgeted less than $125,000 in revenue in the first year. That meant fewer than 5,000 subscriptions and a handful of single-issue sales. Easy, I thought.Like almost all publishers, I was badly disappointed. What went wrong? Everything.

As I read it, Pontin’s major problems were in underestimating development costs and overestimating the demand for his product.

Pontin spells out in detail the mistakes he and other publishers have made when it comes to releasing content on iOS. He makes a mistake to assume that he can paint his own experience with the same broad brush as everyone else, but certainly some of the lessons he learned translate to others, as well.

The bottom line is that each individual company needs to take a hard look at their business model and prospective revenue stream to decide if selling content through apps is going to be right for them.