"But, I have this feeling that maybe the sheer numbers of people that enter the mobile app funnel at all far outweigh those on the web."
But you just heard from someone who said that even when their app shows up in the What's Hot list, they still don't get a lot of sales. Which also implies it doesn't take very many sales to get there.
Speculation about how truth may not be true is not very productive. It really doesn't matter how many people enter the funnel if few make it to the "give you money" step and you have no control over or visibility into the intermediate steps. It is for theory to explain reality, not the other way around.
I said nothing about conversion. My guess was about the top of the funnel. He said he hasn't tried selling his web app yet, so the comparison remains to be tested.
At least I qualified my speculations as a feeling. If you're going to misread, at least don't be so snipy.
Anyway, I say all of this as a web app developer myself. I prefer the high street to the mall.
But you just heard from someone who said that even when their app shows up in the What's Hot list, they still don't get a lot of sales. Which also implies it doesn't take very many sales to get there.
Speculation about how truth may not be true is not very productive. It really doesn't matter how many people enter the funnel if few make it to the "give you money" step and you have no control over or visibility into the intermediate steps. It is for theory to explain reality, not the other way around.