I've also noticed this pattern. My textual reviews are fairly positive, but I have a lot of 1-star reviews. In some cases, people have emailed me and it has become clear that the app simply didn't meet their expectations (in 9/10 cases they didn't seem to have actually read the app description).
I looked at it. From the blurb it was not clear to me how it worked. I downloaded and used the tutorial. That made it clear. I would add something like "For you math Wonks!" It isn't the normal iPhone puzzle game. Also you use sort of non obvious gestures maybe find a way to indicate the +- ones on the main screen. I can see the average iPhone puzzle user hitting 1 star when they delete the app.
Three ideas - a picture on the splash screen that shows swipes and above and below taps and what they do with a continue button that shows up the first few times it runs, maybe with a button also for the tutorial. Two is to put a picture like this at the start of the tutorial. Third idea is to shade the row and column on the first tap with some + and - indicators overlaid (maybe) or a text box at the bottom that indicates to tap again for +_. This may need to have a way to turn it off if the user doesn't like it.
One other thought is to make the "Solve New Puzzle" more visually distinct. It took me a few taps to figure out the screen.
One other thought is to use some sort of picture (instead of a fill color) for the tile backgrounds like many of the square puzzles do on the app store.
I'm still in the process of upgrading my ambition, but I've so far been happy to just get to the point where I can release something. If it makes > $10/mo on its own, consistently, I smile (which brings me back to needing to upgrade ambitions)
I'm using BizSpark to get access to tools so I can develop some Office plugins and related msi installers. In such a situation, the greatest competitive advantage is found using their tools. And, in general, you should be able to use any language that targets the CLR.
"Competitive advantage" means roughly "doing things your competitors can't". You can't do that with off-the-shelf tools unless your competitors are in Nigeria and can't afford them.
you can do it with off-the-shelf tools if your competitors decide to use really "hackerish" languages and tools and end up taking longer to produce the same or lesser product.
I have a small service and about 3% of the user base opts to pay for advanced features. That figure has been consistent for me for some time, even when the user base as a whole was smaller.
