Distant Suns 5
63
Quality Score
Solid
Distant Suns 5
by Mike Smithwick
Low confidence
✍️ Bumetric analysis
“
Distant Suns 5 is an iOS app from Mike Smithwick in the News category, currently rated 4.3★ across 96 ratings. Initial signal reads as largely positive sentiment, users highlighting consistency and feature depth.
Quality Score is 63: Solid (established niche player). For a News app, that means established niche player. The full BU Investment Matrix below scores 8 dimensions including monetisation, growth, and operational risk.
Track changes month-over-month in the Performance section below: live snapshot history and revenue forecast included.
📊 Performance Tracking LIVE
94 snapshots on record
Rating
4.3
Reviews
96 reviews
Forecast Revenue / mo
$1.9K
Snapshots tracked
94
since Apr 2010
Range:
💰 Forecast Revenue / mo
MODELRevenue forecast computed from BU's 234 trigger model on each snapshot. Calibrated against ground-truth from 58 verified-revenue apps.
🔬Forecast Breakdown — Why This Estimate?Top 10 of 10 triggers
Our ML model uses 200+ signals from public data. These are the most influential for this app:
| Paid app ($0.00)METRIC | +$2,800 | |
| worth every pennyREVIEW | +$2,000 | |
| bugsREVIEW | −$1,800 | |
| 5 starREVIEW | +$1,800 | |
| excellent appREVIEW | +$1,500 | |
| Mature app (16y old)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| highly recommendREVIEW | +$1,400 | |
| Good rating (4.3★)METRIC | +$800 | |
| Single-language (English only)METRIC | −$400 | |
| Pre-traction phase (96 ratings)METRIC | −$300 |
METRIC = structural app data · REVIEW = mined from user reviews · ✓ VERIFIED = Stripe-verified anchor (TrustMRR)
📈 Reviews Growth
LIVECumulative review count from first BU snapshot. Each point = a tracked update.
⭐ Rating Trend
LIVEAverage rating evolution. Updates with each new review batch.
🆕 What's New · v5.0.6
- UI tweaks
- Addition of musical tracks
- Addition of musical tracks
Profile & Insights
Everything we know — and don't — about this app and its company.
Identification
- App name
- Distant Suns 5
- Developer
- Mike Smithwick
- Bundle ID
- com.distantsuns.distantsunsipad
- App Store URL
- Open in App Store
- Category
- News
- Content rating
- 4+
- Languages
- EN
Company
- Website
- Not found
- Tagline
- Today
- Description
- Find apps and games for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more on the App Store.
- Founded
- Not found
- HQ / Address
- Not found
- Employees
- Not found
- Logo
- Available
Revenue
- Reported revenue signal / mo
- Not found
- AI revenue estimate / mo
- Not found
- AI annual estimate
- Not found
- Model estimate / mo
- $1.9K/mo
- Top-grossing rank
- Outside top 100 in US News
- All-time revenue
- Not found
- Pricing
- Not found
Founder
Founder data not yet collected for this app.
Funding
Funding data not yet collected for this app.
Press & Links
Press & Links data not yet collected for this app.
Contacts & Socials
Contacts & Socials data not yet collected for this app.
📈Ratings growth97 ratings+-54% lifetimeShow 3-year history estimate ▾
Tracked (60 weeks) Pre-tracking estimate (0 weeks) · model-based, ±5% noise · anchored to release date and current value
🌍Geographic ReachNot ranked
This app is currently outside the top 100 grossing in all 9 countries we monitor (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA, AU, BR, IN). Niche or new apps often launch this way — popularity rankings appear once daily revenue clears the regional threshold.
💰Pricing History$0.00 → $2.99 (+0%)
Profile is built from iTunes Lookup + developer site scrape + ML revenue model. Empty fields show "Not found" — additional sources (Crunchbase, X, IndieHackers, Acquire.com) coming.
📝 About this app
Distant Suns: The night sky, reimagined.
2013 finalist in the Family category of TabTimes' best tablet app contest;
"I am putting together some mobile astronomy apps for our local "Sky's the Limit" Observatory in Twentynine Palms, CA. I have been searching for something as good as, or better than, Distant Suns. Short answer: I have not found it yet. ...nothing portrays the night sky as well as Distant Suns.
Distant Suns has been your personal guide to the cosmos since 1985. First on the desktop, now right in your hands. While others play games, you can travel to the stars.… View full description on the official store →
2013 finalist in the Family category of TabTimes' best tablet app contest;
"I am putting together some mobile astronomy apps for our local "Sky's the Limit" Observatory in Twentynine Palms, CA. I have been searching for something as good as, or better than, Distant Suns. Short answer: I have not found it yet. ...nothing portrays the night sky as well as Distant Suns.
Distant Suns has been your personal guide to the cosmos since 1985. First on the desktop, now right in your hands. While others play games, you can travel to the stars.… View full description on the official store →
App Specs
🔐 Own this app? Claim & verify MRR →💾 815 MB🔞 4+📱 iOS 14.0+🔖 v5.0.6🔄 updated 1y ago🌐 EN📂 News💰 Paid🚀 Launched 2010 (16y old)
📅
What Worked™ · Development Pipeline
16 EVENTS TRACKEDDetected changes in this app over its tracked lifetime — each event links cause (what changed) to effect (what moved). Sorted newest first.See full history →Version history →
2026-05
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2026-05
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.90 → 4.29 (improved 0.39★)
2026-05
💲
Went paid — introduced $2.99 price point
2026-03
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.29 → 3.90 (dropped 0.39★)
2012-02
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$14.6K/mo · rating −0.10★ · reviews +9 medium · co-occurring
2012-02
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$33.5K/mo · reviews +19 medium · co-occurring
2011-10
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$23.6K/mo · rating +0.06★ · reviews +13 high confidence
2011-10
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$17.1K/mo · rating +0.17★ · reviews +9 medium · co-occurring
2010-07
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$14.9K/mo · rating +0.24★ · reviews +8 high confidence
2010-07
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$8.9K/mo · reviews +5 high confidence
2010-06
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.43 → 4.00 (dropped 0.43★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$8.9K/mo · reviews +5 high confidence
2010-05
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.50 → 4.40 (improved 0.90★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$5.1K/mo · rating −0.40★ high confidence
2010-05
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.50 → 4.00 (improved 0.50★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$5.7K/mo · rating +0.90★ medium · co-occurring
2010-04
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: revenue +$5.7K/mo · rating +0.90★ medium · co-occurring
2010-04
⭐
Rating ↑ 2.00 → 3.50 (improved 1.50★)
→ 30 days after: revenue +$5.7K/mo · rating +0.90★ medium · co-occurring
2010-04
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: revenue +$5.7K/mo · rating +0.90★ medium · co-occurring
🔔
Track this app’s revenue
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ONE-TIME · BUILD
💰 Estimated build cost
$210K
↳ What it cost to build · not monthly revenue
Likely range $160K – $285K
$25K · MVP floor
$100K · indie scale
$500K+ · studio build
📈
Slow ROI — current MRR is well below build cost
Synthetic estimate. Inputs: category complexity, file size, screen count, monetization layer, platform reach, age × team-size proxy. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-agency rate surveys. Full math + source list on /methodology.
Where the money goes
| 🧱 MVP baseline (design + 1-store ship) | +$28K |
| 📱 5 unique screens × $4.5K | +$22K |
| 📦 Asset bundle (815 MB) | +$40K |
| ⚙ News complexity ×1.20 | +$18K |
| ⚙ 16.5y maintenance × ~1-person team | +$99K |
Total estimate
$210K
ONE-TIME · EXIT VALUE
💵 Estimated acquisition value
$30K
↳ What it would sell for · not monthly revenue
Marketplace range $20K – $40K · 16× MRR multiple
💸
~0.1× build cost (under-water)
Synthetic estimate. Multiple band derived from ad-supported + age, rating quality, category demand, and user-base maturity. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-app-marketplace closed-deal medians. Full math + comparable deal list on /methodology.
How the multiple was built
| 📺 Ad-supported base | 15× MRR |
| 📅 16.5y proven track record | +20% |
| 🏷 News category multiple | -5% |
| ⭐ Small user base (<1K ratings) | -8% |
Final multiple
16× MRR
🛠 Estimated tech stack
🍎
Native iOS (Swift / UIKit)
Medium confidence · 55%
Also possible
React Native
Flutter
Heuristic guess from app bundle size, category, store description signals, and release-date stack era. Bumetric does not disassemble binaries — for binary-level certainty you would need an SDK intelligence tool or the manifest itself. Reasoning chain on the right. Full ruleset on /methodology.
Signals we read
| 📦 App bundle size | 815 MB |
| 🏷 Category context | News |
| 📦 Large iOS bundle | → Native Swift / UIKit (pre-2020 era) + assets |
💀 Maintenance status
Likely abandoned
87%
Last shipped 2025-01-04 · 637 days ago
0 · Active
50 · At risk
100 · Abandoned
Heuristic risk score from time-since-last-update + ratings velocity proxy + Editor's Choice / curated featuring signals. Calibrated against 2024-2025 app-store ranking decay reports. Not a guarantee — a quiet app with a healthy codebase looks the same as an abandoned one until something breaks. Full math on /methodology.
Risk signals
| 📅 1y 9mo since last update | Likely deprioritized |
| 👥 Small user base (96 ratings) + 16.5y old | +10% (solo-project pattern) |
| • 17y old + 1y+ no update | +5% (API deprecation drift) |
Verdict
Likely abandoned
📝 Description
95
BU Score · Transcendent
About this analysis
Why low confidence: only 96 ratings · no founder-verified revenue (model estimate only) · revenue figure is directional only.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
9 answers · auto-generated from this app's public dataHow much does Distant Suns 5 make per month?▴
Based on our ML-calibrated revenue forecast, Distant Suns 5 earns approximately $1.9K/mo. This is a US-storefront-equivalent estimate; global revenue can be several times larger for internationally-distributed apps. See the methodology page for the full formula and confidence bands.
Is Distant Suns 5 profitable?▴
With estimated build cost $210K and monthly revenue $1.9K, Distant Suns 5 looks well below break-even — current monthly revenue is much smaller than the estimated build cost. Profitability also depends on paid-acquisition spend and refund rate which the public model doesn't see.
What apps are like Distant Suns 5?▴
Browse the full News category catalog to find similar apps with revenue, build cost, audience and tech stack data. Each /p/{slug} page also shows a Compare side-by-side widget with three peer apps from the same niche.
What is Distant Suns 5 built with?▴
Our heuristic places Distant Suns 5 on the Native iOS (Swift / UIKit) stack (Medium confidence, 55%). Signals: app bundle size, category context, store-description markers, release-date era. We don't disassemble binaries. Alternative possibilities: React Native, Flutter.
Is Distant Suns 5 still actively maintained?▴
Maintenance status: Likely abandoned (87% abandonment risk). Last shipped version was 1+ years ago. The risk score combines time-since-last-update with Editor's Choice / curated featuring + user-base maturity adjustments.
How much would Distant Suns 5 sell for?▴
Estimated acquisition value: $30K (marketplace range $20K – $40K). Calculated as 16× monthly revenue using the standard multiple for the detected monetization model + adjustments for age, rating quality and category demand. Calibrated against 2024-2026 Flippa / Acquire.com / MicroAcquire closed-deal medians.
When was Distant Suns 5 last updated?▴
Distant Suns 5 last shipped a new version on 2025-01-04 — more than 1 year(s) ago. This is the date Apple / Google last accepted a new build, not a content-only push.
Who makes Distant Suns 5?▴
Distant Suns 5 is published by Mike Smithwick on the Apple App Store. See the full publisher portfolio (other apps by the same developer) via the More by developer block on the product page above.
What is Distant Suns 5's BU Score?▴
Distant Suns 5 has a BU Score of 63/100 (Solid). The score combines App Store rating, ratings count, monetization model and revenue signals calibrated against founder-verified MRR anchors. See the BU Score formula.