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Indeed, thinking of Marco Arment as an "indie dev" is sort of like thinking of Minecraft as an "indie game." Regardless of roots, at some point, they both cross

Indeed, thinking of Marco Arment as an "indie dev" is sort of like thinking of Minecraft as an "indie game." Regardless of roots, at some point, they both crossed a money line. That being said, assuming he is somewhat financially prudent, Arment probably has enough money to just drop into mutual funds and live off the interest, so I guess it says something about his passion as a developer that he's still coding and trying to make an honest buck off of it. I think the patronage model is interesting, and I'm curious how he or other developers will make it work within the confines of the App Store.

Moshe_Silnorin 11y ago
So once you're successful you're not an independent dev, even if you have no staff? And once a band is popular it's no longer good?
- Albright 11y ago
  Once you achieve a certain degree of success, you no longer have the same challenges, concerns, or mindset of the typical "indie dev," yes. This is a guy whose tech podcast I stopped listening to partly because he and some other dweeb wouldn't shut up about their brand new BMWs.
- jowiar 11y ago
  I think the term we're working with here is "having a runway" -- An independent dev with a pile of money in the bank is in a very different situation from one who needs short-term profitability.
- seiji 11y ago
  "independent" in these contents tends to mean "works alone" which also implies "has limited resources, both personal and monetary." If you work alone and you have a few million dollars of fun money to burn, that changes people's perception of you. Now you're not doing it because you have to. Where's the struggle? Now you're just entertaining yourself. It's like saying Bill Gates is an "independent charity volunteer." Doesn't quite get the point across.
conradev 11y ago
This comes a month after he released a content blocker (Peace), it topped the iOS App Store paid charts, and then decided to remove it from sale and issue a refund to everyone. Topping the charts for a day amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. To most people that's a non-trivial amount of money to toss away to maintain one's sense of morality.

Moshe_Silnorin 11y ago

So once you're successful you're not an independent dev, even if you have no staff? And once a band is popular it's no longer good?

Albright 11y ago
Once you achieve a certain degree of success, you no longer have the same challenges, concerns, or mindset of the typical "indie dev," yes. This is a guy whose tech podcast I stopped listening to partly because he and some other dweeb wouldn't shut up about their brand new BMWs.
jowiar 11y ago
I think the term we're working with here is "having a runway" -- An independent dev with a pile of money in the bank is in a very different situation from one who needs short-term profitability.
seiji 11y ago
"independent" in these contents tends to mean "works alone" which also implies "has limited resources, both personal and monetary." If you work alone and you have a few million dollars of fun money to burn, that changes people's perception of you. Now you're not doing it because you have to. Where's the struggle? Now you're just entertaining yourself. It's like saying Bill Gates is an "independent charity volunteer." Doesn't quite get the point across.

conradev 11y ago

This comes a month after he released a content blocker (Peace), it topped the iOS App Store paid charts, and then decided to remove it from sale and issue a refund to everyone. Topping the charts for a day amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. To most people that's a non-trivial amount of money to toss away to maintain one's sense of morality.