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iPhone developer here. > The first and most obvious way is just getting paid by a client for creating the app. Now that’s a payment model I can believe in...

iPhone developer here. > The first and most obvious way is just getting paid by a client for creating the app. Now that’s a payment model I can believe in... At least 75% of the contract offers on my desk are people who want to sell an app direct to consumer (not an online ordering system or advertising; a game or a utility or calculator, etc.) So developers (albeit 1 step removed) are still very subject to the app store market pressures. If clients can't make money then there will be no contract work. Unlike other markets where there are other sales channels, in the iPhone world, Apple is the only sales channel. As for the motivations of developers, I think the author's got it wrong, or at least he's got it wrong for me. I might write an app to scratch my own itch, but I wouldn't polish it, document it, pay an artist, or promote it without the nominal income that a niche app provides. I'm not in it for the big million-dollar gambles. But if an app can pull in $5k year-on-year for about a week's worth of actual work, that's a very attractive investment for me. You don't have to be EA to get rich on the app store, you just need to work hard and be patient and consistently churn out high-quality products.

halostatue 17y ago
The estimation is wrong, too. 1. Many apps can be written in 2 - 4 weeks time. 2. Many developers aren't paid $125/hour. I wrote an app for a client that's now on the app store. The development time was six weeks part time, and my rate was substantially lower than $125 per hour (in part because I have ownership of the source and the client has a royalty-free perpetual licence). The client was responsible for the graphics work (custom button designs, icons, etc.) and the content. Counting his own time, he probably spent around $5k total. I'm not sure if the app has made its investment back, but I suspect that a large number of the 150,000 apps are $5k-or-less investments and a few of them are $10k-or-more. A rarefied few will be even more expensive.

halostatue 17y ago

The estimation is wrong, too. 1. Many apps can be written in 2 - 4 weeks time. 2. Many developers aren't paid $125/hour. I wrote an app for a client that's now on the app store. The development time was six weeks part time, and my rate was substantially lower than $125 per hour (in part because I have ownership of the source and the client has a royalty-free perpetual licence). The client was responsible for the graphics work (custom button designs, icons, etc.) and the content. Counting his own time, he probably spent around $5k total. I'm not sure if the app has made its investment back, but I suspect that a large number of the 150,000 apps are $5k-or-less investments and a few of them are $10k-or-more. A rarefied few will be even more expensive.