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 n

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.