3 ms·

I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history. And countless others

I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history. And countless others making a living, or make a few bucks off side projects. Or are employed by app companies. So yeah, the amount of money attracts a lot of competition, and no, its not easy figuring out marketing and distribution. Most of us fail, but that's really just the nature of entrepreneurship. If you choose not to participate on a platform that generates billions of dollars annually, I suppose thats on your choice, and you could be correct that it is a waste of time for most people. But what is the cost of being a software developer who ignores this giant wave of mobile device adoption? You can't succeed if you don't give yourself a chance to succeed.

kbenson 10y ago
> I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history. I think the assertion is something along the lines of that being possible because more indie devs are on that platform than ever existed before. Sure, there's a lot that made it big, but so many are in the pool that it's still a relatively minuscule chance.
- coralreef 10y ago
  I suppose that makes logical sense. But I don't know of any platforms or markets where the proportion of risk to reward is much better. And if that opportunity was much better, economics dictates that it eventually would draw in more competition until risk-reward became par with any other market. No free lunches out there.
  - cousin_it 10y ago
    Most people enter game development because of passion rather than risk-reward. So the market is distorted and will stay that way.
  - animal531 10y ago
    The whole point of the article is the the proportion of risk to reward is non-existent on the platform. The unlucky developer will LOSE money by releasing their apps. The average developer might break even or make a ridiculously small amount. Only at the very top/lucky end will you get projects (that due to social media, word of mouth or just random luck) that nets between decent to good money.

kbenson 10y ago

> I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history. I think the assertion is something along the lines of that being possible because more indie devs are on that platform than ever existed before. Sure, there's a lot that made it big, but so many are in the pool that it's still a relatively minuscule chance.

coralreef 10y ago
I suppose that makes logical sense. But I don't know of any platforms or markets where the proportion of risk to reward is much better. And if that opportunity was much better, economics dictates that it eventually would draw in more competition until risk-reward became par with any other market. No free lunches out there.
- cousin_it 10y ago
  Most people enter game development because of passion rather than risk-reward. So the market is distorted and will stay that way.
- animal531 10y ago
  The whole point of the article is the the proportion of risk to reward is non-existent on the platform. The unlucky developer will LOSE money by releasing their apps. The average developer might break even or make a ridiculously small amount. Only at the very top/lucky end will you get projects (that due to social media, word of mouth or just random luck) that nets between decent to good money.