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Disclaimer: I'm a full time indie iphone developer. I'm an iOS developer for one reason: it is the best platform if you want to start your own business and kee

Disclaimer: I'm a full time indie iphone developer. I'm an iOS developer for one reason: it is the best platform if you want to start your own business and keep writing CODE. Apple takes care of distribution, payments, marketing (via features and top lists), and some legal issues (you get a default ToC with every app). What this means in practice is that I spend roughly 80% of my time actually in the code, which is significantly more than the numbers I've seen quoted for web businesses. Writing code makes me happy. Dealing with angry customers, SEO, hosting issues, and the plethora of other things that web businesses have to deal with does not. I see a lot of posts on HN where someone tries to make several hundred dollars a month on a webapp. Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now.

ashconnor 15y ago
Would you say that saving all of that hassle is worth the 30% you give to Apple?
- bignoggins 15y ago
  For a one-person startup where my time is more limited than my money? Absolutley. 30% is not unreasonable compared to what you would pay a distributor and a publisher for shrink-wrapped software. Even then you would have to manage several stakeholders instead of just one. Visibility is also something Apple gives you if you are fortunate. Once your app hits the Top 100 charts or gets featured sales just take off like a rocket. I've been featured 3 times and while getting an Apple feature is rare, your chances are significantly improved if you have something unique and polished.
- forgottenpaswrd 15y ago
  It amazes me how much people prefer to have 100% of NOTHING to give someone 30% for handling most of the distribution problems. Apple App store has been just barely profitable-just break even for a long time. It takes time and money to maintain it. It lets you access millions of people overnight. Not so easy to do for an startup.
cageface 15y ago
Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. That hasn't been my experience. My experience has been that once you drop off the "new & noteworthy" sales tail off pretty sharply. The app store is very competitive now.
- bignoggins 15y ago
  very few apps make it onto new & noteworthy in the first place, so I don't consider that as a factor. From developers I've talked to, some have thrown pretty hastily put together weekend projects out on the app store and consistently make $5/day, which comes out to $150/month. If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive. Yes there are 450K apps on the app store, but if you have a well made app that fits a need and isn't "yet another flashlight" you're already ahead of 99.9% of the junk out there.
  - palish 15y ago
    "If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now." "If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive." So.. Do you make more than $12K/yr?
    - bignoggins 15y ago
      Yes. Made ~75K last year. On track to triple that this year (I've released 2 more apps this year). In response to below: - How? Started off first app as a side project, released on app store. Got traction and went from there. Then started releasing more apps and each of those did well also. - How long did it take you to reach this point? Released first app May 2010. Quit soul-sucking BigCo Dec 2010. Started traveling the world Apr 2011. Released second app last week (both are ranked Top 5 in sports on iPhone & iPad). - Was luck a big factor? (Honestly.) - I think less so than for most apps. My app is pretty niche and I knew there was a market opportunity and took it. It was definitely not just throwing something out there to see if it would stick. I knew the market and knew there was pent up demand for my product because I am part of the community. - Is your revenue spread evenly across your apps, or does it follow a power curve? Does your top-selling app account for around 50% of your income? - I have 3 apps. One accounts for 50% the other 2 account for about 25% each. Each of them are considered pretty successful by app store standards (currently all Top 5 in category). - How did you market / promote your apps? - Did not do any marketing. Just released it and it grew organically. - How did you decide what apps to build? (Probably the most important question.) - Built something that I needed to have, and I knew others would pay for. Much easier to do this if you have other interests outside of nerd-dom. Hint: Stop reading hacker news so much and get a hobby where the majority of participants are NOT technical. - Do you have a "launch strategy"? Well, this is a bit of a cheat since I already have a pretty large userbase. But I have code in my app that notifies the user when I have a new app and links them directly to the app store. That's how I got traction for my 2nd and 3rd app. I'll give you an example of how powerful this is. When my 3rd app was released last week, iTunes rankings were broken. I did not show up AT ALL on the app store except via manual search. Despite this, I shot up all the way to #4 in spots purely on downloads from existing customers and (I suspect) word of mouth to their friends. Lesson here is to not just get customers, but get fans who will evangelize your product for you. That's probably the best advice I can give.
sid0 15y ago
you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month Do you think this is healthy in the long run?
- bignoggins 15y ago
  I just take this as an indicator that the barrier to entry for making $ is very low on the app store as opposed to web apps, which is my entire argument. If the long tail is generating a few hundred a month, how much do you think you can make if you actually have something good?

ashconnor 15y ago

Would you say that saving all of that hassle is worth the 30% you give to Apple?

bignoggins 15y ago
For a one-person startup where my time is more limited than my money? Absolutley. 30% is not unreasonable compared to what you would pay a distributor and a publisher for shrink-wrapped software. Even then you would have to manage several stakeholders instead of just one. Visibility is also something Apple gives you if you are fortunate. Once your app hits the Top 100 charts or gets featured sales just take off like a rocket. I've been featured 3 times and while getting an Apple feature is rare, your chances are significantly improved if you have something unique and polished.
forgottenpaswrd 15y ago
It amazes me how much people prefer to have 100% of NOTHING to give someone 30% for handling most of the distribution problems. Apple App store has been just barely profitable-just break even for a long time. It takes time and money to maintain it. It lets you access millions of people overnight. Not so easy to do for an startup.

cageface 15y ago

Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. That hasn't been my experience. My experience has been that once you drop off the "new & noteworthy" sales tail off pretty sharply. The app store is very competitive now.

bignoggins 15y ago
very few apps make it onto new & noteworthy in the first place, so I don't consider that as a factor. From developers I've talked to, some have thrown pretty hastily put together weekend projects out on the app store and consistently make $5/day, which comes out to $150/month. If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive. Yes there are 450K apps on the app store, but if you have a well made app that fits a need and isn't "yet another flashlight" you're already ahead of 99.9% of the junk out there.
- palish 15y ago
  "If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now." "If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive." So.. Do you make more than $12K/yr?
  - bignoggins 15y ago
    Yes. Made ~75K last year. On track to triple that this year (I've released 2 more apps this year). In response to below: - How? Started off first app as a side project, released on app store. Got traction and went from there. Then started releasing more apps and each of those did well also. - How long did it take you to reach this point? Released first app May 2010. Quit soul-sucking BigCo Dec 2010. Started traveling the world Apr 2011. Released second app last week (both are ranked Top 5 in sports on iPhone & iPad). - Was luck a big factor? (Honestly.) - I think less so than for most apps. My app is pretty niche and I knew there was a market opportunity and took it. It was definitely not just throwing something out there to see if it would stick. I knew the market and knew there was pent up demand for my product because I am part of the community. - Is your revenue spread evenly across your apps, or does it follow a power curve? Does your top-selling app account for around 50% of your income? - I have 3 apps. One accounts for 50% the other 2 account for about 25% each. Each of them are considered pretty successful by app store standards (currently all Top 5 in category). - How did you market / promote your apps? - Did not do any marketing. Just released it and it grew organically. - How did you decide what apps to build? (Probably the most important question.) - Built something that I needed to have, and I knew others would pay for. Much easier to do this if you have other interests outside of nerd-dom. Hint: Stop reading hacker news so much and get a hobby where the majority of participants are NOT technical. - Do you have a "launch strategy"? Well, this is a bit of a cheat since I already have a pretty large userbase. But I have code in my app that notifies the user when I have a new app and links them directly to the app store. That's how I got traction for my 2nd and 3rd app. I'll give you an example of how powerful this is. When my 3rd app was released last week, iTunes rankings were broken. I did not show up AT ALL on the app store except via manual search. Despite this, I shot up all the way to #4 in spots purely on downloads from existing customers and (I suspect) word of mouth to their friends. Lesson here is to not just get customers, but get fans who will evangelize your product for you. That's probably the best advice I can give.

sid0 15y ago

you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month Do you think this is healthy in the long run?

bignoggins 15y ago
I just take this as an indicator that the barrier to entry for making $ is very low on the app store as opposed to web apps, which is my entire argument. If the long tail is generating a few hundred a month, how much do you think you can make if you actually have something good?