5 ms·

I was thinking along the same lines. $80,000/yr. of perpetual income for a couple of months worth of work seems like a great deal. However, I do feel the artic

I was thinking along the same lines. $80,000/yr. of perpetual income for a couple of months worth of work seems like a great deal. However, I do feel the article is interesting from a user's perspective. If my $3 purchase only nets the author a $80,000 income from a popular work, there is little incentive for him to continue to work on the software. That means I'm unlikely to see it improve or grow in ways that will continue to benefit me in the future. We've come to know continual product updates from not just software, but with physical products too. Seeing that process disappear could come with an interesting long-term impact.

jarek 14y ago
It's highly unlikely that the income will be perpetual without additional work put in to update the application and keep it fresh.
- randomdata 14y ago
  You're right that it is not a safe bet. A lot will depend on how the market shapes itself in the future. Though the income from my own app has remained fairly constant over the years, despite the lack of updates and declining rankings.
  - leviathan 14y ago
    Can you provide some data? I also have a constant "income" from one of my apps, even though that income is one $0.99 purchase every one or two weeks.
joe_the_user 14y ago
$80,000/yr. of perpetual income for a couple of months worth of work seems like a great deal. It is doubtful that any software could provide "perpetual income" for no further work. Despite the fact the bits themselves remain the same, software requires maintenance as much as roadways; the underlying OS changes, user expectations change, security flaws are discovered and urgently require attention, etc. The update/replacement process is very unlikely to disappear unless the world suddenly begins changing much more slowly. What may happen is that users jump from app to app if the apps are priced too cheaply to account for maintenance. Edit: Also, the infrastructure one might need for "maintenance mode" is significant. One of the other ironies of software is that there a considerably smaller ratio of effort-to-result for "small updates and bug-fixes" compared to new feature implementation.
- VMG 14y ago
  > 1,532 Days Without a Code Change. How a Pet Project That Hasn't Been Touched in Over Four Years Still Gets Daily Signups. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4239318 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4239318
  - Retric 14y ago
    When that's 22,000 days you might have a point, but I expect to be around then, I don't think any of my projects will be useful and unchanged by then.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
"If my $3 purchase only nets the author a $80,000 income from a popular work, there is little incentive for him to continue to work on the software." I've seen variants of this comment around. I wonder if some folks have some illusion that an 'app' is like a lottery ticket that makes them rich forever. Rather than spending 10 - 15 years making Apps and taking any excess money and saving/investing it for retirement or some future kind of thing. I reminded a young high school student who was enthralled in the dream of "release and the money comes rolling in" [1] that the reason its called 'work' is because you have to keep doing it to keep the money flowing. [1] A big shout out for Corona as a nice easy to get into App development environment.
- randomdata 14y ago
  The problem is one of resource utilization. $80,000 will buy you about three months of a developer and designer. Or you can walk away and make $150,000 working for someone else with far greater stability. That's why $80,000 isn't enough. The risks are too great to continue for the demonstrated return.
  - cageface 14y ago
    Exactly. I think of my own apps as part of my online portfolio. I gave up a long time ago on the idea that I could support myself on app sales.
    - 1234the1234 14y ago
      You guys just demonstrated why I believe that open source is the best path for individual developers. Once you try to too scale in the property rights world size matters and size always wins. Have 300 apps that you own, going to get rich on one. Write 4, going to make money off people paying you to write more.

jarek 14y ago

It's highly unlikely that the income will be perpetual without additional work put in to update the application and keep it fresh.

randomdata 14y ago
You're right that it is not a safe bet. A lot will depend on how the market shapes itself in the future. Though the income from my own app has remained fairly constant over the years, despite the lack of updates and declining rankings.
- leviathan 14y ago
  Can you provide some data? I also have a constant "income" from one of my apps, even though that income is one $0.99 purchase every one or two weeks.

joe_the_user 14y ago

$80,000/yr. of perpetual income for a couple of months worth of work seems like a great deal. It is doubtful that any software could provide "perpetual income" for no further work. Despite the fact the bits themselves remain the same, software requires maintenance as much as roadways; the underlying OS changes, user expectations change, security flaws are discovered and urgently require attention, etc. The update/replacement process is very unlikely to disappear unless the world suddenly begins changing much more slowly. What may happen is that users jump from app to app if the apps are priced too cheaply to account for maintenance. Edit: Also, the infrastructure one might need for "maintenance mode" is significant. One of the other ironies of software is that there a considerably smaller ratio of effort-to-result for "small updates and bug-fixes" compared to new feature implementation.

VMG 14y ago
> 1,532 Days Without a Code Change. How a Pet Project That Hasn't Been Touched in Over Four Years Still Gets Daily Signups. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4239318 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4239318
- Retric 14y ago
  When that's 22,000 days you might have a point, but I expect to be around then, I don't think any of my projects will be useful and unchanged by then.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

"If my $3 purchase only nets the author a $80,000 income from a popular work, there is little incentive for him to continue to work on the software." I've seen variants of this comment around. I wonder if some folks have some illusion that an 'app' is like a lottery ticket that makes them rich forever. Rather than spending 10 - 15 years making Apps and taking any excess money and saving/investing it for retirement or some future kind of thing. I reminded a young high school student who was enthralled in the dream of "release and the money comes rolling in" [1] that the reason its called 'work' is because you have to keep doing it to keep the money flowing. [1] A big shout out for Corona as a nice easy to get into App development environment.

randomdata 14y ago
The problem is one of resource utilization. $80,000 will buy you about three months of a developer and designer. Or you can walk away and make $150,000 working for someone else with far greater stability. That's why $80,000 isn't enough. The risks are too great to continue for the demonstrated return.
- cageface 14y ago
  Exactly. I think of my own apps as part of my online portfolio. I gave up a long time ago on the idea that I could support myself on app sales.
  - 1234the1234 14y ago
    You guys just demonstrated why I believe that open source is the best path for individual developers. Once you try to too scale in the property rights world size matters and size always wins. Have 300 apps that you own, going to get rich on one. Write 4, going to make money off people paying you to write more.