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(2) "I have 41 cheap and simple (but useful) apps on the App Store right now and have been growing my catalog since late July. Each app took me less than a day
by pxlpshr 18y ago
(2) "I have 41 cheap and simple (but useful) apps on the App Store right now and have been growing my catalog since late July. Each app took me less than a day to do. Some days I've cranked out five apps (and no, they are not the stupid "Countdown till Easter, Countdown till Christmas" apps). I easily have pulled $10k/month for the last 6 months in a row, quit my day job, and now do iPhone stuff full time. I have no employees, no costs (besides tax), minimal no-cost marketing, and no time schedule. I work MAYBE five to ten hours per week on this stuff."
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I can't believe he has the audacity to brag about making 41 crap applications that take less than a day to build. Maybe I'm making a presumptuous statement, but I seriously doubt his apps are as useful as he claims. This is exactly the problem with the store, particularly when you combine it with the broken economics driving it.
I'm an iPhone developer and consumer, and my days of searching for great apps are gone because of developers like him. Affluent/older customers are pushed out while the children with hours of time on their hands are searching for .99 novelty apps, so you couple that with 24-hour volume driven charts = perpetual waste land. Now I just wait for the media to report on a cool new app or via twitter, but then this type of group-think strips away the charm of the AppStore in regard to finding awesome indie developer creations.
We've got 5 applications (1 is pending approval), and 4 of which took much longer than a month to build before releasing version 1.0. Since version 1.0, we've spent a lot more time than that continuing to improve the products and listening to our customers. We've had modest success but nobody has quit their day job.
The problem with guys quoted above, they build these shit apps with limited functionality and no long-term vision, but they insist on gaming the system and releasing 'faux' updates so their shit apps dominate page 1 of each category. In turn, developers who are seriously committed to making a good product are over-shadowed by parasitic profit scrapers and the 30% cut given to Apple for distribution/marketing benefits are minimized. In addition, the 30% cut also makes it difficult to have extra funds to advertise outside of the store for bootstrappers.
@wallflower — never quit! Do it because you love it, not because you want easy money like most of the schmucks turning the AppStore into crap. If you have a vision, build it, improve it, support it, and thank your customer. Half these guys don't have a clue about building a consumer product or listening to their customers. If Apple is actually listening to the complaints (speculation that they like the volume-driven charts to churn sales), then the long-tail looks pretty good.
- moe 18y agoI hear your frustration, but sorry, it comes across as whining. Life ain't fair and ofcourse systems like the AppStore are subject to major gambling and spamming. You either find a way to shine through the noise - or you get eaten. I'm not sure why you feel a need to talk down to the spammers, though. I, personally, have nothing but envy for the creators of the "SoundGrenade" and such. Spent a day, made a few dozen kilobucks, that's what I call a good hack, no? You know the old saying; if you can't take the heat...
- pxlpshr 18y agoI agree, it does come off a little whiney from the outside... but let me ask you, how long have you been publishing to the AppStore? It's a lot easier to be a contributor to the problems than it is to show restraint and professionalism for your peers given the state of the store. Please make no mistake about it, there's nothing stopping us from playing the same game except our commitment to be a provider of quality. Obnoxious penny-scraping behavior is not something we intend to be apart of out of respect for other developers. We could very easily repackage our apps 10 ways to Sunday, submit faux updates every few days, game the ratings/reviews, etc. and would certainly be a lot better off fiscally. I'm not trying to sound like an AppStore Hero here either, this is something that a number of developers have all agreed upon to attempt to set an example and respect each other. My snide remarks aside — I think it's perfectly acceptable for people to have a few novelty apps under their belt for no other reason than to have fun — we have one and I'm sure we'll make another one at some point in the future. But to have 40+ (I've seen some devs with 60+ of useless crap) just because "you can" is a gluttonous, self-serving assumption that deserves no respect. Sorry, call me an whiney ass for all I care. It's no different that email spammers. I think my preference would be a completely open-market for iPhone applications that's disconnected from the AppStore, whereby the AppStore only contains applications that Apple hand-picks if developers are inclined to give up 30%. It would seemingly solve all the problems, aside from the burden Apple shoulders of dealing w/ customer support for their iPhone/iPod due to 3rd party crapware.
- moe 18y agoI'm not an iPhone developer, I don't even own an iPhone, so this is all coming from the outside. Obnoxious penny-scraping behavior is not something we intend to be apart of out of respect for other developers. That idealistic attitude is honorable but a bit out of this world, too. It's somewhat akin to entering the tiger's cage and asking him: "Can't we just be friends?". Okay, maybe the tiger will fall into your arms, cry, and tell you how he has waited all his life for this moment. Then you'll be watching TV and killing a sixpack for the rest of the night. But I think more likely is that the tiger will fall into your arms and do something else entirely...