The media (and some of us) tend to focus on the big hits, and I think the real money (monthly, potentially recurring income) is in a suite of small iPhone apps.
This developer inspires me:
"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."
Sounds too much like some guys 'dream' life. Making money like this will eventually fall through especially since he is not building a real product base just simple throw away apps.
Don't fool yourself, once your app is off the charts — sales are virtually zero, there's very little trickle revenue. It will become increasingly difficult to land (and hang on) to top chart positions as the appstore triples in size this year, especially since the charts are governed by sales within 24-hour period.
I did a little research because I keep seeing that quote posted (which is from Dec. 08, before another 10k apps were on the store). I found his company and products:
Mostly random saying generators, annoying sounds, picture shows, and a bunch of useless shit that's just not sustainable in the long-term. It's obvious to me his #1 intention was to rush a bunch of junk to the store simply to turn a sale, and nearly every app is rated 1 or 2 stars. He may have been getting $10k a month off unsuspecting customers in the past, but I highly doubt he'll see annualized sales over $100k. And I doubt he's still getting $10k in revenue.
If this is something that "inspires" you, then maybe you should reconsider your priorities if you have hopes of being the type of entrepreneur/hacker that wants to make a meaningful impact in the world.
The idea of building a suite of modest revenue-producing apps is what inspires me, not necessarily the implementation. Thanks for taking the time to do the research to find his AppStore alter ago. (Yes, I double-posted the quoted comment again).
I think inspiration does not always have to take 100% of the original story - part of it can do it (e.g. it's hard to replicate someone's exact formula) - this reasoning is along the lines of if you compare yourself to another person - you should compare everything, not just the job, etc. (e.g. making it logically absurd to compare yourself to another human being).
We've bootstrapped our company since August of 08, so I can absolutely relate to the desire of wanting a healthy, low maintenance revenue stream; sometimes I'm awoken at night by nightmares of raising money. One of the reasons we are bootstrapping this is because 1) we generate cash immediately, and 2) the upside is a VERY NICE revenue stream (no dilution) if we can manage to make, maintain, and keep our place as a premium app developer.
This is something that takes time to build and structure for true sustainability, period. You have to plan for more than a years worth of work if you're really interested in having that type of stream from the AppStore as it matures and pollutes. There will be cases of one-hit wonders for indie shops (especially in video games) and the major blogs will cover it, but make no mistake about it — it takes work.
The developer who was making $10k a month is likely no longer making that amount. He also has a reputation of producing 'junk' applications by his former and future customers (star ratings mostly 1-2), and will have an extremely difficult challenge in the coming months IMHO. So in a sense, his greed and desire to cut corners has poisoned his long term sustainability.
My company and partners are looking at the upside of our product revenue across 3-5 years, not 3-5 months. We're maintaining 4 premium apps (+ 1 junk app), and have roughly 4 new apps we'd like to introduce this year. Our existing products have features that will take over a year to build in and mature, but we're in this for the long haul. This seems to be in line with the thought and actions of the companies that inspire us such as TapTapTap, AppCubby, Polar Bear Farm, Tapbots, Tapulous, and Smule to name a few.
It's two different approaches to building a revenue stream, I know our approach will last longer once it's well established.
If you're developing Age of Empires for the iPhone then maybe you're missing the boat, but for pong, pacman, collapse, tetris et all it is a great way to make a buck in a week, so you have plenty of time to develop more games instead of a couple of years and a huge team to develop the next Quake or duke nukem.
The iPhone is the best platform to develop games right now and it will get better.
Early settlers will get the best land.
See you in a couple of years looking for a 500 sqft one-bedroom flat in iPhone land.
I think you may have missed the point of the article. This guy specializes in making one very specific type of game, and he's pretty good at it. It earns him enough money to live on. He doesn't think his genre will work on the iPhone, but he believes it will continue to work on desktops, so he's going to keep writing for desktops.
Where is the evidence that "early settlers get the best land"? To the contrary, iPhone apps seem to be largely hit-driven; their revenue streams dry up once they fall off the charts. I'm guessing that the author's contention is true: that most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested.
I like your point here. It sounds like Apple's MO for content sales to be hit-driven. I suspect that the billboards built into iTunes drive a lot of music sales too. The parallels between music revenue and app revenue might make a good post.
I´ll give you some examples: iSlot, iPoker, iBingo, iBackgammon, iChess, iCheckers.
Once you develop a beautiful game it will be there for a week, a month, or a year from now, even a decade or more.
There might be some cheap knock offs which can sell but there will be few professional looking apps that can last forever and those who get the early lots will be the real winners.
"most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested." again, one week of work may be worth thousands of dollars if you know where to dig.
Like everything, there will be people raking millions and the majority won't see a dime. When the AppStore hits the billion download mark, one billion dollars will be in the pockets of the few who used their brains, and not those who waved the pioneers from the sidelines as they passed by while heading west.
One more thing, those who get the best names will have an edge. So hurry up to get your piece of land or your app will end up with names like iPokrFaze or iChezz4Kidz.
I just bought an iPod Touch. I intend to get a developer license and at least make back the cost of the device and the license... but I don't have any great ambitions of making a living out of it. At best I can hope that I come up with a simple but appealing idea in my spare time that will be catchy enough to make some good money on the App Store. I also fully intend to give away some of my work, since I'm really doing this all for fun anyway!
1. Make a multi-player, network enabled version of Risk.
2. Point me at the technologies I'll need to make it myself.
Currently, the only Risk in the market is called Lux Touch. As such, it's great -- but there's a lot of room for improvement. It only supports a single player vs computers, doesn't save game states, and only has the generic Risk map.
Lux Delux exists for both PC and iphone (Lux DLX). The PC version is multiplayer, networked, variable AIs, user generated maps. I think most of that's true for Lux DLX. You have to pay for it, but it is worth it if you're a risk player.
It's true, the iphone gold rush is missing gold in essense. There are tons of farting like apps, but very very few of any value. And again, casino always wins.
22 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 61.7 ms ] threadThis developer inspires me:
"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."
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=621564&page...
I did a little research because I keep seeing that quote posted (which is from Dec. 08, before another 10k apps were on the store). I found his company and products:
http://www.ethanproductions.com
Mostly random saying generators, annoying sounds, picture shows, and a bunch of useless shit that's just not sustainable in the long-term. It's obvious to me his #1 intention was to rush a bunch of junk to the store simply to turn a sale, and nearly every app is rated 1 or 2 stars. He may have been getting $10k a month off unsuspecting customers in the past, but I highly doubt he'll see annualized sales over $100k. And I doubt he's still getting $10k in revenue.
If this is something that "inspires" you, then maybe you should reconsider your priorities if you have hopes of being the type of entrepreneur/hacker that wants to make a meaningful impact in the world.
I think inspiration does not always have to take 100% of the original story - part of it can do it (e.g. it's hard to replicate someone's exact formula) - this reasoning is along the lines of if you compare yourself to another person - you should compare everything, not just the job, etc. (e.g. making it logically absurd to compare yourself to another human being).
This is something that takes time to build and structure for true sustainability, period. You have to plan for more than a years worth of work if you're really interested in having that type of stream from the AppStore as it matures and pollutes. There will be cases of one-hit wonders for indie shops (especially in video games) and the major blogs will cover it, but make no mistake about it — it takes work.
The developer who was making $10k a month is likely no longer making that amount. He also has a reputation of producing 'junk' applications by his former and future customers (star ratings mostly 1-2), and will have an extremely difficult challenge in the coming months IMHO. So in a sense, his greed and desire to cut corners has poisoned his long term sustainability.
My company and partners are looking at the upside of our product revenue across 3-5 years, not 3-5 months. We're maintaining 4 premium apps (+ 1 junk app), and have roughly 4 new apps we'd like to introduce this year. Our existing products have features that will take over a year to build in and mature, but we're in this for the long haul. This seems to be in line with the thought and actions of the companies that inspire us such as TapTapTap, AppCubby, Polar Bear Farm, Tapbots, Tapulous, and Smule to name a few.
It's two different approaches to building a revenue stream, I know our approach will last longer once it's well established.
It's the high level of crap that keeps me going; I have to be able to do better than that.
The iPhone is the best platform to develop games right now and it will get better.
Early settlers will get the best land.
See you in a couple of years looking for a 500 sqft one-bedroom flat in iPhone land.
Where is the evidence that "early settlers get the best land"? To the contrary, iPhone apps seem to be largely hit-driven; their revenue streams dry up once they fall off the charts. I'm guessing that the author's contention is true: that most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested.
Once you develop a beautiful game it will be there for a week, a month, or a year from now, even a decade or more.
There might be some cheap knock offs which can sell but there will be few professional looking apps that can last forever and those who get the early lots will be the real winners.
"most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested." again, one week of work may be worth thousands of dollars if you know where to dig.
Like everything, there will be people raking millions and the majority won't see a dime. When the AppStore hits the billion download mark, one billion dollars will be in the pockets of the few who used their brains, and not those who waved the pioneers from the sidelines as they passed by while heading west.
Incase?
Or, more likely, one of the ad networks.
1. Make a multi-player, network enabled version of Risk.
2. Point me at the technologies I'll need to make it myself.
Currently, the only Risk in the market is called Lux Touch. As such, it's great -- but there's a lot of room for improvement. It only supports a single player vs computers, doesn't save game states, and only has the generic Risk map.
http://sillysoft.net/lux/
http://sillysoft.net/lux/touch/
(I am just a periodic addict)
Works in mobile safari.
You'll need to be invited to a game to play, which I can do, but I dont really play much anymore.