Part-time apps developers getting rich

You can always find someone who does well and make a news article out of it. I didn't do nearly as well. :) My take on it is that you can succeed in the following ways:<p>1. Have an already established brand in other platforms<p>2. Be first in some area (too late now)<p>3. Somehow establish critical mass of users to have a lot of reviews/downloads. Lot's of reviews - top ratings - lts of eyeballs.<p>4. Have an app that people show to each other and thus make it popular (like a fun game).<p>5. Have some really unique features (they will get duplicated though)<p>For example, there is about a dozen apps for managing passwords (with encryption to protect against loss of the iphone). The three that have most reviews, and thus are most popular, are the ones that have estalished brands on Palm, Windows Mobile or Desktop Mac (eWallet, SplashId and 1Password). Others are lingering around (like my Memengo Wallet) with hardly any attention at all. I expect a race to the bottom with brand-names standing on their customer loyalty and thus selling for small sum aroud $3 while no-names will go for free.<p>Which brings me to the point I wanted to make here: writing software is easier than making people use it, even if Apple handles the sales transactions.

Now we all feel bad that's we're not making $2000 a day too. Thanks a lot!

Ugg, I just want to get into the program. I applied two weeks ago. Has anyone heard anything on how long it takes, or if they're even accepting new developers for the app store?

The developer gets 5.99/4.2 = 70% of revenue. A sensational deal, if you can concentrate on the non-admin (i.e. interesting/real) stuff.<p>If software writers are "authors", then it makes sense to have a "publisher". Surely there's a reason this hasn't taken off before...

I think this is a pretty clear picture of the power of the iPhone platform. There are a couple of things going for the iPhone platform that make it inherently better to develop for than any previously designed platform:<p>1. Streamlined distribution. The app store makes it super easy for anyone to download applications from anywhere in the world. With 8 million sold worldwide X the amount of bored people trying to kill time by finding a new toy = a lot of users and downloads. In fact, the iPhone store had over 25 million downloads in the first month.<p>2. MONEY! Since iTunes has already a well established user base that has grown accustom to micro transactions for things like songs and videos, they're more conducive to impulse buying.<p>3. A REAL operating system. While the mobile platform has inherent disadvantages like screen real estate and control, it makes up for it by providing a sandboxed platform that has real power over the whole system.

I think you'll see a lot of people have success. Some of it will be because the App Store gets so many eyeballs, and some of it will be because people have established customer bases to sell to. But I think its still very possible to be very successful even if you're still building your application. You have to realize, that while some people are having a lot of success just by word of mouth and eyeballs, you can't depend on Apple to do it all. Get out there, promote your application, get word of mouth and your user base going, and make a solid app, and you can be up there with any of these applications. When two apps have comparable features and prices, it all comes down to who is doing the work outside the App Store.

Can anyone with more iPhone dev experience comment on how realistic that one opinion is? What apps are you still missing for the iPhone? :)

I think we're just seeing the start.<p>There are still lines for the iPhone at my local Apple Store in the Woodlands mall, and I am one of the few people at my company that has an iPhone, and we are an IT consultancy.<p>The iPhone has not yet taken off.<p>Things are going to get a lot hotter.

so I thought, "wow, $2000 a day!, I want to try writing an app for the iphone" then i realized i don't have a mac let alone an iphone =|

I'm still waiting to see the first iPhone mmog.

It makes sense, actually. If you do programming full-time, your brain is too tired to think about how to best market your product, etc. When I program too much for too long, I feel like I turn into a machine myself, finding it hard to interact with humans.