Hello. I'm evaluating a few startup ideas and some of them naturally lend themselves to mobile apps. Because the market is not used to paying by subscription for standalone mobile apps, or paying more than a couple dollars for an app, is it possible to make decent money from <i>niche</i> mobile apps, or do you need to target massmarket? Any opinions, examples, insights and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Yes, you can make money off apps. Niche, targetted apps at certain segments is probably the easiest way (as opposed to mass market products like Angry Birds, Instagram, etc.)<p>I started app development 6 months ago and had to learn programming from scratch. I generate probably the same salary I'd make in a business/marketing job, except my app income is passive income so I have free time to work on new projects, or use as leisure.
I feel this is too open for anyone to answer definitively, and that a good answer varies greatly by the target audience and market.<p>How much is "decent money"? Can a sole developer make enough money to make his hours worthwhile? (I wish... not so sure.)<p>What money making methods are you open to: a cost for the app itself, a service subscription, in-app purchases, ads (ad networks?), etc.?<p>On a mobile app by itself, or as part of a bigger brand / platform?<p>How _niche_? What is your market? How large is your target audience? Does your target audience spend money on apps? How do they spend it? What conversion rate can you expect?<p>...
Yes, of course you can. But like tedmiston said, your question is too general to answer in any useful way.<p>However, I will say this; from what I've seen, you're more likely to succeed with a mobile-based product aimed at a business niche. Businesses are more willing to pay larger sums (or subscriptions) for solutions, whereas consumers tend to place less overall value on any one app.<p>The only way to get any definitive answers is to test within the market you're aiming for.
Of course you can, but as with every venture, nothing's guaranteed. Just look at the Android app store to get some idea of this. The download volume and price is shown. Multiply them together, take out Googl's cut, and what you get is the revenue that the app has made over it's lifetime.<p>Will every niche make substantial money? Doubtful.
It seems to me that with your stated criteria, the answer is either "probably not" or "only if you keep churning out new ones". I say that based on your proposed math: one time small payment in a small market. Unless you can get recurring income, increase the market size or keep making new niche apps, that scenario seriously limits the potential income.
The answer to this question really depends on platforms you are targeting and niche with respect to each of them. For example if you can make a tether app for iPhone without requiring a root and got approved by app store you can make loads of money. At the same time if you make something like that for android, you might end up disappointed.