Full Analysis of iPhone Economics

[Robert]

Article by Tomi T Ahonen
June 22, 2010
Full Analysis of iPhone Economics - it is bad news. And then it gets worse

An interesting read, not too unlike what many of us here have read before but worth the read.

A bit unsettling but hey, we do it because we love it right? Right...

I do hope of making some money but there are many factors that play vital roles in making a success out of an app and I have to believe that MOST of the apps out there do not incorperate hardly any of them short of submiting their app and telling their friends and family.

I wont go into any details or theories of marketing best practices but heres the link for those interested.

Communities Dominate Brands: Full Analysis of iPhone Economics - it is bad news. And then it gets worse

Interested in your thoughts!

Good Luck out there!

Robert

[fish]

Interesting but seriously flawed.

You can't compare a closed market place like the App Store,
with any other market place.

That's why it's been successful. It's locked down.
That's why I've made money. It's closed.

My J2ME revenues were a joke.
Where is the market place?
The internet.
Woohoo - hang-on I just start my million dollar marketing campaign.

[foany]

I think the piece is absolute nonsense.

I skimmed the second half of the article but he does seem to have assumed that a developer will make a single app and then do nothing else but wait for their paltry 600 odd dollars to come in every year.

Once the app is out there the income (at whatever level) continues to come in, it is passive income. Adding titles to your portfolio only increases the income over time. The passive income nature of the app store is a massive glaring plus and he utterly ignores it.


All stats and no sense.

[Robert Paulson]

Interesting read but comparing iPhone apps to SMS voting revenue for American Idol is the most random line of thought I've come across in a while.

Cheers,
Bob

[DonomaGames]

Originally Posted by foany

Once the app is out there the income (at whatever level) continues to come in, it is passive income.

While this is true, there is a finite amount of time that the title will continue to make money. Titles that came out a year ago are already looking dated today. Some devs keep it current by applying updates, but then it'd incur additional costs.

I don't agree with this article either, but I do support his warning to potential new entrants into the field.

[fancyPantsZero]

I appreciate his analysis and he certainly seems like an experienced fellow, however I find that he seems to have some bias here and appears to be drawing conclusions to favor his bias. He is ignoring several factors, such as ad income, and also the fact that the large majority of the "long tail" apps are utter crap. If you remove the crap apps from his average income calculations, the picture gets quite a bit brighter IMO.

Still, great food for thought. Thanks.

[TunaNugget]

He seems to have the correct general idea, while managing to get most of the the specifics wrong

[Joseph Nardone]

Since there are 200,000 apps that each cost $25,000 to create. That is 5 billion dollars spent by developers. We are a major segment of the economy.

[barrettj]

The biggest benefit of being an app developer for me was having an immediately accessible portfolio, that wasn't under a NDA or inaccessible to non-employees (like most of my professional work).

After adding my iDevice apps to my resume, my "we'd like to have you come in" and "here's our offer" rates sky rocketed.

While I haven't made a bundle from the app store itself, having the applications out there landed me a job that I LOVE and a huge pay increase.

[Tambourin]

Originally Posted by TunaNugget

He seems to have the correct general idea, while managing to get most of the the specifics wrong

yes exactly

[Robert Paulson]

Originally Posted by Joseph Nardone

Since there are 200,000 apps that each cost $25,000 to create. That is 5 billion dollars spent by developers. We are a major segment of the economy.

If you remove the crap apps from his average income calculations, the picture gets quite a bit brighter IMO.

Agreed!

[fancyPantsZero]

Originally Posted by barrettj

While I haven't made a bundle from the app store itself, having the applications out there landed me a job that I LOVE and a huge pay increase.

Interesting angle, unfortunately I already have a killer day job

[foany]

Just noticed this guy is a published author, there's some irony for you. That's obviously not as hard as it looks!