What do you think the AppStore Business will be like in the next year or 2 year from now?
In here, I am not talking about developer earn pocket money. I am talking about real business not hobby business.
I used to think that it was going to be OK as I could keep writing new apps and make money off of the residual ad and/or sales income from my old ones. Then I learned that Apple changes OS's at least twice per year and that you need to upgrade any old apps so that they will work and/or make money again. This means there is a limit to the number of apps that can be maintained per employee/developer.
I made the mistake of not updating all of my iOS 3 apps before the release of iOS 4 only to find out that the advertising SDK's that I was using no longer worked.
I read Apple is removing all apps from developers that haven't renewed their developer license. Is this new? If I'm not mistaken apple used to keep all apps in the store even the ones from developers that did not renew their license?
I read Apple is removing all apps from developers that haven't renewed their developer license. Is this new? If I'm not mistaken apple used to keep all apps in the store even the ones from developers that did not renew their license?
Nope, not new. You don't pay your annual fee, your apps get yanked. This is a good thing IMO as it will lead to the culling of crapps that are just wasting space.
I second what Joseph said. It is tough to even maintain 10 apps (if you are individual independent dev). I am pushing udpates (to increase features etc), but at the same time, have to be ready to push for updates that is required due to OS update. Recent OS4 is making almost all of my apps to be crashing/non function(some feature), while it was totally OK in OS3.x.
It's gonna be tough. But since I love to code and create apps, no complains from me.
2011 will be the year that developers realize it's hard to make a buck in the App Store. Their revolutionary game/app they were working on for 6 months was released and now making them $10/day.
Fewer and fewer people post about how their weekend project made them 1/4 million dollars and more and more people post about how they lost a year's worth of wages and more.
The number of developers exiting the store equals the number of new developers entering the store. # of apps available increase linearly, but # of apps abandoned by devs increase at the same rate. More and more developers try to recoup some of the losses by trying to sell their source code.
There will be no spectacular crash or implosion. The App Store will continue to chug along and let Apple boast about their 1/2 million apps while developers quietly go back to regular programming jobs.
2011 will be the year that developers realize it's hard to make a buck in the App Store. Their revolutionary game/app they were working on for 6 months was released and now making them $10/day.
Fewer and fewer people post about how their weekend project made them 1/4 million dollars and more and more people post about how they lost a year's worth of wages and more.
The number of developers exiting the store equals the number of new developers entering the store. # of apps available increase linearly, but # of apps abandoned by devs increase at the same rate. More and more developers try to recoup some of the losses by trying to sell their source code.
There will be no spectacular crash or implosion. The App Store will continue to chug along and let Apple boast about their 1/2 million apps while developers quietly go back to regular programming jobs.
Great analysis. I always wondered how long we should project the residual income for our apps. Another year? 2 years? 5 years?
Great analysis. I always wondered how long we should project the residual income for our apps. Another year? 2 years? 5 years?
See my post above. Apple changes OS's twice per year so you will need to re-program/update any old app about that often. You can not count on any residual income for any app that you are not willing to maintain.
Great analysis. I always wondered how long we should project the residual income for our apps. Another year? 2 years? 5 years?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph Nardone
See my post above. Apple changes OS's twice per year so you will need to re-program/update any old app about that often. You can not count on any residual income for any app that you are not willing to maintain.
One of my games from 2008 is still bringing in respectable income. However, I had to update it 8 times with 1 complete graphics overhaul and 1 update to make it universal, and spent several thousand on marketing to revive the app. So while technically residual income has lasted 2 years, I've had to invest a decent amount of resources to keep it going.
Most of my apps die off after the first 3-6 months. I have a lot of apps that are only bringing in $0-$5/day now. If you're already in the app store, then you already know this. If you're looking to enter, heed Joseph's warning.
What do you think the AppStore Business will be like in the next year or 2 year?
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