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how much does an app developer make like an average per month??

iPhoneFreak17

iPhoneFreak17

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2009
72
0
Michigan
im new to this forums,and i just wanted to know how do app developers make a month,because i really wanna study and make an app myself one day,so i just wanted to kno...even if this question is in the wrong forum sorryy im new to this...so anyways what u guys think...does anyone know??:confused:
 
fishkorp

fishkorp

macrumors 68030
Apr 10, 2006
2,536
650
Ellicott City, MD
Some people make none, some people make thousands. I know a person who makes around $100US a month, so he only gets paid out ever 2-3 months. But he's got a fulltime job and this is just a hobby, so it's spare money.
 
TSX

TSX

macrumors 68030
Oct 1, 2008
2,632
80
Texas
iPhoneFreak17 said:
im new to this forums,and i just wanted to know how do app developers make a month,because i really wanna study and make an app myself one day,so i just wanted to kno...even if this question is in the wrong forum sorryy im new to this...so anyways what u guys think...does anyone know??:confused:
Click to expand...

Hopefully you dont develop a crappy app, those dont make any money and then they usually get pirated and then deleted.
 
dejo

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
iPhoneFreak17 said:
but i also heard that the developer that made iFart make $40,000 in 2 days....can u believe it!!!:eek:
Click to expand...
I can believe it, unfortunately. But just because one developer makes a butt-load of money rather quickly, doesn't mean you will. These cases are very rare occurrences in a world of less-spectacular revenues.
 
iPhoneFreak17

iPhoneFreak17

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2009
72
0
Michigan
oh ikno that,i kno im not gonna make $40k in 2 days not even a month i already kno that but i wanted to kno if the average is like around $10000 or so,but it looks like its not,because most of the apps are already made in the app store there are no good ideas left loll...
 
iPhoneFreak17

iPhoneFreak17

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2009
72
0
Michigan
ur absolutly right,but if u make a very popular app in the appstore that everyone will love and talk about like parking lot,text free,iFart etc... than that would inspire u to make more apps cuz u made alot of $$$,so there is a little chance but mostly that shouldn't be ur major job...
 
Mr. Giver '94

Mr. Giver '94

macrumors 68000
Jun 2, 2008
1,815
0
London
One of the devs of Pocket God is a member here. I'm sure they've made quite a lot. Like you said it depends on the popularity of your app.
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
The reported range is from less than $100 a month to well over $10k per day. My wild guess is that the median is nearer the lower end. But there must be a small percentage of really big winners.
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
Let's try a little math.

If all 33000 paid apps were exactly equal in popularity and revenue, and the App store is a billion dollar per annum business, as some analysts estimate, then each app would be bringing in around 70% * $1B / 33k = $21,212 per year.

That would be the mean average, as opposed to the median. However something like the power law and 80/20 rule probably allocates most of that revenue to apps that are in the top 100 lists. So if the top 700 or so apps made a million dollars each, and the other 32k apps made $1, then the median average would be $1.

So, your average is somewhere between $1 and $21k. The geometric mean of those two numbers would be somewhere around $1000 per annum.

How much is your time worth? (e.g. how many hours would it take you to earn $1k at a second job?)

YMMV.
 
lee.anderson

lee.anderson

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2006
158
0
UK
The app store is unpredictable.

I've made anywhere from £20 a day to over £500+ on some apps.

If you sit down and actually take the time to make a decent app then there is no reason why you wouldn't make a lot of money.
But a lot of developers just clutter the app store with quick apps, and they don't make too much money (although some do through lucky circumstances).

If you take the time to write a good app, then you will be rewarded.
If you haven't got any coding experience and just expect to make some quick money then it probably wont work out too well...

The money varies day by day, so you cannot depend on the income of the app store to keep it as a full time job.
If you do decide you want to put hours of hard work into making apps, then good luck, but its not as easy as it seems. Prepare to spend months and months of reading though books, and trying to learn programming concepts that will make you scratch your head until it bleeds! :)

But if that doesn't put you off, then give it ago. But don't expect to make games like Super Monkey Ball etc... you will need a team of people for that.

Its a lot of hard work, and usually the top games in the app store are written by teams of developers. Its like the lottery in a way, you hear of people making hundreds of thousands, but thats usually 2% of the 50,000 developers in there.

Sorry this post sounds discouraging,
but if you've read through this and your still willing to give it ago, then I wish you good luck :)
 
iPhoneFreak17

iPhoneFreak17

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2009
72
0
Michigan
lee.anderson said:
The app store is unpredictable.

I've made anywhere from £20 a day to over £500+ on some apps.

If you sit down and actually take the time to make a decent app then there is no reason why you wouldn't make a lot of money.
But a lot of developers just clutter the app store with quick apps, and they don't make too much money (although some do through lucky circumstances).

If you take the time to write a good app, then you will be rewarded.
If you haven't got any coding experience and just expect to make some quick money then it probably wont work out too well...

The money varies day by day, so you cannot depend on the income of the app store to keep it as a full time job.
If you do decide you want to put hours of hard work into making apps, then good luck, but its not as easy as it seems. Prepare to spend months and months of reading though books, and trying to learn programming concepts that will make you scratch your head until it bleeds! :)

But if that doesn't put you off, then give it ago. But don't expect to make games like Super Monkey Ball etc... you will need a team of people for that.

Its a lot of hard work, and usually the top games in the app store are written by teams of developers. Its like the lottery in a way, you hear of people making hundreds of thousands, but thats usually 2% of the 50,000 developers in there.

Sorry this post sounds discouraging,
but if you've read through this and your still willing to give it ago, then I wish you good luck :)
Click to expand...
thank you man whatever you said was %100 true..
 
C

calvy

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2007
1,271
9
I joined the app development program about a week ago. So, at $99 bucks to join, and an income so far of $0, that works out to an average of $0.

Thanks for asking!
 
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