Yes, there is money to be made. I think the overall summary that the App Store is not a money printing press of wealth and a lot of developers lose time and money is accurate. However, I disagree with a lot of the analysis. In my opinion the crux of his argument is the development cost of even a "dirt cheap" app at $15,000. That is flat out wrong. If you are a software developer with a bit of design skill (which describes a lot of independent developers) your costs are much, much less.
It is true that large companies dominate the top apps and there a relatively few small teams or independent developers getting fabulously wealthy. But there is a healthy "middle-class" that can supplement or replace their income doing other full time software development.
I think the article should serve as a cautionary tale that people shouldn't just throw money at contractors and such thinking they will be successfully because the saw some dumb app with talking kittens or something ranked in top 100 or something.
It's just like every other free market. There are some winners, there are some losers. Just make calculated risks and I will praise articles like this for attempting to explain those risks.
Oh, he is right that most apps are making hardly any money
But with a bit of familiarity with the market and its economics it's not hard to figure out why...
