Make a cool app sell it on iTunes for 3 bucks if even 100,000 people buy it your doing pretty good or am I Missing something.
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Any one else think alot of people are going to get rich with the sdk?
- Thread starter snook911
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I've been thinking about it all day. I think Apple may be more selective than people expect with regards to which applications actually make it to the App' Store, though.
It's distinguishing yourself from the other Apps that do the exactly same thing for cheaper/free will be the tough sell.
I think the real winners will be KBCB ... smart move I think.
I think the real winners will be KBCB ... smart move I think.
I personally think the possibilities are endless. I also think you are going to see alot of apps out there for $1 or $2. Develop a couple of these get a million people to buy it ( with 12 million iphone users by years end not impossible ) and your set. I am acctually thinking of going to a class that teaches coding to learn how to do this. Am I crazy?
Your location says Vegas, I a betting that investing in learning to code is better than investing in a slot-machine!
Not at all. I was thinking of doing the same thing, only possibly teaching myself? We'll see.
Thats for sure but I never gamble anyway. Work to hard to earn my money to give it away !!
I think you are underestimating the psychology of "Pay" vs. "Free". Even at just a few bucks, a for pay app will get a fraction of the users the same app would get if it were offered for free. A lot of small time developers even feel that they are contributing to the community by creating free apps. Unless Apple creates an artificial bottleneck for the free apps, there will likely be no problem finding free versions of any app you are looking for.
Having some experience in this business, I can tell you its going to be great for a lot of people but won't necessarily create a lot of riches. Low average selling point software licenses in the non-enterprise software ares, build revenues very slowly in general. There are exceptions to this but more often than not developers make some money for their work, but hardly enough to give up their day jobs.
Then there is the age old issue that most businesses face; that it is always harder to grow revenue then you think, and things always cost more than you estimate. There are costs associated in both time and resources in bringing something to market than thousands of people will buy and fork over even $ 3 dollars for. There are hidden costs associated with programming, sales and marketing that you face as well.
I'm very pro anyone starting their own business, but I also have had the benefit of seeing the not so easy side of things in a lot of small companies
Then there is the age old issue that most businesses face; that it is always harder to grow revenue then you think, and things always cost more than you estimate. There are costs associated in both time and resources in bringing something to market than thousands of people will buy and fork over even $ 3 dollars for. There are hidden costs associated with programming, sales and marketing that you face as well.
I'm very pro anyone starting their own business, but I also have had the benefit of seeing the not so easy side of things in a lot of small companies
Exactly. It costs $99 for a ticket to this ride, so you'll have to sell 33 licenses just to make that back. There are some great rags to riches software stories, but nobody (besides apple) is going to get rich selling cellphone apps.
I understand what you are saying but to me there has never been a distribution channel like this before. You don't need to do any marketing or sales Apple will do that for you. Apple will put your app in front of millions of people for 99 bucks a year. Seems like a deal to me and even if there is an app the does basicly the same thing for free for a couple of bucks I think alot of people will pay to check it out. Hey we all know how easy it is to get free music but for only 99 cents a song millions still pay.
Early apps will get rich until a free version of everything comes along. I think its very likely apple will limite free apps to not loose the revenue they would get from paid apps.
Say a great app comes out that sells 1million at $5. They get $3.5million for distributing it. Why on earth would they let similar app be available for free? $3.5mil is small money to apple but if you figure 50 great apps, 200 ok ones, thats a few hundred million/yr they could loose.
Say a great app comes out that sells 1million at $5. They get $3.5million for distributing it. Why on earth would they let similar app be available for free? $3.5mil is small money to apple but if you figure 50 great apps, 200 ok ones, thats a few hundred million/yr they could loose.
I agree with your point but you have your math backwards. Its a 70/30 split with 70% going to the developer so apple makes 1.5 mil the developer 3.5 mil in the example used above.
I want to learn ObjC as much as the next guy, and might. But claiming that you are getting a marketing boost is ridiculous.
That would be like a tv station (and lets assume there is only one, to make it more accurate), giving away free adds. After a 99$ subscription fee of course!
Do you think you would stand out?
It's not just the venue, it's being differentiated that has value. The people who will get rich will be the few people that make an app that is difficult to make, low priced, and highly vaunted by the public. And the big software houses.
I am so stoked though. I think another benifit of this, is that the mac platform is going to keep growing steadily.
That would be like a tv station (and lets assume there is only one, to make it more accurate), giving away free adds. After a 99$ subscription fee of course!
Do you think you would stand out?
It's not just the venue, it's being differentiated that has value. The people who will get rich will be the few people that make an app that is difficult to make, low priced, and highly vaunted by the public. And the big software houses.
I am so stoked though. I think another benifit of this, is that the mac platform is going to keep growing steadily.
Don't foget the 33% in taxes you need to pay uncle sam.
It's not a one shot deal, if your going to do it, you have to see it through till the end.
But that is such a narrow minded way of looking at it if you think of it as just a "cellphone app". The iPhone truly is more than just a cellphone, it's a new mobile computing platform... and even the Engineer from Sega himself said, when demoing their "Super Monkey Ball" game, that they underestimated the power of the iPhone and that the game they wound up making is not just a cellphone game, it is a full blown console version of the game.
Kind of gives a lot of us hope...
Very true actually.
Looking at the specs and various other posts, it seems, just as a gaming platform alone, that the iPhone is more powerful, has higher resolution and more memory than the Sony PSP and much better touch screen technology (along with the added accelerometer) than the Nintendo DS.
I too think people are really underestimating the power and what the iPhone is capable of.
Here in the UK they sell ring tones for "only" £3 a week. You can cancel anytime. Well, you can try to cancel anytime but we wouldn't want to make that to easy, because otherwise you would miss out on more ringtones, and you pay until you manage to cancel.
You'd be surprised how many people wouldn't trust something that comes for free. Of course you have the choice: Make a real application and sell it for real money. Or choose a price that is below what people worry about.
If you want to get rich, expect to invest some serious work. At some point you will put more effort into it then someone who does it just for fun, and you'll leave the free apps behind.
Every single mobile phone platform works on the same distribution business model. You buy a ringtone or a game, the carrier puts it on your monthly bill and then split the money with the content owner and developer.
It could mean a nice opportunity for a little extra revenue. But the more open they make it, the more competitive it will be. I think "most popular" and "most downloaded" areas will be necessary to filter out all the crap that people plop on the store hoping to make a quick buck.
California Gold Rush?
This all is a bit reminiscent of when some shiny yellow stuff that was discovered in California about 160 years ago!
Yes, some will make some money. It will, however, be very difficult for most of us to come up with an idea that is creative enough, professional enough, and inspiring enough to make a significant number of users want to part with their cash. Not to mention having the skills to bring our ideas to reality, the time to offer significant customer support, and the luck that someone doesn't offer a better or more competitively priced product. (Yes, I'm a programmer who has worked in several areas of the software industry.)
I'm not trying to be discouraging at all. There will be some newbies who come to the table who will blow away all of the experienced companies with revolutionary ideas (striking gold!) However, it will be the exception, not the rule.
The Palm operating system is a good example of one where 3rd party development has been huge (estimates range between 10-20,000 apps available, many of them free). It might be worth looking at what kind of apps people are willing to pay for, and which ones developers offer for free. (I'm not trying to compare the incredible platform difference and the large audience of the iTunes distribution channel.) There will also be some differences because of the fact that many Palm users are somewhat more technical and most iPhone users are not. A couple of examples (just 2 of dozens of sites): http://mytreo.net/downloads/, http://www.pocketgear.com/en_US/html/index.jsp?&referrer=palmgear.com
Good luck to everyone who is going to try! I'm really excited to see what you all produce, but I'm sitting this one out...I'm on a PC and not ready to start by buying a new Mac as my first startup cost!
All of this is just one person's opinion, of course!
This all is a bit reminiscent of when some shiny yellow stuff that was discovered in California about 160 years ago!
Yes, some will make some money. It will, however, be very difficult for most of us to come up with an idea that is creative enough, professional enough, and inspiring enough to make a significant number of users want to part with their cash. Not to mention having the skills to bring our ideas to reality, the time to offer significant customer support, and the luck that someone doesn't offer a better or more competitively priced product. (Yes, I'm a programmer who has worked in several areas of the software industry.)
I'm not trying to be discouraging at all. There will be some newbies who come to the table who will blow away all of the experienced companies with revolutionary ideas (striking gold!) However, it will be the exception, not the rule.
The Palm operating system is a good example of one where 3rd party development has been huge (estimates range between 10-20,000 apps available, many of them free). It might be worth looking at what kind of apps people are willing to pay for, and which ones developers offer for free. (I'm not trying to compare the incredible platform difference and the large audience of the iTunes distribution channel.) There will also be some differences because of the fact that many Palm users are somewhat more technical and most iPhone users are not. A couple of examples (just 2 of dozens of sites): http://mytreo.net/downloads/, http://www.pocketgear.com/en_US/html/index.jsp?&referrer=palmgear.com
Good luck to everyone who is going to try! I'm really excited to see what you all produce, but I'm sitting this one out...I'm on a PC and not ready to start by buying a new Mac as my first startup cost!
All of this is just one person's opinion, of course!