

Will the real app millionaire please stand up? - ailon
http://blog.adduplex.com/2012/09/will-real-app-millionaire-please-stand.html

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bignoggins
I've made almost a million dollars in 2 years as an indie developer. I also
know many others as successful as myself or more so they are definitely out
there. A top grossing iOS app makes 500k per DAY, so there are definitely a
lot of success stories out there in the app world. Not many of them hit
techcrunch, as they are mostly "lifestyle businesses"

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cageface
Yet the median lifetime revenue for an app now is < $1000.

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jonknee
There's a lot of _terrible_ software on the app store, median revenue is a
poor indicator of the market's success. Most restaurants fail, but that's not
to say restaurants aren't a good business. Some are just a lot better than
others.

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trimbo
The real app millionaires are all working at Apple. They're the ones who win
when people develop apps.

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gurkendoktor
And beyond that, Pages for iOS has been on the top-selling (sometimes top-
grossing) list most of the time when I was looking at it. On the Mac App
Store, I wouldn't even be surprised if Apple was the top grossing developer.

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gurkendoktor
Actually, I'd be surprised if Apple was _not_ the top-grossing developer on
the Mac App Store. 8 out of 10 top grossing apps are Apple apps right now.
(iPhoto?? Who has not gotten that with their Mac?)

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ceejayoz
> iPhoto?? Who has not gotten that with their Mac?

Upgrades to the latest version aren't free.

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lutusp
A quote: "For those who have never heard about it, AppCampus is an initiative
by Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University that grants 20,000 to 70,000 Euros
per Windows Phone application. You apply to the program and, if you get
approved and deliver the bits according to specification, you get the grant
and you still own everything (all of your shares, IP, etc."

It's easy to measure the true potential of a mobile OS -- pay attention to its
creators' desperate offers of money to develop apps for it.

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xentronium
They are trying to get some momentum and solve chicken-and-egg. Consider this
a marketing effort.

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lutusp
> They are trying to get some momentum and solve chicken-and-egg.

Perhaps. I think they're trying to overcome the platform's innate
disadvantages. Reasonable people may differ.

> Consider this a marketing effort.

When someone tries to pay me to use their product, all my alarm bells go off
at once. :)

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xentronium
> When someone tries to pay me to use their product, all my alarm bells go off
> at once. :)

I believe it's widespread enough practice to hand out devices to developers
willing to make applications for new platform. $75k free grants, well, not so
often, but if they can afford it and it helps them to catch up with other
ecosystems faster, why not.

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AJ007
With that line of logic, don't do anything that's hard and has a slim margin
of success when applied to the population as a whole.

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ig1
The question suffers from selection bias, the reason you don't have small
teams making millions is that small teams making millions hire more developers
and stop being small.

Sure there are companies that are financially successful and choose not to
grow (i.e craigslist, plentyoffish) but _they're_ a tiny minority.

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jonknee
> Seriously, how many stories of a small team making at least 70k from a
> single app have you heard in 2012? Not many.

Maybe it's because we're from different places, but a team of three creating
$70k in revenue in a year is not rare or even that great of an accomplishment
(that's not a reasonable living wage here). Maybe it is if you're spending
your time making a free game or a $.99 throw away app, but there's no reason
why three smart people can't solve a problem for a type of business and
generate real revenue. Like patio11 and his Appointment Reminder app.

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fierarul
The title is link bait but I really don't think there are that many teams
making good money on any of the app stores.

>20,000 to 70,000 Euros per Windows Phone application

... is not bad at all!

>there's no reason why three smart people can't solve a problem for a type of
business and generate real revenue

True, but not as many as hype makes us believe.

> generate real revenue. Like patio11 and his Appointment Reminder app.

How much revenue is that generating?

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gurkendoktor
Selling your own stuff on the App Store is tough. But two developers doing iOS
freelancing for a year will easily make $70k in my experience. Not through the
store - through clients who request apps.

Of course, it's not nearly as creative and cool.

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jonknee
Two people freelancing iOS development should be bringing in a whole lot more
than $70k a year combined.

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NameNickHN
You don't even have to apply if you have already an interesting and popular
app on other platforms. A client of mine has been contacted by Microsoft and
been told, that they wanted to sponsor the development of his app for Windows
Phone. And so they did.

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aaronbasssett
I guess "Will the real app thousandaire please stand up?" didn't have the same
ring to it?

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acoyfellow
I think people are upvoting due to the clever name. I clicked because of it.
This article brings up some interesting points but the title is definitely
"link bait".

