

Are iPhone apps fool's gold for developers? - ccraigIW
http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2009/01/iphone_apps_foo.html

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harpastum
This story is moving in three directions at once, none of them very
convincing.

First, the bulk of this piece reads as an advertisement for Trapster.

Second, he's trying to make money by using advertising in a mobile app? yuck.
I can only imagine what that would look like in Windows Mobile (or the 9 other
platforms trapster is being built for).

Third, the last two paragraphs of the article come straight out of left field:
"it's obvious that developers would have an easier time if their mobile apps
could just run in the background." I don't see how this has bearing on my
iphone app not being a 'surefire success'. But I digress.

Summary of the article in 75 words or less: If you try to create a product
that has a large critical user base, questionable utility and safety (I'm
supposed to be examining maps while driving on the expressway?), and obfuscate
your interface with advertisements, "adjust your expectations and strategy
accordingly," because money won't magically appear in your bank account.
Especially if you're not actually charging for the app.

~~~
diN0bot
good points, though it is annoying when the "tracking my route, milage and
pace while biking" get's deleted because of an errant phone call. perhaps the
app could have been saving progress along the way rather than able to run or
hibernate in the background?

~~~
cpr
When a phone call comes in, your application delegate gets a notification that
you're about to quit; you can save whatever you want at that point, and of
course, should, so when you restart the app, it goes back to exactly where you
left off.

------
Tritis
The most reliable way to make money during the gold rush came from selling
shovels.

~~~
wmf
What's the analog here? XCode is free. What other complements to iPhone
development can make money?

In the past I suggested that $200/hour contract iPhone programming might be
more lucrative than entrepreneurial app development, but that doesn't quite
fit the shovel analogy.

~~~
gcheong
Maybe something that allows you to cross-deploy your app to a variety of
mobile os's (adroid, iphone, etc) from the same code base?

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likpok
The implied comparison is more correct than the headline. The iPhone is much
like the CA and AK gold rush. Lots of people spend money and time to get
there, but not everyone strikes it rich. The media focuses on those who get
good claims, and ignore the people who strike out.

Which leads to an influx of even more people hoping to get rich quick.

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jwesley
It's good to see a counter balance the "OMG Developer Made 100K in 3 Weeks!"
mania we've been seeing lately. Still, there is clearly opportunity in these
apps. You just shouldn't overestimate the odds of having a big hit right off
the bat.

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comatose_kid
Ha. This is exactly the app idea my team worked on at iPhoneDevCamp2 in SF. It
was never completed. I wrote the server side, but the other coder got wasted
that night, and his hangover forced him to miss most of the day...

------
SteveC
It's like the lottery for software developers.

~~~
adammarkey
It is a lot like the lottery.

However, it's a lottery that you can play (for 99 dollars and your time) and
learn something in the process. Learning objective c and developing an
interface for mobile multi-touch devices is well worth the price of admission.

You never know how that experience will pay off in the future regardless of
whether your app was a success.

