I don't think its possible to raise the prices. I mean sure you are supposed to compete on things other than price...but most iPhone apps aren't rocket science. Anything you can come up with, can get copied very quickly. So why would someone pay $9.99 for your app, when they can pay $.99 for an app that has all your features, on top of whatever else they come up with
If you build a good app for $20.00 then somebody might clone it for $2.00. But, will they survive on their clone? Probably not, if they are living in a rich country. You just need to outlast these cheap knock-offs until their developers get bored and move onto something else. It might be a constant stream of knock-offs, but the longer you last, the better the reputation you build. Reputation is worth a lot, especially with people whose lives don't revolve around software development.
A good developer in SW Asia, SE Asia, Africa, or Eastern Europe will always have an advantage over you regarding price. $10,000 or $20,000 a year goes a long way in those places (I lived in Thailand for $1K a month without even trying to be cheap). But, that is the case with other parts of the software market and somehow Asian, African, and Eastern European companies haven't taken over the while software development market yet. Probably in the long term they will, but that is years off.
Right, but the same could be said about the USA. My monthly burn is much higher than $1000 :-(
BUT, living in rural Minnesota as I do, it really isn't hard to lower your living cost below $1000 if you want to and are single (When I lived in the city of Minneapolis, my monthly bills including mortgage totalled probably around $1,500). Being American and living here in the US gives me a huge advantage on understanding our culture and being able to design a UI that appeals to Americans and to be able to support them that a smart Thai doesn't have.
I am seriously thinking of getting into iPhone development even though I've only seen one once :-) Why? Because I already design & build mobile Bluetooth hardware and I can see many apps where the mobility of an iPhone would result in a great product. I don't care about consumer apps, but there are tons of small business applications that have been waiting for this kind of connectivity in your pocket!
While you could get by making $1000 a month in Minnesota, that isn't sustainable for the long term since you could just go get a programming job where you earn over $1000 a week. If you aren't making $100,000 a year developing your application then you are losing a lot of money once you factor in opportunity cost.
Regarding competition from our foreign friends: I think we are both thinking the same way here. Right now, we don't really have to worry about ultra-cheap competition too much. Eventually, I think we will--the cultural advantages you speak of are a short-term advantage, not a long-term one. My Thai friends already know a lot about Western culture because they deal with us all day long in Thailand. Whatever they don't know, they can learn. But, almost none of my Thai friends could afford to buy an iPhone right now; even if they could, they work 80 hours a week at their job so they wouldn't have time to develop anything for it. But, slowly, all of that is changing.
Yup. The $1,000/month comment is only to show that it can be done, not that I'd want to only have that level of income. But it provides flexibility by letting you start small. I need to keep my day job for a while because it will be a long hard slog before my side business can come remotely close to providing me the income I need :-(
The stuff I build is industrial monitoring devices, so I purchase off the shelf Bluetooth-serial interfaces and incorporate them into my products. Google the Sena (Parani) and Roving Networks products. They are easy to use and reliable. Being able to monitor a process without needing to run cable to it is a killer app waiting to happen!
