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Most iPhone developers don't make money
A survey of iPhone developers has confirmed what many out in the field already know: While earning a huge amount of money selling iPhone applications on the Apple App Store is possible, it is the exception rather than the rule. In short: Don't quit your day job quite just yet.
Adam Martin, a United Kingdom-based online game consultant started surveying iPhone developers in May. Surveying 100 development teams yielded 85 valid responses, and Martin presents their earnings as follows:
- 33% earned less than $250
- 52% earned less than $15,000
- 2%, $15,001-$50,000
- 1%, $50,001-$100,000
- 1%, $100,001-$250,000
- 1%, $500,001-$2,000,000
Another finding that was discovered has to do with the fact that more than half of the respondents have not developed games before. This posed an additional barrier to budding developers, since "Game development is a specialty with lots they'll have to learn the hard way," noted Martin. There is no way to factor in those who moved in with the gold rush, but never produced a working product.
In order to succeed, Martin advises iPhone developers to keep costs low and to explore the possibility of working with a publisher. The current method--that of relying on being able to get a "hit game" out the door by trial and error--is simply too risky. Are you an iPhone developer? Do you have any comments to add here?
To check out the full interview:
- check out this article from InformationWeek
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Comments
By Ron Miller | Posted 8:30am | June 18, 2009
Keep in mind that a good number of games are free, so that developers aren't trying to make money directly through selling the application. They are trying to build good will and brand awareness that can worth far more in the long run than direct sales. Building an iPhone App is becoming part of every savvy company's promotional arsenal and the idea isn't always to make money on the App itself, but to indirectly influence consumers. A game that's related to a movie release for instance, that puts the movie on top of mind for consumers is probably more valuable than the expensive commercial buys on television. It's not always about making money.
By Anonymous | Posted 8:49am | June 18, 2009
While the core of the matter is fine and well represented. But a survey is a mere statistic.
Going mobile is the future and iPhone presents a wonderful medium. If you're a business owner, you probably cannot ignore a market share owned by iphone. You would want to reach out and having an iphone app is the way forward.
I'm an iphone developer and trust me we have work, loads of work and its not at all domain specific. Money is'nt at all problem.
By Fred Stein | Posted 10:51am | June 19, 2009
Very interesting and hardly surprising for several reasons:
1) Low barrier to enter the market.
2) Many developers are just learning, often giving away games to get exposure, feedback, etc.
What about the future? Many game developers, as individuals, will increase their development skill and learn the iPhone game business.
And we will people gather games into low-cost bundles; or create small cooperatives of developers. We may see big names like Disney, or Nikolodean join the market and hire developers.
Remember the iPhone is NOT a phone. It is a new platform that happens to handle voice calls. It is a PDA, an eBook, a media player, a game platform, and more.
By Luis Fernando | Posted 9:34am | August 11, 2010
The main problem is the 99 cents price.
It is almost impossible to get any profit with this kind of price.
iPhone apps should be priced at 3-5 dollars minimum. Less than that is very difficult to any business survive...
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