iPhone development is a goldmine

Tom Dunne

.... according to the Telegraph.

Amateur software developers are finding it easy to make thousands of pounds a day by building simple games and applications for the Apple iPhone and the iPod touch, then selling them through the iTunes store.

Is it really that good? I am sure there is money to be made, but I would highly doubt that you could make a living out of it, could you?

Anyone seen a certain developer of Eirtext Pro driving a new BMW?

ethernet

Wouldn't think it's that lucrative, expect for the developer who sold a few copies of that diamond/jewel/I'm Rich application a few months back.

Have you seen this guy's blog, the developer of JellySMS? Piracy of apps is rampant so don't see how anyone could realistically make a quick buck that quickly, especially when Apple take their share as well.

Tom Dunne

ethernet wrote: »

Piracy of apps is rampant so don't see how anyone could realistically make a quick buck that quickly, especially when Apple take their share as well.

Don't Apple take a 30% cut? 30% of €0.79 doesn't really leave you with much, I suppose.

And as for piracy - how can you pirate an iPhone app since they are so heavily tied to the App Store?

ethernet

Not a developer but think it is 30%, quite substantial.

Regarding piracy, thought the same -- email address embedded into the app when purchased and all that. Seems those tight-fisted folk are getting around it though.

fbradyirl

Hi guys, I am the Jelly SMS developer. There is a few quid to be made if you come up with a decent idea. I.e a fart app maybe? But as you said above, there are a lot of people to be paid before the developer does (by the way, I haven't got paid yet-it takes apple a couple of months to do that).

- Apple get 30%
- Apple also take out the sales tax as per the country each unit of the app is sold in (approx 15-20% I think)
- When you do get paid, you need to pay tax on that income as well to mr cowen + the bankers.

So you might end up getting about 30-40% overall which is a bit of a bummer unless you sell a LOT

vinnycoyne

A lot of these articles are exaggerating to make interesting headlines. Sure, there's money to be made, but it's hard work and Apple don't exactly make things easy for use (i.e. waiting weeks for updates to be approved, strict dev guidelines, etc).

Having said that, there are a lucky few who have hit the big time, but you're likely talking about < 1% of devs.

majiktripp

Tom Dunne wrote: »

And as for piracy - how can you pirate an iPhone app since they are so heavily tied to the App Store?

By jailbreaking it, visiting a certain website found via google which is an alternative to the App Store, or using Cydia to install an app called "Installous" (tied in with the site found via google). Access to most app's released...not entirely legal though.