Disclaimer: I'm a full time indie iphone developer.
I'm an iOS developer for one reason: it is the best platform if you want to start your own business and keep writing CODE. Apple takes care of distribution, payments, marketing (via features and top lists), and some legal issues (you get a default ToC with every app).
What this means in practice is that I spend roughly 80% of my time actually in the code, which is significantly more than the numbers I've seen quoted for web businesses. Writing code makes me happy. Dealing with angry customers, SEO, hosting issues, and the plethora of other things that web businesses have to deal with does not.
I see a lot of posts on HN where someone tries to make several hundred dollars a month on a webapp. Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now.
Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month.
That hasn't been my experience. My experience has been that once you drop off the "new & noteworthy" sales tail off pretty sharply. The app store is very competitive now.
As a 13 year old, I put my first application on the store in October 2009, and all it does is play those mosquito ringtone sounds, and I still make ~$300-400 a month. It always manages to maintain the top 50 Entertainment in some random country.
EDIT: Top 50 Entertainment for iPad, Top 100 for Entertainment for iPhone. I would recommend making your app universal, even if it is just to make the app fill the screen. There is a much smaller pool of silly apps for iPad ;)
I actually am aware of this, it is very true, and have been moving more away from it as I am getting older. I am in the (well, constant) process of updating my online identity. For example, my website is shit, haven't got to that yet.
very few apps make it onto new & noteworthy in the first place, so I don't consider that as a factor. From developers I've talked to, some have thrown pretty hastily put together weekend projects out on the app store and consistently make $5/day, which comes out to $150/month.
If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive.
Yes there are 450K apps on the app store, but if you have a well made app that fits a need and isn't "yet another flashlight" you're already ahead of 99.9% of the junk out there.
I've read your website and watched your preview video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvYH_Qdp1Q) and I still have very little idea what your iPad app does exactly. It seems that it displays pictures from Facebook?
I'm not trying to rub dirt in the wounds, but I don't think you're doing a good job of creating a value proposition for many people.
I agree with alanfalcon. After watching that video I'm not exactly sure what the app does. Sure there are a lot of marketing buzz words and flashy animations but that doesn't sell me on why I should bother installing it.
That fact that the app isn't free wouldn't be what would dissuade me from downloading it (although I won't lie it is a minor barrier). It is the time I'd have to spend on figuring out why I want to use this app.
I'm not saying it's easy I'm saying the opportunities for indie devs are huge, certainly more so than webapps which seem to be par for the course on HN. And I don't think you need any advertising. All 3 of my apps have reached top 5 in their categories without spending a dime on ads.
My last app (http://www.burgerkone.com/grainbender/) was on the New & Noteworthy music page for three days, and was as high as #17 in the U.S. iPad music apps store. Initial sales have been good but if it follows the trajectory of my other apps there's no way it will be pulling in $300 a month a few months from now.
I think you've chosen your niche well. It's popular but under-served.
"If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now."
"If you want to make more than 1K/month, then yes, it is pretty darn competitive."
Yes. Made ~75K last year. On track to triple that this year (I've released 2 more apps this year).
In response to below:
- How? Started off first app as a side project, released on app store. Got traction and went from there. Then started releasing more apps and each of those did well also.
- How long did it take you to reach this point? Released first app May 2010. Quit soul-sucking BigCo Dec 2010. Started traveling the world Apr 2011. Released second app last week (both are ranked Top 5 in sports on iPhone & iPad).
- Was luck a big factor? (Honestly.) - I think less so than for most apps. My app is pretty niche and I knew there was a market opportunity and took it. It was definitely not just throwing something out there to see if it would stick. I knew the market and knew there was pent up demand for my product because I am part of the community.
- Is your revenue spread evenly across your apps, or does it follow a power curve? Does your top-selling app account for around 50% of your income? - I have 3 apps. One accounts for 50% the other 2 account for about 25% each. Each of them are considered pretty successful by app store standards (currently all Top 5 in category).
- How did you market / promote your apps? - Did not do any marketing. Just released it and it grew organically.
- How did you decide what apps to build? (Probably the most important question.) - Built something that I needed to have, and I knew others would pay for. Much easier to do this if you have other interests outside of nerd-dom. Hint: Stop reading hacker news so much and get a hobby where the majority of participants are NOT technical.
- Do you have a "launch strategy"? Well, this is a bit of a cheat since I already have a pretty large userbase. But I have code in my app that notifies the user when I have a new app and links them directly to the app store. That's how I got traction for my 2nd and 3rd app. I'll give you an example of how powerful this is. When my 3rd app was released last week, iTunes rankings were broken. I did not show up AT ALL on the app store except via manual search. Despite this, I shot up all the way to #4 in spots purely on downloads from existing customers and (I suspect) word of mouth to their friends. Lesson here is to not just get customers, but get fans who will evangelize your product for you. That's probably the best advice I can give.
Awesome success! Do you need to frequently publish app updates to keep your revenue up? Or can you launch your apps "fire and forget", generating money without needing to touch the code again? That seems like the only strategy that would scale well without being burdened by maintenance.
- Is your revenue spread evenly across your apps, or does it follow a power curve? Does your top-selling app account for around 50% of your income?
- How did you market / promote your apps?
- How did you decide what apps to build? (Probably the most important question.)
- Do you have a "launch strategy"? That is, when you finish making an app, and you submit it to the AppStore... Do you have any particular strategies? For example I've noticed a lot of developers write their app's description like: "Blah Blah says: our app is the bee's knees!" "Even your grandpa can't tear himself away from our app!" Etc. Does stupid stuff like that actually work? (Ok, those examples were perhaps exceptionally stupid, but you get the idea.)
edit: nevermind about disclosing your apps, just read your profile
Would you mind disclosing which apps you have written? Just basic curiosity, you can also mail me (see profile). I deduced most of what you're saying here and want to go on my own as well before I become an eternal wage slave.
I'm at step 2 of your list, my app is 80% finished so it's half done ;-). It isn't a weekend project and I want to polish it before putting it in the store.
For a one-person startup where my time is more limited than my money? Absolutley. 30% is not unreasonable compared to what you would pay a distributor and a publisher for shrink-wrapped software. Even then you would have to manage several stakeholders instead of just one. Visibility is also something Apple gives you if you are fortunate. Once your app hits the Top 100 charts or gets featured sales just take off like a rocket. I've been featured 3 times and while getting an Apple feature is rare, your chances are significantly improved if you have something unique and polished.
I just take this as an indicator that the barrier to entry for making $ is very low on the app store as opposed to web apps, which is my entire argument. If the long tail is generating a few hundred a month, how much do you think you can make if you actually have something good?
I'm an iOS developer for one reason: it is the best platform if you want to start your own business and keep writing CODE. Apple takes care of distribution, payments, marketing (via features and top lists), and some legal issues (you get a default ToC with every app).
What this means in practice is that I spend roughly 80% of my time actually in the code, which is significantly more than the numbers I've seen quoted for web businesses. Writing code makes me happy. Dealing with angry customers, SEO, hosting issues, and the plethora of other things that web businesses have to deal with does not.
I see a lot of posts on HN where someone tries to make several hundred dollars a month on a webapp. Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. If you are seriously looking to make some side income, and potentially even quit your job, I don't think there is a better option than iOS development right now.