Ethan Nicholas, developer of a tank artillery game called iShoot, quit his day job the day his app rose to No. 1 in the App Store (it now sits at No. 7 as of this writing). I’d quit my day job too if I was making $37,000 in a single day from my app.
“I’m not going to be a millionaire in the next month, but I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen at the end of the year,” Nicholas stated in a phone interview. Nicholas has made $600,000 in a single month off his app, but his winnings didn’t come easy. After leaving his job as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, he worked eight hours a day on his app while taking care of his 1-year-old son. Nicholas taught himself how to write the app by reading websites because he couldn’t afford the developer books.
In order to boost sales, Nicholas coded a free version of the app called iShoot Lite which contained an advertisement for the $3, full version of iShoot. Talk about smart marketing.
Ethan is one of several developers striking rich in the App Store, so there’s still money to be made in the iPhone App business. Go ahead, be like Ethan and quit your job to make some REAL cash.
I’m a PHP developer and I wonder how difficult it would be to learn to program for the iPhone. Anybody here in a similar situation?
This is incredibly misleading. While this developer is a success story, most developers lose money developing iPhone applications. This article pretty much sums it up:
http://www.appcubby.com/blog/files/financial_realities.html
“This is incredibly misleading. While this developer is a success story, most developers lose money developing iPhone applications.”
Most iPhone developers lose money because most of the stuff in the app store is pure crap! Worthless gag software or apps that in reality are very limited or not practical. I’ve lost count of how many apps I’ve downloaded only to uninstall in disappointment! The few games and utilities that are actually worth while and well supported do well for their developers I’m sure.
I seriously can’t get enough of these types of stories! Small time operations making it big time. He better get a really good accountant and lawyer to figure out how not to pay half of that to the govt!
Oh come on, this is like saying someone’s years of hard work and brilliant strategic planning finally paid off when their lottery ticket was called.
The iPhone app store is an economy of whimsy. It has slightly better odds than the lottery, but it is the same principal. Next month the best selling app could be a virtual jumping bean, or pet rock simulator.
“It’s about 9 years old boy Lim Ding Wen from Singapore who master in six programming languages and his newest creation, an iPhone drawing game call Doodle Kids has racked up to more than 4000 uploads in just two weeks.”
http://www.smartcomputingblog.com/smart-mobile-computing/amazing-that-something-like-this-was-made-by-a-9-years-old
Wow. making apps for iPhone nowadays seems to be very profitable. I am a web developer and I can’t imagine how to earn the same amount of cash using my field. This guy is great. I am trying to earn extra revenue using my blog and I am new to the blogosphere. If anyone can help my blog become successful someday, please contact me. I am also encouraging you all to critique my blog and the articles. Just visit http://mehkyleworks.com
That’s so great to hear. I was thinking about learning how to code and taking some local classes here in Panama City. I too have started my own blog to see if I can earn some extra cash. I’ll have to start googling how to code for the iPhone.
I do have a question, though. Will coding for the Pre and iPhone be the same?
From what i’ve heard, the odds are similar to the lottery (more or less) of this happening to any of you. I wouldn’t waste my time (and I do develop games for Windows myself, at http://www.mindtoygames.com).
This game is great! Ive had it for about a month and still play it everyday. Kudos sir.
This gets really interesting as apps get easier to create – rich mobile devices get deeper penetration and users are able to create software that is valuable to their niche vertical – out in the long tail…. even if this guy is an abberation and most are losing money on their apps – the big picture here is very compelling in the long run.
Actually, the iPhone app store would be the exact opposite of the “long tail” theory, as sales are driven primarily by novelty and freshness, and tend to fall off very rapidly. There is almost no chance of seeing any substantial sales of a year old iPhone application that never made it to the top 20.
It is more like a hit TV show, than a “long tail” scenario. If you are counting on a long, slow, steady income from your iPhone app, you are in for a very big disappointment. You either get lucky and hit it big, or will likely never recoup the time you put into development, no matter how long it sits in the app store.
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Well i take my hat off to Ethan.. he found the niche in the market.. and he marketed his game in the right way. I guess that is where the balance lies.. in developing a good app but also in marketing it well.
Wow. making apps for iPhone nowadays seems to be very profitable. I am a web developer and I can’t imagine how to earn the same amount of cash using my field. You can further use quotations for educational purpose and quote words of wisdom spoken by masters from different fields.