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The App Store is Still a Viable Business Model

Posted: October 30th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Indie dev, iPhone Dev | Tags: , | 3 Comments »

A lot of information has been released recently that suggests it’s not worth a developers time to make a game for the iOS App Store anymore. Reports that 30% of App Store apps make less than $1000, have scared away many of those gold rushers that had been filling the market for the last few years. Unfortunately, the average iOS developer publishes 4.2 apps. As well, more statistics that suggest that 20% of the apps make 97% of the revenue on the app store. There have been 18 billion downloads or 500,000 apps for a total of $3 billion dollars paid.

If I’ve lost you, then here is the information the above statistics suggest:
- 20% of app developers have made an average of $125,000
- 80% of app developers have made an average of $950

As an indie game developer, if our games can pull in an average of $125K, we’re doing alright. We’ll be able to feed our families, enjoy our life and have more opportunities to create the next game that could be our hit. If you have what it takes to create a game better than 80% of the rest of the games on the App Store, then you might have a business case to stay in the App Store for a little longer to hopefully find your hit.

Sources:
30% of apps make less than $1000 – http://adtmag.com/articles/2011/06/17/mobile-apps-earn-less.aspx

20% of app developers make 97% of the revenue

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/30/survey-20-percent-of-ios-devs-earn-97-percent-of-app-store-revenue.aspx

Apple has paid $3 billion to developers

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/04/apples-lets-talk-iphone-keynote-liveblog/

The average Android publisher has brought 6.13 apps to the market, while their iOS counterparts only published 4.21 apps each.

http://creatingapps.telekomaustria.com/500000-apps-android-developers-more-active-than-ios-developers-but-less-strictly-wellbehaved.html

500,000 Apps, 18,000,000,000 App Store Downloads (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/04/more-than-18-billion-apps-downloaded-from-app-store/)

  • http://www.philterdesign.com/?p=200 Going Indie with App Development – Am I Nuts? | Philter Design Studios

    [...] The App Store is Still a Viable Business Model [...]

  • Riley

    app dev is waste of time… (30% to apple/google you will lose)
    build desktop software apps this is the next thing. one click installing…
    be next google…
    ciao

  • http://www.lapegna.com Joey Lapegna

    Thanks Riley! I suppose you disagree with the rest of many futurists that are says the tablet will eventually take over the desktop as the main computing platform? Sure, there’s still a place for a desktop at the office and as a main personal file storage, but I really don’t see the need for it for the average user.