There’s been a lot of hype about how iPhone developers are making loads of money by just creating a simple, innovative game and then charging $0.99 a pop. A week and a million downloads later and you can stop working for a few years. Ah, nice.
Turns out reality is a little harsher for most developers, as Bo Wang wrote in this interesting post on TechCrunch. In it, he describes how he and his fellows at Bokan Technologies compared the mobile ads model and the for-pay model to see which one is more effective for mobile developers. He reaches a few conclusions at the end, including that ads seem to be better in the long run, but most importantly, he basically concludes that neither business model can support development for real.
Hmmmm, turns out that those wonderful storied of insta-rich iPhone developers (“iRich iDevelopers”?) are few and far between, and this raises the obvious question as to whether there is a real sustainable business model available yet for mobile application developers.
Even though I strongly believe mobile is taking off for real now, I think developers who are serious about building long-term sustainable businesses should focus more on building the right application that can attract and sustain users for more than a few days, and then worry about monetization. Clearly not the get-rich-quick solution, but this is the time to understand the user, profitability will come later based on a strong product.
Thoughts?
- Gummi
Gummi,
I do think (well, and there’s evidence) that you can build an app ‘leanly’ & make money. Now, how many people do think it’s “about building long-term sustainable businesses”? I doubt that even the most starry-eyed newbies don’t actually think it, they just want to ride the fad wave. How many of them will make money off it? Well, you & I (and history) know that it’s not that many. But let them dream :) Just because there’s only one Plentyoffish, doesn’t mean that no one should even try.
Link | May 2nd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I, for one, hope at least a hundred times as many people want to improve their English pronunciation and reading as who want to play brick-out on their phone. I’m pretty sure it’s upwards of 10,000 times in the global market. There’s only one way to find out….
Link | May 3rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Mariya,
You’re right, of course they should try, it’s the beauty of entrepreneurship! :)
But many of them do think it’s a long-term play, when in reality it’s just one-offs and I’d say “take the money and run!” – having said that, I support every one of these iPhone developers whole heartedly, together we’re building one hell of an eco system, one that I believe is the next big thing, very exciting :D
Link | May 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm